Wishes come true, not free
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children
Sometimes a spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you
- Children Will Listen from Into The Woods
Chapter 3: Careful The Wish You Make
"Thanks for supper, Mom!" Celeste rushed to put her dishes away correctly. She hadn't heard any noise from upstairs throughout the entire meal and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
Up the stairs she went, quick as she liked until she slowed down at her door so she would not scare the goblin in her bedroom.
She opened the door just enough to slip inside and shut it behind her. She didn't see Skuttel immediately, the room seemed empty. She felt a hand tug on her pant leg and looked down at the goblin. He looked at her with solemn eyes. In his hands was the book she knew so well.
Anticipation filled her as she took the red bound book from him and moved over to her bed to sit down. "Would you like me to read it?"
He hopped up and down in happy affirmation. Celeste decided his eyes were always wide. Does he ever blink?
"Okay." She wet her lips before turning the first fragile page to the only beginning anyone holding the small leather bound book would expect. "'Once upon a time...'"
...In a kingdom far away, there lived a beautiful princess. Life wasn't easy for the young princess, for her stepmother worked her like a slave. The princess was forced always to stay home and watch over her baby brother, so she could never leave the castle.
But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the princess and had given her certain powers.
The princess knew that the King of the Goblins could take away the baby and keep him forever and ever and turn him into a goblin. And so she suffered in silence. Day in and day out, she worked without ever uttering a harsh word or complaint.
Until one day, she too was tired to work any longer. She had not seen the sun for weeks. She longed to smell the flowers in the garden and feel the wind through her hair. She knew the Goblin King could grant her wish. And so she called on him for help.
Goblin King! wherever you may be, take this child far away from me!
The King of the Goblins granted her wish, his goblins took the baby and hid him in a magnificent castle at the center of a vast Labyrinth. The King appeared before the girl and offered her dreams in exchange for the child.
But the princess realized what she had done. She still loved her brother. It was not his fault she was forced to work so hard. She thought of how frightened he must have been, snatched away from the sister who cared for him and whom he loved so dearly.
She began to feel sad and refused the Goblin King's offer of her dreams and began to cry. There was no value in dreams she could not work for. She could not accept her dreams if it meant giving up her brother.
The Goblin King could not stand the see the beautiful princess cry, but he could not take back her own wish. He gave her a choice;
Accept my offer or run my Labyrinth. If you can find your brother in thirteen hours, your brother will be returned to you. If you lose, your baby brother will become one of us. Forever!
The princess accepted his challenge with solemn resolution.
Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, she fought her way through the Labyrinth.
She found her way to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child he had stolen.
The Goblin King offered her heart's every desire if she would just bow to him. But her power was his equal and her kingdom as great.
You have no power over me! she cried.
The Goblin King's power over her was destroyed and she and her brother were returned to their world.
The Goblin King and his selfish love never bothered her again, and she lived happily ever after.
Celeste closed the book and looked at her watch. It was almost ten o'clock. Skuttel had fallen asleep in her lap when she got to the confrontation between the princess and the Goblin King and had begun to snore like a freight train before she reached the end.
...granted her wish...
An idea began to form in her head. Skuttel had told her he could not go back on his own and she had foolishly promised him she would defend him from the other goblins when they bullied him.
...goblins took the baby...
"Skuttel! Hey, come on, wake up!" She shook his shoulder as gently as she could. With a snort, he opened his eyes and leaped into an upright position.
"Skuttel, would you go home if I wished you away?"
"Uhh... think so." He nodded.
"Good. Here, I'll hold you so they can't take you right away. I want to talk to them."
Skuttel jumped on her back. He wrapped his legs around her rib cage, and gripped her shoulders.
He seemed to enjoy clinging to her back.
It's like he's a backpack. A smelly, dirty backpack.
"Ready?" She felt him nod. "Okay. Goblin Kin-!"
"No! Those aren't the words!"
"Really? What are the right words, then?" So the book was wrong about certain things, interesting. Doesn't matter, this will all be over in a few minutes.
Later she would hate the thought. Oh, how wrong she was.
"Say, 'I wish the goblins would come and take you away. Right now.'"
That seemed to be rather simple for something as grave as wishing someone away, but she tried it anyway.
A steadying breath, a widened stance. She inhaled, exhaled, and spoke.
"Skuttel, I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now!"
The lights flickered and went out as the room filled with shrieks of glee and inhuman giggles. The goblins moved fast over the walls and the bed. Thumps resounded off of her abuse furniture as something shattered behind her. Celeste had to steel herself and put aside her fear of the goblins, even as one ran over her feet.
"All right! Stop it! All of you!"
The goblins went silent as the lights came back on. Celeste was surprised her parents had not rushed through her door when they had been making their exuberant racket. She turned around the room slowly and took stock of the mess they had made.
The first one she noticed was on her bookcase. He looked like a small pig with the ability to stand on two feet. One peaked out from under her pillows, one eye glaring at her, one covered in an eye-patch, the rest of him seemed to be nothing but blue fur; another was hanging from the light fixture by his opposable toes. Five of them in all, and they were all staring at her as if she could breathe fire.
"Line up in the center of the room, please." At the slightest indication that commanding them about would work, Celeste jumped on the opportunity to keep them under control.
There was a scramble as the goblins tried to line up in front of what they perceived was a crazy-girl. Keeping one eye on her bedroom door to watch for the stairway light, she turned her back on her window and glared at the supposed mythical creatures in her bedroom.
Celeste assumed they weren't used to people not being frightened by them, as Skuttel had been surprised by her lack of fear earlier that evening. She would have been scared if she hadn't known how Skuttel had been hurt by the goblins leaving him behind in a place he wasn't familiar with and not caring enough to leave a doorway open. Do they travel by portals? maybe through spells?
The goblins were almost successful in their attempt at creating a proper lineup. They elbowed each other and grumbled as they moved into place. One decided to to salute her and another turned to face the wall in the opposite direction.,
"Listen up," she nudged Skuttel and moved him around so she could lower him to the floor and take his hand, as she had seen adults introduce their shy children to others on the playground. "Do you all know him?"
The goblins nodded.
"Were you here with him earlier?"
They all nodded again.
"Did you know you were leaving him behind?"
They did not nod, only looked at the floor in an obvious display of guilt. Celeste got down on her knees to be at eye level with the goblins, her hand still clutching the smaller goblin at her side. The book had said that they were children that had been wished away, but she had not figured they would act just like children. It made it easier to picture them as Robert or another child she could be babysitting.
"That wasn't nice. It was mean. You shouldn't have left him here. You should have come back for him." She decided to take the impromptu lesson in kindness further. "I haven't met your king, but do you think he would be happy with you if I told him?"
"Told me what, Celeste?"
The rich voice that flowed into her ear from behind her shoulder shook a soft cry from her mouth and a swift turn from her head. She barely had time to meet a pair of mismatched eyes before she twisted further away from the Faerie that could only have been the King in her storybook.
He was resplendent, every garment designed to highlight his powerful rank. Silk robes of deep purple, including a collarless cloak that flowed down his lanky frame like water in an unearthly way that no mortal made fabric could achieve. But his tawny hair, - barely falling past his ears - was pushed back out of his eyes and created a more modern image than she had imagined he would present.
Celeste had not imagined him as imposing as he really was. He was frightening, proud, and looked directly at her in a way that made her feel as if he knew everything about her.
"Why so surprised? You summoned me."
"Y-yes. Well, um, I was wishing away, uh, Skuttel..."
The Goblin King raised an eyebrow. The quirk of his mouth formed an amused smirk at her dithering. His gaze moved from her nervous expression to the goblin hiding behind her. Skuttel stepped out from behind Celeste and moved before his king, head bowed.
"They, uh, left him behind."
"Oh?" His voice was dangerously low as he glared at the goblins lined up in the center of her bedroom floor. He waved his arm to point out the window.
Celeste could not contain her gasp of shock when instead of the simple view of the tree in the backyard and the forest beyond, she was met with the sight an old oak door.
The Goblin King pushed the door until the opening was wide enough for the smaller creatures and watched each of the goblins walk through one by one before he turned back to Celeste and Skuttel. Celeste could not catch a glimpse of the world beyond the door and strained her ears to hear what might be behind it until she noticed his eyes were back on her.
It was a struggle to force herself to meet his eyes with what she hoped was a more neutral expression than she had held a moment before, but she managed to achieve that small victory.
"Your family never tires of wishing, my dear. There were other ways of summoning me for the sake of a goblin."
Celeste heard the condescension in his voice and couldn't help but feel defiance creep into her tone.
"I didn't know that." She had only just found out he even existed, after all. Her focus was drawn away from her meager attempt at defending herself and onto something else he had said. "And what do you mean about my family?"
He held up his hand, dismissing whatever she had to say with a simple turn of his palm in the air.
"No turning the clock back now." To Skuttel he said. "Follow them back home."
Skuttel saluted his King and marched across the floor. He turned back to smile at Celeste before he hopped through the door-window and was out of sight. The sound of the door slamming closed behind him startled Celeste enough to make her jump.
"Celeste," the Goblin King said, "In return for wishing my own subject away to me, I ask you to accept this reward."
Fury filled her at his mocking tone, but she was too frightened to let him see. With a showy twist of his hand, he pulled a crystalline sphere from the air in front of him. "Your dreams, Celeste."
The sphere was compelling. Celeste stepped forward, entranced. She was unable to look away as images began to form within its depths. The sparkling reflections of Celeste's young face shaped themselves into the secrets she had never shared with anyone.
A whispering voice in her head advised caution as she walked nearer to the magical orb. It seemed much larger on the inside, it could have been it's own world. A world just for her.
This was wrong. Did she really want this?
Think, girl. The voice advised.
"No!" she whispered, looking away.
He seemed to grimace for a second before forcing his face back into a smug smile.
"Then you must run my Labyrinth. You haven't any other choice."
"I don't need to run your Labyrinth. I don't want to win your goblin back."
The Goblin King looked at her. No, he looked through her. His gaze became so unfocused Celeste grew curious enough to shake herself out of the near frozen state her body had entered.
With a turn of her head in the direction he was staring, Celeste realized he was looking at her dresser, specifically her small iron tree figurine she used to hold her jewelry. The slightest brushing of his gloved fingers over a cross hanging form a branch caused her to tilt her head in confusion.
The air around them suddenly shimmered for the shortest of moments like a mirage in an arid desert before everything abruptly returned to normal; the window was a window again and her room no longer looked to be ransacked by a gang of goblins.
The dark clad King still stood before her, more out of place than before with a strange expression upon his face. He looked... contemplative?
And then he began to grin, his teeth seemed sharp, lethal. The King laughed, a loud booming laugh meant to startle and impress. Before she knew what was happening, he vanished before her eyes as if he too had been nothing more than a mirage.
Well, that was...interesting. Warm brown eyes blinked in confusion. She took a steadying breath and looked down at her still shaking hands.
A faint grating sound began to register in her right ear first, then in both ears as the sound grew even louder. The tree, she realized. Something was moving down her favorite branch and towards her open window at an alarming pace.
Celeste had only a moment of warning as her instincts told her to get out of the way. She ducked and squealed at something flew over her head and hit the door behind her. It fell to the floor with a stale thwack! and ceased its movement completely.
It was the crystal.
Upon closer inspection, She knew it was not the crystal he had offered her. This one was roughly the same size and shape, but it was cloudy, as if it had smoke or mist trapped inside. Celeste gazed at it, wondering why she had this. Would it hurt her? Was it a sign that she had somehow lost to the Goblin King by rejecting both the options given her? Was she supposed to keep it? It wouldn't even make a good paperweight, there's no flat side.
Celeste shook her head to clear her wandering thoughts and banish all silly notions from her mind. Surely this thing meant something. But what?
It must have sensed her question, for it began to vibrate softly on her hand. She gasped as it lifted itself into the air to float in front of her face and the smoky interior began to clear. The vibrating crescendoed and came to a full stop as the crystal became absolutely pure and clean.
An image formed at the center of the magical sphere. It seemed too far away for her to comprehend, yet she felt a sense of dread and panic begin to bubble inside her chest. Celeste felt as if her mind was being pulled at by an external force as she stared at the image. She felt her vision leaving her body and soaring into the scene, yet she knew her feet were still firmly planted on the floor beneath her.
She gazed in awe as she seemed to fly over a vast Labyrinth, then almost felt disappointed at the sight of the rundown hovels beyond. Above her loomed an imposing castle spiked with towers, crumbling at the windows, and covered in vines. There was little time for her to examine the rundown, once grand palace before her mind's eye began to enter the tallest tower of the castle through a window.
She turned to look at the strange throne that was positioned at the edge of a small pit. The room was empty, except for something in the chair. It was small, and covered in the filthiest rag she had ever seen.
This was what she was meant to see, this was the reason the crystal was sent to her.
She almost choked when what was in the chair moved. She couldn't breathe. Her chest felt tight and her eyes were immediately blurred by hot, confused tears. There he was, his blond hair falling across his forehead, his eyes closed in sleep, blissfully unaware of his surroundings. Her scream echoed against nothing as she was suddenly pulled backwards out of the vision and collapsed on her bedroom floor.
She had no choice.
She had to run the Labyrinth.
They had taken Robert.
Author's note:
- This story is most likely 13 chapters long, but might be 14. Haven't figured that out yet.
- This is unbeta'd and I don't think I'll be seeking one out, but if you wish to point out any mistakes, I'll be sure to fix them.
- ModernHaired!Jareth, I know. I just couldn't do it, that hair was ridiculous. Besides, I once read a headcanon that Jareth changed his appearance to fit the times and the runner's ideals, and I really liked that. If you need a reference, just look at production pictures of Bowie without the wig. It's basically that.
- If you have never seen Into The Woods, I strongly recommend it. There's a proshot version on DVD and I think it might still be on Netflix. It's an amazing musical with so many different themes and metaphors. I saw it when I was young, and I'm sure it's one of the things that stoked my love of storytelling.