Disclaimer: It gets harder to say this every time and you know I don't, or claim to, own Labyrinth.
A/N: Thank you to those who left some amazing reviews. You really give me inspiration to keep going with this story. Apologies to those who've found mistakes in my past chapters, I'll work on fixing that when I have better internet connection, and endeavour to have no spelling mistakes in the future. To those who find it no longer interesting or too confusing for you, you're welcome to find another story that's simple and straight forward, but I am neither that kind of person nor that kind of writer. Again, thank you to those who left constructive criticism and/or good reviews, you're awesome!
Sarah awoke to something heavy on her chest. Through the darkness in her room, a pair of bright green eyes bore holes into her very soul, a slight pink nose and whiskers brushed against her cheek, and when the cat realized Sarah was wide-awake, it meowed. Sarah rolled her head to the side and gagged. Cat breath.
The strange cat finally deigned to slip off of her. It trotted circles on the bed, curled itself into a ball in that spot, and looked at her with casual indifference. Like it wasn't its first time being there and it ruled the entire room.
Sarah was about to throw it out (God, she missed Merlin) until she realized that the cat looked too well-groomed to be a stray. It even had a flea collar around it. The window, however, was locked and the door was tightly shut.
"Where the hell did you come from?" Sarah rolled over and switched on the lamp light. It cast artificial light over her bed and shadows across the walls. The cat blinked, and then looked up at her, still purring loudly. Cat stared. Sarah stared. "Look. I just had the strangest dream of my life- had the weirdest two days of my life, and you're not helping manners."
The cat meowed and stood up. It flicked its tail in the air like a proud banner, leapt from the bed, and sashayed over to where she kept her teddy bears. Sarah stared after her. "Where do you think you're going?"
Cat stopped exactly where Lancelot had fallen from yesterday. Its tail bowed and swept playfully across the carpet, then it bunched its hind muscles, and before Sarah could argue, it leapt with some supernatural grace into one of the cubby holes. It squashed up against Lancelot, nearly fell out of the hole because of lack of room, and then, with a look of great indignation, used both paws to swat Lancelot to the floor.
Sarah leapt out of bed. "Okay, that's it. You've had your fun." She bent to retrieve Lancelot, straightened to grab the cat, and the annoyance died in her throat as she stared at a hole in the cubby hole that hadn't been there before.
A cat-sized hole right through her wall.
The Goblin King's words came back to her like a taunting whisper. It mattered not if she were cold, if it were his message, or his voice, she shivered anyway.
"Sarah, get out of that house."
Oh, she should definitely get out of the house. She was just about at the end of her rope with all of this nonsense, and she was sick of being kept out of the loop of things she didn't understand. She felt played like a fool. As if some higher power or outside being was looking in and pulling on her puppet strings. Sarah Williams was not a damn puppet. She was not going to be some sick entertainment for some weirdo who thought all of this was funny!
She turned on the room light and tried to peer through the hole. But the light flooded every nook and cranny of her room, and cast shadow through the hole. She'd be better off using a flash light. She kept the light on because it made her feel a little braver, rummaged through her old dresser for her trusty flashlight, switched it on and pointed the light down the hole.
Air from a draft moaned through the wall. Web glistened in the light of her torch. Old boarded wood met her gaze. But no cat.
A light tap through the wall caught her attention. Sarah jumped away from the hole.
A full minute of utter silence dragged by for her, and then, she spoke hopefully.
"Here, kitty, kitty…"
In response, two light taps came through the wall again. Closer to her. Sarah followed them.
"Here, kitty, kitty. Please be the cat…" Not that she expected it to be a goblin. Her imagination went crazy. It threw at her images of blood thirsty little monsters with daggers for smiles, watching and waiting to strike at her throat, break and yank her body through the hole, or worse, leave it for her family to find…Williams. Not now. Stealing her resolve, she followed the taps until they stopped happening. Right in front of the hole.
She shined the flashlight in. "Come on out here, you- OHMYGOD!" A grey, scale-like hand slithered from the hole, dropped something red at her feet, and slithered back into the hole. Sarah dropped her flashlight in shock and scrambled away as fast as she could. Her back hit her window pane and she leaned as far as she could into its cold surface. Her heart beat like crazy in her ribcage, and her breath came out in pants.
She could hear snickering. In the walls. By her desk. Underneath her bed. In the walls. In the walls.
"Sarah, get out of that house."
"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." She was starting to hyperventilate. This was too much. What was happening? Her house was broken into. Something was up with Irene and her Dad. That damn goblin in the walls story. The man at the bench. The dream about the Goblin King. The cat. The walls. The walls. The walls! The room was starting to spin.
She tried to control her breathing. Her acting classes used to teach different breathing patterns in order to control what she could say and emote in a single breath. She breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. Breathed in, exhaled slowly. Again and again.
The calmer she became, the less noise she began to hear. Unsure if that was really a good thing, Sarah weighed her options.
Obviously, she was having a mental breakdown.
Unless she wasn't. Unless all of it had been true.
What if goblins did exist…? (Of course they exist) What if her house had been targeted for a reason, and that message meant something…? (Of course it did) What if she hadn't just dreamt of the Goblin King, what if they'd communicated somehow through their dreams, and he'd been right? What if he'd been right all along and she had just forgotten who she had been, forgotten what had happened, denied the Labyrinth, pretended like she actually belonged in this world to protect herself…(because what else did grown woman do when they'd been hurt? Except build walls that had to come down sooner or later.)
Hardening the courage that her younger self had had in plenty, Sarah cautiously crept towards the fallen object on the ground. Her eyes skimmed across her room, her ears strained. She heard nothing, but she felt eyes. Many eyes, all of them focused on her next move. Her eyes flickered and analysed the fallen object.
Oh, inside she already knew what it was. Instantly. Utterly. Once, she had carried it around with her everywhere she went. Its spine was frayed from constant opening and closing. The red colour was slightly frayed. But otherwise it remained in good condition. Of course it did. Everything Sarah cared about remained in good condition. She wouldn't let it deteriorate. Unless she let it go.
Like she had let that go. In a garage sale. Years ago. So it couldn't be here now. It had to be another book, or something else.
She picked it up, looked inside the cover. 'Property of Sarah Williams. The Labyrinth.'
Oh, damn.
Further down the page, written in what she knew wasn't red ink, were the words 'Summon me'.
Anger flooded every pore in her body, and she spun around in anger. Her eyes were bright. "Is this the Goblin King!? Are you goddamn serious!? Is this you, goblins, making a mess in my life!?" She demanded. "What do you want from me!? What do you want from me!?"
The whispers started. Small murmurs at first, and then loud voices. All of them thumping against the wall and groaning "Summoned."
"Your King is an asshole if he thinks I'm going to bring him back into my life by terrorizing me!" Sarah planted her fists on her hips and growled. "I'm not going to be bullied into-"
"No need. Just asking for answers is good enough, methinks." A very female voice came from inside the walls. Sarah started. "Oh, damn. Should've turned back on the other side of the wall."
The raven haired woman frowned. "That voice sounds familiar…"
There was a loud thump and some cursing. "Oh, move, would you!? Here I am trying to be dramatic and impressive and there's nothing impressive about being stuck in a wall. Out of the way, please, goblins-ow!"
A face appeared through the hole. A familiar olive-skinned face with bright green eyes and a familiar small smirk. She looked sheepishly at Sarah.
"You wouldn't happen to have a trap door out of here, would you?"
"Kharis!" Sarah gawked. "What? How did you get in my wall!? How did you get inside my house!?"
"Oh, well, funny story actually. Involves a fair bit of drama and magic on my part, and no small amount of shapeshifting. Would be lovely if you could help me out of here though. It's a bit hard shifting back straight away, I'm new to all this."
Sarah's eyebrows knitted. "I would love to get you out of there as soon as you tell me what the hell is going on!"
Kharis grinned. "My brother was right. You are very stubborn. Clever of you, though. Are we going to bargain now, Sarah? Isn't that what you humans do with my kind?"
That sounded like a good idea. Sarah had no idea what this woman was. She folded her arms over her chest and considered her options.
"You're going to answer a few of my questions and promise me something. Then I'll get you out of there."
"Seems like you get the better end of that bargain."
"Do you want to get out of my wall or not?"
"Touché." Kharis childishly stuck out her tongue. "I would bow to your hard bargaining if, you know, there wasn't a wall in my way. Now ask your questions and name your promise, please, there's a great deal we need to talk about. Preferably out of this house."
The second person who wanted her out of here. "Firstly, you must promise to tell me the truth, and to not hurt me or my family."
"Don't trust me?"
"About as far as I could throw you."
"Clever girl." Kharis wriggled a bit and managed to stick her hand out of the hole. She stuck out her pinkie. "I, Kharis of Venudite, daughter of Oberon and Titania, promise to tell you the truth and to not hurt yourself or your family. Not that that had ever been my intention in the first place."
Sarah stared. "A pinkie swear? Really? What do you people from the Underground do, run on children's games all the time?"
"Sure, and on the seventh day we play ring-a-ring-a-rosie to summon Satan to frolic with the nymphs." Kharis dryly replied. "It's just a pinkie swear. They're powerful from where I come from, a symbol of bond and promise between two people, and that means I can't break whatever vow I do give to you."
"How do I know you aren't lying to me right now?"
"You don't. But what choice do you have?"
"Hoggle, how do I know I can trust you?"
"You don't. But let me put it this way, what choice do you have?"
"Well, when you put it that way." Sarah muttered and tentatively interwove her pinkie with Kharis's. There was an uncomfortable silence where the two of them just stood there, pinkies together, and Sarah shuffled. "Do I have to say anything special?"
"No," Kharis admitted, "That's it, really." She let go of Sarah's hand and the other woman stared at the space between them. There were no lightning bolts, no magical sparks, no weird winds, definitely no owls at the window. She was kind of disappointed.
"Well, that was a little anticlimactic."
Kharis rolled her eyes. "Everyone's a critic. Now can I get out of the wall? I can't hurt you."
Sarah didn't see anything wrong with that. There was a trap door behind her bed. It'd previously been used to store important things from her parents, like her old diary. She managed to push the bed away and the door creaked open for her. From it crawled Kharis, her mane of light haired curls taking up more space and unruliness than Sarah had remembered, and a group of goblins fell out from behind her.
There were five of them altogether. Short and stout, with grey-skin and furry faces, dressed in rag-like attire and horned helmets. They stared up at her with a reverence that made her feel instantly uncomfortable.
"It's her!"
"It's Sarah! We're finally bein' seen by the Sarah!"
"Do I look alright?"
"You always look like crap, Cricket."
"Shut up, Macca."
"Don't push me, Dingy! Ow, Cricket!"
"Sorry!"
One of the goblins kicked Kharis's leg, who shook the goblin off with a grimace. "By love, no wonder my brother's in such a foul state with you lot all the time. You lot are just unruly."
"Brother? Who's your brother, lady?"
"Who are you, anyways?"
"Where's the King?"
Kharis groaned. "Are you telling me your forgetful brains will forget me but not Sarah!?"
The goblins looked toward Sarah again. She had to check whether she had something shiny on her, or if she had something in her teeth. The staring was creeping her out.
"Sarah's our Champion!"
"Now and forever, Queen Sarah!"
One of the goblins, Macca, lifted another one over his shoulder, Cricket. He crawled up onto Sarah's bed, lifted Cricket like a flag, then propped her onto the bed like a stake and stuck out his chest proudly. "We, the Goblin Revolution against the Shadow, are proud to have chosen our Champion for King Jareth. The one and only Sarah, previous Champion of the Labyrinth, who we will see as our one and only female sovereign unti…until…until what?"
Cricket squeaked, "Forever!"
"Right. Forever. Not long at all then." He pushed Cricket over so she rolled off of the bed and onto the floor. The other three soon grew more interested in the teddy bears on Sarah's wall and started pulling them down and fighting over them.
Sarah felt a headache coming on. "It was you, wasn't it? You guys trashed my house."
Kharis had the good grace to atleast blush. "We might've went a tadbit overboard-"
"A tadbit!?"
"I'll fix it, I promise. We just had to get your attention." Kharis plucked the stool from Sarah's desk and plopped down on it. The goblins rolled over on the floor with the teddy bears. Kharis gestured to the bed. "Please, sit. We've a lot to talk about."
Sarah didn't sit. She held up her hand and started to raise fingers with every point she had. "House…Jennifer Morris…My step mum and Dad…Bench…the Goblin King. In no particular order. Go."
To give Kharis credit, she launched straight into the story.
"The Goblin King went missing some time ago. The last person to see him was a Goblin named Pipsqueak and it said the King had gone to see an intruder in the Labyrinth. That was the last time the Goblins had seen or heard from him. The goblins are, as I'm sure you can tell, unruly, forgetful, annoying but rather loyal subjects. They need a firm hand or they descend into chaos, and goblins running rampant in the Underground is the last thing anyone wants. Since the King's been gone, the goblins have separated into different groups. Some are now running the Labyrinth. Yeah, judging by the look on your face even you know that that's bad."
Sarah remembered the last time the centre of Labyrinth's castle had been under siege against her. She hated to think of what kind of horrible mischief they'd caused all on their own, especially to the Labyrinth.
"No one knows what happened to the Goblin King?" She had seen him in her dream last night. But was that a wise idea to tell Kharis?
Kharis grimaced. "My mother is Queen of the Underground. She has powers of foresight and was able to use divination tools to see him in some sort of spell-induced sleep. But we don't know where he is. Whoever has done this to him has powerful magic to be able to block out my mother's sight. He isn't hurt from what we can tell, but the Labyrinth won't last long without him. It and him have a symbiotic relationship. The Labyrinth can't last without its Goblin King, nor can the Goblin King last without the Labyrinth."
"Now we come to why we're here." The goblins started guffawing and pointing to the head of one of the teddy bears, which they had removed from its body and stuck on poor Cricket's head. The goblin was stumbling around, knocking into every object it possibly could. "There is a group of Fae who use dark magic, known as the Shadows."
"Not cliché at all."
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, dear." Kharis still smiled wryly. "This group has been uprising over the last century, and it is no great feat to link that they might be involved in this. The Labyrinth is an amazing piece of wild magic. If controlled by the wrong type of people, it could be used to infect the rest of the Underground. It is already growing beyond the Goblin King's borders.
I tried to get inside and find him. I managed only a glimpse before the Labyrinth chased me out and locked me out. Whether it was an offensive attack or only in some last attempt to protect its ruler, I'm unsure of. But I am sure of one thing.
There is a group of goblins who are undertaking a Revolution against the enemies of their King. There are Fae who are eager to have the Goblin King back and restore balance. But there are few portals that are able to get to Midleim, sorry, you're realm. I could only take a few with me so as not to attract too much attention." Kharis paused and her features turned serious. "It would seem I'm too late for that."
Sarah shifted anxiously. "What do you mean?"
"I thought to phase myself slowly into your life. To get you to believe again eventually, so it wouldn't come as a shock. But when I arrived in this world I could feel the grip of dark magic in it. Around you, Sarah. It has been watching and infecting your life for longer than I have, in subtle ways, trying to get you to disbelieve. Trying to distract you in any way it can. Trying to keep an eye on you."
Sarah felt her stomach twist like it was a wet towel wringing out water. "My…my Dad and step mother." She swallowed. "My Dad's been very sick. He said something was his fault, and my step mother has been acting so oddly lately." The look on Kharis's face didn't make her feel better.
"Your father is not a particularly imaginative or assertive man. He was easy for the dark magic to rule over. It has latched onto him, infecting him, but your Dad's body isn't strong enough to handle such power. Your Dad might have moments where he's conscious of what's going on inside him, but it's not him. Nor is that your step mother anymore. I imagine your brother is only immune because of the connection he has to the Goblin King, he spent some time in the Underground. But this won't go away, Sarah. Not until we get rid of this dark magic in your world."
Her skin crawled. Sarah felt like she floated to the window, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, wishing that she could see something normal. Wishing she had the comfort of seeing the owl outside her window.
No, no you know who that was. Sarah thought, But you don't want to think about what that means.
"How…" Sarah croaked, "How could this have happened? How could the Goblin King let himself be taken advantage of like that?"
"You know how." Kharis said quietly from her seat. "Love makes us do stupid things."
"He doesn't love me."
"He didn't know how to love you rightly," Kharis argued, "Not like any normal man from your realm would. But as a Fae, well, even as a Fae, Jar-the Goblin King has been a little different. But that doesn't mean he never loved you."
"We call it stalking and obsession."
"Oh, Sarah," Kharis sighed. "If you were an immortal being with all of time on your side, and the person you loved was something that could pass away in a blink of your eye, would you not want to spend every single moment of your time making sure that they were alright?"
Sarah couldn't answer that. She couldn't understand that. Even if she wanted to.
"This is something the Goblin King and you should discuss when you save him."
"Hang on a second," Sarah turned around, "I didn't say I was going to save him!"
The goblins stopped. Cricket managed to pull the teddy bear head off. "Wha!?" It cried.
"This isn't my problem!" Sarah argued, "As far as I can tell, this has all happened in your realm because of your people. My Dad is dying because of you lot. My family is falling apart because of you. Because you let this happen. I'm not the Champion anymore. I'm not anything anymore. I'm just a thirty year old woman too old to be racing off to save the world-"
"Worlds." Macca interrupted. "You'd be saving worlds."
"Sarah," Kharis said seriously. She came into her personal space, eyes bright and the air around her heavy and electrified with the scent of slightly burnt pine needles and mint balm. Something about her reminded Sarah of the Goblin King. "Sarah, that isn't you. It's them. Its magic is poisoning your mind. Making you not believe, making you afraid, making you not want to do the right thing. You have to get past this. You're smart, you're strong, you're brave. You wouldn't let anyone make you do anything you didn't want to do. Find that strength to get past this, Sarah."
The world was starting to spin around her. The edges of her vision grew dark. She was finding it hard to breathe. "No, I'm not…it's not there. This is me. I am me. I am me!"
"Sarah!"
She collapsed into beautiful silence and darkness. A familiar voice breathed her name in her mind.
"Sarah."
