A/N: My lovely, wonderful, and most importantly, PATIENT readers! I am back and determined to finish the story! (I'll understand if you have to go back to the beginning and read again- I had to brush up on details myself .) I have included not one but TWO chapters to make up for the time I have spent away, hopefully that will placate you til I have rested my fingers and write more- which shall be soon! Enjoy!
Sarah paced. She paced and waited. Paced some more. Stared at her surroundings, scratched her head, tucked a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear, and paced again. She really ought to stop expecting anything out of the Goblin King or his Labyrinth, because what actually occurred was never what she expected.
For all intensive purposes, she was in an oubliette. Without a word, a rushing sound, or sickening feeling later, here she was. Really, there wasn't a better spot to sit and think about the secret no man, or woman, had ever found out before. It was dark, quiet, and nobody to bother her. Completely alone.
Usually Sarah would feel unnerved by how alone she was but here was secure and safe. And she had the feeling while Jareth was not listening or watching her, as soon as she cried out his name in anything like distress or need, he would be there. A rather twisted and out of the ordinary take on a guardian angel in her opinion. But a so very distracting and pleasing dark angel…
Sarah smacked the palms of her hands to her forehead. And then did it again. She was getting absolutely and completely nowhere. How hard it was to think of the unthinkable. It had to be, a secret so unimaginable that had to be reason no one had ever thought of it before. How was she to figure it out? Did she really think, her, Sarah Williams, would solve the enigma that was the Labyrinth?
She stared at the candle that was placed in the center of the oubliette and wandered over to it. By its small amount of light she could see that it was like the oubliette she had fallen into last time she "visited" the Labyrinth. It was almost identical but…not. Nothing was ever what it seemed in this place. She flipped a finger back and forth over the top of the wick at the base of the flame. Careful not to burn her fingers, she passed her hands over the tiny light in rapid motions before she grew discontented and flicked at it, almost sputtering out what small source of light she had.
"Cripes, you've done it now. Really, you have. You have the world's largest manifestation of the foot-and-mouth disease. Can't just put a lid on it, can you? And now you're talking to yourself like a loony." The need to sit down and just cry rose up in her throat and she choked on it. Sarah knew from personal experience that crying never solved anything but it was sure better than not doing anything else. It really would not solve anything and she needed the small amount of time that she was wasting away by dithering and blathering like the loony she had called herself!
She did sit down though, making sure there was a dry spot where no unimaginable substance might get on her or her clothes. There was no help for it though; she had to sit in the dust that was the oubliette floor. Her pajamas were going to need a serious washing after this; the pink was starting to look like the brown and the brown…oh, it was not good.
Now, you need to start now, Sarah. At the inner prompting, Sarah began to clear everything away to begin to think. She started physically. She gathered her hair back away from her face and out of her eyes into a low ponytail at the base of her neck with the hair tie attached at her wrist. Next, she crossed her legs out in front of her and loosely arranged her arms so they sloped down to rest on her knees. How perfectly monk-like I am. Lastly, she leaned her shoulders and her head back to rest against the wall lightly and closed her eyes. Strange that it wasn't cold in here. That one candle could not give off that much heat and she should be cold considering the amount of clothing she wore, but she was not.
Once she felt she was suitably ready in her body, Sarah began to blanket her mind. She had to scatter emotions, sweep them away and rid herself of the feelings that would tie her to her body and keep her present. Her worry for her little brother, her sense of duty to her parents, her frustration and attraction for Jareth, all gone.
oOo
Dropped like smooth, round pebbles in a bottomless, dark pool of water.
oOo
Blank, blank, it was all blank.
oOo
Too blank. There was nothing. Sarah could not think. Nothing would come to her, nothing of the Labyrinth.
Suppressing her irritation and casting it too away, Sarah opened her eyes and stared at the flame. Perhaps if she was able to concentrate on something without it distracting her it would help to encourage thoughts. At least a nudge in the right direction, that was all she was asking for.
The yellow of the wick stood steady and proud for all its size. It was light and darkness always gave way to light. Flame would always be. She became the flame, unwavering and silent. She was the flame. And what was the Labyrinth?
Images in the form of ideas burst on her mind, small like a splash of cool water and grew to a crescendo of fireworks on the darkest night of the year.
The Labyrinth was endless. Lifetimes upon lifetimes would pass and all the paths would never be walked. Was it always new or just old and never seen? Endless…
The Labyrinth was merciless. The goblin who had followed her and changed her marks so she never could find the right way back should she need to change a direction. Switching back and forth til she was hopelessly lost and no one, no one would help her. Merciless…
The Labyrinth was laughter. The childish laughter of a Firey as it threw its head to another player of the game and waddled over when the head refused to bounce back to the body. Cruel, tearing laughter as a wanderer faced the gate to the beginning…again. Laughter…
The Labyrinth was fantastic. The swirling, ephemeral appearances of the Goblin Court and the smell of peaches floating and falling around her, indulging and invading her every sense. Her every wish and dream fulfilled, even the ones she had not known she had. Fantastic…
The Labyrinth was lonely. All of those corridors empty and sad as no one would walk them. Empty footsteps ringing down a passage and going down another, never to return. A new image burst, almost blinding. Light and then utter darkness until fogginess replaced her sight. The cloudiest day imaginable was cast over a dark, dark green garden set against a silhouette of the castle. The sky cried as a statue ran unmoving and blind in one direction. Withered and dull flowers were strewn at the foot of the statue and one vine had even trailed up the leg and stopped just short of the other upraised foot. Even the gray of the rock could not hide the desperation and determination in the statue's face as she fought to run against the binds that held her still. It was Sarah.
Sarah came back to conscious reality with a start. There had been no statue or even a garden near the castle when she had been there last. So it was new. Why would Jareth place a constant reminder of her victory and his loss so close to him? No, Jareth would not have done that. A moment of realization dawned on her.
But the Labyrinth would have.