AN: I've been thinking a lot about what I used to be afraid of as a child, and it's quite ridiculous to reflect on what really bothered me when I was little. Puppets in particular for some odd reason. I didn't have similar problem with nightmares, but I did base this fic on a similar experience I had. I also believe this is a follow-up to an earlier drabble in this series; it still deals with dreams and fears that were left behind from the Wonka tour. (PS, I do enjoy David Bowie in Labyrinth, actually, but my sister and I were talking about how as children, the movie would have freaked us out.)
A Childhood Fear
It was funny now, reflecting on it after so many years. That he used to be afraid of that. That a movie could have given him such nightmares. Of course, that was nearly six years ago now . . . he had been to hell and back since then with all he had been through on the Wonka tour.
Labyrinth didn't seem so terrifying anymore.
He could remember the first time he watched the movie. He was four years old and for the first time since before he was born, Augustus' parents decided to go out for the night to have dinner by themselves. Augustus was disappointed that his parents were going out to eat without him but at least his mother had made dinner for him beforehand. And there was a nice cherry and chocolate pie for dessert. So he easily got over not going to a restaurant. He just hoped his mother brought him home something, too.
The only other true concern for Augustus was the babysitter. Oma and Opa were unavailable that night, so they couldn't watch him. So Mrs. Gloop had to make a leap and trust her baby boy in the care of someone who was not kin for a few hours. Oh, that wasn't to say they didn't know the girl - her father was a close, old school friend of Mr. Gloop - it was just the first time that Mrs. Gloop had ever really trusted her son in the hands of someone who was not in direct relation to the family.
But you have to start somewhere.
And of course, Mrs. Gloop spent plenty of time making sure the sitter was on her level on just how to care for Augustus in frame of time they'd be gone.
But she eventually went her own way, leaving her son alone for the first time in his short life.
The name of the sitter had since slipped Augustus' mind - it might have been Tanja or it might have been Petra - but he did remember that she was pleasant enough. She heated up dinner just the way he liked it, and gave him a generous slice of the strawberry pie. And then she asked if he wanted to watch a movie.
She brought one from home, one of her favorites from when she was his age. Labyrinth. A classic. He'd love it.
It honestly didn't bother him that first viewing. The story of Sarah's quest to save her baby brother in the realms of a maze from Jareth the Goblin King kept his attention for the hour and a half running time. But after the movie was finished, and he took his bath, and he was tucked into bed, and read a quick book, the Goblins returned.
They were frightening. Creepy, grotesque figures looming over him, hiding under the bed, tucked in his closet, lurking just behind the door. They were coming for him. Someone had wished them upon him.
He immediately awoke before they could drag him by the ankles to the Goblin Kingdom and darted out into his parents bedroom, away from what he believe was the realm of the Goblins.
He spent the night in the spot on the bed between his mother and his father, mama desperately trying to comfort him.
And he kept on a night light until he was nearly six to ward away those bad dreams.
The babysitter - Tanja, Petra, whoever she was- was never invited back.
Mr. and Mrs. Gloop never went out to dinner by themselves again.
How silly, a ten-year-old Augustus reflected when he happened to stumble upon the movie on television years after he stopped believing that the Goblins were going to take him away. Hundreds of those creatures danced around their king but they didn't have the same effect on him anymore. In fact . . . why was he afraid of them at all? They weren't that scary.
Hardly the stuff of nightmares anymore.
