The Labyrinth: Reversed Perspective

Savagekitty

Chap. 10

"How…" She said quietly, as she looked into the crystal. She sat in the window in the highest tower of her castle. She had wove the dreams, trapping Jareth within the world of lust and pleasure that she knew men held so dear. She hadn't really thought all was lost when Jareth threw the peach away. She knew he didn't trust Hoggle. What surprised her was how easy he had fell into the Forgetting Well. It was just… too easy. Yes, It was too easy. He had somehow broken her spell. And now… now he was so close…


His head was throbbing as he felt the heat blow sluggishly across his body. Somewhere above him, he heard someone yelling. There was a low moan and he found it was coming from him. The heat was becoming unbearable. It was like laying in a tanning bed that was too hot. He started to move, or at least try to.

"Sir Jareth!" A frantic bark came next to his ear, "Try not to move, at least not too quickly. Peril has been your companion. Thank good my brother was able to fish you out of the waters before you were dragged too far down…"

"Wha… Water?" he said groggily. Oh GOD! He had no time to get Toby back! Toby! He sat up quickly and regretted it. There was no light except from the moon and the brighter light from floating bugs around them. They were like dancing flames. Ludo was waving his arms, swatting at the lights. He bellowed and shook his large hands out, as if he burned them. He did. One of the dancing fires came close and Jareth could see it was a fairy on fire.

"Holy cracker!" He swatted at the flaming fairy himself and it fell away into the pool of water beside him, hissing. The little fairy sputtered in the water, waving it's little arms before drifting under the surface, dead.

Jareth stood, feeling as shaky as a newborn calf and staggered past Ludo, "We have to get…to the city!"

Sir Didymus charged past the both of them, a swarm of fire following him. Jareth felt the swarm brush his arm and his sleeve ignited. He gasped and swatted at it frantically. Ludo closed his large hand over Jareth's burning sleeve and the fire was out. Ludo's eyes watered from pain, but he didn't howl.

"Thanks, Ludo." Jareth said, a little breathlessly.

The swarm of Fire Fairies was almost upon Sir Didymus as the small fox on his sheepdog steed rushed through the trees that were littered with rusted trash. As the fairies crossed into the trees, they suddenly went out and fell to the ground. Jareth took the strange but very opportunistic relief from the dangerous fairies and broke into a sprint for the trees. Ludo followed at his own lumbering run.

Jareth tramped over the twitching fairies as he ran through the woods after Didymus. He didn't stop until he was out of the woods and halfway through a rusty junkyard that was on the outskirts of Goblin City. He could see the city through the tall mounds of rubbish as he stopped to catch his breath. Didymus steered his steed to stand beside Jareth.

"We are at the city! Soon we shall be upon that vile Goblin Queen and retrieve your prize, Sir Jareth!"

"Huzaaah…" Jareth said, panting as he straightened, not daring to take anymore time then he already had to catch his breath. A stitch in his side screamed, but he moved on. The three (four if you count Ambrosias) picked their way through the graveyard of house-hold items, forgotten memories, and rusty metal. They were upon the wall of the city soon enough and after a short walk along the glittery tall wall, they found a gate.

No guard stood post, which Jareth found oddly alarming. If there was no guard, that meant something worse awaited them in the city. Jareth hesitated at the gate as Ludo began to pull it open.

"Wait…" Jareth said.

Ludo turned and Didymus pulled the reins so Ambrosias turned to look at Jareth.

"I don't like this. It feels wrong."

"What choice do we have, Sir Jareth? There is no other way into the city besides the gates."

"That isn't true!" A voice said from nearby. Jareth turned to see a red speck on the wall. Another worm. Jareth kneeled so he was face to face with the red worm. It wasn't the same one he met in the maze, one give away was it was red. This one looked female, it wore a rosy pink skirt around it's middle and a pink bow in it's fluffy red hair.

"You know of a way into the city?" Jareth asked quietly.

"Of course, cutie! There are underground tunnels under the city. Passageways long forgotten by Her Ladyship and her army. Who, may I add, have got the castle surrounded!"

"Perfect…" Jareth said. How was he suppose to face an army with a yeti and a would-be fox knight?

"Can you show us how to get into the tunnels?" Jareth asked.

"Nope, but I can tell you how. The tunnels aren't very safe for my kind." She inches closer to the edge of her little notch in the wall. "Go down the wall a ways and you'll see a grate set at the foot of it. Pry it off and jump down. Go straight and keep going straight. If you come to a fork, take the left. Always take the left. When the ground starts to turn marble, you'll be under the castle. Look for a hatch in the ceiling."

Jareth blinked. For a worm, this one knew it's way around!

"Thank you." Jareth said, relieved, "That is so helpful. Thank you!"

He started to trot down the wall, Didymus and Ludo following close behind. The worm watched them going down the way and she smiled. She turned back to the hole where she had come out from, "HEY GUYS! We got a couple suckers on the way!"

Jareth and his companions were too far away to have heard that they were walking straight into danger. They found the grate and Ludo put his muscle to work. He yanked the rusty grate from the earth, showing Jareth with dirt. He sputtered and brushed dirt from his face. Ludo looked sheepishly away and tossed the grate to the ground. Jareth looked into the hole, "It isn't too deep."

He sat at the edge of the hole, letting his feet dangle down. He slid off and was suspended in mid air for a moment before landing in an inch of what he hoped to God was mud. His shoes squelched nastily. He moved forward just as Ludo came down. The earth shook a little and dust fell over Jareth. Ludo reached up and Ambrosias and Didymus was brought down. The dog made a noise as he was put onto the wet tunnel floor. There was hardly any light, but Jareth could still see as he started forward. The tunnel was wide and tall enough for Ludo was walk through, but he had to hunch down a little, Jareth saw as he looked back.

Jareth trotted down the tunnel, hurrying as fast as he could. The muddy SHLLL SHLLL SHLLL sound his shoes made as he trotted covered up another sound. Didymus noticed it first, "Sir Jareth?"

"What?" Jareth said, panting. He was so tired. His body ached, was sore, and was in need to washing. He couldn't stop, though, no matter what. Toby needed him.

"Sir Jareth, I fear that all is not well. There is a sound…"

"A sound? What's a sound going to do? Probably someone flushing. The way this place smells, it has to be the sewer for the city."

"No… no, Sir Jareth. This sound is different. Like scales on stone…"

As he said this, the faint light in the tunnel was suddenly gone. Jareth stopped, his hands on the wall. There was a faint tremor through the stones of the tunnel and Jareth had a sinking feeling. The worm had led them into something terrible. Something lived under the city.

"I don't have time for this…" Jareth said quietly, almost desperately. He didn't know how much time he had left. The clock in the ball room had rang at 12. He felt his chest heave with the thought of the dream…dreams. Were they suppose to trap him? Be a prison so he couldn't win? In any case, he could think of it as cheating if the Queen played fair. But she didn't play fair, did she? Not in this whole sick game. He turned to the other, his eyes searching the darkness for them.

"Alright, well, whatever it is, we need to keep going. I don't know if that worm lied to us or-"

"She did." A light bobbed ahead of them and Jareth turned back, blinking at the sudden lightness. Hoggle hobbled down the tunnel with a lamp held high.

"Hoggle?"

"Yah. I didn't come to apologize or nothin'. It's just I've been thinkin', and… anyway. I was coming to really help. That worm is bad news. The Red Worms live on the wall and send unsuspectin' travelers into these tunnels to feed their mother."

"M-mother?" Didymus said quietly, "I don't remember ever hearing of this peril of the city…" He said a little uncertainly.

"It's a little known danger. Most people don't use this gate by the junk yard."

Jareth rubbed his forehead, "I'm running out of time. Hoggle, can you get me into the castle?"

"Of course. Follow me."

They followed the dwarf down the tunnel, through passageways, not taking any lefts as the worm indicated. The whole time, an eerie feeling lay around them like a thick blanket. A rumbling was always shaking the walls, shaking dust from the ceiling onto them. Once, Jareth thought he heard a roar.

"Did… did you hear that?" Jareth asked, looking over his shoulder. Hoggle looked back and his face paled, "She found us."

"What!" Jareth turned fully now. Didymus pulled his steed up to a stop and Ludo paused, but didn't move.

Hoggle set his lamp down inside one of the passageways of a fork, just ahead of them. Hoggle pulled on Jareth's hand and led him into the other tunnel, "Keep going. You're almost there. There's a grate in the wall a few yards into this tunnel. It will lead you up into the garden. From there, you can get into the castle. Be careful! There are always patrols out, especially when we have runners in the Labyrinth"

Didymus and Ludo were already heading down the tunnel, having squeezed by them as Hoggle spoke.

"What are you going to do?" Jareth asked.

"Confuse her. GO!"

Jareth followed Ludo into the darkness, but took one look back to see a pair of glinting red eyes in the darkness down the tunnel they had just came out of. As the fleeting light from Hoggle's lamp hit it, Jareth could see the face of the mother. It seemed to be made of needles. Long red needles that danced up and down as the giant worm the size of the tunnels it moved through slid after the light into the other tunnel.

"Sir Jareth! We found the grate!"

"You brave little bastard…" Jareth said quietly as he turned back to the others, "Alright. I'm coming."