Sarah, Bloody Sarah
Chapter Ten: Club and Ax
Disclaimer: Echo the Insane in no way owns the awesomeness that is Labyrinth. She does (unfortunately) own Travis, Carl, Eli, and Mack. Echo the Insane does not own Sarah, but likes her new nick name. Echo the Insane (unfortunately) does not own the sexiness that is David Bowie, or his Labyrinth alter-ego, Jareth. Basically, I own a gang of imaginary bad guys who are all gonna die painful deaths. Yup. Thass all.
Linda had night terrors for as long as she could remember. Sarah waited until her mother took her sedative that night before she called for Eldore.
He appeared, as his friends had thus far, from the shadows. He seemed to bleed out of the dark corner in her room, his jewel green eyes the first thing she saw of him. The rest of him just seemed to fill in around his eyes. He stepped out of the corner, dragging his ax behind him.
"'Lo, m'Lady," Eldore grumbled, looking around her room. "Thought you'd come to the Labyrinth to get me."
"My mom's asleep and won't wake up for awhile. My family is gone," Sarah explained, her hands in her lap. "It's safe here. Besides, I want to share something with you."
"With me, m'Lady?" Eldore replied, looking curiously at her.
She rose from her bed, motioning to the door. He followed behind her, his ax quiet on the carpet. Sarah opened Toby's door, led him inside.
Eldore looked around, his nostrils flared. "Damn shame," Eldore groused. "Damn shame. We'll kill 'em all, m'Lady. I'll take care o' Mack, you take care o' Travis." He grinned up at her, the deep, dirty earth smell from him drifting to her. Sarah smiled back at him, revealing her fangs a bit. He looked appreciatively at her, giving her a nod. "You'll be more o' us than human 'afore this business is done, m'Lady," he joked.
"Seems that way," she agreed.
"Lets be off, then," Eldore said, lifting his hand for her to take.
The world blinked once, twice, and finally a third time. It wasn't like traveling with Jareth, where things went black and glittery. It was more like flashes between her room and an overcrowded club., before at last ending in that goth club. Sarah looked around, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of it. The people were frozen in dance, their arms out, heads tossed back. The beer sign above the bar was half lit. The band up on the grimy stage was stuck mid play, the drummer's nasty black hair thrown up around his face. The guitarist was kneeling on stage, his fingers posed over the strings. Sarah looked curiously from face to face, noticing the black clothes, the spikes, the tattoos.
"Hmn," she muttered. Eldore stood beside her, scowling in disgust at the dancers.
"Nasty place, this," he grumbled. "Smells like a heap."
Sarah nodded, the smell stronger to her left.
"Yeah," Eldore said when she turned her head in that direction. "Mack'll be o'er there. Let's go say 'ello."
The weaved in and out between the bodies, Sarah occasionally bumping into them. They felt like stone; hard and cold to her touch. She experimentally touched the hair of a dancing girl. It did not move, caught half up around her face, half down on her shoulders. She appeared to be in mid head bang. Eldore stopped at last, pointing with the head of his ax at one of the dancers.
He was caught grinding himself against a nasty woman with red hair and very little clothes. He was pale, albino. Stocky, with close cropped hair. He was short, and very familiar to her. She looked at his face, caught in some mad glee.
"This ol' boy is Mack," Eldore said. "Should we kill 'em this way, or wake 'em up?"
"Wake him," Sarah said at once. "I want him to know what's happening to him."
"Glad you said so, m'Lady," Eldore grinned, poking the ugly man with the blunt of his ax. "Let's head this way," he said, motioning into the crowd. "It'll take this big ol' lump a moment to wake up."
The weaved in and out of people, stopping just short of the stage. They could see him perfectly there. It looked like he was moving in slow motion, his arms slowly; so slowly lowered. His left leg shifted, his head nodded forward. Every movement became slightly faster, slightly more real. He craned his neck, taking a deep breath that seemed to last forever.
"FUCK!" he suddenly yelled as if still yelling over the band, shaking his head drunkenly. He stumbled away from the woman, fully awake and aware now. He was blinking rapidly, rubbing at his eyes as he nearly fell over one of the caught dancers. "What the hell is this?" he said, his normal voice loud and echoing in the stopped club.
"Hello, Mack," Sarah said, her own voice echoing. She remained totally still, seeming herself like one of the dancers.
"Whose there? What is this?" Mack snarled, looking around quickly. He was breathing hard, his flight or fight response raising. Even from where she stood, she could smell his disgusting scent; tinged with sweat and pheromones.
His back was to her. Sarah moved quickly to the other end of the stage. Eldore was away from her, weaving ever closer to confused ol' Mack.
"Over here," Sarah called, disappearing behind a rather large man with his head tossed back and arms wide open.
"Who are you? Quit fucking with me!" Mack was yelling, moving in between the dancers, knocking into them and nearly knocking himself over in the process. "What the hell is all this?"
"Mack, Mack, Mack," she called, darting in and out of the bodies. She was much faster than him, much more agile. He caught sight of her at last, his eyes focusing on where she had been a second before.
"I see you, girl!" he shouted, moving towards her. Sarah laughed, darted behind another group, disappearing from his view. "Tell me what the hell this is!"
"This is Hell," Eldore's voice boomed from somewhere to Mack's left. He was very close. Mack jumped, banging into the fat man Sarah had previously hidden behind.
The fat man suddenly seemed to come alive, his thick arms dropping down around Mack like a vice. Mack snarled, struggling, but the man's arms were like stone. Sarah watched Mack's face turning blue. "Eldore, let him go," she said.
Mack gasped, falling forward as the fat man's arms snapped back to their original position. "Why...are you...doing this?" Mack groaned, falling to his knees.
"Because you deserve it, mate," Eldore laughed, his voice booming from up towards the stage now. "Because murderous scum like you deserve pain and fear and stink."
"Fuck you man!" Mack yelled, gesturing wildly towards the stage, though it was clear he had no idea where Eldore was. "You don't know me! You don't know anything!"
"You are a murderer," Sarah said from beside him, his fat head snapping to look at her. She stood there, letting him see her now. "You better run, Mack."
"From you?" he snarled, moving slowly towards her, as if to intimate her. "I'd rather run into you, sweetheart," he snickered, coming ever closer. "You're a cute little thing. How about I bend you over this table, huh?"
Then he was screaming. Eldore's ax had come out from behind one of the frozen dancers, cutting a deep gash across Mack's calf, nearly to the bone. "No way to talk to a lady."
Mack fell, grasping his destroyed leg between his hands. He looked up into Eldore's green eyes, still screaming in terror.
"Want to die yet?" Eldore asked, his ax resting comfortably on his shoulder, Mack's blood dripping down the blade.
"F-Fuck you," Mack groaned, rocking back and forth as he held his leg.
"I told you to run," Sarah said, tilting her head a bit. Eldore smiled, his black teeth glistening in the neon lights above. He moved slowly back into the dancers, fading into the darkness. "Run Mack, if you can."
He glared at her, his eyes filled with pained tears. He dragged himself to his feet, panting and moaning as he turned into the mass of people and tried to run away, dragging his bad leg behind him.
"Gotcha!" Eldore cackled, hitting Mack in the back with the handle of his ax. Mack stumbled, falling into the form of a girl, who suddenly sprung into animation. She grabbed mindlessly unto Mack's shirt, capturing him. He cried out, tugging frantically on his shirt.
"Let go, you whore!" he screamed, hitting the girl in the face. He screamed, pulling his hand from her face, his knuckles bloody and broken, as though he'd hit a solid stone wall.
Eldore was behind him now, watching him scream. Sarah stood by, her expression cold, eyes alert. "Only a spineless cow hits a woman," Eldore groused, his ax raised above his head.
Mack turned, his eyes wide, mouth agape. The ax came down on his skull, splitting his head in two. He twitched, his body almost dancing under the ax. Sarah was reminded of a fish dangling from a line.
Eldore grunted, yanking his ax hard. More of Mack's face split as the blade came free, brains and gore splattering everything around him. Sarah felt part of Mack fling against her cheek. She wiped it away casually, watching him sink to the floor.
"Right then," Eldore said, lifting his ax again. He brought it down on Mack's midsection, effectively halving him. "That'll do." He cleaned the ax on Mack's jeans, sniffed at the corpse, and turned to Sarah. "I haven't got special powers to give you, m'Lady," he said, taking a cloth from his pocket. He wiped the blade again, making sure he'd removed all traces of Mack. "I do, however, have this for ya." He turned the ax in his hand, pointing the handle towards her.
"I couldn't take you ax, Eldore. It's part of who you are," Sarah replied, looking into his eyes.
"Nonsense," Eldore snorted. "I got a ton back in me mountain. Take it, m'Lady. It'd please me a might bit if you used it when you kill yours."
Sarah smiled a bit, taking the ax from her dwarf friend. All at once, the club came to life. People were screaming, shrieking in horror at Mack's mutilated body on the ground.
Eldore winked, grabbed Sarah's hand, and in three blinks, the club disappeared into the familiar scene of the Dark Labyrinth.
Eldore let go her hand, hobbling off towards an entrance in the stone wall. "Jareth's on his way. I got to get off to me mountain. You'll be safe here. Don't wander," he warned, his green eyes flashing in the low light. "There are things in the Dark Labyrinth that'd eat your heart afore you knew you were dead."
Sarah gulped a bit, gripping Eldore's ax closer to her. She watched her companion amble away, her stomach in knots. Minutes passed. It felt like hours, listening for the creeping sounds of monsters and ghouls. Sarah bit her lip, backing up against the fountain.
Part of her was scared of the Dark Labyrinth, part of her was almost at home here. She hadn't seen much of it, but what she had seen felt right to her. She touched the stone of the fountain, surprised at the warmth of it. It felt alive under her fingers, and she startled a bit when it shifted, like an animal moving its weight.
"Sarah."
She looked up, the ax hard against her chest. Boogey was there, sitting in the entrance where Eldore had been. He grinned at her, came creeping towards her. His tongue lulled out, licked her fingers. "Hello, Boogey," she greeted, glad to see her friend.
"Jareth late. Stupid runner, stupid baby," he said, still smiling. "Boogey's here, keep you happy, pretty Sarah."
"Thank you, Boogey," she replied, her fingers trailing over the fountain edge again. It shifted towards her touch, like a cat getting a back scratch.
"Dark Labyrinth likes Sarah," Boogey observed, looking around with his eyeless face. "It glows for Sarah."
She looked around, not sure what he was talking about. It looked as it always did her; dark and somewhat foreboding. Her eyes widened when she noticed a little centipede looking creature crawling across the top of the wall. It stopped to look at her, before scurrying on.
"Life grows here," Boogey said proudly.
She looked back to him, jumping a bit to find Boogey standing straight, his face inches from her own. His breath was awful, as was the smell of his skin. He smelt evil, like the men they had killed.
"Sarah," he said, leaning closer and closer, sniffing her as he drew near.
"Boogey!"
He stopped, looking over his shoulder. He looked back at Sarah, grinning like usual. "Jareth's here," he announced, dropping to all fours and scurrying over to him; like an overgrown lap dog.
"Hello Sarah," Jareth greeted, glancing briefly from Boogey to her. He looked back to Boogey almost immediately. "Thank you for keeping Sarah safe. Go now, Boogey. There is someone for you to Fetch Aboveground."
Boogey laughed; it was a wheezing, fearful sound. He took off, running into the hole and out of sight in seconds.
"You're trembling," Jareth said, walking to her. He took her hands, pressed them to his chest. He embraced her gently.
"Something is...wrong about Boogey," she said, her forehead pressed into his collarbone.
"Boogey is a Fetcher, Sarah. He may be your friend, but never turn your back on him. Arach and Eldore are the same. Only the most foul of creatures can become a Fetcher." He sighed, holding her a bit tighter. "I'm sorry, I thought you understood."
"Are they just...pure evil?"
"No," he replied quickly. "Nothing is pure evil, Sarah. They genuinely like you. They genuinely care. But they can kill without guilt, without a second thought. They do not have a conscience the way you do."
"And you?" she asked, looking up to see his face. "Do you have a conscience?"
He looked her in the eye, his expression troubled. "I don't think I do," he replied quietly. "Not like you. I ache for the loss of your brother and fiance. I do not regret helping you kill those men."
She was sure then, looking into his mismatched eyes, seeing the depth of his feelings for her in them, that he loved her. The motive she had been wondering about, the troubling sense that he desired something more from her; all of it made sense in that one moment. She had suspected; part of her had known since her run through the Labyrinth; but seeing it sent her tattered heart to pieces.
She looked away, leaned her forehead on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her gently, his cheek resting atop her head. He sighed, and she sighed with him.
"You were seen, Sarah," he said quietly, his arms tightening as she stiffened. "Both of you were seen."
"What will we do?" she asked.
"There is nothing to do. The club was states away from you, my dear," he said soothingly. "They will not find you."
"States away?" she asked, looking up at him at last.
"Yes. Only Travis lives in your home state of New Hampshire," he explained, moving so that only one arm remained around her. They began to wonder towards the opening in the nearby hedge. "You killed Eli in Iowa, Carl in Maine, and Mack in New York."
"Why were they all in my town then?" she asked, jumping slightly as a creature that looked very much like an eel the size of a house cat came swimming through the air beside them. It dipped its head in acknowledgment to Jareth, then her, and continued on its way.
"Travis lives in your town, Sarah," he said, ducking them through an archway made of black vines that seemed to reach down and playing with the ends of her hair. "The other monsters came to visit him. They were high school friends, you see. They all grew up mere blocks away from you."
Sarah nodded vaguely, her mind stuck on the knowledge that Travis lived that close by. She could have passed him on the street and never known him. Her stomach knotted, her hands shook, her palms sweated. He could live down the street from her and she never would have known.
Jareth stopped. Sarah looked up, surprised to see the door leading out of the Dark Labyrinth. She supposed that with Jareth beside her, the more malevolent creatures that roamed the maze had kept their distance.
She looked to him, found him watching her.
"When you go to kill Travis," Jareth began, his voice a warning, "we must be more discrete. Eldore has a flare for the dramatic and your being seen was his doing. I will make sure you are safe."
She nodded, catching his eye for a brief second. She sighed, bit her lip. "I guess I should go home. Mom's probably awake by now."
Jareth smiled, his eyes crinkling with mischief. "Not at all, sweetling. It's only been fifteen minutes in your world."
Her eyes widened, then she smiled back. "Reordering time for me again, Jareth?"
"But of course," he said, ushering her through the door. "This way you can go home, get some rest, and have a solid alibi just in case someone does manage to identify you."
He took her hand, gave it a squeeze, and within a blink Sarah was back in her room, standing alone before her mirror, staring at her own gore covered reflection.
"I would burn those clothes, my dear," Jareth's disembodied voice advised.
Sarah grimaced and agreed.