Life got away from me last night and I had no time to write. Thank you to everyone who has hung on so far. I didn't get to take this chapter as far as I'd hoped this evening, but more will be explained in the next.
Toby dropped down to a seated position beside his sister and reached out to give her shoulder a gentle shake. "Sarah, wake up." She stirred a bit, frowning in her sleep. "Wake up, I need to talk to you."
Sarah became aware of discomfort. She shifted on the hard stone floor, looking to relieve the pressure on her aching shoulder and hip, before suddenly recalling where she last remembered being. She sat up abruptly, blinking her eyes and seeing a circle of goblins around her, with her brother cross-legged at her side. She was disoriented and closed her eyes again, hoping to make the looping dizziness hold still. She cracked her eyes opened to find that everything had stopped dancing for the most part.
"What's going on?" she asked, feeling like she'd been asleep for much longer than she would have liked. She caught movement in the corner of her eye and turned her head to see the Goblin King step forward.
"Hello again, Sarah," came the silky voice. She looked up at his face and was shocked by what she saw. He now looked like the Jareth she recalled from her time running the Labyrinth.
"What's going on? Toby, did you finish already?" She turned and looked at the clock, seeing that the hands stood at 4 hours.
Before Toby could speak, Jareth held out a gloved hand to help her to her feet. "You have a choice to make, Sarah. Tell me, how are you feeling?"
"Physically? I feel like I've been hit by a bus, honestly." Jareth produced a crystal and threw it a few feet from the throne, and an armchair appeared. He gestured for her to be seated, and moved to sit himself as well.
As Sarah sat down, she was struck by the familiarity of the chair. The fabric, the shape, even the feel seemed like something she should recognize. When she closed her eyes, she had an image of this chair in a small, cozy room that she knew was in a comfortable house in the suburbs. But the recognition seemed alien, because she could also see a far different room, full of sleek neutrals and angles, with a few vivid pops of color scattered around. The chair would never fit into that space, but both felt like home in an odd way.
"What choice are you talking about?" she asked, and glanced back at the clock. She stared as she realized that the minute hand had not moved.
"Time does not count at the moment. You will be able to take as much as you need to be sure of your decision." She turned back to face him, the confusion showing on her face. "Toby, perhaps you'd like to start?"
Toby walked over to join them, leaning one hip against the throne as he faced her. She looked at her little brother, standing there with a confidence that wasn't his usual companion. "I've known for years that something was… different. I saw things that other people never saw. You know the 'invisible friends' I always blamed for the mischief around the house? It used to make Mom so mad, remember? She thought I was just trying to keep from getting in trouble." Sarah nodded. "They weren't invisible to me. They were these guys." From around them, she heard a chorus of giggles and shifting. "For years, they kept me company, kept me entertained. They were my best friends. And then when Mom and Dad started taking me to that counselor, I had to say that I wouldn't play with them anymore. It's so hard when no one will believe you."
"I know, Toby. I've been there, too. You were so young, though – I didn't think you'd remember anything!"
"I don't really think I do, but the goblins came to visit me. They liked me." He paused. "I don't fit in back home, Sarah. I never have."
She felt fear like ice spreading through her. "What are you talking about, Toby? You have plenty of friends, and girlfriends. You play sports, you do pretty good in school. Of course you fit in!"
"No, I don't! You're not there, Sarah. You have to work two jobs, so it's easy to make you think those things. I'm not on the phone with friends when you get home. I don't have but the one girlfriend, and by the way, I think you took care of that relationship this evening. You didn't notice that I haven't played soccer since year before last, and I'm barely passing my classes because I'm bored out of my mind. It sucks!"
Sarah was shocked. She had no idea that Toby had been so unhappy. She was drowning in guilt, and trying desperately to think of a way to make it up to him. "Toby, I…"
"I want to stay here, Sarah."
"No, you can't! I can't … you don't mean it…"
"I do. Jareth says I can stay here. He…"
"You have NO RIGHT to do that!" Sarah leaped to her feet in rage, unable to believe the manipulative tactics of the Goblin King. "He is not YOUR responsibility! You are not the one who has worked so hard to keep us together and going. What kind of promises are you making?" Anger was easier than guilt.
"Sit down and listen," the lounging king ordered.
"I will not! Do you have any idea what the last few years have been like?" She was working herself up even more as she paced.
"Did I not tell you that you have a choice to make? Sit down and listen to what is being offered, before you give yourself a headache."
She spun around to stare at him, stunned at the dismissive tone in his voice. "Are you for real? You talk to a young, impressionable kid, offer him God knows what to stay, and then act like I'm out of line when I have objections?"
Toby broke in. "Sarah, just listen. Please. I will go back with you, if that's your final choice, but please at least listen to what he has to say."
She froze and looked at her brother. Ever since he'd become a cocky teenager, he'd never said please. He'd demanded, cajoled, whined, and then gone and done what he'd wanted when he wanted anyway, but he'd never said please.
She sat back down in the armchair and looked again at Jareth. "Alright, what is my choice?"
He studied her face for a moment, and then sat upright and leaned forward. Without speaking, he drew a crystal from the air with a flourish and tossed it to her. Instinctively she caught it. "Look into the crystal, Sarah. You'll see three possibilities."
She refused to glance at the crystal in her hands, and instead stared at the Goblin King. "I recall being imprisoned in one of these. Why would I trust you?"
Jareth laughed. "Because I have no need to trap you, my dear. You are already here within my castle, and within my power, having been given over to me by your brother. You will only ever leave on my terms."
"That's not exactly reassuring."
"It's not meant to be. But here it is, laid out plain and simple. You hold in your hands reminders of two versions of your life, leading up to this moment. In one, you struggle to raise your brother by yourself. In the second, you have grown up as an only child and made a successful life for yourself. Both are complete and full lives – and both are within your head and your heart and accessible for your contemplation." She still refused to risk a glance at the cold globe in her hand. "It is time for you to consider your options. You may return to the first life, and take Toby with you, to risk his growing resentment and anger at not fitting in, while you continue to struggle and be absent. Or you may return to the second life, leaving Toby here, and remember this all as a dream that occurred."
"And the third?"
"You can choose to forge a life here, in the Goblin City within the Labyrinth."
She felt dazed. "Why are you giving me choices? I know you could just keep Toby here if you wanted, and I couldn't do anything about it. You could keep us both here. So why play with my emotions like this?"
He shrugged. "No one is playing with your emotions, Sarah. I simply offer you options you've never had before."
"And what do you gain from this? Because I know it's not the kindness of your heart."
With that, he chuckled. "You wound me. I will gain a protégé in your brother, someone to assist me. And I'd prefer not to have him moping about missing his sister."
"I would come back eventually, Sarah," Toby said. "I would wind up wishing myself back here, now that I know that it's all real."
"Wait, wait! You can't know that! You've only been here a little while!" Sarah felt an edge of panic.
"You've been asleep for hours, Sarah. We've had a lot of time to talk about this, and I don't take it lightly.
She turned to look again at Jareth, feeling the tears beginning to gather in her eyes and refusing to let them run. "I can't just choose like this. I need some time to think."
"And you shall have it." He waved a hand and Gerea stepped forward again. "Show our guests to quarters where they can rest while Sarah makes her decision."
Toby reached out to pull Sarah to her feet, and she held tight to the crystal in her hand as she turned to follow Gerea back through the doorway into the same hallway they'd traveled before.