The Prince

By: I Agree

I in no way shape or form own Labyrinth or its characters. I am a mere storywriter who enjoys twisting up the lives of fictional characters to suit her vicarious romantic and squee-moment needs.

Chapter 11: Hall of Fears

She'd thought the sounds were from Ludo. The low, rumbling growls and the scratching against stone had immediately reminded her of the lumbering, furry creature. She'd smiled to herself and began running down the path, hoping to give her biggest, sweetest friend the biggest hug she could.

After a quick minute she realized that it wasn't Ludo. There was no way it was Ludo. The growling that radiated to her, from behind, in front of her, from the sides, and even above, sounded nothing like the friendly vocalizations of the rock whisperer. The sounds may be soft and often hard to locate, but they were distinctly. . . threatening. Very soon in her journey in the labyrinth she couldn't help but start running.

The labyrinth itself wasn't helping either. It seemed to be made of nothing. There was nothing below her, nothing above, to the sides, behind. . . nothing in front of her. All that existed was a uniform, grey brick, neither light nor dark, on and on, never ending. It was nothing.

Sarah didn't know how long she had been running, just that she'd started early. Forearm pressed to her chest as she panted painfully, she was all but hugging the wall as she went. She couldn't tell how far she'd gone, there was no deviation in the bricks, no clue, to tell her where in the labyrinth she was. All she had were the frequent u-turns and the curved paths that varied in their lengths. None of it told her how far she'd come or how far she had to go.

She was lost and yet she knew exactly where she was.

Despite the overwhelming urge to keep running, Sarah had to stop. Her lungs weren't taking in enough oxygen anymore, the stitch which had formed in her side awhile ago – an hour? More? – was pinching so badly it felt like it was going to burst open, and her legs were starting to give out underneath her. She hadn't run so much in her life, not even when she'd had thirteen hours, less than, to get to her brother.

Sarah collapsed to her knees as soon as she got it into her mind that she couldn't go on, skidding on the ground feeling hard stone cut into her skin. As exhausted and lightheaded as she was, she couldn't bring herself to care. Instead she panted, wheezing with every labored breath as she pressed her forehead to the cool ground, swallowing past the iron she tasted in her throat.

And the growling behind her lowered to a chest rattling pitch.

Sarah shuttered, but didn't move. She couldn't move, not with her body so weak, and rapidly getting weaker, from all the running. Instead she tuned out the noise as best as she could, near impossible as it was the only other sound around her, and all but dropped to lay on her side. Finding it best to focus on her breathing, taking purposefully slow and deep breaths, Sarah rolled onto her back and silently begged her lungs to catch up and supply more oxygen to her deficient body.

Every inch of her trembled with exhaustion, little uncontrollable spasms rocketing up and down her body. As she lay there her body slowly got heavier and heavier, until she was sure that if she even tried to move, which was unlikely at this point, she wouldn't be able to lift a finger. A cough racked her inflamed lungs, her eyes falling shut.

All at once she realized it was silent.

The bolt of adrenaline which shot through her gave her the strength to jerk upright, eyes wide and wild as she searched the hall. Why was it quiet now? Why now? The growling and scratching had being going on for hours, consistently and unendingly. Why now?

Sarah scurried back to press against the wall, eyes darting up and down the path. There was nothing, the same nothing that was there before, the same nothing that would be there when she looked again. It was just grey, bleeding into itself so it was nearly impossible to tell where the walls and floor met. An emptiness which seemed to consume the very space that made it.

Releasing a ragged breath, accepting that this was just another quirk of this path, she felt the adrenaline in her system slowly ebb away, weakening her body once again. Sarah dropped her forehead to her knees, resuming her deep breathing as she listened for. . . anything. Whatever had been growling couldn't have gone far, could it? She was never that lucky when it came to this place. Whatever Jareth had been thinking when he created this. . . this hell hole of a path couldn't have been sane.

Heaving a heavy sigh, she moved to lay down again, determined to get some sleep while it was quiet, while it felt like nothing was after her. She froze a moment when she saw a dark spot in the stone floor near her, a difference in the monotony.

Leaning forward, Sarah quickly identified the spot as a little pool of blood. Blood? What on Earth. . . Blinking a moment, she straightened out her legs, wincing when a sharp pain stabbed at her knee. A wry smile colored her expression as she stared at the wound, the little trickle of blood that dripped down to the ragged rip of her pajama pants. Well, it wasn't entirely unexpected that she'd hurt herself at some point, and at least the blood on the ground changed the unchanging labyrinth.

She looked back to the red marring the floor just in time to see the rest of the red liquid be consumed by the grey stone.

Terror shot through Sarah, and instantly she was on her feet, breathing quick and erratic. Just as fast as her heart was beating. "What... what the hell?!" her voice shook, but in the next moment her panic strengthened and amplified it, "What the hell is going on here?"

She whirled on her feet and bolted down the hall, any of the fatigue she'd felt earlier completely gone, the pain in her side nothing to this new, frightening horror. Immediately as she started running she heard the growling kick up again, the sound nipping at her heels. Unable to help herself, she ran faster, instinct demanding that she get far, far away from the thing that threatened her.

A particularly loud growl before her forced Sarah to a stand-still and a weak sob ripped from her lungs as she fought down her terror. Instead, incited by days of frustration and stress, anger bubbled its way to the surface, a defense against the fear roiling in her stomach, and hit its boiling point.

Face twisted in fury, Sarah yelled, the sound decidedly animalistic as she lashed out and punched the wall. She felt the skin of her knuckle break, but she barely paid it any mind as she twisted around to scream into the emptiness around her.

"What do you want?!"

Despite the strength of it her voice didn't even echo, the hall consuming that too.

"Stop following me! Stop growling at me! Show yourself damnit!"

The growling lowered to almost a purr, mocking her, before it disappeared completely. Seconds later, as she stood waiting, knowing something was going to happen, the growls bloomed right by her ear. Instinct had her off again, running blindly as tears began to sting her eyes.

"Jareth!" She shrieked between gasps of breath. "Jareth, where are you?! Get me out of here!"

But there was no sudden appearances, no erupting puff of glittery black smoke to announce the entrance of a certain Goblin King. She would have no savior here in this place. She was on her own.

At that thought, Sarah's legs gave out under her and she toppled to the ground. She grunted as her body met the hard, unforgiving stone, knocking the breath out of her with the solid fall. She rolled onto her back and eased to sit up with some effort, her lungs on fire as she dragged herself back to lean against the wall. Something tickled her cheek. Frustrated she reached up and wiped at whatever was there. Her fingers came away wet. Oh. . . she was crying.

Furiously she wiped at the streams of tears running down her cheeks, trying to slow down her breathing which was bordering on hyperventilating. Breath in, she told herself, knowing the only way she would actually regulate her breathing is if she thought herself through it, hold it a moment. . . release it slowly. . . take another breath. She couldn't breakdown now, she couldn't afford it, she still had twelve days, but at the same time she only had twelve days.

By the time she was half way through calming herself, exhaustion slowly settling in her skin again, her mind going over what had just happened. The blood disappearing, the sounds. . . the way she whirled around and around. She looked back and forth, down each way of the hall as she tried to distinguish one direction from the other.

She didn't know which was the right way.

Her heart fell just as her vision blurred, yet it wasn't tears that obstructed her sight. Instead it all caught up with her; her sudden return to the Labyrinth, the slow but complete destruction of the place which she'd remembered fondly, the eventual death of all those who inhabited this place, and perhaps her own. And now. . . now she might be going through this path of terror again. She didn't know if she could handle it. She should have listened to Jareth. . . oh goodness she should have listened to him.

Sarah's vision tunneled as wave after wave of dizziness swept over her, her body finally unable to handle the mental and physical stress. She'd been running for hours, chased by something she couldn't see, threatening her without showing itself. She leaned to the side and heaved, what little was in her stomach coming up to splash on the ground beside her. Helpless to do anything else, the woman fell to her side, only able to shift just enough that she didn't fall into her vomit.

Her vision blacked completely and, as she slowly lost consciousness, the last thing she heard was the thundering growl in the air around her.

(-TP-)

Word Count: 1,742 Date Written: 21st - 30th April 2015

A.N. I was always curious about Sarah's missed opportunity, HOWEVER, it's not an original idea. I admit that a homogeneous place of nothing comes from my favorite novel, Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves (though I will NEVER be able to come close to the fear he inspires. I bow to him). If you ever get the chance, read it! It messes with the mind so brilliantly and can change your perception of the world.

Please Regard Me Kindly,

I Agree