A King's Curse
A/N: Hello peoples, thanks all for your reviews. Just to cover my bases, I have been trying to keep the whole storyline a little ambiguous. Just because the end reveal in this chapter is too brilliant to have a lot of foreshadowing, but some of the sticky in the last few chapters will make sense, sorta, at the end of this chapter. And this is the last chapter of King's Curse. Though I'm pretty sure you won't like that this is the end that's how things go.
Chapter 14 - Never Alone
Jareth felt betrayed. He'd tried so hard and she hadn't given him a second thought. However he was more frustrated with himself. He could have throttled himself, for taking it out on her. It felt like someone else was talking, his own words coming to him in echo. They didn't make sense, every word he said confused even him. Babbling on out of whatever spite lingered from ancient wounds.
He wasn't really mad. She hadn't really failed. He wasn't even mad that she hadn't failed. True he wanted her to stay behind and take Toby's place. Stay, as a goblin. She probably wouldn't even change in appearance with the strength of her magic.
However, more than that he wanted her to win.
She could have Toby, Jareth had already teleported the sleeping tyke back to his own bed in the human world. However he had to offer her, one last time.
"You have no power over me."
The air left his lungs; Jareth could feel his heart breaking. He hadn't predicted it would hurt so much. He couldn't have guessed that Sarah would somehow rip his heart to shreds.
Jareth assumed his owl form, in order to teleport back with her. It would make his shame all the more if he had to get queasy in front of her. But he had to be there, in case the trip made her sick. It was such a sad excuse.
She was fine, Jareth flew out an open window as her clock stuck midnight. It was her parent's window he flew to, Toby lay drifting to sleep in the crib. Only a moment later Sarah rushed into the room. Jareth could see the sigh of relief in her chest as she tucked Toby in, with Lancelot.
He sighed, but not with relief. Sarah had grown up in her trip through the Labyrinth; he didn't think he could watch anything she did without bleeding. He pressed his head against the glass; Sarah had already left the room anyway.
Why? Why did everything have to be so hard for him? There was a why question he wanted the answer to. It was a question he didn't have the answer to.
Jareth took wing again, moving around the house to Sarah's window. She was in the process of putting away toys. Plush toys inside the bench of her window, but she didn't look up and notice him looking in.
He wasn't even using his shadow magic, and Sarah simply moved away to her vanity and began putting away her scrapbook, and pictures, her music box. She took a long look at Labyrinth, before it too was pushed into the drawer.
Forgotten, almost certainly. She would have to remember past a world of magic. He could easily be waiting outside her window for the rest of her life. It would hurt too much, to watch her become a beautiful woman, have family, grow old, die. He couldn't watch more of the people he cared about die.
Jareth was ready to leave, ready to take flight and never return when he saw something. The goblins, many of his horde, who had spent as much time around Sarah as an arbitrary brick were teleported into her room. He closed his eyes, and hung his head as she dashed across the room to hug Hoggle.
Who would want to see that? Jareth took one mournful last look and flew off.
He flew high, and hard. Until he couldn't hold himself in the human world and the goblin kingdom fell into view.
The city would be anarchy in the aftermath. He stopped just inside the labyrinth. He didn't just feel like going straight home.
Following the path, her path, he walked home the same way Sarah had taken. Even walking through the bog and the garbage dump.
Once he stopped to talk, he pulled over a hag by the garbage on her back. "You ladies didn't happen to weave anything into the dream I made for Sarah, did you?"
"Don't think you can ask us for favours until you deliver the girl."
"Answer the question."
Out of her garbage pile, the hag pulled out a clipboard, "The last dream weaving was three years ago. Would you like to contract a weaving?"
"No, just finding some clarity," and he kept walking.
The city was full of rocks; Jareth kicked several smaller ones as he went.
Of course it was anarchy. "Start a rock removing team," Jareth called to a random group of goblins.
Jareth felt numb, it was like all the pain had simply been siphoned away to make him function well enough. That was good, he couldn't handle pain.
Tracing Sarah's path in a couple hours, numb. It was when he entered his throne room that everything hit him.
You're a failure. You're not good enough. Barely a King. Less of a man.
Jareth slumped into his throne. He pulled his gloves over his head and he tried to ignore the words he seemed to be yelling at himself. Curling forward he attempted to bury his head into his knees
There was a crash, and out of the back room, where the portal to Sarah's world was came an entourage of goblins, wearing party hats.
She didn't want you. She'll never want you.
Jareth looked over for a minute before he tore from the room, he had to get away. He didn't want to be seen in such a pitiable state, last time he snapped. He didn't want to look at those goblins that had gone into Sarah's home with her companions. He especially didn't want to see if any of her companions stayed behind.
Walking the Escher room was useless, it was cold, barren. He couldn't walk into her room again. Everything was too painful, he went to the tower, the black ink would have dissipated by now.
Jareth was wrong, he could see the trails that had leaked into the Escher room. It was going to take a long time to clean up. He opened the door slowly, expecting a swell of ooze as he released pressure. Nothing, and he didn't look down to see the ink reaching for his boots, inside the room was far more interesting.
It was the same, except all the walls were made of black marble. When did that happen? Crystal shards still glimmered the floor. Jareth ran his gloves through his hair.
You fail to understand anything.
The crystals, Sarah had taken the peach, her dreams could be summoned. Jareth sat in his armchair and summoned up a fresh crystal. In it was a swirling black void, it began leaking black ink immediately.
Jareth threw it away, it shattered against the wall, and didn't reform. What was going on? Jareth was too confused to think. It all meant something, it was very important.
He didn't have Sarah's dreams. Somehow she had managed to deny him the only pleasure he would have left.
Nothing.
Jareth could feel his chest tightening. It felt like his whole body were trying to suffocate him. He needed to do something, anything. He drifted over to his model.
He felt dead, nothing he could do would have any meaning. In frustration he wrapped his arms around the model and crushed it together, all the walls. Returning to his chair he stared at it, it fit.
The window, Jareth drifted that way, then gasped, he could see it, the labyrinth was literally closing in on itself, and as the walls grew tighter, more walls sprung up to keep the same perimeter. Jareth looked back to his model.
You need more pieces.
There was still that one box. Leggings dragged on the black marble floor as he kneeled to open the box.
Inside, carefully wrapped in silk was a porcelain doll. Vague lessons trickled through his brain.
Evelyn. It was his mother's doll, named for the princess of the story. It looked just like Sarah.
She's better off without you. Everything you do is a mistake.
Jareth couldn't hold in the cry of misery. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Sarah had done it, somehow when all the others seemed to fail. Despite beating his labyrinth Sarah had dug her claws further into his being. She was it, and he had lost her.
He found himself curled up in the corner, cradling his mother's doll close to his chest as the warm tears poured down his face.
Sarah had torn him, to shreds, reduced him to a crying mass in a corner.
It was agony, his chest was tightening, he could hear the cries of the goblins as they discovered the closing in walls, it had already gotten to the city. He was a failure as a King, the Labyrinth was now about to crush his subjects alive. He could hear their panic, and it was his fault.
You failed them all by creating a monster.Yourself.
Jareth wiped his face with a sleeve, that was now covered in black. He removed a glove and tested... his left eye was dripping the black ink. It wasn't just the crystals, it was him, his misery produced the black ink. Jareth gasped at the realization, but then the walls around him were leaking the black ink, it dripped on him, drenched him, the darkness dyed his clothing, his hair.
Everyone would be better off if you were dead.
That damn voice, Jareth wanted it to go away. GO AWAY! Jareth yelled, but the words didn't come out.
"Failure," the voice spoke, but it was using Jareth's mouth, his body. "No worries, I can take over for you."
Who are you?
"Well I'm you, or I used to be. I am the place where your darkness drains to. I am the answer to all those why questions."
Go away, leave me alone!
"You let me back in. You should be happy, you always wanted a sibling, after all."
It's not f-
"SLEEP!"
Jareth stood up, or rather the other Jareth stood up. He looked very different, considering the black ink had soaked in.
He blinked, his eyes gradually becoming the same size. Those dark eyes peered across the room at the crystal that would be the replica of Sarah's dream. It reformed, and rolled to the dark Jareth's hand. This was placed in the cabinet.
Another crystal, this one held the thoughts of the original Jareth. This was placed next to Sarah's. "There you go, next to Sarah forever... or at least as long as your consciousness can remain without a body."
The magical glass was slid shut.
Jareth ran his hand over the remaining shards on the floor. These became a sword. There was kingdom to rebuild. He ran his tongue along his new sword.
"Much better."
The End
A/N: See, isn't that a brilliant reveal. Enter DARK JARETH! Please don't throw things at me! I'm working on the sequel already. I'll probably start posting that in about a month depending upon how much work I have at University and how enthralled into other projects I become.
I might post the sequel sooner if you all review. There's been a fallout of reviews the past few chapters which I'm just gonna write off as school so that I don't feel bad. So REVIEW!! Please?
Keep your eyes open for the sequel: Chasing the Proverbial Dream