A/N: I know that it has been eons since I last updated, and most of my readers have probably completely forgotten about this story. I do have a good excuse though: I started college in the fall, and between my determination to maintain a 4.0 average and my new job, life has been pretty crazy. What little time I had for writing I devoted to my original projects, and since I couldn't update regularly I didn't update at all. Anyway, here is the 21st chapter, at long last, and the next one is in the works already. I'll probably be updating roughly once a week from now on. I've included a "previously" just before the chapter starts to refresh everyone's memory. Also, I'd like to thank everyone who is still reading this story! As always, I love reviews and other feedback, but please limit criticism to the constructive variety. If you notice any typos or inconsistencies, please let me know, I'll fix them immediately. Thanks again for sticking with this story!
Circe le Fey
Previously: Sarah is seventeen, and babysits for the Evans family on the weekends. A few weeks ago, Mr. Evans' elderly aunt Anne came to visit, and Sarah learned that Anne was also a veteran of the labyrinth, who had wished away her little brother as a child. Anne, however, couldn't beat the labyrinth, and lost her brother to Jareth, who gave her a crystal when she lost. Anne and Sarah talked briefly, and then Anne's visit ended. Shortly afterwards, Anne passed away. Before Anne died she sent Sarah her crystal, afraid of what would happen if someone who didn't know about the Labyrinth got hold of it. Sarah was at first enchanted by the crystal, but now she is growing suspicious. We also met Hoggle for the first time in the last chapter.
--
"She's not giving up. . ." the words echoed oddly as Sarah rolled over, reaching out in her sleep for something, the nails of one hand scraping against something hard, her other hand closing on nothing. In her dream, a thousand setting suns lined up along the horizon, burning her eyes and her face, as scalding tears dripped down her cheeks. A burning wind pulled her hair, which was curled and ornamented oddly, back from her face, and each tear formed a crystal. And each crystal fell to the ground, rolling along the dry, dusty, red earth, sparkling in the sun until she was nearly blinded from the brilliance of them all.
And then a gloved hand reached out, and a crystal seemed almost to fly into his hand, dimming as his dark fingers closed around it. And he held it close, smiling at her, stepping towards her. Sarah gasped, wanting to turn away, but if she turned away there were only the suns to look at, she could not close her eyes. And then his shadow was falling over her, as he drew slowly closer, his hand with the crystal reaching toward her face. Her eyes fixed on the crystal and she leaned closer, watching the crystal, entranced by it, leaning into him simply to keep her eyes on it. She didn't realize that she was against him until his arms were around her and they were falling. The world rearranged itself until the suns were lined up on top of each other. She grabbed on to him, simply by reflex, the incredible heat of his skin reaching her even through their clothing. Burning her with something that was not quite pain. And as the world fell down around them, he was still holding her. . .
"Sarah? Sarah, what's wrong? What's wrong with her?" Sarah sat up, one hand tangled in her hair, the other pressed against the wall with her fingernails scratching the paint. Irene and her father were both leaning over her looking concerned, and now that Sarah seemed alright, a little irritated too. Sarah took a deep breath, and at the same time felt something wet on her face. "Did you pour something on me?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep. Her father shook her head, still watching her closely. "No, you were crying," "sobbing, in fact," Irene put in, "you woke us both up, and probably nearly woke up Toby too."
"Oh, sorry," Sarah muttered, pulling her hand out of her hair and lying back down, more in an attempt to get them to go away than because she felt like going back to sleep. They watched as she shut her eyes and nestled her face into her pillow, trying to act as if she was ready to fall back asleep. Her father leaned down awkwardly and kissed her cheek, and then he and Irene left her room. They shut the door behind them, and Sarah could hear Irene murmuring something about how she probably wouldn't even remember her nightmare in the morning.
The minute that she heard their bed creak as they returned to it, Sarah sat up, rubbing at her eyes and pulling her tangled dark hair out of her face, unable to believe that she had been crying during a dream about the Goblin King. "Jareth. . ." she whispered, and near her side she felt something cold. Shivering slightly, she reached between her sheets, and pulled out the crystal. She could have sworn that she had left it in her desk drawer before she went to sleep, but here it was, shimmering slightly, and abruptly Sarah was very afraid. "You have to go," she muttered to the crystal, and then moved just slightly towards her window, as if to fling it out into her neighbor's yard. Then something crossed her mind, and she remained on her bed. She couldn't just leave it lying around. What had Anne said? Something about it being too dangerous. The last thing Sarah needed was to find out that old Mrs. Thimkins had accidentally wished her husband away. . .
Sarah stood up and began pacing, but quietly, she didn't need to deal with her father and Irene again tonight. In her hand she could feel the crystal tingling, enticing her to loose herself in it as she had been doing so often lately, but she resisted the urge, her fingers tightening around it as if she wanted to crush it. Between her dream, and the way she had awaken to find it rolling around in her bed, she wanted to be rid of it. Normally she would have tried to destroy it, she was in a rather destructive mood, but there was nothing normal about one of Jareth's crystals. Sarah had no idea what would happen if she destroyed one, or even if it was possible to destroy them. So all she could do was hide it, and hope she could forget about it.
But if Sarah's memory was correct, she had stuck the thing in her drawer before she went to bed, and yet it had somehow ended up next to her. That led Sarah to believe one of two things: either Jareth's goblins had moved the crystal, or the blasted thing had moved itself. Either way, she could hide it as well as she liked, and it would still keep turning up. Frustrated, Sarah wandered back to her bed and threw herself down, lying spread eagle with the crystal fisted in one hand. For the past few days, the crystal had felt like a sort of secret gift, a guilty pleasure. She had a crystal, and she hadn't even had to pay the price for it. But now Sarah was beginning to wonder if that was correct. It was one of Jareth's crystals, right? And surely if he hadn't wanted her to have it, it would have vanished before she had even laid eyes on it. It was even more ridiculous to assume that he didn't know she had a crystal. For all she knew, he was using it as a tool in some sort of plan to get Toby back or something. He could even be using it to watch her, she realized, and then quickly thought back, wondering if she had ever gotten undressed in front of it.
The more she thought about it, the more the crystal was beginning to feel like a curse. She was too afraid to break it, too afraid that she might be violating some strange Labyrinth magic with unforeseen consequences. She was too responsible to just hand it off to someone, or toss it into their yard, and she suspected that like the book, the crystal simply wouldn't stay where she put it. By the time Sarah had gone through that several times, looking for a way out that she simply couldn't find, she was close to tears. She took a deep breath and swallowed, holding her emotions in, refusing to cry in front of something that Jareth might very well have been watching her out of. "Well," she told herself, when she was certain that she was under control, "I don't need to deal with this right now. I'll take care of it in the morning," she said decisively, sounding far more confident than she felt. She turned to the crystal, "and I'm putting you-" she stood up and opened her desk drawer, "back in there." She pushed the drawer shut firmly, and then locked it for good measure. "And who knows? Maybe you'll still be there when I wake up." Knowing that was probably more than she could reasonably hope for, Sarah lay back down on the bed, a shiver running up her spine as she slipped under the covers and readjusted her pillows.
It took her a few minutes to fall asleep, the memory of that strange dream she'd had was enough to make her never want to sleep again. She was certain that the man in her dream had been Jareth, although the details were already fading quickly from her consciousness. She stared up at the ceiling, trying not to let her anxiety suffocate her, and then suddenly she was dreaming about a kitten she'd had when she was little. The tabby had disappeared just a few weeks before her sixth birthday, so it was a sad dream, but there were no crystals, goblins, or labyrinths, so it was a vast improvement over her first dream.
--
The next morning began less than perfectly. Sarah's eyes had barely opened before she caught sight of something in her peripheral vision that was glinting in the sunlight. Already resigned, she rolled over to see the crystal perched on top of her bedside table. Something about its position was almost mocking, and before she was even properly awake, Sarah found herself wishing that she could just go back to bed. But it was a school morning, which meant that Irene would be breathing down her neck at any moment.
Sarah pulled herself out of bed, moving as slowly as an old lady as she pulled on her bathrobe, and chose an outfit for the day. Resolutely ignoring the crystal, Sarah went to take a shower, hoping that maybe some kind of inspiration would strike her under the hot water. Nothing came, but she did come to the conclusion that she didn't trust the crystal enough to leave it home alone. However the crystal moved around(and Sarah suspected that, like the book, it had goblin help) it wouldn't do so in her presence. So the solution seemed to be to carry the stupid thing around with her. It would make it nearly impossible for her to think about anything but the labyrinth, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about what mischief it was causing at home, alone with Toby and Irene.
By the time Sarah had toweled off and brushed her hair, she had very little time to get to school on time. Vaguely, it occurred to Sarah that she hadn't done the history assignment that was due today, and that the essay she had to turn in for English was only half complete. It seemed unfair that on top of everything else she was going through, she had to deal with school too. It would be a miracle if she passed anything at all this semester. In spite of how late it was, Sarah took a few minutes to put on make-up. Her face had the set, brittle look that betrayed a person on the edge, and if Sarah didn't do something to soften her expression, everyone would know that something was wrong.
When she returned to her room, she was pleased to see the crystal was still where it had been when she left. She had already decided how she was going to carry it around. It was too big for her pockets, so she pulled a small beaded shoulder bag out of her closet and pushed the crystal inside of it. It fit just well enough for her to be able to zip the bag shut, and she did so with a certain satisfaction. If the goblins wanted to sneak off with it they were going to have to snatch the bag right off of her, and they were generally more subtle than that. Odd as it sounded to think of a goblin as subtle, when Jareth ordered it, it seemed that they could be.
Downstairs, Irene was less snappish than usual, she even asked Sarah once or twice if she was alright. It took Sarah half of breakfast to remember why. It wasn't because of the way she looked, it was because of what had happened last night. Sarah remembered everything that had happened with the crystal, but the weird dream episode that her father and step-mother had woken her up from had slipped her mind. The memory of the dream itself was extremely hazy, apart from a few vivid images of crystals, everything else seemed to have leaked from her brain in the middle of the night. Sarah shrugged, that was how dreams worked. Considering it had doubtlessly involved the labyrinth, she should count herself lucky she couldn't remember any of the details.
Sarah swallowed the last of her eggs and kissed Toby goodbye, pecking him on the top of his head since his face was smeared with food. She gave her father and Irene a quick wave, and then darted out of the front door before her father could ask her his customary post-breakfast question: have you done your homework? She didn't have the heart to do any more lying or keep any more secrets than was absolutely necessary. As Sarah started down the front steps, her hand slipped down to her small shoulder bag and her fingers dug into the material, curling around the hard shape of the crystal. Unconsciously, Sarah sighed with relief. It was still there. The solution was hardly optimal, but it was effective.
--
Oddly enough, considering it should have been only a few hours after dawn, the sun was setting. Not seeming to set, as it had been known to do for hours, but honestly sinking below the horizon. What worried Hoggle was that it wasn't a defeated sort of sunset, but more of a triumphant I-shall-rise-again- and-greater-than-before sort of sunset. Hoggle shuddered, wondering what Jareth's triumph meant for Sarah. Hoggle was beginning to think of Jareth and Sarah's confrontation at the end of the labyrinth as the beginning of the battle instead of the end. Just because they weren't face to face didn't mean that Jareth wasn't wreaking havoc aboveground, and though it had been at least two years since Sarah had last set foot in the labyrinth, everyone could still feel her presence there.
Hoggle could feel that it was Sarah's sun that was setting, and he could only hope she was being careful.
--
Thanks for reading!
Circe le Fey