Sarah was sleeping peacefully when she heard a loud clatter from the corridors. Slipping away from the warm nest of blankets and quilts, Sarah padded softly to her door. Craning her neck around the door way, she peered into the darkness of the hallway. Nothing. The rain continued to beat steadily against her windows as she walked back to the bed. Yawning, she slipped underneath the blankets and willed herself to close her eyes.
She stretched her legs underneath the covers in anticipation of finding a comfortable spot. Sarah was just about to drift off to sleep when she felt her toe come into contact with something that wasn't a sheet or a blanket. Quickly, Sarah cast the bedclothes aside and shrieked loudly in horror. There beside her feet lay a spider the size of a man's head. Its red eyes gleamed at Sarah while its sharp pincers clicked together. Sarah threw herself quickly onto the floor and ran to the door with all her might, but the spider jumped in her path.
"Don't scream! For heaven's sake don't get hysterical!" Sarah told herself. The spider crawled towards her and Sarah felt the bile from her stomach rush into her throat. Sarah grasped blindly behind her. The vanity lay behind her and her hands struggled to find something that she could throw at this thing. She found a mirror and threw it with all her might at the spider, but it calmly sidestepped the object and continued on its way towards her.
Sarah felt her courage leaving her. She was running out of options. She thought about calling for Hoggle, but what could a dwarf do against this thing? She would never forgive herself if Hoggle was hurt. The spider was now a foot away, and Sarah had never felt more afraid in her life.
Sarah continued reaching behind and throwing every jewel, necklace, bracelet and tiara that Jareth had ever given her at this creature. Sarah managed to get in a good aim with the tiara and it struck the spider on the head, making it expel a loud hiss. Sarah saw that it seemed to tense up its legs as if it were going to jump. Sarah feared that it was going to go for her face. She drew her arm across her face, waiting to dodge its angry pincers, when suddenly the spider turned into a man.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my bedroom?" Sarah demanded. The man held his hands up and splayed out his long white fingers. Sarah shuddered remembering how moments ago they were long hairy spider legs. The man was smiling, clearly enjoying Sarah's fear.
"I am the Trickster" he said.
"The Trickster?" Sarah was dumbstruck. The man chuckled.
"Be at ease, Goblin Queen. I have not come to kill you this night."
"Then what …are you doing here?" Sarah said, trying to muster all her courage. God, she hated spiders.
"I would make my appearance known to the Goblin Queen, Queen of the Labyrinth" he bowed with a flourish.
"Shapeshifter" Sarah murmured.
"So then you know me and my kind?" The Trickster was pleased, very few mortals knew about him and his people.
"Leave now!" Sarah hissed "Before I call the guards to throw you out kicking and screaming."
"Is that any way to treat an ally?"
"You? Jareth never said…"
"There is much your King never told you" he sneered. "Jareth is a man that is bent on pleasing and protecting himself. It does not surprise me that he did not tell you of me."
"He would have told me before he left!" Sarah insisted.
"Perhaps it slipped his mind" the Trickster shrugged. "It matters not now, you are alone, and they" he pointed to a window "…are out there, waiting for you."
"Who?" Sarah asked.
"The Fire Devils, my Lady" the Trickster said.
"The Goblin King is on his way to war with them right now as we speak" Sarah insisted.
"Yes my Lady, the majority of them will be waiting to clash swords and claws with your King, but the minority, shall we say, are waiting here for you!"
"Please leave now!" Sarah hissed. "My welfare is none of your concern."
"But it can be" he said with another smile. "I will return and discuss this later. If you are still alive that is." He bowed low to Sarah and then there was a sudden flash of lightening and Sarah was alone. She saw that he had left black tracks on the floor. Sarah shuddered, the tracks looked like some large animal did a crab walk out of the room, but Sarah knew better, it had been a spider.
Sarah spent the night curled up on a chair, too afraid to go to sleep. She was tired but the bed seemed contaminated to her now. That thing had been crawling on her sheets. It was a long night, and Sarah did a lot of thinking. She thought about Jareth and her life here in the Labyrinth. Then she thought about her old life back aboveground. She thought about her father and her mother. She thought about Toby and Karen. But mostly she thought about Jareth. She remembered that he had said that she and he were connected A magical bond. Sarah wondered if he knew just how afraid she was.