Back by popular demand. And it's longer than the first one. It's got more "our world" stuff. But, then, you have to switch between the two places. It's taking a different route than I could have gone. I may explore that route some other day. But for now, I think I have a good idea of what "The Labyrinth" means to me and how and why this and everything that happened... happens.
Remember- if you're going to read, be responsible and review!
Until!
R. C. Carpenter
"UNTITLED"
Sections 2 and 3
Jareth remained as he had been, brooding away in what remained of his castle, for nearly four years. The dust had collected over the once proud and powerful Goblin King, his limbs had stiffened, and his sight had retreated inside of him. All that he saw was what had went wrong with Sarah, replaying over in his head at every hour. Her betrayal. Her destructiveness. Her strength and beauty.
He was ever so bitter, staying stationary for as long as he did. But something made him stay, forced him not to move and only to live in his memories. Only the memories.
He thought he recalled that this had happened before. But, then, he couldn't recall much of anything other than the end. There was, however, the distinct, intense notion that he could get out of the living nightmare he had fallen into. If only...
What? Why couldn't he understand? Why couldn't he rise? It was as if he wasn't able to use his own power, that his strength and life was not his own.
And so, Jareth remained.
Laura burst through the bedroom door, the very same door that Sarah only too often would grow angry over when it was opened without someone knocking. But Sarah stood behind Laura, leaning in the doorframe, and smiled gently, her arms folded up over her chest. Her eyes glowed warmly as she watched her younger cousin fall upon her bed and stare up at the ceiling.
"Oh, Sarah," Laura grinned widely, pulling a strand of brown hair out of her mouth, "Are you sure you want to let me have it all?" she sat up and looked to Sarah, who was closing the door back over.
Sarah sat down on the edge of the bed and pat Laura's leg. "Well, maybe not everything," Sarah said as she took hold of a stuffed unicorn. She was a young woman, prepared to go off and leave behind childish things. "But, yes. Anything you want to take, take it. I can't bring all this with me to college, right?"
Laura smiled even wider and flung her arms over the neck of her favorite cousin. "Thank you, Sarah."
"Hey, no problem. Just call me when you finish deciding. Remember, there's no one else who would want any of this junk but you so don't feel bad." Sarah reached beneath her bed and produced a goodly sized suitcase and set it on the bed. "I'll be downstairs."
Laura loved Sarah's room. Even though it had changed over years, Laura could still remember when all of the walls were covered with the things that made life a fantasy worth living. Ever since they were young, Laura would spend many summer days and weekends playing with Sarah in her room, or in the fields and forests, pretending to be characters from different books that either had read, saving people and villages, even whole kingdoms if it were so.
But the story that Laura loved to play with Sarah the most was told to Laura by her cousin. It was the story of the Labyrinth. They would use every item in Sarah's room, pretending they were inhabitants of the deadly maze, goblins of the city, or even the Goblin King himself. Though Laura would never have admitted it aloud to Sarah, she had had a sort of crush on the Goblin King. How could she ignore it, what with the way Sarah described him. Laura kept her feelings silent, though, because Sarah was older and Laura secretly thought that Sarah liked him as well.
"Yes," Laura wondered aloud, "Where would all of that stuff be?"
She looked through the desks and drawers, picking a few items off shelves, jewelry, books. but nothing that was from Sarah's childhood, and Laura's. Where was the toy fox? The odd staircase poster? And the music box? Where was the book?
Laura sighed. It was most likely that Sarah had sold the toys and books that were in better shape at yard sales, or given them to donations center.
She moved from each bureau, looking at some of the pictures Sarah had kept of her mother, Laura's dad's sister. Sarah didn't like to talk to Laura about her mother, but Laura knew that she missed her and wanted her to come back home. Laura never quite understood why her aunt had gone off to Paris to become an actress when Hollywood was at least in the same country.
Then again, there were a lot of things that Laura didn't understand, and didn't want to. Like why her father had to be so protective about her. She had very friends as a child, pretty much only Sarah until Toby came along, but he was little and not very good at playing games and creating kingdoms.
Laura's mom had died when she was only a baby and since the accident, Laura's father never let her out of the house for too long. She never held a friend long, especially since her father would never allow another person to drive his daughter, and he wasn't really home that often since he had to put in long hours at work just to make ends meets some times. Her father encouraged movie watching and reading and had brought home library books and videos every week since Laura was able to read and program the VCR.
It was in those tales that Laura felt more at peace with the world, but having Sarah offer her room to Laura was exciting, like all seventeen of the Christmases she had experience all rolled into one. She was only sixteen, though, not seventeen, but she had been three months old at her first Christmas. She had about five more months before she would be seventeen.
Laura opened Sarah's closest door and a few of the clothes fell from their hangers.
"Shoot," Laura exclaimed, bending down to pick up the shirts and pants. She pulled them into her arms one by one, making certain that they were folded nicely. She grabbed for the hangers and tossed them behind herself.
There was one stuck behind a box and Laura crawled into the dim closet. Her hand stretched for the hanger, but she wasn't close enough. Placing both hands on the box, she pulled it out of the closet.
Laura watched the box, pondering. She left the task of grabbing the hanger and turned back to the box. There was a strong aura around it, something she hadn't felt for a very long time.
*I wonder...*
Laura slowly pried open the folded lid of the cardboard box. The cardboard was stiff and thick, and Laura could tell by the creases that it hadn't been opened for at least a few years. There was a clean and used smell to it and Laura knew that something magical was held within it.
She began to fade into her own world and saw herself as a young archeologist on the search for the Ark of the Covenant.
"It has been months," she murmured to herself as she heaved the box further from inside the closet, which had transformed itself into a once-heavily guarded cavern. "The pigmies and their voodoo doctor leader, the swamp and man-eating alligators, the rickety decrepit bridge above the bottomless pit, and finally here, in the twisting caverns of unparalleled doom, I have survived them all. An this..."
Laura knelt beside the ancient trunk, puzzling over the lock. She brushed back a heavy lock of hair and then reached beneath the heavy brown jacket, searching for a pick in her utilities bag.
"This is my prize. The prize above all prizes," Laura heard the crisp snap of the lock and pushed back the top of the trunk.
"Laura!" came a voice from downstairs.
"Oh, he never leaves me alone for five minutes!" Laura slouched back from the cardboard box and leaned against the bed frame. She stood and opened the door to Sarah's room, calling down to her father who was waiting at the bottom of the steps. "Why must you insist on knowing where I am every minute?"
Laura's father watched, unblinking. "Are you almost through? I have a big report due tomorrow and we have to get going soon."
"Five minutes, Father!" Laura then shut the door and dove back to the box.
Yes! Yes, it was all there! Everything that Laura remembered from playing with Sarah. The music box with the beautiful woman inside, the staircase photo, various stuffed animals, figurines and...
Laura couldn't believe her eyes. It was really there. Sarah hadn't lost it, or sold it. Never before had Laura laid eyes upon the book, upon 'The Labyrinth,' and there it was in her hands, just lying in an old box, stored away for God only knows why. Sarah had owned the book and Laura had only heard the stories. Sarah had been very protective about it. "It's a special book," she had said.
About four years earlier, Laura remembered that Sarah had stopped talking about the book, that she had even refused to comment to her cousin about it any longer.
*So this is where it went. Tossed aside along with everything else. Forgotten.*
Laura pulled open the cover very carefully: the book was, after all, a very valuable thing to both her and Sarah. She knew that if anything happened to it, Sarah would be upset and maybe she wouldn't let her read it. It was inconceivable that Sarah was going to let her cousin take the book that had ruled her life for so long.
Wasn't it?
Laura felt the pages beneath her fingers, thinking to all the wonders that were held within it. Worn and yellowed, Sarah probably hadn't let a day go by when she didn't read some part of the book, or at least until she put it into storage.
Laura's mind began to race. Should she tell Sarah that she had found it?
*And risk losing it entirely? Are you completely daft, girl?* Laura stood, placing the box on the bed. *I'll just take it. She didn't know it was here to begin with. Why else tell me that I can have anything? Anything includes the book, doesn't it?*
A thin, mischievous smile crept onto Laura's lips as her pale green eyes shifted around the room, to the door. She quickly shoved the book into the pocket on the inside of her pocket and then hurriedly placed the other items she wanted to take inside of the suitcase, zipped it up, and rushed down the stairs.
"Sarah? Sarah?" Laura ran into the kitchen, lugging the case behind her. "I have everything."
Sarah smiled up from her conversation with her uncle and setting down the cup of soda she had been drinking. "Oh, yes? Okay, then. Take anything worth noting?"
"Oh just some of the stuff from your bureaus. A few figurines and some books. I found a couple things in that box in your closet, too."
Laura saw something flash behind Sarah's dark eyes.
Laura stammered nervously, "You...you said I could take what I wanted, right?"
"Ah, yes," Sarah rose from the kitchen table, "Just... did you find anything, um, interesting in there?" She led Laura out of the kitchen, eyeing the suitcase.
She saw her chance out of it and faked a wincing, pleading smile. "Do you mind if I take the music box, the one that plays Green Sleeves?"
Sarah relaxed. "Go right ahead. Could I just look first? You know, say goodbye?"
"Yeah, be my guest." Laura set the suitcase down and watched Sarah sift through the items, not finding 'The Labyrinth.'
"You two girls all set?" Laura's father appeared at the kitchen door, observing this daughter and niece as they sat near the sofa. "I really have to get going."
*If only he'd let me get my driver's license these sorts of things wouldn't happen all the time,* Laura complained to herself. *But I'm in the clear now. 'The Labyrinth' is mine...*
Remember- if you're going to read, be responsible and review!
Until!
R. C. Carpenter
"UNTITLED"
Sections 2 and 3
Jareth remained as he had been, brooding away in what remained of his castle, for nearly four years. The dust had collected over the once proud and powerful Goblin King, his limbs had stiffened, and his sight had retreated inside of him. All that he saw was what had went wrong with Sarah, replaying over in his head at every hour. Her betrayal. Her destructiveness. Her strength and beauty.
He was ever so bitter, staying stationary for as long as he did. But something made him stay, forced him not to move and only to live in his memories. Only the memories.
He thought he recalled that this had happened before. But, then, he couldn't recall much of anything other than the end. There was, however, the distinct, intense notion that he could get out of the living nightmare he had fallen into. If only...
What? Why couldn't he understand? Why couldn't he rise? It was as if he wasn't able to use his own power, that his strength and life was not his own.
And so, Jareth remained.
Laura burst through the bedroom door, the very same door that Sarah only too often would grow angry over when it was opened without someone knocking. But Sarah stood behind Laura, leaning in the doorframe, and smiled gently, her arms folded up over her chest. Her eyes glowed warmly as she watched her younger cousin fall upon her bed and stare up at the ceiling.
"Oh, Sarah," Laura grinned widely, pulling a strand of brown hair out of her mouth, "Are you sure you want to let me have it all?" she sat up and looked to Sarah, who was closing the door back over.
Sarah sat down on the edge of the bed and pat Laura's leg. "Well, maybe not everything," Sarah said as she took hold of a stuffed unicorn. She was a young woman, prepared to go off and leave behind childish things. "But, yes. Anything you want to take, take it. I can't bring all this with me to college, right?"
Laura smiled even wider and flung her arms over the neck of her favorite cousin. "Thank you, Sarah."
"Hey, no problem. Just call me when you finish deciding. Remember, there's no one else who would want any of this junk but you so don't feel bad." Sarah reached beneath her bed and produced a goodly sized suitcase and set it on the bed. "I'll be downstairs."
Laura loved Sarah's room. Even though it had changed over years, Laura could still remember when all of the walls were covered with the things that made life a fantasy worth living. Ever since they were young, Laura would spend many summer days and weekends playing with Sarah in her room, or in the fields and forests, pretending to be characters from different books that either had read, saving people and villages, even whole kingdoms if it were so.
But the story that Laura loved to play with Sarah the most was told to Laura by her cousin. It was the story of the Labyrinth. They would use every item in Sarah's room, pretending they were inhabitants of the deadly maze, goblins of the city, or even the Goblin King himself. Though Laura would never have admitted it aloud to Sarah, she had had a sort of crush on the Goblin King. How could she ignore it, what with the way Sarah described him. Laura kept her feelings silent, though, because Sarah was older and Laura secretly thought that Sarah liked him as well.
"Yes," Laura wondered aloud, "Where would all of that stuff be?"
She looked through the desks and drawers, picking a few items off shelves, jewelry, books. but nothing that was from Sarah's childhood, and Laura's. Where was the toy fox? The odd staircase poster? And the music box? Where was the book?
Laura sighed. It was most likely that Sarah had sold the toys and books that were in better shape at yard sales, or given them to donations center.
She moved from each bureau, looking at some of the pictures Sarah had kept of her mother, Laura's dad's sister. Sarah didn't like to talk to Laura about her mother, but Laura knew that she missed her and wanted her to come back home. Laura never quite understood why her aunt had gone off to Paris to become an actress when Hollywood was at least in the same country.
Then again, there were a lot of things that Laura didn't understand, and didn't want to. Like why her father had to be so protective about her. She had very friends as a child, pretty much only Sarah until Toby came along, but he was little and not very good at playing games and creating kingdoms.
Laura's mom had died when she was only a baby and since the accident, Laura's father never let her out of the house for too long. She never held a friend long, especially since her father would never allow another person to drive his daughter, and he wasn't really home that often since he had to put in long hours at work just to make ends meets some times. Her father encouraged movie watching and reading and had brought home library books and videos every week since Laura was able to read and program the VCR.
It was in those tales that Laura felt more at peace with the world, but having Sarah offer her room to Laura was exciting, like all seventeen of the Christmases she had experience all rolled into one. She was only sixteen, though, not seventeen, but she had been three months old at her first Christmas. She had about five more months before she would be seventeen.
Laura opened Sarah's closest door and a few of the clothes fell from their hangers.
"Shoot," Laura exclaimed, bending down to pick up the shirts and pants. She pulled them into her arms one by one, making certain that they were folded nicely. She grabbed for the hangers and tossed them behind herself.
There was one stuck behind a box and Laura crawled into the dim closet. Her hand stretched for the hanger, but she wasn't close enough. Placing both hands on the box, she pulled it out of the closet.
Laura watched the box, pondering. She left the task of grabbing the hanger and turned back to the box. There was a strong aura around it, something she hadn't felt for a very long time.
*I wonder...*
Laura slowly pried open the folded lid of the cardboard box. The cardboard was stiff and thick, and Laura could tell by the creases that it hadn't been opened for at least a few years. There was a clean and used smell to it and Laura knew that something magical was held within it.
She began to fade into her own world and saw herself as a young archeologist on the search for the Ark of the Covenant.
"It has been months," she murmured to herself as she heaved the box further from inside the closet, which had transformed itself into a once-heavily guarded cavern. "The pigmies and their voodoo doctor leader, the swamp and man-eating alligators, the rickety decrepit bridge above the bottomless pit, and finally here, in the twisting caverns of unparalleled doom, I have survived them all. An this..."
Laura knelt beside the ancient trunk, puzzling over the lock. She brushed back a heavy lock of hair and then reached beneath the heavy brown jacket, searching for a pick in her utilities bag.
"This is my prize. The prize above all prizes," Laura heard the crisp snap of the lock and pushed back the top of the trunk.
"Laura!" came a voice from downstairs.
"Oh, he never leaves me alone for five minutes!" Laura slouched back from the cardboard box and leaned against the bed frame. She stood and opened the door to Sarah's room, calling down to her father who was waiting at the bottom of the steps. "Why must you insist on knowing where I am every minute?"
Laura's father watched, unblinking. "Are you almost through? I have a big report due tomorrow and we have to get going soon."
"Five minutes, Father!" Laura then shut the door and dove back to the box.
Yes! Yes, it was all there! Everything that Laura remembered from playing with Sarah. The music box with the beautiful woman inside, the staircase photo, various stuffed animals, figurines and...
Laura couldn't believe her eyes. It was really there. Sarah hadn't lost it, or sold it. Never before had Laura laid eyes upon the book, upon 'The Labyrinth,' and there it was in her hands, just lying in an old box, stored away for God only knows why. Sarah had owned the book and Laura had only heard the stories. Sarah had been very protective about it. "It's a special book," she had said.
About four years earlier, Laura remembered that Sarah had stopped talking about the book, that she had even refused to comment to her cousin about it any longer.
*So this is where it went. Tossed aside along with everything else. Forgotten.*
Laura pulled open the cover very carefully: the book was, after all, a very valuable thing to both her and Sarah. She knew that if anything happened to it, Sarah would be upset and maybe she wouldn't let her read it. It was inconceivable that Sarah was going to let her cousin take the book that had ruled her life for so long.
Wasn't it?
Laura felt the pages beneath her fingers, thinking to all the wonders that were held within it. Worn and yellowed, Sarah probably hadn't let a day go by when she didn't read some part of the book, or at least until she put it into storage.
Laura's mind began to race. Should she tell Sarah that she had found it?
*And risk losing it entirely? Are you completely daft, girl?* Laura stood, placing the box on the bed. *I'll just take it. She didn't know it was here to begin with. Why else tell me that I can have anything? Anything includes the book, doesn't it?*
A thin, mischievous smile crept onto Laura's lips as her pale green eyes shifted around the room, to the door. She quickly shoved the book into the pocket on the inside of her pocket and then hurriedly placed the other items she wanted to take inside of the suitcase, zipped it up, and rushed down the stairs.
"Sarah? Sarah?" Laura ran into the kitchen, lugging the case behind her. "I have everything."
Sarah smiled up from her conversation with her uncle and setting down the cup of soda she had been drinking. "Oh, yes? Okay, then. Take anything worth noting?"
"Oh just some of the stuff from your bureaus. A few figurines and some books. I found a couple things in that box in your closet, too."
Laura saw something flash behind Sarah's dark eyes.
Laura stammered nervously, "You...you said I could take what I wanted, right?"
"Ah, yes," Sarah rose from the kitchen table, "Just... did you find anything, um, interesting in there?" She led Laura out of the kitchen, eyeing the suitcase.
She saw her chance out of it and faked a wincing, pleading smile. "Do you mind if I take the music box, the one that plays Green Sleeves?"
Sarah relaxed. "Go right ahead. Could I just look first? You know, say goodbye?"
"Yeah, be my guest." Laura set the suitcase down and watched Sarah sift through the items, not finding 'The Labyrinth.'
"You two girls all set?" Laura's father appeared at the kitchen door, observing this daughter and niece as they sat near the sofa. "I really have to get going."
*If only he'd let me get my driver's license these sorts of things wouldn't happen all the time,* Laura complained to herself. *But I'm in the clear now. 'The Labyrinth' is mine...*