Disclaimer: no rights what so ever to anything Labyrinth, except the most important ones, to admire, be inspired by, and to dream.
The lullaby verse is from the song "River Lullaby" from the movie soundtrack "The Prince of Egypt", as performed by Amy Grant, Produced by Michael Omartian, A&M Records Inc.
Go buy/rent the movie and/or the soundtrack. They are both wonderful.
The second song I believe is named "Putting Out the Fire With Gasoline" from the movie soundtrack "Cat People", music by Mr. Giorgio Moroder, words and performed by Mr. David Bowie. The arrangement of the verses is -not- the original one, I have toyed around with it a little for the sake of the story.
I do not know the film, yet.
No copyright infringement intended, just being an inspired fan here.
I have no money, please don't sue.
PG-13.
The Lonely and the Lost
Chapter II: The Ageless Heart
Karen had finally come for Toby's things. And Linda for some of Sarah's. Jewelry belonging to other side of the family exchanged hands, together with some photographs, toys with embedded memories and silence.
Divorce papers came and were easily signed. Alimony agreed upon, the other half of the house sold back to the father.
Charges were never made, as the sad notion to part as quickly as possible had prevailed on all sides. Some would have named those unmade accusations only spiteful, the sane ones would have called them just. But wherein does lie sanity? In punishment, in letting go? Where some have the admirable strength to stand up and accuse, both Linda and Karen were beaten. Not only by fear of the man, but mostly by grief over the loss of daughter and son.
Had the women been able to unite, they might have found what it would have taken to stand tall. Yet friendship had always been a far cry between them, and any possible relationship became nonexistent after the few necessary discussions when there was hope still to retrieve the runaways. Karen told Linda in no uncertain terms she was a hypocrite to mourn the daughter she had left behind years ago. Linda retorted with calling Karen a cowardly fool.
And that was the end of that. Linda's theatre star rose to new highs since she had become brilliant in portraying the tragedies of life, maintaining to the world her inspiration came from having to deal with so many herself. Karen started over with a good man with two sons of his own. Later on she brought a girl-child into the marriage. This time, it went well. Karen never cried over Toby. And she never parted with the locket keeping his photograph safe.
Robert cared no longer his house was too large for one man. He knew it held a secret and it obsessed him. It lay somewhere in the attic, the cellar or Sarah's room. It had to be. Any toy was scrutinized and obsessed over, but he saw nothing of value in a music box playing Greensleeves or an old teddy named Lancelot
With interest, hope, kindness and ultimately satisfaction the employer saw Robert loosing his love for liqueur, and picking up the pace of the job again. There were long hours of efficiency and eventually the deserved promotions. Few saw the truth of loneliness pored into business contacts.
But the weekends, especially the Sundays, where holy. That was the time Robert spent dissecting old stuffed animals, reading children's books cover to cover and engaging into the quest-for-meaning in a teenagers diary.
Sarah had started her diary at age nine, when her father had given the girl her first for Christmas. It was the pink one with the golden Bambi on the cover. It was the book that told the father of a fairytale mother who lived far away, doing wondrous things. It was the book that scolded her teacher and adored some silly boy.
The Olivia Newton John of the Xanadu movie was Sarah's hero, for the woman was beautiful to the girl. She could sing and dance, dress like a fairytale and fade through a wall to enter another world. And to top is off she was loved by a romantic painter.
Little Sarah longed for this world beyond. To become an Alice and remain in Wonderland, where Prince Charming would sweep her off her feet, and she could live happily ever after. If only to escape her new stepmother and her changing father.
The girl had drawn a multitude of wonderful pictures of unicorns and elves and mermaids. Later on she had bought 'serious' books about the fairy folk. How one could earn their friendship by ending their unfinished songs for them. How one could be tricked by them if the unexpecting mortal ate their food or became entangled in one of their dark dances around the fairy ring of poisonous toadstools.
How time traveled a different pace in this far away place as compared to the earth.
It took Robert Two years to understand the meaning of the much-thumbed edition of the little red book with the golden lettering on the cover. The one named Labyrinth.
On television the Berlin wall crumbled under the onslaught of young people freeing themselves of the solid barriers of the past. Book in one hand, remote in the other, Robert blanked out his future by turning of the news and focussing on the old. It all started to click together where booklet and diary aligned.
Silly insane Sarah had started to believe in her fantasy travels to the land beyond, the Underground. Plain as day it laid before him. In her diary, Sarah described her imaginary sojourn and Toby's rescue. Page after page her fascination with the dark legend of this Goblin King grew- until she stopped writing. The evening she disappeared.
Silly Sarah had gone to search for a dream, and had probably killed both herself and her brother in the process.
Robert refused to believe. The portrait Sarah had drawn of the King was quite wonderful and very detailed. Almost taken from a photograph in its perfection. It had to be somebody the girl had known in real life. It had to be someone he could find!
"How could I -ever- have trusted myself to him!"
Sarah's knees buckled and she sat down heavily on the rust colored sand. Hoggle patted her shoulder.
"Tell me about it. Cause I ain't gonna say nothing about it. Not that it seems you've been very smart 'n all..."
Sarah smiled faintly. "I'm so sorry he threw you all into the Bog."
Hoggle shrugged and waved the notion away.
"Aw- Never you mind. I shoulds have know he would react like that."
"And forget all about it, I suppose-"
"Jareth -is- king. The damn thing is, he has more to do than take note of us four."
"Where are the others?"
"For as far as I knows, that crazy knight an' his dog camp near the Bog itself. The stench never seemed to bother them none. But I thinks we have to go and tell them they can come out now."
"And Ludo?"
"He's with the Fireys. Those critters stink so much of sulfur already, they never minded him much."
"And you?"
"Enough about us! An' don't you starts distracting me again now, you hear little missy?"
Sarah smiled sadly at the dwarf.
"No fooling you, is there?" Then her voice almost broke. Sarah pulled up her legs, crossed them at the ankles, arms around the knees and rested her head on her knees. Her dark locks cascaded over her shoulders and face like a hiding curtain. But the voice was steady.
"What kind of children does the Goblin King take, Hoggle."
He indulged her, but was impatient.
"The ones wished away. The unwanted ones."
"Toby became an unwanted child, Hoggle. So I wished him away."
"But you loves him!"
Sad green eyes met his inquisitive open blue ones.
"My father stopped caring. He used Toby. He used Toby to make my stepmother and me do whatever he wanted. He hit Toby and he kicked Toby whenever we didn't do what he wanted. And when my stepmother disobeyed him he started to hit her too. She should have protected Toby, but could not or did not and even put out her cigarettes on his arms because my father told her so."
Sara swallowed hard.
"Just your average totally dysfunctional family."
"Aw girl." Hoggle sat down next to Sarah, took her hand and squeezed it encouragingly.
"I defended Toby 'cause there was no one else. But I could not 'cause daddy started to hit me too. And then I thought- you know. When they were fighting again about something trivial I went to Toby and I thought about Jareth and his Goblins. And how Toby never would have been hurt so badly if only he had stayed here, in the Underground. Those Goblins really are funny things. They are mean and childish, but they also seem to laugh a lot."
Sarah was fighting back tears again. She would not break down- not ever. Not with her friends and certainly not where the Goblin King could see her. For watching her was what he did, she was sure of it.
"I haven't seen Toby laugh or even smile in months! All he does is cry. But he has learned he gets beaten when he does so out loud. He's two years old, but he isn't talking. He doesn't try to walk. He just sits around or lies in his bed trying to make himself small. Like a wounded animal. So I thought- Well, as a Goblin he might not become some intellectual genius, or even a very kind person. But he would have had a family that accepted him. And he would have had fun."
"So you wished him away."
Sarah smiled sadly in acknowledgement.
"You should have seen Jareth when he came for Toby. All regal and threatening and all that. And then I just shoved Toby into his arms and told him, -told him-, to get the hell out of the house! He really thought I had gone mad or something. His face was priceless."
"You have a way of pushing him around."
"No I don't." Sarah chuckled. "Somehow I don't think I have power over him."
Hoggle's chiseled face cracked into a smile.
"Think again. You called, he came. You asked him to take away the stench of the bog of me, he did. I thinks you have a great deal of power over him."
"But how? I'm nothing but plain little old Sarah."
Hoggle sat back, shook his head and said in a stern voice: "If thats what you thinks, thats what you'll be. But I sees the only human who ever could beat Jareth at his own game. I sees a lovely girl who got the attention of the King himself. I sees a girl who loves her brother so much she is willing to let go of him forever. And there's nothing plain about that! So now how did you yourself ended up here?"
Sarah shrugged shyly. She heard Hoggle's praise but could hardly relate to it. Too many times her confidence had been crushed. It would take her a while to find herself again.
"Jareth came back for me. He promised me I would never again have anything to do with my parents if I came to the Underground with him. He promised me my dreams again. I thought that meant that Toby and I would be together and safe."
"I felt the clock spinning forward. So he did rearrange time for you again, now didn't he. I've never saw him do that for anybody else either."
"Oh stop it Hoggle- you make it sound as if I am someone special to him."
Hoggle scowled at Sarah. "Are you blind girl! You -are- special to him. Believe it or not, he's soft towards you. And if you make use of that, you could make life a lot easier for a lot of people. Like Didymus and Ludo and me!"
"I might have wished that were true, a while ago. But right now I only wish to be with Toby."
"You don't know yourself al that real well now, do you."
"Now what is that supposed to mean!"
"Go to him, Sarah. Go to the King and find out what he wants from you, before you make any more wishes. You're one of us now, and that means you'll be staying for a long time. Don't be so quick in thinking something is this or that."
"Because nothing here is what it seems?"
"Well, I ams your friend and that is exactly as it seems. So if you'll ever need me-"
"I don't think Jareth will stop us from seeing each other again."
Hoggle shook his head and smiled.
"So, Hoggle, what are you going to do now?"
"Find the others. Ludo will have smelled at least he stinks no more. I bet he's gone to Didymus already to tell him. But I don't thinks he can. So I'll be joining them and tell them about you and being here an' all."
"Thanks Hoggle. I wish I could come with you, but our 'lord-and-master' wanted me to go straight 'home'. So I think it's best I'll be going."
Hoggle and Sarah embraced again, stood and tried to remove the dust from their clothing. It didn't work that well for Sarah, with her falling over her own feet in her haste to meet Hoggle and all that. But of late she had done worse things than facing a King in dirty clothes. She would not let a small thing like pride stand in her way to be with her brother, now would she.
Sarah held Jareth's crystal in front of her, waved Hoggle goodbye and said her right words.
"I wish to be in the Castle beyond the Goblin City, near my brother Toby. Right now."
The world vanished.
She found herself back in a room best described as a nursery, Goblin style. It was a square room with a large gothic stained glass window. The color of the glass went from bright yellow to peach orange, making for a warm cozy light in the room, if fractured. There was a huge fireplace well closed off by a black cast iron fender, depicting dancing Fireys. An enormous white bear rug lay in front of it. Above the mantelpiece hung a painting of a forest and brightly colored playing and dancing elves.
The walls of the room were erected in the same gray stone as the rest of the castle, but they seemed clean and polished. Most of the cold floor tiles were covered with all sorts of animal rugs and the floor lay strew with an assortment of stuffed animals (unicorns, a small Ludo, dragons and such), wooden Goblin dummies and brightly colored blocks without any straight angle. In a corner stood a tall oak linen-cupboard covered with carvings of vines and inlaid with mother of pearl and opal indicating grapes, and a table where one could change diapers and such. In a corner stood a small wooden bed; above it hung a music-box mobile with tiny black leather bats and silver owls. Beneath the bed she spotted a ceramic pot in the form of a Goblin's head.
Next to the window in a rocking chair sat Jareth, Toby in his lap and firmly supported in the Kings arms. The boy was wide awake and totally unafraid of the stranger, who teasingly held out an already half eaten biscuit to the boy. Toby's blue eyes shone brightly, but he had yet to smile at the kind man who was feeding him cookies and was humming a gentle song to him. Jareth had changed his attire again to the outfit Sarah had seen him wearing when she came to the Underground before. White ruffled shirt, golden waistcoat, gray tights and brownish boots. His hands were ungloved for a change and his wispy main seemed more ginger than blond in the orange light of the room. There was a certain melancholy in his posture Sarah could not fathom.
It was a peaceful picture so at odds with what Sarah had come to expect of the King, she simply froze at a total loss for words.
Both Jareth and Toby looked up at her sudden entrance. Toby reached for Sarah and Jareth stood, crossed the room and gave her the child. Sarah rocked the little boy gently. Apart from some crumbs on his front and in the corners of his mouth, he looked clean in his new dark blue pajamas and he smelled after soap and roses. In her absence, the boy had been well cared for. She cuddled him. With the tilt of his head Jareth indicated the bed.
"He has to brush his teeth." Sarah muttered. Jareth waved his hand and the cookie-crumbs disappeared. Sarah was sure the King had taken care of any other of Toby's needs the same instance. She laid him down in the soft bed, covered him and kissed his forehead. Jareth pulled a string dangling from the bat-owl mobile and a soft tinkling song drifted through the room. Jareth sang with the lullaby, it was the same gentle tune he had been humming before.
"Hush now, my baby
"Be still love, don't cry
"Sleep like you're rocked by the stream
"Sleep and remember this river lullaby
"And I'll be with you when you dream
"I'll be with you when you dream
Toby closed his eyes and drifted away peacefully without Jareth having to use his sorcery this time- Except for that sweet voice carrying a magic all of its own. Sarah shivered, trying not to yawn or to fall under its spell. Jareth did not seem to notice. He stared down at the boy a moment longer and again without word indicated Sarah to leave the room through the heavy oak half round door. It swung on its hinges without making a sound. Jareth wore a pensive and very worried expression on his face while they left. There were two Goblin guards, unarmed, playing checkers at a table near the door. They had to be some of the more intelligent ones since they had begun to grasp the concept of checkers in the first place. It did not matter they both played black and white.
"Warn me if the boy does so much as squeal, you understand?"
The pair nodded. Jareth indicated Sarah to follow him.
"Stay close, as everything Underground my castle is a maze of hallways to the untrained eye."
"You really enjoy giving orders, don't you?" Sarah mumbled under her breath. But Jareths keen hearing was not of Sarahs world.
"It is a habit one does pick up in my position." he answered lightheartedly.
Sarah blushed, hoping he did not have the proverbial eyes in the back of his head. But she suspected he realized her discomfort anyway.
In stark contrast to the bright room the pair just left, the corridors of the castle were sparsely lit by torches, held by hand-shaped torch-barers. To her amazement some of them moved and a few empty ones tapped the wall as if bored with inactivity.
"Don't mind them, they won't hurt you."
"Helping hands?"
"A variety of, yes."
"It's a nice room you gave Toby."
Jareth looked at her over his shoulder.
"It was my own."
"You were ever that small?"
"Amazing, isn't it."
The passages were dark and gray and dizzying to Sarah, frequently crossed by others and counting either many doors, ore none. She was forced to follow Jareth around like a little lost puppy and felt like one. But their walk was quite short, in comparison.
They halted at a tall beautifully carved door set in an elegant stone arch. Two almost human Goblin knights jumped to attention when the King neared. Jareth ignored them, held the door open for Sarah and she stepped inside.
It had to be the first of Jareth's private rooms. Spacious, rich and a mess. Not the filthy kind of mess the Goblin's made, but the kind of mess a learned mage might keep around for reference. There were books and scrolls everywhere. At the mahogany desk, naturally, but also at the comfortable couch before the fireplace, piled up on the floor, on a cupboard next to a bird skeleton, on the chair next to the couch, on top of another closet and absolutely crammed in to the bookcases aligning most of the walls. Quills and an inkwell, maps, chemicals, some boiling in a corner, a globe of the earth, a black globe with golden dots depicting the stars as seen from earth. A flat "globe" depicting the underground. Clocks in all varieties everywhere. Timepieces all striking a different hour, some twelve, some up to seventeen. At the other side of the room large glass doors opened to a balcony and Sarah could see the sun setting over the Labyrinth.
Jareth stared at the couch, chair and coffee-table in front of the hearth a moment, snapped a crystal in existence and allowed it to explode above the furniture. The books and scrolls and other assorted materials disappeared to be replace by inviting cushions on the couch and sandwiches and drinks on the table.
"Please my dear, do sit down. You must be quite weary by now."
Sarah nodded and sat on the couch. To her surprise the King handed her a plate with two sandwiches and gave her a choice between wine, water and milk.
"No peaches?" Sarah asked hesitantly.
The king smiled mildly.
"Some pears, if you like them."
Well, she had to trust the food around her sometime. So Sarah bit the bread and asked for the milk.
"Thanks- cozy place you've got here."
"My inner sanctum, really. Kick off your shoes and make yourself comfortable. You've had quite a day."
She did and curled up on the couch. Jareth did not touch the food, but he did poor himself some of the red wine and seemed to relax a little. He sat down in the large chair in a somewhat less than royal way, feet lazily in front of him, cradling his glass near his belly, eyelids almost closed. Had he forgotten Sarah was there? Or did he just trust her so much he could let some of his guard down? Or was it just the fact that the King was home?
"Did you really read all this?"
He shrugged. "Half of it I wrote myself."
"Bit much for a diary."
"Depends on how long one has -lived-, my dear."
"That's a joke, right?"
Jareth merely arched his brow.
"I have arranged some rooms for you a little down this hallway. You should be quite comfortable there. I suggest you retire right after your little snack. On your former timetable it is long passed the midnight hour and you must be tired."
"Thank you."
Jareth smiled faintly. But the worried expression never left his eyes.
"Toby does not speak much, does he?"
Sarah shook her head. "He has been made afraid to. He doesn't walk either."
"So he is severely stunted in his development. That is not something I can simply wave away or heal with my magic, Sarah."
"You have given him peace if only for one night. I am grateful. But please- don't separate us. He needs me!"
Jareth nodded slowly and clearly against his will admitted it.
"I know. I have seen it in the way he reaches for you- You are the one stable and trusted thing he still has. Sarah, there are two in the artisans village who will be Toby's parents now. You cannot help him regain his mental heath nor steer him toward a normal development. They can."
Sarah stared at the floor.
"Again I am grateful. You seem to care about him, don't you?"
"Look at me, Sarah."
Sarah made contact with the Kings icy stare. Jareth sat straight, making a throne out of his seat simply by attitude.
"I blame myself a great deal for what happened to the both of you, my dear."
"That is ridiculous- you had nothing to do with all that. Besides it was after I came here in the first place."
"And if I had not allowed you to leave, all your pains would have been naught."
"You never allowed us to leave, I won, remember. And Toby would be a Goblin and I would have been home explaining it all."
Jareth chuckled. "Oh I remember alright. But who again sent you Hoggle to get you out of that oubliette? Who again placed in your way only tests you -could- resolve if you did try your best?"
"You sent the cleaners after me, who might have killed me! You nearly threw me into the bog of stench. We almost died in that stupid battle you set up and you tried to make me sell Toby for a dream!"
"Might. Nearly. Almost- don't you detect a theme here, my dear?"
"You are impossible!"
"I was very generous with you."
"Well I'm sure I don't know about back then- but I do realize you are very generous right now. And I haven't even properly thanked you- I'm sorry."
"As you should be."
"Are you enjoying this?"
Jareth allowed himself a wide unpleasant and wolfish grin.
"Immensely!"
"Oh how gallant!"
"My apologies for not being your Prince Charming, my dear."
"Well you tried."
They both remembered a certain masked ball and the aforementioned peach. Sarah sat a little more straight for her next quip.
"And failed."
Something dark melted the Kings icy stare- it was that same something Sarah had felt from him when she silenced him to make him understand she would come with him. It frightened her, made clear to her he wanted something from her- Her, not Toby.
He rose quickly and went to the balcony to stare out into the night.
"You are a foolish -child- Sarah."
She followed swiftly but softly on her stockinged feet, barely avoiding throwing over some pile of knowledge.
"Why do you wish to keep me here, locked away in your castle if I am such a child!"
A dangerous triumph to claim and an even more dangerous course to sail. Sarah was not totally naive. But apparently in movement Jareth had found back the control that had momentarily slipped him.
"Locked away? Nonsense girl. I thought you might have a use in the kitchens."
"What!"
"But as is, I might as well send you with the boy for a few years. If you grow up a bit, you might even acquire some manners more suitable to the courts."
"You- you wanted me to- Manners to suit a court of -Gobelins-!"
Jareth nodded regally.
Suddenly it struck Sarah. She had won, again. Jareth would allow her to go with Toby to live with him and have a new family. As Hoggle already indicated, in spite of their banter Jareth had not been able to refuse Sarah her request, not in the end.
Sarah followed the Kings gaze into the darkness. Stars shone brightly over the wasteland in front of the castle.
"Wasn't that a junkyard?"
"There is a reason the cleaners are called that way."
"What about that junkyard couple?"
"They are doing quite nicely in the city with their second-hand shop. Why do you ask?"
"It's nothing really. I just guess things change, even here."
"Everything has to change, it's the flow of life."
Sarah nodded.
"But you are immortal, aren't you?"
"Nearly. Fae do age. Differently than most of your kind, but we do."
Sara looked up at the King, while he gazed down at her.
"Most of my kind?"
Jareth smiled again. He lazily leant on the parapet on his elbows, shifting in a position that brought him at eye level with Sarah.
"So many questions for such a little girl."
"So I am curious."
"That you are, my little cat, that you are."
Sarah mimicked the stance.
"That sounds like a warning."
Jareth caught a dark stray lock and tried to tuck it behind Sarahs ear, but a little irritated she shook free and stepped back. The beginning of a song escaped Jareth's lips, reciting it like a poem.
"See these eyes so green
"I can stare for a thousand years
"Colder than the moon
The he caught himself and straightened.
"Tomorrow will be a very exiting day for you and your brother both, my dear- and in some ways not a very easy one. I suggest you retire."
Sarah swallowed and nodded. She turned and went back in, collected her shoes, and went to the door. Suddenly she realized what she was doing- walking on stockinged feet only through the private chambers of a King. When she turned to the balcony, she saw not him but a white barn owl sitting on the parapet, staring at her. Clearly having been dismissed she opened the door and slipped through. Sarah had totally forgotten about the large Goblins guarding Jareths door and felt more than a little embarrassed walking beside one with her shoes in her hand towards another door to the probably lovely room Jareth had made somebody prepare for her.
Such a little girl still, at sixteen, as she avoided making an even greater chaos of his study by staying clear of the heaps of books. Such a precious little thing, adorable as she slipped through the door to her own room. So quiet she had passed. So calmly she had accepted the transition from her world to his. He had been right to reintroduce her to the dwarf- Sarah had gotten of her chest some of the grief that had followed her into the Underground by opening up to Hedgeworth. A first step on her way to heal. Pity he could not guide her on this road himself, he understood now she would not allow him. Talk to him, even tease him a little- that she dared and that she would. He would miss her, even if she were so close by. Who else in the Underground would dare to -tease- him this openly?
The cool breeze under his wings felt so good, as he glided it toward the village of the artisans, where among it's people the mother and father of seven lived. With their youngest of one and eldest of eighteen, open loving hearts and compassionate minds, this family was perfect to receive yet two other additions to their household. It was the right choice, the right thing to do, he convinced himself, while the verses of the song that had almost slipped him kept replaying in his mind.
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon
It's been so long
Heal my blood enraged
It's just the fear of loosing you
Don't you know my name?
Well you've been so long
See these tears so blue
An ageless heart that can never mend
These tears can never dry
Judgement made that can never bend
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Just be still with me
You would not believe what I've been through
You've been so long
And it's been so long
The lullaby verse is from the song "River Lullaby" from the movie soundtrack "The Prince of Egypt", as performed by Amy Grant, Produced by Michael Omartian, A&M Records Inc.
Go buy/rent the movie and/or the soundtrack. They are both wonderful.
The second song I believe is named "Putting Out the Fire With Gasoline" from the movie soundtrack "Cat People", music by Mr. Giorgio Moroder, words and performed by Mr. David Bowie. The arrangement of the verses is -not- the original one, I have toyed around with it a little for the sake of the story.
I do not know the film, yet.
No copyright infringement intended, just being an inspired fan here.
I have no money, please don't sue.
PG-13.
The Lonely and the Lost
Chapter II: The Ageless Heart
Karen had finally come for Toby's things. And Linda for some of Sarah's. Jewelry belonging to other side of the family exchanged hands, together with some photographs, toys with embedded memories and silence.
Divorce papers came and were easily signed. Alimony agreed upon, the other half of the house sold back to the father.
Charges were never made, as the sad notion to part as quickly as possible had prevailed on all sides. Some would have named those unmade accusations only spiteful, the sane ones would have called them just. But wherein does lie sanity? In punishment, in letting go? Where some have the admirable strength to stand up and accuse, both Linda and Karen were beaten. Not only by fear of the man, but mostly by grief over the loss of daughter and son.
Had the women been able to unite, they might have found what it would have taken to stand tall. Yet friendship had always been a far cry between them, and any possible relationship became nonexistent after the few necessary discussions when there was hope still to retrieve the runaways. Karen told Linda in no uncertain terms she was a hypocrite to mourn the daughter she had left behind years ago. Linda retorted with calling Karen a cowardly fool.
And that was the end of that. Linda's theatre star rose to new highs since she had become brilliant in portraying the tragedies of life, maintaining to the world her inspiration came from having to deal with so many herself. Karen started over with a good man with two sons of his own. Later on she brought a girl-child into the marriage. This time, it went well. Karen never cried over Toby. And she never parted with the locket keeping his photograph safe.
Robert cared no longer his house was too large for one man. He knew it held a secret and it obsessed him. It lay somewhere in the attic, the cellar or Sarah's room. It had to be. Any toy was scrutinized and obsessed over, but he saw nothing of value in a music box playing Greensleeves or an old teddy named Lancelot
With interest, hope, kindness and ultimately satisfaction the employer saw Robert loosing his love for liqueur, and picking up the pace of the job again. There were long hours of efficiency and eventually the deserved promotions. Few saw the truth of loneliness pored into business contacts.
But the weekends, especially the Sundays, where holy. That was the time Robert spent dissecting old stuffed animals, reading children's books cover to cover and engaging into the quest-for-meaning in a teenagers diary.
Sarah had started her diary at age nine, when her father had given the girl her first for Christmas. It was the pink one with the golden Bambi on the cover. It was the book that told the father of a fairytale mother who lived far away, doing wondrous things. It was the book that scolded her teacher and adored some silly boy.
The Olivia Newton John of the Xanadu movie was Sarah's hero, for the woman was beautiful to the girl. She could sing and dance, dress like a fairytale and fade through a wall to enter another world. And to top is off she was loved by a romantic painter.
Little Sarah longed for this world beyond. To become an Alice and remain in Wonderland, where Prince Charming would sweep her off her feet, and she could live happily ever after. If only to escape her new stepmother and her changing father.
The girl had drawn a multitude of wonderful pictures of unicorns and elves and mermaids. Later on she had bought 'serious' books about the fairy folk. How one could earn their friendship by ending their unfinished songs for them. How one could be tricked by them if the unexpecting mortal ate their food or became entangled in one of their dark dances around the fairy ring of poisonous toadstools.
How time traveled a different pace in this far away place as compared to the earth.
It took Robert Two years to understand the meaning of the much-thumbed edition of the little red book with the golden lettering on the cover. The one named Labyrinth.
On television the Berlin wall crumbled under the onslaught of young people freeing themselves of the solid barriers of the past. Book in one hand, remote in the other, Robert blanked out his future by turning of the news and focussing on the old. It all started to click together where booklet and diary aligned.
Silly insane Sarah had started to believe in her fantasy travels to the land beyond, the Underground. Plain as day it laid before him. In her diary, Sarah described her imaginary sojourn and Toby's rescue. Page after page her fascination with the dark legend of this Goblin King grew- until she stopped writing. The evening she disappeared.
Silly Sarah had gone to search for a dream, and had probably killed both herself and her brother in the process.
Robert refused to believe. The portrait Sarah had drawn of the King was quite wonderful and very detailed. Almost taken from a photograph in its perfection. It had to be somebody the girl had known in real life. It had to be someone he could find!
"How could I -ever- have trusted myself to him!"
Sarah's knees buckled and she sat down heavily on the rust colored sand. Hoggle patted her shoulder.
"Tell me about it. Cause I ain't gonna say nothing about it. Not that it seems you've been very smart 'n all..."
Sarah smiled faintly. "I'm so sorry he threw you all into the Bog."
Hoggle shrugged and waved the notion away.
"Aw- Never you mind. I shoulds have know he would react like that."
"And forget all about it, I suppose-"
"Jareth -is- king. The damn thing is, he has more to do than take note of us four."
"Where are the others?"
"For as far as I knows, that crazy knight an' his dog camp near the Bog itself. The stench never seemed to bother them none. But I thinks we have to go and tell them they can come out now."
"And Ludo?"
"He's with the Fireys. Those critters stink so much of sulfur already, they never minded him much."
"And you?"
"Enough about us! An' don't you starts distracting me again now, you hear little missy?"
Sarah smiled sadly at the dwarf.
"No fooling you, is there?" Then her voice almost broke. Sarah pulled up her legs, crossed them at the ankles, arms around the knees and rested her head on her knees. Her dark locks cascaded over her shoulders and face like a hiding curtain. But the voice was steady.
"What kind of children does the Goblin King take, Hoggle."
He indulged her, but was impatient.
"The ones wished away. The unwanted ones."
"Toby became an unwanted child, Hoggle. So I wished him away."
"But you loves him!"
Sad green eyes met his inquisitive open blue ones.
"My father stopped caring. He used Toby. He used Toby to make my stepmother and me do whatever he wanted. He hit Toby and he kicked Toby whenever we didn't do what he wanted. And when my stepmother disobeyed him he started to hit her too. She should have protected Toby, but could not or did not and even put out her cigarettes on his arms because my father told her so."
Sara swallowed hard.
"Just your average totally dysfunctional family."
"Aw girl." Hoggle sat down next to Sarah, took her hand and squeezed it encouragingly.
"I defended Toby 'cause there was no one else. But I could not 'cause daddy started to hit me too. And then I thought- you know. When they were fighting again about something trivial I went to Toby and I thought about Jareth and his Goblins. And how Toby never would have been hurt so badly if only he had stayed here, in the Underground. Those Goblins really are funny things. They are mean and childish, but they also seem to laugh a lot."
Sarah was fighting back tears again. She would not break down- not ever. Not with her friends and certainly not where the Goblin King could see her. For watching her was what he did, she was sure of it.
"I haven't seen Toby laugh or even smile in months! All he does is cry. But he has learned he gets beaten when he does so out loud. He's two years old, but he isn't talking. He doesn't try to walk. He just sits around or lies in his bed trying to make himself small. Like a wounded animal. So I thought- Well, as a Goblin he might not become some intellectual genius, or even a very kind person. But he would have had a family that accepted him. And he would have had fun."
"So you wished him away."
Sarah smiled sadly in acknowledgement.
"You should have seen Jareth when he came for Toby. All regal and threatening and all that. And then I just shoved Toby into his arms and told him, -told him-, to get the hell out of the house! He really thought I had gone mad or something. His face was priceless."
"You have a way of pushing him around."
"No I don't." Sarah chuckled. "Somehow I don't think I have power over him."
Hoggle's chiseled face cracked into a smile.
"Think again. You called, he came. You asked him to take away the stench of the bog of me, he did. I thinks you have a great deal of power over him."
"But how? I'm nothing but plain little old Sarah."
Hoggle sat back, shook his head and said in a stern voice: "If thats what you thinks, thats what you'll be. But I sees the only human who ever could beat Jareth at his own game. I sees a lovely girl who got the attention of the King himself. I sees a girl who loves her brother so much she is willing to let go of him forever. And there's nothing plain about that! So now how did you yourself ended up here?"
Sarah shrugged shyly. She heard Hoggle's praise but could hardly relate to it. Too many times her confidence had been crushed. It would take her a while to find herself again.
"Jareth came back for me. He promised me I would never again have anything to do with my parents if I came to the Underground with him. He promised me my dreams again. I thought that meant that Toby and I would be together and safe."
"I felt the clock spinning forward. So he did rearrange time for you again, now didn't he. I've never saw him do that for anybody else either."
"Oh stop it Hoggle- you make it sound as if I am someone special to him."
Hoggle scowled at Sarah. "Are you blind girl! You -are- special to him. Believe it or not, he's soft towards you. And if you make use of that, you could make life a lot easier for a lot of people. Like Didymus and Ludo and me!"
"I might have wished that were true, a while ago. But right now I only wish to be with Toby."
"You don't know yourself al that real well now, do you."
"Now what is that supposed to mean!"
"Go to him, Sarah. Go to the King and find out what he wants from you, before you make any more wishes. You're one of us now, and that means you'll be staying for a long time. Don't be so quick in thinking something is this or that."
"Because nothing here is what it seems?"
"Well, I ams your friend and that is exactly as it seems. So if you'll ever need me-"
"I don't think Jareth will stop us from seeing each other again."
Hoggle shook his head and smiled.
"So, Hoggle, what are you going to do now?"
"Find the others. Ludo will have smelled at least he stinks no more. I bet he's gone to Didymus already to tell him. But I don't thinks he can. So I'll be joining them and tell them about you and being here an' all."
"Thanks Hoggle. I wish I could come with you, but our 'lord-and-master' wanted me to go straight 'home'. So I think it's best I'll be going."
Hoggle and Sarah embraced again, stood and tried to remove the dust from their clothing. It didn't work that well for Sarah, with her falling over her own feet in her haste to meet Hoggle and all that. But of late she had done worse things than facing a King in dirty clothes. She would not let a small thing like pride stand in her way to be with her brother, now would she.
Sarah held Jareth's crystal in front of her, waved Hoggle goodbye and said her right words.
"I wish to be in the Castle beyond the Goblin City, near my brother Toby. Right now."
The world vanished.
She found herself back in a room best described as a nursery, Goblin style. It was a square room with a large gothic stained glass window. The color of the glass went from bright yellow to peach orange, making for a warm cozy light in the room, if fractured. There was a huge fireplace well closed off by a black cast iron fender, depicting dancing Fireys. An enormous white bear rug lay in front of it. Above the mantelpiece hung a painting of a forest and brightly colored playing and dancing elves.
The walls of the room were erected in the same gray stone as the rest of the castle, but they seemed clean and polished. Most of the cold floor tiles were covered with all sorts of animal rugs and the floor lay strew with an assortment of stuffed animals (unicorns, a small Ludo, dragons and such), wooden Goblin dummies and brightly colored blocks without any straight angle. In a corner stood a tall oak linen-cupboard covered with carvings of vines and inlaid with mother of pearl and opal indicating grapes, and a table where one could change diapers and such. In a corner stood a small wooden bed; above it hung a music-box mobile with tiny black leather bats and silver owls. Beneath the bed she spotted a ceramic pot in the form of a Goblin's head.
Next to the window in a rocking chair sat Jareth, Toby in his lap and firmly supported in the Kings arms. The boy was wide awake and totally unafraid of the stranger, who teasingly held out an already half eaten biscuit to the boy. Toby's blue eyes shone brightly, but he had yet to smile at the kind man who was feeding him cookies and was humming a gentle song to him. Jareth had changed his attire again to the outfit Sarah had seen him wearing when she came to the Underground before. White ruffled shirt, golden waistcoat, gray tights and brownish boots. His hands were ungloved for a change and his wispy main seemed more ginger than blond in the orange light of the room. There was a certain melancholy in his posture Sarah could not fathom.
It was a peaceful picture so at odds with what Sarah had come to expect of the King, she simply froze at a total loss for words.
Both Jareth and Toby looked up at her sudden entrance. Toby reached for Sarah and Jareth stood, crossed the room and gave her the child. Sarah rocked the little boy gently. Apart from some crumbs on his front and in the corners of his mouth, he looked clean in his new dark blue pajamas and he smelled after soap and roses. In her absence, the boy had been well cared for. She cuddled him. With the tilt of his head Jareth indicated the bed.
"He has to brush his teeth." Sarah muttered. Jareth waved his hand and the cookie-crumbs disappeared. Sarah was sure the King had taken care of any other of Toby's needs the same instance. She laid him down in the soft bed, covered him and kissed his forehead. Jareth pulled a string dangling from the bat-owl mobile and a soft tinkling song drifted through the room. Jareth sang with the lullaby, it was the same gentle tune he had been humming before.
"Hush now, my baby
"Be still love, don't cry
"Sleep like you're rocked by the stream
"Sleep and remember this river lullaby
"And I'll be with you when you dream
"I'll be with you when you dream
Toby closed his eyes and drifted away peacefully without Jareth having to use his sorcery this time- Except for that sweet voice carrying a magic all of its own. Sarah shivered, trying not to yawn or to fall under its spell. Jareth did not seem to notice. He stared down at the boy a moment longer and again without word indicated Sarah to leave the room through the heavy oak half round door. It swung on its hinges without making a sound. Jareth wore a pensive and very worried expression on his face while they left. There were two Goblin guards, unarmed, playing checkers at a table near the door. They had to be some of the more intelligent ones since they had begun to grasp the concept of checkers in the first place. It did not matter they both played black and white.
"Warn me if the boy does so much as squeal, you understand?"
The pair nodded. Jareth indicated Sarah to follow him.
"Stay close, as everything Underground my castle is a maze of hallways to the untrained eye."
"You really enjoy giving orders, don't you?" Sarah mumbled under her breath. But Jareths keen hearing was not of Sarahs world.
"It is a habit one does pick up in my position." he answered lightheartedly.
Sarah blushed, hoping he did not have the proverbial eyes in the back of his head. But she suspected he realized her discomfort anyway.
In stark contrast to the bright room the pair just left, the corridors of the castle were sparsely lit by torches, held by hand-shaped torch-barers. To her amazement some of them moved and a few empty ones tapped the wall as if bored with inactivity.
"Don't mind them, they won't hurt you."
"Helping hands?"
"A variety of, yes."
"It's a nice room you gave Toby."
Jareth looked at her over his shoulder.
"It was my own."
"You were ever that small?"
"Amazing, isn't it."
The passages were dark and gray and dizzying to Sarah, frequently crossed by others and counting either many doors, ore none. She was forced to follow Jareth around like a little lost puppy and felt like one. But their walk was quite short, in comparison.
They halted at a tall beautifully carved door set in an elegant stone arch. Two almost human Goblin knights jumped to attention when the King neared. Jareth ignored them, held the door open for Sarah and she stepped inside.
It had to be the first of Jareth's private rooms. Spacious, rich and a mess. Not the filthy kind of mess the Goblin's made, but the kind of mess a learned mage might keep around for reference. There were books and scrolls everywhere. At the mahogany desk, naturally, but also at the comfortable couch before the fireplace, piled up on the floor, on a cupboard next to a bird skeleton, on the chair next to the couch, on top of another closet and absolutely crammed in to the bookcases aligning most of the walls. Quills and an inkwell, maps, chemicals, some boiling in a corner, a globe of the earth, a black globe with golden dots depicting the stars as seen from earth. A flat "globe" depicting the underground. Clocks in all varieties everywhere. Timepieces all striking a different hour, some twelve, some up to seventeen. At the other side of the room large glass doors opened to a balcony and Sarah could see the sun setting over the Labyrinth.
Jareth stared at the couch, chair and coffee-table in front of the hearth a moment, snapped a crystal in existence and allowed it to explode above the furniture. The books and scrolls and other assorted materials disappeared to be replace by inviting cushions on the couch and sandwiches and drinks on the table.
"Please my dear, do sit down. You must be quite weary by now."
Sarah nodded and sat on the couch. To her surprise the King handed her a plate with two sandwiches and gave her a choice between wine, water and milk.
"No peaches?" Sarah asked hesitantly.
The king smiled mildly.
"Some pears, if you like them."
Well, she had to trust the food around her sometime. So Sarah bit the bread and asked for the milk.
"Thanks- cozy place you've got here."
"My inner sanctum, really. Kick off your shoes and make yourself comfortable. You've had quite a day."
She did and curled up on the couch. Jareth did not touch the food, but he did poor himself some of the red wine and seemed to relax a little. He sat down in the large chair in a somewhat less than royal way, feet lazily in front of him, cradling his glass near his belly, eyelids almost closed. Had he forgotten Sarah was there? Or did he just trust her so much he could let some of his guard down? Or was it just the fact that the King was home?
"Did you really read all this?"
He shrugged. "Half of it I wrote myself."
"Bit much for a diary."
"Depends on how long one has -lived-, my dear."
"That's a joke, right?"
Jareth merely arched his brow.
"I have arranged some rooms for you a little down this hallway. You should be quite comfortable there. I suggest you retire right after your little snack. On your former timetable it is long passed the midnight hour and you must be tired."
"Thank you."
Jareth smiled faintly. But the worried expression never left his eyes.
"Toby does not speak much, does he?"
Sarah shook her head. "He has been made afraid to. He doesn't walk either."
"So he is severely stunted in his development. That is not something I can simply wave away or heal with my magic, Sarah."
"You have given him peace if only for one night. I am grateful. But please- don't separate us. He needs me!"
Jareth nodded slowly and clearly against his will admitted it.
"I know. I have seen it in the way he reaches for you- You are the one stable and trusted thing he still has. Sarah, there are two in the artisans village who will be Toby's parents now. You cannot help him regain his mental heath nor steer him toward a normal development. They can."
Sarah stared at the floor.
"Again I am grateful. You seem to care about him, don't you?"
"Look at me, Sarah."
Sarah made contact with the Kings icy stare. Jareth sat straight, making a throne out of his seat simply by attitude.
"I blame myself a great deal for what happened to the both of you, my dear."
"That is ridiculous- you had nothing to do with all that. Besides it was after I came here in the first place."
"And if I had not allowed you to leave, all your pains would have been naught."
"You never allowed us to leave, I won, remember. And Toby would be a Goblin and I would have been home explaining it all."
Jareth chuckled. "Oh I remember alright. But who again sent you Hoggle to get you out of that oubliette? Who again placed in your way only tests you -could- resolve if you did try your best?"
"You sent the cleaners after me, who might have killed me! You nearly threw me into the bog of stench. We almost died in that stupid battle you set up and you tried to make me sell Toby for a dream!"
"Might. Nearly. Almost- don't you detect a theme here, my dear?"
"You are impossible!"
"I was very generous with you."
"Well I'm sure I don't know about back then- but I do realize you are very generous right now. And I haven't even properly thanked you- I'm sorry."
"As you should be."
"Are you enjoying this?"
Jareth allowed himself a wide unpleasant and wolfish grin.
"Immensely!"
"Oh how gallant!"
"My apologies for not being your Prince Charming, my dear."
"Well you tried."
They both remembered a certain masked ball and the aforementioned peach. Sarah sat a little more straight for her next quip.
"And failed."
Something dark melted the Kings icy stare- it was that same something Sarah had felt from him when she silenced him to make him understand she would come with him. It frightened her, made clear to her he wanted something from her- Her, not Toby.
He rose quickly and went to the balcony to stare out into the night.
"You are a foolish -child- Sarah."
She followed swiftly but softly on her stockinged feet, barely avoiding throwing over some pile of knowledge.
"Why do you wish to keep me here, locked away in your castle if I am such a child!"
A dangerous triumph to claim and an even more dangerous course to sail. Sarah was not totally naive. But apparently in movement Jareth had found back the control that had momentarily slipped him.
"Locked away? Nonsense girl. I thought you might have a use in the kitchens."
"What!"
"But as is, I might as well send you with the boy for a few years. If you grow up a bit, you might even acquire some manners more suitable to the courts."
"You- you wanted me to- Manners to suit a court of -Gobelins-!"
Jareth nodded regally.
Suddenly it struck Sarah. She had won, again. Jareth would allow her to go with Toby to live with him and have a new family. As Hoggle already indicated, in spite of their banter Jareth had not been able to refuse Sarah her request, not in the end.
Sarah followed the Kings gaze into the darkness. Stars shone brightly over the wasteland in front of the castle.
"Wasn't that a junkyard?"
"There is a reason the cleaners are called that way."
"What about that junkyard couple?"
"They are doing quite nicely in the city with their second-hand shop. Why do you ask?"
"It's nothing really. I just guess things change, even here."
"Everything has to change, it's the flow of life."
Sarah nodded.
"But you are immortal, aren't you?"
"Nearly. Fae do age. Differently than most of your kind, but we do."
Sara looked up at the King, while he gazed down at her.
"Most of my kind?"
Jareth smiled again. He lazily leant on the parapet on his elbows, shifting in a position that brought him at eye level with Sarah.
"So many questions for such a little girl."
"So I am curious."
"That you are, my little cat, that you are."
Sarah mimicked the stance.
"That sounds like a warning."
Jareth caught a dark stray lock and tried to tuck it behind Sarahs ear, but a little irritated she shook free and stepped back. The beginning of a song escaped Jareth's lips, reciting it like a poem.
"See these eyes so green
"I can stare for a thousand years
"Colder than the moon
The he caught himself and straightened.
"Tomorrow will be a very exiting day for you and your brother both, my dear- and in some ways not a very easy one. I suggest you retire."
Sarah swallowed and nodded. She turned and went back in, collected her shoes, and went to the door. Suddenly she realized what she was doing- walking on stockinged feet only through the private chambers of a King. When she turned to the balcony, she saw not him but a white barn owl sitting on the parapet, staring at her. Clearly having been dismissed she opened the door and slipped through. Sarah had totally forgotten about the large Goblins guarding Jareths door and felt more than a little embarrassed walking beside one with her shoes in her hand towards another door to the probably lovely room Jareth had made somebody prepare for her.
Such a little girl still, at sixteen, as she avoided making an even greater chaos of his study by staying clear of the heaps of books. Such a precious little thing, adorable as she slipped through the door to her own room. So quiet she had passed. So calmly she had accepted the transition from her world to his. He had been right to reintroduce her to the dwarf- Sarah had gotten of her chest some of the grief that had followed her into the Underground by opening up to Hedgeworth. A first step on her way to heal. Pity he could not guide her on this road himself, he understood now she would not allow him. Talk to him, even tease him a little- that she dared and that she would. He would miss her, even if she were so close by. Who else in the Underground would dare to -tease- him this openly?
The cool breeze under his wings felt so good, as he glided it toward the village of the artisans, where among it's people the mother and father of seven lived. With their youngest of one and eldest of eighteen, open loving hearts and compassionate minds, this family was perfect to receive yet two other additions to their household. It was the right choice, the right thing to do, he convinced himself, while the verses of the song that had almost slipped him kept replaying in his mind.
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon
It's been so long
Heal my blood enraged
It's just the fear of loosing you
Don't you know my name?
Well you've been so long
See these tears so blue
An ageless heart that can never mend
These tears can never dry
Judgement made that can never bend
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Just be still with me
You would not believe what I've been through
You've been so long
And it's been so long