Disclaimer: None of the Labyrinth characters are mine, and they all will probably hate me for what I'm going to do to them anyway, yadda yadda, I have no money, please don't sue
Stay Tuned
by
Delkon
Chapter Two
Sarah found that she could at least close her mouth and move her eyes around in her head, but she still could not find the strength required to step around the sofa to where Toby was sitting on the floor transfixed by the television screen. The television screen was now showing a animated white owl flying over an arial view of the Labyrinth, albeit a much simpler one due to it being an animated version. The music playing while the owl flew was familiar to Sarah. It was the same tune her music box played, although this version was speeded up a little and had a tinnish, somewhat childish tone to it. The animated sequence ended as the owl flew into an open window of the castle and the screen went black for a moment.
The next thing that appeared on the screen chilled Sarah to the core. There was a black-gloved hand twirling what appeared to be four crystals, three going around in the gloved hand while the fourth rested on top of them. The gloved hand was held in front of a black clad chest with a very familiar medallion hanging on top of it. As Sarah watched, the unknown person's other hand came into view and picked the top crystal off of the others and held it up to the camera. Hoggle's voice could once again be heard.
"Joining Jareth today are his usual co-hosts. First we have Sir Didymus!" As Hoggle finished saying this, an image of Sir Didymus's face came into view on the single crystal.
The crystal then floated by itself out of view of the camera. The empty hand went back to the three remaining crystals and one of them slid into the hand and this one was presented to the camera.
"Next it's that lovable behemoth, Ludo!" Sarah watched as the friendly beast's face appeared briefly before the crystal disappeared from view.
The previous motions were repeated and while the hand was holding the next to last crystal up to the camera, Sarah watched as the hand holding the last crystal started to move the crystal in an sideways S shape, just like she remembered Jareth did the first time he offered her her dreams.
"Joining us also is Agnes, the Junk Lady Extrodinaire!"
There was a brief moment of confusion for Sarah until she saw the face and remembered her as being the one that tried to make her forget why she was in the Labyrinth after she had eaten that magic peach and had escaped from the ballroom bubble. The smiling face that Sarah saw now was actually friendly. This crystal also floated up and away from the camera.
Sarah watched as the last crystal moved effortlessly from one black-clad hand to the other as Hoggle's voice was once again heard. The camera panned up quickly as the last crystal was thrown high into the air and Sarah was unable to see who had been handling the crystals, but she had a good idea who it was. As the crystal reached it's highest point before coming down, Hoggle's face could clearly be seen in it.
"And my name is Hoggle! Welcome to the castle!"
As soon as these words were said, Toby let out a little "Yay!" of excitement. The image in the crystal changed to the interior of some sort of chamber and the camera zoomed in on it. The interior shot changed to that of a live camera shot. The camera showed a large chamber with several things going on all at once. To Sarah's dismay, there seemed to be dozens of goblins of all shapes and sizes milling around.
The camera finally came to rest on the stairway that Sarah remembered climbing in order to face down the Goblin King and rescue her baby brother. Seconds later, all the goblins quieted down as Hoggle's voice could be heard once again.
"And now, boys and girls, here he is, the master of the castle, and ruler of the Labyrinth, Jareth! King of the Goblins!"
Not a word was uttered, not a thing was heard over the speakers until a very faint clicking noise could be heard, apparently coming from the stairway. It got louder and louder while Sarah grew more and more worried. She didn't know what to expect to have happen. Would Jareth be able to somehow see her standing there in her den? Or would this Jareth even be the same one she remembered from her trip through his Labyrinth? Or would it be some Mr. Rogers type host? She wasn't sure, but seconds later, her question was answered as he came into view from the corner of the stairway. Her heart started to beat loudly in her chest as she stared at him. He hadn't changed one bit, he didn't even look like he enjoyed being captured by the camera.
Sarah then found that she could move, albeit very slowly, and she knelt down behind Toby, ready to pick him up and run at the first sign of malice directed toward either her or the child she was positioned behind. Sarah's mind raced as she came up with all sorts of questions. Why here? Why did Jareth host a kid's show? Why was he suddenly some person who children apparently adored? Was this just a ploy to somehow get Toby again? Was she in danger now that she knew about this? Her attention was turned back to the television as she heard Hoggle come on and say that they were going to have a few words from their sponsors. Surprisingly, very surprisingly, the ads were all for local businesses, all in her hometown. This made her wary.
As the last of the commercials ended, and Jareth appeared once more onscreen, Sarah decided that maybe she should try to get herself and Toby out of the den where the television was, just in case. Only seven words could possibly make Toby divert his attention away from the television screen, and although Sarah knew that she really shouldn't, she went ahead and said them.
"Toby, would you like some ice cream?"
Toby turned and looked at her to see if she was serious. When he saw her eyes, he could tell she was seriously asking him. He looked torn for a second, trying to decide whether or not to go with Sarah to get ice cream or to stay where he was and keep watching what, to him, was the best show in the whole world.
"With chocolate sauce?" Sarah asked, pleadingly.
"Okay!" Toby reached out to the things from his bag that were on the floor around him and picked up the disc with the flimsy red plastic sheet in the middle of it. He showed the disc to Sarah as she and Toby made their way to the kitchen, which was connected to the den.
"Just don't let me miss the part where you have use the magic decoder to find the surprise! I finally got Momma to get me one last week and she said if I could find the surprise, she'd send in the letter for me!" He said as he sat down at the kitchen table as Sarah went over to the side of the kitchen where the refrigerator was to fix the bowls of ice cream.
The doorway from the kitchen to the den was left open and Sarah said she would keep an eye on the show to make sure that Toby didn't miss the "Search for the Surprise" part that was coming up. She had taken the remote control with her and turned up the volume on the show. She sat down and watched as Sir Didymus, Ludo, and even Hoggle participated in read-alongs, skits, and interactive segments. She couldn't help but smile as Agnes, the Junk Lady, came on and showed how to make musical instruments out of empty toilet-paper tubes, pulling out all the materials required from the junk piled on her back. Jareth acted mostly as an overseer to all the activities, not really participating that much but just sort of delegating responsibilities to the goblins, making decisions about what was going to happen next on the show, and generally being a director of sorts. "It makes sense that he would be a good director, he's the king isn't he?" She thought to herself.
As the show was coming to an end, Toby finished his ice cream and made his way back to the den. Sarah persuaded him to sit on the sofa and not so close to the television. She told him it was because sitting that close was bad for his eyes, but she really wanted him away from the television just in case Jareth tried to reach out and grab him or something of the like. She still didn't trust that this was an ordinary kid's show with an extraordinary cast of characters. Finally the "Search" came on. The shot on the screen suddenly went all red and then squiggly lines of different colors and shades appeared. Toby held the disc up to his eye and looked at the screen.
"It's a duck! A big funny-looking duck!" Toby said then laughed at what he could see through the disc.
Toby then asked for a piece of paper and a pencil. Sarah walked over to the bookcase that was next to the television stand and found some paper and a pencil and gave them to Toby. He eagerly took them out of her hands and got back down on the floor. As he was busy trying to draw what he had seen, the television caught Sarah's eye and she saw that the credits for the Underground Hour were rolling by. By the time she turned her full attention on the credits, they ended and the screen went blank.
Sarah turned the television off and sat down on the floor next to where Toby was drawing a fairly good, if a bit crude, version of the duck he apparently had seen. She eyed the other contents of the his bag and the bag itself as Toby continued to work on his drawing. Picking up the "crystal", she was somewhat relieved to feel that it was plastic, a clear rubber ball. The piece of paper was found to be a 'Honorary Goblin' license that stated that Tobias Jeremiah Maxwell Williams was an honorary goblin and entitled to all priviliges and rights this afforded him. The letters of the words were well printed and Toby himself had messily written his name where it said "Sign Here". The deck of cards was next, and each showed a different goblin pictured on one side and their name and a brief bio on the other side. The last item was the bag that they had all been in. Sarah picked up the bag and saw that on one side it said "Toby's Horde" with the Horde part being printed on the bag, and Toby printed by his mother, apparently, and on the other side was a sticker that said that the bag was from the local cable company office.
When her father and stepmother finally made it home, they found that Toby had been put to bed, and Sarah was sitting on the sofa in the den waiting for them. Sarah questioned them both about the Underground Hour but they both were puzzled by the young woman's apparent dislike of the show and why she seemed so upset about Toby having watched it. They asked her why she was so worried about the show. They had both watched it with Toby a few times, and they couldn't see anything wrong with it. It may have been a little crude with the humor but it was still a very innocuous show. Sarah tried to make them see that it might be bad for Toby to continue to watch it, but she really couldn't explain to them that the reason that she didn't want him to was because she was afraid that the host of the kids show might come and take the little youngster away like he had previously, when she had asked him to.
The next day Sarah had a plan. When her parents left for work, she waited a few hours, then she got herself and Toby ready to go outside. She told Toby that they were going to go downtown to look at the Christmas decorations. She planned to also go by the cable office to see what she could find out about Jareth's show . She drove the both of them there and found a place to park close to where the office was. Toby looked around.
"Can we go by the cable company Sarah?" Toby asked.
"Why do you want to go there, little dude?" She asked in return, surprised that he knew where it was.
"I wanna see if they got any of the new cards in!" Toby answered, trying to pull his seatbelt off and get out of the car at the same time.
"Hold up a second, Toby!" Sarah said as she got out of the car on her side and ran around to Toby's side of the car. "Let me help you out." She said as she opened his door all the way and unwrapped the seatbelt from around his head.
Toby pulled his hat up from over his eyes and started off in the direction of the office. Sarah quickly locked her car doors and followed. The little boy was already opening the door to the office and going inside as she reached the front of the office. She grabbed the door before it closed and, as she was stepping inside, saw a sticker on the door stating that Underground Hour merchandise could now be purchased at the drugstore down the street as well as inside. Toby was at the counter inside the office. He wasn't big enough to see over the high counter but was jumping up, trying to see the card display that was sitting on top. Sarah made her way over to the counter and could hear someone typing away at a keyboard somewhere in the back. Toby turned and looked at Sarah then back at the counter. She then picked Toby up and sat him down on the countertop, watching him as he then grabbed the display box to go through the cards.
"Be out there in just a second!" A man's muffled voice said as the typing suddenly stopped.
Noises of some things being moved around could then be heard from around the corner of a hallway that led away from the small area behind the countertop. Toby was starting to take the cards from the display box and putting them on the counter stating that he already had all of these, and as she was just about to get on to Toby for dropping some of the cards on the floor, the man's voice was heard again, this time sounding much closer to where the two of them were.
"Sarah? Is that you?"
Stay Tuned
by
Delkon
Chapter Two
Sarah found that she could at least close her mouth and move her eyes around in her head, but she still could not find the strength required to step around the sofa to where Toby was sitting on the floor transfixed by the television screen. The television screen was now showing a animated white owl flying over an arial view of the Labyrinth, albeit a much simpler one due to it being an animated version. The music playing while the owl flew was familiar to Sarah. It was the same tune her music box played, although this version was speeded up a little and had a tinnish, somewhat childish tone to it. The animated sequence ended as the owl flew into an open window of the castle and the screen went black for a moment.
The next thing that appeared on the screen chilled Sarah to the core. There was a black-gloved hand twirling what appeared to be four crystals, three going around in the gloved hand while the fourth rested on top of them. The gloved hand was held in front of a black clad chest with a very familiar medallion hanging on top of it. As Sarah watched, the unknown person's other hand came into view and picked the top crystal off of the others and held it up to the camera. Hoggle's voice could once again be heard.
"Joining Jareth today are his usual co-hosts. First we have Sir Didymus!" As Hoggle finished saying this, an image of Sir Didymus's face came into view on the single crystal.
The crystal then floated by itself out of view of the camera. The empty hand went back to the three remaining crystals and one of them slid into the hand and this one was presented to the camera.
"Next it's that lovable behemoth, Ludo!" Sarah watched as the friendly beast's face appeared briefly before the crystal disappeared from view.
The previous motions were repeated and while the hand was holding the next to last crystal up to the camera, Sarah watched as the hand holding the last crystal started to move the crystal in an sideways S shape, just like she remembered Jareth did the first time he offered her her dreams.
"Joining us also is Agnes, the Junk Lady Extrodinaire!"
There was a brief moment of confusion for Sarah until she saw the face and remembered her as being the one that tried to make her forget why she was in the Labyrinth after she had eaten that magic peach and had escaped from the ballroom bubble. The smiling face that Sarah saw now was actually friendly. This crystal also floated up and away from the camera.
Sarah watched as the last crystal moved effortlessly from one black-clad hand to the other as Hoggle's voice was once again heard. The camera panned up quickly as the last crystal was thrown high into the air and Sarah was unable to see who had been handling the crystals, but she had a good idea who it was. As the crystal reached it's highest point before coming down, Hoggle's face could clearly be seen in it.
"And my name is Hoggle! Welcome to the castle!"
As soon as these words were said, Toby let out a little "Yay!" of excitement. The image in the crystal changed to the interior of some sort of chamber and the camera zoomed in on it. The interior shot changed to that of a live camera shot. The camera showed a large chamber with several things going on all at once. To Sarah's dismay, there seemed to be dozens of goblins of all shapes and sizes milling around.
The camera finally came to rest on the stairway that Sarah remembered climbing in order to face down the Goblin King and rescue her baby brother. Seconds later, all the goblins quieted down as Hoggle's voice could be heard once again.
"And now, boys and girls, here he is, the master of the castle, and ruler of the Labyrinth, Jareth! King of the Goblins!"
Not a word was uttered, not a thing was heard over the speakers until a very faint clicking noise could be heard, apparently coming from the stairway. It got louder and louder while Sarah grew more and more worried. She didn't know what to expect to have happen. Would Jareth be able to somehow see her standing there in her den? Or would this Jareth even be the same one she remembered from her trip through his Labyrinth? Or would it be some Mr. Rogers type host? She wasn't sure, but seconds later, her question was answered as he came into view from the corner of the stairway. Her heart started to beat loudly in her chest as she stared at him. He hadn't changed one bit, he didn't even look like he enjoyed being captured by the camera.
Sarah then found that she could move, albeit very slowly, and she knelt down behind Toby, ready to pick him up and run at the first sign of malice directed toward either her or the child she was positioned behind. Sarah's mind raced as she came up with all sorts of questions. Why here? Why did Jareth host a kid's show? Why was he suddenly some person who children apparently adored? Was this just a ploy to somehow get Toby again? Was she in danger now that she knew about this? Her attention was turned back to the television as she heard Hoggle come on and say that they were going to have a few words from their sponsors. Surprisingly, very surprisingly, the ads were all for local businesses, all in her hometown. This made her wary.
As the last of the commercials ended, and Jareth appeared once more onscreen, Sarah decided that maybe she should try to get herself and Toby out of the den where the television was, just in case. Only seven words could possibly make Toby divert his attention away from the television screen, and although Sarah knew that she really shouldn't, she went ahead and said them.
"Toby, would you like some ice cream?"
Toby turned and looked at her to see if she was serious. When he saw her eyes, he could tell she was seriously asking him. He looked torn for a second, trying to decide whether or not to go with Sarah to get ice cream or to stay where he was and keep watching what, to him, was the best show in the whole world.
"With chocolate sauce?" Sarah asked, pleadingly.
"Okay!" Toby reached out to the things from his bag that were on the floor around him and picked up the disc with the flimsy red plastic sheet in the middle of it. He showed the disc to Sarah as she and Toby made their way to the kitchen, which was connected to the den.
"Just don't let me miss the part where you have use the magic decoder to find the surprise! I finally got Momma to get me one last week and she said if I could find the surprise, she'd send in the letter for me!" He said as he sat down at the kitchen table as Sarah went over to the side of the kitchen where the refrigerator was to fix the bowls of ice cream.
The doorway from the kitchen to the den was left open and Sarah said she would keep an eye on the show to make sure that Toby didn't miss the "Search for the Surprise" part that was coming up. She had taken the remote control with her and turned up the volume on the show. She sat down and watched as Sir Didymus, Ludo, and even Hoggle participated in read-alongs, skits, and interactive segments. She couldn't help but smile as Agnes, the Junk Lady, came on and showed how to make musical instruments out of empty toilet-paper tubes, pulling out all the materials required from the junk piled on her back. Jareth acted mostly as an overseer to all the activities, not really participating that much but just sort of delegating responsibilities to the goblins, making decisions about what was going to happen next on the show, and generally being a director of sorts. "It makes sense that he would be a good director, he's the king isn't he?" She thought to herself.
As the show was coming to an end, Toby finished his ice cream and made his way back to the den. Sarah persuaded him to sit on the sofa and not so close to the television. She told him it was because sitting that close was bad for his eyes, but she really wanted him away from the television just in case Jareth tried to reach out and grab him or something of the like. She still didn't trust that this was an ordinary kid's show with an extraordinary cast of characters. Finally the "Search" came on. The shot on the screen suddenly went all red and then squiggly lines of different colors and shades appeared. Toby held the disc up to his eye and looked at the screen.
"It's a duck! A big funny-looking duck!" Toby said then laughed at what he could see through the disc.
Toby then asked for a piece of paper and a pencil. Sarah walked over to the bookcase that was next to the television stand and found some paper and a pencil and gave them to Toby. He eagerly took them out of her hands and got back down on the floor. As he was busy trying to draw what he had seen, the television caught Sarah's eye and she saw that the credits for the Underground Hour were rolling by. By the time she turned her full attention on the credits, they ended and the screen went blank.
Sarah turned the television off and sat down on the floor next to where Toby was drawing a fairly good, if a bit crude, version of the duck he apparently had seen. She eyed the other contents of the his bag and the bag itself as Toby continued to work on his drawing. Picking up the "crystal", she was somewhat relieved to feel that it was plastic, a clear rubber ball. The piece of paper was found to be a 'Honorary Goblin' license that stated that Tobias Jeremiah Maxwell Williams was an honorary goblin and entitled to all priviliges and rights this afforded him. The letters of the words were well printed and Toby himself had messily written his name where it said "Sign Here". The deck of cards was next, and each showed a different goblin pictured on one side and their name and a brief bio on the other side. The last item was the bag that they had all been in. Sarah picked up the bag and saw that on one side it said "Toby's Horde" with the Horde part being printed on the bag, and Toby printed by his mother, apparently, and on the other side was a sticker that said that the bag was from the local cable company office.
When her father and stepmother finally made it home, they found that Toby had been put to bed, and Sarah was sitting on the sofa in the den waiting for them. Sarah questioned them both about the Underground Hour but they both were puzzled by the young woman's apparent dislike of the show and why she seemed so upset about Toby having watched it. They asked her why she was so worried about the show. They had both watched it with Toby a few times, and they couldn't see anything wrong with it. It may have been a little crude with the humor but it was still a very innocuous show. Sarah tried to make them see that it might be bad for Toby to continue to watch it, but she really couldn't explain to them that the reason that she didn't want him to was because she was afraid that the host of the kids show might come and take the little youngster away like he had previously, when she had asked him to.
The next day Sarah had a plan. When her parents left for work, she waited a few hours, then she got herself and Toby ready to go outside. She told Toby that they were going to go downtown to look at the Christmas decorations. She planned to also go by the cable office to see what she could find out about Jareth's show . She drove the both of them there and found a place to park close to where the office was. Toby looked around.
"Can we go by the cable company Sarah?" Toby asked.
"Why do you want to go there, little dude?" She asked in return, surprised that he knew where it was.
"I wanna see if they got any of the new cards in!" Toby answered, trying to pull his seatbelt off and get out of the car at the same time.
"Hold up a second, Toby!" Sarah said as she got out of the car on her side and ran around to Toby's side of the car. "Let me help you out." She said as she opened his door all the way and unwrapped the seatbelt from around his head.
Toby pulled his hat up from over his eyes and started off in the direction of the office. Sarah quickly locked her car doors and followed. The little boy was already opening the door to the office and going inside as she reached the front of the office. She grabbed the door before it closed and, as she was stepping inside, saw a sticker on the door stating that Underground Hour merchandise could now be purchased at the drugstore down the street as well as inside. Toby was at the counter inside the office. He wasn't big enough to see over the high counter but was jumping up, trying to see the card display that was sitting on top. Sarah made her way over to the counter and could hear someone typing away at a keyboard somewhere in the back. Toby turned and looked at Sarah then back at the counter. She then picked Toby up and sat him down on the countertop, watching him as he then grabbed the display box to go through the cards.
"Be out there in just a second!" A man's muffled voice said as the typing suddenly stopped.
Noises of some things being moved around could then be heard from around the corner of a hallway that led away from the small area behind the countertop. Toby was starting to take the cards from the display box and putting them on the counter stating that he already had all of these, and as she was just about to get on to Toby for dropping some of the cards on the floor, the man's voice was heard again, this time sounding much closer to where the two of them were.
"Sarah? Is that you?"