A/N: This was originally supposed to be two chapters, but I decided I
didn't like it, so I combined the first two chappies to get this... but I
bet you didn't have to know that, now did you? Um... oh, Labyrinth is not
mine! Not, not, not, not, not-it belongs to Henson & all associated
companies... Neither is Gathering Blue-that would be the property of Lois
Lowry... ah, and "Eleanor Rigby"-such a cool song-it's Beatles. So it's
property of...er...I think-Apple Records... The little snippet of lyrics is
from "Crystal Ball" by Styx-awesome song. Hope y'all like this as much as I
enjoyed righting it! No, that's wrong-writing it! ((let's see if you can
catch that mis-quoted quote...))
:~:*^*:~: ~~~~~~~~~~:~:*^*:~:~~~~~~~~~~:~:*^*~:~:
"Sometimes I'd sit and gaze for days Through sleepless dreams, All alone and trapped in time. All alone and trapped in time."
Chapter One: "Sleepless Dreams"
Amber was tired. She had had another boring day at school and it was only going to get worse when she finally got home. She stared gloomily out at the cold world beyond the foggy window of the school bus. A tired little town that sprung up in the wake of a big city-that's all Mackleville was, really.
The place sucked. Sucked-practically nothing there, except for adults and preps; apartment complexes, neighborhoods, restaurants, businesses, bars, grocers, gas stations-all the basics, but nothing too fancy.
Sure there was karaoke night at Buffalo's-which she never attended-and Amber had lots of good friends, but life really, truly sucked if you were a 9th grade girl in Mackleville.
She thought about school-Mackleville High. The school mascot, the Mustangs, was shared by almost all the schools in her county-right there, outside Metro Atlanta. She turned back to her book with growing distaste for humanity. She really wished she had been born as a tree-trees were really awesome.
Amber closed the book on her finger to gaze at the cover and mark her place in one synchronic motion. She gazed at the cover illustration again, and her eyes traveled up to the familiar title once more; "Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry". It was one of her favorites; though she had only gotten it last year at a book fair, the cover was worn and a few pages were stained or bent or torn. She loved it. She read it to escape-something she enjoyed more than any other task-and often wished to just wake up one morning and be Kira.
The bus turned into her neighborhood-an apartment complex, really. Amber's seat partner, a preppy Hispanic girl, left the bus and it continued on down the road. She closed the book entirely, realizing it was her stop. The complex she lived in was called Lakeview. Her stop was right next to its namesake-a manmade lake circled by trees, a few wooden bridges, a deck built out over the water, and a gravel path circling around it. Amber loved the lake, whereas most people found its murky green waters repulsive.
"Stupid humans..." Amber muttered as she hopped off the bus deftly. Her 12- year-old brother, Jake, banged her in the head with his trombone case and laughed as he ran home up the gravel path.
Amber straightened her messy, tangled brown curls again and glared after him with hazel eyes holding suppressed hatred. She dragged her feet forward, willing herself to make it through another day-for Asher's ((A/N: no, this isn't a typo. It's an actual name.)) sake, at least.
So she walked home in this manner, a book in one hand, her book bag on her back. Rather than take the road home, she shortcutted on the gravel path, over a hill, and through some woods that ran behind her building, 24. Up a set of stairs, and there was the 2-bedroom apartment she grudgingly called "home". She barged in, and was confronted by her 8-year-old brother, Evan, who was chattering on about a toy, while the tiny, shaggy mutt of a dog they owned, Grace, nipped at her ankles.
Amber sighed painfully, and walked quickly through the small dining/living room, down the 3-foot hallway and to the right-into the children's room. She crossed it, avoiding piles of clothes and toys and threw her school things onto the floor to join the chaos. She flopped onto the bed angrily and listened as her mom yelled at her about cleaning and chores and homework, all while folding clothes in her parents' bedroom, right next door. Amber just yelled out a submissive, "Yes, ma'am.", and glanced down at her arm, where she had written her homework.
She read it silently, " Algebra page 687 (11-31); English, Lit book, page 412 (1-8); Social Studies, read Topic 12 documents, be prepared for discussion, PowerPoint due next Wednesday, notebook quiz; Science, chapter 17 study guide due for a homework grade."
She gazed down at Gathering Blue longingly, and sighed almost inaudibly, "Guess I won't be reading for fun any time soon..." Amber pulled her books onto the bed with her and flipped on the radio-an Oldies station; "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles-one of her favorites-was playing. She opened her schoolbooks and set to work. Yeah, so far everything was a normal, boring day. But as every dreamer does, Amber had made plenty of wishes in her life- and some of her wildest ones were about to come true.
:~:*^*:~:
Amber slept restlessly; she tossed and turned during the night, talking and even screaming in her sleep, waking several times from her vivid, nightmarish dreams to find that everyone else was sleeping quite soundly- her dad had finally gotten home; she could hear his idiosyncratic snore during the night. The point was she didn't get as much sleep as she probably should have. So, even though the next morning was Saturday, she woke at about 5 AM, and didn't fall asleep again.
Amber knew this was the only time she could truly find a silent solitude- her chagrining mother, working father, and two annoying brothers were sound asleep. She hopped out of bed and showered with a faint sense of happiness. She didn't know why, but she had, as of late, been experiencing a distinct lack of emotion.
She walked silently across the children's bedroom to her closet. She pulled out of it a dress made of a light green/blue dyes material-the cloth looked like a river, and was just as flowing and beautiful. She slipped it on and stepped into a pair of close-fitting tan shoes-they looked like leather socks, and she loved them.
Amber grabbed a book from one of the numerous piles surrounding her bed and snuck out the sliding glass door, vaulted over the edge of the deck, and ran off to the woods surrounding the lake in a misty May morning's half- light.
She climbed high up into a tree, sat on a branch, and finally glanced at the book she had grabbed. Coincidentally, she noticed she had grabbed another of her favorites; it was titled in huge, curling gold letters "Labyrinth". Amber mused over the book for a minute and, on a whim, hopped quickly down from the tree, mimicking Sarah in the opening scene of the movie version.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the Castle, beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, my kingdom as great."
Still copying exactly, she muttered to herself, "Will is as strong as yours, kingdom as great... damn. I can never remember that line."
She pulled, from her large sleeve where she had been hiding it, the book and opened it, reading the next line aloud; "You have no power over me."
She went on talking, now in a more wistful tone, and no longer from the text of the play, "I wish life really was like books... it would be so fun. In fact, I really do wish I knew what I had to say to get life to become a big fantasy world...at least for a little while."
Naturally, people like Jareth really do exist, and he just happened to be listening to her little soliloquy. He laughed, "Silly child... perhaps I should humor her." He wondered how to accomplish this...and it came to him. Put a few words in her mouth, have her wish away someone, and send her on the wildest journey of the Labyrinth's extensive history-perhaps then she would grow up enough to realize how selfish her daydreams were. So he muttered into her brain, "All you have to do is wish someone away..... then you can go on your own adventure in the huge Labyrinth..."
Amber fought this new idea as easily as it h ad sprung up in her mind, "But that's not how it works. The goblin king isn't in love with me, and surely he wouldn't bother with filling the request of a little dreamer girl like me-no way he even knows I exist, much less want a little adventure of my own."
Jareth decided he liked this girl a bit-enough to feel that his efforts wouldn't be wasted on her. She had sense and fire in her childish spirit yet-she would grow into a fine woman. But that was beside the point right now, he realized as he planted another mental seed, "Still.... There's a chance-Sarah didn't seem too extraordinary of a girl, did she? No harm in wishing, anyway; it's not like anything would happen..."
Amber saw sense in this thought and repeated the last few words to herself, "It's not like anything would happen... but who to wish away?"
Jareth was going to have fun messing up this girl. He pulled a whimsical thought into her brain, "How about your best friend, Asher? It'd be quite funny, especially if you went over to her house today and rehearsed wishing her away."
Amber mused over this for a minute and resolved to go visit Asherlynn that very day. She ran home to phone her quickly.
Meanwhile, in the throne room of the Castle at the center of the Labyrinth, Jareth sat, laughing, on his throne. He couldn't wish for a more interesting child to play with-her mind and imagination worked almost triple the speed of most children of her age or ability.
His mind shot back to the "girl" who had called on him almost twenty years ago-Sarah. He knew she had grown up now, and thrown away most of her memories of dreams and fantasy-even the memory of his love. Yes, she was, indeed, as real as Jareth-and she had settled down, married, and had children; she had moved on-almost to the point it seemed she had died. And if, indeed, she had died, Jareth knew it wouldn't seem any different than it did now. But here, in this young teen-in Amber-he saw a reborn Sarah. He saw her fire, her imagination, her affinity with and strong love for anything unusual-the free spirit that had died in Sarah had been reborn and reinforced in Amber.
This saddened him beyond belief as it brought back the realization that Sarah had never loved him. Ever. He tried to clear his mind as he blinked back the fast-forming, never-fallen tears.
In the meantime, aboveground, Amber was talking to a groggy, unhappily awoken Asherlynn.
"Hey Asher?" she asked.
"Da one and only. How can I help you?" Asher's voice came through the phone, and Amber could hear music playing in the background.
"Can I come over today-around noon?" Amber asked.
"Huh? Oh, sure. Ooh, bring that new book you got-I wanna borrow it." Asher replied.
"Aight, kewl. So...see ya then. Luvs ya, byes!"
"Bye." Asher said with a yawn, and Amber hung up. Amber went back outside, unnoticed, as her family was still sleeping. She took her new book with her and decided to kill some time reading. She walked back towards the lake but turned off the gravel path into deep woods, heading for her favorite tree. She glanced down at her blue, waterproof watch-7:30 AM-she had quite some time to read.
"Good." She smiled, talking to herself again. She was truly happy for the first time in days.
:~:*^*:~:
NEXT CHAPTER: REALITY GAINS A WHOLE NEW MEANING AS THE PLOT FINALLY THICKENS! "GLAMORIE" COMES INTO PLAY, AND THINGS ARE PROVENLY NEVER WHAT THEY SEEM! READ THE NEXT CHAPTER TO SEE WHAT JARETH HAS IN STORE FOR OUR LITTLE "HEROINE"!
:~:*^*:~: ~~~~~~~~~~:~:*^*:~:~~~~~~~~~~:~:*^*~:~:
"Sometimes I'd sit and gaze for days Through sleepless dreams, All alone and trapped in time. All alone and trapped in time."
Chapter One: "Sleepless Dreams"
Amber was tired. She had had another boring day at school and it was only going to get worse when she finally got home. She stared gloomily out at the cold world beyond the foggy window of the school bus. A tired little town that sprung up in the wake of a big city-that's all Mackleville was, really.
The place sucked. Sucked-practically nothing there, except for adults and preps; apartment complexes, neighborhoods, restaurants, businesses, bars, grocers, gas stations-all the basics, but nothing too fancy.
Sure there was karaoke night at Buffalo's-which she never attended-and Amber had lots of good friends, but life really, truly sucked if you were a 9th grade girl in Mackleville.
She thought about school-Mackleville High. The school mascot, the Mustangs, was shared by almost all the schools in her county-right there, outside Metro Atlanta. She turned back to her book with growing distaste for humanity. She really wished she had been born as a tree-trees were really awesome.
Amber closed the book on her finger to gaze at the cover and mark her place in one synchronic motion. She gazed at the cover illustration again, and her eyes traveled up to the familiar title once more; "Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry". It was one of her favorites; though she had only gotten it last year at a book fair, the cover was worn and a few pages were stained or bent or torn. She loved it. She read it to escape-something she enjoyed more than any other task-and often wished to just wake up one morning and be Kira.
The bus turned into her neighborhood-an apartment complex, really. Amber's seat partner, a preppy Hispanic girl, left the bus and it continued on down the road. She closed the book entirely, realizing it was her stop. The complex she lived in was called Lakeview. Her stop was right next to its namesake-a manmade lake circled by trees, a few wooden bridges, a deck built out over the water, and a gravel path circling around it. Amber loved the lake, whereas most people found its murky green waters repulsive.
"Stupid humans..." Amber muttered as she hopped off the bus deftly. Her 12- year-old brother, Jake, banged her in the head with his trombone case and laughed as he ran home up the gravel path.
Amber straightened her messy, tangled brown curls again and glared after him with hazel eyes holding suppressed hatred. She dragged her feet forward, willing herself to make it through another day-for Asher's ((A/N: no, this isn't a typo. It's an actual name.)) sake, at least.
So she walked home in this manner, a book in one hand, her book bag on her back. Rather than take the road home, she shortcutted on the gravel path, over a hill, and through some woods that ran behind her building, 24. Up a set of stairs, and there was the 2-bedroom apartment she grudgingly called "home". She barged in, and was confronted by her 8-year-old brother, Evan, who was chattering on about a toy, while the tiny, shaggy mutt of a dog they owned, Grace, nipped at her ankles.
Amber sighed painfully, and walked quickly through the small dining/living room, down the 3-foot hallway and to the right-into the children's room. She crossed it, avoiding piles of clothes and toys and threw her school things onto the floor to join the chaos. She flopped onto the bed angrily and listened as her mom yelled at her about cleaning and chores and homework, all while folding clothes in her parents' bedroom, right next door. Amber just yelled out a submissive, "Yes, ma'am.", and glanced down at her arm, where she had written her homework.
She read it silently, " Algebra page 687 (11-31); English, Lit book, page 412 (1-8); Social Studies, read Topic 12 documents, be prepared for discussion, PowerPoint due next Wednesday, notebook quiz; Science, chapter 17 study guide due for a homework grade."
She gazed down at Gathering Blue longingly, and sighed almost inaudibly, "Guess I won't be reading for fun any time soon..." Amber pulled her books onto the bed with her and flipped on the radio-an Oldies station; "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles-one of her favorites-was playing. She opened her schoolbooks and set to work. Yeah, so far everything was a normal, boring day. But as every dreamer does, Amber had made plenty of wishes in her life- and some of her wildest ones were about to come true.
:~:*^*:~:
Amber slept restlessly; she tossed and turned during the night, talking and even screaming in her sleep, waking several times from her vivid, nightmarish dreams to find that everyone else was sleeping quite soundly- her dad had finally gotten home; she could hear his idiosyncratic snore during the night. The point was she didn't get as much sleep as she probably should have. So, even though the next morning was Saturday, she woke at about 5 AM, and didn't fall asleep again.
Amber knew this was the only time she could truly find a silent solitude- her chagrining mother, working father, and two annoying brothers were sound asleep. She hopped out of bed and showered with a faint sense of happiness. She didn't know why, but she had, as of late, been experiencing a distinct lack of emotion.
She walked silently across the children's bedroom to her closet. She pulled out of it a dress made of a light green/blue dyes material-the cloth looked like a river, and was just as flowing and beautiful. She slipped it on and stepped into a pair of close-fitting tan shoes-they looked like leather socks, and she loved them.
Amber grabbed a book from one of the numerous piles surrounding her bed and snuck out the sliding glass door, vaulted over the edge of the deck, and ran off to the woods surrounding the lake in a misty May morning's half- light.
She climbed high up into a tree, sat on a branch, and finally glanced at the book she had grabbed. Coincidentally, she noticed she had grabbed another of her favorites; it was titled in huge, curling gold letters "Labyrinth". Amber mused over the book for a minute and, on a whim, hopped quickly down from the tree, mimicking Sarah in the opening scene of the movie version.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the Castle, beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, my kingdom as great."
Still copying exactly, she muttered to herself, "Will is as strong as yours, kingdom as great... damn. I can never remember that line."
She pulled, from her large sleeve where she had been hiding it, the book and opened it, reading the next line aloud; "You have no power over me."
She went on talking, now in a more wistful tone, and no longer from the text of the play, "I wish life really was like books... it would be so fun. In fact, I really do wish I knew what I had to say to get life to become a big fantasy world...at least for a little while."
Naturally, people like Jareth really do exist, and he just happened to be listening to her little soliloquy. He laughed, "Silly child... perhaps I should humor her." He wondered how to accomplish this...and it came to him. Put a few words in her mouth, have her wish away someone, and send her on the wildest journey of the Labyrinth's extensive history-perhaps then she would grow up enough to realize how selfish her daydreams were. So he muttered into her brain, "All you have to do is wish someone away..... then you can go on your own adventure in the huge Labyrinth..."
Amber fought this new idea as easily as it h ad sprung up in her mind, "But that's not how it works. The goblin king isn't in love with me, and surely he wouldn't bother with filling the request of a little dreamer girl like me-no way he even knows I exist, much less want a little adventure of my own."
Jareth decided he liked this girl a bit-enough to feel that his efforts wouldn't be wasted on her. She had sense and fire in her childish spirit yet-she would grow into a fine woman. But that was beside the point right now, he realized as he planted another mental seed, "Still.... There's a chance-Sarah didn't seem too extraordinary of a girl, did she? No harm in wishing, anyway; it's not like anything would happen..."
Amber saw sense in this thought and repeated the last few words to herself, "It's not like anything would happen... but who to wish away?"
Jareth was going to have fun messing up this girl. He pulled a whimsical thought into her brain, "How about your best friend, Asher? It'd be quite funny, especially if you went over to her house today and rehearsed wishing her away."
Amber mused over this for a minute and resolved to go visit Asherlynn that very day. She ran home to phone her quickly.
Meanwhile, in the throne room of the Castle at the center of the Labyrinth, Jareth sat, laughing, on his throne. He couldn't wish for a more interesting child to play with-her mind and imagination worked almost triple the speed of most children of her age or ability.
His mind shot back to the "girl" who had called on him almost twenty years ago-Sarah. He knew she had grown up now, and thrown away most of her memories of dreams and fantasy-even the memory of his love. Yes, she was, indeed, as real as Jareth-and she had settled down, married, and had children; she had moved on-almost to the point it seemed she had died. And if, indeed, she had died, Jareth knew it wouldn't seem any different than it did now. But here, in this young teen-in Amber-he saw a reborn Sarah. He saw her fire, her imagination, her affinity with and strong love for anything unusual-the free spirit that had died in Sarah had been reborn and reinforced in Amber.
This saddened him beyond belief as it brought back the realization that Sarah had never loved him. Ever. He tried to clear his mind as he blinked back the fast-forming, never-fallen tears.
In the meantime, aboveground, Amber was talking to a groggy, unhappily awoken Asherlynn.
"Hey Asher?" she asked.
"Da one and only. How can I help you?" Asher's voice came through the phone, and Amber could hear music playing in the background.
"Can I come over today-around noon?" Amber asked.
"Huh? Oh, sure. Ooh, bring that new book you got-I wanna borrow it." Asher replied.
"Aight, kewl. So...see ya then. Luvs ya, byes!"
"Bye." Asher said with a yawn, and Amber hung up. Amber went back outside, unnoticed, as her family was still sleeping. She took her new book with her and decided to kill some time reading. She walked back towards the lake but turned off the gravel path into deep woods, heading for her favorite tree. She glanced down at her blue, waterproof watch-7:30 AM-she had quite some time to read.
"Good." She smiled, talking to herself again. She was truly happy for the first time in days.
:~:*^*:~:
NEXT CHAPTER: REALITY GAINS A WHOLE NEW MEANING AS THE PLOT FINALLY THICKENS! "GLAMORIE" COMES INTO PLAY, AND THINGS ARE PROVENLY NEVER WHAT THEY SEEM! READ THE NEXT CHAPTER TO SEE WHAT JARETH HAS IN STORE FOR OUR LITTLE "HEROINE"!