Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth or any characters in it but I hope
to in the future when my plan to conquer the fourth dimension of time pays
off.
I only discovered this website a few weeks ago and it looked like you were all having a whole heap of fun so I thought I would give it a go. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to lie if you don't. I am from England by the way so I say things like 'pavement' instead of sidewalk. Hopefully this isn't too confusing. Vive le difference.
Chapter 1. You Will Be Queen
STORM clouds rumbled angrily overhead flinging fat drops of rain into the New York twilight.
The sweltering heat of summer had been building for weeks turning the city into a sticky mass of frustrated workers.
Red faced weathermen had been predicting the storm for days now but the pressure had continued to grow until an hour ago when the sky had suddenly darkened.
Sarah Williams looked out of the newsroom window at the eerie blue-grey evening and smiled. She loved storms. The crackling air made her senses come alive in a way nothing else seemed to anymore.
And they reminded her of him. He was just like a storm. Dramatic and frightening but also thrilling and revitalizing. It had been stormy the night they first met ten years ago.
Sarah hadn't seen Jareth in all that time but she thought about him often. Too often.
Sometimes she thought she lived more in a fantasy world now than she ever had as a teenager.
Work pressures and living with other people had prevented her from calling on her Underground friends as much as she would have liked and now she rarely saw them at all. She had given up acting to become a journalist and loved her job. But she still couldn't shake the feeling she was simply killing time, waiting for something or someone to consume her again.
"Ten years is a long time to wait for you Jareth." She said to herself out loud.
Down below crowds of office workers were hurrying through the downpour holding carrier bags and brief cases above their heads as shelter from the torrent.
The storm had deadened the usual rush-hour sounds of the city creating a sense of stillness despite the frantic scene on the streets.
As the first flash of lightening sliced through the storm, Sarah switched off her computer and made her way out of the New York Times office.
Stepping out onto the street she turned her face up to the sky and let the heavy rain cool her skin.
JARETH sat in a window of his castle gazing out across the Labyrinth absent- mindedly turning a crystal over in his hands.
A violet sunset was sinking out of sight over the eastern edge of his kingdom and the first of the Underground's two moons was creeping from beneath the horizon. Goblins milled in the city below.
Jareth was thinking about Sarah, something he had been doing more and more lately.
He thought of the last thing she'd said to him.
"You have no power over me."
With those six words his world had turned upside down.
Yes she had surprised him by beating his Labyrinth but more than that she had made him realize he no longer wanted to be alone. He had spent thirteen hours watching her, making sure she didn't come to any real harm. It made him want to take care of her all the time.
On the night he sent her home he sat and watched outside her window as she called for her friends but not for him. Flying off into the moonlight he promised himself he would also find someone to love.
He had cleaned up the castle, set about rebuilding the Goblin City and attempted to find a queen.
But after embarking on a series of disastrous relationships Jareth realized it wasn't just love he wanted...it was Sarah.
Using his crystals he often called up her image and watched as she grew from an unhappy confused teenager into a confident, beautiful young woman.
He saw the way other men looked at her and wanted to gouge their eyes out so he could have her beauty all to himself. He was jealous of every friend she had, every thing she touched...
Suddenly with a jolt he heard her say his name.
Calling up her image in the crystal he saw her standing in the rain and his heart missed a beat.
"I've waited far too long" he muttered to himself. In a flash of glitter he disappeared.
BY the time Sarah reached her apartment she was soaked to the skin and starting to feel chilled.
Brushing the wet strands of hair away from her face she fumbled to find the key in her purse but as she leaned against the door it swung open.
"I've got to stop doing that," Sarah scolded herself as she dumped her bag in the hallway and headed straight for the shower. She was amazed to find hot water at that time of night. Normally all the other tenants had used it up.
After ten minutes of letting the piping water run over her body she stepped out of tub, put on her robe and wrapped her hair in a fluffy white towel. She walked to the kitchen, opened a bottle of wine and flopped down exhausted on the sofa. Within seconds she was sound asleep.
Jareth stepped out of the shadows where he had been watching her for the last fifteen minutes. He had planned to appear in a magnificent show of sparkle and glitter and seduce her back to the Labyrinth.
But on seeing her for the first time in ten years all his nerve left him. She looked adorable, soaking wet, fumbling for her keys. He had opened the door for her with a flick of his wrist but then felt bad when she thought she had left her home unlocked all day.
Now she lay asleep on the sofa looking like the teenager he remembered. Innocent, all in white, strands of dark hair starting to escaping from the towel, still pink from the hot water he had enchanted for her.
He pulled a chair next to the sofa and watched her sleeping.
"How could I have stayed away from you this long?"
Sarah shifted in her sleep and a strand of hair fell across her face. Jareth brushed it away and as he touched her she breathed deeply as if sensing he was there. He leaned close, whispering in her ear.
"Come back to me. You can have anything you want. Your dreams. You don't even have to love me. Just promise you will never leave."
He wanted to touch her again but was scared of waking her up.
Her steady breathing and the heady smell of her being so near to him after all this time was intoxicating. It was making him sleepy. He lent his head against the side of the sofa for a second and before he knew it he was asleep too, dropping the crystal ball he had been holding onto the floor.
Something told her he was there before she even opened her eyes.
Somewhere in her dreams Sarah heard the sound of the rolling crystal. She had never felt so peaceful and didn't want to wake up but the noise was tugging her back to consciousness.
And there he was. Jareth! In her living room, his head lolling on the arm of the sofa, as serene as a sleeping child. The air around him seemed to sparkle. She sat up and noticed he had covered her with a blanket. The small gesture touched her.
"Jareth" she said quietly to herself.
Sleepily, the Goblin King opened his eyes but on seeing her awake he stood up so fast he knocked over the chair he has been sitting on.
They stood staring at each other for what seemed like a lifetime.
"I... er...I...Hello Sarah." He said regaining some composure. "I didn't want to wake you. I must have dozed off."
Sarah stood up and wiped the sleep out of her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"You said my name. I thought you might...er...need me."
"You heard me?" Sarah asked amazed.
She had forgotten how he made her feel. She was scared he would be able to see her heart beating in her chest. He had obviously made an effort to fit into her world, wearing black trousers and a dark grey shirt, the top two buttons undone. His hair was short and the eye make-up had gone. Even without his usual kingly dress he exuded importance.
"You needn't sound so surprised. If I couldn't hear you we would never have met in the first place. We have always had a...a... connection."
He was aware his cool exterior was beginning to slip. Why did she have to look so bloody breathtaking? "Then why have you never come before?" Sarah challenged him.
"Because tonight is the first time you have ever said my name out loud. I though you had forgotten about me."
He had intended the words to sound sarcastic but instead he just sounded sad. He played with the cuff of his shirt.
Sarah suddenly realized he was right. She had thought about him everyday since she left the Labyrinth but had never once said his name.
Her silence began to make him irritable. "Well then" he said, "What did you want? I do have a kingdom to run you know."
"I...I..." Sarah stammered, desperate not to reveal her true feelings.
"Come come...what is it to be? Another sibling to be whisked back to my castle perhaps?"
He knew he was being unfair but couldn't help it. Her presence was getting to him. He wanted to provoke a reaction.
"You won't beat me a second time Sarah. The Labyrinth was still developing when you conquered it. Now it is all grown up." He said the last sentence with a wicked gleam in his eye.
"Well so am I." Sarah said, starting to get annoyed.
"Oh it's no gone unnoticed." Jareth took a long appreciative look at her figure, grinning malevolently.
"Your manners haven't improved much." Sarah blushed angrily, pulling her robe closer round her.
"I am just pointing out The Labyrinth is far more dangerous than it was." He said turning away to look out the window. "Even I don't know all it's murderous little nooks and crannies anymore. It's gone positively wild."
"I would have thought that would have made you want to send me there all the more. Anything you could do to hurt me..." Sarah spat at him. Jareth span round, a confused look on his face.
"I would never have let anything happen to you...you must know that?" His genuine look of concern threw Sarah for a second.
"Well it's a pity you weren't having that thought when you had me thrown into an oubliette, or had me chased by the cleaners or tipped into the bog of eternal stench with Hoggle..."
"Well you bloody kissed him..." Jareth shot back at her.
"What?" Sarah started at him confused.
Jareth regained his composure. "Sarah, I was watching you every step of the way. You were never in any real danger. If you had been I would stopped it. It was just a game."
"A game that almost cost me my life, and my brother's!" Sarah said exasperated.
"Don't pretend you didn't want to play. You had spent your entire life preparing for the role. I just gave you the chance to act out your dream. After all...you were the one who wished Toby away."
"Hey...wait a minute..." Sarah said suddenly realizing, "I haven't wished for anything. You've broken the rules. You shouldn't have come just because I said your name. That's not in the book!"
Jareth suddenly looked flustered and began to fiddle with his cufflinks in earnest. He opened his mouth to speak but no words would come. Sarah suddenly felt sorry for him.
"Not that I am sorry to see you..." she admitted.
Jareth looked at her with one eyebrow raised and she blushed.
"That is to say...I..." she took a deep breath, "I miss the Labyrinth. I miss my friends.... I miss you."
At the last three words Jareth's face lit up and he moved towards her.
"You only needed to say my name and I would have been by your side in a second. Why didn't you just call for me?" his eyes fixed on her, his voice was deadly serious.
"Because..." Sarah looked at her hands and finally admitted, "I was terrified you wouldn't come. I didn't think you would remember me."
"Remember you? You have filled my every thought since I first saw you." He moved closer to her but she backed away. "I need you Sarah. I thought things would go back to normal after you left but you opened a door I can't seem to close. I don't want to close it. "Just let me love you...and I will give you everything you want."
He was so close now his magic was making her head spin.
"This doesn't change anything Jareth...you can't disappear for ten years and then turn up and what, expect me to fall into your arms?"
"Just give me the chance to show you." He pulled out a crystal ball and held it in front of her eyes.
Inside was the bubble ballroom with a tiny Sarah and Jareth dancing. But this time there were no other masked dancers and she didn't pull away from him.
Sarah watched transfixed as the little figures whirled together and finally kissed.
"It's my dream..." she said amazed.
"No it's not." Jareth looking intently into the crystal, "It's mine. Come with me back to the Labyrinth. Let me show you. It can be ours."
"I need more time."
"You can have all the time in the world. I'll give you forever." With a flick of his hand all the clocks stopped in Sarah's room.
"That's not what I meant." Sarah said exasperated.
"I'll give you anything...everything."
"I simply don't have the closet space for 'everything'." She said laughing
"Tell me what you want me to do." His pleading look stopped her giggles.
"Ok...well let's start with a date."
"A date?" Jareth looked confused
"Yeah...you know you take me out for the evening...we get to know each other."
"But we already know each other. We have known each other for ten years." His bewildered expression made Sarah laugh.
"All I know about you is that your are a despotic, Goblin King with a penchant for crystal balls. I don't know anything about you at all. We're got all the time in the world remember. We might as well put it to some use."
"I could think of better uses to put it too." He said reaching for her.
"You don't get the cake until you've done the baking." Sarah said stepping away from his touch, despite every inch of her body telling her to do the opposite.
"Fine. We'll play by your rules. I'll come for you tomorrow evening."
"Where are we going?"
"Where the wild things are of course. Underground." And with that he vanished in a sprinkle of magic dust.
I only discovered this website a few weeks ago and it looked like you were all having a whole heap of fun so I thought I would give it a go. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to lie if you don't. I am from England by the way so I say things like 'pavement' instead of sidewalk. Hopefully this isn't too confusing. Vive le difference.
Chapter 1. You Will Be Queen
STORM clouds rumbled angrily overhead flinging fat drops of rain into the New York twilight.
The sweltering heat of summer had been building for weeks turning the city into a sticky mass of frustrated workers.
Red faced weathermen had been predicting the storm for days now but the pressure had continued to grow until an hour ago when the sky had suddenly darkened.
Sarah Williams looked out of the newsroom window at the eerie blue-grey evening and smiled. She loved storms. The crackling air made her senses come alive in a way nothing else seemed to anymore.
And they reminded her of him. He was just like a storm. Dramatic and frightening but also thrilling and revitalizing. It had been stormy the night they first met ten years ago.
Sarah hadn't seen Jareth in all that time but she thought about him often. Too often.
Sometimes she thought she lived more in a fantasy world now than she ever had as a teenager.
Work pressures and living with other people had prevented her from calling on her Underground friends as much as she would have liked and now she rarely saw them at all. She had given up acting to become a journalist and loved her job. But she still couldn't shake the feeling she was simply killing time, waiting for something or someone to consume her again.
"Ten years is a long time to wait for you Jareth." She said to herself out loud.
Down below crowds of office workers were hurrying through the downpour holding carrier bags and brief cases above their heads as shelter from the torrent.
The storm had deadened the usual rush-hour sounds of the city creating a sense of stillness despite the frantic scene on the streets.
As the first flash of lightening sliced through the storm, Sarah switched off her computer and made her way out of the New York Times office.
Stepping out onto the street she turned her face up to the sky and let the heavy rain cool her skin.
JARETH sat in a window of his castle gazing out across the Labyrinth absent- mindedly turning a crystal over in his hands.
A violet sunset was sinking out of sight over the eastern edge of his kingdom and the first of the Underground's two moons was creeping from beneath the horizon. Goblins milled in the city below.
Jareth was thinking about Sarah, something he had been doing more and more lately.
He thought of the last thing she'd said to him.
"You have no power over me."
With those six words his world had turned upside down.
Yes she had surprised him by beating his Labyrinth but more than that she had made him realize he no longer wanted to be alone. He had spent thirteen hours watching her, making sure she didn't come to any real harm. It made him want to take care of her all the time.
On the night he sent her home he sat and watched outside her window as she called for her friends but not for him. Flying off into the moonlight he promised himself he would also find someone to love.
He had cleaned up the castle, set about rebuilding the Goblin City and attempted to find a queen.
But after embarking on a series of disastrous relationships Jareth realized it wasn't just love he wanted...it was Sarah.
Using his crystals he often called up her image and watched as she grew from an unhappy confused teenager into a confident, beautiful young woman.
He saw the way other men looked at her and wanted to gouge their eyes out so he could have her beauty all to himself. He was jealous of every friend she had, every thing she touched...
Suddenly with a jolt he heard her say his name.
Calling up her image in the crystal he saw her standing in the rain and his heart missed a beat.
"I've waited far too long" he muttered to himself. In a flash of glitter he disappeared.
BY the time Sarah reached her apartment she was soaked to the skin and starting to feel chilled.
Brushing the wet strands of hair away from her face she fumbled to find the key in her purse but as she leaned against the door it swung open.
"I've got to stop doing that," Sarah scolded herself as she dumped her bag in the hallway and headed straight for the shower. She was amazed to find hot water at that time of night. Normally all the other tenants had used it up.
After ten minutes of letting the piping water run over her body she stepped out of tub, put on her robe and wrapped her hair in a fluffy white towel. She walked to the kitchen, opened a bottle of wine and flopped down exhausted on the sofa. Within seconds she was sound asleep.
Jareth stepped out of the shadows where he had been watching her for the last fifteen minutes. He had planned to appear in a magnificent show of sparkle and glitter and seduce her back to the Labyrinth.
But on seeing her for the first time in ten years all his nerve left him. She looked adorable, soaking wet, fumbling for her keys. He had opened the door for her with a flick of his wrist but then felt bad when she thought she had left her home unlocked all day.
Now she lay asleep on the sofa looking like the teenager he remembered. Innocent, all in white, strands of dark hair starting to escaping from the towel, still pink from the hot water he had enchanted for her.
He pulled a chair next to the sofa and watched her sleeping.
"How could I have stayed away from you this long?"
Sarah shifted in her sleep and a strand of hair fell across her face. Jareth brushed it away and as he touched her she breathed deeply as if sensing he was there. He leaned close, whispering in her ear.
"Come back to me. You can have anything you want. Your dreams. You don't even have to love me. Just promise you will never leave."
He wanted to touch her again but was scared of waking her up.
Her steady breathing and the heady smell of her being so near to him after all this time was intoxicating. It was making him sleepy. He lent his head against the side of the sofa for a second and before he knew it he was asleep too, dropping the crystal ball he had been holding onto the floor.
Something told her he was there before she even opened her eyes.
Somewhere in her dreams Sarah heard the sound of the rolling crystal. She had never felt so peaceful and didn't want to wake up but the noise was tugging her back to consciousness.
And there he was. Jareth! In her living room, his head lolling on the arm of the sofa, as serene as a sleeping child. The air around him seemed to sparkle. She sat up and noticed he had covered her with a blanket. The small gesture touched her.
"Jareth" she said quietly to herself.
Sleepily, the Goblin King opened his eyes but on seeing her awake he stood up so fast he knocked over the chair he has been sitting on.
They stood staring at each other for what seemed like a lifetime.
"I... er...I...Hello Sarah." He said regaining some composure. "I didn't want to wake you. I must have dozed off."
Sarah stood up and wiped the sleep out of her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"You said my name. I thought you might...er...need me."
"You heard me?" Sarah asked amazed.
She had forgotten how he made her feel. She was scared he would be able to see her heart beating in her chest. He had obviously made an effort to fit into her world, wearing black trousers and a dark grey shirt, the top two buttons undone. His hair was short and the eye make-up had gone. Even without his usual kingly dress he exuded importance.
"You needn't sound so surprised. If I couldn't hear you we would never have met in the first place. We have always had a...a... connection."
He was aware his cool exterior was beginning to slip. Why did she have to look so bloody breathtaking? "Then why have you never come before?" Sarah challenged him.
"Because tonight is the first time you have ever said my name out loud. I though you had forgotten about me."
He had intended the words to sound sarcastic but instead he just sounded sad. He played with the cuff of his shirt.
Sarah suddenly realized he was right. She had thought about him everyday since she left the Labyrinth but had never once said his name.
Her silence began to make him irritable. "Well then" he said, "What did you want? I do have a kingdom to run you know."
"I...I..." Sarah stammered, desperate not to reveal her true feelings.
"Come come...what is it to be? Another sibling to be whisked back to my castle perhaps?"
He knew he was being unfair but couldn't help it. Her presence was getting to him. He wanted to provoke a reaction.
"You won't beat me a second time Sarah. The Labyrinth was still developing when you conquered it. Now it is all grown up." He said the last sentence with a wicked gleam in his eye.
"Well so am I." Sarah said, starting to get annoyed.
"Oh it's no gone unnoticed." Jareth took a long appreciative look at her figure, grinning malevolently.
"Your manners haven't improved much." Sarah blushed angrily, pulling her robe closer round her.
"I am just pointing out The Labyrinth is far more dangerous than it was." He said turning away to look out the window. "Even I don't know all it's murderous little nooks and crannies anymore. It's gone positively wild."
"I would have thought that would have made you want to send me there all the more. Anything you could do to hurt me..." Sarah spat at him. Jareth span round, a confused look on his face.
"I would never have let anything happen to you...you must know that?" His genuine look of concern threw Sarah for a second.
"Well it's a pity you weren't having that thought when you had me thrown into an oubliette, or had me chased by the cleaners or tipped into the bog of eternal stench with Hoggle..."
"Well you bloody kissed him..." Jareth shot back at her.
"What?" Sarah started at him confused.
Jareth regained his composure. "Sarah, I was watching you every step of the way. You were never in any real danger. If you had been I would stopped it. It was just a game."
"A game that almost cost me my life, and my brother's!" Sarah said exasperated.
"Don't pretend you didn't want to play. You had spent your entire life preparing for the role. I just gave you the chance to act out your dream. After all...you were the one who wished Toby away."
"Hey...wait a minute..." Sarah said suddenly realizing, "I haven't wished for anything. You've broken the rules. You shouldn't have come just because I said your name. That's not in the book!"
Jareth suddenly looked flustered and began to fiddle with his cufflinks in earnest. He opened his mouth to speak but no words would come. Sarah suddenly felt sorry for him.
"Not that I am sorry to see you..." she admitted.
Jareth looked at her with one eyebrow raised and she blushed.
"That is to say...I..." she took a deep breath, "I miss the Labyrinth. I miss my friends.... I miss you."
At the last three words Jareth's face lit up and he moved towards her.
"You only needed to say my name and I would have been by your side in a second. Why didn't you just call for me?" his eyes fixed on her, his voice was deadly serious.
"Because..." Sarah looked at her hands and finally admitted, "I was terrified you wouldn't come. I didn't think you would remember me."
"Remember you? You have filled my every thought since I first saw you." He moved closer to her but she backed away. "I need you Sarah. I thought things would go back to normal after you left but you opened a door I can't seem to close. I don't want to close it. "Just let me love you...and I will give you everything you want."
He was so close now his magic was making her head spin.
"This doesn't change anything Jareth...you can't disappear for ten years and then turn up and what, expect me to fall into your arms?"
"Just give me the chance to show you." He pulled out a crystal ball and held it in front of her eyes.
Inside was the bubble ballroom with a tiny Sarah and Jareth dancing. But this time there were no other masked dancers and she didn't pull away from him.
Sarah watched transfixed as the little figures whirled together and finally kissed.
"It's my dream..." she said amazed.
"No it's not." Jareth looking intently into the crystal, "It's mine. Come with me back to the Labyrinth. Let me show you. It can be ours."
"I need more time."
"You can have all the time in the world. I'll give you forever." With a flick of his hand all the clocks stopped in Sarah's room.
"That's not what I meant." Sarah said exasperated.
"I'll give you anything...everything."
"I simply don't have the closet space for 'everything'." She said laughing
"Tell me what you want me to do." His pleading look stopped her giggles.
"Ok...well let's start with a date."
"A date?" Jareth looked confused
"Yeah...you know you take me out for the evening...we get to know each other."
"But we already know each other. We have known each other for ten years." His bewildered expression made Sarah laugh.
"All I know about you is that your are a despotic, Goblin King with a penchant for crystal balls. I don't know anything about you at all. We're got all the time in the world remember. We might as well put it to some use."
"I could think of better uses to put it too." He said reaching for her.
"You don't get the cake until you've done the baking." Sarah said stepping away from his touch, despite every inch of her body telling her to do the opposite.
"Fine. We'll play by your rules. I'll come for you tomorrow evening."
"Where are we going?"
"Where the wild things are of course. Underground." And with that he vanished in a sprinkle of magic dust.