Last Chapter

This was written at midnight, so… if that explains anything…

The Last Chapter

An elfish goblin sits amongst shattered glass, staring out a broken window. A thin layer of grime covers everything, including the King. He sits, watching what had once been a happy Goblin City, Labyrinth, kingdom. It is crumbling. The walls are eroding, the souls regressing. Brick after brick falls, showering everything with another layer of dust. Huts topple, streets crack, clouds rise. But no living creature makes a noise. Jareth is the only one left. Not even a chicken.

He held an amulet in his hand. It was cold. Everything was cold. This is what happens when dreams die. Reality itself falters.

Jareth took one last look at his Labyrinth, his only rose. Qr'a had died to put him here. He never realized the pain he caused them, Hoggle, Qr'a, the Labyrinth. He had never felt his own thorns. Qr'a had almost been his rose, had she lived… though Jareth never understood. He had promised her to never have a rose, never to be tied down.

But then Sarah had come. She was the most powerful, most creative, most wraith-like in soul of the dreamers, Qr'a told him. She was reincarnated, over and over, always adding to the kingdom, but leaving nothing but the memory of a dream long past. Qr'a had told him never to let Sarah through the Labyrinth. Dreams would break, souls would burn. Once she reached the climax of fantasy, there was nothing more to make up. And without anything to make up, the inner mind of the Labyrinth fell. And fall it did, all smoke and mirrors. He had failed the Labyrinth and he had failed Qr'a. If you can't please a rose, you will surely feel it's thorns.

The pendent in Jareth's hands grew warmer, warmer, white hot! Jareth yelled, the sounds of the Labyrinth drowned out his screech. He didn't let go, though he was sure it was burning his hand. When the amulet does something, Qr'a was sending him what he needed. The pendent had not pulsed in years, though now it was beating like a heart in a race. The beats grew faster, harder until it gave a final (goodbye?) throb and fell silent.

Something was happening…. Jareth didn't know what. He found out a moment later, when the Tumbling of Jericho's noise was muted, like being pushed under water. The view out his window blurred before a creamy white replaced it.

"I'm dying." Jareth thought calmly, too calmly? "I wonder if this is what it was like for Omega?" he speculated sleepily. He heard a soft laugh, laugh of nightbells. Déjà vu he couldn't place it, a familiar sound given by new voice. "No," said the voice. "Omega's death was much more painful."

Jareth thought he saw a ghostly eye, a whispered laugh. But it was not, he knew, his imagination of phantom lips upon his, or soft blue cloth beneath his fingertips as he caught the shadow. His surroundings turned darker, a garden at midnight. He pulled away and looked at the nymph in his arms. Grey eyes met his mismatched ones, and under a sloping nose was a grin on a serious face. Hair defied every law of physics written, and her teeth sparkeld like stars after a storm.

"Qr'a!"

"You only die twice Jareth!"

FIN

Ok. Last chapter! The end…sigh. Oh well. That's all folks!