Eek. Long time since I updated this, no? Well, forgive me, but I'm trying to recover from a 28-hour coach journey from a school trip to Prague! I got back at around three-thirty pm, and I'm exhausted, but ready to write! Why the school can't just fly us there is anybody's guess. Anyway, enough blabbering. One more thing though, I was watching Little Britain (for those that don't know, it's a programme shown making fun of the British life. Very funny, performed mainly by two outrageous men, heh), and on one sketch, the tall man goes into a shop, and asks if he can have a dating list. He names one person, who he wants his date to be, and she's called Linda Williams. Scary or what? ;) Thank you very much Sapphire925 and Avalon-blackandgreen for the reviews! Your support means the world, thank you again :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth, nor do I own Tru Calling. Enjoy :)
"Well, well, well, look what we have here. Hello, Sarah."
Time seemed to stop. Sarah was aware that her senses, her feeling of being someone, her feeling of being in control, had all shut down, until she was left with her thoughts...and her fears. She stood facing the door, hand gripping the handle so tightly her skin was beginning to turn purple, not able to do anything else. Her forced breathing could be heard echoing in the room, but to that Sarah paid no attention.
Oh. My. God.
It couldn't be him; it was impossible! He didn't exist, he was a myth, a legend, a fictitious character imagined by parents to scare their children into behaving if they were naughty. In Sarah's case, he was just a fantasy, someone there to fear, yet strangely admire, at the same time. However, soft footsteps coming closer, too much closer, seemed to prove these desperate thoughts wrong. Steeling herself, yet feeling as though her insides had turned to jelly, Sarah slowly turned around, and met the mismatched eyes of him.
The Goblin King.
She found her voice at last.
"What do you want?" Her voice was too high-pitched to be passed as a confident question, and Sarah knew it, but she still hoped he'd just accept the fact that he wasn't welcome around here.
He didn't answer, just gazed at her with that arrogant, mocking smile. He tilted his head to the side and rested it against his shoulder, studying her intently. If anything, this served to fuel Sarah's anger at him, although she felt too weak to do anything about it. She stood staring at those mismatched eyes, feeling whatever confidence was there in the first place ebb away.
He finally spoke.
"I must say, this is quite unexpected. First, someone wishes themselves to my Labyrinth, and now none other than Sarah Williams is standing in front of me."
Sarah shuddered, not really wanting to know how he knew her full name.
"Bring her back," Sarah spoke, tying to sound confident.
"Come now Sarah, you should know the rules by now. I'm not going to simply bring her back and forget that it happened, especially when the young woman asked so nicely." He still wore that smug expression, chilling Sarah to the bone.
"She's too old to be a Goblin. What else could you want?" Sarah cringed inwardly after saying that sentence, not really wanting to know what he did with his non-Goblin prospects. "Bring her back."
"You haven't changed a bit, Sarah. You're still the stubborn girl that you were all those months ago." He smirked at her.
"So that's why you're here? To insult me?" Sarah was outraged. How dare he. "Well, your insults are petty. I already defeated your Labyrinth, and you," she emphasized the word "you" to add further insult on his behalf, smiling inwardly as she saw Jareth's eyes narrow.
"No, you're wrong, my naïve Sarah. If you had truly defeated me, I would not be standing here right now."
"Of course I defeated you!" Sarah spat. "If I hadn't, Toby and I would still be in the Underground, and your so-called Kingdom wouldn't have been destroyed."
Jareth shook his head, disturbing his mane of platinum hair, and he grinned at the angry Sarah. "No. I wouldn't be here, had you truly defeated me. Something, or rather someone must have stopped me from falling completely."
Sarah tried to take this information in. Someone? Who? Unless she had somehow stopped him from being truly defeated...but why? Why hadn't she been able to completely destroy him? She hated him, he was her nemesis, he was her enemy, so why was something about her stopping him from falling to his defeat?
Sarah was suddenly filled with visions from her dream...the very dream in which he had tried to make her forget everything about why she was in the Labyrinth. She had searched for him, and she had danced with him. Somehow, Sarah had been offered a sense of relief, and happiness, when she danced in those strong arms, and looked into those deep mismatched eyes...
Was that it? Did she have some sort of positive feeling towards him, something so strong that it wouldn't allow her to truly destroy him? Deep down inside her, could she even find it in her heart to...love him?
Angry and fearful of this new prospect, Sarah shook her head of dark brown hair furiously, and looked the Goblin King in the eyes.
"I won't ask again. Bring her back. Now."
"Sarah, Sarah," she hated the way he said her name, "if you want her back so badly, you know what you must do."
"Solve the Labyrinth again?" Sarah asked wearily. "No matter. I've done it before, I can do it again."
Jareth laughed at her attempted bravery. Sarah narrowed her eyes, feeling more and more angry with each passing second.
"Well? Thirteen hours to go, now kindly take me to the Labyrinth so we can get this over with," Sarah demanded irritably. Jareth chuckled.
"Thirteen hours? You must have misunderstood, my dear. I've already been generous enough in letting you win your friend back," he locked eyes with her, "you now have ten hours in which to solve the Labyrinth."
"I have been generous up until now, but I can be cruel"His words echoed in Sarah's head. She fumed inwardly. Yes, he was right, he could be cruel, by taking her three hours away from her. But wait! He had taken three hours from her before, after Hoggle had helped her escape the Oubliette, just before the Cleaners had attempted to slice and dice the two. Sarah bit back the words "it's not fair!", remembering the fact that she had still beaten his stupid Labyrinth, even with those three hours deducted. Also, she had the advantage of knowing some of the directions, so she could take the same route again, right?
"Fine. Your rules, I'll still crush your pathetic attempts to win," Sarah strode to the window.
His eyes darkened, and if possible, seemed to grow colder. He smiled, a chilling, unfriendly smile.
"Not this time, Sarah," his voice remained calm, with its little frost edging in, "my Kingdom will not fall this time. You have been warned."
He gestured with his arm, and the long, narrow, stretching walkways that twisted and turned appeared outside of Sarah's window. She looked at it, noticing how much it looked the same, from the outside anyway.
"You have ten hours," a voice in her left ear caused her to jump. Jareth pointed to the same antique clock next to the withered tree, and Sarah noticed how the hands already pointed at three o'clock. "Good luck," was all he said, before fading away.
"Such a pity..."
Sarah blinked. Good luck? He must be taunting her, she decided. She turned towards the Labyrinth, familiar sinking feelings of fear and determination creeping into her stomach.
'Well, come on feet,' she thought to herself, smiling slightly. She started advancing to the Labyrinth. In her ears rang an echo of a mocking laugh.
"Ungg," Tru Davies sat up and placed a hand to her forehead. Her head hurt so much she thought that there was a party going on in her brain. Blinking to clear her foggy vision, she looked around the room.
She was lying in a small indent in the floor of a messy, disorganised room. On one side of the room, Tru could see a comfortable looking chair with a few cushions strewn over the seat. There was a large window to her right, and behind her sat a long passageway. To her left, Tru could see a set of stairs leading to somewhere. Glancing over to the wall, she could see a large, ornate clock with its ticking fingers. Tru had to blink once or twice to make sure she was reading the clock correctly. No, her eyes weren't deceiving her – the clock read three o'clock, but it had thirteen hours inscribed into its face.
'Where the heck am I?' Tru wondered, feeling a nervous, worrying feeling settling into her gut. She stood up, surprised to find that she felt perfectly fine.
Tru walked over to the window and perched on the ledge jutting out of the room. Looking down, she could see that it was a fairly long drop, and backed up slightly to give herself some room. In the distance, Tru could see an inky sky, and the small town surrounding the place she was in looked dark and foreboding. In the distance, however, if she squinted, Tru could see a hint of sunlight. This thought brought her calming feelings as she recognised the fact that this place wasn't as dark and frightening as she had first thought. Judging from the room she was in, and the considerable height at which she was situated, Tru knew she was in some sort of castle.
"Do you like it?" A voice in her ear caused Tru to inhale sharply and spin around to view her companion. A tall man with pale blonde hair, and dressed in the most outrageous clothing stood in front of her, smiling arrogantly. It was his eyes that caught her attention; sharp, cold mismatched eyes...
"You're...him, aren't you?" Tru asked fearfully, remembering Sarah's descriptions and drawings. "The Goblin King."
He laughed, not a genuine laugh, more cold and calculating. Tru shook her head.
"But-but you can't be! I mean, you don't exist!"
"Oh, don't I?" He smiled arrogantly, and waved a hand in front of Tru's face. She blinked, and realised that the small wafts of air hitting her face were real. This man, this King really did exist.
"Why am I here?" Tru was desperate to get out of this situation, as she didn't like the look of the blonde standing before her.
He smiled again, turned away from her, and began walking towards the throne situated at the top of the room. Tru sighed in slight relief. It felt good not to be staring into that burning gaze.
"You are here because you made a very foolish wish." He turned to see her reaction.
'Wish...?' Tru was confused. The last time she had checked, she hadn't asked for some cruel Goblin King to come and take her...oh. Fear set in as Tru realised that all of this was her own fault.
"W-what will happen? To me?" Tru asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.
"Well, Tru," she shuddered, not knowing how this potentially dangerous man knew her name, "that all depends. I am not yet sure whether Goblin green is your colour."
He laughed, a long, chilling laugh, and Tru sank to the small set of stairs at the base of the room, all hope of leaving vanishing in a single moment.
