Chapter Nine: …The Power to Charm…

He was holding her close. Not closer than was necessary for a dance, but certainly closer than a man had ever held her. She should have been frightened, she told herself: she should try to get away. And then suddenly she had broken away, and now it was frightening. She was running down long, dark corridors that were full of strange and terrifying shadows. And yet she had the feeling that the place – or rather the person – she was running from was where she would find peace and safety. So many corners, so many staircases, and then she was falling…

Sarah sat up, gasping for air. Her skin prickled with sweat and it took some moments before she could breathe easily again. A cool breeze was blowing through her open window and it felt wonderful against her burning skin. Her head was pounding and she had a raging thirst. But instead of reaching for the jug that stood close to her bed, Sarah pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She woke up like this almost every night, her head full of strange, disjointed images. During the day she always felt fine – it was only at night that this would happen. Sarah lowered her head onto her knees and tried to force herself to think. She could not remember how long she had been in the Underground and at times it seemed as though her entire life before she had come here had been a dream. It had been real, hadn't it? She had had a home and family…

Sarah tried to picture them, but their faces were hazy. Her father and stepmother and little Toby. And it was Toby, really, who had started all of this. He had been the reason that she had entered the Labyrinth in the first place, all those years ago. Unless she had never left the Labyrinth at all, but had simply imagined her entire life after that. Perhaps she was still lying at the bottom of an oubliette, but just didn't realise it. Sarah almost laughed aloud to herself – she knew that was becoming increasingly feverish. Maybe she should talk to Jareth about it in the morning. Jareth. He came into her dreams so often, despite the fact that she saw him everyday – or perhaps because she saw him everyday. In the morning, he would knock courteously on her door to take her down to breakfast. Polite, considerate…but there was something not quite right. She couldn't say what it was, but always during these tormented midnight hours, she would know that something was wrong. The pain in her head was becoming unbearable and she felt as though her mouth had a thick coating on it from dehydration.

If it hadn't been for the awful throbbing of her head, Sarah would have realised that her thoughts were becoming more lucid and that her instincts – constantly suppressed during daytime – were returning. But the pain became too much. Sarah threw back the covers and reached for the jug of clear liquid and a glass. It only took a few mouthfuls to quench her thirst, and within a few minutes, her headache began to pass. The fears and uncertainties were, once again, numbed and a wonderful, sleepy feeling overtook her. Sarah sighed happily and lay down again. There was no point in telling Jareth about all of this. After all, there wasn't actually anything wrong.

ooOoo

Toby stood, a little apprehensively, in the throne room. He didn't remember going to bed the previous night, but he had woken up in a vast, lofty chamber somewhere in Jareth's castle. A Goblin had brought him breakfast (tripping over its own feet so that Toby narrowly escaped being scalded by hot chocolate when the tray went flying). And then he had been taken to where Jareth and Delaine were waiting for him. They looked exceptionally sombre, both arrayed in shades of black and filmy grey. The throne room appeared eerily quiet after the revels Toby had witnessed the last time he had been there.

'Toby, the time has come that I must ask for your assistance. Will you trust me, and do as I say?'

Toby felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle at Jareth's words. This was, after all, why he had gone to the Labyrinth in the first place. How long ago it seemed now, that moment when Jareth had first appeared in his room.

'So, we're going to get Sarah back now?' he asked hopefully.

'No,' Jareth answered.

'But-but that's why I'm here, I-'

'We can't simply pluck Sarah from where she is and bring her here,' Delaine interposed gently. 'She has to want to come. We need you to persuade her to do that.'

Toby shook his head. 'I don't have any magic or anything like that. How am I supposed to find her?'

'You have a bond with Sarah that no one else has,' Jareth replied. 'You're her brother. Delaine and I can give you the channel, but you are the one who can reach her.'

'How?'

'Through dreams. Yours and hers.'

Delaine nodded silently at her brother's words.

'But,' Toby's eyes slid to the window, through which brilliant sunlight was streaming, 'I've just got up – why didn't I do this last night if you needed me to dream?'

'These are not ordinary dreams, Toby. You need to be rested in both body and mind for what you are about to do – the journey you have to endure will take all of your physical strength, even if your body does not leave this room.'

'Jareth and I will be with you through all of it, Toby, but you must do what we ask of you.'

Toby's mind was filled with the image of the dark-haired girl running through the Labyrinth. She had gone through so much to rescue him.

Jareth almost smiled to himself when he saw the boy's shoulders lift and his jaw set determinedly – so very like his sister! He placed a hand on Toby's shoulder.

'Come, then,' he said, in a kinder tone than he had used yet. 'Sit, and we will begin.'

The only chair was the throne itself and Toby felt a little awkward as he settled himself in it – it suddenly seemed far more imposing in the stillness of the room. The throne, however, was far more comfortable than one would think.

'What do I do?' he asked.

'Just relax,' Delaine replied, with a dazzling smile.

Despite the tension of the situation, Toby felt a sudden, pleasant buzzing feeling around his ribs.

Jareth now offered him a goblet.

'Drink this, it will help you to relax.'

Toby sniffed it. The liquid smelt warm and homely and gave Toby a longing for his own room, his own family and his own sister. He took a long drink. The warmth spread slowly through him, pushing away all distractions, so that he felt remarkably peaceful and clear-headed.

'What was that?'

'Peach juice,' Jareth replied shortly.

Toby settled more comfortably on the throne. Singing had started somewhere – at first it seemed very far away, but the next was close to him. He strained his ears, trying to catch the words, but they slipped away from him.

'Toby.'

He heard Jareth call him softly. A crystal was being held out to him, spinning on the outstretched, gloved palm. His attention arrested by its glinting surface, Toby stared deeply into it.

He was thrown up into the air. The colours of the room rushed past him in a blur and a loud roaring filled his ears. He felt his body slow, and then he began the descent. The sensation of flying through the air overpowered him so that it was only at the last moment that he wondered what would happen when he hit the ground. This was answered the next second when a pair of hands caught him and immediately threw him upwards again. Toby almost laughed aloud when he was sent flying upwards for the third time – he felt weightless! Then came the descent again, but this time there was no pair of hands, and he continued to fall. Toby felt a sense of rising panic, complete with images of himself splattering all over some hard surface. His feet suddenly touched firm ground and he was standing on a platform in the Escher room. For some unknown reason, Toby started running – through archways, up and down staircases, and all the while had the feeling that there was someone chasing after him. Breathless, he finally came to a halt and looked around the bewildering maze.

'Interesting,' Jareth's voice said calmly.

Toby turned to find him leaning against the wall; the harsh red and black of his clothes making him look far more menacing than usual.

'You come here often, don't you?'

Toby didn't reply – it took him some moments before his brain began to function again, before he could remember where he was and why he was there.

'If I'm supposed to find Sarah through her dreams, why are we doing this now?' he heard himself ask. 'It's only morning now.'

'Is it? We've been here longer than you think.' He smiled – that half-amused, wholly enigmatic smile that had so infuriated, and infatuated, Sarah.

'So, I really am just asleep now?' Toby asked uncertainly.

'Not exactly,' Jareth replied, holding out another crystal to him. Toby looked, and found himself staring into the throne room. He could see himself sitting in the throne, apparently asleep. But when he looked more closely, Toby could see that his eyes were open, and his face had a strange, vacant look, as though his personality was no longer in there. Toby shivered slightly. Delaine was standing over the figure, her lips moving, and when Toby concentrated on her, he could just make out the faint sound of her singing.

'I'm here to help you, Toby,' Jareth stated, as if in reply to an unasked question. 'And to watch over you. Even though you are not in any danger, I don't want to … risk you.'

Toby just about absorbed his words when a bell went off near his ear.

'Oh no. Oh no!' he exclaimed and started running down the locker-lined corridor of his school. Everywhere was deserted – all of the kids were already in class and he was terribly late! Toby could see his classroom door ahead of him, but even as he was running toward it, it was getting further away. Toby ran even faster, until he could feel his heart knocking against his ribs and his chest tearing with the effort.

'Nice of you to join us, Toby!' his form teacher snapped at him.

Toby gasped slightly. How had he got in here?

'Just sit down and take your books out.'

He slid into his chair and suddenly noticed the clock above the blackboard. It had thirteen hours marked on it, but no hands.

'Hey, Toby,' his friend Jason Dwyer prodded him anxiously, 'can I see your homework?'

Toby glanced down at his book. 'I can't,' he replied calmly. 'It's turned to Jell-O.'

In fact, the entire classroom had turned to Jell-O, including the teacher. Mrs Lynam wobbled across the classroom, her feet sinking into the floor as she walked.

'That's it,' she said. 'That's it. I can't take it anymore! You ungrateful brats just think of me as your slave! You…'

Her tirade continued, but even as she spoke, she started to melt, along with everything else. Warm, sticky liquid was quickly rising up all around and Toby took a deep breath as he was submerged in it. But it wasn't Jell-O around him – it was just some melted ice cream on his nose. Toby let out a sigh of relief and leaned back on the grass.

'Robert, you really should mow the lawn this weekend, it's getting out of control,' his mother said. His father made a non-committal grunt from somewhere behind the newspaper. Sarah looked up from the book she was reading and, catching hold of Toby's chin, forced him to look at her.

'He offered her a crystal. He offered her her own dreams – do you understand? But she still said no. Even though she didn't really know what it was he was offering her, she still said no. Do you see what that means? Do you?'

Toby shook his head. Her grip tightened on his face so that he could feel her nails digging into his skin. 'I said, do you understand, Goblin-Boy?' She laughed, letting go of his face, and then ran away from him. Toby stood staring after her and then he felt something brushing his cheek. The soft wings of a white owl. Toby started to run.

ooOoo

Sarah thrashed helplessly in the darkness, heat and cold chasing each other through her veins. She was running – running the way she did every night, bit still with the feeling that the danger was in front of her, waiting for her, but somehow she could not stop herself from heading straight for it. Her lungs were almost bursting from the need for air and she knew that she had to slow down, had to stop. Over the tumult of her thoughts, she heard a voice – high and far away at first, but drawing steadily nearer. Sarah felt herself coming to a halt, as though a magnetic force was holding her back. She was standing in the midst of a ruin, with dying stars and purple clouds swirling around her. And that voice was calling her name. Out of the shadows came a figure – sturdily built, yet still slender, and tall for his age.

'T-Toby?' she gasped, her voice sounding weak.

His face came into focus far more clearly than it had for many days. He approached her resolutely.

'Sarah, you have to listen to me. You're in real danger, and you're not in the Underground at all!' He tried to keep his voice level and to tell her what was happening as calmly as he could. 'I know you think that you're with Jareth, but you're not – it was a trick. The guy who you think is Jareth is really an enemy of the Underground.'

Sarah made no reply, but simply stared at this apparition.

'I'm not explaining this very well,' Toby continued – he was starting to look distressed. 'But you have to believe me, Sarah! Please. You're not in the Underground.'

'How do you know all this?' she found her voice at last.

'Because I'm in the Labyrinth, with Jareth.'

This was a dream, she told herself. Even though she could see her brother's face so clearly, she knew she had to be imagining it.

'None of this is real,' she whispered.

Toby nodded energetically. 'That's right! Jareth told me that I could find you through our dreams, and he was right! Man, you should've seen some of the things that I dreamt about…'

It certainly sounded just like the real Toby, Sarah thought. But even as he was speaking, his voice began to sound further away.

'What's happening? She's fading!' she heard him say.

'She's waking up.'

Sarah knew that voice. Through the haze that was starting to descend around Toby, she saw another figure step out of the shadows. His feather-lined cloak swirled about him, and his face was as pale as death.

'Sarah, you have to come back with us! Please, you have to come now!'

She heard Toby's voice, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the face of the second figure. Even through the dense haze, his eyes seemed to bore into her, stripping the secrets of her soul.

'Remember, Sarah. Remember.'

It was as though he were speaking inside her head. There was something in his hand, which he now threw at her. Instinctively, Sarah tried to catch it, just as the image of her brother and Jareth shattered before her eyes, Toby's voice crying out her name.

Sarah sat bolt upright in bed, daylight streaming through her window. As she threw the bedcovers back, she heard a dull clinking as a crystal rolled across the floor.

ooOoo

It was, Sarah was sure, almost breakfast time. Jareth would be calling for her soon. She felt an inexplicable wave of revulsion at the thought, but then immediately tried to shake it off. It had only been a bad dream. Her head throbbed and she reached for the jug, and then stopped. Instead, Sarah's eyes wandered to the crystal that was carefully balanced on her dressing table.

'Remember.'

She shuddered slightly. What was she supposed to remember? That once she had been very frightened in this place? That she had believed Jareth to stand for everything that was evil? That nothing was what it seemed?

A tap on the door. 'Sarah, are you ready?'

She started. 'Al-almost. You go on down, I'll be with you in a minute,' she called back.

Once again she looked longingly at the jug on the table, but once again restrained herself. Despite the headache, Sarah felt that she was remembering things more clearly, and she wanted to cling onto the image of Toby's face for just a little while longer. She picked up the crystal and put it into the little pouch she carried with her, then left the room. Jareth was at the end of her corridor – whether he had been waiting for her she could not have said, but as she stepped into the passage, he turned to her.

'…you think you're with Jareth, but you're not…an enemy of the Underground…'

The ghostly voices filled her ears. Sarah stopped dead and met Jareth's eyes. Whether it was the effect of her communication with Toby, or simply her senses heightened by her feverish state, Sarah was suddenly blasted by a terrible image. The Labyrinth a scene of utter destruction, all its beauty crushed beneath a darkness that seemed like a living being. The Goblins themselves were slaves, imprisoned in machines that were feeding off their lifeblood and their spirit, the castle replaced by jagged, towering spires.

'Sarah!' Jareth took a step toward her, but his voice sounded harsh, rasping in the back of his throat. And to her eyes his face was suddenly contorted, unrecognizable.

Sarah let out a cry, staggering, trying to support herself against the wall behind her.

'Come on, Sarah! Come to us! Come to me…'

She saw Toby's face clearly in front of her and without another thought, she turned and fled. Running blindly down the corridor, she was aware of something pursuing her – yet even in this state she realized that the castle was slowly disintegrating around her, leaving vast chunks of nothingness in its wake.

'The crystal, use the crystal…'

Toby was in the Labyrinth, it was the only thought she could cling onto. Toby was there, and she had to be with him, see him, protect him. She didn't turn to look back, but she knew that he was drawing closer. Jareth, or not Jareth – she didn't know anymore. All she knew was that she couldn't bear to look at him, and that she couldn't run anymore. She felt as though her lungs and heart would burst with the effort. Jareth.

'…I'll be there for you…'

Plunging her hand into the pouch, her fingers closed around the cold globe and she screamed into the darkness that was engulfing her.

'I wish I was in the Underground, right now!'

To be continued...