AN: Another post, yay! Sorry that posts are taking longer to get up, but I don't seem to have much time to sit down an edit anymore. Anyway, thanks for all those who have reviewed so far and all of you who continue to read this. So, you should know the drill now. Please, read, enjoy, and review!
The stone maze was just as Sarah remembered, aggravating and all the same. But with two more sets of eyes and the added companionship, Sarah did not mind their aimless journey. She was not set up against an impossible time limit and this made the Labyrinth seem more like a leisurely walk through a park than a terrified run through a trap.
"I can't believe I went through all this before." Sarah mused as she found another dead end.
"Yes, you said you had to run this under a time limit before." Maxim said by her side. "Why did you?"
"I was angry at my step-brother and foolishly wished him to be taken away by goblins." Sarah said with a nervous laugh. "I didn't know that it would really happen. If I did, I would never had said those mean words. It was my fault and I needed to get him back. I was a horrible teenager, I guess."
"Not at all. You are not the only one who has wished away a sibling. But you seem to be the only one who has actually retrieved them." Maxim said as they came upon another dead end. With a sigh, he said, "I see that Jareth has still not grown out of his games."
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, curious about Maxim's past with the Goblin King. Jareth's past had never crossed her mind, but she realized that this Maxim might be able to give her insight to why this he tormented her so.
"When we were children, we used to play a game called Labyrinth and he always won." Maxim explained. "That is why I believe he built this place. He knew I'd never be able to get through it."
"All this to keep you out? I don't think he would go to these extremes." Sarah said, looking towards the castle. She could not get it out of her mind that Jareth had stolen the throne. When she looked back at Maxim, she finally saw the resemblance to Jareth within Maxim's face. His voice also had the same timbre of Jareth's and there were several other small similarities. But these were hard to find, at best. With these new observations, Sarah hesitantly asked, "So, you two are... brothers?"
"Yes." Maxim said with a nod of his head. "I am the eldest, and therefore, should be ruling. But Jareth was sly."
"What did he do?" Sarah asked. She looked down at the dry stone ground. Her shoes were covered with a fine yellow dust, and she noticed for the first time that the landscape seemed to be dying. Was this Jareth's doing also? "How did he take over?"
"That I will tell you at another time." Maxim said. His voice snapped with finality, so Sarah did not push him. But not wanting there to be silence between them, Maxim said, "Tell me about your family."
"I...they were good to me..." Sarah said, fumbling for her words.
"If they were good to you, then why did you leave them to come back here?" Maxim asked, watching her as she tried to answer. They had stopped their journey and stood looking at each other. Sarah had not wanted to discuss this in front of Hoggle, but he was no where in sight. With a sigh, she irrationally decided to trust the man that she had just met.
"They actually left me." Sarah said, shaking her head. Clarifying this statement, she continued, "They...died...in a car accident."
"And you blame yourself?" Maxim prodded gently.
"No, I know wasn't my fault. But I should have been with them..." Sarah said, feeling tears prick her eyes, "I should have died with them."
"Now Sarah, there is no reason to think that." Maxim said, giving her comforting words as she sat down on the dry stone ground. A puff of yellow dust stirred as she sat, and Maxim followed her example. He sat next to her and said, "Tell me what happened. I can see that this is effecting you greatly, and you should not keep it to yourself."
"Fine." Sarah said, swallowing hard. "It was stupid, really. I had come home from college for the weekend, unexpected. They had something planned that I didn't know about, a dinner or some kind of outing, and when I heard that, I just got so angry. They wanted me to come along, but I refused. They didn't time for me that weekend, and I was so selfish. I remember yelling, something like 'if they didn't care that I was home, then I would never visit them again.' And the ironic thing is," Sarah forced with a morbid laugh, "I never saw them again."
Sarah paused, looking at the ground, and then continued, "They were hit by a drunk driver, and all of them, even Toby, were..."
Maxim, trying to feel her pain, put an arm around her shoulder. "Sarah, you must trouble yourself over this. There was nothing you could do to prevent it, and no matter what words you used, they still loved you."
"I already know all of that, Maxim, but it still feels horrible." Sarah said. Maxim held her tighter, and Sarah finally realized how close he had actually gotten to her. Thoughts of what Jareth had implied the night before came to her and she pulled away from Maxim's embrace. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between them which was off by Hoggle's cry.
"Sarah, you gots ta come here! I found the doors." Hoggle yelled from close by. Sarah had momentarily forgetten that Hoggle was with them, and hearing his voice, she stood up quickly. Hoggle's rough voice was a welcome intrusion to her uncomfortable position.
"We'll be right there! Just keep yelling so we can find you!" Sarah yelled to an unseen Hoggle, and then turned to Maxim. "Come on, we're almost there."
The two of them ran towards Hoggle's voice, and soon, found the familiar pair of doors. The guards were cackling wildly at Hoggle, but he ignored their voices. He turned when he heard Sarah and Maxim approach and smiled. "There you are, Sarah."
"Hi, Hoggle. I guess we must have gotten separated." Sarah said, catching her breath. Maxim stepped up to the doors and inspected them.
"How does this work?" Maxim asked.
"One leads to the castle, and the other to, apparently, certain death." Sarah replied, keeping back from him. She did not want to give Maxim any ideas by being closer than necessary.
"But which one is which?" Maxim asked, and the bottom red guard quickly replied.
"We can't tell you. But they can." he said with a laugh as the two top guards appeared.
"You can only ask one of us." Said the top red guard.
"It's in the rules." Said the top blue guard. "One of us always tells the truth, and one of us always lies."
"See, I told you about this." Sarah said to Maxim. She looked over the guards and remembered something. "Wait a minute. I figured this out before, and I choose the blue door, which really was telling the truth. But the red guard just said that we can only ask one question, and the blue guard agreed. So, does that mean we can ask more than one question?"
"What are you trying to get at, Sarah?" Maxim asked, looking back at her.
"There's only one way to find out." Sarah said to herself and stepped up to the blue guard. "Can I ask more than one question?"
"Yep, I don't see why not." The top blue guard replied.
"Good, then this is the door that leads to the castle?" Sarah asked, knowing the answer.
"Yep, it is." The top blue guard said with added cheer.
"Then why did I end up in an obliette last time?"
"Maybe you should have jumped over the trap door last time." The bottom blue guard said, and then the top one added, "And anyway, you still got to the castle, didn't you?"
"Yes, I guess your right." She said, and then turned to Maxim and Hoggle. "Okay, then we go through this door and jump over the first tile, or we'll end up falling. Come on."
Sarah pushed open the door and made an example but jumping over the first slab of rock, and when she was sure that the trap door had been adverted, she motioned for them to follow. Hoggle came next and barely made it, but Sarah grabbed his hand at the last moment. Sure that her friend was safe, she looked up at Maxim.
He smiled weakly and then jumped over the first stone slab with ease. When he feet touched the ground, Sarah felt a rumble beneath the earth. With irritation, Sarah mumbled, "Not again."
The stone slabs beneath their feet began to shift, and Sarah could see cracks forming in the solid rocks. None of them seemed to want to move, but Sarah's yell broke their paralysis. "Run!"
Sarah pushed Maxim before them, and they began to run. Maxim's long legs took him ahead of them fast, but Sarah latched onto Hoggle, worried that her friend would fall behind. She took one brief glance behind her and saw that the stones were falling away. The ground that they had just been standing upon was now black emptiness.
Feeling that they were not moving fast enough, Sarah swept Hoggle into her arms. She was older now, stronger too, and Hoggle only weight the amount of a toddler...the weight of Toby. Tears swam in Sarah's eyes as she continued down the stone corridor, evading the certain death that laid behind her.
Maxim reached the end of the passage, and immediately, the ground became docile. Sarah stopped running, and walked the rest of the way to Maxim's side. Her breath was just as labored as his but it was not only from the run. She noticed that Hoggle had snaked his short arms around her neck and was hugging her tight. She laughed as she let him down, and Hoggle would not look her in the eye out of embarrassment.
Decided not to mention Hoggle's actions anymore, Sarah turned to Maxim with a new concern. "Uh, Maxim, I never took that passage before, so I have no idea where we are."
"Then we will see." Maxim said. It was unanimous that they would not discuss their recent escape from death, and it was forgotten with ease. Maxim looked around what appeared to be a hedge maze and then turned to Sarah, "You have never been here before?"
"Well, I was in the hedge part before, but not this section." Sarah said, walking around and inspecting the hedges.
"Do you remember what the next challenge was?" Maxim asked as they started their course through the hedges.
"Um...we met a weird old man, then I saved Ludo, and then there were two more doors, but I don't remember ever really being challenged." Sarah said honestly.
"That doesn't seem like Jareth to me. He wouldn't give up this far into the game." Maxim said while stifling a yawn. "It seems to me that we will not be able to reach the castle until tomorrow."
"What?" Sarah asked with sudden dismay. "You mean we have to stay in the Labyrinth at night?"
"Yes, most likely. But don't fear, I will build us a fire to keep warm and find a good place to make camp." Maxim said, pulling ahead of Sarah and Hoggle.
"Hoggle, Jareth warned me about staying in the Labyrinth after nightfall." Sarah said out of earshot of Maxim. She was concerned, but did not want to alert him of this just yet. "Do you think he was only joking?"
"I hope so, Sarah." Hoggle said, but his voice did not convince her.