Give Me the Child

Sarah cried out as she hit the floor. Something twined around her body making it hard to move. With a start she opened her eyes and realized that she'd fallen off her own bed and was tangled in the sheets. She pushed tousled hair off her sweaty forehead and breathed a sigh.

"It was a dream," she said softly.

She struggled to her feet and yanked the bed into some semblance of order. Then she went for a shower. Feeling a little better she made herself coffee and pancakes.

Richard, today I'll visit all our special places.

Her father had said that he'd bring Ashley back that night so she had the day to herself. Sarah quickly finished her breakfast and pulled on her coat and scarf. She opted to walk instead of drive and was glad that most of the places she wanted to visit were close.

At the gate to the amusement park, Sarah stopped and looked. She saw the roller coaster where she'd first met Richard. And there was the Ferris Wheel where they'd first kissed, two months later. She didn't go in, just smiled at the memories and moved on. She saw their favorite movie in the little theater that played the old classics, and ate lunch at their favorite Italian restaurant.

She ended up in the park where Richard had proposed to her. She walked around the small lake where he'd taken her boating and took a seat on a bench overlooking the whole park.

"I miss you, Richard," Sarah said quietly.

Sarah felt a presence at her back and turned, but no one was there. Turning back to gaze out over the park she thought she felt a hand on her shoulder. The voice of the familiar blond-haired Goblin King seemed to whisper her name on the wind.

"Damn it, Jareth," Sarah whispered. "Leave me alone with my memories."

The feeling of being watched disappeared. Suddenly, Sarah felt as if she'd lost her only protection against some unknown force. A chill went up her spine and she looked around. In a nearby tree Sarah noticed a huge great horned owl. Its golden eyes seemed to stare at her with ill concealed mirth.

As Sarah watched, the owl spread its dark wings and flew off in the general direction of her house.

"Ashley," Sarah said.

She gave herself a shake and stood.

"I'm letting my imagination run away again," she said to no one in particular.

Sarah's father dropped by at eight and left Ashley with her mother. Sarah bathed Ashley and put her down with a bottle. Then she made some hot chocolate and sat by the fireplace. She didn't light it anymore. Richard had always done that and Sarah had never learned the art of starting a fire in that small enclosure. The one time she'd tried the house had filled with smoke and smelled smoky for a week afterward.

For a long time Sarah just stared into the dark cavern and sipped her hot cocoa. She pulled a quilt around herself and began to drowse. Images played on the backs of her eyelids. Happy images. Images with Richard. But there was something there that she hadn't noticed before. In all of her memories with Richard, there seemed to be someone else lurking in the background. A blond, blue-and-green-eyed someone. Over the years she'd spent with Richard, the blond figure faded from the scene leaving her and her husband alone.

"I hope you're happy," she thought she heard him say before he disappeared completely.

There was something else too. A kind of soft moaning in the background. Something not altogether nice.

Sarah's eyes popped open, but the low sound remained. It was coming from upstairs. Sarah's heart began to race. The sound was coming from Ashley's room. She got to her feet and padded up the stairs to her daughter's room. Sarah carefully opened the door, so as not to wake her daughter, and peered into the room. Ashley lay on her back, breathing deeply. Sarah watched her daughter sleep for a moment, a small smile lifting her lips, the closed the door.

"I'm probably just tired," she told herself.

She headed back downstairs to put her mug in the sink, but halfway down the hall she stopped. There were the voices again. Low, but audible. The words just outside the range of understanding. The hair on the back of Sarah's neck and along her arms stood at attention. She shivered and started back toward Ashley's room.

The voices grew louder, as if they sensed her approach. Sarah quickened her pace. Darkness crept out from between the floor boards, hardly noticeable at first. Just a lengthening of the shadows. She was only a few feet from her daughter's door when the hallway seemed to stretch, turning a few feet into several yards.

"Ashley," Sarah called.

She started running, heart hammering in her chest. The murmuring grew louder, yet still Sarah couldn't make out the words. The shadows slithered up the wall and pooled on the floor. Ashley's door shone white against the blackness that surrounded it, and Sarah realized that she now floated in nothingness, along with that forever faraway portal.

"Ashley!" Sarah screamed.

There was an answering cry from the other side of the door and suddenly the hallway snapped back to normal. Sarah rushed to the door and turned the handle. She fumbled for the light switch and nearly cried in relief when the light came on. Everything looked as it should. The toys, the pastel colors. What had caused Ashley to cry out? Had it been Sarah's scream? And if so, why wasn't her little girl still crying?

A sick feeling descended on Sarah. Suddenly the toys seemed distorted and menacing, the pastel colors differing shades of shadow.

"Ashley?" Sarah called.

The sheet draped form in the crib moved.

Oh God, not this, Sarah prayed. Not again!

With deliberate steps, Sarah crossed to the crib. The bundle under the sheet shifted again causing Sarah to jump. The hairs on her arms rose again and a ball of ice settled in her stomach. Tears formed in her eyes and fell unheeded down her cheeks. Before she could allow herself to think she rushed to the crib and yanked the sheet back.

At first Sarah stared uncomprehending. There in the center of the crib was a spinning vortex of black nothingness streaked with red. Horrible sounds came from that blackness. Sounds of damned souls in torment. Sarah thought she saw burning eyes in twisted faces staring back at her. Then the realization struck her—Ashley was gone. She had known, but the reality of it shocked her.

With a scream, Sarah hurled the sheet at the vortex in the crib. Mocking laughter filled the room as the portal vanished before the sheet hit it. Sarah ran from the nursery into her own bedroom. She snatched up the phone and dialed her father's number.

"Hello?" came the sleepy voice on the other end.

"She's gone. Ashley's gone," Sarah nearly screamed into the phone.

"What! What happened? Did someone break in?"

The memory of the vortex made Sarah laugh hysterically. "No one broke in. They just ripped a hole into the Underground and stole Ashley from her crib." Even as she said it, she knew it was true. Someone from the Underground had stolen her baby. And it wasn't Jareth. She knew that too.

"Sarah, honey, calm down. We'll be there as soon as we can. Call the police."

"They won't do any good," Sarah said, surprised at how calm her voice had become. She was going back to the Underground. She had to save her child. "I'm going back to the Labyrinth."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then, "Sarah, you told me that was just a dream. A fantasy you made up. You need to be strong now. Call the police."

"I'm sorry, Dad," Sarah said. "I have to go back."

"Don't do anything rash Sarah." She could tell her father thought she was out of her mind. "We'll be right over."

"Don't bother. I won't be here."

"Sarah—!"

She hung up the phone.

I have to do this, she thought. I have to go back.

Sarah went to her closet and pulled down her treasure box. It was filled with the things from her childhood that she couldn't give up, no matter how grown up she had become. She lifted the lid and pulled out her worn copy of The Labyrinth. The spine was cracking and the pages falling out.

"Goblin King—Jareth—we're not enemies any more, right?" she said, caressing the cover. "You wanted me to come back, and I said no. I'm sorry. But I need your help now. Please. Help me."

Silence echoed back at her. Tears stung her eyes. "Someone kidnapped my baby. Help me. Please."

Red, black, and silver glitter began to fall around her, and a chill went up her spine.

"I'll help you," hissed a voice.

It wasn't Jareth.

Darkness sprang up from every shadow in the room, swallowing Sarah. Her copy of The Labyrinth slipped from her fingers. She felt herself falling again and reached out in hopes of finding anything that would stop her rapid descent, but there was nothing. Mocking laughter swirled around her and Sarah screamed. This was not Jareth. Something else, something evil had her in its power.

A tiny pinprick of light appeared above Sarah and she reached for it.

Help me! she cried wordlessly.

The light grew a little bigger and Sarah felt something brush her fingers. She closed her hand over a smooth round surface.

Will you help me in return? asked a soundless voice.

"Yes," Sarah said.

Light suffused the blackness and swallowed Sarah.

Sarah found herself in the Goblin King's throne room. The King himself was sitting on an open ledge looking over his kingdom. Sarah approached hesitantly. She looked out at the Labyrinth and gasped. Once green walls of shrubbery were now brown and dead. Cracked masonry and shattered stone was all that was left of the goblin town at the base of the castle. Everything lay in ruins and a baleful orange sun watched over it all.

Sarah turned her attention to the Goblin King. His once impeccable outfit was ragged and thread bare. His platinum hair lay plastered to his skull in lank strands and the handsome lines of his face were obscured by weariness. Dark bags hung under eyes clouded with memories and unhealthy shadows filled the hollows of his cheeks.

"Jareth?" Sarah questioned.

The King seemed not to hear her. He kept staring out over his ruined land and muttered to himself. Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder and said his name again. He turned to her and the scene changed.

She was in her parent's room by Toby's empty crib. Goblins surrounded her as the Goblin King stood before her resplendent in his black outfit and cape with midnight blue lining.

"I've brought you a gift," he said

He held out his hand and a crystal appeared.

"What is it?" she asked. Foreboding filled her. Why was Jareth showing her this?

"It's a crystal," he said, impatient that she couldn't see the obvious.

He began waving his hands, the crystal ball dancing over and around his long elegant fingers. He stopped the ball on his fingertips and held it out again.

"If you turn it this way it shows you your dreams. But if you turn it this way—"

He spun the ball and it changed into a little demon with bat-like wings and bull's horns sprouting from its head. The demon hissed at Sarah. She recoiled and looked at Jareth. Her eyes went wide. The King's hair was black and his eyes were a burning red. Roiling shadows with hungry eyes stared at her over the man's shoulders.

"Jareth?"

The man smiled. "No."

He threw the little demon at her. Sarah screamed and felt herself falling, falling. Mocking laughter followed her, and underneath that laughter she thought she heard the plea, save me.

Sarah woke with a start, eyes open and a scream fading on her lips. Something warm and heavy draped itself across her shoulders, and she looked up into a familiar broad, fanged face.

"Sawah, 'wake?" Ludo rumbled.

Sarah looked around her. There was the pond where she'd met Hoggle on her first trip into the Labyrinth; now dry and overgrown with some purple tentacle plant. And a few yards away were the shattered remains of the wooden door she'd used to enter the Labyrinth. Sarah looked up into the monster's broad face again and smiled. She'd landed in his lap.

"Yes, I'm awake now," she said.

Ludo held out a massive hand.

"Here. Gift," he said.

In his palm nestled a crystal ball. It looked like the crystals that Jareth had used. Sarah hesitated, remembering the strange man in the flashback, or what ever it had been. She shook herself and reached out for the ball. Jareth wasn't her enemy anymore. He had asked for her help. The crystal sphere was warm and seemed to glow with its own inner light. Sarah stared into the swirling depths and was momentarily lost.

"'Bout time you showed up," a gruff voice said.