Once inside the tunnel everything went dark. For a brief moment Sarah felt panic rising up and she almost regretted going inside. But as she took a few steps forward it gradually began to get lighter and soon she was standing on the little hill overlooking the labyrinth. Sarah gasped. Thirteen years ago, she was standing in this very spot. She was overcome with happiness. Never had she realized just how much she missed this place. She couldn't wait to see her old friends. In the back of her mind, though, a nagging thought began to form. What would Jareth say when he saw her? She wasn't sure how she felt about seeing him again. She set off towards the labyrinth with a spring in her step. As she got closer she began to notice something was different.
Surely the labyrinth hadn't always looked this run down? It had always looked a little unkempt, but now it looked like whoever was taking care of it had just given up entirely. She reached the gates of the labyrinth and stopped. Last time she had to have Hoggle open the gates for her to enter the labyrinth, but now the gates were broken open and falling off their hinges. Looking at them in this condition made her feel a little apprehensive. What had happened here? She took a slower pace and went inside the gates. Biting her lip, she tried to remember which way the worm the had told her to go. She took the path to right and smiled a little as thought back to when the worm was in her room one day. He had become so upset when he realized that Sarah had wanted to get to the castle, and that he had told her the wrong way. Sarah had tried her best to cheer him up, telling him that everything had worked out ok, it didn't matter, and after all, how else would she have met all her friends if she had just gone straight to the castle?
She hadn't seen the worm in so long, and the unwelcome thought of not knowing how long labyrinth worms lived cropped up in her mind. On the twenty minute walk to the castle she encountered quite a few pieces of the walls had that fallen down, vines grown over mostly everything, and every so often a breeze would blow through, scattering frost all around. When she got to the castle, she found the door was ajar. She paused here, not wanting to be rude and barge in, but at the same time anxious to go inside and see who was there. She kicked the dirt with her toe. What would she say to Jareth? She shook her head. Here she was, a grown up woman of 28, and feeling like little school girl… She walked inside.
"W - What happened here?" she asked aloud in disbelief. Everything was covered in dust, dirt, and chicken feathers. The wind had blown leaves in, and everywhere she looked the place had the feeling of begin abandoned. She crossed her arms and took a few more steps inside. It definitely hadn't looked like this the last time she was here. She froze when she heard a rattling grew louder and louder, and suddenly from one of the hallways appeared a small goblin. He was only about two feet tall, and he was dressed in ragged clothing. He seemed to be muttering a little song to himself, and he didn't see notice Sarah standing there. Sarah relaxed when she saw him. She didn't recognize him, but she used to talking to goblins, and this was the first person she had seen since entering the Underground. "Hello there!" she called out to him. "What's your name?"
The little goblin stopped and stared at her in disbelief. He then looked around, feeling sure that she could not be talking to him. Sarah nodded her head and came closer to him. "Yes, you! It's ok - I'm a friend." she encouraged. "What's your name?"
The goblin looked like he was thinking hard. "Name? Name… Name is… Brax!" he smiled as he remembered his own name. "Not many people talk to Brax - almost forgot name!"
Sarah smiled at the little fellow. "That's ok, Brax. My name is Sarah. This place looks deserted, is there anyone else here?"
Brax looked like he just remembered something important. "Sarah is a human?" he asked.
"Yes, that's right!" she said.
"Oh." Brax nodded. "Um, Brax supposed to tell the humans that King not here right now, and human no can wish away kiddies until king comes back. Sorry human!" Brax shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the door. "You gotta go now."
Sarah was surprised at this. "Oh! No, Brax, I'm not here to wish anyone away - I came here to visit my friends!" she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "And what do you mean, the King's not here?"
"Brax not know where King is, Brax just know what to tell humans." he chewed on one of his fingernails and looked away from Sarah. He had one job entrusted to him, and so far Sarah was the only human he had seen. He was a little disappointed that the message he had been in charge of delivering was not needed. Sarah cleared her throat. "Well, Brax, is there anyone else in the castle besides yourself? And do you know someone named Hoggle, by any chance?" Maybe Jareth was just out for the day, but she couldn't imagine he would have let the castle get so dirty.
Brax shook his head. "Brax only one in castle right now. Not know who Hoggle is. But maybe I go get other goblins for Sarah to talk to?" his face perked up a little at the thought of being useful.
"Sure! I'll stay right here and wait for you, ok?"
"Ok!" Brax happily ran out the door to look for some other goblins. Sarah was now all alone in the castle. She stood there awkwardly for a moment before deciding to look around. After all, she told herself, if Jareth didn't want people looking around the castle, why would he leave the doors open? She noticed a large spiral staircase, but decided to leave this for later and look around the downstairs first. The first room she found was the kitchen. There were stacks and stacks of old dishes waited to be washed, and cupboard drawers hanging open. It smelled somewhat unpleasant, so Sarah didn't stick around in this room. Several of rooms she couldn't quite tell what they were, but if she had to guess, she would have said they were the Underground equivalent of an office. Pieces of parchments covered the desks, bottles of ink were lying about and none of these rooms seemed very inviting. She crept into the first one of these rooms and took a peek at the parchment to see what was written on it. It appeared to be some strange language, and even though she was familiar with many odd languages because of her studies, she wasn't able to read these. The handwriting, though, was strong and flowing and seemed to command respect. After realizing there wasn't any information she could glean from the contents of these rooms, she skipped looking in them when she found ones that were similar.
At the end of a long hallway was a set of very large doors. They were not open, but they weren't locked, either. Really, Sarah thought, what's the point of coming this far and not going just a little farther? She opened up the doors. Inside was a ballroom, but not the ballroom from her peach dream. This one was very large, and very grand. White pillars stood around the edges of the room and sparkling chandeliers hung from the ceiling. It was beautiful, but she was sure it would have looked even better had it not been covered with dust. Not wanting to disturb anything in the room, she left and closed the door. It was bringing back too many memories of her dream, and she didn't want to deal with those memories right then.
The last room that she found on the downstairs level was the throne room. This was the only room so far that looked like maybe someone had been in it recently. Still, it was very messy and everywhere were those horrible chicken feathers. Barrels of some sort of drink lined the walls, and various sizes of cups and mugs were scattered about. It would seem the goblins had been having a party in this room at one point. The throne however, seemed to have quite a thick layer of dust. This made Sarah feel uncomfortable. How long had Jareth been gone? A fear passed through her mind that when she had seen him that last time and told him that he had no power over her, that she had really killed him. A cold rush came over her. She hadn't meant to hurt him, not like that. But surely, if he had died, wouldn't it have come up in some way when talking with her friends for all those years? Still, they had never mentioned anything about Jareth… She left the throne room quickly tried to think of something else.
She realized that she had come to the end of the rooms on the downstairs. She hadn't heard any goblins yet, so she assumed Brax was still out looking. She wondered what was taking him so long, and hoped that he hadn't gotten distracted on the way and forgot what he was supposed to be doing. She felt a little excited as she climbed the spiral staircase. Last time she was here, she hadn't really had a chance to look around at anything. The castle really was quite interesting. Now that she wasn't desperately trying to save her little brother, she could enjoy everything around her. The architecture that had once seemed so cruel and forbidding now seemed intriguing and refined. Once upstairs, she found many of the rooms to be locked. After being unable to open the doors to four different rooms, she found one that was unlocked. As she opened the door her jaw dropped in shock. It was a library. But not just any library. It was the most wonderful library Sarah had ever laid eyes on. The walls were incredibly tall, and the bookshelves covered every inch of them, from the floor to the ceiling. It seemed to be illuminated by magic somehow, as the middle of the room was glowing but use couldn't see where the light source was. There was a large, very comfortable looking chair towards one side of the room, and a table nearby with several books on it. Sarah loved libraries, because in books you could find a whole new world. These books seemed to promise of tales filled with magic and wonder. She glanced across some of the titles. Some of them she could read, but some of them she couldn't. Judging by how clean the room was despite the dust, it was likely that the goblins weren't allowed in this room. It dawned on her that must be Jareth's private library. She felt peeved to think that the villain of her childhood shared the same interests as herself. Knowing that if she opened one of the books, she would be there all night, she decided to come back to this room later and keep looking around. The door next to the library was also locked, but the door right across from it wasn't. As she turned the doorknob it seemed to stick and for a second she thought it was locked as well, but it opened for her.
As soon as she opened it and looked in, she closed it again. Surely, she thought, surely this is crossing a line! This room was Jareth's bedroom. You can't just go rummaging round in someone's bedroom, she told herself, especially when that someone was the Goblin King… She stood there for several minutes with her hand on the doorknob, fighting with herself about what to do. In the end curiosity won out, and she went inside the room. She couldn't help but feel like a little child sneaking into somewhere she knew she shouldn't be. She pushed this feeling down inside of her and started to look around. In the corner of the room was a large four poster bed with a canopy over it. Near it was a smaller door that she figured would lead to a closet. On the opposite wall was a dresser and a desk. The wall at the end of the room had a large fireplace, and Sarah was quite surprised to see that there was a low-burning fire in it. On the desk there was a small wooden box with curious carvings all over it. Against her better judgment, Sarah tried to open it, but it was sealed shut. Sarah yawned. The room had no windows, and between the low ceilings and the warm fireplace, it was making her sleepy. The bed was only half made, and the sheets looked so soft… She shook her head, trying to wake herself back up. You can't just fall asleep in the Goblin King's bed, Sarah! She chided herself. She left the room before she had a chance to think twice, and headed back to the library.
While in the hallway she called out for Brax, but as she didn't hear an answer, she went into the library to read. With so many books, it hard to decide where to start. There was one book that caught her eye. It was one of the biggest books on the shelf, and the cover was a sparkling gold. It's title was simple - Labyrinth Magic. Sarah felt this might be a good place to start. She took the book over to the big chair and sat down. The book was mostly in english, but every so often the text would abruptly change to the strange language Sarah couldn't read. It was proving to be a difficult read, though, and not just because of the ever-changing text. The word themselves were confusing, and the order they were put in didn't seem quite right. It was speaking on the subject of those who ruled over the labyrinth. Sarah thought she understood parts of it, but other parts didn't make sense. It seemed to speak of the labyrinth as though it were an actual person. From what she could tell, it was the labyrinth that picked who ruled over it… But that didn't make sense. She frowned and skipped ahead in the book. Trying to figure out all these new terms and words was starting to give her a headache. She was pleased when she heard Brax calling for her. Se left the book on the table and made her way downstairs. Brax had returned with four other small goblins and a goblin lady, who was almost as tall as Sarah, but looked quite elderly. Sarah waved to the new goblins. "Hi guys!" she called as she walked down the stairs. The little goblins waved back at her. The old goblin lady, however, said something that took Sarah by surprise.
"Lady Sarah! The labyrinth has been waiting for you for so long - welcome home!"
Upon hearing these words, Sarah's blood ran cold.