The Chapters of Life
Chapter Fifteen: In Dreams
In the darkness I hear a call
Calling me there
I will go there
And back again
In Dreams (The Lord of the Rings)
She felt the air shift.
Sarah raised her head from where it had been resting on Hoggle's shoulder.
Jareth stood in front of her, covered in blood. Black circles were under his eyes, and his regal allure from before was all but lost now, as he seemed to almost sway from exhaustion.
"Jareth," his name left her lips in a whisper.
Hoggle swiveled to face behind him. "Your majesty," he began, fearfully.
The goblin king ignored him. He held out a hand, towards Sarah. "Come, Sarah," he said forcefully. "There isn't much time left."
"Sarah?" Hoggle whispered.
She felt her throat constrict, from apprehension and fear and… guilt. "I'll tell you later, I promise, Hoggle," she whispered, before she stepped up to take the goblin king's hand.
Jareth did not bother to explain that Hoggle would know what happened all too soon. All denizens of his kingdom would know the moment a new queen stepped into place... if they survived the last phase of the Game, the Run through the labyrinth.
He brought her to the gate of the labyrinth with his magic – not the one she had entered through two years ago, but a different one.
"What happens now?" Sarah asked, still staring at him. She longed to ask him what had happened, had nearly done so, but the urgent look on his tired face stopped her.
He released her hand. "Now?" he answered, a somewhat bitter note entering his voice. "Now, we go through the labyrinth – and the Game begins."
Ironically enough, the goblin king's memories of the Run through the labyrinth were decidedly more sinister than those of the human girl who had wished away her younger brother.
"You mean, just go through it?" Sarah asked, a frown settling on her brows.
"You're playing a Game now, and the labyrinth won't let you through easily," Jareth explained quickly. He glanced again to the setting sun; time was running out.
A determined set to her jaws, Sarah lifted her head, just a little higher. "I did it once," she whispered.
"So did I," Jareth answered quietly. He reached out for her, pulling her into his embrace once, tightly. He rested his forehead on her head, breathing in her scent. "When you're in there, Sarah," he whispered, "Don't forget me."
"Jareth?" she tried to look up, and he released her just a little, to look into her eyes.
"Trust me," Jareth said, trying to ingrain his words into her mind, to depart some of the feelings swirling inside him to the girl. "Never lose your trust in me," he repeated, staring at her.
Sarah shook her head, slowly. "I won't."
"Then go." Jareth released her, then pushed her towards the gate. He took a deep breath. "The Game begins," he said in a clear voice.
The gate opened.
With one glance backwards, Sarah stepped through.
"See you at the castle," Jareth called out, a confidence he did not feel in his voice.
Sarah gave him a fleeting smile, before she was swallowed up by the labyrinth.
It was his turn, now.
He crossed the threshold without hesitation, but with one name ringing in his mind.
J Y S
That wall moved, he was sure of it.
His lips thinning, he was harshly reminded of the time he was here last – when –
No. The thoughts fell away easily as he strode forward.
As sinister as his surroundings were, as lethal as his situation was, he knew Sarah's was threefold more dangerous. He only needed to pass the Game of the lover.
J Y S
She had done this many times before.
All right, so that was a tiny bit of a lie. She'd done this once. And succeeded, Sarah reminded herself firmly, even as she felt everything around her darken.
The eyes on the wall were swiveling to focus on her, and the gaze was cruel. She kept her head up, even as she cursed Jareth for dragging her into this with little preparation; she didn't know that ignorance was an essential part of the test.
Suddenly, she felt her steps falter, though they had not even when darkness had slowly descended on her.
"The walls," she said, in wonder that had a pinch of fear, trying to drown out that fear with the sound of her voice. "The walls are glowing."
"Well, you hadn't expected them to just lie there without doing anything, did you? This is the labyrinth of the goblin kingdom."
Sarah turned around so quickly that she nearly lost balance. She flinched away from the wall, not wanting to touch its eery glow for some reason, and searched frantically for whoever had spoken. "I wasn't expecting anyone to answer me back," she replied, just a little tersely.
A figure stepped out from the shadows, into where the glow of the wall flitted across it better, and Sarah now saw that it was a young girl.
"Well, you can't expect me to not say anything back after you've spoken," the girl said, with a sudden crooked smile.
Sarah felt herself relax. She had made friends in the labyrinth before, and they had been crucial in rescuing Toby. Maybe this time, it would be like that, too. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name," she said, smiling as best as she could at the younger girl.
"M'name's Eliot," the girl said, grinning at her as friendly as she had done. "Just Eli, or El will do, though. At least, that's what all the boys in my school call me. Said it sounded more like a boy's name that way."
Sarah felt her smile become warmer. She hadn't been so sure of her befriending skills – it had been years ago, when she was still willing to trust and didn't know any better (or was it that she knew better then?) that she had been able to make friends so easily – but as surprising as the girl's appearance had been, she found it not hard at all to befriend this girl. "Would you have preferred to be a boy?" she asked.
"Oh yes," Eliot said, immediately. Her teeth flashed in the green light, but as they turned and began to walk, Sarah wasn't so afraid of the glow any more. "Boys get to have so much fun. 'sides, most of my friends are guys, and I'd fit in better if I was a boy."
"Well, Eliot's a pretty boyish name, too," Sarah offered, then frowned as they reached a fork in the path. "Do you know which way you're headed?" Her frown deepened. "What are you doing here, by the way?"
The younger girl looked quickly at her then looked away, biting her lips. "I... I'm looking for my mother," she whispered, then seemed embarrassed of her own weakness as she shook her head, hard.
Sarah felt sudden pity and curiosity for this girl. "Your mother?" she asked kindly, leaning down slightly.
"Yes." The younger girl peered up at her closely then, and Sarah tried not to flinch as the light played across Eliot's face once more, illuminating it. Will the darkness never end? "Help me find her?" Eliot asked, a little awkwardly. "Her name's Sarah."
Sarah felt her body freeze, though it must be – as she tried to convince herself repeatedly – a coincidence. "That's funny," she said, with a little laugh, "My name's Sarah, too."
It must have been her imagination that made Eliot's face appear so inhuman as the younger girl replied, "That is funny." Her gaze on Sarah was intense and unbearable.
"So, erm, any idea where your mother might be?" Sarah asked, trying hard not to show any of her sudden nerves, as she straightened and began to look away – not because she couldn't bear to look at the girl any more, she told her severely.
"I don't know," Eliot said, quietly. "I think I know who you are now, though."
Sarah's mind was racing as she slowly turned back to the girl. And oh stars, the girl looked nothing like a girl any more, even though her physical appearance seemed to have not changed at all, because now there was something ancient in the way Eliot was gazing at her, and it was most definitely not due to the glow.
"What... do you mean?" Sarah spoke, desperately through her deadened lips.
"My mother used to tell me stories," Eliot said, in that same toneless, ancient voice. "Of the goblin king. Of babies wished away. It was a story she told me, when I was much younger, as I sat in her lap and we huddled together, trying to protect ourselves. She told me of the goblin kingdom, filled with mischievous but happy creatures, and we used to imagine that we could go there just on a wish, and walk around the labyrinth and the city..."
The younger girl paused, briefly. "It was a story that came from a book that her mother had given her. And my grandmother had gotten it from a high school friend."
"Stop," Sarah wished, hating that she couldn't listen, hating that more and more – she knew what the next words would be, and loathed herself for not wanting to face them.
Eliot's voice was relentless. "My mother said that my grandmother had named her after that same friend... that my grandmother had always been heartbroken her friend had gone missing on their graduation day. The friend's name was Sarah."
Her knees gave way. Rather than lean on the walls for support, Sarah fell to the ground, still staring into those ruthless growing eyes, as her lips formed the soundless word 'no' over and over again. "It can't... Eliot...."
She reached for the girl. Eliot jerked out of the way.
And now the girl was transforming, in front of her, into a grotesque creature, that was bending over her so sinisterly – and then she was back into the form of a girl, except that she was older, now, old enough to have just graduated from high school, and her face was so familiar.
"Sarah," Katherine called, reaching for her, and Sarah hated herself for jerking away, her breath hitching in her throat as tears finally ran down her cheek. "Where were you, Sarah? I missed you... You were just gone... I thought it was my fault, I should have taken care of you better... we never found your body..."
"Stop, Katherine, stop," Sarah said, pushing herself up from the ground even as she slipped and slipped, trying to get away from the grasp of the other. "Stop... stop..."
She knew it wasn't her friend. It couldn't be.
But now Katherine was visibly aging in front of her, her hair greying, her stance stooping lower, and the wrinkles were rapidly forming on her face. "Sarah," she persisted in calling, in an eerily similar yet weakened voice, "Sarah... Sarah... where are you.... we promised to keep in touch, no matter what... We were best friends, Sarah!"
Now the old woman was sobbing – "I named my oldest daughter after you..."
Sarah felt her heart wrench.
It wasn't her friend. It wasn't her friend. It wasn't her friend. It was some sick, twisted game that the labyrinth had cooked up, like the Bog of Eternal Stench, only so much more horrible...
But was it? As she watched the old Katherine, blindly reaching for her with her wrinkled hands, as she choked back the tears as Katherine kept missing, not even knowing where to look in her old age, she felt something in her break.
If she stayed with Jareth, was this what was going to happen? Was she going to stay in the labyrinth, to never see any of them again?
"Indeed," a hard voice spoke just behind her, and Sarah flinched away, to find Eliot, staring at her with a flat gaze. Behind Sarah, Katherine was still stumbling around. "For you will become fey, and immortal – ah, I see Jareth hadn't told you yet, that's good – and you will see them age, and you will see them miss you, and you will see them die."
And now she was being crowded, with all-too-solid ghosts enveloping her, and she felt herself choke, but she knew that she could not resist –
"Sarah," a young boy who had to be Toby was calling for her, reaching out his still-baby fingers, tears drooping down his long eyelashes, "Sarah, Sarah, sister – why did you leave me? Why no more bedtime stories? Why leave?"
"My dear girl," her father was saying, fondly, even as he wiped away a tear and tucked an old picture into his shirt pocket, before straightening himself. He stumbled, froze on the spot, then began to weep, in earnest, for his lost daughter.
"We were just beginning to be more than friends," Karen was calling, pale-facedly, in the empty room her sometimes too-willful step-daughter had occupied. "We were finally mother and daughter... I looked forward to the Sunday calls once you were in university... We were going to plan your wedding together... Sarah...."
Francine, sobbing into Thomas' chest, who was teary-eyed himself, as they stood in front of the dark, dark coffin...
Eric, who dropped his dish onto the floor, shattering everything, as he stared at his father, who was telling him that his childhood neighbour and old crush had disappeared...
Linda, standing motionless in her living room, holding the phone in her dead hand, before falling onto the carpet, unconscious.... who had flown home immediately, even without her beloved star boyfriend by her side, to hiss and thrash at both Robert and Karen before finally collapsing on her daughter's old bed, sobbing as the three of them held each other close, sharing the pain...
Everything and everyone was crowding around her, calling out – "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah..."
And she couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, she couldn't do anything other than stand there and be assaulted, sobbing along with each of them, finally realizing what her actions in the labyrinth would mean: a painful farewell to all of them, and a lasting scar to each of them.
Eliot, forgotten, stepped back, leaning against the door, watching with cold eyes at the girl being swamped by the ghosts in her life. The more friends the girl had, Eliot mused, the more painful it was for her to pass the test. Accepting the new meant letting go of the old.
Finally, Sarah made eye contact with Katherine, who was standing in front of her with blind eyes, still reaching out. "I'm sorry," the girl finally whispered.
I'm sorry, that I hurt you all so much.
I'm sorry, that I can't do anything more.
I'm sorry, that I've permanently chosen this path.
Gradually, but slowly, the solid ghosts calmed. Now they were all looking at her, but without saying anything, and Sarah could suddenly breathe, could suddenly look at each of them and give all of them a teary smile. "I'm sorry," she whispered to each of them.
Then, without hesitating, she stepped forward, and hugged the old Katherine tightly, without any reserve. "I love you," Sarah whispered. "I love you all. I... just..." Tears finally overcame her then.
All was quiet. Then Katherine leaned back, and it was the young girl just starting in her life that Sarah had left less than half a day ago, though the wisdom in her eyes seemed to speak of her ancient age. "Remember that," Katherine said, and smiled so lovingly at her best friend. "Remember your past, remember your friends. Remember your mortal life, how you lived like tomorrow could be your last, how you gave your life everything because it was the only chance that you had."
Then she blinked, and now she was back to just the simple human girl, whose eyes held only her less than twenty years of experience. She smiled at her friend. "Don't forget us, Sarah."
"Never," Sarah vowed, and the girls hugged, tightly, again.
Eliot quirked an eyebrow, as she slowly pushed herself off the wall. Sarah hadn't even noticed that the darkness had receded, the girl noted wryly, and that the walls had stopped their ominous glow.
Toby suddenly pulled on her jeans, and Sarah broke away from Katherine with a small laugh that sounded closer to a sob to pick her baby brother up. The young boy twisted in her grasp, then suddenly looked on her solemnly. "But this isn't good-bye?" he asked, seriously. "You'll come back? To see me? And read me bedtime stories?"
Everyone had gone still, and Sarah, who did not know any of the rules, did not know what was going to happen in the next few seconds, let alone in the next fifty-something years, opened her mouth, then closed it.
Then she nodded, confidently, at her younger brother. "Of course," she said, without any trace of uncertainty in her voice. "Of course I'll come back to see you – all of you," she added, as she looked around at her family and friends.
"No!" The cry was sharp enough for everyone present to flinch. Furious, Eliot threw herself at the crowd, which parted easily for the girl, scattering until they stood next to Sarah, who was still holding Toby close as she faced Eliot.
The smaller girl pointed at Sarah, and none could doubt the power in her, the ancient magic that stank of evil, as she opened her mouth and grinned most horribly. "No," the girl rasped. "No seeing them. You become fey, you become immortal – you stay here. You won't be able to sustain yourself in the Aboveground for longer than a second during your first century, and everyone you knew will have died off in that time. You will not see them again," Eliot seethed.
For a moment, it seemed as though Sarah had paled, and Eliot's grin widened, but then Sarah stepped forward, her head held high. "I'll just learn how to stay Aboveground more quickly," she said, almost disdainfully. "Or I'll invite any of them down here." Toby nodded enthusiastically.
"No," Eliot growled. "You can't show them magic like that – no,you can't, you can't!"
There was a crestfallen silence.
Linda suddenly stepped forward, and Eliot's eyes widened – what was the ghost doing, moving of her own free will? "Listen here," the actress said, sharply, "if my daughter says that she wants to invite me back here, she very well bloody will, got that?"
Others were now speaking up. "Yeah," Thomas said, at the same time as Katherine squeezed Sarah's shoulder, glaring over at Eliot with a look that had crushed many a bully who had even thought of hurting Sarah during their high school years. Still more were adding their voice to Sarah's cause, and Eliot watched with growing horror as their voice gained power, rather than the opposite.
And amidst all of it, Sarah looked directly at Eliot. "I can," she said, quietly, confidently.
Eliot felt two of three threads snap, and she jerked back. There was no way... no one had... not in all the millennia that the labyrinth had seen...
But it was.
Her face twisting in anger – how could the labyrinth not see it, how could it have been so blind? The girl's power had always been in her friendship and the people she loved, hadn't it? – Eliot produced a crystal ball, then threw it vehemently against the wall. Instead of crashing and shattering, the crystal ball instead melted into the wall, producing an opening. At the same time, the ghosts – or were they still ghosts, Eliot wondered, or had the girl somehow called pieces of their true selves Aboveground into them? – began to fade away.
Sarah cried out in loss as she tried to hold them back, but Eliot snatched the girl's hand and gave her a good shove, towards the opening. "Go, now," Eliot said through gritted teeth. "Before it's too late – your lover awaits you," she spat.
Sarah glanced back at her, the ready steps faltering even as she placed one foot into the opening. "What about you?" she asked, uncertainly. "Shouldn't you come, than stay here alone?"
Eliot stood frozen for the briefest second – and in that second, she understood how the girl had beaten the labyrinth before, how the king had fallen in love with her, how the power seeped from her very steps. She gave Sarah a crooked smile, and it was no longer sinister. "No," Eliot said, honestly, "but you need to go. Now go!"
With one last hesitation, Sarah finally disappeared into the opening, which closed right after her.
"Well, well," Eliot muttered, shaking her head. "Passing both the Game of fey immortality and the Game of the goblin queen in one test, on her first try at that..." It was unheard of that any mortal had managed to pass two Games in one test, let alone a first try, and that the girl had learned to assert authority over the magic of the labyrinth so quickly...
Suddenly, Eliot snorted. "Just 'learn how to stay Aboveground more quickly,' indeed!" She shook her head, a smile tugging at her lips. Then she turned her eyes eastward, where the king was. "Hold onto this one," she whispered, knowing that none but the walls of the labyrinth would hear her. "Better pass the third Game... or lose her altogether."
J Y S
Jareth, who was far, far away in another corner of the labyrinth, would have no doubt agreed to what Eliot had said. Unfortunately, he was unable to, just at this moment: first, he hadn't heard her, and two, he was busy destroying the walls of the labyrinth.
"I'm not really destroying you," he offered, as the next segment of the walls blasted off. "You should know better than to cage me like that."
There was no reply from the walls.
"Oh, fine," he said, irritated, even as he escaped through the opening he had made in the walls with his magic. "I'll put it back together – later."
There was no reply from the walls.
Jareth wiped away sheen of sweat that had formed on his forehead. No, he wasn't going crazy, and he knew he wasn't, damn it all! It was just that it had been... hours, since the Run had begun, and the labyrinth had done nothing but close in on him, until he choked on his own power.
That scared him more than anything, because it meant that the Game of the lover wasn't beginning soon, and that meant that Sarah was going through another Game.
All in all, he planned to tear apart the labyrinth itself if by any chance... by any chance he was allowed outside without starting the Game, which would mean that Sarah had not survived the previous Game... and...
He shook his head. The king of the goblins wasn't going to be thinking about that at all.
Feeling something approach him from behind once again, he turned around, preparing to blast the walls once again –
And his wrist was caught by Sarah, who was staring up at him with startled eyes.
"Sarah," Jareth said, the magic faltering in his hands.
"Jareth," she greeted him, then glanced around, quickly, before stepping back. "Were you about to hit me with that?" she asked, staring at his hand, with a small smile.
He extinguished the magic completely as he studied the girl closely. There seemed to be an aura about her, he thought, that had not been present previously... as if she held power that she had not access to before. "How are you?" he asked, quietly.
She didn't immediately answer. Then she let out a tight breath. "How am I?" she asked, then gave a small laugh. "Ask me again tomorrow – or maybe a hundred years later. Then I might be able to answer." At that, she stared directly into his eyes.
"Ah." Jareth nodded, thinking that he understood. "So you passed the Game of fey immortality?"
Her lips curved up then, and there was an air of newborn power around her, "That, and the Game of the goblin queen," she said, smugly.
The goblin king felt his eyebrows rise. "Indeed?" Rather ironic, he reflected, that she became queen before becoming his lover... but as long as she remained both at the end of the day, he decided, it didn't matter too much.
"Yes," Sarah answered, with a quirk of her lips. Now she was moving around, slightly restless, glancing at everything and nothing. "So now what?" she asked.
Honestly, Jareth had no idea. He had always assumed that the labyrinth would be the one to lead the Games, as it had on his coronation day...
He bit back a foul curse as something came into his sight, walking towards them along the seemingly endless corridor. "Sarah?" he called to the girl a few steps away from him, in a strained voice.
She turned. "Yes?" she asked, cautiously detecting something in his voice.
Jareth faced her then, and looked at her, hard, trying to read every emotion that flickered across her face. "You are Sarah, yes?" he asked, in a tightly controlled voice. "Sarah Williams?"
She paused, giving him a strange look, before licking her lips and saying, "Yes."
"Then why," he asked most cordially, "the hell is there another one walking towards us right now?"
Astonishment passed through her face as she whipped around, exclaiming, "What – "
The second one was standing in front of them both now, and she was staring at the first Sarah with a horrified expression. "Who are you?" she cried, then her gaze flickered to the man standing beside her. "Jareth?" she asked, cautiously, "Why... why is there another one of me... standing in front of me? Is this another game by the labyrinth?"
Jareth sent a grim look towards where he knew was the center. "Of course it had to be her, who doubled," he muttered, quietly under his breath. "It couldn't be her having to detect which one is the real me."
Though there was no sound other than the first Sarah shouting at the second one, he could have sworn he heard a little girl laugh, somewhere.
J Y S
"...Jareth?" Sarah called, cautiously, as she stepped into the dark room.
There was no reply. Funny, she thought, she had been so sure that she had heard his voice the moment she had walked through the wall's opening, and she had run towards the voice, so happy to see him – because now she could demand some answers from him, and she was going to get them, damn it.
There! Another sound. More carefully, Sarah stepped forward, inching her way through, until she could see some light. She squinted, then smiled widely, as she saw Jareth standing, with his back to her as if he was studying something closely in the wall. She crept forward, intending to call out to him –
"I know, curse you." His voice was hoarse, as if he had been shouting for hours – or crying.
Sarah froze, some distance behind him, still in the shadows, not knowing exactly what to do. Was he talking to her, or to someone else?
"I tried to persuade her," Jareth suddenly spoke again, and there was such anguish in his voice, "But there wasn't anything I could do... I couldn't force her, could I?"
Sarah stood still, not knowing what to do, realizing that he seemed to be speaking to himself...
It is not the right one. There was suddenly a voice in the air, though heavy with magic.
"I don't care!" With a scream of outrage, Jareth suddenly threw a photo frame that had been in his hand, which Sarah could not see before, against the wall, which shattered upon impact. Among the broken glass, a photo fell onto the ground.
Sarah felt her eyes widen. What was going on?
"I don't care," Jareth repeated, hoarsely. Then he shook his head. "She didn't want to do the Run. After all that time... after everything we went through together, she didn't want to do the Run. What was I supposed to do?"
You did the right thing, the voice spoke once more, quietly, and Sarah suddenly realized that it must be the labyrinth that was speaking, consoling its king. It was the right thing to do, to let her go... but this new one, and though she would have thought it impossible for such a whispery voice, it hardened its tone, is wrong. That had been the right one... and you let her go. We do not accept this new girl as queen.
Her heart hammering, Sarah slowly began to back away, not wanting Jareth to suddenly turn around and see her. Worse than such a fear, however, Sarah somehow knew that the labyrinth knew she was there. It was as if the labyrinth itself was a presence, standing beside Jareth and patting his back, and shooting a look back at Sarah, who was crouching in the shadows.
"Why not?" Jareth gave a humourless laugh as he lowered himself to the ground, staring at the photo at his feet, before grabbing it and throwing it, out of his sight, away from him – "Might as well be her, as anyone else – "
And by some chance of irony, of the purest bad luck – or by the labyrinth's efforts, Sarah wasn't sure – the photo blew right to her feet. Trembling, she picked it up, and glanced down at it.
Immediately she choked, dropping it, and stepping back in horror. Jareth's head whipped around to see her, and his eyes widened.
Their gaze met, briefly, and she saw the madness in his eyes – while he saw the fear and pain in hers.
"Sarah – " he took a step forward.
Shaking her head, she retreated, willing herself not to cry – she had done that enough, just before, and damn it all, she'd had good enough reason back then, as she was saying good bye to her friends and family – not now, she didn't have a good enough reason to cry right now, even if...
"You never said you knew my mother," Sarah choked out, "Or that you'd tried to seduce her, even before me."
Then, without waiting, she turned around and fled. She ran, trying to escape, escape, escape, even as the pounding steps of Jareth pursuing her relentlessly chased her.
Eliot glanced down, then turned her head away. So the girl could fail, after all.
J Y S
He watched her with an expressionless face, coolly. He was out of the labyrinth; he was safe, safe from the horrors of the dark magic and evil residing in the labyrinth, safe from the images of his deepest fears. He stood on the hill overlooking the entire labyrinth, in control of himself and his life, as he'd always been.
The test hadn't taken very long; almost immediately, Jareth had realized that neither of the Sarah's who had appeared were real. They were all just puppets of the magic of the labyrinth. Almost marveling at the ease of it all, he had gotten out of there, walking, before he found himself stumbling out of the labyrinth, somehow impossibly onto a hill.
When he'd turned around, the corridor he had come from was gone, and when he faced front once more, he realized that he was staring down at the labyrinth, safely outside.
And he could see her, inside.
She was running, away from the dark twirls of magic that threatened to overcome her, from her own fears incarnate.
She twisted and flinched away from the very air that occupied space in his labyrinth, screaming in terror. The very walls reached out to her and snatched at her. Her clothes were torn a little in various places, caught and ripped by the ruthless branches that just seemed to stick out at the wrong time. Her face was scratched from the rocks that came from everywhere, and wet from tears of horror.
He was out, and he was safe. She was the one in there, still unable to get away from her fears, her doubts.
And everytime another branch caught at her jeans, making her stumble, his breathing came just a little faster, as if in fear. Everytime she let out another whimper, screaming at the darkness to go away, his eyes closed for just a brief second, as if in pain. Everytime she turned another false corner, hoping wildly that she was on the right track, his feet took just a tiny step forwards, as if in desperation.
Everytime she refused to call his name for help, his heart sank bit by bit.
Trust me, he thought in anguish, and with a twinge of guilt and anger. Trust me… forget what you've seen in the labyrinth… Trust me…
He wasn't, of course, sure of what Sarah had seen... but from the way the evil in the labyrinth was giving chase, it was nothing good. He wondered just what form it had taken, just what kind of dark fears Sarah was facing.
Just what kind of puppet the labyrinth had formed, in the shape of its goblin king, to scare the girl.
And now he was beginning to wonder if what he had gone through – declaring both puppets, or ghosts, looking like Sarah as false – was the easy part of the test. Was this part of the test, somehow, watching his lover in her test? He was starting to believe that was the case, and if so, what was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to help her?
Test the bond between the two. Just what the hell did that mean?
Casting all doubts aside, Jareth shook his head. He couldn't be sure. He didn't know what he was supposed to do, or what she was supposed to do, or even what the hell the labyrinth was doing. What he did, somehow, feel sure about was the fact that he had to help her... but...
Stubbornly, her lips refused to form his name. He was left to watch her running in circles, slowly and slowly being overtaken by the relentless magic of the labyrinth.
Trust me…
"She doesn't trust you, does she?"
Jareth did not look behind him. His body did not twitch, or give any other sign that he was surprised by the sudden input.
"What a pity. And I'd thought you two were doing a good job, too, at this whole courting and loving thing."
"Keith," Jareth said in a smooth tone. "Don't you have your own labyrinth to be running like hell in?" He did not take his eyes off the desperate girl in the labyrinth below him.
"I do." The boy came to stand beside him, on the hill, and Jareth felt a rather childish desire to push him down the slope, just to get him off his hill. "I am." Keith slowly turned to face him.
Jareth kept his eyes on Sarah.
"In fact," Keith knitted his eyebrows. "I think I am in my labyrinth… at least, I know I was running like hell, as you aptly put it, just twenty seconds ago until I suddenly came to his hill."
"I see your father's labyrinth hasn't killed you yet for your treachery," Jareth said.
He did not miss the shudder that went through the boy.
"No," Keith said in a strange voice. "But I think it's going to, any minute."
"Good," Jareth said pleasantly.
There was a pause.
"She's not calling for you," Keith returned to what was presumably his original topic. "She doesn't trust you. A pity. I'd expected you two to make it, honestly."
"Would you like to go back to your labyrinth?" Jareth asked.
Keith was silent for a moment. Then: "Did you call me here?"
"No." His eyes remained on Sarah. "Your labyrinth brought you here. Or perhaps mine. Maybe both."
There was another pause.
"She'll make it."
"I see." Now go away.
Both pairs of eyes trained on the girl.
"She fights for her dream, do you know that?"
"I'd have thought you would say, she fights in her dreams."
"No." There was a sigh from the younger half-fey. "I meant what I said. I don't know why I said that to you, though."
Jareth briefly considered replying in that annoying, standard answer to such a question by saying 'No one knows everything, my son, not even you," in a wise, philosophical tone. Then another strangled cry came from the labyrinth, and his focus sharpened.
There was longer pause.
Then came a whisper. "She thought I was you."
Jareth did not move, did not speak.
"I'd never had so many problems in a dream as I did with her – or in real life. She was so adamant in her belief that I was you… and I don't think she was even thinking it, at least not consciously. But she believed it so ardently. Every bloody time I tried to get her to open up, just a little – every time I tried to charm my way just a little bit closer to her heart, she thought I was you. Every bloody gesture I made for her, every bloody dream I wove for her… she thought it was you, who was doing all that for her."
A bitter laugh. "You know, I think she wished I was you."
Jareth did not say anything.
Keith went on, regardless, his breath coming faster as if in fear, as if he could sense something dark and sinister creeping up behind him. "The first time I walked in her dreams… Well, actually, the very first time, you were there, too. Do you remember that? The ball? Everyone in masks, except for you two, the goblin king and the human girl, dancing in the middle, so prettily and gracefully? I was one of the dancers wearing masks. Whose dream was it anyways? Hers? Yours? Both?
"The second time I walked in her dreams… that was a ball, too. I let her choose the setting and the man of her dreams. I wanted to see her heart's desire, because I wanted to fulfill it for her. I needed to know what kind of things she would like, so I could court her – " just like you, I want to be just like you – "and become the incarnate of the choice of being mortal for her."
One word: "Why?" Jareth asked to the air in front of him, still, still not taking his eyes off Sarah.
"And you know what she chose?" Keith did not appear to have heard him. "She chose a bloody mask ball… And when she found me, among the dancers, I was blond and had mismatched eyes." A shaky, low, hysterical laugh. "And even then, even then, that girl wasn't satisfied. She wouldn't dance with me. You weren't there, I don't think she even remembered you at the time. I was there, and I looked like someone from her dreams, in a setting of her fucking dreams, and she rejected me. Or tried to."
The goblin king remained silent.
"And after that…" Another hysterical laugh. The poised boy who had planned the murder of his father and brother and had manipulated fey kings was close to breaking down. "After that, it really didn't matter what I did. I followed the rules – I gave her the mortal life she could have had, would have had. No limits, because I could only court her in dreams, otherwise you would notice me…"
"Why?"
This time, Keith heard him. The half-fey stared at the fey king. "Because you were the only one who could kill my father. All others with the power to do so were connected to him in some political way, and wouldn't want him dead. But he wanted you dead, or at least powerless, worked that plan out so elaborately. You could have killed him, you, only you. And I couldn't approach you and tell you what happened, because then you'd see that I was my father's son, and you wouldn't have believed me."
"I see." He really did. Driven by hatred and need for revenge – just like you, I want to be just like you – Keith had found the only one who could have killed his father, and the only time he could urge the one on to kill his father… when Jareth first noticed the draining of his power and felt the betrayal and wanted to kill, when he was running out of time in the game with Sarah, too desperate to delay and hesitate before the killing blow.
And that was it. The moment he understood, Keith opened his mouth and gave an unearthly shriek, as the dark magic finally caught up with him and overcame him. He turned, desperately, and began to run, run, run –
Then Jareth realized that the boy was nowhere near his kingdom, but transported back into his father's labyrinth, facing whatever the labyrinth had in mind for him.
All the while, he was staring at the girl in the labyrinth, willing her to call for him...
J Y S
Sarah wasn't having the best day of her life.
Now she could add another Day, the kind spelt with a capital D, the back of her mind mused as she ran like hell. The Day I was killed by the labyrinth, and all because my bloody lover of a goblin king wouldn't tell me that his labyrinth was going to come after me like this...
Wait.
The labyrinth, coming after her.
Sarah yelped out loud as she tripped, and fell. She pushed herself up once more, but did not look back. She didn't need to; she could feel the evil coming after her.
It's the labyrinth, she thought, frantically, as she continued to run away from the looming magic. It's the labyrinth that's coming after me – not –
The photo of her mother, looking so young and happy, flashed through her mind.
-not Jareth.
What did that mean, though? At the moment, she couldn't think clearly, but the significance of that fact stood out. She had been upset, at the labyrinth's refusal to acknowledge her as the right one, and at the fact that Jareth still seemed to be pining over her mother – and maybe that had been why he came for her, she thought in despair. Maybe her mother had been the only reason he had pretended to fall in love with her –
Linda was a commanding woman. Sarah loved her dearly, but also knew that her mother had accomplished so much that she could never do... she was the one who had an acting career, who had the actors and models after whom her high school friends drooled over as her casual boyfriends. Why not the goblin king, then?
It's the labyrinth that's coming after me... not Jareth.
And after she had run, as childish as that was – it was one complex that she had never gotten over, Sarah realized now, that inferior complex to the woman she loved and admired so much – Jareth had given chase, except that it wasn't the goblin king who had played his favourite song on piano for her, who had held her as they watched the summer stars, who taught her how to manipulate crystals –
It was the dark magic, residing inside the labyrinth. It wasn't Jareth.
What the hell did that mean –
"It means," Sarah muttered to herself, out of breath, "that it's even more dangerous, because at least Jareth wouldn't kill me – "
She froze at that thought.
If that wasn't Jareth, but the labyrinth... where the hell was Jareth?
Who had it been, back there, staring at the photo of her mother, if that wasn't Jareth?
"Oh, hell," Sarah said out loud, finally realizing the truth. "Oh, hell."
And now she was pissed, because nobody had the right to dig into her deepest fears and inner conflicts, and so manifest them into beings to flaunt them in front of her –
She turned around, almost growling, to face whatever was coming after her.
The goblin king was coming to a stop in front of her, gazing down at her with condescending eyes. She really couldn't care less.
"You," Sarah hissed, "you have no right – no right whatsoever – to do this, to insult my mother that way - "
"I assure you, I loved your mother," said what-appeared-to-be-Jareth. "I mean to insult to her in any way – "
"Shut up," Sarah interrupted, and she was dismayed to hear that trembling note, but she ignored it, blazing ahead, "You think I believe you? I love my mother. I'm not going to bloody hell allow you to – to drive me away from her, by – by some trickery and magic and whatever else you're using – "
Jareth was leaning over her, except it wasn't the goblin king anymore, but the dark magic of the labyrinth looming over her, ready to overwhelm her, "Oh, but that's not what I'm doing," it said, in a horrible voice.
"What – " Sarah felt her resolve waver, as she wondered if the labyrinth hadn't been planning on destroying her self-confidence through the image of her mother, after all –
"No," it said, and it swooped down to suffocate her.
She couldn't breathe – and it wasn't the choking, sobbing kind she had experienced before, when the ghosts in her life had clamored over her, but a suffocating that was even worse, because now there was only darkness, and it was seeping into the very pores in her skin to taint her forever, mark her as surely as the labyrinth had marked everything that had drowned in itself for thousands of years –
Then she remembered just why the hell she had been stuck there in the first place.
The labyrinth hadn't been trying to attack her weak spot using her mother at all; it was trying to drive her away from Jareth.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, she cursed herself, as she opened her mouth and tried to breathe in air, even as only vacuum met her lungs and there was pain, pain, pain –
"Jareth," she called out, weakly, the call barely there, "Jareth."
Then she let go.
The next thing she knew, the darkness and the horrible nothingness was driven back, away from her, as the real goblin king knelt beside her, one of his hand reaching out to call the magic away from her.
"It's over," Jareth was saying, through gritted teeth, as if he was afraid that it wasn't, in fact, over. "She called me – she figured it out – the Game is over."
"Jareth?" she called, softly, even as she pushed herself up from the ground, trying to stand, even as the goblin king briefly glanced at her – and contained in that glance was everything, was enough to ensure her that what she had seen was nothing but a bad dream –
And then Eliot was standing in front of her, and she was giving Sarah a rueful smile. "I can see now why the Games were so easy, for both of you," she said.
"That was easy?" Sarah asked, in disbelief, even as her mind tried to catch up to everything that was happening.
The smaller girl gave a slight shrug. "Depends on how you look at it." She still appeared so ancient. "Nobody died this time, did they?"
"I..." Sarah decided not to comment on that. Instead, she asked, a bit hesitantly, "Are you... the labyrinth?"
Eliot raised her head, and there was a strange, infinite echo to her voice as she spoke. "Welcome to the goblin kingdom and its labyrinth, my queen," she said, then gave a small smile before turning her head away and fading into the walls.
Then Jareth was beside her, and there was no more time to speak or think, no more breath for talking.
Whew.... That was the longest chapter ever. I think it was at least three times as long as my first chapters!
That, of course, is because in the beginning, I'd assumed this was going to be two chapters... but once I started adding and editing, I realized that this couldn't be split, not really. So I decided to dump this all at once on you. Now, of course, all my chapter numbering is wrong, and so I have to go and fix the names of the documents...
Only one chapter left after this, however, so that works. After all, there are some more loose threads to tie up... it won't be as long as this one, but there is another twist for you, which I don't think many of you will be able to guess ;) I did promise to finish this story in 2008, so watch for the next chapter really, really soon!
Thank you so much for sticking with me so far! I really appreciate all your words and support :) Not very far left to go now... Thanks again!