He watched as they ran desperately down the course of the blind path. They rattled and shook the barrier between them and safety furiously, the desperation driving them. They turned their attention to a side wall, as the cleaners came close, dangerously close, Jareth relented, and with a flick of the wrist the wall fell forward, allowing her her freedom. Freedom for the moment.
Jareth soon returned to his signature motion – pacing and stalking the shadowy halls with a worrying intensity. He was thinking. Jareth was a brash man, often quite spontaneous, he rarely planned anything, but when he did he planned events to the last detail, it was in the hope that they would run smoothly and within his wishes. Though of course with Sarah, this was not to be. She always managed to overcome his obstacles, untangle his riddles - it was all most frustrating.
And Hoggle he was another troublesome nuisance, a spanner in the works so to speak. Amazingly, the girl seemed to like him. Incredible. She called him 'my friend,' it made his ears burn to hear her refer to him through such endearments, but despite this she teased him merrily, snatching his cluster of trinkets from him, holding them just out of his reach. Quite cruel really, this girl was more akin to him than she would like to accept. The brave little heroine showing common features to the villain, my how alien in contrast to Sarah's neat little vision of how the story should go. She will learn to accept my cruelty, learn to love me for it.
They had came across the Wiseman now, doddery old fool. Jareth had already considered courses of action if he deviated from his commands not to aid her, many terrible and excruciating reprimands had been planned in great detail in his minds eye. And so Jareth was rightly pleased when the figure when he spoke incoherently, spouting useless quotations and nonsensical advice, and yet she was grateful towards him. She displayed courtesy to the man, even gave him a ring as toll, still she would soon have another, far superior, to replace such a petty trifle.
Meanwhile Lasander was trying to speak with a Goblin, who sat slumped against a wall, burping nauseatingly at intervals, happily rubbing his full belly with content. "Look, can – you – hear – me? Hel – lo? I – need – you – to – take – a - message – to – my - brother. DO – YOU – UNDERSTAND?" Lasander's ghostly echoes fell on inattentive ears, he leant against the wall in his frustration, and promptly fell through, into the privy. Lasander would have to work out some other way of communicating with Jareth – before it all went wrong. Terribly wrong.
Jareth smiled slightly as she aided the beast down from his chains, her compassion and charity where pleasing to him. A sign of her feminine character, true makings of a queen. His mother had possessed such qualities, grace, kindness, compassion. She had shown them in excess to him, he remembered the cuddles and their closeness fondly, she'd been the only one to truly love him. He had been sure in his father's hatred for him, his brother's indifference, his sisters distance. Just as sure as he had been of his mother's love, it had been her death that had disturbed him most of all, she'd been the only one to warrant tears from his unyielding eyes.
Meanwhile, he spied his chance to introduce the prospect of splendour and glory to Sarah through the ball, she would see what it truly meant to be by his side. She would understand what she had to gain, just how much he was offering her. Hoggle and her had parted company, the fearful coward having fled from her side at the prospect of peril. Hoggle's cowardice was to be of good use to him, Jareth left for the area of the Labyrinth Hoggle was occupying, mind toying with just how many demeaning 'variations' of Hoggle he could utilise in their exchange.
Hoggle heard Sarah's distant cries, and made to race to her, he wasn't cowardly enough not to help Sarah when she was so desperately in need, "I'm coming Sarah!"
"Well, if it isn't you, and where might you be going," the eyebrow was raised again. Hoggle's body convulsed in an all too familiar gesture. He muttered some feeble excuse as to continuing to lead the girl astray, as if that were the true reason for his sudden burst of chivalry. Jareth saw things differently, he knew of the bond between them. And hated it with a fervent passion. "For a moment I thought you were running to help her. But after my warnings, wouldn't that be stupid?" Jareth could easily lead a master class in the art of patronisation.
"You bet it would!" Faceless little cretin. Was the main impulse that raced through his mind as Hoggle nodded fervently, agreeing to every word Jareth let drip from his lips.
"Poor Hoghead." Hoggle corrected his name, Jareth ignored him merrily, commenting on the loss of the jewels he had marked earlier, before raising the subject of the peach. He threw a crystal to Hoggle's cupped hands, when the Dwarf looked upon it, it had changed to be a peach. A delightful thing, brilliantly hued, it was a thing of great beauty, but Hoggle noted none of it's outwardly appearance. He knew Jareth too well to trust in that.
"What is it?" He looked at with grave concern, before looking up at Jareth to try and strain truth from his eyes.
"It's a present," was his fast retort. A present of far greater magnitude than your pea sized brain could handle.
"I won't do nothin' to harm her!" Hobble was actually displaying a positive characteristic. True bravery. Stunning.
"Come, come Hogbrain! I'm surprised at you, loosing your head over a girl!" His surprise was genuine, the concept of Hoggle showing feeling towards anyone, was gob-smacking. Such a a pity he had to choose Sarah of all. He was of course fast to deny it, Jareth took no denials however. "You don't think a young girl could like a repulsive little scab like you, do you?" Hoggle winced from the hurtful words, looked lost, unrooted. Jareth knew that she liked him, knew it all too well, but it could only please him to plant suspicion and distrust within Higgle, the name by which he thought of him.
"She said we was..."
"Friends? Bosom companions? Friends?" He said the word with a special venom he reserved for such endearments. "You'll give her that Hoggle, or I'll tip you straight into the Bog." Hoggle nodded desperately, he had very little choice with such a threat directed his way, "and Hoggle, if she ever kisses you, I'll turn you into a prince." The conviction with which he said it was striking, he should have been in vaudeville.
"Y-you will?"
"Prince of the Land of Stench!" Jareth laughed pleasantly to himself as he disappeared, with Hoggle cringing slightly. Whether it was due to the weighty guilt that lay heavy in his palm, or the utter bad taste of Jareth's joke, is debatable.
The girl had got herself in such a mess. She was with the fireys, who were endowing her with the fear of God, pulling apart various body parts with eerie ease. Hoggle had better get there quick before the bizarre creatures took it upon themselves to attempt to detach her limbs. Which would of cause be somewhat more problematic, however, if events took such a course, he would have to intervene.
The baby had toddled off, curiously teetering over the dais on the throne. Dangerously so. Jareth, wanting to prevent the child being mortally injured, stood sighing and lifted the baby up, and sat him on his knee to sing to him once more. His song voice had a soothing effect on the babe, who rubbing his eyes, yawning slightly, fell to a cosy sleep. Jareth rarely bothered with the lost children, would play with them if he had the time, as he found them somewhat endearing, but for him to have time in the past was a most rare thing. Toby was different to most children though, he was Sarah's brother, that alone warranted his attention. By the time he had passed the custody of the child to one of his more reliable attendants, he spied the crystal once more, wherein Sarah had made astonishing progress. She, Hogwit and the beast had made company with the little fox creature who had so frustrated him before. Still, he appeared to be doing well in delaying their progress, going through the motions of ridiculously outdated protocol. He most be from an old time, before my grandfather possibly? Such an archaic creature!
It took not long for the girl to outwit him, Jareth was well pleased with the display of intelligence, superiority you could say. His heart paused as he saw a bridge fall from beneath her, but she was able to snatch at a branch and hung precariously, screaming, he could hear her, distantly from his window, he moved there, as if in the vain hope of sighting her. Eyes moving rapidly between the crystal and the wide scape of the Labyrinth. Her friends came in useful for once, the beast using his powerful bellow to summon rocks for her to settle upon, giving a rest to her aching limbs.
Hoggle, upon crossing the Bog, picked the peach from his pouch, toying with it, holding it testingly over the bubbling mixture of the bog, he prepared to ease his fingers loose. I wouldn't do that if I were you. Hoggle froze, cursing him, looking fearfully up as if expected to see Jareth himself looming over him. But no one was there. For once, mind speak finds a use for itself.
Jareth was well pleased that Hoggle was know fully aware that it was going to be harder than such a simple action to rid him of his burden. He needed to complete his task to be free from it, he would be free from it's physical burden, but the resulting guilt would never escape him.
He was elated when Sarah took a bite from the tempting flesh of the fruit, hunger overcoming any sense of reason. Silly girl, she can't escape me now, she's bound to me forever. He sat on the ledge blowing crystals as bubbles through the skies, within them dancers swayed hypnotically, Sarah was entranced in her dizzied state, hand reaching out to them weakly before being lost in an enchanted sleep. He felt strangely solemn, subdued even, all because he knew how it would all have to break. It was tempting to him then, the chance to go and take her, all he would need to do would be to lock her in a room, till her time was gone. But that would break almost all the known rules laid down for him to abide by, and far more importantly, it would take all the fun and risk from the chase.
He stayed watching her for a long while more her time passing by with an excruciating slowness. Just a while more, stay there Sarah. Stay within your dreams. You know that's where your safest, for you have me there. He was called away from his vigil by the disappearance of the babe, it eventually became apparent that Toby had become lost. He had been frolicking with his Goblin friends, all of whom in their drunken state had been totally unaware of his presence, indeed he may have well as been a Goblin himself, already a member of their little gang. And then he had become lost from them, as he wandered through the castle's dust ridden neglected chambers.
Lasander was following the baby, he had little else with which to occupy his time, having passed over all hope, and resigned himself to the utter futility of existence. As far as choices go, following the brother of his own sibling's adored one was better than idly moaning and acting as an atmospheric addition to the 'dank dingy castle' theme. The baby crawled rapidly, as Jareth's frustrated calls could be heard in the background – he was now regretting his negligence. The baby stopped as he came to the nurseries. A long abandoned place, so draped in cobwebs, so grey from years without sighting the sun, but to a small baby – it was all enchanting. He began exploring the room, a exquisitely moulded rocking horse stood in one corner, Toby tapped it playfully, clouds of dust rose from it's back, leading to Toby emitting a little sneeze. Story books lay discarded in the corner, Toby picked them up and bit the pages as babies do, and finally, with a whole corner of the room to itself, stood a scale model of the Labyrinth itself. Toby sat down and clapped his little hands at the delight of it all, home held no such wonders for him, he may have teddies and mobiles but nothing such as this had ever been sighted by him before. It was just large enough for a baby to squeeze through it's passages, something Toby did with great relish. He came across a figure discarded in a passage, lost in indefinitenesses you might say. Laughing, he picked it up and bit into the onyx statue, as you may discern, Toby liked biting things.
"What have we here?" Jareth surveyed the scene, and could just make out the distinctive shape of Toby's red and white night-suit through the Labyrinth's walls, "you have a good nose for adventure little one, now come, it is time for us to go and see your sister." He bent down, and lifted Toby up, Toby stretched out his arms for the Labyrinth and began crying, but Jareth had no worry for such things now, too much time had already been wasted. It was time to check on Sarah's progress. Only an hour remained.
As he re-entered the throne room, all was in a state of anarchy. Goblins ran shrieking, donning battle armour backward, fetching ammunitions, sometimes even chickens, with which to load the cannons. "What's going on here!" Jareth's voice bellowed, stopping all in their steps.
"It's the girl!" A fear stricken Goblin screamed it out, the room turned to look at him, gulpingly, he continued. "The girl who ate the peach and forget everything, she's on her way to the castle!"
Jareth almost dropped Toby. A plethora of curses and profanities came into his mind, all of which are unfit for publication. "Stop her! Call out the guards! Hide the baby! She must be stopped," they all stood watching him, frozen to the spot by the ferocity in his tone, "DO SOMETHING!" They began scuttling about to their positions, remembering long assigned roles, "move, move you fools!" The odds had turned – in her favour. He was to make sure that all in his power would be done to stop her reaching the threshold to his castle, Despite everything, he could not let her win.
He stood with one booted foot poised on the ledge of a window, watching her progress, she was too close now for the crystal to retain it's once so dear purpose. He could hear her occasionally excitable shrieks and wails as the immense incompetence of his army resulted in her repeatedly being missed by their cannons and heavy artillery. The beast was her greatest aid, taking out dozens of Goblins with a single lazy swipe of his tail, it was clear that her luck was holding. He would need to go to the Escher room, prepare himself for their final confrontation.
He entered the recesses of the structure, practised some of the gravity defying trickery he had learnt to master, he would disorientate her, it may buy him some desperately valuable time. He passed what seemed like hours anticipating her, and when he heard her voice, so dangerously close and weirdly distorted by the environment, he knew he was as ready as he was ever going to be.
"I have been expecting you." Jareth could not result the lure of cliché.
"Where's Toby?" So very direct, no masking words, no decorum.
"He's safe. In my keeping." She followed the usual routine, declaring how she was to reclaim possession of her brother, words he dismissed to her vocally but feared desperately within him..
"You have understood nothing." The bitterness reeked from his tone, she was so blind to him, so totally juvenile, had no comprehension of how he felt towards her. Was too overwhelmed by the glory of the quest to care, "you have answered none of the Labyrinth's riddles, you didn't even know what the questions were."
"If I've come to understand anything it's that you're just putting on a show of confidence. You're frightened Jareth." She knew him better than he had thought. She may hold recognition of the presence of fear but clearly had no comprehension of the depth of it. She has no knowledge of just how much I stand to loose.
"So are you."
"Yes." She admitted to her fear, and it helped him retain at least a notion of power.
"You're cruel, Sarah. We are well matched, I need cruelty just as much as you need mine." If only she could understand the extent of her cruelty, how she was paining him with her innocence and naivety. Her utter lack of understanding.
Sarah sighted the babe then, veering dangerously close to the edge. She cried out his name loudly, forgetting the man ready to offer her everything. In Jareth's eyes, she was neglecting him. He followed her progress for a while, but it pained him when he passed close by her, for her to ignore him utterly, the feeling of abandonment was unbearable. The baby was crawling rapidly toward a window ledge, she cried out his name yet louder, the distress resonating about the room.
Toby stood, teetering close to the fall, attempting to stand on his wobbling little legs. Swaying dangerously. Sarah was directly above him, the only way was down for her. Jareth watched her, daring a vague smile of triumph. The girl won't dare to take the jump, the fear of the harm will overpower her. It was then that she closed her eyes – taking the leap.
He stood lurking in the shadows as she drifted down amongst the chaos, so light and ethereal, she could almost be a creature of enchantment herself if it was not for her ignorance. He knew this was his last chance. Things had long spiralled from his control. For the first time in his life, Jareth felt a total absence of power, he was weak, at her mercy.
He winced to hear her begin to recite the words. The words that so very few ever had a chance to utter. "Give me the child."
"I have been generous up till now, but I can be cruel." If only I had a chance to show you the depth of my cruelty. I would make you cower, make you shiver, force you to your knees to beg for my forgiveness for the torment I am suffering.
The girl, the silly little child, stood, stony faced, asking him in what way he had been generous. He felt like grabbing hold of her and shaking the sense into her till her teeth rattled, but restrained himself, he could do no such harm to Sarah. Not yet. "Everything," his voice was a low growl, everything you wished for, it has been done. You asked that the child be taken, I took him. You cowered before me and in turn I was frightening." He motioned to the clock face, it was so very close, minutes till her time was gone, he had to stall her, prevent her progress, "I have reordered time, I have turned the world upside down, and I have done all for you!"
She continued the recitation, word perfect. Her face blank. Totally unmoved by his making plain the depth of his benevolence. He barked at her to stay back, he was loosing, loosing more terribly with each passing second. He was growing desperate, tempted her with he dreams once more, but she remained so cold. It was horrifying.
He spoke gently to her, close to her, crystal held out for her taking, as weak as any kicked kitten, "just fear me, love my and I will be your slave." For always. For us to be always Sarah, that is all I ask, why can't you see it!
She had reached the last line, still totally detached from him, but she was stumbling. Seconds remained, he held the crystal closer to her. All the thoughts, all the memories of the preparations and the pain building up to this. Was it all worth it? For Sarah to be so very cruel, he had been so unprepared for the reality of his Sarah. She was more wicked than he had ever dared to be. Her face suddenly glowed, showed a remnant of understanding, his face tightened in anticipation of her chosen path.
"You have no power over me!" He closed his eyes. Tight shut. The burning passion and the heat searing through him. He threw the crystal to the air, where it dispersed to a million irretrievable fragments, taking all remnants of life before Sarah with it in it's absolute destruction.
It's over. :Cries out yippee with relief: Life Before Sarah, and deadlines will now cease, for a time. It's such a relief, but hold no fear, I will return, after I've given me and my much put upon beta (as always, thanks Ergott!) a break. It's been great fun to do however, and I feel great having completed something thaat's so long!
I have two one shots already finished, and they will go live within the next few days, the diary of simplicity will also be continued in a few days, as I take a more 'relaxed' approach to that, I can give no definitive times when I update. One of my one-shots will be essentially a separate epilogue to this, that will make perfect sense (hopefully) to everyone, but will probably be a bit more meaningful for people having ploughed their way through my story, it will be called 'How it feels to fail.'
I hope you all enjoyed this, been enetrtained by it etc. And if you have reached this point, many thanks for taking the time to read it all, it is an amazing feeling to write and know that your providing entertainment for people. Special thanks go to all of my reviewers, who I now address for the last time here:
Irresistible Malaria - Hopefully you'll catch the special eyebrow mention here! Jareth's eyebrows – a constant source of amusement! I have managed :thank God: to get this up on time, and I hope you like it, thank you so very much for sticking with it all the way through and taking the time to review!
Yodelladyhoo – Nice to have a new reviewer! I hope you enjoy it all, and that you reach the finale!
Remember guys, it's not too late to review, and now that it's finished, it's when I need them, so people can let me know what they think of it overall. You'd be doing me a huge favour by giving me your opinion of this, so if you have anything to say – review!