She quickly turned to face Lysander. He was her only hope seeing as Jareth was stuck as a bird. She saw his pale, beaten face. Seeing her best friend lying unconscious made her realise that he had always cared for her no matter who he was and what he hadn't told her. All he ever did was protect her and now because of her he was locked up in a cage and out for the count.
"Lysander!" she cried, hopelessly knowing that her voice wouldn't wake him up.
She turned to look at the caged owl.
"Jareth what do I do?" she pleaded.
The owl stared wistfully into her eyes as if he really wanted to help but knew it was hopeless.
She looked around the stage. There was nothing that was of any use, and even if there was, she was locked up anyway. She saw at Lysander's weak and fail face. He had saved her so many times and she never thanked him because she never knew it. But she knew that she couldn't give up without a fight. She had to repay her friend somehow. She looked around again. There was nothing! No long stick to poke him with, no stones or small items to throw at him.
Suddenly the owl started to make a hooting sound.
"What is it Jareth" she said quickly turning towards him.
The owl looked up. Raising her head Sarah could see that there was an unsteady beam which looked like it would fall any second. Is she banged her foot hard enough on the back of the wall it could fall down.
"I can't do it Jareth. It might hurt him!" she said pleading with Jareth.
The owl hooted some more as if to say that it was the only choice.
She bit her lip and looked up again. She raised her free foot, as her other one was still chained up, and slammed it against the back wall. Immediately the stage began to wobble and shake. Sarah panicked with fear. It was such an old theatre the whole building might have collapsed. She watched the beam above her. It shook a little…then shook some more. Eventually it broke loose and tumbled to the floor. Sarah screamed as it landed right on top of Lysander's cage. She winced her eyes desperately praying that the damage wasn't too bad. She looked at the beam which had crashed into the cage with such a loud bang, Lysander would have had to have been dead for it not to have waken him.
Lysander's eyes opened and he quickly jumped up looking startled. Sarah had never seen him so frightened but all she could do was smile. She was so happy and relieved that he was awake.
"Sarah, where are we, what are you smiling at?" he said in such a sincere way.
"Oh Lysander I'm so glad you're okay" she said.
"Sarah, what's happening?". He turned to look at the other cage. "And what's that owl doing here?"
"That's Jareth. There's not much time to explain 'cause they'll be back any second, but the threats found me, and Quince is their leader. He locked us all up and he's planning to kill me in front of an entire audience full of Underground creatures!"
"What?…I don't believe…and Quince!? I treated him like a brother!" said a shocked Lysander.
"I know. I was just as surprised, but there's no time! We have to find a way out of here!"
Lysander tried to sit up but shrieked in pain.
"What's wrong" she asked.
"My arm. I think it's broken."
Tears welled up in Sarah's eyes. She feared for him and she feared for herself.
Looking at Jareth as a small and feeble owl she realised that he was no longer the powerful King he was before which made her fear for him too.
"What are we going to do?" asked Sarah knowing that Lysander didn't have the answer.
He sighed. There was a moment of silence for a few seconds which seemed to them like an eternity, then Sarah decided to speak.
"I'm sorry" she said. "For being so angry with you. I know now that you was only trying to protect me, and I know you've always been my friend…my only true friend on Earth."
"Hey, no apologies okay, you had every right to act like you did." he said before groaning trying not to move his injured arm. "I should be telling you I'm sorry. If I'd have told you about the threats earlier then this might never had happened."
Sarah laughed.
"I thought you just said no apologies."
"I know, I'm sorry" he said making her and Lysander laugh again.
As Lysander was laughing he realised that there was something in his pocket. He took a look and started laughing once more.
"What's so funny Lysander. Don't you realise we're going to be killed any second" said Sarah who began to panic.
"That fool" said Lysander as he pulled out a knife from his pocket with his good arm.
The knife was no normal knife. It was very sharp, and look enchanted as it had a golden glow to it. Sarah stared in awe as Lysander smiled and looked up at her.
"Where did you get that knife from?" Sarah asked.
"I took it with me when I went looking for a cure from the anti-Midas curse, just in case I bumped into any threats. I was going to use it when I got captured by the figure who I now realise was Quince, but he knocked me out cold in less than a second!"
"But what will you do with it?"
"I'm guessing Quince didn't have much time to plan all of this, seeing as he's only just gone to get the others. That means that this cage is probably made of nothing more than ordinary metal. Surely with this knife I can cut my way out of it."
"Well hurry!" said Sarah who's eyes were half filled with anticipation and half filled with fear.
Lysander held the knife tightly in his hand and slowly touched one of the metal bars with it. He began to smile as the knife smoothly cut through each bar like it was cutting through a piece of cake. Every cut made quite a loud screeching sound but Sarah couldn't help but smile as she watched her best friend free himself. Even though the bars cut quite easily it still took a few minutes until he was free. When he'd cut enough bars he struggled with his broken arm to get out and then walked over to Sarah. He bent down as she watched him cut through the chain that was locking her up. When it broke free Sarah sighed with relief then rubbed her sore foot, but then stopped as she looked in pity at Lysander's broken arm.
"Don't worry about it" he said noticing that she was watching him trying not to act like he was in pain. "Let's just set Jareth free and get the hell out of here."
Sarah stood up and they walked over to the other cage. But the voices that were coming from just outside the theatre made Sarah jump. It was Quince!
"We could sneak out of the side door so they wouldn't see us" Lysander who had his knife in his hand ready to cut the bird cage open.
"It's too late" whispered Sarah hopelessly.
Just as Lysander was about to cut the cage open he yelped.
"Ouch!" he whispered noticing that the owl had bit him. "What are you doing Jareth?" he said as he dropped the knife from his hand.
The owl screeched then lifted it's left wing and pointed it in a certain direction. Sarah followed it's wing until she realised that it was pointing to the side door, signalling for them to leave without him.
"We can't go without you Jareth" she said as tears formed in her eyes. She reached out her hand and put it between the cage bars to stroke the bird. But the owl screeched again and peck her hand. "Ouch!" she yelped.
Jareth flapped his wings as if to say that he wanted them to go away. The voices from outside the theatre were getting louder.
"Come on Sarah. They're coming. We'll come back for Jareth, I promise."
Lysander took Sarah's hand with his good arm and they ran down the stage as fast as they could and headed towards the side door. Sarah wore only her nightgown but that was the least of her worries. She smiled with relief as they got to the door. She quickly opened it as it creaked with its rusty hinges. She couldn't believe Quince had left it unlocked. He really hadn't thought this through.
"Not so fast!" shouted Quince causing Sarah and Lysander to gasp in shock.
They turned their heads to see Quince standing with his skeleton guards, crossing his arms and giving them an evil smirk. Voices could be heard from outside of the door which Sarah recognised to be the audience who were invited to watch her execution.
"I might have known that pretty boy would come to the rescue" he scoffed.
Sarah tried to quietly open the door a little more but failed to be ignored.
"Going somewhere?" asked Quince. "I doubt you'd get very far."
"At least I could try" she shouted.
"Oh well be my guest" said Quince. "Only don't except fancy pants to be coming with you."
Sarah turned around to look at Lysander. She saw that the guards had already captured him. He tried to struggle but his arm was in too much pain.
"Run Sarah!" shouted Lysander.
"Make one move Sarah and your friends throat will be snapped faster than you can blink."
Sarah noticed that Jareth had used the same expression before. These Underground folk obviously didn't have much of a vocabulary. She closed the door, knowing that she could never leave without Lysander. One of the skeleton guards came behind her and grasped her arms. She and Lysander were dragged back onto the stage. They watched as an even larger cage than before dropped down from the ceiling. They were both pushed inside this time. The guards made sure that Lysander had no weapons and locked the cage so securely, not even the heaviest sumo wrestler on Earth could break through. As soon as they were caged up the main doors opened and the audience started to walk in. There were so many of them; hundreds, maybe even thousands! Some looked like they were humans dressed in fancy regal clothing. Some were blatantly not human at all. Sarah gawped when she saw some of the most ugliest creatures she had ever seen, with brown skin, warts and yellow teeth. They all had eager smiles on their faces, as if they were coming to see the greatest show on earth.
"What now?" Sarah whispered to Lysander.
"I wish I knew" he said honestly.
They looked around at all the people who began to take their seats. Some of them sneered at Sarah. They saw Quince who was greeting everyone at the door. The skeleton guards were staring at Sarah and Lysander on the stage with their cold open mouths. The relief that Sarah had felt a moment ago had turned into terror. She looked at Jareth just to see if he had any ideas. Even if he did it would be hard to understand an owl. But she did notice that he was acting rather strangely. It kept nodding its head like it was trying to tell her something. Sarah nudged Lysander.
"Look at Jareth" she whispered.
Lysander looked at the owl. He was staring at Sarah with it's big beady eyes. Then it lowered it's head to Sarah's chest.
"What's he doing?" she asked.
Looking at Sarah, Lysander gasped.
"Sarah your locket" he said.
"What about it?"
"I totally forgot. That locket is not what you think it is."
"What do you mean, my mother gave me this. It's just an ordinary locket" she whispered.
"No, you only think your mother gave it to you. When your mother left home, that was when you began to turn to the Labyrinth and read the stories. Jareth knew that one day you might come to Labyrinth and that would make you exposed to these threats. So he gave you the locket…to protect you."
"Stop talking!" shouted Quince who then turned back round to greet the guests.
"He can't have" Sarah whispered even more with tars in her eyes. "Dad told me that my mother gave it to me. How could it protect me, it's just a stupid locket with a picture of my mother inside."
"Has it really. Sarah I know you've never been able to open that locket. And that's because it was meant for this time."
Sarah looked down at the pendant. She saw that it was glowing, something that it had never done before.
"There, you see, it's glowing. That means that the time is right. The locket can only be used once. If you open it at the right time, everyone in this room in front of the locket will die. I'm sorry Sarah but as soon as the entire audience is sat down you'll have to open it and kill them all. It's the only way."
"But I'm not a killer, I can't."
"Sarah listen to me. These people are nothing but trouble. They have no compassion. They want you dead. They want me dead and they want Jareth dead. You have to open it."
Sarah started to cry. It was so hard to take all of this in. Her locket was the only thing she thought represented her mothers love, and now she had found out that all this time she was carrying a deadly weapon.
She touched the glowing locket, stared at it for a moment, then hid it down her nightgown so that it was out of sight.
"Okay" she said. "Tell me when, and I'll open it."
"I'm proud of you Sarah" he said as he kissed her cheek.
Then he looked at the owl with embarrassment realising that Sarah was Jareth's, not his. Nevertheless the owl blinked at them, saying that he understood and knew what they had to do. It was only a matter of time before Sarah would open the locket and see if it really would save all of their lives.
I'm baaaaaaaaaaack! I've finished this story now so you won't have to wait long for the next and last update.
P.S. I've started a new story 'Wanted!' if anyone's interested.
Luv RK!
(I have some news. I've created a new Labyrinth site (go to my profile and click on homepage) - I know! And just when you thought i couldn't get any better (joke)! Anyway it's new - and will get better with time. It has some pics, music, quotes, a bit of astrology and a chat room (so us fellow fanfic fan's can chat 2 each other if we wanted). Oh and please sign the guestbook - and do the survey!! See you soon!