It took about ten more minutes until the whole audience had got themselves seated. Even though she now had a plan, Sarah was still trembling with fear.
"On this day…" Quince shouted to his fellow audience, "…we shall witness this girl right here being DESTROYED! So that she will never try to take over the Underground or never tell another a soul about our world. It is a misfortune to take the life away from someone so youthful, but it would be a crime against our nature to not eliminate a potential threat to our race. If anyone hereby objects to this event, speak now and let it be on your conscience that you doubted the Underground Law!"
As expected no one spoke, just sneered at Sarah and her friends.
"Then let it begin!" said Quince as he came up on stage.
Sarah's fear emerged on her expression. She stared with her big moonstone eyes at Quince making her feel like a little child in front of such a powerful man. She felt terrified as her walked up to the cage. Lysander put his hands on her shoulders to comfort her.
"You know what you have to do" he whispered. "When you open that locket. It will kill them all, and you're curse will be lifted, okay?"
She nodded slightly. The cage opened and everyone cheered as Quince pulled her out. He walked her over to the centre of the stage and pushed her down on her knees. Sarah looked out into the audience. She put her fingers on her locket ready to open it when Lysander gave the signal. She saw all of those faces leering at her, knowing that she would have to kill them. How could she do it? Would it make her a real murderer? A criminal? How could she slay thousands of people, human or not, and face her family again? Or face herself? Her heart stopped when she saw Ludo staring at her in the audience clutching a guard in his hand. Poor thing. He was smiling as if he had just saved her life, unaware that Quince would try and kill her any second. What was he doing here. Did this mean that Hoggle and Sir Didymus were there too? She looked around at the rest of the audience. She couldn't see them. But she couldn't open the locket now. If she did she would kill Ludo. Sweat and tears were dripping over her face. What was she to do?
"Go away Ludo" she tried to mouth to him. But it was no use. The dumb beast was stood smiling with the rest of the audience as if he had come to see a cabaret.
She looked up at Quince who was now holding a large battleaxe in his hand ready to swing at her. She heard Lysander cough loudly. That was his signal for her to open the locket. She couldn't, Ludo was still there! He coughed again. Still she didn't open it. Quince raised the battleaxe up high. The audience gazed with anticipation.
"Now Sarah!" Lysander shouted. "Now! Do it!"
Sarah panicked. The battleaxe was coming for her. She looked at Quince then looked at Ludo. She had to do it! If not for herself then for Lysander and Jareth. She clutched the locket tightly and closed her eyes.
"Please don't hurt Ludo" she whispered to herself.
She placed her fingers ready to open the locket, only one of the skeleton guards had seen her. It started to run up to her. Sarah panicked. Quince frowned, wondering what the guard was doing. She'd been caught! Before she could open the locket the guard grabbed hold of her hand and shook the pendant away from her.
But just when Sarah thought all of her hope had gone she heard Jareth behind her screeching as loud as he could, rattling the cage as a distraction.
"What are you doing with her?" demanded Quince. "Go and shut that owl up!"
The guard obeyed its master and let go of Sarah. It walked over to the cage and swung it's axe at it. Sarah quickly held her locket again, fearing what the guard would do to Jareth. And with one sharp movement the glowing locket opened...
...All of a sudden there was a beaming white light which filled the whole room. It blinded Sarah. She could no longer see the audience anymore but she could hear them screaming. She couldn't see Quince either but she heard him drop the battleaxe.
"What's going on?" he demanded from behind her.
There was so much noise. The entire room was screaming. Sarah didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She had no idea what was happening but whatever it was it had to be better than what Quince was going to do to her.
"I'm sorry Ludo!" she shouted above all the noise. "I'm sorry!"
She heard noises in front of her and behind her, included Jareth's cage crash to the ground. Then she heard the owl squeal like it was in pain. Oh no! What if the axe had caught him.
"Jareth!" she cried.
"Sarah!" shouted Lysander. "Are you okay!"
She tried to answer but the light and the noise were too much for her and within second she passed out.
A few minutes later she opened her eyes, thinking that she was going to wake up in a more pleasant place, but to her dismay she was still in the theatre, cold and shaken. All of the audience had vanished, including Ludo. A hand went on her shoulder which made her jump. She turned around relieved to see Lysander. Quince was gone and Jareth was no longer in his cage.
"Are you okay" he asked.
"Yes I'm fine. Where's Jareth?"
"I don't know. But I have bad news" he said.
"It's Ludo isn't it?"
"Well there's that too...I'm sorry. But no, it's Quince! He worked it out about your locket. He knew you had to be in front of it to be killed. I saw him step back when you opened it. Everyone else has gone. But Quince is still alive!"
"That's right!" said Quince who appeared behind them, crossing his hands and looking extremely cross.
"Quince please" said Lysander. "We're friends aren't we. The others have been killed. There's no one to side with you anymore. Just leave her alone. She won't try to take over the Labyrinth, honest."
"Ha! That's a lie if ever I heard one. The damage has already been done. I said that she'd destroy our world and she has. She has just killed a third of our population. Now it's only right for me to finish of what I started" he said as he put his hands around Sarah's throat."
But before he had the chance to strangle her he fell to the floor, being knocked out by some one behind him.
"You spineless filthy good-for-nothing delinquent" said Jareth, now back in his human form.
"Jareth!" Sarah cried flinging her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're okay."
All of her nervous feelings disappeared when she embraced him. With him she felt safe. She looked into his eyes and smiled. He smiled back. Lysander looked on, a little embarrassed at the scene.
"I'll just go check on Hoggle and the gang" he said awkwardly as he began to walk away.
"Lysander" said Jareth sharply making him turn around, fearing him a little. "Thank you" he said, twitching the corner of his mouth into a smile.
Lysander smiled back bashfully. "Aw come on, it was nothing."
"What do you mean it was nothing" said Sarah. "You saved my life. You've been saving my life all these years and I never even knew it. How can I thank you."
"You don't need to. What you did today is the biggest thanks you could give me. I know how hard it was for you, especially with Ludo in the audience."
Sarah bowed her head remembering her giant friend.
"It wasn't your fault Sarah" said Jareth.
"Yeah he's right" said Lysander. "It was just something you had to do. There was no way you could have let this idiot kill you" he said looking down at Quince.
"Is he dead?" she asked.
"No" said Jareth.
She looked at him in surprise thinking that he would have killed him.
"I've got a much better plan" he said smirking.
Later on Sarah, Jareth and Lysander were in the throne room at the Goblin Castle surrounded by hundreds of goblins and Underground folk talking about the earlier events. Jareth sat at his throne with Sarah and Lysander stood beside him. Then one of the goblins approached them carrying a tray of champagne. It wore a fancy dark blue suit, gloves and had combed hair. The three of them took a champagne glass without thanking the goblin. It looked very angry.
"That will be all Quince" smirked Jareth.
Lysander and Sarah laughed as they watched Quince the goblin stomp of as it went to offer all the other guest champagne.
"How long will he stay like that for?" asked Sarah.
"Oh only forever" Jareth said. "Not long at all really" he said smiling at her.
Sarah turned her head to see her remaining friends; Hoggle, Sir Didymus and Ambrosius standing there trying to look proudly at Sarah, but she could see the sadness in their eyes.
"Hoggle" she said as she walked up to them. "Sir Didymus, is Ludo….really, had he…gone?"
"Yes my lady" answered Sir Didymus. "Brave Ludo perished as a hero."
"But it weren't your fault Sarah so don't go blamin' yourself" said Hoggle.
"He's right Sarah, Ludo wouldn't have wanted us to grieve over for him" said Sir Didymus.
"He was always such a happy beast" added Sarah.
She put her arms around her friends as they squeezed each other tightly, saying goodbye to their giant friend.
Even later on, Jareth and Sarah were on a secluded balcony in the castle. She didn't realise befiore how many surprise areas the castle actually had. Jareth admired her beauty as the wind softly blew her hair from her face. But he could tell something was bothering her.
"Your mother did love you" he said after a while, realising why she was so sad.
"How do you know" she sighed. "The only thing I thought she'd left me turned out to be a murderous weapon which I've worn for as long as I can remember."
"That was your fourth wish wasn't it? To see your mother."
"Yes" she answered softly.
"Sarah you know that isn't possible" he said.
She paused for a second.
"I know" she whispered quietly. "I just wanted to see her face, even if it wasn't real. I wanted to know that she was okay and wasn't mad at me."
"Sarah that day she died…"
"She was in a car crash. I rang her on the phone a few hours before and yelled at her, telling her that she was a lousy mother because she never came to visit me. The police told me that she was driving too fast…because she was really mad that I yelled at her" she started crying. "Oh Jareth it's all my fault! I killed my mother!"
"Shhh" he said putting his arms around her to comfort her. "It wasn't your fault. She did love you."
"You don't know that" she said.
"Yes I do."
She looked up at him curiously.
"I will grant you your fourth wish. Look" he said as he held his arm and showed her a crystal ball. Sarah gazed inside it and saw an image appearing. It was her mother. It looked like she had just put down the phone from the conversation she had with Sarah. She walked into her living room where she approached a man, the same man who spoke to Sarah at her mothers funeral.
"I'm going to see Sarah" she heard her mother say. "I know what you're thinking, but she's my daughter and I love her. I need to talk to her, tell her that I'm sorry."
Sarah cried as she watched her mother pick up a cardboard box full of her prized possessions; dancing trophies, old soft toys, pictures, games etc. Her mother had kept them. She really did care for her and think about her. Sarah watched and watched, right up until the moment of the car crash. She flinched when she saw her mother's car collide into another. But then noticed that her mother did not die straight away. She managed to stay alive just for a short while as she spoke the police and paramedics. They knew that it was too late to save her, but she before she died Sarah heard her whispered a few words quietly. It was unsure whether the surrounding people actually heard her or not.
"Tell Sarah, my…Sarah…I love her, it's not her fault. Tell her…"
And then she died.
Sarah cried in Jareth's arms as she realised that she know longer needed to mourn anymore. Her mother died knowing that she loved her daughter and that was all that mattered.
A few hours later and Sarah was ready to go home.
"I'm afraid it'll be a while before you can come back here again" said Lysander. "The rest of the population still needs to adjust to the fact that so many of their people have been killed. Don't worry they'll soon realise that it was for the best.
Sarah worriedly looked at Jareth. Did this mean that she could never see him again?
"Come come now Sarah, just because you can't visit the Labyrinth doesn't mean I can't come and visit you from time to time now does it" he grinned.
Jareth bent down an whispered something into Sarah's ear which made her smile. Then she straightened up and looked at all of her friends.
"I'll see you all" she said to Jareth and all of the goblins who took no interest in what she was saying.. "Come on Lysander."
"Actually…I think I'm going to stay here for a while" Lysander said.
"What?" she asked.
"Well, I've spent so long on Earth that I forgot how much I missed this place. My mission was to make sure that no harm would come to you and now that I know you're safe I can stop worrying about you. I know that you need time to breathe on your own, without me watching over you. I've watched you grow up beautifully Sarah and now it's time for you to make the most of your life."
"Will I ever see you again?" she asked tearfully.
Lysander laughed.
"Of course you will. I'll always be there for you whenever you need me. All you have to do is call."
Sarah gave her friend a goodbye hug, she took one last look into Jareth's eyes, not saying a proper goodbye to him because she knew she'd see him soon.
Jareth threw crystal up in the air. Sarah watched as it formed a silent white explosion and sparkles of dust covered over her. When the dust had cleared Sarah found herself in her bedroom. She looked at the clock. It was night. Exaclty the same time as when Quince had first kidnapped her and Jareth. She smiled to herself - at least she could get some sleep, fianlly. She looked at her nice warm bed and saw The Truth In Mythology still in the same place as before. She walked over to the book and looked at the page showing her the Labyrinth and the Minotaur. She frowned knowing that the book didn't have a clue what it was talking about.
"Ah" said a hoarse voice from behind her.
Startled, she turned around to face the Wiseman and his hat, staring at her through her mirror.
"As in the great myth of Theseus; one must penetrate to the heart of the Labyrinth in search of the great beast, the Minotaur, if they wish to succeed" the Wiseman dictated noticing that Sarah was reading the book.
"But, there was no Minotaur" she said. "I didn't slay any such beast."
"Do you know what lies in the heart of the castle young maiden?" asked the Wiseman.
"The Goblin Castle" she said, surprised that his bird-hat wasn't talking. Then she realised that its mouth had being covered in tape.
"Exactly" said the Wiseman. "And inside that castle lies the beast."
"But Jareth's not a beast" she said.
"No, he isn't. But you thought he was at first didn't you. It was only when you got to know him better that you realised he wasn't purely evil. The Minotaur is just a symbol representing whatever beast may lie in the centre…Do you know what happened to Theseus after he slayed that Minotaur?"
"What?"
"He died. The book says that you must penetrate the heart of the beast, but only because no one has ever tried winning the heart of the beast. You did that, didn't you?"
"Yes I guess I did" she smiled.
"You learnt many things in the Labyrinth. You learnt how you felt about your brother, you learnt how you felt about Jareth and your latest lesson; to recover from the loss of your mother…You learnt to accept that you had not lost her but indeed you have found her."
"Yes you're right" she said. "I found that she did love me and she wasn't mad at me."
"So no more grieving" said the Wiseman.
"Yes. Thank you" she said before she watched him disappear so that all she could see was her own reflection.
She smiled at herself, something she hadn't done in a while. She remembered how just a few days ago she had dark, ghostly eyes and a sour looking expression. All she could see now was a bright, radiant young girl with her whole future ahead of her.
Wait for it...