"Keep the Magic Alive"
Chapter 4
By Aiijuin

Disclaimer: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!
This story is dark, and therefore is marked M+ for Mature content

Chapter 4: Repeat Offense

Sarah sat down to read the book as Jareth prepared some coffee in the kitchen for he and his wife. Jaime clapped his hands and pulled a cupie-doll from the box next to the sofa. He twirled it in his hands and Sarah grimaced at the ugliness of the toy. She opened the book, which didn't seem to have much picturesque content inside.

It looked like a simple play book to her with a brief narration in the beginning, and Sarah had to remind herself that it didn't matter if Jaime grabbed the most beautiful picture book in his hands or the most boring article without pictures. He wouldn't notice anyway. Only the story mattered to him anyhow.

Jareth returned with two mugs of hot coffee in his hands as he cuddled next to his wife and son on the couch. She placed her head on his shoulder and Jaime stretched out into the laps of both of his parents, while he twiddled with fuchsia colored hair of the plastic-brown doll. Sarah cleared her throat and read outloud, "Once upon a time, in a Castle Beyond the Goblin City, deep within the Underground, there lived a Goblin King."

Jaime clapped and said, "His name is daddy's name…"

Sarah looked over at Jareth while he shrugged at her and remarked, "Our son has quite an imagination… but honestly as you read onward, you'll find that that Goblin-chap sounds like a retched baby-nabbing monster to me. Not sure why Jaime associates me with him…"

Jamie narrowed his eyes and said, "Shh! Daddy, this is the best part!"

Sarah raised her eyebrows and continued to read, "One day, the Goblin King had fallen in love with a girl and had given her special magic powers in which she could use for whatever her heart desired. She only needed to say the magic words to use them."

Jaime giggled and shouted loudly, "I wish! I wish!"

Jareth ran his fingers through his son's golden blond hair as the little boy began to swing the doll back and forth above him. Sarah continued, "The girl whom the Goblin King had fallen in love with, had a stepmother who always made her stay home with her baby brother. And the baby was a spoiled child that wanted everything for himself, while the young girl was practically a slave…. Wow, I can see why Toby hates this story…"

Jaime scolded, "Mommy! That's not the words of the story!"

Sarah pinched him lightly on the nose and made a honking sound, while Jareth laughed. She continued after Jaime settled again, "But what no one knew is that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and had given her certain powers…."

Sarah turned to Jareth and said, "If I had certain powers, the first thing I'd wish for is for more hours in a day. I can't seem to get anything done at home anymore…"

Jareth chuckled and nodded in agreement, while Jaime nagged again, "Mommy…"

"Okay, I'm sorry…I'm reading.." Sarah apologized. "So, one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her, she called on the goblins for help. 'Say you're right words', the Goblins said, 'And we'll take the baby to the Goblin City, and you will be free.'"

Jareth yawned, he had heard the story so many times, that he swore they were starting to affect his ever-growing residual memory problems. Sarah took a sip from her coffee mug before continuing onward, "But the girl knew, that the King of the Goblins would keep the baby in his castle forever and ever and ever, and turn it into a goblin. So, the girl suffered in silence, until one night when she was tired from a day of housework, and hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother…"

At that moment, Sahara ran down the stairs and added, "Or her real mother and she could no longer stand it…so she cried…"

Jaime shouted, thinking that his sister was enacting the story outloud, replied with a laugh, "No! Sahara, don't say the magic words!"

Sarah narrowed her eyes, when she heard the 'real mother' remark. She knew that Sahara couldn't wait to jump down her throat with an argument as the girl rolled up her sleeves before she prepared to wash the dishes in the kitchen. Sarah noticed the cut marks on her arms and asked, "Are you doing that again? Do you want us to put you in a hospital? Why? Why would you do that?"

Sahara pouted and ignored her mother's question. Jaime became flustered as he began to paw at Sarah's shirt, in order to prod her back into reading "The Labyrinth". Sarah stroked his face gently in order to settle him, but she kept eye contact with her youngest daughter and Jareth finally said sternly, "Sahara! Answer your mother's question!"

Sahara's eyes filled with angry tears and she blustered, "I hate you all! I just wish….I wish…"

Jennifer and Julia ran downstairs to see what all of the commotion was about. They could see that their sister was throwing a tantrum again. Sarah snapped, "If wishes were horses, then we'd all take a ride."

"OOH! I wish the goblins would take you ALL away, now, now, now! RIGHT NOW!" Sahara screamed with her eyes closed.

She ran back upstairs and slammed her bedroom door behind her. She pounded her hands down on her windowsill, and noticed that a strong lightening storm must have rolled in while she had been brooding on the stairs for the last fifteen minutes. She glanced farther out the window to see the severity of the storm.

However, she flung back with a scream when an elegant white barn owl began to flutter and claw at her window. Sahara tried to turn on her bedroom lights to frighten the beast away, but the switch didn't work. She fled from the room and ran downstairs to tell her father what was going on. However, she nearly tripped down the narrow staircase, when she realized that the house was black.

All of the lights are out, Sahara thought. Then, she shouted in a paranoid manner, "Okay, quit screwing around. I'm SO not frightened!"

She walked into the living room, where her parents had sat just moments before, but the room was also dark and empty. Sahara grumbled nervously, "This isn't funny guys! I'm totally not laughing! You all suck!"

Sahara spun around and moved cautiously into the kitchen. She hit the coat rack with her knee and bent down to rub it. "That really hurt! Okay, I get it! I'm sorry, alright? You can come out now…. Mom? Daddy? Jaime?"

The scratching began at the backdoor of the house and Sahara let out a yelp. It was the owl again. She pressed herself against the wall of the kitchen and picked up the landline phone next to her, in order to dial for help.

No dial tone…

Sahara grabbed a cast-iron pan from the rack overhead and clutched it tightly in both of her hands. She lied, "Leave me alone! I'm armed and I've called the police! I mean it! I'll totally shoot you if you come through that door!"

At that, the door crashed open with intense winds behind it, and the barn owl began to harass Sahara as it fluttered over her head and caused her to drop the pan while she quickly covered her face. When she looked up again, the winds had stopped and the storm had calmed to an eerie silence. She saw someone standing in the door. Although dark, the person seemed to be illuminated by their fairness. At first she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman from the hair, but then as the figure drew closer, she knew the cloaked person was a 'he'.

The Goblin King stood in Sahara's kitchen with his head turned slightly to the side. He walked closer and closer still, as she backed farther and farther into a corner by the sink. The girl asked, "Who are you?"

"You know very well, who I am," the Goblin King said.

"But…that book isn't real. You can't be the Goblin King!" Sahara blinked and then added, "Actually, to be honest, you sound like my dad, and look like my dad wearing a really bad wig and extreme eye shadow…. Daddy, is that really you?"

"I'm afraid not, Sahara," The Goblin King smirked with his head tilted in amusement. "You wished them away, don't you remember? They're all gone."

Sahara was about to grab at the Goblin King's hair to see if it was fake, but then he produced a glass crystal from thin air. She stepped back again and said, "But I was angry at them… I didn't really mean what I said, you know."

"Oh, you didn't?" The golden-haired king asked with a sideways grin and his eyebrows raised high. He began to twirl the crystal back and forth from hand to hand and Sahara felt mesmerized by its smooth motions.

She asked, "What is that?"

"It's a crystal, nothing more….but if you turn it this way, it will show you your dreams, Sahara," the Goblin King finished as the girl gulped dry air down her throat.

She was having trouble buying this trick. If her parents were playing a joke on her, then it was an elaborate one. The king continued, "Do you want it?"

Sahara didn't know what to say, but the magic man finished, "Then, forget about them… all of them. Now, go back to your room, and play with your iPod and chat on the internet. You have no worries anymore and no responsibilities. No family to burden you or cause you sorrow and grief. You're free, Sahara, free as a bird."

"But I need my family back, please!" Sahara pleaded.

The Goblin King help up the crystal and purred, "Sahara…"

The crystal became a living snake as he uncoiled it with both of his gloved hands and said, "Don't defy me!"

His eyes opened wide as he tossed the snake at her and it wrapped around her neck. She screamed as she tried to pull it off of her, but when she did, it turned into a gaudy-colored scarf and fell to the floor as it became a gremlin or monster of some sort. Sahara wasn't really sure.

The Goblin King cackled and said, "You're no match for me, Sahara."

"But you don't understand…" Sahara started, "I been having problems and I really need my family right now."

The Goblin King closed his eyes in agitation. He sighed and said, "Fine. Whatever. You said, you hated them. If you really want them back, they're there."

The cloaked man pointed out the back door of the King household and Sahara saw a new world bathed in a warm-orange light stand before her eyes. As she turned to glance behind her again, her house was gone. The Goblin King pointed forward and said, "Hello? They're over this way, Sahara."

She looked and saw a massive Labyrinth with a castle at the center. She pinched herself to see if she was dreaming. The king asked, "Do you still want to save them?"

"I guess if I want them back, then I really have no choice, do I?" Sahara muttered.

"Yes, it is your choice, I suppose... but I'd strongly advise you to turn back, Sahara…. Turn back before it's too late."

"It's so far…" Sahara whined, "How long do you think it will take me to get to the center of a place like that?"

"Hopefully not more than thirteen hours," replied the Goblin King as he spun the hands backwards on a clock that floated in the air. "If you can't get to them before then, then they'll become a part of my castle for ever and ever and ever…"

Sahara bit her lip. She didn't have any other choice. She didn't have any physical friends that she could move in with, and she was only fifteen, so she couldn't live on her own. She thought about living with her Uncle Toby and his wife and kids, but he wasn't her dad, and she wanted her dad back, if no one else.

She finally answered, "Can't you give me any clues?"

The Goblin King snickered at her as he began to vanish into thin air. His last words to her were, "…and you're nothing like your mother or twin sisters…such a pity…"

Sahara slumped and thought about turning around. She considered living with her grandparents, but nothing could ever replace her father and mother in the end.

Slowly, she pulled her shoulders upright and began to trudge down the stairs towards the outer walls of the Labyrinth.