"Keep the Magic Alive"
Chapter 9
By Aiijuin
Disclaimer: All things "Labyrinth" belong to Henson Companies as well as many other wonderful contributors. I own nothing!
This story is VERY dark, and therefore is marked: M+ for Mature content
Chapter 9: Seriously Disturbed
Sarah kept looking around and couldn't find Jaime anywhere. In fact, she didn't even recognize her house layout. She returned to the throne-room area and sat down in the Goblin King's throne. The goblins gasped, knowing full well that only the king himself was allowed to sit in that chair.
Jennifer leapt forward and shouted, "Mom!"
But before she could finish her warning, the Goblin King came sweeping back in miserably. He snapped his fingers at the twin girls and pointed to the door. "Leave!" He shouted sternly.
Julia and Jennifer didn't waste any time in running from the room. The Goblin King marched swiftly to his throne and placed his hands on his hips, while asking rhetorically, "Are we enjoying ourselves, Sarah?"
Sarah raised her eyebrows and replied, "If you mean, am I 'enjoying' my drug trip into la-la land, thanks to you mixing up our coffee's again, then, 'No.'"
He began to tap his foot and pointed to his arm, "Do you know what the little brat did to me?"
"Look, Jareth," Sarah began. "I'll call Doctor Strauss first thing tomorrow morning, and have Sahara admitted to the hospital for observation, okay? Don't flip out over it. There's always one kid that has problems in a large family. She's just going through an extreme version of the 'fugly' years…we all have them… I think. I can't remember mine, but Karen said I was horrible at Sahara's age too...although I wasn't quite as horrible..."
"I'm not talking about the girl, Sarah," The Goblin King muttered. "I'm talking about the boy."
"Since when have we been having problems with Jaime?" Sarah blinked. "You said he was an angel, you said he was behaving well, you said…"
"He kicked me!" The Goblin King interrupted.
"Maybe your costume freaked him out, Honey," Sarah rubbed her eyes. "Remember, even though he's more verbal than most children his age, he's still just a baby… He's three years old, not ten… Of course, he couldn't see you in the costume, but maybe…. Oh, never mind. We'll talk about this in the morning."
The Goblin King raised his eyebrows in amusement as Sarah stood up and pinched him on the butt as she finished, "Come on, Van Halen, lead your trippy wife up to bed, before I start running naked through the halls. And next time, try not to mix up our coffees again… I have work in the morning, and my boss will be pissed if I call out overmedicated again."
The Goblin King continued to stare, until Sarah finally broke the silence and asked, "Jareth? Are you okay? You're staring at me strangely."
No comment.
Sarah sighed, "Okay, go into the kitchen and take your meds…. You're zoning out on me again. I don't want you keeping me awake all night long with the sleepwalking and singing and dancing. It wouldn't be so bad if it were sex, but its not and it is what it is…"
The Goblin King finally said, "Oh no, Sarah. You're never returning to work again. There's no escape from me this time."
Sarah shook her head and looked away, "That's it. Where's the phone? I'm calling your shrink."
"You can't call anyone, Sarah… No one will help you now," The Goblin King stepped closer, which forced Sarah backwards back into his throne.
"Jareth, you're freaking me out now. Okay? So, if this is a game, I want you to stop it, because it isn't funny," Sarah placed her arm on his, and honestly considered asking her brother Toby to take her kids first thing in the morning, until she could get her husband stabilized.
"But I adore games, Sarah," The Goblin King leaned closer. "And this time you won't win, because my rules have changed."
Sarah began to get frightened. Her eyes started to fill with tears as she couldn't see any recognition in his eyes. She pleaded, "Jareth… Honey? Don't. Please! This isn't you. I love you!"
"Love?" The Goblin King sneered. "I cast that emotion far from me long ago, along with compassion, joy, and half of my heart that you cut out, after you broke it into two!"
Sarah panicked and slithered out of the throne and dodged around the Goblin King, until she fled out the door. She had moved too quickly for him to catch her. Sarah King bounded out through the Labyrinth at extreme speeds, until she ran into a dead end. She shook everywhere and began to sob in the corner, until she thought that she heard Sahara's voice nearby.
It was coming from the other side of the wall. Sarah wiped the tears from her eyes and whispered, "Sahara? Is that you?"
"Mommy?" came a response from the other side.
Sarah smiled sadly between her tears and asked, "Are you okay, honey? You sound upset…"
"Mommy, there's this guy running around here that looks just like daddy wearing a bad wig…" Sahara's voice replied through deep breaths. "I accidentally made a wish… I don't hate you, Mommy. I'm sorry!"
Sarah wiped the tears from her eyes and replied, "I'm not angry at you, Sahara. Do you know where your brother and sisters are? We have to find them and go to Uncle Toby's house tonight."
"No," Sahara sobbed. "I've only seen daddy, and he ran off to find Jaime. Jaime was crying, but neither of us could find him."
Sarah bit her lip upon hearing the news of Jaime's upset, and then said slowly, "Honey, your father's very sick right now, and…"
Sarah stopped. She didn't know how to confront her daughter with this topic.
Sahara interrupted, "No, Mom, that wild-haired, blonde guy who looks like Daddy in a nasty, punk wig, isn't really Daddy. He's the Goblin King. I just spoke to Daddy an hour ago and he was fine."
Sarah took a deep breath in and continued, "When people are sick…you know… sometimes the brain gets sick, and people think that they are somebody else. It isn't their fault. ...and they even dress like that …um… other person that they think they are, and they just don't realize....that what they think they're seeing ...isn't really there."
"Mom!" Sahara shouted. "That guy isn't Daddy! I'm sure! We're really in a Labyrinth right now, and you're not having a mental breakdown or something, because then we all would be having the same delusion. That wouldn't be possible, right?"
Sarah knelt down to the ground and drew her knees up to her chin and said between intermittent tears, "I don't know…anymore, Sahara."
Sahara could hear the change in her mother's voice and cried frantically, "Mom? Did the Goblin King hurt you? What did he do to you?"
Sarah placed her head in her arms and began to weep. She wasn't sure how she was going to get her children out of this mess. Still assuming that she had accidentally been drugged with Jareth's psychiatric medications, Sarah felt that there was no way that she could possible reach them until the effects wore off. She thought about Jareth's anger at Jaime and wondered how many years of counseling it would take for her children to work through his sudden psychotic break.
Then, Sarah heard Sahara cry out from the other side of the wall, "Daddy! I'm over here! Mom! It's Daddy! He's here!"
Sarah stood up and placed her hands against the wall. She looked up and wondered if it was really a wall. She tapped at it, and it felt quite solid. Sahara's calls were answered when Sarah heard Jareth on the other side. Jareth's voice rang out in relief, "Oh, thank god! Sahara! It took me nearly two hours to get your brother out of that pit that he had been thrown into."
Sarah covered her mouth in shock and backed away from the wall. Sarah could hear Jaime's little voice saying, "I kicked the Goblin King and he let me go… Then, I ran and fell into a hole with slimy hands that grabbed me everywhere."
Sarah screamed and began to shake in fury. The shock of Jaime's words caused her to feel like she had been punched in the gut. Sahara cried out, "Mom? Mommy?! Are you okay?"
Jareth could be heard asking Sahara, "Is that your mother on the other side?"
Then he cried out, "Sarah? Is that you, Darling?"
Something inside Sarah snapped and she banged the wall, "Get your goddamned hands off of my children, Jareth!"
"Sarah?" Jareth asked in a startled voice. "Are you okay?"
"NO! I'm not okay! You've purposely drugged me up, so you could do ABUSE our children! I want you out of my house! I want you out, NOW!" Sarah screamed as she continued to slam her hands against the stonewalls of the Labyrinth until they bled.
"Sarah, I would never do such a thing," Jareth cried out from the other side. "My god, what kind of a monster do you think I am?"
Sarah replied back with a shout, "You're not yourself, Jareth! Don't think that just because I work long hours everyday of the week, that your strange behavior escapes my notice! You need help! What freaks me out the most is, I don't know how long this personality shift had been happening to you?!?"
"Sarah, it's just a slip," Jareth replied in a wavering voice, "I swear I was going to call the doctor first thing tomorrow morning and have my medication adjusted again."
"You can't be regulated," Sarah cried as she leaned against the wall completely distraught. "You need constant supervision. You need serious psychiatric intensive care… Just look at Sahara…she cuts herself. Next, it will be Jaime…Oh, my god, oh my god…"
Sarah heard a sound from behind her and she turned her head slowly. Her eyes met with a familiar, wild-haired, blonde man, wearing a long black cloak. She pinned herself against the wall and stuttered through thick tears, "J-Jareth?"
The Goblin King smirked at her and held up a magic crystal as he whispered, "It's all just an illusion anyway, Darling."
Sarah shrieked as she looked within the glass ball and then everything became suddenly silent.
From the other side of the wall Sahara gasped, "Mommy?"
Jareth could be heard again as little Jaime began to cry, "Sarah? Darling? Is everything alright? Sarah?! Answer me… Sarah!"