"Keep the Magic Alive"
Chapter 16
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 16: Invasion of the Baby Snatcher

Sarah and her family had finally been discovered inside of the mental facility's isolation room several hours later. She bantered for Jareth's immediate release after receiving over two hundred apologies from the clinical staff, security, and a multitude of doctors. She agreed not to sue if they gave she and her family a ride home, even though Sarah had never threatened or thought about taking any legal action against them in the first place. She was merely glad that the hospital didn't leave her inside of that room with Jareth.

After being ferried home by ambulance, Sarah cautiously entered the doors of her house alongside her children. Because Jareth was still sleeping off the 400cc of Phenothiazine that the hospital had injected him with, the EMTs had to bring him in on a stretcher. They placed him gently on the sofa as his wife had specified. He didn't stir, but one of the emergency medical technicians commented, "He's been exhibiting a lot of REM state brain patterns, so I sure hope whatever he has been dreaming about is good…other than that, his vitals are normal and he should awaken in about two or three days after the high levels of tranquilizers in his system wears off."

Sarah nodded to the technicians as they left her home. Her electricity was back on, and it was the middle of the morning. The rain had finally stopped, and everything seemed fine with a hazy, overcast sky glaring high above her neighborhood. However, despite everything being returned to normal, Sarah still had a strange foreboding feeling that something bad was going to happen, especially after she looked at the huge gaping hole in her front door where a staff had been rammed through.

Jareth awoke three days later, which put the family's minds at ease. Sarah had taken a medical leave of absence until further notice, in order to care for her husband while he recovered, but her mind was stressed about how she would manage the bills without any money coming in. Jareth King had showered, and dressed, and then joined the family in the kitchen as they shuffled about aimlessly in their morning rituals of readying for school.

Much to Sarah's chagrin, the television had been left on in the living room again, which only added to the chaos of the morning household. She swore that some days the electronic device had just turned itself on. As Jareth sat down at the head of the table, Sarah pecked him on the lips with a kiss. Her hands were full as she was carrying Jaime in one arm and in the other was a hot frying pan with newly cooked scrambled tofu.

She quickly set Jaime down within his seat as she began to distribute the food to the plates. Jennifer jumped down the stairs followed by Julia. They both scurried through the cabinets until they found a box of strawberry Poptarts.

Sarah stammered, "…But I've just cooked breakfast…"

Julia made a face when she saw the food in the pan, and Jennifer remarked, "Sorry, Mom, but we're late for school….again."

With that, Jennifer opened up the package and shared one of her uncooked toaster delights with her twin sister. Together they shouted in unison, "SAHARA! Hurry up!"

Julia finished, "You're going to miss the bus…again…"

"Why can't we just use the car, Mom?" Jennifer asked.

"Because it's not yours, Jenny," Sarah replied blatantly.

Sahara strutted down the stair adorned in her heavy pale makeup. She wore her black and red stripped, knee-high socks paired with her shiny, monster platform, black boots. They were accompanied with a short, pleated, red and black, plaid skirt, and a tight black collared oxford shirt that was purposely left untucked beneath a deep purple crewneck sweater with a red skull and crossbones emblem on the front. Basically, she was her normal 'gothed-out' self for the day.

She gave her twin sisters a dirty look, as she was never a morning person, and then she played with the tofu on her plate after she had taken a seat near Jareth. He smiled at her coyly and twittered, "Good Morning, Sunshine!"

"Mnnn," Sahara replied with little enthusiasm.

Jaime grumbled at his plate, "But I- But I don't like this fluffy stuff, Mommy! It feels like yucky Jell-o."

Sarah tapped him on the shoulder and scolded, "Jaime, you're not supposed to feel it, you're supposed to eat it… Now, eat your breakfast! Do you want toast? Sahara, I can't drive you to school this morning, so please hurry up and ingest something…"

Sahara made another grumpy face and replied, "Whatever… I'm outty."

Sarah sighed as Sahara kissed her father goodbye on the forehead and Jareth remarked, "I do hope that you refrain from further abuse to yourself, Darling… there's so many other things in this world that are just waiting to devour you, after all."

Sarah furrowed her brows as she tried to contemplate what he was talking about. She attributed his random chatter to the after-effects of the drugs. Finally, she had enough of the television's incessant droning in the background, so she put the pan down into the sink and after running some water inside of it, she walked out into the living room.

The news reporter was continuing their story, "…and ornithologists state that the recent migration of crows into the area is probably attributed to the climate shift of global warming, however the unusually high concentrations of the birds has caused Philadelphia International and Newark International Airports to ground all of their flights into and out of the tri-state areas until a solution can be found to drive the birds back into the suburbs. And now to our meteorologist, Al Raker, who's going to report this morning's local forecast. Al? Thank you, Cindy! Today's weather looks absolutely wonderful, except for that strange atmospheric disturbance that has developed over the eastern seacoasts of New Jersey and the Delaware River near the Philadelphia Metropolitan Areas. While the bizarre cloud formation contains absolutely no precipitation, there is a very low-pressure system associated with this storm, which is nearly similar to that of an eyewall within a category 5 hurricane. This issue has concerned the bridge and highway transit authorities of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and they are issuing several bridge, interstate, and Turnpike closures going into and out of the two states until further notice…."

Click!

Sarah put the remote controller down and shook her head as she muttered, "Stupid, unpredictable weather…."

As she walked back into the kitchen she murmured, "Tell me again, why we moved to New Jersey?"

Jareth just shrugged and chuckled. Sarah finally took her seat next to Jaime. The little boy still hadn't touched his tofu scramble. Sarah King turned to her husband and said, "Honestly, Sweetheart, I don't know how you do it sometimes…With the kids I mean."

"Well," Jareth smirked, "You could always say the magic words if they get to be too much of a burden… I'm sure the offer is still open for the Goblin King to take them, after all."

Jaime stiffened up and dropped his fork. Sarah sighed and picked it up off of the floor as she replied, "Could we not talk about him this morning, please? I mean, what kind of sadistic person would actually wish their children away?"

Jareth cleared his throat as he stirred some cream into his coffee and muttered, "Actually, I believe that you wished your baby brother away, didn't you, Dearest?"

"I don't remember doing that, but I'm pretty sure that I was very sorry afterwards," Sarah answered. "Poor Toby. Did I really do that?"

Jareth nodded and said, "Of course you did, Darling, but what's said is said, after all…"

"My god…" Sarah whispered, "The Goblin King reminds me of a real-life version of Freddy Krueger, but instead of a disfigured child molester like Freddy, the King of the Goblins is an extraordinarily handsome baby-nabber and a deviously belligerent extortionist. At least people can tell that Freddy was evil just by looking at him…"

"Who's 'Freddy Krueger'?" Jareth asked with a frown.

Sarah raised her eyebrows. "Never mind… it doesn't matter anyway. Freddy isn't real… I hope, but the Goblin King apparently is. I'm just glad that you're back here with us again... Jaime, what's the matter, Sweetie? Don't you feel well?"

Jaime shook his head, as the color had completely drained from his face and tears began to well up within his eyes. Sarah felt the child's forehead and mumbled, "Oh, Jaime, I hope you didn't pick something up at that hospital… Mommy, can't afford to take you to a doctor this week."

"M-Mommy?" Jaime stuttered. "Can I go to Uncle Toby's house?"

"Maybe later," Sarah groaned as she turned her attention back towards Jareth, "Aren't you hungry, Hon? I know that the meds have probably made you feel terrible, but you haven't eaten in at least three days. You should at least try to eat something…"

"No, Mommy! Can I go to Uncle Toby's house, now?" Jaime interrupted before Jareth could answer.

Sarah took the plate away from Jaime, as it was apparent that the little toddler wasn't going to eat anything. She rustled his hair and replied, "Not now, Jay… Daddy has just woken up, and Mommy would like to spend the day making sure he's okay. Mmm?"

Sarah opened up the dishwasher and began to place the dirty plates and glasses within, while Jaime whispered very, very quietly, "Mommy, I'm scared."

Jareth stared at the toddler and then back to Sarah. She apparently didn't hear her son. Jareth King smiled and took a sip of his coffee, while his eyes stared unwavering at the small child.