Disclaimer: Don't own Labyrinth. Tis a pity.
'Deep breaths.' Sarah thought, concentrating on forcing air in and out of her lungs. 'In your nose, out your mouth.' She thought over and over again, as she felt her throat tightening with nervousness. Deep, steady, even breathing. 'In your nose, count to four, out your mouth, count to four.' When her breathing became normal once more, she whispered her mantra. "There are no such things as goblins. The Labyrinth does not exist. I have never been Underground."
She looked once more at the book she clutched in her hands; half hoping that it would have morphed into another novel. The red leather cover and gold capitalized title remained unchanged. Sarah's grip tightened slightly and her fingertips brushed against the light indentations of the title. Chills scurried up her arm and left her fingertips feeling electrified.
"It's just a book." Sarah said softly and without conviction. She opened cover hesitantly, and released an audible sigh of relief when no goblins exploded from the pages. "It's just a book." She repeated, her confidence in the statement growing.
Flipping past the title page, she was surprised to find that in the margins of almost every page were penciled notes. She, who had been a bibliophile all of her life, was astounded to find that the spidery writing belonged to none other than herself. Sarah reclined slightly in the bench, and turned the pages with fascination, discovering more commentary that she had absolutely no recollection of writing.
Passages had been underlined, and phrases had been bracketed. Long-since forgotten shorthand speckled the surfaces and tiny sketches of creatures of the Underground occupied the corners. Her eyes were pulled toward the lower part of the left-hand sheet, where a passage had been underlined, bracketed, and marked with a star. "Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!" Sarah read the phrase aloud, and laughed upon its completion. She fished a pen from her shoulder bag and added a note to the margins. 'What is this rubbish? It doesn't even start with "I wish"!' She drew an arrow connecting her new note to the bracketed phrase. The fresh black ink stood in stark contrast to the previously penciled notes. Sarah smiled and continued to read.
As the cruel Goblin King offered the gift of a magic peach to the heroine, Sarah noticed that her 15 year old self had scribbled the warning "AVOID PEACHES." beside the type. With a smile, she remembered her aversion to the fruit in the initial months following the first time she had read Labyrinth. It was as if she was aware of the adventure she would be taken on if she were to allow the sweet fruit to pass her lips. Sarah uncapped the pen with her teeth, and wrote in large capital letters before her previously written note 'DO NOT' and turned the period into an exclamation point.
As the heroine neared the castle beyond the goblin city, the Goblin King began to set up traps and obstacles. The common utterance 'It's not fair!' dotted the pages. "I wonder what your basis for comparison is…" Sarah muttered.
The next several pages had few notes on them, and Sarah flipped through them quickly. Turning the page, Sarah came across a familiar verse.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered,
I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City
To take back the child that you have stolen.
For my will is as strong as yours,
And my kingdom is as great.
You have no power over me."
The elusive final line "You have no power over me." was underlined thrice. Though she didn't want it to, her stomach flip-flopped. She was momentarily trapped in a sense of vertigo, and briefly wondered if she had ever really left the Escher room. For a single moment, she was trapped within the instant after she had defeated the Goblin King. She could see the look of disappointment that crossed his face as she refused his offer.
Sarah shook her head. Surely, it had only been a part of his transformation. It must have been. The great Goblin King was not the type to be heart-broken over refusal by a foolish girl. No. Jareth was manipulative. He was sarcastic. And most of all, he was entirely indifferent where Sarah was concerned. Two entire years without the briefest communication had assured Sarah of that.
Sarah read the last several pages of the book without absorbing any of the material. She caught herself rereading the same phrase again and again, distracted by thoughts on the events that had transpired two years previous. She was surprised to find that the phrase that she had been reading was none other than the conclusion to the book: 'The End'.
"There has to be more…" Sarah breathed desperately, needing closer to her own story more than that of the novel. She flipped through the pages that she had just read, expecting that they multiply. Needless to say, they didn't. Dejectedly, Sarah rifled through the pages from start to finish. Nothing jumped out at her.
Sarah flipped through the pages once more, and was about to close the book when she noticed something that she had previously overlooked. On one of the end pages of the book, entirely devoid of type, there was a lengthy note left in a hand that was not her own. The script was a well practiced cursive, and the connected letters were tall and perfectly formed. Though the penmanship was unfamiliar, the words written were not.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered,
I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City
To take back the child that you have stolen.
For my will is as strong as yours,
And my kingdom is as great.
You have no power over me."
Beneath the quote was a short paragraph, written in the same elegant hand.
"I can promise you that you were never in any real danger. I made sure of that. All of the hardships that you encountered were there only because you felt the need to overcome them. You needn't have fought so hard; any path you chose would have gotten you to the Castle in time to save the child. You wanted to be the heroine, and so, somewhat against my nature, I played the villain."
The words sent chills down her spine. She tried to assure herself by telling herself that the words were written by the previous owner. Sarah turned the page. A white feather fluttered from the book, still curled despite its imprisonment. Sarah picked it up from the ground, and her heart leapt into her throat. On the center of the following page, the foreign script continued.
"I may have no power over you, Sarah Williams, but trust me when I say that I wish that I did."
AN: So, there you have it. Jareth is *technically* in this chapter. The next chapter will have Jareth in it for real this time, but it will likely be short. (sorry!)
So, in case you guys were all curious about why Jareth is so OOC, here is my interpretation of his character: He is (by nature) a manipulative and sarcastic person. He is a pretty regular dude, but with a flair for the over dramatic. But, he fell in love with Sarah. He played the role that Sarah needed him to play (because he loved her) even though that made her hate him. Who knows when he wrote that note in the book? But its a softer side of Jareth that may not be seen again. (He is still hellbent on going medieval on the boy that Sarah had been with.)
About Sarah: Two years after defeating the Labyrinth, Sarah is reexamining the events that occurred, and thinking that maybe Jareth isn't such a bad guy after all. She is rethinking her viewpoint on Jareth. In the Labyrinth, he had been cruel. But, looking back as a older individual, Sarah starts to realize that he was teaching her how to grow up. She (being the rational girl that she is) is trying to talk herself out of falling for the Goblin King, because she is still bound by duty (to Toby, Family, and School). But, trying to talk herself out of falling in love is proving difficult, as Jareth is just so darned cute sometimes.
And there you have it. That is my interpretation of these characters. (for this story anyway.)
...This is a long Authors note. It should be called an Authors novella or something.
Anyway, a big thank you to High Elf Queen, TheChangingPersonUnderUrBed, notwritten, and ame-ga-korobu for their reviews! I really appreciate the compliments! :)
Please tell me what you think about this chapter! :D I love reviews!