This went twisty and curvy from where i had orignally planned. but, it was better than the original ending.
Would it get dark if she strayed too long? Would Jareth come looking for her if she did not arrive on or by the thirteenth hour? Sarah didn't care.
She smiled. "I think I left a piece of me behind when I left here."
Maybe you did. The Labyrinth spoke back to her. She could feel it in her bones though no words were spoken on the mystery's part.
"I guess I never knew how beautiful you were." She told the silent landscape before her. "Never fully appreciated…
"Or, I guess, appreciated at all. Once I left, I was relieved but something always stuck with me."
You took a part of me with you as well.
An exchange of selves between her and the labyrinth had occurred. But neither was so eager to give back their remnant. Or take their own piece back into their possession.
She loved the cracked cobblestone and the moss that grew up between. The asymmetrical spiral steps were charming, the sloping walls enchanting. Even the castle in the distance held an appeal.
"I know why I'm meandering," Sarah said. "I am exploring you."
The labyrinth let her wander, showing her never-before seen pieces to the mystery that was the labyrinth. The castle and Jareth were the farthest thing from her thoughts. Until he appeared.
"It is far past the hour you should have arrived," Jareth told her.
Sarah looked up from the fountain where she sat. The cavern was deep and held another world down there. "What's that?"
"You cannot be having such a problem with the labyrinth."
"No, I didn't say I was," Sarah told him before walking off, following a certain shade of stone path.
Jareth followed after her. "Penalties exist."
"We had no proper agreement," Sarah told him unconcerned.
"I recall a bargain involving you and me," he grinned rakishly.
"But that was an old one," she looked back at him with her own rakish grin, "Besides, what is your 'penalty?'"
"That offer was neither agreed or disagreed on," he told her first.
"Because you canceled it." She remembered, it was only hours ago really. "I said I would love you if you gave up every child. You said 'no.'"
"No, I did not answer immediately," he intoned, "You pulled your hide out."
"So?"
Sarah walked on creaking stones that rocked as she stepped on them. She stopped at a stone bridge that overlooked another piece of the labyrinth.
"So," Jareth stopped next to her, facing the opposite way, gazing at his castle, "My penalty, or yours, I should say, is that you cannot leave now. It is past the hour."
Sarah looked up at him, and he held the look, unsure of what he would find.
"Deal."
She saw the look of surprise in his eyes. "We both know you couldn't hold up your side anyway.
"Not to interfere for thirteen hours? I'm amazed it took you this long."
"I keep my word," he told her, put off by her turn.
"So do I."
Sarah reached her up hand and drew the scared Goblin king to her. His surprise melted into delight and wonder when they met.
Deep inside, like the fountain she marveled at, Sarah herself was another world. She was home.