Author's note: I don't own the Labyrinth or Hoggle, or Sarah, or (regrettably) Jareth. This will probably be my last chapter before the new year, as I've got several finals to study for and then the Holidays... Anyway, the new year is just around the bend, so I'm sure you'll be hearing from me soon. Happy Holidays, and, as always, please review!
Sarah was packing. Or rather, Sarah was unpacking. Actually, it was both. She'd been living with her parents (and when Sarah referred to her parents, she meant her father and her step-mother Karen) for the past month, ever since she'd returned to the country. Her parents had been willing to have her stay longer, but Sarah was ready to strike out on her own. Her second day back had been spent job hunting. That's her second day back, not her first. Her first was spent sleeping until three in the afternoon and then being awoken by her younger brother Toby when he came home from school.
Sarah's search for a job had been difficult, even when she expanded her search to include the entire country. The problem was she just didn't seem to have any hirable skills. No one seemed overly impressed by her bachelor's degree in International Relations. Her minors in Dramatic Arts and Literature hadn't helped matters. Luckily, she'd learned enough Spanish from her studies and from her time abroad that she'd been able to secure a position as a high school teacher. She didn't have her teaching license, but she had been accepted into a lateral entry program and she was due to start learning how to teach in one month's time. The fall semester started in just over two months, and Sarah felt small tremors of equal parts trepidation and excitement course through her.
So, that left her with one month to find a place to live, a car to drive, and to set all her affairs in order for the move. She'd found several prospective apartments, and was going to look at used cars later that day with her father. She'd made a list of official things to do in preparation for her move. And for the next few hours, she was going to go through every box of her things that had been sitting in the attic since she went off to college. These boxes contained her childhood. Well, all the parts of her childhood that Toby hadn't wanted: Sir Lancelot still resided in Toby's room.
A smile danced across Sarah's features as she found the box that housed Sir Lancelot's mates. She hadn't been able to toss them out – they had been living creatures to her, not dolls, not stuffed animals – living creatures: friends. Still, living a life of exile in a dusty box hadn't exactly been preferential treatment on her part. Sarah rifled through the box, spotting a faded Sir Bedivere and a ragged Sir Gawain. Under her Sir Ector lay a familiar red book. Sarah knew that book. She knew what it contained. Wrapping her fingers around it, she gently extracted it and held it in her palm.
The lettering was faded, but she could still make it out as she traced her fingers over the gilt letters once more: The Labyrinth. She'd made a vow never to forget what this book contained, and she'd kept it, even though the book had been relegated to the attic two years after her vow. The thing was, Sarah didn't need a visual stimulus to remember the Labyrinth. If she wanted to remember the Labyrinth, all she needed to do was to close her eyes. She'd not slept one night in almost nine years without dreaming of the Labyrinth.
Actually, that was a lie. The Labyrinth, while a persistent figure in her dreams, was not present all the time. What was present all the time, or rather who, was the Goblin King. In the grand scheme of things, thirteen hours wasn't long at all, but it had generated enough memories of Jareth to keep Sarah's dreams occupied, prompting Sarah to memorize and analyze every word, expression, and action of Jareth's. She'd seen his face fall a thousand and more times when she'd said those fateful words. She'd puzzled about what he had meant when he said this, what the look in his eyes was when he did that…until Sarah had found herself generating what she was sure was an unhealthy obsession with a certain Underground king.
And then came the other dreams of Jareth. Some were spawned from her maturing body and raging hormones. Those she'd never wanted to analyze. Others were of a more sentimental nature, with Jareth offering himself to her again with such love in his eyes that it made her want to melt. In every dream of that nature, she'd refused him, feeling much like Beauty refusing the Beast's offer of marriage every night. She didn't want to hurt him, but always when it came time to answer no other words would come but, "You have no power over me."
Within an hour of defeating Jareth and his Labyrinth, Sarah had started to see him in a different light. Now, after years of reflection, Sarah had eventually come to feel rather…sympathetic…to the Goblin King. As a gangly fifteen-year-old, she hadn't completely understood the implications of his offer. She'd been frightened of him, intimidated by the sexual overtones she had understood and riled by his performance as an adversary. Now, at 23, after seeing him every night, she realized the full implication of her actions. He had loved her, and he had offered her everything. And she had thrown it back into his face.
But then again, she couldn't blame herself. She'd been fifteen – even if he had offered her eternal love, she had been far too young. Would she respond differently if he offered again? She couldn't say, but she wasn't so sure that she'd deny him again.
Sarah abruptly realized that she'd been staring at the book for a full fifteen minutes. Setting it onto her desk, she dove into the next box, trying to put Jareth and all things to do with the Labyrinth out of her mind. But, it didn't last long. Before Sarah had finished with her next box, she felt a difference in the room, a slight reordering of things. She spun in place quickly and found the source: Hoggle was framed in her vanity mirror.
"Hoggle!" Sarah cried in delight. "Come in, come in, please, Hoggle!" She watched his reflection shift and appear beside her in the mirror. Turning to face him, Sarah knelt down and embraced him quickly. "I've missed you so much, Hoggle! How have you been?"
Hoggle patted her back awkwardly, as he was wont to do, and then she released him from her embrace. "Sarah, look at you – yer a right tree, you are, growing like you 'ave." Hoggle stopped speaking after that, which Sarah found odd.
Sarah made another stab at conversation. "What brings you here today?"
To Sarah's interest, Hoggle crossed his arms behind his back, looked down, and toed the carpet with his feet.
"Hoggle," Sarah said, mildly reproving. "What? What is it? Is something wrong? Is it Ludo? Sir Didymus?" Sarah swallowed and then said the name she'd not spoken aloud since her time in the Labyrinth: "Is it Jareth?"
At that name, Hoggle's head popped up. Sarah helped him to sit, and then stood facing him, apprehensive. "Tell me, Hoggle. What's wrong?"
Hoggle took a breath and finally spoke. "It's him. He sent me to bring you back."
Sarah wasn't sure she had heard correctly. "What? He sent you here to bring me back? That can't be. Hoggle, what were his exact words?"
Hoggle knitted his brows together as his feet continued to toy with the carpet. Finally, he said "Something about asking you to 'company me back and to not come back without you."
It was Sarah's turn to sit. "Oh. Well, why? Why does he want me to return?" Surely if he had any intention whatsoever to renew his offer to her, not that she had any hope of that mind you, Jareth would certainly have done so in person.
Hoggle watched the confusion spread across Sarah's face. Best to just spit it out. "Something's wrong with the labyrinth – it's growin', and changin', and he can't control it. It all started when you won, and he needs you to fix it."
Sarah stared at Hoggle, incredulous. "He needs me to fix it? But I didn't do anything. I wouldn't know how. Hoggle, tell me exactly what's happened."
So he did – he spoke of the rearrangements, and then the expansion of the borders, and then the darkness – the evil that was spreading. "He can't fix it. He's tried. Nothing's lasted. The Labyrinth needs you." Sarah didn't miss the plaintive note in his last statement.
Standing up, she grabbed an empty rucksack and started throwing in clothes and shoes. Then Sarah stopped. What was she doing? She'd just accepted a job, she was due to move, her life was finally getting on track, and she was just going to up and leave it all for who knows how long just because some gorgeous king had sent her friend to tell her that the Labyrinth needed her help? She had to be crazy.
She was. Sarah started packing again, stopping only to puzzle over what she should bring. What did one bring for an indeterminately-long stay in the Labyrinth? Sarah finally decided on a few clean and practical outfits, her basic toiletries, and her tennis shoes. Making a mental note to ask (should the requisite courage magically appear) Jareth to create some sort of excuse for her absence from the Aboveground, Sarah turned to Hoggle and said, "Time to go."
Hoggle started to approach her, but stopped when his eyes spotted a pretty beaded necklace she'd made a while ago. Sarah searched for the cause of his delay and, sighing, picked up the necklace and handed it to him, trying to suppress a chuckle. Hoggle contentedly attached it to his collection of jewels and plastic accessories, and then pulled a crystal from one of his pockets.
Sarah felt a shiver of remembrance pass through her, but forced herself to put one hand on the crystal like Hoggle. Kneeling down, Sarah was able to look through the crystal, and saw a dark and barren landscape. As she focused on the details, Sarah was amazed to realize that even though she'd felt no sensation of movement, she was no longer in her room.
Sarah was facing the Labyrinth, but not as she remembered it. In fact, had she not known it was the Labyrinth, she wouldn't have recognized it. The sky was a green-grey, and the wall was warped and menacing. The castle in the middle of the goblin city looked ages away. Sarah dreaded the answer to the question she had to ask: "Hoggle…are we going in there?"
Instead of Hoggle's voice, Jareth's voice answered. "No need."
Sarah turned quickly to the source of his voice and saw Jareth, almost exactly the same as she remembered: The living mane of hair, the dove grey tights, black, knee-high boots, and a white poet's shirt open to reveal a lightly-tanned chest bearing the same heavy medallion. His eyes, still the same uneven blue she remembered, were as piercing as ever. His hands were encased, as always, in leather gloves, one extended for her to take. She took it without hesitation, and found herself inside his throne room.
He released her hand quickly, and stepped away. It was he who spoke first. "Welcome back to the Labyrinth, Sarah."
Author's Addendum: So, they've met again. Dun dun duh... If you have time, please review! (Also, you may have spotted some seeming inconsistencies in time, but rest assured, they are all planned.)