Chapter Five: The Wall Monster

Sarah burst through the edge of the mist and tripped over something she couldn't see. Jeremy toppled down with her and they lay on the ground, huffing and puffing.

"That's so weird," Jeremy mumbled as he rolled over and started to get up, "I feel so awake now."

Sarah closed and opened her eyes slowly. "The labyrinth is like that." Then she also got up and continued walking along the bricks, trailing her hand on the right-side wall. "If you keep your hand on the other wall, then maybe one of us will find another opening."

Jeremy glanced at the left-side wall and then followed Sarah, doing as she said. "Do you remember the way through?"

Sarah shook her head. "There is no one specific way through. The labyrinth changes every minute. We'd never be able to find the way I went before, let alone follow along it like it was just some trail on a map." She sighed. "We're going to have to make a new way through."

Jeremy's shoulders slumped. "I have to get Brian back. He must be so scared."

"Actually, he's being very well cared-for," Sarah answered sharply, without thinking.

"How do you know?" The boy's uncle demanded just as sharply.

Sarah sighed. "Because I know. Please don't ask me to explain it. Brian is fine, and he's being taken care of, so don't worry about it. Just focus on getting through the labyrinth."

"You want me to relax?" Jeremy shouted. "I can't just relax! This is my sister's son, we're talking about here!"

Sarah whirled on him. "You think I'm having a fun time of things right now?" She stepped toward him, imposing and admonishing as if he were just a goblin who was being too stupid for Sarah's patience. "I was all set to enjoy an after-dinner walk in the garden and then go to bed early, because I have had a very long day! And then, what happens? Some stupid mortal gets it into his stupid head to wish that his stupid nephew would be taken by goblins!"

"I didn't think anything was going to happen!" Jeremy stared at her with wide eyes, unfamiliar with her temper. "I didn't mean it!"

"Well if you didn't want it to happen," Sarah informed him in a low, level tone, "you shouldn't have wished..." her sentenced trailed off unfinished and her shoulders slumped, "oh no!" She kicked out at the nearest wall. "I sound just like him!"

"Just like who?" Jeremy took a few steps back and away from his step-daughter.

"Jareth, the Goblin King." Sarah groaned. "Oh! I'm mad at him! I don't want to talk like him!"

"Wait a minute. Are you telling me that Jareth, your fiancé, is the same guy who stole Brian?"

Sarah stared at Jeremy, and decided to choose her words carefully. "Technically, the goblins are the ones who took Brian, and technically, you're the one who wished him away, so really, Jareth didn't steal anything. He went to give you a chance to get Brian back." It's your own fault for making the wish, she added bitterly in her head.

Jeremy's eyes grew wide as he stared at her, "Sarah..." He stepped back until he hit the other wall.

"What?" She put her hands on her hips. "Don't look at me like that-"

"I'm not looking at you."

Sarah turned around slowly, eyebrows drawing together.

The bricks in the wall behind her were shifting and rolling over one another, removing themselves from the rest of the wall and arranging themselves into the shape of a fifteen-foot-tall humanoid creature. Two bricks stuck out in its head and the creature scanned the area with these, tilting its head in every direction, until it found the little humans standing before it.

"Damn!" Sarah cursed as she turned and grabbed Jeremy by the wrist to yank him back down the way they'd come. If only I hadn't lost my powers! She stopped her sprint short when she came upon the sleeping mist. "We can't go back." Sarah turned to face the brick creature. "I don't think bricks can fall asleep anyway."

"Then we have to get past it." Jeremy surmised, sizing up the creature. "Somehow."

"It might not be so hard," Sarah mused, watching the brick creature lumber up to them, then stop to stare down at them with is brick eyes. "It's legs are really long. We might be able to dash past."

The creature swung an arm down toward them and Jeremy and Sarah ducked and rolled in separate directions. "Now!" Sarah shouted, and leaped to her feet.

Jeremy was on her heels through the creature's legs and as they pulled into the open corridor, he soon took the lead. Sarah glanced over her shoulder to see the brick creature fold in on itself, bricks grinding against bricks, until it became an enormous brick ball, which rolled after them at speed. Her head whipped back around to face forward.

"There!" Jeremy shouted, pointing off to the left. "A turn!"

"Go!" Sarah yelled and hardly slowed down to take the turn herself.

They kept running even as they heard the brick ball crash past the opening. Jeremy looked back to see the brick creature standing high above the walls. It lifted one long, long leg, and stepped over the nearest brick wall.

***

Jareth scowled into the crystal, pacing back and forth in front of his throne in the empty room. "There is no brick creature in the labyrinth," he muttered to himself. "I would know if there was. Something's wrong." He stopped and stared at the doorway that led out of the throne room, hauling old memories out of the recesses of his mind. "I'm sorry, Sarah." The crystal vanished. "Middleweed will have to take care of Brian." With that, he closed his eyes, and was gone from the throne room.