"Sky's Eclipse"
Chapter 18
By Aiijuin
*Disclaimer: I don't own anything Jim Henson or Labyrinth. Gröeg was originally designed by Brian Froud and catalogued by Terry Jones in Brian Froud's "The Goblins of the Labyrinth". This fanfiction is rated M for some harsh language (which is, really, mostly used by Toby) and adult situations.
PS: Please let me know if I messed up anywhere with the grammar. I proofread about a dozen times before I post my chapters on , but sometimes I still miss a few flubs. Thank you!
**Revised: 09/10/2009 – Repaired chapter number discontinuity, major grammatical errors, and changed Sarah's stepmother's name from "Irene" to "Karen".
Chapter Eighteen: Lights out!
Gavin eventually decided to leave the Williams household and pretend that he had somewhere important to be. In actuality, Jareth felt the urge to consult the powers for several answers about Sarah's dream. He returned back to his temporary residence in the old abandoned mansion. After gazing into his crystals for several hours, he couldn't come up with any clear solutions and poor Gröeg ended up receiving the blame for the Goblin King's lack of revelation.
He could have returned to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City at anytime, but since his prize was still unattained, he decided against it. It was the second time in his immortal life that Jareth had been stricken with a feeling of helplessness. Of course, he never let such things become public knowledge amongst his subjects, but she would have known.
Oh, yes!
Sarah would have been able to see right through him, he thought.
It made him more determined to finish his task against Sarah quickly, but then he remembered the retelling of her dream again and again. It made him shutter. First, he would stop that mysterious lady of the lake from interfering with his plans. Then, he would resume his barrage of tricks and mischief against Ms. Williams until he, at last, had her.
This dilemma lasted throughout the remainder of the day, until well past sundown. Finally, Jareth decided everything would have to wait until morning. It was time to begin his flight into the night, to spy on Sarah from the tree branches outside her bedroom window. With a dramatic sparkle of glitter and a wisp of white smoke, the upstairs balcony window of the Henkies Mansion flung open and a graceful, white-colored barn owl took flight into the clear, moonlit night.
Back at the Williamses, Toby scampered up to the front door of his parents' house, sneaking as quietly as he could. It was late for a school night, and he knew his mother was strict about curfews.
He tried to turn the knob of the front door, but…
Drats! Mom locked it!
He knew if he knocked, then mom would ground him…again. He walked around to the back of the house, where his bedroom was on the second floor.
Mom must have gotten wise to me, Toby thought as he looked up.
The window of his room was closed, and probably locked too. He knew he had left it cracked open, in case he came home late. He always planned ahead, in order to avoid additions to his teenage prison sentence.
Unfortunately, Karen had finished the laundry early that afternoon, and upon distributing the clean clothing to their rightful rooms, she found Toby's window and screen cracked open. A hornet had flown into his room. Naturally, since Karen was petrified of insects, especially bees, she had Robert dispatch the flying menace. Then, she closed and locked Toby's window to prevent any further insect infiltrations into her home.
Toby looked at the window next to his. It was Sarah's room. The time was nearly ten o'clock, but her lights were still on. Toby figured he might as well try and get Sarah to let him in. First, he needed to catch her attention. Toby walked to the garden and grabbed a tiny pebble. He aimed high, hoping that he wouldn't hit any of the tree branches. As he released the stone, it hit the siding, just below its target.
Toby picked up another pebble and aimed higher. It clattered just above her window.
After muttering a few curses under his breath, Toby grasped a stone without measuring the size. He was frustrated, and accidentally picked up a fist-sized rock. He tossed it high at Sarah's window, and it was hurling dead-on towards its target. If it had, actually, hit the window, it might have shattered it, but luckily, for Toby's sake, a low-flying owl blocked the rock's trajectory with its head.
Unfortunately, the owl was Jareth!
Toby watched as the majestic bird missed it's landing on the tree branch and tumbled to the ground. The teen raised his eyebrows and muttered, "Ooo, that must have hurt. Poor stupid thing didn't even know what hit it."
He walked over to the owl, and nudged it with his sneaker before deciding that he might have killed it. Luckily for Jareth, he was immortal, and death wasn't a possibility. Toby shrugged. There was nothing he could do until morning. He decided to leave the creature down in the garden and walk back to the tree next to Sarah's window. After bludgeoning an owl with a large rock, he decided it would probably be safer to attempt scaling the window to Sarah's bedroom and knock.
It took a few jumps, but finally Toby reached the lowest branch.
Dad always cut the lower branches, because mom said the shade was blocking her view of the backyard from the kitchen window, Toby thought.
Toby was strong and pulled the rest of his body up to the branch. After getting a foothold, he managed to climb up to Sarah's window quickly.
Inside, Sarah was at her vanity reading old correspondence from her real mother. She shoved the letter inside the narrow drawer, but found it wouldn't slide shut again. Sarah fumbled around the back of the vanity drawer, until she discovered a music box with a white-gowned princess on top. She held it up. Winding up the knob on the bottom, Sarah placed the box on top of her vanity where it began to play its once familiar song.
Inside Sarah's head she could hear the crooning words of the Goblin King sung to the tune of the song:
…I place the moon within your heart…
As the pain sweeps through,
Makes no sense for you,
Every thrill is gone,
Wasn't too much fun at all,
But I'll be there for you,
As the world falls down…
Sarah began to stare in deep thought, reminiscing about the elaborate fantasy that Jareth had once given her. She remembered that she had been just like Cinderella for nearly seven minutes. She closed her eyes and remembered about the ballroom. As much as she had been mortified and petrified upon breaking the glass of the illusion, Sarah couldn't help but wonder what might have happened if Jareth had nabbed her into this fantasy realm nowadays.
Would everything happen the same as before? Would the fantasy be the same today?
Sarah pondered. She was about to flick the switch on the side of the box to stop the music, when a rap at her window nearly sent her jumping through the roof. She hopped to her feet and glared at the window. She thought she was going to find a masquerading Goblin King in the form of a barn owl trying to claw its way inside.
It took Sarah several seconds to realize the dark figure at her window wasn't an owl, nor a Goblin King, but her teenage brother.
Sarah blinked a couple of times. "T-T-Toby," she stammered. She ran to open the window, about to give her brother a piece of her mind, but Toby didn't let his sister get a word in edgewise. As soon as she lifted the window clear so he could enter, Toby began in a hurried voice, "Sarahpleasedon'ttellmomanddadaboutmestayingouttoolate."
Sarah backed up a bit and asked, "What?"
Toby stepped through her window and brushed the pine needles off of his jeans. He answered, "I said, 'Sarah please don't tell mom and dad about me staying out too late.'"
Sarah nodded slowly, "Oh."
"Thanks, Sar. I owe you one, big time."
"Hel-lo? We have doors in this house. You might want to use them instead of trees."
"Yeah, well, I tried to throw a pebble or two to get your attention, but instead I lobbed some stupid owl in mid-flight and, most likely, killed the sucker in the backyard. Luckily, I have to be up earlier than mom and dad in the morning to catch the school bus, so I can bury it tomorrow, or whatever."
Sarah wasn't sure she had heard her brother correctly, "Wait a minute! Did you just say that you hit an owl with a rock?"
"Uh, yeah. Why?"
Sarah raced towards the window. "Where did it land?"
"I dunno, somewhere over there, beyond the tree. I don't think you can see it from here."
Sarah snickered. She decided it might be a good idea to close and lock her window tonight. After everything was secure, Toby began to slink out of her room, but Sarah blocked him. He asked, "What gives, yo?"
"Toby, until this 'Goblin King' problem is resolved, I don't think it's a good idea for you to stay out beyond your mom's curfew."
"Oh, Sarah, puh-lease! Don't become mom number two. Dammit! I thought you would be cool and all that. You're starting to turn into a shrew. What's the matter, afraid the Goblin King might actually rescue you from your virginity?"
Sarah nearly slapped her brother for that, but then noticed the hickeys all over his neck and earlobes. She commented, "And you had better watch how far you carry things with your teenage girlfriend."
"Look, Sarah, please don't lecture me about how I should live a celibate lifestyle, because you did when you were my age. I'm a dude, and dudes are deemed uncool when they can't get nookie from their girlfriend. Okay?"
Sarah blinked, "I didn't understand a word you just said."
Toby snickered, "Ass! Look, hey yo! Jessica said there's a massive carnival going on upstate this weekend. It's supposed to be huge. How about you go to it and take me?"
Sarah sighed, "You want me to go to a carnival? Why?"
Exasperated, Toby inhaled deeply and answered, "Because you don't get out of the house enough these days. Sometimes, I think you're just waiting here, like Rapunzel, waiting for sex from the prince and shit."
"Rapunzel, what?"
Toby rolled his eyes, "You know the fairytale, Rapunzel? The chick who grew her hair really long, because the witch locked her up in that high tower. Then, that prince got the hots for her and climbed up her hair and, you know, he deflowered her in the tower. Zing!"
Sarah raised her eyebrows. "Toby, I know fairytales better than you do, obviously, but I was just wondering what Rapunzel has to do with me."
Toby continued, "Oh, come on, Sar. You know exactly what I mean! Don't you think you ought to play a little harder to get if the Goblin King is after you? I mean, it's harder to track a moving target, but with you locking yourself in the house all day long, like Rapunzel in her tower, neither of you are getting much exercise. I think you ought to make Jareth work for you…"
Sarah laughed, "I feel like I'm talking to another girl. Aren't you supposed to be telling me to 'play easy' because guys like when girls relent?"
"Up yours, Sarah! Jareth may be a dude, like me, but damn, that fucking magic dance! I think you ought to make that bastard pay for ruining all of my best wet dreams with that cheesy song. I mean, it's hard to get it up in a dream when a stupid song like that is playing in your head again and again. Plus, it sounds like something from PBS broadcasting, which is worse!"
Sarah's had to hold her sides, because they hurt from laughing so much. It had been a long time since she really had a good laugh. She wiped a few random tears from the corners of her eyes, and then replied, "Something tells me your already keeping Jareth on his toes. I don't think he's used to encountering twentieth century teenagers like us."
"Uh, sis, it's the twenty-first century, now. Understandable though. Yeah, being away for eight years, I guess you missed Y2K and all that crap."
Confused, Sarah cocked her head to one side, "'Why-two-Kaye?' What's that mean?"
"Never mind! Look, how about it?"
"How about what, Toby?"
Toby stomped his foot, "The carnival! Will you go this weekend?"
Sarah hesitated. Toby continued, "Come on! It will be fun!"
Sarah blinked, "Fun for you. I think you only want me to go, because you don't have a ride."
"Well…" Toby stammered. "Well, I don't have a ride. I'm grounded for eternity, and mom won't let me hang out with Jess, ever again."
"Why," Sarah asked.
Toby sighed, "Long story… but it has something to do with B-man and me over at Jess's parent's house two years ago."
"Uh-huh, and," Sarah prodded.
"Well, B-man brought booze, and he and I got drunk. So, mom blamed Jessica and her parents because it happened at their house. My god! It was only three beers, but mom, of course, had a cow, and threatened me with all sorts of terrible parental threats, as usual. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Jessica and I are forbidden to see each other anymore from both of our parents. Jess's mom and dad got into a screaming match with my mom, and then, she threatened to bring dad and his lawyer regime into it. That was about it for Jess and our public relationship."
"Toby," Sarah started.
"Sarah, please don't patronize me about what happened. Just because you were a geeky, backwards teenager, who had fantasies about abnormal, supernatural, mythological Goblin Kings, doesn't mean I should be following in your ass-backwards footsteps. The worse that can happen to me is mom finds out I'm sneaking time in with Jess. But you… You've got Jareth breathing hot and heavy down your neck. And none of us can catch a break from this guy, not even in our dreams. You know, you're relationship is a lot worse than mine, after all. You're making him suffer slowly, while Jess and I are giving it up for each other."
"I wasn't going to patronize you," Sarah began, "I was just going to warn you that there are more dilemmas then mom finding out about you and your girlfriend."
"Like what?"
"Does the words 'teenage pregnancy' hold any meaning to you?"
"Nah, Jessica's on the pill. She takes it to clear up her skin and shit. We're safe. Anyway, will you take me to that carnival? Please?"
Sarah sighed. Giving sound advice to her brother was impossible. He was severely headstrong at his age as she had been at fifteen. He always seemed ready with a retort. He was nearly seventeen and oblivious to anything but his own teenage world and teenage concerns. She felt bad that Jareth was causing him so many woes. It just didn't seem fair that Toby should suffer things that were clearly meant for her. She wanted to stay near her home, in case Jareth made his move against her family. If he attacked, then maybe she could defeat him a second time, and hopefully stop him forever. However, Jareth had continued to remain ominously silent and dangerously hidden.
After two hours of talking casually with her brother back and forth, Sarah looked at the time. It was nearly midnight. She decided, since Toby had school in the morning, it might be a good idea for him to get to bed. By the end of their conversation, he managed to convince Sarah it would be a great idea to take Jessica and he to the carnival this weekend.
Toby was definitely honing his father's inborn abilities to argue down a case. As Toby left his sister's room, Sarah was already planning on what she might wear and who she could bring as her date.
Toby convinced her that asking Gavin would be a wonderful idea. Sarah planned on making a house call to his mansion first thing in the morning, in order to ask him if he would like to go with them.
Down below Sarah's window, a barn owl, who looked no worse for wear, fluttered on the grass. It shook its head back and forth trying to regain its bearings. It had only attained consciousness moments ago, and was still groggy and disoriented. The owl looked up at Sarah's bedroom window, as the lights switched out.
After a few minutes of standing very still, the bird flapped its wings and managed to lift itself back into the midnight sky. It veered unsteadily back towards the Henkies Estate.
It hadn't been a good night for the Goblin King.