"Sky's Eclipse"
Chapter 38
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 and adult situations. Gavin King is Jareth, the Goblin King, for those who have jumped into the middle of the story. Jeremy Eden is from the original Henson script of "Labyrinth" as the man who wrote the "Labyrinth" playbook that Sarah was reading from, in the beginning of the 1986 movie.
**NOTE: Story numbering is behind by 1 chapter, because there is a prelude, which is not considered a chapter. Fanfiction . net automatically assigns numbers to the chapters by default, which I have not control over. Thank you!
Chapter 38: An Afternoon in the Park
Sarah had spent the last several weeks, after Toby came home from the hospital, planning the right time to wish Gavin to her presence. She was standing in the park and looking at the stone bridge that crossed over the lake. The sun was shining brightly and the birds were chirping happily. Puffy white clouds would overshadow the sun from time to time, but the soft wind blew them away.
Toby had finally finished his physical therapy and returned to high school for the first time today. He had to relearn how to work the muscles of his arm that had been paralyzed from the spider's venom. Slowly, the nerves came back and his arm was as good as new. He couldn't recall exactly what had happened the day he had been bitten, but only knew he was in the backyard.
Robert hired an exterminator to come in and treat the lawn for any dangerous pests that might have infiltrated his yard. The pest control man assumed that it could have been a Brown Recluse Spider that had bitten Toby, since they were common to the northeastern areas of the United States. Of course, there was no evidence of any nests found on the Williams property.
Sarah kept asking her father about Mr. King and prodded him for information of how things were going in the office. Robert, who was always keen to talk to his only daughter, never suspected that she was pumping him for Gavin King's daily habits.
He told her that Gavin often took a daily noon walk in the park near their office building in town. He also enjoyed a cup of tea alone when he first arrived at the office in the morning. Sarah further discovered that Mr. King liked to converse with a woman named Sadie, who was also his personal secretary. He doted on her quite often, and sat on her desk as he narrated his morning events and opinions to her in great detail.
Actually, after Robert Williams detailed his boss's entire day to his daughter, Sarah was convinced that Gavin King, owner of Liege Litigations, LLC, didn't do any work at all at within his company.
It must be good to be King, Sarah thought and laughed to herself. As always, Sarah was carrying a book in her hand, and ready to sit down to read it after she devised her plans for Gavin. Today however, Sarah had brought an old book out that she hadn't looked at since she was fifteen. It was the play, "The Labyrinth", which was written by Jeremy Eden. She wasn't even sure why she had even grabbed that book from the shelf this morning, but she was tired of reading Tom Clancy novels. She opened its faded pages, and looked at the words.
Through dangers untold,
And hardships unnumbered..
Sarah closed the book as a wave of nausea overwhelmed her. She clutched her stomach, wondering what had come over her suddenly. She hadn't been feeling well lately, and attributed it to a late spring cold that was still floating around from the wintertime. She decided that reading this book was probably not making her feel any better either.
It brought back too many memories from her youth. It made her think of a Goblin King that was plotting revenge against her. This reminded her that she still had to wish Gavin to her. It would have been easier to just confront him at the office, but Sarah worried that he might have romantic relations with Sadie his secretary, and didn't want to make the woman jealous.
"God, no!" Sarah breathed, "The last thing I need is a jealous Goblin King and a jealous woman hunting me down."
Sarah decided to sit on a nearby park bench. She looked at her watch. It was nearly noon. Gavin would probably be walking towards the park near his company at this very second. Sarah narrated outloud as she watched the second hand climb past the six, "What the baby didn't know is that the Goblin King had fallen in love with the girl, and had given her special magical powers… 'Say your right words' the goblins said, 'and we'll take the baby away forever and ever and turn him into a goblin'… So one day after feeling particularly ill from a difficult cold that ravaged her household, and the constant barrage of worriment that her injured brother had placed upon the family, the girl could take no more! Finally, she said, 'I wish….I wish…'"
Sarah smiled mischievously, stood up again with her arms raised high into the air, and shouted, "I wish the goblins would bring Gavin King here to me in the park, right now!"
With a crash of lightning that came out of a sunlit sky, instantly Gavin King was standing before Sarah. He finished his sentence, "...and that is what I mean by productivity, Albert… What?"
Gavin blinked in confusion to find himself reprimanding Sarah Williams for productivity lag, instead of his employee Albert.
"Damn," Sarah stammered. He must have been in the middle of an employee evaluation, instead of walking in the park!
Gavin stood up straight and muttered, "Sarah?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. King," Sarah gasped. "I thought you would have been alone right now… I mean, it's noon and, you know… most people have lunch about now…"
Sarah finished up her line with a sheepish grin, but Gavin's eyes narrowed. She could tell he wasn't pleased with her. He started, "You could have come to my home if you needed to talk to me. I welcome your presence there anytime I'm not working."
Sarah stiffened up and summoned the bravery from within her. She cut him off before he could argue with her any further and said in a very matter-of-fact tone, "The Goblin King, Jareth has set a trap set at your mansion for me, so I cannot go there, Sir."
This stopped Gavin from saying anything further. He blinked again. Finally, after a couple of deep breaths he asked, "How would you know that?"
"Let's just say," Sarah began, "that as much as the Goblin King has been watching me, I too have been watching him. I never release my sights from him for even a second. You're in great danger, Mr. King."
Jareth doubted Sarah was watching him as much as he had been watching her. For one thing, she was still in the dark about he and Gavin being the same person. He also knew that Arachni had handled Toby as he instructed her to do so, if the boy tried to warn his sister of the truth.
Jareth instead opted to play up his character of Gavin and give Sarah a difficult time about being summoned in the middle of the day to her presence. It would be easy for him to do, since he was particularly angry that she had used her 'special magic powers' against him again. He stomped his foot furiously and spat, "Sarah! This is ridiculous! I haven't met your Goblin King fellow once since your return. Are you so certain that you didn't imagine the whole thing when you were fifteen? Did you take drugs or hallucinogens when you were a teenager? I mean, honestly! Who would believe such a story?"
"Well," Sarah said plainly, "You didn't seem to think that the Troll King was much of an illusion, did you?"
"Troll King?" Gavin asked. "Sarah we were at a carnival and in the middle of a human oddities show. You and I probably ingested some bad popcorn and our imaginations did the rest. You said the whole Troll King incident never happened. Weren't you the one to say it was all a dream?"
"Okay," Sarah slurred and then continued, "Then, what about just now? I just summoned you here by magic. So, what? Are you going to tell me now that you probably drank a bad cappuccino at eleven and walked in a poisoned trance into the wrong park while you were evaluating an employee named Albert who wasn't really there?"
"Fine" Gavin shrugged. "You win! There is magic and a Goblin King I'm sure, but why do you keep dragging me into the middle of it? I'm a third party here, and not really keen on the whole 'hocus-pocus' idiosyncrasies. Maybe if you leave me alone, the Goblin King will leave me alone too and will just chase you down without involving me in the end."
Sarah was about to stand down with another apology, when five large men approached she and Gavin in the park. One tapped Gavin on the shoulder and said, "'Scuse me, but would you happen to know the time?"
Jareth was feeling overall annoyed with everything again, escpecially since Sarah had wished him against his will into the park near her home. He turned to the man and growled, "Yes, it's time to buy a watch!"
The man turned away, as Gavin turned back to Sarah in fury, however he noticed that she was still staring at the man. Her eyes were wide in fear, when Gavin heard the clicking of a gun releasing the safety from its trigger. Sarah raised her hands into the air as one of the men covered her mouth and said, "Shhh! Your husband or boyfriend has a real attitude problem here, Lady."
All five men were armed with Glock-pistols. Three of the five men were cradling the guns by their chests to secretly show they were armed. The one who had asked for the time had his barrel aimed right at the back of Gavin's head. The last one, who covered Sarah's mouth, pressed his gun into Sarah's cheekbone near her left eye. Gavin calmly asked the obvious question, "So, what do you want, then?"
"I'm Robin Hood and this is my merry men, fucker! We rob from the rich and give poor little us. Now, cough up your wallet and all of your credit cards too, before your bitch here gets to experience a lead cocktail right through her left parietal lobe. I hear that's the dream center of the brain, but I could be wrong. You see, I wasn't very attentive in school," The man holding Sarah answered.
"Well, Robin or whoever you really are, it's very poor sport to instigate a fight of five armed men against two unarmed people," Gavin argued. As Jareth, he was planning something big and cruel against all five of them as they sized him up.
"Aww, fuck you!" shouted the man who had the pistol aimed directly at his head. Gavin narrowed his eyes and began to conjure a crystal, despite the fact that Sarah would see it happen and be wise to his secret identity. After he finished with these five morons, he planned on simply snatching her and dragging her back to his Castle Beyond the Goblin City. However, much to Jareth's chagrin, nothing happened when he flicked his wrist.
His eyes opened wide as he looked at Sarah. She was too petrified to notice that he was attempting anything. Her eyes were busy trying to focus on the silver barrel of the pistol pressing deeper into her cheek. The man behind Gavin nodded at the other three men and said, "This skinny asshole thinks he can take us down, boys."
The other men laughed as the man behind Gavin swung his fists and decked Gavin unto the ground. The other men joined the first man, by kicking and pounding on Gavin as he lay injured on the ground. Meanwhile, Sarah tried to shout for help with the fifth man's hands still pressed tightly against her mouth. She bit hard on his fingers, which made him flinch and accidentally shoot her in the head. He dropped her in shock. The other four men stopped beating on Gavin as they looked up with their mouths agape. The man who spoke to Gavin shouted to the man who had shot Sarah, "You dickhead! We're not supposed to actually kill them! Fuck!"
Gavin clutched his gut as blood crept out from the corners of his mouth and parts of his face. The first man shouted at Gavin, "Why the hell didn't you just hand over the money?!? Was it really more important then her life?"
They started to run away, as Gavin made his way to Sarah's lifeless body. Her blood was splattered across the grass as he whispered, "Sarah…"
He could hardly move because he was in so much pain. He touched Sarah's shoulder, yet couldn't see her face, since it was buried in the grass. He was so upset by what had happened that he couldn't even see the sun any longer.
Actually, Jareth didn't realize that the sun had been covered completely by overhead clouds that were getting blacker and blacker by the second. Peals of thunder and flashes of lightning were rumbling overhead as the men began to race across the stone bridge near the park obelisks. Four of the men had made it across the bridge, when a gigantic beast crawled out from under the bridge and grabbed the fifth man and bit him in half. The man's top-half screamed in agony, as the other four spun around to see what had happened. The first one cried, "Oh, SHIT!"
The other three scattered in different directions. Suddenly, the trees blocked their paths. One of the Weeping Willow trees whipped its slender branches around and quartered another man into four pieces with two simultaneous slashes.
The three remaining men tumbled along the ground in a panic, when a flock of large black ravens came soaring out of the thick black clouds. They looked like a swarm of angry hornets heading down at the men. One man darted to the right, and another to the left, but the one that was frozen in fear, was picked to the bone by the birds in a matter of seconds.
Gavin stared in shock, but it seemed unfeasible that Sarah nor he could have caused this retaliation against the humans. He glanced at Sarah again, through his good eye, which had not been punched. She was still motionless and facedown on the grass.
However, seconds later, Sarah pulled herself up to her knees. Gavin's uninjured eye shot open in surprise and shock.
She's alive, Jareth thought.
Sarah looked blankly at him, with an unfamiliarity that made his skin crawl. Her eyes were so cold and distant. She wiped the blood from her face with her wrist and dropped the little, red, playbook unto the ground near Gavin's torso. He read the inscription on the cover: "Labyrinth" by Jeremy Eden. Immediately the winds caught the pages of the book and opened it to the part that read:
You have no power over me!
Sarah walked towards the leader of the group, who had initially threatened Gavin. The other man was still trying to outrun the crows when the lightning flashed from the sky and struck him in the head. Instantly, he collapsed motionless and burnt onto the grass. Sarah seemed dangerous as her eyes met the final man's eyes. He cornered himself at the edge of the lake as Sarah walked nearer and nearer to him. He screamed, "What the fuck are you!?! What the fuck are you!?!"
Sarah cocked her head in amusement and raised her eyebrows. The man backed into the shallows of the lake, until finally a set of pure white hands grabbed him from beneath the water and took him beneath its surface. Mortified, he screamed and clawed at the ground until he was completely overtaken along with his gun.
Sarah lowered her head for a minute, and snickered, as she stroked a curiously familiar silver amulet that hung around her neck. It took a minute for the skies to clear, but the sun came out again and everything returned to normal as if it had never happened.
The ravens finished picking off the remains of the other three men, and the beast under the bridge slurped the top half of the man that it had began to devour from moments before. The birds flew off when they had finished their gorge, and the beast returned to its home under the quiet stone bridge, never to be seen again.
Sarah dropped to her knees in exhaustion. A cold sweat poured from her brow as she gasped for air in shallow, difficult rasps. Gavin attempted to pull himself to his feet, but found he had been too injured to move at this time. Instead, he crawled over to where Sarah was kneeling. By the time he reached her, she was throwing up. After twenty minutes or so, another passerby came into the park and saw Gavin and Sarah unconscious by the bridge. He called the police and Sarah and Gavin were taken immediately to the hospital for treatment of their wounds.