Disclaimer: All references to the characters Jareth, Sarah, Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and the film Labyrinth belong to Jim Henson Studios and other pertinent parties. I do not claim ownership to the characters and / or the original source material.
Life's Little Lessons: Chapter 7
"Thomas! I was so worried about you!" she cried hugging him fiercely in the middle of the throne room. She had hopped up from her seat sending goblins scattering for the shadows and their chickens. Tears of joy and not despair streamed down her face this time. She disentangled Thomas from her and held his face in her hands. She searched his wide eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Y-you were worried about me?" he asked in a tremulous voice. She's all right! She's fine! he thought happily.
"Of course!" she said with a choked laugh. "Uncle Toby would have had my hide if I let anything bad happen to you! Not to mention Mom would disown me for losing her favorite nephew to the Goblin King."
"Dad doesn't care about me." The words came unbidden. Thomas couldn't stop himself. He looked away from his cousin. Her hands let him go to rest on his shoulders. "He doesn't come to my ball games. He doesn't care about my grades. He doesn't even talk to me. All he does is go out and work and buys me things I don't even like."
"Oh, Thomas," Charlie said gently as she took him in her arms again. He began to truly cry then.
"Why can't you take care of me? Why can't Aunt Sarah and Uncle Brian?" he sobbed into her chest. "I want to live with you three. Don't make me go back. I hate it there. I hate them."
She cooed and rubbed his back as the words became just odd noises. Then her hand crept up and she smoothed the hairs on his head. He had needed this comfort, this undivided attention. He had wanted this for so long. Her hand was warm and heavy as she stroked his hair. He nestled into his chest, and she didn't balk at the tears mixing with the snot on her t-shirt. He whimpered and tried to keep his eyes shut. Then a soft, polite cough turned both of their attentions to the man now sitting upon the throne.
"Oh yeah…" Thomas said in a tight voice from too much crying. He looked with red eyes from the Goblin King back to Charlie. "I'm sorry I wished you away to the Goblin King. I didn't mean it."
He watched his cousin as she stared at the figure on the throne. She looked… scared. Slowly Charlie let him go and carefully put herself between him and the Goblin King. She took hold of Thomas's hand to keep him close. Obediently, he let her while he rubbed at his eyes. Lifting her chin, she stood defiantly, and the words she said shocked him a little.
"You can't have him."
"My dear, he wished you away to me. You are the one in dire straits," the Goblin King stated flatly. A titter of laughter echoed against the walls. Thomas looked around and wondered what the glimmering beads of light were for a hazy moment. Then he realized they were the shining eyes of goblins hidden in the shadows. "And he refused to run the Labyrinth in order to see that you were indeed safe here."
Thomas saw the Goblin King smile wickedly and he glanced up at Charlie. She looked pale.
"But this is a rather unconventional situation," the man stated as if he hadn't paused. Rising from his throne, he sauntered casually over to them. "Am I to believe that I have in my midst the daughter of one Sarah Williams and the son of Toby Williams?"
"Y-yes," Charlie replied automatically. She seemed a tad surprised and Thomas wondered why that would be. The tittering carried before dying away again. Charlie acted as if she hadn't noticed. "I'm Charlotte Jones, and this is Thomas Williams." Her chin lifted a little higher. "And… You are the King of the Goblins."
"Very astute, young lady," he replied dryly. Before he could speak, the young boy who seemed genuinely awed that his cousin knew the Goblin King, interjected with a question, "How do you know him, Charlie?"
"Mom – your Aunt Sarah – used to tell me a bed time story," she began to explain.
"Oh, it was no bed time story, precious," the Goblin King interjected. His elbow came to rest on his hand while he tapped his cheek with a gloved finger. His mismatched eyes never left the pair, and they began to make Thomas feel uneasy. "Years ago, your mother wished away her baby brother to me."
"And she beat you."
Charlie's frank words visibly stung the Goblin King for a moment, but he replaced his surprise with that same unnerving air of confidence and amusement.
"Did she?"
It was Charlie's turn to be stunned silent. Her face blanched, but then grew red as a myriad of feelings washed over her. Her chin lifted a little higher.
"She did. She won Toby back. He didn't become a goblin, and they were free to go home. You lost."
"Yet here I have her daughter and her nephew," the Goblin King replied pointing at each in turn. Another wave of laughter fell upon the empty hall. Charlie shifted in her stance and her grip tightened on Thomas. The Lord of the Labyrinth and ruler of the Goblin Kingdom took a step closer to the pair. "Now what am I to do with you two?"
"Y-you don't…" Charlie stammered as she tried to back away but couldn't since Thomas refused to move. Then she did something Thomas had never known she could do. She swore. "Shit. What are the words?"
"Words?" Thomas asked from behind her.
"From the story. Mom's story always had the heroine saying these words to the Goblin King that freed her. It's how she won."
With each careful step around the pair, his boot heels clicked on the stones of the throne room. He assessed them and wondered if his flimsy idea of a plan would work. Jareth smirked as he watched Thomas blink and pull the worn red book from his back pants pocket. The boy flipped to the end of the slim volume with eagerness. The realization that he could save them was palatable to the Goblin King. Charlie glanced at the Goblin King who now stood still before his throne and then down at her cousin with curiosity.
"What's that?"
"It's the book! Aunt Sarah's story! The words are-" He gasped in alarm. "What happened?!" The last few pages – the ones with the words and the conclusion of the tale – had been ripped out of the book.
A rustle drew their attention back to the ruler of the Labyrinth. In-between his fore and middle fingers he waved the missing pages in front of them. The smug smirk of satisfaction and triumph grew.
"Give those back!" shouted Thomas and he dropped the book to lunge at the Goblin King. The raucous laughter that had been growing in the throne room dropped to sudden silence. Charlie glanced to her left and right feeling the hair on the back her neck stand up. The air had changed from amused to menacing.
"Why? You forfeited your beloved cousin's life… to me," the King retorted. Tauntingly, the taller Jareth waved the pages over Thomas's head, just out of reach. He jumped frantically trying to get the pages until he resorted to pulling on the Goblin King's arm. Charlie's teasing finally paid off for once. Jareth scoffed and then laughed as he twisted his wrist and the pages disappeared. Thomas's face fell and he let go of the king's person. The menacing air to the room began to ease away.
"Thomas?" called Charlie and he turned back to her. Charlotte's green eyes, so much like Aunt Sarah's, searched his and he noticed that her hands trembled ever so slightly. "You… you refused to save me?" The tremble spread and she tried to hug herself to make it stop. Her next words pricked his heart. "You really hate me that much?"
"N-no! I d-d-don't hate you!" He rushed back over to her, but she held up a hand to stop him. She looked away from him, and he saw fresh tears trail down her smooth cheeks.
"I know you don't… but how could you, Thomas?" she whispered. She couldn't look at him. "Without the words… With you not running the Labyrinth to save me…" Instead she stared past him to Jareth. "How long do I have before you turn me into a goblin?"
"Ch-charlie, you c-can't! We- we can fight him! I'm sorry. Please," protested Thomas before the Goblin King even opened his mouth to speak, but the boy quieted at a sharp look from his cousin. His hope of having Charlie figure a way out of this mess fizzled and died.
"This isn't like our world, Thomas. Words have power here, and he heard you. Your refusal to act, just like in our world, has a consequence, and that consequence… is that you've forfeited my life without my asking or wish," she said sternly. She seemed to gain some courage again. An edge of anger carried on her voice. "I will have to remain here, and you and everyone else will forget me because you didn't think, Thomas. In so many hours, I won't be in your life anymore."
"T-that c-can't be true… Y-y-you'll be there. You're always there for me." He pushed her hand aside and threw his arms around her waist again. "You can't leave me! You can't! I won't let him have you!"
"It's too late," she replied letting her hands fall on his shoulders. "What has been said cannot be unsaid."
"I'm sorry! You can't go. I won't let you become a goblin. Please. I don't want to forget you."
"What's done is done." Only then did Charlie's steady hand reach up to smooth his hair and offer him comfort again in so many minutes. Yet the boy had cried himself out. No tears came this time.
The Goblin King watched silently as the drama continued to play out before him. How different the children of Toby and Sarah were. How different this story played out from the last time he had had the Williams children in his clutches. To hear his words come out of the mouth of Sarah's daughter gave him a sense of pride. He had taught Sarah Williams a valuable lesson that she had instilled in her offspring. She had remembered him, their story. This girl knew him... or at least about him. But why had Sarah not taught her nephew the value of words? The consequences of action and inaction? Sarah could have prevented this whole scenario for him. Inwardly he sighed. He was being petty by laying the blame at Sarah's feet. This scenario was Thomas's fault and his alone.
Yet a part of him felt bitter. He had moved the stars, he had done everything for Sarah Williams… and she had turned him aside. She had moved on. She had married. She had had a child. Had he moved on? The thought of Sarah ached in his chest. The love she spurned still burned there albeit dimly. Now, in his throne room, here before him was her daughter. She was living proof of what could have been with him and of what Sarah had found without him. How different the young girl – no, young woman - was from her mother at this age. Not only physically, but also in her maturity. She wasn't his Sarah. She was the byproduct of the stubborn and spoiled girl who had changed and grown up… thanks to him and his Labyrinth… and some other man, one that Sarah had come to love.
For Jareth, the years were merely a morning dew drop crawling slowly down on tulip leaf. For Sarah and other mortals, they did not have time to wait, to weigh the consequences of love given and taken. Before him was the proof of both Sarah and Toby's maturity (or in the latter case, the lack thereof). Questions nagged at him. Had he truly moved on from Sarah? Did he really want to? Did he really… Had he really wanted such a life with the young Williams girl so many years ago?
With his chin resting in his elegant hand, the Goblin King let his imperious gaze drift from the boy to the girl and back again. Too many questions plagued his mind, and Jareth frowned behind his gloved fingers. He continued to patiently watch the children of Sarah and Toby while he thought of what to do.