DISCLAIMER - I don't own Sarah or Jareth or the Labyrinth (unfortunately) they belong to Jim Henson & Co, and I'm definitely not making a profit from this.
All other NPC's are a figment of my own imagination.
**Thanks go to Pika-la-Cynique for borrowing her awesome labyrinth t-shirts shamelessly! :D
The morning brought howling gales stripping the trees of their autumn finery, mocking and teasing people in the streets blowing hair and coats into disarray. Sarah sat and watched the world lazily from her bedroom window, safely wrapped in the warmth and comfort of her duvet. Whilst she refused stubbornly to brood about Ollie her thoughts kept returning over and over again to the titbits of information His Glitteryness had dropped, both in his visit and her dream.
"If I was his indeed.." she grunted wafting a hand at the alarm clock to turn it off for the 5th time. She should program it to not go off on the weekends.. but somehow the thought always swept from her mind the moment it entered. Sundays was her day. Sundays she could lock herself in the comfort and cosiness of her studio and surround herself with fantasy and colour and magic the real world failed time after time to provide. Yet today she found herself mentally resisting her morning routine. She lay glaring at the ceiling thinking of meandering spiral staircases that lead to floating sundials until something thunked onto her window making her gasp and sit up. In a painfully comical way a small goblin was plastered to the outside of her window, and slowly with the dry set your teeth on edge squeaking it slid down the windowpane; a look of abject terror in its tiny too big eyes as it stared at her.
With a sigh Sarah crawled out of bed and opened the other window, reaching out against the buffeting wind to pick the tiny but fat goblin up by the scruff of its neck. Or in this case by the long sock it had tied around its neck.
"Wotcha Lady! Kingy says Gob haf to tell ya message." It said as soon as Sarah had dropped it onto the top of her dresser before closing the window again. The tiny thing immediately got sidetracked by her jewellery box and began edging towards a pair of dangly earrings.
"Stop. Turn around. Give me the message."
"Kingy say Gob the best choice. Kingy say uvver goblinz too smelly."
"That was his message?" Sarah sighed returning hopefully to her duvet in search of lost warmth.
"Kingy make Gob fly owl service. Not nice. Nuffin toweet." The goblin sat down and turned puppy dog eyes on Sarah who was buried up to her nose in duvet.
"Message first." Sarah glared back. "Then maybe food." At this the goblin perked up considerably.
"Kingy wanna know why Lady never draw funny paintings of Lady."
"That's the message?" Sarah squawked in outrage climbing from her duvet in indignation. "He sent a half sized goblin to ask me that on a Sunday morning? Is he out of his tree?" She howled ramming her feet into her slippers and throwing on her silk kimono over her T-shirt before stalking out the bedroom to stop and stare at the scene in her living room. Crashed out on her sofa, along with Toby and Petey sat Jareth, King of the goblins, dressed in jogging bottoms and a t-shirt that stated "I have moved the stars, I have re-ordered time, I have turned the world upside down… and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" They were deeply involved in racing each other on the plasma TV and didn't even notice her as she stood gaping at them. Gob trotted past her feet in the direction of the kitchen, the movement making Jareth look up from the screen and grin evilly at her as his eyes followed her legs all the way up until Sarah hastily wrapped the kimono further around herself.
"Thought we heard your dulcet tones. Rudely awoken were we?" Toby and his friend snorted and reset the game.
Sarah gave him a look of deepest disgust and stalked back into her bedroom slamming the door behind her.
"Shes so not a morning person." Toby laughed stuffing his face with bagel.
"Again. This time I'm going to kick your ass Toby." Jareth said casting a final look at the closed door of Sarahs bedroom thoughtfully.
She lay under the duvet trying and failing to ignore the wooping and hollering coming from the 3 annoying males in the living room. Resolutely Sarah stuffed the pillows over her head as well and went back to sleep. Hours later she woke groggy and hot, throwing the pillows and duvet off herself before she smothered. Huffing she listened carefully for any signs of life beyond the door and was relieved to hear nothing. Glad of the silence, the bathroom and her fabulous power shower called to her and overrode the grumbling of her tummy.
"Shower first" She told it grabbing towels off the rack and turning the spray on so the water could heat up as she brushed her teeth. 20 minutes later having wrestled with her tresses Sarah cautiously poked her head out into the living room and finding it still empty and mercifully clean she pottered into the kitchen to turn on the coffee machine and dishwasher before raiding the fridge for edibles. She'd need to go shopping again, whilst Toby was good about tidying up after himself and his friends they invariably ate her out of house and home every weekend. Settling for a sandwich and a mug of coffee she made her way back to the dining table to eat and read the local paper which Toby had left out for her.
Tales of muggings and murders and terrorist threats and shops going bust she ignored, they were depressing. Instead she turned to the personal ad's and items for sale. A habit she'd had for a long time. She pondered what made people write those tiny ad's looking for love or wanting to sell odd items, the very humanness of it was startling and all too apparent. Lady seeks companionship, but no mention of love, child's fish tank for sale to a good home, 1 used cat flap. Desperate pleas for information about missing relatives or pets, all hid deeper stories of people in the city she'd never connect to. That very fact was what weighed most heavily in her mind. Since that night so long ago, she'd been changed. The labyrinth had made her see the truth of reality, and the lies humans created for themselves in order to cope. It was heartbreaking, yet she had no emotion for them. She simply existed. Having touched unreality and walked between worlds she craved something more, not just him, but the world in which he existed. Her art was a way back into the fringes of that world, but even that left her unsatisfied, her pictures and sketches, like herself were missing something.
Sarah sighed and looked up to find him sat in a momentary patch of sunshine watching her. His platinum hair shone, vestiges of magic spun around him like an aura even as like a cat he looked right at home despite his now usual clothing looking odd in the modern surroundings.
"How long?"
"Years."
"Why? You can't take him away again, I won't let you."
"He is clever like his sister and his curiosity like yours wouldn't let him have a normal life. He like you has seen things this world can not explain."
"Stay there." She instructed leaving the table and disappearing into her studio returning moments later carrying a sketchbook and pencils, plonking herself unceremoniously at the other end of the couch.
"Why now?" She asked finding a fresh page and frantically began to sketch, glancing up at him every so often to make sure she got the details of his lazy position on the couch in the sunlight.
"Your fault. If you hadn't come back without an invitation I would have left things alone. I hadn't realised you still had.. gifts." He brooded looking out the window.
"gifts?" Sarah paused and looked up properly at him until he turned back to her, his expression unreadable.
"The labyrinth, like its master is capricious and often does things on a whim. It was enchanted by your stubbornness and intrigued by your ability to imagine such things as it created for you. As you saw when you dropped in last time it does not often take on such a look as what you saw the first time you entered."
Jareth watched her sketching frantically, absently wafting damp locks out of her face as they fell forwards and got in her way. Just like his labyrinth she enchanted him, and despite the anger he still felt in his heart he could feel years of rage ebbing away into the sunlight.
Her dream the night before had shocked him out of his wrath, even now when she touched the labyrinth it reacted to her like nothing he had ever seen. Few had such abilities, even as he mused he reminded himself again of the words she had spoken "my kingdom as great…" maybe not her kingdom, but his kingdom. The ancient magic that had swirled around them that night even he couldn't fathom but as Jareth watched the artist in her work he saw what no other creature could see. Her magic was breaking closer to the surface, it ebbed and flowed around her like his own, sparkling in the ether. For the first time since she had wished her brother away Jareths traitorous heart queried if she could ever love him, ever submit to him as he had asked.
Gob appeared on the sofa next to her and whilst she wasn't looking stole her eraser, chewing it thoughtfully to see if it tasted good.
"Done. You can move now." She said finally sitting up and stretching her back. Scowling at Gob she removed the bits of eraser from his mouth and gathered up the other bits he had scattered on the cushion. "You owe me a new one."
Getting up she placed the sketchpad on the table and grabbing her coffee mug disappeared into the kitchen. Seconds later she nearly dropped the milk as he appeared behind her in the doorway silently.
"Must you creep around like that? Coffee?" She asked trying to ignore the confined space and his immediacy. He nodded as she got out another mug.
"My dream last night…" She queried eventually as she waited for the coffee machine to spit out its contents into the waiting mugs. "Was that really the labyrinth or just my imagination being wild?" Jareth watched as she fiddled with a teaspoon, weirdly pleased that she found his presence uncomfortable.
"Both." Was his cryptic reply as he took a handful of grapes from the fruit bowl and ate them.
"And?"
"And what? You don't really expect me to be so forthcoming all day do you? You've had your question and answer session." He smirked as Sarah growled as she handed him a mug of coffee before purposefully blocking her exit from the kitchen.
"Let me past please.." She muttered backing up from him as he approached her.
"Now its time for you to answer my questions."
"Wouldn't this be better in the lounge?" She quailed as she backed up against the sink holding her coffee in front of her like a shield.
"Why have you become a martyr? A goodie two shoes?" He growled glaring at her. "Time was you wouldn't let anybody walk all over you, not even me."
"Things changed." Sarah murmured having the grace to blush at his hard words.
"Why?"
"I'm not.. I don't know."
"Yes you do, but you won't even admit it to yourself. You've become a mouse Sarah. Where is the spirit and the conviction and the fight?"
"I grew up. I learnt that lifes not fair. That dreams don't come true…"
"For you they could have."
"By sacrificing my brother for a childish whim? Out of spitefulness and resentment and jealousy? What would that have made me Jareth?" She cried in horror, the coffee tasted bitter in her mouth like the memories he was dredging up and in disgust she turned away from him and poured the rest down the drain.
"I gave up the things I thought I wanted most to make sure he was safe. I'll never forgive myself for wishing him away. You knew that the moment you came into my dads bedroom. I begged you not to take him. I was a child and I made a mistake, but you made me pay the price anyhow. You took the rest of my childhood from me. In 13 hours trying to get through the labyrinth you tore apart every single one of my preconceptions about how things were. When I managed to get us back and I sat in my bedroom, before I realised I could still speak to Hoggle and Didymus and Ludo I was devastated. Everything I had treasured, everything I had cared about was childish rubbish. For 2 years I never dreamt about anything else except you and the labyrinth and the only way I felt better was to draw what I saw. Trying to convince myself that everything in this world was a bad dream, always alone, never connecting, living a shadow. You broke me Jareth, so when you come here preaching at me about being walked all over and acing like a mouse with no spine you should go look at yourself in the mirror for the answer!" She wailed getting up some courage to push her way past him before all the fears and terror in her mind came crashing out. She caught herself at the dining room table, gasping for breath from tears that would not stop. "You are right. There are debts between us, but I'm not the only one who should be apologising or asking for forgiveness!" When she turned to face him she found nothing but an empty kitchen. Not even his coffee mug to mark that he had been there.
Jareth, King of the Goblins, Ruler of the Labyrinth, Lord of the High Reaches swore in several languages as he suddenly found himself stood in the council chambers in the castle beyond the goblin city, or the Dump as he affectionately called it.
"NOW? Anyetta?" He bellowed stomping up to the table and glaring murderously at the occupants.
"Now Your Majesty." The beautiful fae said un-phased by his entrance as she shuffled papers about. "We are here to discuss the case of High Lord Intalor and his indiscretions…"
"King Jareth it would do you well to sit down at this table and behave yourself lest I find you in contempt. You are making Kamin nervous." Anyetta stated glaring back at Jareth until he muttered another curse and sat down at his place. She proceeded to explain the details of the lord in question whilst Jareth noisily drank his coffee to irritate her.
"Why is this even before the council?" He demanded when she finished listing the details.
"He raped a 14 year old scion of House Gathamar, this demands reparation and compensation! My niece hadn't even entered her minor society level yet!" Kamin cried outraged banging his fist on the table.
"Then chastise him, take away his title and give it to the girl, why the hell did you need me to decide this?" Jareths anger bubbled over. "Frankly Kamin if shes the niece I am thinking of this wouldn't be the first indiscretion the way her parents let her dress and the way she keeps trying to be invited to my parties. I would have thought you of all people would prefer to keep this a private matter between the houses…" The fae at the other end of the table turned puce at Jareths words and rose, knocking the table and sending Sarahs mug crashing to the floor.
"You!..."
"Kamin take my advice. Deal with this as a private matter or I will see to it that this becomes the most public, messy scandal the court has seen for years. Don't try my patience." Jareth said with a deadly voice.
"High Lord Kamin, it is with sympathy I must add my backing to his Majesties thought. This could get very messy for your house very quickly if Intalor decides to cross accuse your niece of falsifying her credentials." The other occupant of the table rose also, leaving Anyetta sat on her own.
"Of course you would side with him! You're biased!" Kamin groused pulling his cloak around him in disgust.
"Hold your tongue Kamin. I am not biased one way or another, I simply see sense of what could and most likely would happen. Return to your house and seek compensation privately, thus is the will of this court." The man raised a brow as Kamin looked set to argue further, instead the High Lord stomped off across the room almost reaching the door before he belatedly remembered his manners and bowed sketchily to Jareth before walking out and slamming the door behind him.
"if the pair of you EVER summon me like this again I'll behead you both for treason." Jareth spat turning on them as soon as the door was closed.
"You look vexed brother."
"You have no idea." He muttered summoning a maid to clean up the broken mug. "Get out before I do something I will regret." He slumped back down in his chair as they both bowed low and left the room.