6 comments/ 9605 views/ 17 favorites As The World Falls Down By: sacrificedangel I know it has been a LONG while since I posted anything, but have been working on all the short stories that were bouncing around my head and numerous note pads (Thank you HRKW...they were handy) and finally decided to post a few. I am still working on the sequel to Corine, and am slowly working on the sequel to Thea (Kael's story), but the mind block is protesting...loudly. So, here is a little something in the meantime I have been convinced into posting – a little daydreaming on my part based on the fantasy film Labyrinth – and I hope you enjoy (but please don't nick or post elsewhere! lol) Katheryn Ann ~ Sacrificedangel xxx ~~~ Falling...every time I was fell. His voice forever rang out in the background as I faded far from his touch and his magic and fell through the veiled wall between his world and mine. I fell through time; I fell through his power, and slipped from his grasp and each time I landed with a jarring thump that had affected me down to my soul. Tonight seemed to be no different than the many nights over the years I had awoken from that same dream. That feeling you get whilst you drift between waking and sleep, that moment when your equilibrium is tested and your body awakens to stop you toppling to the ground, is how I woke with infuriating regularity. The wind was battering the trees against my open window, casting an eerie glow from the moon alongside my bed as its chill ruffled along the covers. Always when the wind blew harshly, always when the moon was full and bright against the night's sky, did my delusions swamp my consciousness and bring his voice, the pain on his face back to the forefront of my mind. Settling back against my pillows with a thump, I groaned in frustration. I had thought I was getting better, gaining control over my imagination. Certainly I no longer talked to beings that were not there, could no longer hear their silent pleas and even though it brought about an intense feeling of foreboding with each one I ignored, I reminded myself of my stepmother's promise to have me permanently committed. Their appearances in my daily life lessened as the days went by – the strength of the apparitions dwindled, my delusions waning - though occasionally, I would see something out the corner of my eye, a flash of colour, an object would move...a voice I would recognise from my dreams. Mentally shaking my head at my silliness, I sighed and sat up to deal with the window just as my fingers brushed something soft at my side. Silky and silvery-white, it made my skin tingle where it touched my palm, a soft touch moving on an even path up my arm and across my collarbone to where it rested next to my heart, the heat of it a pleasant weight. The touch was gone as swiftly as it had come, and I felt its loss acutely. The flawless feather seemed to glow in the moonlit darkness and as I held it up before me, the open doors of my window closed softly and silent on a whisper. Happy Birthday Sarah... ~~~ In the darkness, as his magic waned, he lunged once more at his foe. Their blood made their grip slick, unsteady as they fought within the stone confines of his throne room. Her belief in him had faded; he began to lose his strength, his magic since the moment she had begun to ignore his call to her. He knew he could not defeat his enemy now; the last of his power was leaving him to protect her...to make her strong. She was the key to his kingdom now... The moon's glow caught the twisting smirk of his brother's lips as he caught the tail end of his thought in the expression on his face and understood finally what he had done. "You will regret that, brother." Shade sneered as he wrapped his hand around Jareth's throat. "I will find her..." The threat echoed in both their minds as Jareth's rage slipped from his control and with the last of his powers, he threw them both through the window and out into the world. The human world. And into the mercies of a woman who no longer believed in him. ~~~ "Sarah, your new agent would like to know if you will be attending the unveiling tonight?" Aster called through to my studio and I tensed. I had been painting for nearly three years in the solitude of my first apartment since I had left the smothering abode of my father and stepmother, but now after selling the first batch of paintings I had my very own studio to work from...and the acoustics were taking a little getting used to. Aster was only about ten feet away yet her gentle call had sounded like a bellowing ox. "I won't be there for the unveiling; I will come afterwards though, to the mingling part." I replied the brush between my teeth as I used a sponge to soak up the mess I had made when she had startled me with her call. "Langton knows I hate standing there watching their expressions. They all look at me as though I am nuts." As though I am still nuts, I silently corrected. My stepmother had tried to have me returned to their home to watch over me the first time she had seen my work, concerned...nay, convinced my delusions were coming back to haunt me. I couldn't blame her. The canvas she had walked in on me working on was of a giant golden clock, with thirteen hours adorning it with only three minutes left to go and small deformed looking creatures smirking from behind it. That canvas hung at the end of my hallway upstairs where I now lived...I had not been able to will myself to sell it. I felt it was too important somehow. It had been the morning of my eighteenth birthday I had awoken to find a silvery-white feather beside me in my bed and a whispered voice of a male long since buried in the back of my mind, teasing my senses, awakening a longing inside me I had long since thought was dead. Holding that feather, tight within my grasp as the sun rose, I knew I could no longer keep it all at bay. That voice was real, that feather was real...somehow. Even as my rational side fought it, reminding me of all the doctors, pills and appointments I had endured since my father found me talking to thin air at sixteen. I hadn't thought anything of it, nor thought to conceal it since it began the year before. I had drawn such comfort from my companions...and was then taught to ignore them. I wondered if I was being punished now. I was nearly twenty one, and ever since I had begun to believe the possibility of their reality, it was as though they now shut me out – refusing to come to me. So now, I painted. Every day since I packed my belongings on the morning of my eighteenth birthday and left my father's home, I had painted. At first it was just the hands of that golden clock. They had tormented me for weeks, after so long of shutting out the visions, the dreams, I struggled to focus on the image that had been branded in my mind. Slowly, the fog had begun to clear, and I could see the clock, see where the hands lay and with every stroke of my brush, my apprehension grew. Bit by bit, the painting was slowly completed, until there was only one small corner left to do...and yet, when I had woken, I found I had completed it in my dreams. His shadow, stood proud and dominant behind his clock. I could not see his features, but I would know his stance, his bearing anywhere. And then something weird happened. The morning I turned nineteen in my first apartment, I woke to the same sight, that painting at the end of my bed; the morning light illuminating the shadow of him...he was closer. I jumped from my bed and rushed towards it, there was no doubt in my mind. He was closer, though instead of standing proud and strong, the shadow was stooped; grasping the edge of the canvas in what I felt was pain. That was not the only change. The seven goblins that smiled out from the canvas were now only three, their clothes haggard, their sly expressions wary rather than mischievous hiding behind a now black clock. A clock which only had two minutes left to go. I spent that entire day begging my imagination to explain it, shouting to every corner of the room for the flashes of movement I used to see – beg them to show themselves and end my confusion. But none other came. My dreams lay in blissful darkness, as though all colour had leeched from the sleeping world I used to be thrown into, and I would no longer wake with that falling start as the world came into mornings light. I would wake with a weight on my heart that I could not explain. The clock only had one minute to go now, and was now a vivid sparkle of gold once more, though losing its sheen, fading to the pitch it had been this past year...as though somewhere within its realm a battle were fought, gold over ebony for supremacy. And I had no doubt that my twenty first birthday in four days time would be when the clock's time would finally run out. Its shade and ever changing background decided for good. And I felt an ache deep in my chest that the clock would not return to the gold of my imagination. Though what I was meant to do about this ill foreboding, I had no idea. Sitting back from my painting, I could feel my eyes growing heavy. I had laboured over this painting for over eight days, desperate to get it finished before my deadline tonight. A patron of my agent, Langton, had commissioned me to do a painting in my style, but revolving around a single peach. At first, I had believed it a strange request from an eccentric, but with every brush stroke I felt a familiarity...a wash of déjà vu I couldn't step back from...much as I had felt when the clock had turned vivid gold once more that morning and had a background of dark bricks. I had been to that place, underground...and his shadow had loomed over me...sweet mockery in his voice. "Sarah, Langton is asking if you had finished the commission?" Aster spoke beside me, and I realised I had shut my eyes and had been lost roaming the dream. I bit back a small curse at the interruption, and forced a smile. "Yes, tell him I am finished." I said, my smile leaving me swiftly as Aster walked back through to her phone. I looked back at the finished product and hated it with a passion. My mouth filled with a strange taste, a drowsy sense that flooded me, draining – warning me – something about this was just too close to my imagination for comfort; too close for it to be coincidence. The peach – nestled amongst fallen leaves and deep rooted trees – stirred memories within me that were just out of reach. As I walked away from it, my drowsiness ebbed. The sooner that painting was gone from my studio the better. Taking the phone from Aster, I cleared my throat. "Langton..." "Arthur, please Sarah." "Yes of course, Arthur. Can one of your men collect the painting within the hour?" "Certainly, though the man who commissioned it did request to pick it up direct." "No, I want it out of here." I stammered, before swiftly finding another more, plausible reason other than the painting made me feel as though it were draining the life out of me – and I had little desire to meet the man who had wanted it. "I have other work I am trying to complete and the canvas size he asked for, is taking up a great deal of space." Especially for a simple peach... "Then of course, I will send someone around." There was a pause, long enough to allow me a sense of relief before he asked me personally the same question he had asked Aster. "No, I won't be coming to the unveiling. I will be there for ten though." "You promise?" Langton knew me well. There were times I did not show up at all, lost in the colours of paints and shadows of charcoal; I could lose sense of time so very easily. "Yes. I promise. Aster has already said she will be driving me." So I have no choice, I thought. I said my goodbyes and went back through to the dreaded canvas. I shuddered and turned away. "Aster, I am going up to my apartment, I'm not feeling too well." "You are not getting out of this event that way..." "I swear, I'm not." I laughed lightly. "I think I just need a bath and a lie down." With my assistant appeased, I unlocked my door and climbed the stairs to my private rooms. A bath sounded simply perfect. ~~~ Aster waited until her sensitive ears picked up the sounds of running water above her before she left her desk and made her way silently through to the studio. In front of the canvas, her breath left her in a soft rush. Sarah's powers were growing. "This is not good." A deep voice sounded from behind her quietly, and Aster smiled sadly at the creature. "Good day to you too Hoggle." "Fairy." The short male nodded in greeting before stepping closer to the painting. "Do you think she is remembering finally?" He asked, eyeing the fairy with the beginnings of hope. "I believe she remembers something, but they are not true memories. I suppose it's like trying to remember a dream. It comes to her, but in pieces. I am surprised by this though." Aster gestured to the canvas. "She took that bastard's suggestion and her memory sprung up around it, right down to the need to sleep...and dream." "He is getting stronger too, now the King's power is within Sarah, he has no competition for the throne...he is King in name but with a throne he cannot get back to." Hoggle shook his head, time was running out and they were no closer to finding out what had happened the day the brothers had fallen from the Labyrinth and locked the walls behind them. With a truce between his kind and the fairies, a few goblins and little folk had managed to slip through a year later, but by then all trails had long since grown cold. As had the Labyrinth. With each passing moment without its King and his power to sustain it, it grew barren and ice encroached upon each wall, hedge and castle stone, until the entire realm glistened like frost under an endless moon drenched night. Its creatures starved, its magic dwindled and the very walls at the edge of the realm began to crumble, leaving a dark void beyond that ate away their world each day Jareth was missing. Sarah now held the power, the key, to restoring life back to the great Kingdom. A gift, from a Goblin King who loved her enough to endure her leaving him, the only other person he felt he could trust with something so great. Hoggle remembered the night a desperate Jareth went in the shadows to her, as she lay fitfully sleeping; he wasted precious energy just watching her. When his presence, his power awoke her, he had given his magic over to her. His Queen. And now surrounding her heart she carried his powers. A crystal ball, shining with Jareth's magic. And Shade hunted her for this very reason. It was obvious to them both, fairy and dwarf, that the upstart had indeed found her. Who else would have known to ask her to paint something so...ordinary...unless to test her, to see how much Sarah Williams truly remembered. To prove that she was the one he sought. "How long have we got left?" Aster asked glancing down at her companion who had closed his eyes for a moment, obviously remembering the moment he had handed her that same peach. "Three days, seven hours and fourteen minutes." Hoggle quickly calculated, seeing the many labyrinth clocks all attuned to that specific moment. When their Queen would turn twenty one, and be allowed to rule beside him. Ever since the moment she had left, the clocks had changed to follow this course, to the moment fates felt her old enough to deal with the cruel enigma that was their King. Or as it turned out, the moment she had to save him. But in a woman who had convinced herself that her imaginings had simply been just that...her imagination run amok, Hoggle felt little hope. ~~~ He sank against the cold glass, his laboured breath barely steaming the surface as he watched the shadowed hallways of his brother's human home. For nearly three long years he had roamed the blank void behind the mirrors in each room, imprisoned by Shade's will to watch the world pass him by – unable to escape. His body still bled from his wounds, his bones mending slowly through his brother's spells, he was beaten to within an inch of death only to be forced back into existence by Shade's magic. He would not break though. His brother was growing more desperate, his search of this human world had found him nothing of Jareth's Queen, nothing of where the key to the Goblin Kingdom – his powerful magic – lay hidden. Shade's madness was beginning to show. Jareth closed his eyes, his head against the cold polished surface as he let his own memories take him far from his prison, and back into the warmth of his Kingdom. The warmth of her eyes regarding him with fear...and awe. At first, he had merely reacted to her wish. Appearing within her world to take from her the screaming baby brother who had irritated her so...but when she had boldly asked for him back, withstood his presence without falling to his feet, he had begrudgingly given the young girl a challenge. Solve his Labyrinth within thirteen hours, and she could have her brother back. Gods, how he had wanted her to fail. But as she began to conquer his deceptive maze, win over his creatures, he began to wish for the moment she would reach him. He pushed her, challenged her, demanded she turn back, only to have her push on forward, and her spark of determination, her loyalty to her little brother, made him long for her himself. Long for the loyalty felt for another, one not borne of fear. When Sarah had fallen to the magic in his peach, he had sent her a dream. One that had tormented him since the moment she had accepted his challenge. Dressed in beautiful silks, she would dance with him, her hand within his as he turned her around his crystal ballroom, he could see his own emotions reflected in her eyes and had known, that at least he was not alone in his affection before she finally broke his magical hold upon her and woke from her slumber. He had longed for her even then, praying this proud creature would accept him and all he was. Save him from the apathy that threatened. His existence as the Goblin King was empty...until Sarah fell into his life. When finally she reached him, he could feel her heartbeat in every wall he passed, feel her life – pure and free from corruption – fill every corner, and he was enslaved to it. And yet, as he laid his heart out before her, she had still refused him. He vowed to lure her back to him, waiting for the time to come that she would be old enough to accept him for all he was. But too soon, the human world had noticed her imaginings, and convinced her it was all a delusion. Jareth felt his heart twist in pain with every moment that his beloved Queen forgot, and when she forgot all of him but his voice, he could feel his power wane. Then Shade attacked. His army – magically enthralled goblins, stolen from his own city – had decimated the cobbled streets, then finally the castle. But not before he had visited his Sarah, one last time. With his hand over her heart, he had protected his Queen, and locked his Labyrinth from the outside. Shade had been searching for her ever since. A loud knock next to his head signalled the return of his younger brother and when he did not respond, Jareth felt Shade's magic trickle through the glass and shock him into turning. Shade smirked down at him before stepping back towards a white sheet, his eyes never leaving the mismatched ones of Jareth, Shade gripped the sheet and pulled it back. The peach, as magic-filled as it had been the day he bade Hoggle give it to her, lay ripe and alive on the canvas, the woodland where she had rested her head was in shadow and there, in the distance...barely a pinprick of colour so well blended, to the human eye, lay his castle. Fear, black and choking filled him – though not for his Kingdom, he would gladly release it from his rule were she to ask it from him – it was fear for her. It was her life that now hung in the balance. As The World Falls Down "I found her brother." ~~~ I sank into the water with a glad sigh, immersed myself beneath the bubbles and let the warmth surround me entirely. I wanted to stay there forever, anything to escape the chill that had crept into my bones in the presence of that painting. Foggy memories teased the surface of my mind and beneath the water I focused until they began to take shape. Voices I could recognise, landmarks I now could confirm were not just the imagination of the moment, but a place that I had been. I had stood there...nay, I had lain against that tree, that ripe fruit grasped within my palm before it had rolled from my hand and my mind had been enveloped in dreams. Masquerade. Hidden faces and the rustle of silk over silk as the figures moved. Beneath the bubbles I could hear the music play a flowing tune as strong hands guided me over the floor, a gaze of green and blue holding me captive... Shit! I sat up with a sudden rush as I drew in a needed breath, only to be stopped short at the sight that greeted me. In awe, I looked around me as dozens of perfect sphere bubbles floated on the air around me. Tentatively touching one, it lay still in my palm – a solid weight, as that sense of déjà vu swamped me. I had been offered one of these before... I've brought you a gift... ...what is it? ...It's a crystal. Nothing more. But if you turn it this way and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But this is not a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby. "Oh my god." I whispered, watching as all the beautiful spheres floated gently to land and burst, existing no more. Washing swiftly, I was dressed and out the door in barely ten minutes, barging past Aster on my way. I didn't even stop to answer her when she anxiously asked me where I was going. In truth, I wasn't sure I should go there at all. Absently as I ran through my studio, I noticed the painting was gone, and instead of the relief I had expected to feel, the dull sense of foreboding intensified. I should never have allowed that painting out of my sight, I should have destroyed it. Aster took hold of my arm as I reached the door to the outside world and I swiftly shook it off with a promise I would return in ample time for the event tonight. The sky was already darkening as I ran to my car and jumped in the reliable little engine. Praying it started, it seemed willing to obey me this once, and I set out on the dark road towards my father's home. Each mile passed with agonising slowness as I drove, the trees overshadowing the moon casting an odd light to mingle in the darkness, until suddenly, their street appeared and I was pulling up alongside a house I had not been in since I left nearly three years ago. They were out, I saw no lights to brighten the inside and for this luck I was glad. I don't think I could have explained myself coherently had they been there to confront me. Using the emergency key behind the azaleas, I let myself in quietly and listened for any hint of noise. Not so long ago, Merlin would have come to greet me by the door, but he had disappeared from the house just before my 'delusions' had begun. No one had ever been able to explain how he had simply vanished that night. Though I had tried to suggest he was with Sir Didymus in the other realm, it was enough to ensure my father and stepmother believed me to have a mental health problem. I listened for a moment, happy that no one was home and that Toby was likely at a neighbours, I climbed the stairs and headed for my old room. It had been changed from my childhood sanctuary into a gym since I had left, all my things were gone, and I felt panic flood me. I needed to find it...I didn't know just how much I had forgotten, I needed to know, remember. I had to know His name. I ran to the attic stairs, and entered the dark unused room. There, in three boxes, lay my childhood, hidden away in a corner. Ripping open the first box, I found my stuffed toys; another held all my linens and the clothes I had left behind. The final one, held the things from my desk I had hoped to come back and collect when I was not living out of my rucksack. A time that had never come. My music box caught my eye, I let out its tune and tears sprung to my eyes as the music touched something deeply buried. With shaking hands, I put it aside, and reached to the bottom of the box. When my hands clasped around the supple leather, I knew I had found what I came for. The book still looked the same in my pale fingers as it had when I was fifteen. Opening the book was like a balm to my soul. The tension, coiling in my being since I had begun to forget the world that I had believed existed alongside our own, suddenly released as the words flowed from the pages and my lips whispered their sounds. "Well I must say, it is about bloody time!" A gnarly voice grumbled as a dog gave an answering bark from the shadows. "Sir Didymus?" I queried, though I already knew the answer. When the first white and grey paw exited the shadow, my heart lightened. "The only, my fair maiden." The charming creature answered with a bow before Ambrocious, my Merlin, licked my face. "Though I must admit, I was beginning to wonder if we were to be confined to the prison of your forgetfulness forever." "I am sorry Sir Didymus; I thought I was going mad..." I stopped, sad that I had caused them such grief. "Well, never mind. We, my Qu...um...dear girl, have much work to be done." I watched him reach for my arm and hold on. "What are you doing?" I raised my eyebrows at him, just as he looked on at me curiously. "You haven't figured out what he did for you yet have you?" Sir Didymus actually looked slightly disgruntled with my apparent ignorance. "Well then, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and focus on us being back at your studio." When he failed to say more, and just closed his eyes, I decided to do as he had asked. Closing my eyes, my companions holding onto my arm as I clutched the small leather bound book, I imagined us back within the soothing scents of my studio. Within a heartbeat I could smell the paints, the earthy scent of the charcoals...the sound of Aster gasping... "What the..." "See my Lady, verily tis the easiest method of travel from a known point to another." "She can see you?" Aster asked my companion, and I stopped my gaping look to fix a glare upon her. "You can see them??" I asked pointedly. When the three of them only stared back at me, I released Sir Didymus' hold on my arm and cradled the book against my chest. "I suggest you tell me what is going on Aster, that you can see these two whilst all others have proclaimed them a figment of my over active imagination and delusion." "Well..." ~~~ I almost wish I had not asked. "So what you are saying is that you are a fairy I met on my first day in the labyrinth, the one I saved from a dwarf." I shook my head, my fuzzy memories making my brain ache. "You bit me!" Aster had the decency to look abashed. "You were pretty, and you were the Goblin King's size. It was bound to make for a little jealousy on any fairy's part." The Goblin King... Grabbing the book, I had to know. He knew my name, I had heard him whisper it in my dreams over the years, the sound of it on his lips heated my blood and left me dreaming of things I had no experience of to be dreaming. I blushed as I quickly scanned the pages, ignoring those around me. Each page brought back memories of their own. My quest through those strange lands; the never ending walls of his labyrinth. The creatures, the tests. Everything that had tormented me came flooding back with startling reality. I could see flashes out of the corners of my eyes as more creatures appeared to stand beside Aster and watch me silently. My legs cramping, I stood, pacing back and forth as I continued my search through the pages – some passages remaining as they had always been...and others became a retelling of my history with the Goblin King before my eyes. I began to wonder how much of this would have stuck with Toby; if he too could see the creatures of the Labyrinth appear from the shadows. Long minutes flew by as I scanned each page until finally I came across one word that made my heart jolt with a pleasurable pain that filled me with strength and joy and yet drained me at the same time. My last thought before I fell to the ground in darkness was a whisper from my lips. Jareth... ~~~ Goblin faces watched beneath hooded shawls, their bodies cold, frost glistening on their skins and the once vibrant hues of the land shone with ice in their place. The endless void encroaching on their realm was a gaping yaw; vicious nothingness that pieces of the Labyrinth could constantly be seen floating away into. The lack of magic in this once great palace left it lifeless. I could feel the gaze of the goblin army settle on my ghostly image as I roamed their halls, climbed the impossible stair cases and archways that had been locked away in my mind. Long minutes...hours in this realm, passed before I entered his throne room through a door I had once ran through. There was no streaking sunset to illuminate the sandstone now. His throne, streaked with blood instead, made my heart beat hard beneath my breast and my stomach lurch. It was his blood, Jareth's...and another. A long battle had been fought here, daggers fallen to the floor where they had both resorted to the strength of their hands. The world tilted suddenly, spilling me from its icy clutches and back into my studio with a thud, my companions all shielding me from impact with my tiled floor. "Oh god...they are dying. They are freezing to death with out him, and there is this void, this darkness eating the labyrinth." I was standing once more, brushing my frost laden limbs with shaking hands as I felt a panic like none other wrap around me like a vice. "We need to find him." "We will Sarah, we will." "Hoggle?" My voice sounded tiny to my ears as the unusual looking male stepped from behind Aster and knelt beside me. "How could I have forgotten you? How was I so easily convinced?" "You had better tell her Hoggle." Aster said quietly, moving to the front of my studio to lock us in. "How much do you remember?" Hoggle asked, and he sat down as I summed up. "Good, that will help. A thousand years ago, a new prince was born to the realm, but not to the true Queen of the Labyrinth. Instead the babe was born to a witch, who had used her considerable magic to lure the ailing King to her bed disguised as his beloved Queen. Jareth, who then at three hundred years was still considered a youth, pleaded for the life of the babe, who bore a striking resemblance to himself. The Queen, his mother, reluctantly agreed, though the babe was placed in the far end of the realm with a Goblin family to raise him, and his witch mother was cast out of the land in deathly exile. But it went wrong. Jareth did not realise that the witch's evil had survived in her son. Jareth had allowed the viper within his castle walls once his beloved mother was no longer around to oppose it. Shade's resentment had festered as he grew up, thought none would have known of it, as he acted the perfect brother." "Until?" I asked, though I already had a guilty idea of when. "Until you arrived, and he could see the King's fascination for you. Jareth had grown so apathetic, cruel even as the endless years passed by with little change, long seasons with naught but his brother's twisted mind and whispers for company, but when you came into the world, Shade could see the effect you had upon his brother. He suspected..." "Are we telling her then?" Sir Didymus interrupted, and Hoggle glared at him. I saw something silent pass between them before I coughed and brought their attention back to me. "I think its best, don't you?" Hoggle's gruff rebuke made me smile, he sounded so much more like himself when he was grumpy. "He suspected, Sarah, that you were Jareth's Queen." Time slowed. Hoggle's voice sank into the background as I heard his voice in my head instead. Look Sarah, Look what I'm offering you. Your dreams. I ask for so little. Just let me rule you and you can have everything you want. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave. Jareth, how young I was, I whispered in my head. Too young to understand all that you were truly offering me. Forcing myself away from the comfort of his voice, I refocused on Hoggle and my strange companions as more small goblins appeared and crowded around us. "So what do we do now?" I asked my worries over the painted clock with only a minute to spare springing to the forefront. "Now, we must get you to your event." Aster said, much to my confusion as all the entourage nodded in full agreement. "Are you serious? We have to find Jareth!" I began pacing once more, new fears flooding me. The clock, counting down...to what exactly? Turning back to Hoggle I had to ask. "Hoggle...what happens on my birthday?" I could see his little shoulders slump. Evidently my question had been one he had been hoping to avoid. I placed my hand on his arm and gently turned him to face me. "At midnight, and a second into your twenty first birthday, Jareth's time runs out." "What do you mean?" I was almost too afraid to ask. "Hoggle, we have to tell her the rest." Aster said. "I can't; he made me promise not to." "We have to tell her, it isn't fair not to give her all the details." "Can you not speak about me as though I am not in the damn room!" I yelled over the din, and immediately all their little faces turned to me in a strange array of surprised awe. It was then that I saw it, saw my skin glow with the same radiance of that single owl feather that I kept hidden in my journal. But around my heart was the brightest light, beating in time, tuned to my emotions. And right now, I was scared, tired, overwhelmed, but mostly I was pissed that someone had betrayed my King. "You have all of Jareth's power, my Lady. His magic, his sheer essence, his immortality. All of it resides now within you. He gifted it to you upon the turn of the clock into your eighteenth year, left it in your safe keeping so as to protect you from the intent of his brother. Or so, what he had thought was Shade's intent." Sir Didymus spoke up, before Hoggle sat down heavily and pushed the noble knight from his position atop Ambrocious. "Jareth was convinced Shade was going to harm you Sarah, he had been overheard by the Wise man as he ranted in the labyrinth, but it turns out he wanted the old man and his hat to hear him. He knew Jareth would protect you and in doing so, be left without his powers and be vulnerable. He attacked, not counting on the King's strength, and with his final act, Jareth pushed them both from the realm and into this human one. But with Jareth's powers transferred to you, Shade was now the stronger of the two. What Shade never thought of would be that Jareth would give you the key to reopen the Kingdom." "Jareth never gave me a key." I was perplexed. "Where is Jareth now?" "We don't know where Jareth is Sarah," Aster said, passing me a glass of water and pulling me against her side in a little hug. "but now, we at least know that the man who commissioned that painting, has to be Shade. There is none other than us gathered here, Jareth and Shade who would have access to that memory. And he will be at the gallery this evening. He has been searching for you. It wasn't a 'key' in the manner of a door, it was a certain magic from himself that he gave you that hid itself in your heart. The power to return to the Labyrinth. Something neither of them can do now, not without you." "Then we must go. The unveiling will have happened already, but I promised to be there for the mingling afterwards. Let us see if this traitorous creature dares approach me." I smiled, the bravado not something I was truly feeling, but if I could convince myself that I believed it, then perhaps I could get through the next few hours without giving into the need to curl up into a ball and ignore the world. Jareth needed me, and he needed me not to fail him. Again. I dressed in solitude, a long scarlet number that Aster had chosen for me yesterday. It fell to the floor in a smooth array of silk. Nothing like the beautiful gown I had danced in so long ago, but incredible in its own way. The heels I wore, left me looking like I were floating beside the mirror, the dress shivering lightly against my skin with the trembling I could not hide from my body. I was about to come face to face with the captor of my King. ~~~ "I hear she is still single." Shade stood before his mirror, his back to the one on his wall, the one he knew is furious brother was now regarding him from. "I wonder how long it will take to seduce her?" Shade turned, fully dressed in his tuxedo, impressive in his own mind as he slicked back his blonde hair and regarded his sibling with a smirk. "I think I shall like taking her to be my Queen. Her muddled memories may even help me in that arena. Don't you agree Jareth? That we share a fair amount of our father's genes, that the resemblance is not total, but still...familial?" Shade pulled on his dinner jacket and waved his hand over the polished surface of the glass, allowing his enraged brother to be seen clearly. "Maybe I will let you watch." With a wave, Shade was gone, and Jareth left to pound his bleeding fists against a glass that would never break beneath his human hands, his roar echoing around him. ~~~ "Another great work Miss Williams." A stout, aged gentleman took my palm and placed and sweet kiss to the back of it as his wife also commended the work I was allowing to be placed in the Gallery at no cost. They were a charity, taking the money from patrons to provide aid to children in the city, so I would never be so callous as to expect payment from such a thing. This painting had been a joy to create, even though now it affected me deeply with the full knowledge that the creatures depicted were real – that I had engaged in real conversations with the door-knockers in my visit to Jareth's Labyrinth. There they stood, proud, the colours surrounding them vivid in a sunshine that no longer shone in their world. I prayed that this canvas, unlike the one of the peach, held no feeling of 'life' within it. It would do no good for patrons on this side of reality to be able to have a conversation with the insufferably jovial and equally sullen door knockers. "I thank you Sir Delany, I assume Mr Langton has given you my card, he said you were interested in a commissioned work?" I asked, playing the part of happy artist in case of listening ears. It would not do well to have Shade know that I was remembering my past in full and glorious Technicolor. "Yes Miss Williams, and I thank you. Have a good evening." I bid them the same, and turned to take another glass of champagne from the passing tray. I cast a subtle glance in Aster's direction, thankful at least that one of my companions could pass for human. As it were, every twitch of tablecloths and rustle of the fake palm leaves drew my sharp attention as though I half expected the gallery to erupt with my paintings come to life. I was surprised to only briefly spot one of the goblins and one glimpse of Hoggle in the first two hours I socialised. "Sarah?" I turned at the soft hand touching my elbow and smiled at Mr Langton. "I wondered where you had got to. Earning more clients I see?" "Indeed, starving artist and all that." I jested, though my lack of enthusiasm wasn't noticed. "I'd like you to meet someone," he turned and my heart beat so hard within my chest I almost gasped in shock. "Miss Williams, this is the buyer of that frankly astounding peach." As The World Falls Down Time stopped in a painful shudder as the being smiled at me and took my hand to kiss. So similar...so so similar. Same smile, hair a little tamer but still shone with his unusual lustre. Everything... except this eyes. Even I may have been fooled this morning looking at him. But not now. This was Shade himself. "Miss Williams. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He smiled, and it was all wrong. It was not a pleasant expression. "I was delighted with the painting, far better than I could ever have imagined." Rage filled me swiftly, my smile brittle as I fought the swell of emotion that demanded I knock him to his arse and demand the location of Jareth. His sly word play only made it worse. Barely a second in the real world had passed since his ill-spoken words before Aster was there at my side, her cool hand a soothing balm to my anger, easing emotions inside me that were not entirely mine until they rested at a simmer below the surface. "I'm certainly glad you are pleased." I forced the words from my lips. "If you will please excuse me?" I turned to leave with a pleasant nod to them both I was infinitely proud of. "Sarah, Mr Valarais has requested to commission you again." Mr Langton said before I could make good of my escape. Valarais – that bastard, I thought. The goblin word for Labyrinth. He was trying to catch me out. The warning I had felt about the damn painting and it being out of my control came back ten fold. He had to know I knew something more than mere imagination. He was testing me for a reaction I had no intention of giving. Donning my best professional voice, I addressed them both with an edge of finality I knew I drew from the magic resting inside me rather than from myself. "I will not be taking on any more commissions at this moment Mr Langton, I currently have far more than necessary and wish to give them my upmost attention. I am sorry Mr Valarais; you will have to find someone else for your commission." "I can pay most handsomely Miss Williams." I almost laughed at Mr Langton's expressions as they ranged from shocked, to pleading and back again with barely a moment between them. He eventually took the hint of my gaze that he should leave and Aster convinced him more by taking his arm and getting him to gallantly lead the way to the wine before she became parched indefinitely. "I think we both no my refusal is not a matter of finance." I braved maintaining eye contact; even as I wanted to do nothing more than hide under the table cover to the left of my foot just as Hoggle was doing at the moment. "And what is the reason you would refuse me?" It was a challenge. One that a nip to my ankle from Hoggle pleaded with me not to rise to. "I do not enjoy painting fruit, and most certainly not on the scale you required." Haughty. I could do haughty it seemed with some believability. "I have other things I should like you to paint from that frankly wonderful imagination you have. I asked for a simple peach, and you gave me a dreamscape that drew me in. It was magical. Truly." Shade edged forward, closer towards me until I had to tilt back my head to maintain eye contact. It was intimidation, pure and simple, and a trait he and his brother shared. While Jareth standing so brazenly over me had ignited my soul and left me trembling in innocent anger and beautiful tremors, Shade left me cold to the bone. "I told you Mr Valarais, I do not currently have the time. If you should like to leave your card with my agent however, I shall endeavour to contact you once my schedule has become freer. I shall of course understand if you choose to commission an artist currently available, I have several I can suggest." "No, no. I shall wait Miss Williams. I have all the time in the world." He smiled and my heart lurched, the blood draining from my face as an image of the golden clock forced its way into my mind as it lost its final seconds, the echoing beat of its hands ceasing. As with the beat of a heart, lost forever into silent death. Misery engulfed me at the thought, the crystal glass shattering in my hand as Shade disappeared into the shadows unseen, my blood mixing with expensive champagne on the beautiful white marble floor. ~~~ "He knows." I nodded mutely, stock still and chilled from his blatant words, I barely felt it as Aster washed the blood away from my hand and applied the dressings. No stitches for me, apparently Jareth's magics made me more than a little immortal...well, mostly. In a few short hours, I would no longer feel the pinch of the sliced skin, the ache of pierced tendons. "What do we do now Aster?" I asked quietly, the street lights reflecting on rain soaked windows as Mr Langton drove us home. This was not a conversation he needed to hear. When she simply hugged me, I knew no answers would be immediately forthcoming. The sound of the rain was soothing in the dark night and as the long days and nights finally caught up with me, I gave into the drugging darkness that beckoned and sank into its warmth willingly. Sarah... Dancing slowly in an empty room...the world span in soft beauty, of glittering frost that beckoned the touch of my fingers yet stung me with its wintry severity. Much like my beautiful King, I mused with a soft smile as I drifted on soft feet around the abandoned hall. Sadness filled me slowly at a place once so full of riotous life now left barely breathing. Ivory coloured chairs lay toppled, silk scarves discarded, crystal glasses shattered... I had caused so much destruction the last time I was here. With a young girl's determination, I had focused only on my task...and doing the right thing. But the loneliness desolateness of this once vibrant room brought tears to my eyes. "If only I had been older..." I whispered, my breath coming out in a cloud of frigid white. "What would you have done Sarah?" His voice. His heat. The scent of all that was inherently HIM, stilled my heart and the tears I had been fighting fell in vain. This was a cruel trick of my weary mind, he was hidden somewhere, trapped by his own brother. He was not in my mind. He was not there, not where I had first felt the tremors of an innocent longing, torn in two between what was right and what wasn't. My breath left me and I crumpled to the floor in a pool of evening scarlet, a sunset on this wintry land as I prayed to wake up before I could torment myself further, Arms, strong and warm crept around my shoulders, crossed over my heart and pulled me against a body that was so real I sobbed. "Shh..." Lifted from the floor, I was settled in his lap and cradled as I poured out my grief. My guilt. "I am so sorry. This is my fault." "Sarah..." He chuckled, and more of my tears fell at the sound. It was him, his scent soothed, his heart beat strong and steady beneath his shirt beside my ear and when he tilted my trembling chin up to look into my eyes, I knew beyond a doubt. "You were not ready to be my Queen, no matter how much I wanted you then, it compares little to now." "Where are you? We need to find you, Sha..." His fingers swiftly silenced my lips, begging me not to continue. "You must not mention his name Sarah. This is tentative magic you use to reach me in your dream." Jareth's fingers brushed a long curl away from my cheek, his thumb tracing my skin with a care that left me bereft when he returned to simply hold me. "I cannot tell you exactly where I am, I only know that I am in his home. Trapped to simply watch his happy and vindictive existence as he moves around tormenting me." I took his hand back from resting on my waist and gazed at the scarred knuckles and scratches I had not noticed before in my shock. "What happened to you..." I kissed the swellings and cuts gently and smiled a little inside when his breathing grew a little rough. I was not the only one affected by proximity then. His mismatched eyes darkened when I licked my lips, my hand drifting up to touch the face that had eluded my dreams and only comforted me in shadows. Soft, warm, his hair the texture of the beautiful feather I kept hidden in my journal. So many memories, so many moments and expressions I could understand more now I was older, now I was wrapped in his arms and able to look at him without the labyrinth gilded clock dictating my movements, my decisions. I had seen my seconds ticking away, and made a choice. But now, I would at least make one that left us both in no doubt of my decision this time. Straightening slowly, my pulse raced as I leant closer and tentatively met his soft lips with mine. My eyes closed, I could feel a little swell of panic flood me as he remained as still as stone and I pulled back, mortified that I could have judged this so wrong. Tears pricked my eyes once more. "I'm sorry...I..." I shook my head as his arms tightened around me and he forced me to look at him. "You silly, beautiful girl..." He whispered, adding to my shame a moment before he crushed me against his chest and took my lips with a passion I could never have imagined. Strong fingers wiped away my tears as he teased my lips with his tongue, begging for entry. I reciprocated, duelled with him as he left me breathless. The sound of glass shattering as it was swept to the floor startled me, returning my senses enough to know I was being lifted, and pressed against the icy oak of the table. Frost sizzled to nothingness against the bare skin of my back, my dress no protection but his warmth as he followed me was equally as devastating. Fire and ice... Without Jareth's fire, the wonderful and crazy world I had experienced years before was now dead and dying without him to warm it. Just as I had been. Each pill, each session with the pious therapist of my Step mother's acquaintance had frozen my heart. And as my King kissed me, warmed me, I could feel it crack... "You must wake my love..." Jareth whispered his breath soft at my neck from where his kisses had rendered me weak, and deliciously so. But his words made my heart ache. I did not want to leave him. "Please...not yet." He kissed me, gently, but with a desperate longing, a loneliness that crushed me. A loneliness I could...that I would...cure. "Stay safe Jareth, please. We will find you..." A slap to the cheek woke my lax body with a sharp start and I looked into several terrified faces of the Labyrinth world, and my pale sweating agent. "What the hell is going on?" Mr Langton blustered, some colour returning to his pallid cheeks. "I fell asleep." I murmured, my voice still choked with tears and the pain of leaving him to his captivity. "Oh, really Sarah? Do you usually turn into the Snow Queen when you slumber?" He was yelling now, I had never seen him yell before. "And what about this lot?" He waved his hand towards the escaped goblins sitting on my small sofa, and a line of fairies making use of my easel as a safe place to stay out of reach of Hoggle. Evidently some prejudices were a bit engrained. "I say dear fellow, there really is no cause to yell at M'lady." Sir Didymus gallantly defended me, and Aster helped me to stand. My reflection in the mirror was not what I expected. Mr Langton had a right to be scared and furious perhaps. Dressed in deepest scarlet, my skin glistened with slowly melting frost, my long mahogany hair was stiff with the chill of it and my lips and skin had taken on a most unbecoming pale blue that had no doubt concerned him. But right at that moment, I couldn't care for another's concerns. Touching the mark that shone in dark lividity between my neck and shoulder, I smiled as warmth flooded me from within, my skin glowing with the vitality of Jareth's magic and returning me to normal. Meeting Mr Langton's wide eyes, I swiftly beckoned to Aster to help me get him seated before he fell. "What are you?" "Human." He shook his head and I stopped him. "No less, maybe a little more. I think perhaps we should tell you a story." I looked to Hoggle, smiled as he gruffly and begrudgingly pulled a stool over and set his ungainly little body upon it. "One night, not so very long ago there was a young girl who gave the Goblins certain words..." ~~~ "What do we do with him Sarah? He hasn't said a word for two hours." Aster whispered, stood across from me in the hallway she watched me with sad eyes as I studied the painting, the clock face shrouded in frost, the hands seemingly stiff, frozen. I couldn't fathom the meaning, not that I had been able to decipher the many different scenery changes this canvas desired to show me, but this one stuck in my mind... "The hands have been frozen Aster." I said absently, wincing in slight discomfort as the glare from the setting sun struck through the window of my bedroom and blinded me. "Gosh that is a bit bright..." I looked to Aster in horror... "Have we lost a day? A whole damn day?" I screamed as I ran to the window just as the sun disappeared behind the cityscape and dusk descended. "No...oh god, no we haven't." Aster was smiling, as were all of my companions short of an almost comatose Mr Langton. Even Hoggle had a look of glee on his face. "We have gained a night...a repeat so to speak." "Remember though Sarah, time from the labyrinth is fickle. It will likely take this time back from you later." Hoggle added sadly and I knew what he said was true. The clocks in Jareth's kingdom were indeed fickle. But I would not overlook the fact the Labyrinth was trying to tell me something. "The unveiling." I pondered. Why would the labyrinth magic give me back a night...what could I possibly do differently? Shade? Surely not. Even as I rebuffed the thought, I knew without a doubt it was the answer. "What if it is a trap?" We all turned as one towards the quiet voice of my agent, still sitting cradling a cushion to his chest, a tiny fairy perched on the tasselled edge smiling sweetly at him. "It could be. But then Shade would not have known about the clock painting. Noone outside this room does. And since it is in my personal apartments, I doubt he has. You can only transport to a place you have already been correct?" I mused while they nodded at me, stalling for a little time to gather some courage. There was a part of me that wanted to run away, escape the insanity once more enfolding in my life, but then I thought of him. I thought of all he had lost and endured since I had defeated his labyrinth, I thought of the dreams I had, the truths hidden there, the evidence of his watching over me over these past few years as he waited for me to grow into the Queen he needed. I owed him so much, but a deep rooted feeling of responsibility was not what drove me. I wanted him; I wanted the words he had implored me with. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave. "I do love you Jareth..." I whispered under my breath as I watched night descend, and the rain begin in earnest. Another try for this night. I had an idea at least of where I went wrong the first time. ~~~ "I'd like you to meet someone." Mr Langton's words, only the faintest tremor within them belayed the fact we knew this event had happened before. When he turned, I still almost gasped. He was so similar it hurt. But the evil in his eyes – so different to the cool severity of Jareth – was unmistakable. "Miss Williams, this is the buyer of that frankly astounding peach." The bastard took my hand to kiss and I forced myself to remain pleasant, maybe even a little more than pleasant. My idea wasn't the best, indeed Hoggle had threatened me with creating an oubliette right there in my own apartment before I had bribed him with a gold necklace and he had grown quiet with joy for long enough for me to be out the door with Aster. "Miss Williams. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I was delighted with the painting, far better than I could ever have imagined." "Well thank you, Mr?" "Mr Valarais, Sarah. This is Mr Shane Valarais." Mr Langton pleasantly confirmed. Evidently the fairy that had been smiling at him so sweetly in my studio had erased some of Mr Langton's fears, nerves, and overbearing nature for us to repeat this evening. "Mr Valarais, a pleasure." I was trying for serene; I must have succeeded as he smiled his viciously cold smile and offered me an arm to take. "I was wondering if I could commission you for another work Miss Williams." He led me around the room slowly, his gait gentlemanly, watchful though. "I have a large manor house I have a need to fill with beautiful paintings that are filled with your kind of vibrancy." So you can torment my King with all he once ruled. Bastard. I smiled, delighted. "Certainly Mr Valarais." I patted his arm gently where we were linked. "I do have several other projects in my schedule, however they are not urgent. I can perhaps start on one for you tomorrow if you gave me an idea of what you desired." "I was thinking something along the lines of a throne room, all sandstone and sunsets." I stumbled, my heels catching on my dress and pitching me forward. His strong arms wrapped around me and I cringed a little inside at the thought of him even touching me. Forcing myself to take a deep breath and continue on this path, I gave him my best smile and caressed his arm softly. "I am sorry Mr Valarais, I think it might be the champagne. I am not much of a drinker." He smiled and nodded towards the door. "Do you require some air?" "No, I will be fine in a moment." We sat in the alcove by the gallery door, the cool air truly calming me. I reminded myself it was good for the illusion if he believed I stumbled over a dream...a memory. It would help me get closer to him faster. If Aster and Hoggle were correct, and the Labyrinth took time back from us, then I would only be left with a day and a half before the midnight stroke into my twenty first birthday. If I could convince Shade in that time I believed he might be my Jareth... I fought the nausea in my stomach that rose at the thought. I had to get to Shade's mansion. It was the only way to find my King. I caught Aster's all too knowing eyes and pained expression as she fought her uncertainty. She couldn't fathom my intentions and it drove the fairy's protective instincts through the roof. "I shall begin the painting in the afternoon when the sun is right in the studio, and bring it to you the day after?" I smiled coyly, wishing I could see my own expression to ensure it was right. I had never acted coy and alluring in my life and I did not need that to fail me now. "Perhaps we could have dinner Miss Williams, in my home to thank you for the quick commission?" "I would be delighted." I fairly bubbled with excitement on the outside even as my heart ached. Jareth would be beside himself, looking out of those mirrors. With his promise of a car being round to collect me at eight the day after next, I indicated to my otherworldly companions and Mr Langton that we were leaving. I needed to escape. And shower. ~~~ "It is precisely as I remember it." She whispered, knowing even before she saw him that it was Jareth's arms that held her in her sleep. Barely there in strength at first, his being solidified as magic seeped from her heart to strengthen her King. "Why did you paint it Sarah?" His voice was pained as he looked upon all he had lost. He lamented, grieved the loss of his Kingdom and all within, but if it was all he ever got back from the devastation, his beautiful Sarah would be enough. Even as he uttered it, he knew it wasn't all the truth. The labyrinth was HIM, the Goblin city and the tunnels, the steady, unyielding walls were all a part of him. He was the labyrinth, but his Sarah was the centre. She was the Castle he protected, the very heart of him. When she had chosen to leave, she had taken his heart with him. The castle now held no life, the walls began to lose their strength, the gardens and greenery began to wither beneath the depth of his sorrow.