This is a fan fiction I am writing on the '86 movie and comic book "Labyrinth". In the movie it stars David Bowie and Jennifer Connely. It's a lovely story, just take a watch at it. ^_^
Oh yeah, I got obsessed with this because of one of my best friends Brandy. *playfully glares at her*
“The Fading Labyrinth”
A Labyrinth Fan Fiction written by Kristia S.
Chapter One-
The Fading
Sarah knew Jareth had followed her from Toby's throne room. He would always follow her, she could depend on him to always to be not far from her side; almost as sure as there was a sky and ground. Jareth would always be there for her. She was ashamed that she never realized that before. She had caused him so much pain... and she never seen that until then.
Sarah took a deep breath, looking into the mirror that mirrored the over world. But it was directed on one scene she painfully recognized. Her old bedroom, from when she first encountered the Goblin King, where she wished her beloved little brother away to this castle. It was same as always; even the empty cubby on the wall, the same cubby where Lancelot used to be perched. He seemed to watch over Sarah, while she slept.
"Jareth," Sarah began.
He stood beside her. She then felt his gaze shift onto her. "Yes, love?" his breath came out in a rush, as if he had been running.
He has...after me, for years, guilt punched Sarah in her stomach. Does he sense that this is all coming to an end too, the same way I sense?
"Why have you been so patient wi—" she stopped finding the right words. "I mean, why have you waited for me to...fall in love with you?" She didn't dare to look at him then. "What's so special about me, Jareth?"
It seemed like a gentle breeze blew from Jareth around her. A scent wafting from it smelled sweet and lovely. Sarah couldn’t help but inhale the fragrance.
"What's the word special really mean, my dear Sarah?" his hand came to rest on her shoulder lightly. "Something that puts you in a mere category, maintaining you wholly in one place? How can that be possible?"
"Stop answering my question with questions, Jareth." Sarah moved from the mirror to the window to view the Labyrinth. "I am no longer playing your mind games. I am way too tired to play."
"But Sarah that is what I am not." She felt him beside her once more. "I'm simply explaining why I love you so much." His breath was at her ear, sending pleasant tingles down her neck to the bottom of her quivering, nervous stomach. "It is simply indescribable...you are indescribable." His hand came up to her face, having her to turn towards him. His thumb began to trace her jaw line to her chin, making her bottom lips tremble in the slight.
Sarah looked at his lips, just there awaiting hers to meet his at last, after all of those years. She could finally take what was rightfully hers…the Goblin King’s kiss. The kiss would free Jareth completely from his Labyrinth realm. A true love’s kiss, that’ll free the tormented, saddened soul that had haunted the Labyrinth for centuries.
Jareth stood there waiting, like he always did. Waiting for her… He would allow her to do anything as she pleases to him. That is what she hoped, anyways. She hoped he would allow anything for her.
Sadness came back into her heart and she turned away, before she could make the life changing move. She felt Jareth’s disappointment glaring into the side of her head, but he never said or shown it.
"Jareth, everyone will be leaving for the over world. They chose to live in my world, for their sakes of a further life." She looked over her shoulder to the mirror again, seeing that world's beings, the very characters from her mind, leaving the Underground to become part of her world. "Toby's kingdom is rising and the old kingdom is fading. This has to happen or…"
"My kingdom is vanishing before my very eyes." He walked away, seeming to shut off from Sarah. "Soon… I'll go along with it." He whispered, his blonde hair shadowing his eyes that fell to the floor. "Why are you doing this to me, Sarah?"
"It's time for Toby to take it from me… to take it from you." It was then Sarah's turn to walk to him, offering what comfort she could give to a Goblin. "I'm growing tired and weary, my love..." She bit her lip at realizing that it was the first time she called him her love. "You are too, Jareth. I've seen your powers weakening. I’ve seen how your powers deplete more and more every time you use them.” She saw his fists clench at his sides, but he never raised his face to her. She laid her hand on one of his tensed fists; he relaxed slightly at her touch. “I feel that, too, Jareth. It’s worse on me; I’ve been so tired and drained. I-I don’t think I could live much longer if I go on."
“Don’t talk like that.” He shot her a glare. “I will never allow you to die.” His stare was strict and yet soft in its own way.
“I’m only telling you what could happen, if I continue to let my mind power the Underground.” Just right then, she felt her knees shake a little under exhaustion. She swayed in her stand, having to lean into Jareth for support. His arms come around her protectively, keeping her from falling. “Jareth, it’s taking all my energy to make sure everyone and you exist in this world.”
“But Tobias…” he began.
“Toby can only have control over this world in part of mine. For him to be in full control, I need to will my control to him. He’s your heir; he’s more powerful than I am.” She allowed her head to fall against his chest.
" I understand that..." Jareth raised her head with tilting her chin with his index finger. She then noticed he had a sad smile playing on his lips. "Did I hear right, I'm your love?"
Sarah whispers, "You've always been, I just never realized it until lately."
Jareth takes her face in his hands, his nose rubbing against hers softly. "That sounded better than I ever imagined..." He was stalling her conversation; he didn’t want to hear what she had to say.
But Sarah couldn’t let him avoid the inevitable.
"Jareth, how long have you ruled?" Sarah asked, pulling away slightly.
He looked down at her with tired, hazy eyes. "A thousand and three hundred years."
Sarah reached up and caressed his face. "A thousand and three hundred years of ruthless ruling, Goblin King," she whispered. "A thousand and three hundred years of no love loving you." She traced his features with her light finger tips, memorizing every feature on his lovely face. "A thousand and three hundred years of hiding the true you. The true you, I see behind your eyes, waiting in the darkness of this Labyrinth. A beautiful, kind hearted, honest, loyal, wonderful man you hide behind a powerful ruler’s facade."
That seemed to hit a soft spot in Jareth. The skin around his eyes tightened and his jaw clenched.
Sarah smiled, "Remember the time limit you gave me to go through the Labyrinth?"
He nodded.
"Jareth," her eyes swelled with tears. "I'm going to give you a time limit to come and follow me to my world. To leave all of this behind you, your power, your immortality, the kingdom..."
“I am a ruler, Sarah. I cannot give it up, I am nothing without my power. Even if my kingdom is to another, I still have what powers I have left to keep me, me. Don’t you understand?” he retreated from her out of arms reach. “For years I have this and for more years I will tell you, Sarah. I can give you whatever you desire with my power…”
“If only if I let you rule me.” Sarah slightly snapped at his old chide. “Jareth, no one will ever rule me. No matter how much I love you, I cannot let you rule me.”
“Why, why is it so bad for me to rule you?” he surprisingly asked calmly. “Tell me, Sarah.”
“I am my own person; I thought you have learned that over the years.” She stared into his eyes. “No one rules over me, even if I gain everything in return. I have to have my freewill, not that of someone else’s, even if I am emotionally tied to you.” Sarah looked away to the mirror that actually reflects their reflections. She saw herself and Jareth standing within mere feet of each other, the two that seemed to be destined to belong to each other. So obvious from knowing that their paths would always lead back to where they were. They should not have been standing even an inch apart; they both should be in one another’s arms. They were soul mates, even though; one of them did not have a soul.
But he could, if he listens to me. Sarah thought sadly.
There was a silence for a period of time. Sarah knew she had made some progress in making him understand what she was saying. That was how her father would stop an argument with her Irene, when she was right; he would go quiet and won’t speak anymore on the matter. That was what Jareth was doing, he has surrendered the argument.
"I have to leave room for Toby's new world. I have to leave to allow enough room for his to come to life.” Sarah bit her lip. “And I want to start a new life..." He looked away from her, anguish spilling out onto his expression. He was thinking she was going to break him once again and just leave him there to ache for her. Was it that little did he understand of what she was telling him?
"Jareth, I want you to be part of that new life with me. To come with me and build a life together." She held her breath, afraid of what she would hear him response.
He looked back at her with wide eyes.
"But you need to surrender your pride and power to be with me..." Sarah took his face in her hands, and ran her thumbs over his cheeks, making him tremble underneath her touch. "You have to give up the thing you treasure the most. And I know that is your Goblin powers and the Labyrinth are that. You've lived behind them for far too long, my Jareth." Anger flashed behind his eyes for a split second, just as Sarah knew it would. And she dreaded that response, because she knew then it would be harder for him to let his pride go. "To prove that you are worthy to be with me, that you are worthy to gain a soul."
Jareth jerked away from Sarah, his cape whipping and snapping at her feet. "What have you done to me, Sarah!" he yelled in anger at her. Sarah slightly flinched, a little wounded at his words. "I'm supposed to be the one to rule over you! Not you over me!" his face was in hers then, mad anger flaming within his eyes. "I'm the one with so much power. You should be trembling in fear, within my presence!" he hissed. "But you, Sarah—you find the tiniest of cracks within me and grab hold of my heart and turn me into your puppet!" he was then across the room in a flash.
"That's what love is!" Sarah snapped. “You love me and no matter how much you deny what I say about you ruling over me…you know it isn’t right as well.”
"If that what love really is..." he turned to her. “Knowing what is right and what is wrong.” He began to toss one of his crystal balls that appeared out of nowhere, through the air in high and wide arches. “How do you know that me ruling over you is wrong? What tells you that is wrong?”
“I feel it in my soul…” Sarah said, “A heavy realization setting in on my mind and heart at the thought of it.”
Jareth paused tossing the crystal; a small smirked played upon his lips. “In your soul,” Sarah didn’t like how he said it or how his expression expressed what he was thinking. Their talk was turning for the worse right then and there, she just knew it. He chuckled lightly as he walked over to Sarah slowly, juggling, now, three crystal balls. He juggled them so fast that it made a whistling noise through the air. “In your soul, is that right, Sarah?” she slightly nodded. He leaned into her, his eyes showing no emotion within their never-ending depths of his wake. His breath hitting her eye lashes and cheeks pleasantly. Nothing could ever prepare her for what she was about to hear next; something that would squeeze her heart and smother out her very own breath.
“Then I wouldn’t know what a soul is.” A fire flamed behind Jareth’s eyes. Anger, no, shame? “Maybe then the reason why I don’t see your way is that I—” he looked away. “—don’t love you, like you and I thought. How can I love you, without a soul?”
“That’s not what I mea—” Sarah started, but was silenced by Jareth’s finger to her lips.
“Maybe it is best for me to fade along with the Labyrinth, Sarah.” Jareth said.
