Shadows, Whispers and Destruction

A/N Sorry guys I've had to edit this chapter like 3 times cuz the writing thinger on this site is mean to me :( hope this is better!

 

Chapter 1

Birthday Candles, Wells and Shooting Stars

 

   Sarah landed with a thump onto the enormous, soft bed. She had no idea how or why, but she was back in the Labyrinth, in the castle— to be more precise, in Jareth’s bedroom. And Jareth himself happened to be standing at the foot of the bed, his mismatched eyes set, focused solely on her.

   Sarah sat up and glared at the Goblin King. “Why have you brought me back here? I defeated you!”

   “And yet, here we are,” said Jareth airily, gesturing around the room with a sweep of his gloved hand.

   “Why?” Sarah whispered. “I-I defeated you, I was home, and Toby was safe… and… and I said the words! You have no power over me!” she added with a desperate tone.

   “We’ll see about that, precious,” Jareth growled, and he waved his hand yet again. Sarah’s blouse and jeans immediately vanished, leaving her in nothing but undergarments.

   “Wha—?” Sarah began to cry.

   With a swift motion he lunged at her, pinning her down onto the bed and straddled her waist with his strong thighs. Sarah’s cry of alarm was muffled when Jareth’s lips captured her own, forcing her mouth open. Sarah immediately surrendered when Jareth’s tongue slipped into her mouth, caressing her own tongue with velvety softness. Feeling her yield, Jareth’s hands travelled off her wrists, giving her an opportunity to slide her fingers into his mane of yellow hair, trying to push him closer to her. Jareth’s own hands slithered onto her back, and his hands fisted around the straps of her bra, and with a hard tug he ripped it open to expose both of her shapely breasts. Jareth idly tossed it into the corner and cupped his hands over her breasts, kneading them expertly.

   Sarah began to work at tugging off Jareth’s poet shirt, sliding her hands up his chiselled chest as she did so. With an uncaring wave of his hand, Jareth’s clothes vanished. His hand then slithered down her body, causing her stomach to jerk, and his hand kept travelling down until it slid over the thin silk fabric of her panties. His fingers pressed against the fabric where the bundle of nerves was, and Sarah groaned with pleasure as his talented fingers began moving in delicious circles. Soon Jareth felt the fabric of her panties grow wet underneath the tips of his fingers, and he then decided it was time to make the offending fabric vanish. Sarah cried out when she felt his fingers slide between her folds, and as one finger entered her, a searing heat began to grow in her abdomen.

   “Jareth, please…” Sarah whimpered, before letting out a cry as the finger within her bent, hitting that sweet spot that she harboured deep inside.

   “Yes precious?” Jareth purred into her ear, the warmth of his breath rolling down her neck and causing her to shiver. “What is it you want?”

   “I—I want—” Sarah tried to say, but the shocks of pleasure Jareth was granting her from below was making it difficult to form coherent speech. “… you.”

   And then Sarah was shaken awake. She sat up in alarm and her forehead collided with the person who’d woken her, who cried out in pain.

   “Jeez, relax,” groaned out the deep voice of her college roommate, Jared. Sarah rubbed her forehead and opened her eyes a crack, to see Jared glaring at her through the dark.

   “Ah, sorry Jared,” Sarah apologized quickly.

   Two years ago, when Sarah was sixteen, she’d made her way through an enormous, magical labyrinth and defeated a Goblin King. And when she’d returned home safely, she’d given up everything in her old life. She’d thrown out all of her old stuffies and toys and posters. Straight after, she’d burnt her copy of the Labyrinth, along with all her other fantasy books. Not once had she called upon Hoggle, Ludo or Didymus. She’d also ‘accidentally’ broken her vanity mirror, thus ensuring no unwelcome visitors from the Underground, and also avoided looking in any mirrors no matter where she was just in case. Sarah nowadays avoided movies and books of fantasy, especially the ones with castles and kings and magic.

   And Sarah made sure to never, ever, ever make a wish. Not when a shooting star skimmed the surface of the Earth’satmosphere, not when a wishing well was nearby and she happened to have a coin on her, not when the candles of her anniversary cake were lit. Because she knew, better than most, the power of a wish.

   When her dream college had accepted Sarah and she’d luckily obtained the last available room in the apartment building nearest to it, she nearly had a heart attack when she’d found out she’d have no choice but to share her apartment with a boy. Not to mention a boy with a name uncannily similar to “that man’s” name. But Jared was

nothing like Jareth, in any way. Jared wasn’t as tall as Jareth, and his hair was short and brown. His eyes were not mismatched; both of them were a pleasant blue colour and didn’t hold the menacing, malicious glare that Jareth’s had held. Jared did not have the (unfortunately) appealing accent, and he had a fun personality. Other than Jared’s name, there were no similar qualities between the college student and the Goblin King. And so Sarah and Jared had lived together happily for two years.

   “That must have been some dream you were having,” Jared exclaimed, smiling at her with a kind of serenity that Jareth could have never mastered. Sarah blushed faintly pink and was immediately grateful for the early morning darkness that hung around the two of them. Her dream had certainly been ‘something’… Because for two years, despite all of her efforts to distance herself from the memories of the Underground, Jareth always managed to slip into her dreams, and as she grew older the dreams grew more and more erotic.

   “You bet,” Sarah mumbled. “Sorry if I woke you up again… go back to sleep.”

   Jared gave her a big grin and simpered, “Aw, are you sure you don’t want me to cuddle with you so you won’t have any more bad dreams?”

   “Only in your dreams,” Sarah grinned, watching him flounce back to his bed in his maroon pyjamas. “Goodnight, Jared.”

   “Goodnight.”

   Sarah rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. The events of the dream flooded back into her mind… in this dream, she’d noticed, Jareth had been even more passionate for her than the other dreams… and once again, like all the other dreams, she’d surrendered to him and allowed him to touch her, even though she in reality was a virgin and wasn’t planning on dating anybody anytime soon…

   Sarah’s face immediately grew hot with shame when she felt a rush between her legs. Even awake, she knew that, if the real Goblin King were like the one in her dreams, she’d probably hopelessly surrender herself to him anyway.

   The final exams for the year ended that afternoon, much to Sarah’s relief. When she exited the classroom, however, Jared was not waiting for her in his usual spot. Sarah glanced around, wondering if he was hiding, but she saw no sand-coloured-hair-topped head poking out from behind a corner, so she shrugged off her confusion and started toward the doors, binders and study papers clutched in arms. Sarah slid the binders and papers into her bag and stepped out of the school, starting toward the direction of her apartment. The streets of the city were particularly busy this time of day, with lots of traffic and people walking home from work or to the market. Sarah dug around in her purse for her keys as she approached the pristine building that was her apartment. Sarah pushed open the door to the apartment and immediately screamed when the four familiar faces of her family and roommate screeched, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH!”

   The bag tumbled onto the ground and the binders and papers spilled out of it as Sarah clutched at her heart, eyes wide and heart pounding, at which Jared burst out laughing. Another thing Sarah had worked to avoid was her family, who she hadn’t seen or spoken to since last year. The sight of her stepmother made her think of all the arguments they had when Sarah was running around, warbling out those Labyrinth scenes. The sight of Toby made her think of everything.

   “Hi Sarah!” Toby giggled, waddling over to her to throw his tiny arms around one of her legs. In Toby’s other hand was an enormous helium balloon, on which Toby had probably coloured with markers due to the smudgy ink smeared across the balloon’s surface (and the fact that the palms and bottoms of his fingers were stained with mixtures red and blue and orange).

   “Happy birthday, sweetheart,” said her father Robert happily (who was clearly holding something behind his back and wasn’t doing much to cover it up) and her stepmother Irene hurried over as fast as her tight skirt would allow to give Sarah a huge hug.

   “You’re eighteen now; a fully-grown woman!” Irene gushed, wiping her eyes. “It feels like only yesterday you were running around the park in those homemade dresses.”

   “Irene!” Sarah groaned.

   “You played dress-up?” said Jared amusedly, before earning a glare from Sarah.

   “How did you guys even get in here?” Sarah asked confusedly, sparing everyone a glance.

   “Jared let us in,” Robert said, causing Jared to earn another glare.

   “Did you even go to the exams?” Sarah asked confusedly.

   Jared shrugged and grinned. “Somebody had to stay here and open the door for your family.”

   “Jared, missing the finals is an automatic failure!”

   “Relax, Sarah, I went. Now shut up and enjoy your birthday party.”

   Robert immediately revealed the box was hidden behind his back, and Toby proudly took it (almost dropped it) and handed it to Sarah. She opened it, knowing full well what it was— a homemade chocolate cake with the words ‘happy birthday Sarah’ written in messy blue icing; clearly Toby’s work since the ‘S’ was backward and the word ‘happy’ only had one ‘p’.

   “Thank you,” said Sarah tonelessly, and Irene excitedly stuck a birthday candle into the centre and Jared lit it with his lighter.

   “Make a wish,” Jared said sarcastically, because he knew exactly how Sarah felt about wishes. Sarah kept her mind blank and immediately blew the candle. The family clapped and cheered, and Jared leaned on her and laughed, “What did you wish for?”

   “Nothing,” replied Sarah bluntly, staring blankly at the cake.

   The party ended pretty much the way Sarah had expected it to end— Jared gulped down most of the cake, Irene and Robert pestered Sarah about school and other unimportant, uninteresting things and Toby’s balloon popped, startling him and causing him to cry loudly until the group left. Just before Irene carried the wailing Toby out of the room she said to Sarah with a smile, “Come by the house tomorrow afternoon. We’d love for you to visit— you’re all Toby talks about.”

   “Are you going to go?” Jared asked, once Sarah had closed the door.

   “I don’t know,” she said tiredly, flopping onto her bed with a groan. “Truthfully, I don’t want to. I also don’t want them to know that.”

   She rolled over onto her stomach and hugged her pillow for comfort. “It hurts to say that, but it’s the truth.”

   “Ugh, don’t give me that crap, Sarah,” Jared sighed. “Sometimes, the truth hurts like hell.”

   Sarah’s brows knitted together and she stared hard and Jared, muttering, “Why does that sound so familiar…?”

   “I have an idea,” Jared said thoughtfully, ignoring her question. “Suck it up and go anyway. I really don’t see why you hate those guys so much— Toby especially, he’s the cutest thing in the world.”

   “I don’t hate him,” Sarah mumbled into the sheets. “He just… reminds me of a lot of stuff I want to forget.”

   “And that’s another thing,” Jared exclaimed, leaning back and crossing his arms accusingly. “What the heck happened all those years ago that was so awful?”

   “I can’t tell you that,” Sarah said briskly. “I’m trying to forget it.”

   Don’t tell me truth hurts, little girl… ‘cause it hurts like hell…

   “Oh that’s why it sounds familiar,” Sarah said, cursing. “Damn it Jared!”

   “Ah Jesus,” said Jared exasperatedly, and a little irritably. “At least give me a hint.”

   “It’s something so terrible it causes me to avoid my family, burn my favourite book, not call three of my old friends back for two years, break a mirror and evade everything that involves magic and kings,” Sarah said briskly, before bouncing off the bed toward the door. “Let’s go get Subway for supper.”

   “It made you break a mirror? How the heck is that relevant?”

   “Say one more word and you’re paying.” 

   “But I hate Subway; let’s go somewhere that serves meat—”

   “I’m a vegetarian, and dinner’s now officially on you.”

   Sarah stood at the edge of a lake, dressed in one of her old homemade gowns; except the gown was now clean and snow-white and silky. Confused, Sarah pinched the fabric of the gown and lifted it, wondering why she was in a dress. And come to think of it… where was she?

Sarah looked around curiously. She was clearly on the banks of a lake she did not recognize, and behind her was a vast expanse of rolling, green hills. Sarah gasped when she spotted him walking toward her on one of those hills, and blushed at the small smile that graced his thin lips. He reached her side, and stroked one of her reddened cheeks with the back of his gloved hand.

   “Welcome, precious,” he purred, the luscious tone in his voice causing a shudder to erect down her spine.

   “Where are we?” Sarah asked confusedly. “And… why the dress?”

   “Why not?” Jareth answered simply, his hand travelling from her cheek down her arm to slide into her palm. “It becomes you.”

   Sarah flushed pink again, at which Jareth’s smile widened.

   “Where are we?” Sarah repeated, avoiding his dancing gaze to instead stare embarrassedly at the ground. Jareth’s other hand raised and with one finger he lifted her chin gently, so that their gazes met again and held.

   “For that answer, there is a price,” he crooned, and Sarah cocked her head to the side curiously.

   “What can I give you that you don’t already have?” she said, and then Jareth leaned in closer until their foreheads were pressed together, and their lips were just millimetres apart.

   “One kiss,” he murmured, and when he spoke Sarah felt his breath ghosting across her lips. Sarah obediently stood on tiptoe and granted him a light kiss, the contact no more than a whisper, and just teasing enough to get her answer… and to make Jareth look hot and bothered.

   “Tell me now, Goblin King,” Sarah smiled, her lips brushing his as she spoke. “What is this place?”

   “It is our place,” whispered Jareth, before he gathered her up in his arms and kissed her like a starving man.

   Sarah was woken late that morning by a sharp cry and a banging noise. She bolted upright to see Jared sprawled across the floor, already clothed in his day clothes. She giggled and said, “What the heck are you doing on the floor?”

   “Tripped,” Jared grumbled, getting up and dusting himself off.

   “Over what, yourself?”

   “Very funny, but I actually tripped over your alarm clock wire. Sorry to wake you up; I know you wanted to sleep in today.”

   Sarah sighed at Jared’s final comment and shoved off the covers, glancing at the alarm clock. It was nearly noon. “Actually, I think you did me a pretty big favour.”

   You saved me from letting Jareth touch more than my lips, Sarah ended her sentence in her mind.

   “You’re going to your parents’ house, I’m guessing?” Jared asked, straightening his shirt.

   “I suppose I have to,” Sarah said bitterly, getting up. Her foot immediately caught on her alarm clock wire as Jared’s had and she immediately tumbled forward. Jared reflexively threw out his arms and caught her, but they both fell back onto the bed and for the second time in two days collided foreheads.

   “Ow,” Jared said with a laugh. “Who’s tripping over themselves now?”

   “Not me,” Sarah answered, before she lifted her head and the tips of their noses touched. She and Jared immediately locked shocked gazes, their faces only centimetres apart. Sarah could feel the wisps of his breath caressing over his lips, and she was painfully reminded of the sensations in her dream. To avoid a replaying of that dream, Sarah backed away and grinned at him, at which he blinked confusedly.

   “You aren’t perhaps the Goblin King in disguise?” she asked with a mischievous smile.

   Jared shook his head to clear his mind, but it apparently didn’t do much because he blinked up at her again and mumbled stupidly, “Wh…wh-what?”

   Sarah giggled and said happily, “That’s my genuine Jared.”

   “Well, I don’t know what that means,” Jared said, regaining his cool and helping her up. “But I’m glad I was called ‘genuine’.”

   “Move your butt, I’m gonna get changed,” Sarah said briskly, and he obediently slid out of the way so she could get to her dresser. Once she gathered up her clothes and slipped into the bathroom, her smile vanished and she hugged her bundle of clothes for comfort, praying to God that Jared didn’t like her more than a friend. Sarah jumped when she heard a sharp knock on the bathroom door.

   “Are you dead in there?” Jared laughed on the other side of the door.

   “Yes,” Sarah replied briskly, throwing on her clothes in record time and flouncing out of the bathroom. “I’ll probably be back after dinner to haunt you. See you at 8:00.”

   “Have fun,” Jared said, still snickering, and Sarah stuck her tongue out at him before grabbing her bag and exiting the apartment building. She whipped out her cell phone and called a cab, cringing when she realized this trip would probably cost her a fortune, since driving there would take at least an hour and a half (and walking there would take all day).

   The cab pulled over and Sarah clambered in, shoving her phone back into her purse.

   “Where to, young lady?” asked the cabbie.

   “Mind driving me into the country?” Sarah asked, and just as she’d expected the cabbie groaned.

   “That’s so far though!” he whined, but Sarah tossing four twenties into the passengers seat made him snap to attention and say, “Will do, young lady.”

   Sarah settled down in her seat and glanced back at the apartment, where she spotted Jared watching her leave through the window. She gave a quick wave to him before the cab took off down the road.

   Sarah sighed, both with relief and with annoyance, as the cab finally pulled up into the driveway of her old home. The drive had taken not an hour and a half, but a full four hours due to traffic and an accident on the highway. Now it was nearly 4:30 pm.

   “Thanks for taking me so far,” Sarah said with a smile, sliding out and slipping him a five as a tip. The moment the cab sped off the door flew open and Irene’s beaming figure stepped onto the porch.

   “SARAAAAAAAAAAH!” screeched an underdeveloped voice, and Toby immediately zoomed in between his mother’s legs and sprinted over to Sarah. He threw his arms around her legs again, nearly knocking her back onto the curb.

   “Hi Toby,” Sarah greeted hesitantly, trying not to smile when his adorable head looked up at her with a big grin stretching from ear to ear.

   “You came!” Toby laughed with delight, before unwrapping his arm from her leg and spreading them out wide— his way of asking for Sarah to pick him up. She obediently bent down and picked the tot up, walking up to the porch as Toby happily held onto her neck for dear life.

   “I’m so thrilled you could make it!” Irene said, sounding as exuberant as she’d stated. “Come, we have a wonderful dinner cooking just for you.”

   “Irene, you didn’t have to—” Sarah started to say.

   “Sarah, read me a story!” Toby interrupted insistently.

   Irene smiled warmly as she led her stepdaughter into the house, and said, “Maybe you could read him that one you used to love when you were a girl— the Maze, I think it was called?”

   “The Labyrinth?” Sarah echoed in horror. “Uh, that’s not my favourite. Besides… I don’t have the book anymore.”

   “Where did it go?” Irene asked confusedly.

   “I… sort of burned it,” Sarah said sheepishly. Irene gave her a curious look and Toby bounced up and down in Sarah’s arms.

   “Yeah, I want that story!” he cried happily. “The Labibinth!”

   Sarah laughed at Toby’s mispronunciation and set him back down on the floor, giving herself a good chance to look around. The house certainly hadn’t changed in the two years Sarah hadn’t been there. It was still a little old-fashioned, like a grandmother’s house. Sarah’s eyes were immediately drawn first to the old grandfather clock in the corner, and then to the stairs upstairs. She wondered what her old room looked like now.

   “Tell me the story, Sarah!” Toby insisted, but Sarah ignored him and ventured upstairs, her curiosity getting the better of her. It felt ominous to walk up all those stairs and find that white door waiting for her, almost as if she were sixteen again and Jareth might just be waiting for her behind that innocent-looking door…

   A thump behind her caused her to jump, and when she whirled around she saw that it was just Toby waddling up the last step. Sarah rolled her eyes at the stubbornness this child possessed and opened the door. She was shocked to see that nothing had changed since she’d left for college two years ago. The bed was still there with her old quilt, her walls were still bare, her stuffed animal shelf was still empty, her vanity was still clear of all the figurines and books and pictures… and the mirror was still cracked from side to side. Sarah entered the room, feeling unnecessarily frightened, sat down on the vanity chair and stared into the mirror. Scattered pieces of her reflections showed in the broken mirror.

   “Tell me now, Sarah?” Toby whined, flopping over to the bed and snuggling into the sheets.

   “Not that story kiddo,” Sarah said quietly. “Pick another one.”

   “But I want that one,” Toby wailed, kicking his little legs. “The Labibinth!”

   “It’s ‘the Labyrinth’,” Sarah said, raising her eyebrows.

   All of a sudden she heard a tiny whispering sound coming from in front of her, the voice incoherent and sounding miles away. Sarah stared in horror in front of her, where the mirror was. The mirror that she’d broken to prevent any unwanted guests from coming out of.

   “Toby, why don’t you go ask your mother if you can have a snack?” Sarah said quickly, not taking her eyes off of the mirror.

   “’M not hungry,” Toby said grumpily.

   “I’ll tell you the story after dinner if you go downstairs right now,” Sarah compromised, and Toby immediately zoomed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

   Sarah strained her ears to try and hear the voice again, but all she heard was absolute silence except the cooing of an owl outside her window.

   An owl…

   Sarah leapt from her chair and bolted toward the window, fear exploding inside of her. The owl was perched in the tree outside her window, but it wasn’t the beige barn owl Jareth had been— it was a bark-coloured owl with enormous green eyes. Sarah sighed with relief before she heard the voice again.

   “Sarah.”

    The voice was calling for her louder than before and more coherently, there, in the mirror. Sarah recognized that voice, and she tentatively walked back to the vanity, leaned in to the cracked mirror and whispered his name.

   “H-Hoggle?”

   The dwarf immediately plunged out of the mirror, landing on the floor with a hard thump and a grunt. Sarah choked back a scream and pressed herself to the wall— how the hell could he have come out of a broken mirror?

   “’Lo Sarah,” Hoggle grunted. “Nice to see yeh again after all these years.”

   “Hoggle… wh-what are you doing here?” Sarah whispered. “How did you get here?”

   “Believe me, yeh didn’t make it easy by breakin’ the mirror,” Hoggle replied lowly. “I’ve been tryin’ for months now.”

   His tone and expression suddenly turned urgent. “Sarah, we need yer help back in the Underground. It’s an emergency!”

   “An emergency?” Sarah echoed confusedly, before her own tone turned urgent. “Is Ludo hurt? Or Didymus?”

   “Glad to see yeh still care,” Hoggle mumbled audibly. “Nah, they’re fine. It’s someone else that needs yer help. We need yeh to come back to the Underground.”

   “Hoggle, I can’t go back!” Sarah cried. “I can never go back there! I didn’t want anything to do with the Underground!”

   “Believe me, I’ve noticed,” Hoggle said, and Sarah felt tears of guilt begin to well up in her eyes. “Yeh have to come back, Sarah. We’re all dependin’ on yeh to save us!”

   He held out his stubby little hand and looked up at her with a devastated expression in his beady eyes. “Will yeh come back? For us?”

   Sarah’s lower lip trembled as she stared at his hand, which was becoming blurrier by the second from the tears she was fighting back. “All… all right.”

   She took his hand, and she and Hoggle immediately appeared on the dusty, grassy hill. The tears she was fighting erupting over her cheeks when she got a good look of the scene before her.