Through the maze

The hall of mirrors caused fear in the hearts of the beings that dwelled in the Labyrinth. It was the kind of fear that twisted in you your gut and caused you to glance around from anxiety, as if your very thoughts would bring it near. Places in the Labyrinth didn’t move, the paths did. The Hall of Mirrors was the only feature of the great maze that didn’t follow this rule. It practically radiated untamed magic, so much that even a being that had no magical ability could feel its energy crackle around them as it curled around their form, making you think you could almost taste it if you should open your mouth and decide to do so. The dark and evil presence that it pored out of its core made the Labyrinth’s inhabitants scurry back to their nook or corner in the vast maze. It was said not even the Goblin King had any control over it. If this was so, then it truly was a thing to be feared…


~

Jareth was a wreck, and his demeanor had the goblins on edge. Was this man who paced across the floor, and who could scarce keep from pulling his hair really their king?

For once, he didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t his fault that of all the godforsaken places in the Labyrinth, Sarah had stumbled upon the one that had the remotest possibility of destroying her. After he watched Sarah walk through the entrance, he had wracked his brain, trying to come up with any way of assisting her. So far he had come up with nothing, and this feeling of dread was tearing him apart. Involuntarily, his feet took him to the library, and the goblins watch him tear it apart.

‘There’s got to be something, anything here about that damn place.’

What he did find proved to be invaluable. It was a journal of sorts and upon further inspection it turned out to be from the mid-point of his father’s reign, which meant it was somewhere around 1,000 years old. He had to blow an annoying amount of dust from the pages just to read it.

Jareth vaguely remembered the writer from his childhood, a nervous mortal scientist that had contained a small amount of magical power, mostly psychic. He had wasted his life trying to figure out how the Labyrinth worked, a nearly impossible task. Sitting down on one of the old crushed velvet chairs, he turned to the first page and began.

‘The cause of all my troubles is that damn hall. At night my sleep is troubled, for bits and pieces of the terror that lies within the mirrors visits me during the day. I am no better. I find myself obsessed with proving my fears are born in vain.

What follows is what I believe to be a reasonable analysis on the workings of the mirror.

Magic is contained within the soul of a being. The mirrors have immense magical power that isn’t drawn off the Goblin King that maintains the Labyrinth. All documented cases of the mirror’s victims show that they held even a small amount of magic. Of these cases, I am the only surviving one. It only makes sense that the mirrors feed off their victim’s souls, trapping them as a power source. They slowly draw on the victim’s soul while they’re distracted by the strongest of emotions. Hurt and fear.

When walking in the hall, an invisible force pulls you to look in the mirrors. What I saw is too personal to record, but I was shown all the dark demons of my heart. It was of course an illusion, but as I watched my fears played out before me as if they were real, I found myself getting weaker. It was only by sheer will power that I forced myself to believe in what they really were. Instantly I was thrown out of the mirrors and I ran to the door way without looking back and found myself-’

Jareth slammed the book shut, it was as far as he could read. ‘Sarah, I’m so sorry.’ And with that he placed his head in his hands, consumed with despair.

~

This place was creeping officially creeping Sarah out. 'I can't see a thing.' she thought and cautiously reached out for the walls. Instantly, torches lit up, illuminating the hall and startling Sarah. She turned to face the cold, smooth surface of the mirror her hand was touching. Instead of seeing her reflection like she expected, she saw darkness.

'Some mirror.' she thought dryly. As if on cue, the darkness before her startled to swirl, as if making a whirlpool infused with gray. It hypnotized her, and she couldn't help but look deeper before she was pulled in.

~

It felt like she was falling forever. Up and down was a concept she couldn’t grasp, and sight was a luxury that she didn't have, because everywhere she looked was black. Finally her feet hit solid ground, or stone to be exact. Sarah looked around as Jareth's throne room shimmered and materialized around her. For once, she breathed a sigh of relief to be here, until she saw Toby. "Toby!" she cried. 'But, he's a baby! He's not even supposed to be here!' She ran to him and right before she scooped him into her arms, he changed. Toby's skin changed to a nauseating green, his hair grew into gray spurts, and his features grew into those of a goblin.

"NO! I saved you, this isn't right!"

A cold voice stopped her. "Sarah, life isn't fair. You should have lost, but you humiliated me."

Sarah turned around and to face Jareth, but something wasn't right. His eyes were so cruel, and his face was so......evil. He walked towards her, Toby forgotten. "I always get what I want Sarah, but what I don’t want is you." He shoved Sarah and once again she was falling.

'That couldn't have been real, but it hurt so much. And if I really don’t care for him, then why am I crying?'

~
Her feet touched ground once more and she was in a cafe. A woman who bore a great resemblance to her waved and called out "Sarah, darling over here!"

"Mom?" she whispered. This was all so confusing, it had to do with the mirrors.

Her mother laughed. "Well of course its me, your the one who wanted to meet me here remember? You wanted to talk about what happened all those years ago between me and your father."

Sarah's mouth dropped open. "I....I did?"

Her mother, Denise, turned serious. "Yes you did. Do you want to hear the story or not? I haven't got all day. There’s a new movie I'm working on and I'm wasting precious time here when I could be memorizing my lines."

Sarah was taken aback at her harsh tone. This was not the mother she remembered, but there didn’t seem any other way out of here than to play along. “I’m listening.”

Denise began. “There was nothing wrong with your father and I. He loved the theatre as much as I did. Our first blind date was to see the play Hamlet. After that we couldn’t go a day without talking to the other, and 3 months later, we were engaged.” Denise paused to pull a thin cigarette out of her black Prada purse and lit it with a hot pink lighter. She held it between her fingers and the light reflected off her long, heavily polished crimson nails. Taking a deep drag on the cigarette, she exhaled and resumed her story.
“Everything was going great, until I got pregnant. I didn’t want to be a mom, my acting career was just taking off, and I was miserable when I found out I was pregnant to the moment you were born.”

Sarah listened, stunned and hurt. ‘No, its not true.’

“Having a baby was too much. You were so demanding, and needy, always wanting my attention. There was no time for me, don’t you understand! No, of course you don’t, no one did.” she actually laughed then, and exhaled more cigarette smoke. “Your father and I began fighting over you. He said I was being irrational, and that it would all get better, the idiot. But it didn’t, and my wonderful life went down the drain. I began to dislike you, hate you, and abhor you even. You were ALWAYS in the way! When I missed the biggest audition of my career because I couldn’t find a babysitter or take you with me that was the last straw. You had to go, and your dad wouldn’t let me give you up. So we got a divorce.” She stabbed the cigarette into the ashtray and her eyes met Sarah as her mouth twisted into a cruel smile. And then she delivered the final blow.

“Don’t you see Sarah, in the end; it was all your fault.”

The tears wouldn’t stop coming, and Sarah was choking on air. “No, you don’t mean it….I was just a baby….how could it….no….no it wasn’t, I didn’t mean….”

Denise grabbed her purse and stood up. “That’s enough, your embarrassing me. I hope you found out what you wanted, because I have to leave.” She turned around and the falling sensation began.

She was still crying, saying it wasn’t true, but voices kept coming from all around her, saying it was, and maybe if she hadn’t been born-

For the last time she hit ground, or to be more precise, a bed.

Sarah tried to sit up and look around, but a sharp pain traveled up her back. She was in a depressingly pain room, decorated with ugly curtains and contained only a T.V. and a ratty bluish gray recliner. A button by her hand said push for nurse and when she went to push it, she gasped. Her hand! It was practically transparent, the thin skin stretched over arthritic bones and blue spider veins. Sarah reached up to touch her face, her hair. All she found was wrinkles and thin white hair. Before she could even cry out, a clipped accented voice greeted her ears.

“Sarah! It’s so good to see you, after all these years!”

‘Ah, so he’s in this nightmare too.’

But this time, he had a companion, a beautiful woman with long, blonde wavy hair and eyes like emeralds. She clutched Jareth’s arm like a lifeline, and looked upon him with worship, adoration, and love.

“Jareth?” Sarah said, and winced at the sound of her voice.

“Sarah, this is my wife Elaine. We met and married right after your second trip to the Labyrinth, and that is why I’m here.”

It was worse than the last two nightmares. An invisible hand clutched her throat, and she couldn’t breathe. Jareth sat on the edge of Sarah’s bed and took her hand.

“I want to thank you, for refusing my offer of marriage all those years ago. You made me realize how foolish it was, that I didn’t really love you. After all, your mortal life is so short compared to mine, it never would have worked out anyways, I see that clearly now.” He smiled and patted her hand. “Please say something.”

But she couldn’t, her heart was in agony.

Wait. ‘There’s something wrong with this picture.’ she thought. Jareth was wearing……dress pants and a button up shirt?

“This isn’t real.” whispered Sarah

“What did you say?” asked Jareth, leaning forward and frowning.

“You’re not real, it’s like the ballroom. Its fake, all of it!” she was screaming now, fighting Jareth’s hold on her wrist.

“Toby’s not a goblin, my mother still loves me, and you love me, I know you do!”

Sarah thrashed side to side and rolled out of bed, and when she looked up, mirrors lined the walls on either side of her. She was back in the hall, and there it was. The door out of there.

As fast as she could, she leapt to her feet and ran to the door crying as she went out of sheer happiness.


Sarah grabbed the door handle and pulled with all her might. She stepped out of the hallway and into the goblin city.

'I never thought I'd be so happy to see this place.'

Sarah leaned against the city wall and slid down to the ground and collapsed with that thought in mind.