I lost all breath within me when the doors were opened. It was so different from the memory I held in my head. I stepped into the labyrinth feeling the same determination and helplessness as I did five years ago. The large door slammed closed behind me causing me to cringe. I looked at Jareth who stood with a frown on his face surveying the poor condition of the labyrinth. He had good reason; the ground held cracks that ran as far as the eye could see. Vines were slowly destroying the walls; the thick fog permitted little visibility and floated around feeling like it is suffocating every living thing in its path. I knew the labyrinth was not pretty the first I stood here, but now it was slowly destroying itself.
“This way” He said pointing in the direction I travelled when I first made it to the Labyrinth. We walked quickly and quietly not speaking a word. Roots slowly moved around as we passed while the walls moaned under the weight of time. Even though this labyrinth was the most hated thing in my life for the first year after, I still felt a pang of sadness. It reminded me of seeing a grandparent or old friend deteriorate before your very eyes. Worse yet, the stubbornness in Jareth’s eyes had hardened and his face sunken with thoughts I would never be able to figure out.
Jareth climbed over a large block of rock from his wall that stood in the path and I tried to follow but my foothold broke. I froze in place terrified to turn around. Finally, I turned my head slightly towards where we had entered from and clung to the rock. “Get yourself together” I muttered. Again and again, I jumped for the top of the rock that had fallen but resulted in falling short despite my just above average height. My ears started to deceive me by playing nasty tricks of footsteps and twigs snapping.
I closed my eyes to think clearly but a touch ripped me from my thoughts. A vine wrapped around the wall and moved over the ground. I touched the vine and it followed my touch. My touch teased the vine, drawing it from the crack it first emerged. I pressed my foot on the vine barely and it rose up to encircle my foot. Moving quickly, I pulling myself up the rock with the push of the vine slowly gaining on where I was on the rock. When the vine revealed enough of itself, I climbed up and over where Jareth waited for me.
He made no advance to ask if I was okay or if I were hurt, but nodded his head and continued on walking. Turn after turn we maneuvered throughout each blockade and every twisted corner. I could hear the rumbling of the changing labyrinth as our footsteps began to get absorbed into the walls. Jareth looked unfazed by the eeriness of his labyrinth but a level of disturbance still stirred in his face and fidgeting hands. Despite myself I felt bad for Jareth and his loss of control of his own kingdom and destruction of his labyrinth but another part of me was convinced he deserved it.
“Are you sure it is safe to travel at night?” I asked bringing myself out of my deep thoughts. As if conformation to my question a deep rumbling sounded not so far away. Jareth put a finger to his lips and motioned for me to follow. I turned my head slowly around to make sure we were safe before returning my gaze to where Jareth once stood with a wall now in its place. My throat tightened as I shuffled forward. I placed my hand on the wall beside me and took a couple deep breaths. I was alone in the labyrinth.
Suddenly the wall clicked and popped outwards. I let out a shaky breath and opened the wall. The door swung closed trapping me in between walls so tightly I could hardly move. “No, no, no this very bad” I muttered hitting my hands on the wall. The wall tightened on me causing me to panic. It was like the wall was swallowing me. I gathered as much force as I could and hit my hand on a brick. As if on cue the floor dropped and I was falling. I landed on a platform with my ankle twisted and my body collapsed.
With a wince I looked up and around where the wall had dropped me. Dark light was visible from strange holes in the ceiling only lighting the stairs slightly. I was sitting on a small platform of stone, covered in grass. From every side stairs jutted out, twisting around in a spiral going down. I looked to where the dark light ceased and saw the black fog that covered the ground in the labyrinth. It surrounded the staircase blocking out anything that tried to get through it. With no interest in staying on the platform, I stood and took to the stairs, biting my lip from my mildly twisted ankle. I was careful not to misplace a step on the staircase because of its twisted, narrow design.
When I reached the thickest part of the dark fog I choked on coughs stuck in my throat. I tried to be silent as I rushed past the fog and down the stairs. As the fog cleared a light assaulted me. My eyes adjusted to the new and sudden light that temporarily blinded me. I had to lean on the stairs for a release of pressure on my ankle. Still too far up to see anything, I tapped the stairs with my fingernails wondering why I agreed to this. I looked down to the where the light came from and noticed crystals all around me. They grew more abundant as the stairs grew closer to the floor. Taking a final breath, I rushed down the rest of the stairs.
I tripped down the last two stairs and sat for a rest. I was in a room that encircled the staircase. The crystals around the room made it look like stars. The air was cold and damp from water dripping down the walls, feeding a small pool that connected the jagged stone wall and wrapped around the room to flood down a shaft into darkness. The floor was dusty, but the rest from my agonizing decent was welcomed. “I hate you Jareth. Bring me back and leave me for nothing” I muttered to no one.
“I do enjoy watching you struggle but come now Sarah, I am not that bad” Jareth said walking out from behind the staircase. I gasped in surprise before feeling the pain in my ankle radiate up my leg and cause me to lose my balance. “I beg to differ” I replied standing back up applying minimal pressure to my ankle. “Hurt yourself have you?” He asked looking at my ankle. “Yes, I twisted it on your free fall back there” I said looking at my foot. “Hm, pity” He said uninterested. I looked up to reprimand him but found him missing from the spot he last stood.
“Jareth!” I called out. “Rough day?” He asked behind me sitting on the stair above me. Jareth smirked and quirked his eyebrow. “I’ve had a lot worse” I shrugged. “Alright, well I guess I will be going” He said standing and gracefully walking around the corner.
Collecting myself I stood and followed him limping as I went. He was watching the water run down the shaft when I approached. A wooden table sat next to him looking as though it had no real purpose. I pressed my hand down on it before sitting on top and massaging my ankle. I hoped it would hold me up, or that Jareth would withhold the urge to break the leg of the table…or my own. But Jareth paid no attention to me or the table. He stood consumed in his own thoughts.
“How did you find this place?” I asked him. “I was sent here to rule, I made some discoveries and improvements to it to make it more comfortable and suitable to my liking” He muttered not paying attention to his own words. “Given?” I asked thinking out loud. “Well I didn’t just appear here out of thin air. My kingdom was given to me by my father” He said turning to me. “Your father? Is he” I left the question hanging hoping he would answer it for me but I got no such reply.
“How long will we stay here?” I sighed. “We will stay the night and in the morning we will leave. We just needed to get here during night so the one sitting on my thrown would not see us” He said. I redirected my attention to Jareth looking into his eyes. “How do you have power here?” I asked. “This is my personal room in the labyrinth. I hid my crystals here. It is the only place I have power sense the takeover” He said.
“That evil man out there on your thrown, how did he come to power?” I asked intrigued. “He came after you left. I had no idea he was coming but when he did, my defenses were down. I needed my oldest and most powerful crystal to defend my kingdom but it was gone. The war raged unsuccessfully for two years. He kept it going just to drain my forces. I’m surprised I got out before he ceased the thrown and killed me” I nodded and hesitated before asking the next question. “Did you approach anyone for help?” Jareth looked over me and a vein bulged in his neck. “You are such an annoying and naïve girl. Too many questions” He muttered bitterly. “And you are an uptight, despicable, once king of goblins, now answer my question” I said giving him an interested look. “The imposter on my thrown has made this labyrinth the only way to any outside kingdoms. I must travel to the middle to find answers” He told me. “Last questions, how many other kingdoms are there and I thought your castle was the middle of this labyrinth” “Four and not anymore” He said before my thoughts and sight went dark.
I awoke to the crashing of water flowing down something and crashing. I reached for my phone to turn off the alarm but gave up after a second from exhaustion. I looked at where I was laying and pulled up my covers. When my feet suddenly became cold my memories flooded back to me. The labyrinth, destroyed castle, crystal stars, and Jareth flashed in my mind making my head hurt. My covers were not covers. It was a long cloak that Jareth wore. I sat right up and looked around coming close to throwing myself off the table.
“Dream of me?” I heard Jareth’s voice from the stairs. “Actually there was this frog, he hopped over all the lilly pads and splashed the other frogs. He was hopping over the lilly pads one morning and another frog stole one of the lilly pads, throwing the frog into the water. Bye bye froggy” I shrugged with an amused expression. Jareth ignored me for my poor attempt at teasing.
“Where are we going?” I asked regaining my seriousness. “I mapped out the labyrinth so we will know where to go” He said as I approached him and his mass of a drawing in the dust. I scanned the entire labyrinth from start to finish. “Explain what the marks mean” I said spotting multiple. “The dots are for all the pit falls that could kill you. The squares are bocks with a two way option; you remember the two doors with knockers? The largest line is the most appealing way to get to the middle but with the new layout of the labyrinth I decided against it. The smallest line is our best bet but the labyrinth has changed so much I can only guess this is where we must go to” He said with a nod clearly agreeing with himself. “It will take us a full day to get there if all goes according to my plan. The sun will be coming up in a little while and then we will take our leave” Jareth said running his eyes over the labyrinth two more times.
“Let’s get going then” I replied. Taking another step I faltered and groaned. My ankle was very sore still. “It is still a little dark outside. Go put your foot in the water” He said. “What a gentlemen” I muttered trying to limp over to the water. I was sitting down when a hard shove came to my back knocking me into the water. I emerged from the frigid water grasping for the ledge. “Bye, bye Sarah” Jareth said turning and walking away with no expression on his face. I pulled myself up coughing from the shock.
It took a little over an hour for the sun to rise but almost no light came from it due to the fog. My ankle had felt increasingly better after my dip in the small creek no thanks to Jareth. Once we were both suitable to leave, he revealed a door to a tunnel. I climbed in and followed him down the tunnel on our hands and knees to another slightly larger tunnel. I stood up and walked after Jareth watching him closely in case he had anymore tricks up his sleeve like a snake to throw at me again or sharp objects coming in my direction.
“Sarah, you should consider starting to looking for my crystal soon because I decided to give you until we arrive at the middle of my labyrinth” He said looking back at me to make sure I heard. “What if I am unable to find the crystal?” I asked. “I have faith you will, because this time if you fail, you are bargaining something much more valuable than your brother” He warned. “And what is that?” I asked. We emerged from the tunnel unscathed and looking out at the new labyrinth. “Your life”