𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧,
𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝
__________________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐
THE GOBLIN KING watched Eleanor through the crystal ball, spinning effortlessly in his fingertips. He enjoyed the frustration expressed on her face as she slumped in the courtyard, head in hands. Still, Jareth had his concerns. She shouldn't have made it that far. He thought the unwarranted demise of the fawn would've been enough to hurt and convince her to give up. Eleanor's decision to cut the little life of it's misery was the last thing he expected her to do. She had played God for a split second.
In the throne room, Jareth was accompanied by his subjects, all thrashing around like animals. They poked and tormented the human, so much to make him cry. The Goblins were cruel, pulling their faces to upset the child further. They had already stolen George's socks, and fashioned them into nothing but shreds of fabric on the cold floor. George was scared, unable to understand what was happening around him, but he knew that it wasn't right. The Goblins continued to make him scream, surprising him around every corner with distorted masks and hissing like serpents.
"Watch the child." Jareth ordered the Goblin who was at his side, and then dissipated without another word.
The Goblin King ventured out from the Goblin City and into his Labyrinth, taking short cuts and hidden alleyways that only he knew. He planned what he was going to say to the girl when they met again. To discourage Eleanor was his main priority, but if he could intimate her, that would be greater. He needed her to feel small in his presence. He needed power over her. The thought of the sparkle in her eye made his limbs grow heavy. Hope was his enemy and Eleanor had plenty of it.
Jareth drew closer to the courtyard, being sure to hide behind any corners for the element of surprise. Then he saw her. There was a steadiness to her, as if a storm around her would be just whispering winds. Her hair was made of waves of pure earth, softly reflecting the light of the lowering sun; each strand moving freely in the breeze. From under choppy fringe, a nose so freckled that the brown splotches overlapped like Autumn leaves after a hurricane. She was so quiet. Her hands were still blood stained, the memory stuck beneath her nails.
Jareth drifted towards her.
"Have you given up so soon?" He asked.
Her head shot up, eyes wide. She stared at him for a moment, breathing in his stature. Her chest rose with an inhale, forming an answer that would be equally as condescending.
"I'm not going to give up." she said, confidently.
"You can throw whatever you want at me. I'll still win."
"Was death not enough for you?" Jareth pryed, his feet taking him closer to the girl.
Eleanor's stomach sank. She had not grieved the fawn properly. Her eyes stung again.
"That was cruel."
She looked at him, full of hurt and hate. He had the kind of face that would stop anyone in their tracks. She then gazed towards his loose cotton shirt, torn down the centre, slightly revealing his chest and necklace. The curved bone hung loosely, tied onto what appeared to be hemp twine, blackened with age. Their glances collided. He stared so deeply into her eyes, she became convinced he could read her thoughts.
"I can be cruel." He announced, taking one last step to meet her at the bench.
Eleanor stood, their bodies just inches apart.
"I'm not afraid of you." She told him, flickering back and forth from each one of his eyes. She noticed they were different, with one pupil slightly bigger than the other.
Jareth smirked.
"Good. I don't want our little game to be over just yet." He then twirled around and walked over to an archway in the hedges.
"Shall I make this more fun for you?"
The wind picked up, blowing sharp leaves over Eleanor. Then the hedges around her began to close in, rumbling and throwing their roots down to the ground below. The Goblin King chuckled and disappeared.
Eleanor ran as fast as her legs could move, occasionally leaping over dancing roots and branches. The hedges collapsed into each other behind every step she took. Her lungs filled with adrenaline as she sprinted in any open direction she found. Pathways became less frequent as panic settled into her body. She stopped to think. Suddenly, a branch snapped and sent a scratch down her cheek. Eleanor cried in pain, her hands accepting bloodshed once again. As she ran, she thought how evil the Goblin King was, to hide behind his magic and cheat the game.
She saw the exit in front of her and sprinted, her arms thrusting at either side of her torso. A root wrapped itself around her ankle abruptly, forcing her to plummet to the concrete. As her skin slapped the ground, she let out another scream . The root began to tighten and drag her squeezed calf underneath the hedge. She tried to claw her way out, the tough flagstone shredding her skin and leaving her fingers raw.
Jareth froze, hearing Eleanor's cry rattle inside his head.
"Stop." He whispered.
Eleanor scrambled out of the foliage, entangled with fear. She wondered what had killed the plant but did not want to stick around long enough to find out. She left the courtyard, catching her breath and anger filling her lungs. How could he? How could he try to kill her? The Goblin King was a vile, dishonest beast and she would never forget that.
She then started to think. It dawned on her that maybe she wasn't as strong and confident as she pretended to be. What if, she entertained, she didn't escape the Labyrinth once she had found George? What if she made it to the castle, the little boy just out of reach, and ran out of hours? What then? She assumed George would be lost forever at that point, turned into a Goblin, herself included. The Goblin King didn't appear to be so kind as to send her back home after the fact, the memory of the hardships stuck to her skin like dust that'd never wash off.
Her face ached, tear stained and bloody. Every worried expression she could muster only reopened the scratch that caressed her cheekbone. So many questions filled her head. Would the scar still be there in the other world, where she came from? Did it even exist and this was all just one big illusion? She didn't know. She couldn't know for sure. But the little shred of hope in the pit of her stomach commanded she venture on.
Beyond the courtyard of hedges, laid another concrete maze, decorated with brass finger pointing hands, directing in every which way. Eleanor scowled at the uselessness. There was no service to the hands if they pointed to every passage in front of her. What a waste of metal. Every corner, she peeped round, being cautious not to entangle herself in any more mishaps. But every path, once again, looked to be the same and deeper she explored, the more confused she became. She couldn't remember which way she had come from or which way she intended to go. The sandstone eventually sent her eyes twitching.
"What do I have to do to get some help around here?" She called out, not expecting a reply.
"Well, you can always ask." A voice snickered from behind her, down a passage that had been closed moments before.
"What's that?" She answered the voice, approaching two, or maybe four, guards. They were shielded and propped against two large doors, their heads dangling between their opposing brothers legs.
"This was nothing but wall just a second ago."
"No," one of them said, "that's the wall behind you!" He laughed.
Eleanor spun around, shocked to find a solid stone wall encasing her in the small space with nowhere to go, but the doors.
"It keeps changing. No wonder I'm so confused." She said aloud. She turned around again.
"Do one of these doors lead to the castle?" She asked them.
The two long snouted guards looked to one another. The one dressed in red shrugged and the other, dressed in blue, shrugged back.
"Erm, we don't know," one of them told her, "but they do."
Eleanor then looked up towards their shoulders as two more heads crowned above the shields. They were identical.
"Alright," Eleanor stiffened her posture, "which one of these doors goes to the castle?"
"You can only ask one of us!" The one on the left spoke.
"But I warn you. One of us always tells the truth and one of us always lies."
"Well, it's easy," the other interrupted, "I always tell the truth."
"That's a lie."
"Is not!"
"Oh, what a lie!
"Shut up!" Eleanor shouted, cascading silence over the five of them. She then approached the guard on the right.
"Okay," she breathed, "would he tell me that this door, leads to the castle?" She asked
The guard looked at her, and then discussed in whispers with his partner underneath the shield.
"Yes?" He answered, unsure of himself.
"Then this door doesn't lead to the castle, and the other does!" Eleanor exclaimed, her head pounding with all the brain work.
The guard sniffed.
"How'd you figure that one out?"
"If I told you, I'd only doubt myself." She chuckled, for what maybe the first time since she had entered the labyrinth. She then approached the second door, pushing it open and revealing a tunnel, with a bright light at the end. It must be the way.
"I think The Labyrinth gets easier the further you get!" She celebrated until the floor collapsed beneath her, throwing her body into a dark hole.
__________________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐