A child’s scream cut through the darkness. Sarah closed her novel with a resigned sigh, leaving her bedroom to check on her brother Toby. He would have woken from a nightmare, a common occurrence these days. Despite it being over a year since they had returned safely from the Goblin City, Toby returned there again and again in his dreams. Sarah opened the door to his room, the room softly lit by the nightlight Toby now insisted on. She could see her baby brother in its dim glow, his brow covered in sweat, the covers tossed aside as he had squirmed to escape the memories.
Sarah crossed the room and perched on the side of his bed, his crib now a thing of the past. She gently lifted him into her arms, soothing him with her voice. “It’s okay Toby, I’m here”. His eyes fluttered open. “Goblins” he said, his tiny voice trembling with fear. “No goblins here Toby, go back to sleep”. She rocked him back and forth, softly singing a tune that never left her mind. A song from a ball she’d visited in a dream, once upon a Labyrinth.
As the pain sweeps through
Makes no sense for you
Every thrill has gone
Wasn’t too much fun at all
But I’ll be there for you
As the world falls down
Soothed by her calm manner and melodic voice, Toby was asleep again in minutes. Sarah wished she could find sleep as easily. Nightmares didn’t disturb her, but he wasn’t the only one haunted by memories.
Sarah picked up her old teddy Lancelot from the floor where he must have fallen during Toby’s nightmare. She gave him a quick hug, momentarily transported back to a time before the Labyrinth, when her biggest concern wasn’t how to retrieve the brother she’d selfishly sent away, but how best to act out her fantasies without having to live in the real world. She sighed, tucking Lancelot in beside Toby. She used to believe that life was unfair. How naive she’d been.
Jareth. The name escaped her lips before she even realised he’d entered her thoughts. Again.
She wondered what had happened to him. She knew that the Goblin King’s power came from being in control. In stopping time, taking what he wanted, ruling over his disciples and stripping power from others. She had beaten him, told him he had no power over her. She’d been so defiant. So proud. She’d won. Without pause, she and Toby were returned home and life was just as it had been. Except her life could never be the same again. Somehow, in some way, Jareth had become a part of her.
Sarah knew that Jareth had meant to keep her. The poisoned peach, the Bog of Eternal Stench, the oubliette. Every time she’d made progress through the Labyrinth he’d turn the tables so she’d be just that little bit further away. Of course, there was nothing for Sarah to do but to keep fighting to reach the castle at the centre. She needed to get Toby back.
She remembered Jareth’s words:
I ask for so little. Just fear me. Love me. And I will be your slave.
Jareth didn’t realise that she did, she always had. She feared him, for he had unlocked for her a grown up world that she didn’t know existed. Away from her fantasy world, this world was more real than the one she’d known. This was where she belonged. She loved him, for he had given her the best friends she had ever had in Hoggle, Ludo and Didymus. She loved him for showing her what she could be. That yes, life was unfair, but that was life. She didn’t have to act like everyone owed her; she could make her own destiny.
If she had only told him, he would have made her his Queen.
But Jareth couldn’t hold her. By unlocking the love she had for her little brother, and curing her of her selfish ways, he’d made it impossible for her to stay. Sarah sighed. Jareth could never have known that by trying to hold her he’d only succeeded in driving her away. If only she was still the girl she’d been before. She’d wish Toby away without hesitation and return to the Underground. But now, that Sarah was long gone. This one just remembered, wondered, and occasionally hoped there’d come a time when she and Jareth would meet again. With no little brother to save, and no life to return to, she’d tell him she had no power over him after all. The power was his. She was his.
Oh well, Sarah sighed. It’s only forever. Not long at all
