The Darkened World

Lost

Despite everything she had just been put through, one would think that the labyrinth would take a little pity on her and help her along in her search. But no, instead she became terribly and horribly lost and it was about as pleasant as realizing you will, eventually, lose to the Goblin King. 

Sarah hated losing just as much as she hated failing a test or paper. She abhored it and, as a result, tended to never lose. But this time she knew that winning was impossible, she had lost the minute she saw the Goblin King's boots. It was a terrible realization, too know that you lost before you even began to fight.  

But she would still fight if only to annoy him and prove to herself that she could. What she needed was a plan, not a slap jack plan, but a good plan. She needed a way to snap herself out of the haze he always seemed to be able to place her under. Sarah needed a companion who would never leave her side, even under threat of the Goblin King. 

Didymus would feel inclined to do as his King bade and Ludo was loyal, but a simple creature who would most likely run when faced with the King's wrath. Sarah needed a cheat, she needed someone how had been under constant threat of the King, and who ignored the King. 

She needed a Hoggle. 

And it was then that Sarah realized why Jareth had not allowed her to begin at the gates of the Labyrinth. It was also then when the earth gave way beneath her feet and she fell into an awaiting oubliette.

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Jareth almost felt bad for the sudden departure into the oubliette, but he had seen the look upon her face, and it would not bode well for him. He should have killed the little traitor when he had the chance, but if he did it know then she would hate him. 

It was so difficult to be King. 

Either he allowed a traitor to live to please his lady, or he killed the traitor and was most likely killed by his lady. Or, if worse came to worse, his lady would lead a revolution against him and steal his throne. Jareth shuddered to think what would happen if Sarah got that particular thought into her pretty, mortal head. 

If she could sway even his once faithful, if idiotic, knight to her cause then he had no doubt that she could sway his other, idle subjects. Of course, if it came to that he would just put them all in an oubliette and forget about them for a time. Though he would, personally, deal with Sarah. 

But it had not yet come to that. It was, however, just a matter of time and he could not keep sending her into an oubliette every time she decided to search for the traitorous little dwarf. After all, Jareth did need her to find the path and she could not do that if she was in a place of forgetting. 

Good gods, Jareth needed to get out of this damnable kingdom. The goblins had become even more annoying of late and he knew that killing them all would not look good to his people. He had been sent to this place to learn a lesson, though he knew not what lesson, and it was beginning to frustrate him beyond all belief. 

How was he suppose to learn if he did not even know the subject he was studying? That was the crux of it all, but he had no doubt that, once the path was found, he would be able to convince the other Fae that he had learned the lesson. 

Jareth was, after all, a master at half-truths and manipulation. 

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The landing hurt, this time there were no helping hands to ease her fall, and she did not fall on her knees like the last instance. Though, at the time, her knees had been scraped and bruised, this time she landed on her stomach and had the wind thoroughly knocked from her. 

She lay, her face in the dirt, for several minutes, her breath coming in short, ragged bouts, and her entire body feeling like one giant bruise. Sarah hated being caught unaware, something Jareth was good at doing, and she felt as if she should have expected this. She knew that the rat of a King was watching her, she should have hidden her expression better. But Sarah must have worn her joy on her face and Jareth worked to destroy that joy. 

Sarah pushed herself to her feet, with a grimace, and began to brush the dirt from her aching body. If she thought she looked filthy before, now she was sure she was. It was another thing she blamed the Goblin King for.  

Well, Sarah determined with her usual amount of stubbornness, she would just have to counter his attack and find her way back to the beginning despite his interfering ways. Sarah was nothing if not stubborn and once something was out of her reach she would do nothing until it was back in her reach. 

Stumbling around in an oubliette was not how she wanted to spend her time, but he had not given her a time limit, and her swore body would not be rushed. It took her sometime to find the plank of wood that would change into the door, however, when she opened it there was only wall behind it. 

She should have known better, he would change things in order to confuse her and make her angry. Well, curses on him, Sarah was already angry, being thrown into an oubliette does that to a person, and this was just another thing to add onto her list. She was unsure how, but she would get revenge on the smug little bastard for every misdemeanor and wrong he had done to her. 

After all, she was nothing if not stubborn. 

Sarah stumbled around, again, her hands trailing on the edge of the uneven rock until the wall suddenly disappeared from her. Kneeling down, Sarah found that the floor cut away sharply and she was unsure how far the drop was. Finding a small pebble, Sarah dropped it over the edge and attempted not to think about the Pit and the Pendulum. Which proved to be impossible as her mind connected the similarities to her story and that of Edgar Allen Poe's. Though she loved the man's writing, she was very close to cursing him, at the time. She was already jumpy, she hated the dark, and the thought of passing out and waking up tied to a table was not a pleasing one. Sarah resolved to never allow Jareth to read his works, even the less disturbing ones. 

Sarah waited for a time, though she had no way to measure how much time had passed, but could not hear the pebble hit ground, which was when she made her choice. She tried to peer over the edge of the pit, but darkness gave way to darkness and nothing could be seen. By now the natural, she hoped it was natural, if she was sitting in a pile of blood she would kill the Goblin King, dampness of the oubliette had soaked into her jeans and the feeling was unpleasant. 

"Well," Sarah muttered. "things are never what they seem in this place." Of course, with her luck, this would be the one time things were as they seemed. If it was, she only hoped that the Goblin King had not forgotten about her and was watching her. It said something about how sad her life had become, to be hoping for the mercurial king's attention. 

She waited for someone to say something, for a light at least, and when nothing appeared, much to her disappointment but not surprise, Sarah took a breath and slid over the edge of the drop off. Her stomach was left behind on the edge as she plunged over the side into the darkness.  

Her luck proved true and it was the one time things were as they seemed.