The Darkened World

The Gates of the Labyrinth

Sarah smiled in triumph as she, finally, reached the gates of the labyrinth and nearly told Jareth exactly what he could do with his plan to keep her from seeing Hoggle again. However, Sarah swallowed her words in case they sounded like a challenge to the Fae, he could twist any of her words into a challenge, the tricky bastard. 

Instead, Sarah simply smiled and walked up to the gates. She had almost walked past them before she realized what they were. She had not actually expected her half-assed plan to work and the fact that it had brought her great pride. 

However, as she pushed against the gates, they refused to budge and the memory of her first entrance to the labyrinth played out in her mind. She groaned as she realized that the doors and opened inward and that Hoggle had been the one to open them. 

Sarah began to pound against the rock of the gates and had just opened her mouth to shout when an amused chuckle made her head whip around so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. 

"You would find this funny." Sarah growled as she continued to pound against the door, despite how she was scrapping her already tender muscles. 

"Yes, I would." Jareth said, without shame as he continued to watch her fruitless banging. With a grin Jareth leaned against the wall of his Labyrinth and declared that she could be doing another kind of banging. One that would prove to be more pleasurable and not as painful, though perhaps as loud. 

"Shut up." Sarah growled as she kicked the gate and then turned to stare at him. She had learned her lesson in letting him slip out of her sight and, by the sound of his words, his head was still in the gutter. Though, she had seen the goblin city, a gutter may be a step up for him. 

"Did you honestly think I would let you get back to that traitorous dwarf? Besides, with how he smells, I did you a favor." Sarah's eyes narrowed at Jareth. She had spoken to Hoggle over the years, had made a point in keeping contact with her labyrinth friends but not with their king, and had never noticed anything off about Hoggle. True, they had only talked through a mirror, but she was certain that he would have told her if Jareth had bogged him. 

Or he wouldn't because he would have known that Sarah would have felt responsible. 

"Please, please tell me you didn't." Sarah said as her blood began to boil. Of course he had, because he was the feared and asshole of a King. 

"Of course I did. Though, I did warn him it would happen." No wonder Hoggle no longer feared Jareth. Jareth had already bogged him, for an inhabitant of the labyrinth, things could not get much worse. They could get worse, but not by much. 

Something within Sarah snapped and she picked up the nearest stone and threw it at the King, it bounced off his armor and he gave her a look as if to ask if that was the worst she could do. She picked up another and another and began to pelt the Goblin King with the rocks. 

She was going to kill him. Sure he was King, but he couldn't just go around making people smell bad for the rest of their lives, that was just beyond cruel. Sarah found more satisfaction in hitting him with stones than she would ever admit, even if most of them bounced off of him without harm. A few actually did manage to hit his face or neck, though no blood was drawn, and Sarah found herself determined to make him bleed. 

When Sarah ran out of stones, she threw her shoe, and that was when Jareth drew the line. 

"Honestly, I thought the years had taught you to grow up." He stated in a condescending tone but with a smile, as if her meager attempts to assassinate him amused him greatly, which they did. Honestly, a shoe? He knew she could do better than that.