The Labyrinth Sequel

Chapter 2

As soon as I get home I head straight to my room, not bothering to remove my coat or shoes. The mirror I had as a child is still in the same position and I run to the seat in front of it.

"Hoggle, are you there, I need you!" I cry.

"Well... If it isn't miss 'I don't need imaginary friends anymore'..." He says, appearing in the image behind me on the bed.

"Please Hoggle, I know it has been a long time and I know you are angry, but I need your help! The Goblin King took Toby again and I need to get back into the Labyrinth to get him back again." I beg, rushing through my explanation like a ten year old.

He looks up from his sulking and gives me an odd look through the mirror. I notice that his clothes he wore before are more tattered, and the many wrinkles under his sunken eyes seem to have increased over the years. 

"Look Sarah," He says moving around so that he is facing me, "It simply ain't possible that Jareth went around stealing Toby like that."

"But I saw them take him with my own eyes!" I cry, tears in my eyes.

"I'm tellin' ya, it ain't possible. After your little run in with Jareth he disappeared from the Labyrinth and never came back. The whole place has been goin' downhill ever since." He says with a sad shake of his head.

"What, that can't be right?! The last time I saw him was over three years ago!" 

"Yeah, well, he went all owly on us and couldn't seem to turn back." He shrugs.

That hits me pretty hard. Couldn't turn back? What did I do to him? But more importantly, he isn't pulling the strings in this operation, so then who sent the Goblins to steal Toby?

"Look Hoggle, I really need to get back to the Labyrinth so I can get Toby back. I am telling the truth when I say that it was Goblins who took Toby, and whether or not it was the King calling the shots I need to get him back before my parents get home!" I tell him.

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute, you can't just go to the Labyrinth right now, or ever for that matter. Things have been going downhill, like I said, and it isn't safe for you to be there." He says putting a hand out.

"But I have to get Toby back! If it isn't safe for me there it won't be safe for him." I insist.

He thinks about it for a moment, and then shakes his head as if trying to push the thought away.

"Look Sarah, the Goblins have been a little cooky since the King disappeared, and with things going wrong here and there they probably thought that bringing Toby to the castle would bring Jareth back. And maybe it will, not that he would be any help." He says.

"But if I go there maybe I can help fix things. It couldn't be that bad down there could it?" I ask.

"Oh, you have no idea!" He cries throwing his hands up, "Things are worse than ever now, and who knows how long we have left."

"What do you mean, I thought you said the King was gone. Shouldn't everyone be happy that he isn't around anymore?"

He snorts. "Things we going great once he left! No body got bogged, I ain't a groundskeeper anymore, and there were parties through the kingdom for days! But then, little by little, we noticed things going wrong..."

"Like what?"

"Things were starting to disappear... And I don't' mean in a stealy kind of way. Whole houses an' parts of the walls would start vanishin', and then the people started vanishin' as well."

"What?!" I demand in outrage.

"You heard me! Goblins would be talking to you about trash one minute, an' the next, poof! They're gone! The people who were more important to the King seem to last the longest, but there are only so many Goblin's left. I don't blame them for wanting to bring back the royal snob."