Labyrinth 2: The Return Of The Goblin King

Chapter two: The Babe With the Power to Rip Jareth's Heart Out (Jareth's POV)

Chapter two: The Babe With the Power to Rip Jareth's Heart Out

HobbleClaw, the unnaturally-small messenger goblin, scurried down the hallway with legs about an inch longer than two new, non-sharpened no.2 pencils. Despite his size, he sure could run fast when an important mail message was to be delivered to Jareth himself. He turned sharp corners, climbed up steep staircases, and was even tripped by a few vine sprites on the way. Usually this childish act would annoy him and he'd stop to lecture the sprites for a few minutes, but this letter was very urgent. So, as giggles echoed off the walls from vines, fungi, and eyeball lichen, he just picked himself up quickly and continued on his way to Jareth's study-the room the goblin king hasn't exited since...SHE left. 

Finally nearing the study, HobbleClaw slowed to a stop five doors away. He glanced at the open door and lost the nerve he'd built up three staircases ago, gripping the message nervously with his pudgy little fingers. He now shook like the prisoners on execution day. Every goblin knows that when Jareth gets angry or upset, he takes it out on his subjects. In fact, HobbleClaw knew this a little TOO well. Now worrying about this, he refused to go in. 

Jareth sat at his desk in his study, staring into one of his crystals. The orb sat on his fingertips, showing a faint but recognizable scene of Sarah cleaning her new house with the help of Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus. Jareth scowled at the sight. Traitors...he thought angrily. A few more moments of staring into the orb and there was a knock at the door. Jareth set the crystal down and stood, facing the door. The door creaked open after a few moments to a trembling messenger goblin, holding a white envelope. It seemed as though his eyes got wider with each step into the room, planting his feet in front of Jareth. He glared down at him as he looked away and held out the envelope with a shaky hand. How dare he interrupt his peace! 

"S-sir," he said nervously. He glanced at the note, then back at him. Keeping the same expression on his face, the goblin king snatched the note from his grip as the terrified creature shielded himself with his arms. He kept staring at him until he had completely unsealed the note contained in the envelope. Then, once he had, he turned his full attention to the words printed on the note. Jareth noticed out of the corner of my eye as he was skimming through and reading it briefly that Hobbleclaw was slowly removing his arms from over his head. He was still shaking, but he actually made eye contact with him as he waited for his admittance to return to his quarters. This was because Jareth's expression had softened to a sad, distant expression as he continued to read. Once he had finished reading, the note dropped to his side and he covered his face with his free hand. 

"...It's Edna," he said, the room filling up with gasps. Poor Hobbleclaw was so frightened by the name that he practically jumped out of his skin and ran for it, even without the permit to leave. There were many whispers shared in the walls about what the note might've said, though one particularly close and loud one caught Jareth's full attention. 

"What does the queen of the Slakks want with Jareth?" it asked, attempting to whisper but failing to keep any quieter than a motorcycle riding up a steep hill on full speed. The one who asked that question must've been spike, the largest goblin working in the castle. The question was so startling, all of the whispers quickly reduced into dead, awkward silence. Jareth turned his head to the wall behind him, which was where the voice had come from. Slowly, he grabbed the crystal he was looking in earlier off of the desk and walked over to it, smashing the orb against the plaster in one swift movement. The crystal, however, did not shatter onto the floor. Instead, it melted into the wall like when you put butter in a frying pan over the stove. Once it had completely disappeared, the walls all around the room went away with it for just enough time for every goblin working in his castle to fall into a cluster on the floor. As soon as they did, the wall replaced itself and the crystal sunk back out of the wall and into Jareth's hand. He swiped it away in one flick of the wrist as his subjects moaned in pain and agony lying on the floor.  

"What does she want with me, you ask?" he asked, still keeping his eyes on his hand that waved the crystal away. Spike looked up at his master from the very bottom of the pile, now scared that he might make him regret his question. Jareth tightened his hand into a fist and finally made eye contact with Spike, shooting him a look of pure disgust. 

"What do you think she wants with me? Every time she's summoned me to her kingdom it's been the same request! 'Your kingdom is dying; it's in need of a queen to assist your rule over the goblins! I don't think you know anyone other than me who's perfect for the task.'" Spike lowered his eyes to the ground below him in shame. The goblin wedged between him and the floor, the unlucky Haggy, grunted suddenly, coming to his senses and attempting to squirm out from under the ginormous goblin. 

"But sir," he said, finally pulling himself out, "that's the truth." He stood and looked up at me, a blank expression overpowering his face. There was no sign of fear in neither his tone nor his expression, which was only normal for him because he's the one goblin closest to Jareth in the kingdom. Haggy is the goblin king's personal assistant and has been since 1785(the land of the Labyrinth has no aging or time). 

"...You remind me of the babe," Jareth commented. This moment was when he realized that the only thing he could do to startle or frighten Haggy was to get close to him and say something that wasn't either a compliment or an insult. When he did this, the goblin jumped and his eyes got wide, obviously too scared to respond for a moment. 

"W-what babe?" he asked nervously. Jareth looked at him with pure concentration, looking right into his eyes and resting his chin on his fist. 

"The babe with the power." 

"What power?" Jareth's anger returned in a rush of black silk, his cape wrapping around his legs as he stood. He grabbed the goblin by its shirt collar and raised him up until he was looking straight at the goblin king. 

"The power to rip my heart out! Haven't we already gone through this?!" Haggy choked and gagged, his legs dangling about six feet above the ground. 

"But sir, what about the one with the power of voodoo?" he asked, desperately gasping for breath. 

"That's the same babe, you imbecile!" 

"Oh, yes. I've completely forgotten." With that, he was dropped to the floor, an extremely frustrated Jareth staring down upon him. 

"Go prepare the lobriders, about three or four. I'm going to pay a little visit to our rival kingdom." With no questions asked, the goblin bowed and scurried off towards the front door of the castle.