The Owl's Flight (A Labyrinth Fanfic)

Fear

"Uncle? Uncle, are you listening to me?" Jareth snapped out of his thoughts.

"I apologize. I have much on my mind, you see." Malefek nodded.

"I understand. Now, about the elves... they say that I've encroached on their borders, and that my patrols were seen hunting on their land.I never crossed their boundaries, I swear!" Malefek shook with fear.

"Calm down, young one," the Goblin King soothed his frightened nephew. I don't know how he'll ever defend his borders. A mouse could scare him off.

"Mouse!" Malefek shrieked, pointing to a little ball of fuzz. My point exactly.

"It's just dust, Malefek. Calm yourself." Thin tendrils of red hair hung from the Shadow King's face.

"I... I'm sorry," Malefek bowed his head. "You believe me though, don't you?"

"Of course I do." Your father would have been only too eager to take the land for himself. You couldn't even... oh, why bother? "I'm willing to hold a council with the elves, to create a treaty."

"Wasn't there already a treaty?"

"No. The race of fae resides here Underground because we were banished. There is no set law."

"Then how am I supposed to save my land?" He wailed. I have no idea. Jareth's eyes returned to the Labyrinth, where he saw the great door vanish.

...

Sarah wasn't about to question the appearance of the door. All she knew was that it was a way to escape from the Goblin King's tyranny.

"Come on, Toby. I finally..." A breeze rushed past her face, and she inhaled the fresh air.

Then a sudden problem occurred to her.

"But how the hell am I going to get home?"

...

Jareth's skin tingled. Dammit, she found her... wait, she found her way out of the Labyrinth? After not even twenty minutes, she escapes?

"You'll have to excuse me, nephew. I'm sure you're tired from your journey. Please, make yourself at home. The cook should still be up." Jareth stood and swiftly exited the room.

I did tell her to go where she wanted. That her stay was over.

The conversation continued to run over in his head, over and over. He could reorder time, but he couldn't change the past.

...

Sarah trekked for a long time-- or what seemed like a long time. When she turned around to look, the maze was only a small walk away. Toby had ceased his crying and fallen asleep.

"Damn hobgoblin twisting the world again," she cursed under her breath. "I wish I'd never--" It was a good thing she never finished her sentence. Or perhaps it was a bad thing.

Definitely a bad thing.

...

Jareth felt his limbs slowly turn to ice-- though it wasn't his body. "Sarah..." He sent out every sense he could, and felt the young woman at the edge of the Labyrinth.

He moved his form to the top of that hill, only to see her be wrapped in a cloak of darkness. The figure looked at him with black eyes and winked out of existence.