Labyrinth 2: The Return Of The Goblin King

Chapter seven: One Last Room (Sarah's POV)

Chapter seven: A Deal Has Been Struck

"Where are you taking me now?" I asked in annoyance, following him through the winding hallways still. He'd already shown me the bathroom, the dining room, the front and back door, and I had to sit through a long lecture on how to use the crystal. I had no idea what he would possibly have to show me next. But as he spoke no word of it and we kept walking down staircases and sloped paths going downward, I started to get frightened. The vision of the place we were headed towards gave me chills...and I hadn't even been in the room yet.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, we were down in a large room of stone with cages of all sizes surrounding the room. This must've been the dungeon. I looked all around me and saw not too much but filth and cages. Nothing but bones inhabited the space behind the bars, spiderwebs and cobwebs surrounded each corner, and the walls and floor looked like a jungle of those various plants seen up in the halls above ground. Down here they must've been very low underground because my ears rung. I decided to examine the webs a bit more thoroughly, but not to get too close. I'd never actually been in Jareth's castle before, let alone seeing the spiders they have in his dimension. If he was quite calm at the fact that there were talking plants on his wall, then I didn't want to find out what the spiders did.

"...Why did you bring me down here?" I asked after a moment more of observing, turning back to my captor with no shown expression. "You said I was not going to be kept in a cage." Jareth raised his arm at shoulder's length and pointed to an area behind her.

"Look there," he said. I crossed my arms, aggitated, and turned. What I saw completely wiped the annoyance from my face and replaced my once-peeved expression to shock and horror. In the direction he pointed to, the biggest cage sat against the wall. Somebody was in it. I gasped.

"Toby!" I cried, rushing over to the cage. The small boy looked up, relief flooding over his tear-stained face to hear his big sister's voice.

"Sarah!" he called back. I grabbed at the bars, tugging at them frantically and furiously. I wasn't sure how I would free him while I-the weakling of the Williams family-would free him by tugging at magically protected iron bars while the most powerful man I knew stood just behind me, smirking at my poor attempts of freeing my little brother. The four-year-old choked out a sob and reached his stubby little fingers through the bars. When I noticed they were reaching for my own hand, I grasped his in mine and looked into his eyes. I saw true terror in his ocean colored eyes that glistened with his tears. My anger returned in an instant and I turned back around to glare at Jareth, who stood with a devilish grin. I shook my head.

"...You're horrible..." I cried. His smile dissolved to a serious expression and he took a step towards me.

"Oh, come now, Sarah," he said. "You need not be so cruel to the one with the power to destroy you." I immediately bit my tongue. I was so furious with him, I could hardly keep the words I wanted to say to him inside. But it helped for no longer than about eight seconds until I could bear it no longer. I could feel my eyes tearing up already.

"Why shouldn't I?!" I shrieked. "You've stolen my little brother again! Not to mention me!" Jareth raised an eyebrow in a mischievious way and took a few more steps in my direction, and for each step he took forward, I took back.

"Ah," he began, "but for a very good reason. Well, on my behalf, anyways." I ended up backing into the cage with Toby in it. I glanced down at him to see big, brown eyes full of tears dropping to the hay-scattered base of his cell. He was watching, trying to understand what was happening.

"...What is your reason, then?" I asked, raising my eyes back to his. Jareth smiled and held his fingertips in front of his face, a crystal orb materializing into the atmosphere to rest upon them.

"Take this," he offered for the second time this very night. I looked down at it and then back to him.

"What will happen to Toby if I take it?"

"He will be let go, set free into your petty mortal dimension."

"And what about me? What will happen when my flesh touches that...thing?"

"Need I go on into the details, i mean, really?"

"...Indeed."

"Well,  since it may even be more than you can handle mentally, I will give you the short version, even though I am able to provide a much more thorough explanation."

"Do as you wish."

"You see this crystal? It provides all of the power of the world. But this power can only be in reach when my deal is acceoted by you in your words."

"Go on..."

"Well, if you wish for Toby to be free, you must remain here in his place." My eyes widened in horror. I was so shocked and horrified, in fact, that I hadn't noticed my hands go to to cover my mouth until I had dropped to my knees. I was torn between the better for myself and the better for my little stepbrother. I didn't want to stay here with that beast, but I didn't want to leave a family member for dead. But amidst my thoughts, the odd thought of the deja vu I had, remembering a movie plot I couldn't think of the name of, took over my mind for a brief second.(If you don't get it, it's beauty and the beast XD)