I'm back!! and here they are – the long awaited chapters
of `Labyrinth: The Way Back'



I'm still working on finding my final notes, but this is what I have
for now.



The complete text up until now can be found at Fanfiction.net
under 'Aviry Nolane' or 'The Labyrinth: The Way Back"





Title: The Labyrinth: The Way Back

Author: Aviry Nolane

Email: SlvrLuna47@...

Rating: PG?

Comments:



Ta Da!



Every day is a little closer to being finished with this beast of a
fic, but I am still far from finishing. Comments encouraged. I want
to make sure that I'm doing this right – it's been so long since I've
written anything.



Enjoy!







Chapter 21 – A walk in the Garden





The days passed by then, as they sometimes do, each melting into
another until there existed no calculable boundary between them. Time
seemed to move differently here, almost like a living being,
sometimes it ticked along faster, and others slow and lazily.



Today, it was lazy.



Life had become easier for Sarah with the disappearance of a certain
Goblin King from her daily interactions. Easier being the
understatement of a century.



She had not seen him once since that night when he wandered into her
room seeking to satiate a craving Sarah had no desire to fulfill. It
was out of shock, she reasoned, that she had resisted fulfilling her
own heart's desire that night, which involved her brass hairbrush and
his face.



`Luckily,' Sarah reminded herself, `for him.'



No, she had now accustomed herself to a much more blissful position
in the King's Underground. One of happy-go-lucky denial. It was
nothing short of the ordinary for Sarah, and had always served her
well before.



Sarah's reasoning abilities had kicked in soon after their…
encounter. And she now believed, if not wholeheartedly, that while
Jareth (Abominable King of the Goblins) may have been – completely
is – a merciless and cold demi-God of pure evil, these three kings of
wherever were probably very rational, sensible, and most likely
completely understanding of her situation. Most likely.



Nelly had given up on the topic of Jareth and all things relative,
and seemed to be treating Sarah as if she were on some kind of
extended holiday instead of captive against her will. All things
considered, Sarah preferred things this way. Together they spent
their days roaming the seemingly endless garden and speaking of more
pleasant topics.



Nelly could simply not get enough of hearing about the Aboveground.
Everything astonished her to the point of senseless giggling.
Especially the subjects of driving cars, television and microwaves.



Sarah had been truly enjoying her time spent with Nelly these last
few, well, however long, and was still at a loss to explain how
someone so innocent and wholly pure could exist in a world so dark as
the Underground.



"You know, Sarah" Nelly thought aloud as the pair made their way
through a Pollyspeckle patch one afternoon, "I believe you may be the
only friend I've ever had."



Sarah nearly fell over at these words, and leaned up from where she
had been petting a sleeping Pollyspeckle on the path. "Nelly, how can
that be possible? You're such a lovely girl. You must have had
friends before me."



Nelly's brow knotted in frustration as she lifted her hand to shield
the sunlight from her eyes. "No," she affirmed after a moment, "I
never really have."



She flounced her skirts at this and seated herself, in all her
finery, atop a mossy stone and tried to free her ankle from a
particularly clingy baby flower as it wept.



"You know, aside from my brothers and my husband, I've never really
had anyone to talk to about anything. Least of all how uncomfortable
my bodice is, or what nincompoops men are." She laughed aloud now,
still enamored with the beautifully funny words Sarah had taught her
from back home.



"I didn't know you had any brothers, Nelly." Sarah announced, all too
excited that for once the conversation had turned to Nelly's past in
the Underground and not her own.



"Yes, two," She giggled back, "but both older and very alike. You
know, when I was younger, before I had learned any magic at all,
they, and my cousin, used to play the worst pranks on me."



"Like what?" Sarah asked openly.



"Well," she began, scooting closer, "They had convinced me that I had
learned to read minds, when all along they had simply enchanted
everything in my garden to speak ill of me. Telling me my hair was
flat and my bottom was too round and that I had a fig for a nose.
Things like that."



Sarah laughed along, "that's awful!" She proclaimed.



"Don't I know it!" Nelly bursted, "I ran straight to my father and
told him what happened and they were sentenced to mop the floors for
weeks."



She was lost then in a silent moment, remembering. Sarah simply
watched as the light of reverie swept through Nelly's eyes, as brief
as a dream, and then washed away.



"My father died soon after that though, some say it was of a broken
heart." She looked straight up at Sarah as she spoke these
words, "You know he only lived two hundred years after my mother
died."



"I bet she was a beautiful woman," Sarah said gently, placing a hand
on the place she believed Nelly's blue satin clad knee to be.



"I assume she was," Nelly brightened at these simple words, "Though I
never met her myself. She died giving me life, and for that much I
will always love her." She frowned again now, "though it would have
been nice to have another woman around as I grew up."



Nelly's face lit up once again, her moods always as changeable as the
sky above, "but now I have you to be my friend, after all. And you
and I will be like sisters forever."



Forever.



Sarah dodged the bullet almost quite completely, "You didn't go to
school, then?" she asked as she placed herself carefully upon the
only other object she trusted herself to sit on, a large wooden swing
already in motion behind her.



"I was taught by my father, mostly. And when I did finally meet fae
women my own age," She paused, thinking, "Well, I suppose I was
horrified."



They both laughed then, and Sarah found it nearly impossible to
remain seated upon the log seat of her swing as it chortled along.



"Well," said Nelly as she sprang to her feet, finally freed of the
now sleeping Pollyspeckle, "I suppose I should go start dinner, after
all," she winked, "nothing seems to get done around here without
me."



Sarah nodded, and Nelly spoke on, "you don't mind if I leave you
here, do you?"



"No," Sarah replied lazily, "I think I've had enough walking for one
day. I think I'll just sit here and rest."



With that Nelly was gone amidst a bursting of petals that floated to
the ground where they evaporated.



`I have got to get used to that' Sarah mused inwardly as she allowed
the swing to sway her back and forth. `It really is just as shocking
every time.'



Unfortunately, Sarah had not given quite enough thought to where she
was or whose company she was currently in. Perhaps she would have
thought better of the term `shocking' if she had.



After bidding farewell to her swing Sarah had another urgent problem
to address. She wasn't exactly sure how to return to her room.



`Hmm' she mumbled to herself as she crossed the bridge that had led
to the garden, "I wonder, which way now?"



She looked left, and then right, and then left again. Yes, this
corridor was no different than any she had encountered in the
Labyrinth. They all stretched on seemingly forever and looked
identical in each direction.



"Well, feet," Sarah spoke aloud, as she had always had an annoying
habit of speaking to herself in the third, fourth or fifth person, "I
think we'll go left."



Sarah was never an exceptionally good listener.





Chapter 22 - Sunset





It only took one left turn to undo all the rights Sarah had taken in
the last few days.



If she turned on purpose or not, I doubt she could even tell you, but
the outcome, no matter the desire, was inevitably the same.



Almost at once Sarah found herself in an all too familiar stone
foyer, one long solitary balcony window catching the onslaught of
nightfall and the beams of multicolored light illuminating one all
too familiar form.



Yes, familiar though it was, comforting would just not be a good
descriptor.



Sarah, never one to miss an opportunity, was all too quickly quite in
her element. The recent encounters with her jailer, soon to be
husband or executioner, all came tumbling back in a frighteningly
organized way. They all seemed too happy to equate to one single
solitary emotion, drive, passion and force: pure unadulterated
hatred.



She moved forward as quickly as her skirts would allow, which was
harrowing in on nearly a mild shopping mall pace, and before she had
a chance to think of what or how to say any of the seething delirious
thoughts rolling around in her head, the King spoke first.



He has a knack for it, that much is certain.



His back still to her, he cleared his throat and began in what seemed
like a voice lacking the loathsome arrogance Sarah knew.



"The war is raging, Sarah." He said simply, and Sarah, for once,
found herself quite without a retort.



She moved next to him then, careful to stay distant from the gloved
hand which tapped an unheard melody on the crumbling stone
windowsill.



She looked to where the Labyrinth lay spread out beneath her, and in
the light of the sunset it seemed almost to be falling asleep as she
watched. The sight alone took her breath away, not to mention any
words or thought of her current company.



The ground below twisted and turned, not menacingly as she
remembered, but like an old, sloping countryside. The reds and blues
of the sunlight falling peacefully on it's ins and outs, creating
soft resonant shadows which all too keenly stirred her inner
romantic. She squinted to see better the basin of earth below, the
milling of the tiny city even slowing now as the sun slipped gently
into the sparkling warm horizon.



When he spoke again Sarah felt as if being awoken from a dream she
was not yet ready to leave, and so she kept her gaze upon the magical
feat of nature below.



"The war is not yours alone, Sarah." He murmered, "Nor is it mine."



Sarah's thoughts slowed, thankful she was not being asked to speak,
and he continued.



"The war belongs to all you see before you. This land, these people,
this magic which ties it all together." She felt him move before she
heard it, but made no effort to alert him to her understanding.
Again, she focused on the hills.



"They may not seem like much to you, but they are all that I have.
And you may not understand or choose to, but the existence of
everything you now see, inside and out, now depends on you and you
alone."



She swallowed.



"There is a danger here, one much greater than I have ever seemed to
you. A dangerous force that would have all of the Underground, all
that is and ever will be, a pit of destruction. For magic to die and
blood to reign, and," he took a moment and Sarah could feel the
weight of his breath now rustle in her hair, "for you to die as
well."



The last beam of sunlight now slipped below the horizon and the
Labyrinth fell asleep below her. She turned, knowing full well, but
still surprised when she found herself face to face with the King of
the Goblins.



"I can't let it end this way, Sarah," he nearly whispered, and Sarah
found herself once again unmistakably caught in his gaze. Here he was
before her, the Evil King of her worst nightmares, pleading with her
for something she still wasn't quite sure of.



But his eyes, his eyes seemed to know it all, and she thought maybe
if she could stare into them long enough, she would find her truth
inside them.



`What do you want, Jareth?' She questioned inside, `What can I
possibly do for you?'



And with this he smiled, and seemed to move in closer, though Sarah
could not be sure if he had in fact moved at all.



"My pet," he levied, "I told you long ago."



Sarah remained glued to his gaze as it changed, melted, transformed,
so much so that she barely heard his words and if she did, they
didn't register.



It was as if his eyes were translating pictures instead of colors,
words instead of thoughts, she could feel it, sweeping through her,
feel the loneliness that haunted him, she could feel the anguish he
felt, if only for a moment.



She reached up then, barely conscious of her movements, wondering
inside if as a fae his flesh would now be as icy and cold as she
expected.



Her fingertips brushed lightly against his temple, and she let them
sink slowly down his cheek, his jaw tightening as she perused the
answer to her question.



She felt herself urging him towards her then, the pools of his vision
now so changeable that she found it nearly impossible to tell what
she saw there.



He had slumped forward so that they were eye to eye when she finally
found her words.



"Jareth," she whispered softly, "you're so warm."



His eyes snapped shut then as if she had struck him, and he seemed to
release into her touch. At that moment, she wasn't sure what
happened, who had moved, who had leaned in, whose lips brushed
against whose.



But she felt him, she felt the warmth of his lips graze her own, and
she knew what had brought her here to this place with him.



Time spun then and she found the understanding of her mission here.
There was no compromise. She would be his or they would both die.



She shuddered at the thought of such a consequence, of such a promise
to be asked, of such a man to ask of it.



And in that moment he was gone, he had jumped so far backwards that
Sarah was frozen at the idea of how one could move so fast in such
little time.



He turned then, his back icy cold to her once more and Sarah felt her
limbs regaining balance. He said something to himself then Sarah
could only place as a curse, though she understood no meaning in it.



"Jareth," she questioned herself more with the word than
him, "Jareth, I didn't mean to-"



Again, she felt him move before she saw it.



His wrist raised, his fingertips flicked, and she found herself once
again in her room, a locked door her only companion.





Chapter 23 – Here comes Trouble





She lay awake all night under a cloud of confusion.



Truth be told, she was exhausted. Tonight she had cried for the first
time since she had ended up in Jareth's Labyrinth for a second time.



She had cried for everything and everyone she knew and loved, for
herself, for Bill, for the life she now had very little hope of
returning to. She cried for her mother, for Toby, and for a stupid
wish she had made when she was fifteen and remarkably stupid.



Truth be told, she cried for him too, though she didn't know why. She
seemed to need to cry for everyone and everything that had touched
her, and though he had done so in such a terrible way, she could not
help feeling that he always would be and in fact always was, a part
of her.



"I don't want to die," she said aloud to no one, "but if I stay here,
I die either way."



`And,' she added mentally, `according to Jareth, I die if I leave.'



Death was not seeming like the best of options to Sarah, as it never
had before in the Underground, so instead she chose Door 4. The still
elusive option of not-dying and not ending up some kind of royal
concubine.



And so she thought herself into circles until her eyelids became so
heavy that they pushed her into yet another night of dreamless sleep
as the sun rose on the Labyrinth.



*



It wasn't as if the thought had never entered his mind before. It
had, dozens of times in the past, perhaps even more. He had acted on
his frustrations at first.



Being the kind of man he was had always gained him the affections of
many a courtier.



He had embraced them all, women who reminded him of his darkness, of
his passion, of his power.



He had felt dominant with them all, in control, the way he imagined
he would have felt possessing her.



Her.



He had gone and thought it. He shook his head, as if trying to shake
the offensive thought out to where it could not be remembered. When
his plan did little to succeed but make his hair a fizzy mess, he
tried to drown it in wine instead.

Unfortunately, all the wine did was cause him to remember.



Though he hadn't the stomach to think of it at the time, he of course
realized that he knew all along, as he knew now, that with every one
of them he had been trying to replace them with a memory of someone
else, someone distant.



His Sarah, the woman he could never touch.



And hadn't it been her now and her all along that had evaded him,
cursed him, sworn she would never be his?



He questioned the dancing bear on this subject, who remained as stoic
as earlier, and he had no choice but to continue his lone
meanderings.



She had foiled him from the start with her big doe eyes, pushed him
to his limits and made him believe that maybe somehow she could feel
something for him more than hatred. That she could see him as
anything but a kidnapper of children and a monster.



He closed his eyes now, remembering the sweet feel of her mouth on
his, her lips anticipating his every move, the soft heat rising from
her when he had kissed her in the Aboveground.



Hadn't she been cruel then?



Hadn't she been able to see her own wickedness in that moment, in a
world away from his?



He wanted her. He was sure of that now – as he had wanted her that
night when they played the roles of George and Sarah so well, when
she had climbed atop him in her peach fuzz room, and as he had wanted
her when she was but a child.



She was intoxicating, his Sarah.



But he did not love her, and he knew this in his head as strongly as
his body knew he needed her.



He wanted her to be his because she had denied him as no other woman
ever could. And it was because of this that he vowed in his throne
room only hours ago, as she stood only yards away, that he would
never take her.



For all her cruelty, Sarah was an innocent. She embodied all that was
good and bbeautiful in any world, above or below.



And he knew now what he had never known before. That he could never
defile such a treasure, that it was something to be kept safely away
from him.



He wanted her because she didn't want him, but moreso he respected
her because she would not trust him.



`Yes,' he pledged to himself as the final droplets of wine slid
towards him, `I know what I will do with my darling Sarah.'



After all, who could ever trust such a man as he?









Chapter 24 – Nevermind.





The hours slipped by and Sarah was beginning to wonder if now he had
sent Nelly away to punish her.



`He wouldn't do that' She argued herself only to become more grief
stricken by realizing she had no idea what Jareth would or would not
do. Ever.



Especially now.



At long last there was a turning and a clinking of the doorknob.
Sarah held her breath in anticipation.



She breathed a sigh of relief when the face of Nelly, quite possibly
the only friend she had left in the world, swung her head around the
frame.



"Nelly!" Sarah shrieked so loudly that she almost fell straight out
of bed, causing the furniture to plug it's ears in disgust.



The bed, having been kept up all night by her rampage of emotions
said a quiet prayer that soon the girl might be leaving and that it
could get on with it's rest.



The rest of the room, door included, shouted it's agreement.



"Shh!" Nelly hissed at the vanity as she held Sarah in her arms.
Sarah looked up from the shoulder of Nelly's gown to see her scolding
an ottoman back in place.



"Nelly?" Sarah asked.



`The last thing I need right now is my only friend going all crack-
pot and asking the wardrobe for relationship advice.' She mused
inwardly, `she's already prettier than me, she doesn't need to be
crazier too.'





"Good to know you still have a sense of humor, Sarah," Nelly
smiled. "Now tell me everything about last night."



Sarah sank back into an armchair while making a mental note that
Nelly could read her mind at a moment's notice and decided not to lie
as Nelly made herself at home on a plush lounger.



Sarah shrugged. "There really isn't much to tell, the more I think
about it. Jar-" She corrected herself, "the King is just more
confusing by the day."



`The hour even,' she added silently.



"I don't get it, Nelly." She announced, "I feel like there's
something he's not telling me, some piece of the puzzle that I'm
missing. I just don't know what."



"You think he's keeping something from you?" Nelly asked, as she
fidgeted somewhat uncomfortably in her seat.



"I know there is. I just know it." She sighed, "wouldn't be the first
time, you know."



Nelly smiled again, which raised Sarah's spirits more than she would
have liked. Sarah always had enjoyed a good sulk, after all.



"Jareth always was one for secrets, you know. Always has been." She
paused to move a stray strand of gossamer hair out of her eyes, "He's
not exactly the most open or available man you'll ever meet-"



She leaned forward now, eyes full of concern, "but he is a good man,
Sarah. I promise you."



Sarah would have rolled her eyes if it hadn't seemed to mean so much
to Nelly, so she closed them instead.



"Please, Sarah," Nelly went on, "he'll be a good husband to you. He's
fair, honest, and cares deeply about you."



Nevermind that exactly zero percent of what the obviously confused
nymph had said about Jareth seemed to remotely fit the model, Nelly
apparently didn't know Jareth well – or at all – Sarah was still
pinned to the "good husband" part of the conversation.



"Oh, no!" Nelly sang out, "I've said too much again haven't I?" She
shook her head so sadly that Sarah wanted to reach out to her, "I'm
always doing that. Always! Putting my big mouth where my foot goes."



Sarah was about to correct her when they were stopped by a knocking
at the door. Sarah thanked her lucky stars that the conversation was
over for good.

And she was close, but a moment too soon.



For when the door opened yet another omen of her impending death was
hustled toward her. "Miss Sarah?"



A small goblin female called out from under the massive heap of
fabric she carried above her.



"Your wedding dress is here, would you like to try it on?"



With that Sarah rose and stalked out the door, ignoring the fact that
she nearly trampled the poor goblin girl and Nelly's pleas.

---

please, let me know if it's boring. it seems boring to me, but i'm
trying to set up for the next few chapters.

thanks for reading!