The Labyrinth Sequel

Chapter 9

"I guess that doesn't work very much." I laugh remembering how his charm had very little effect on me so many years ago.

"Actually, to set the record straight, you are the only one my charm didn't work against. You seemed to caught up in your dream world to be at all impressed by me." He snorts, giving me a disgusted look up and down.

"Well sorry that I am not attracted to people who steal my brother away from me-"

"Which, may I remind you, you asked me to do..."

"And you expect me to just be attracted to someone who steals children for a hobby-"

"Again, let me remind you that they were asked to be taken..."

"That is completely bull and you know it! Even when people wish other people away, that doesn't actually mean they want it to happen. People say those things all the time because they are angry, but they don't mean it." I say, angry now.

"Well, it takes a very angry person to use the right words to call me to take a child specifically, now doens't it?" He says, mad now as well.

"That doesn't excuse the fact that you stole those children! How do you think those people felt when they couldn't get their kids back? Did you ever think of that?" I demand.

"Why am I always the bad guy in your eyes? I tried to make you happy, I tried to give you what you wanted, but in the end, all you did was reject me!"

"How did you try to give me what I wanted? If you really knew what I wanted then you wouldn't have taken my brother, and you wouldn't have turned my friends against me. If you ever wanted me to have any feelings for you then you would have thought about me, more than yourself." I seethe.

His eyes tilt in a threatening manner. "How dare you accuse me of being so selfish..." His hands shake at his side, "Everything I did, I did for your happiness. No one wins the Labyrinth, no one, unless I allow them to! You won, only because I permitted it!"

"Why would you go through the trouble of bringing my brother here, tormenting me and my friends, just to let me get him and then leave? Your logic doesn't make any sense to me."

"You were not supposed to choose to leave, you idiot! You were supposed to choose to stay with me, or give yourself to me to save your brother."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I had thought you had feelings for me!" 

"How could I have had feelings for you when you were older than me, and the fact that you stole my brother from me?!"

"Was that not what you wanted?" He demands, standing toe to toe with me, "Did you not want the attractive villain to swoop down and offer you the world? Your every fantasy come to life, here in your beloved Labyrinth, and you turned it all down in the end!"

"Why did I matter so much to you in the first place? You offer me the world, and yet you still called me just another stupid little girl. Why did you want me to stay with you out of all the other girls in the world that you could have chosen from?"

Suddenly, he becomes very quiet, and he turns away from me, walking a few steps further into the garden.

"You believed in me," He says softly, not turning back to face me, "Of all the people in the world who's children I took, all of them continued to try to convince themselves that I didn't exist. Do you know how hard that is, to finally be around intelligent people, only for them to believe you are nothing more than a nightmare?"

"I..."

"Well, let me tell you, it is awful. What is the point of having magic to use when no one believes in you to begin with? Everything you do, they deny as existing. But then there was you... You believed in me, you wanted me to be real. Every day you dreamed of me, of my Labyrinth, and when I brought you here you faced me head on without turning me down. I had hoped that I would be able to have some fun with you."

His eyes drift off into the distance, and his face is painted with a rare wistful smile.

"It was fun, being able to be myself for you. I did not have to change to please you, because you knew the Labyrinth, and you knew me from your fantasies... Everything was planned so perfectly, your brother, your friends, everything to the last inch so that you would fall right into my arms. But then..." His eyes fall, suddenly back into focus.

"Jareth..."

"I don't need your sympathy!" He cries, "I am going back inside to make sure your brother hasn't destroyed the Goblins. You can show yourself back inside when you are ready..."

Without another word he spins on his heel and marches back towards the castle. I am almost tempted to go after him, but it seems like now he needs some time on his own. And I also need some time to think, after hearing all of that.

"Oh man Sarah," I say to myself, flopping down onto one of the benches, "What have I gotten myself into now?"