Categories > Movies > Labyrinth > The Rat Who Calls Himself Jareth
The Rat Who Calls Himself Jareth
0 reviewsSarah gets rooked into _being_ Jareth - and only Sir Didymus can save her!
0Unrated
The Rat Who Calls Himself Jareth
By
Shadowlurker13
Chapter 1: William vs. Williams
“You have no power over me.”
Sarah heard her own words echo over and over, swirling about with the chiming of the clock in the surrealist limbo where she faced her adversary, bits of castle floating in slow motion everywhere. The Goblin King looked tired and spent as he flung his last crystal into the air… and then something very odd happened. His pallid skin suddenly took on a healthy flush, the strange eye marks gone. His hair fell limp as if the only thing that had been holding it up in the first place had been static electricity. And his clothes took on a more earthly look, albeit a bit antiquated, maybe mid-to-late 1700s: knee-length breeches with stockings and brown shoes, slightly poofy shirt, the whole nine yards. All of what had made him seem magical had all followed the crystal up into the air and dissolved around it simultaneously. The shimmering, twirling orb had its magical detritus circling it about twenty feet above them like a miniature planet. After a tense moment of them both staring up at it intently, he abruptly sighed in relief, breaking the intolerable silence.
“I can’t believe that actually worked.”
Sarah looked supremely lost and still a bit wary, not quite willing to trust her current company.
“Okay, what the heck just happened right here?”
“You freed me from a terrible curse. A thousand and one apologies, Miss Williams; I had no choice in my actions whatsoever.”
She blinked in surprise. “You’re human!”
“Alas, only a man, as you perceive.” He laughed a little nervously. “I’m afraid my nerves are still a bit rattled, I’ve completely forgotten my manners. William Cooke of London, England, at your service, Miss,” he said, extending a hand to her fingertips and lightly kissing the back of her hand. “Not that my service will do you much good.”
“What do you mean? Where’s Toby?”
“He’s safe back at your house. I’d advise you to take a seat,” he said, walking over to a bit of stairway and sitting down himself, gesturing for her to join him. Intrigued but having an odd foreboding, she did so. “What I have to say is not easy, and neither am I proud of my actions, but I must give you a chance.” He took a deep breath, staring at the paving stones. “Many, many years ago when I was young, I wished away my brother, just as you did. I won him back, as you have.” He stopped and looked at her. “And I have been trapped here as Jareth the Goblin King to this very hour. Do you understand what I am saying, Miss?” There were tears in his eyes. Sarah’s widened in horror. He simply nodded in sympathy. “There is no such person as Jareth. The real one was a little goblin who couldn’t take being treated as inferior by those stronger and brighter than itself and he… made a devil’s bargain of sorts. He got a spell that made him attractive and powerful but the price was human souls. When one finally bested him at his diabolical little game, he decided to have the last laugh and transferred the spell to the human who won. That was at least three millennia ago. From that time on, the Goblin King has always been the champion of the Labyrinth, both concealed and trapped by this hideous curse. To my knowledge I am the seventeenth. There have been two women and no one noticed the difference! The only way for one to gain one’s liberty is to lose the game and it is seldom played anymore. You are the first wisher I have seen in close to a hundred years. I had all but given up hope. God forgive me for what I have done! For what I must do!” He suddenly exclaimed, stricken with guilt, as if thinking about his involuntary actions for the first time, burying his face in his hands.
Sarah was overwhelmed and on impulse put one arm around his shoulders. If anyone ever needed a hug… After a minute he pulled himself together enough to continue talking, giving her an uneasy smile.
“Since I assumed no help was forthcoming I began to theorize alternative routes of escape. It helped to pass the time.” He gently moved out of her embrace with a nod of thanks, got up and began to pace what was left of the floor. “Every idea I could come up with was a dead-end.” He stopped. “Except one.” He looked up at the crystal a moment. “This spell seems to have one interesting little flaw: it overcompensates what one sees as one’s weaknesses, one’s insecurities. I am not terribly confident in my dealings with the weaker sex; I have always been naturally shy in general and…well… it most certainly did away with that, almost to the point that I’m a bit ashamed of myself. I really must apologize, Miss. Some of my behavior was quite inexcusable.”
He started pacing again. Sarah was too dumbfounded to speak and totally engrossed in what he had to say.
“The point being, if someone could be found who had no weaknesses in their own eyes to speak of, I think the spell could be neutralized. But it has to be someone here, someone who likes it here and wants to stay. And watching you and your entourage just now, I think I’ve found him.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “Sir Didymus?!”
“Precisely so! Upright to a fault. A natural leader. And such a glorious opinion of himself I don’t think the spell could possibly alter him at all!”
Sarah thought a moment. “What are the odds that he’d turn into a great big wolf with a short temper and an enormous… ego?”
Will did a full-body shiver. “I hadn’t thought of that. I suppose it’s a risk but I don’t think it’s likely. The man who was king before me told me of his experiences when I won and the king before him had told him the secret and the burden. The spell exploits weakness - not even real weakness, perceived weakness. I think he will be safe. It could break the cycle for good. You must try to get away before you are called upon to perform your duty, your payment for immortality and power! The dethroned king is always returned to earth. Hurry Didymus to the crown then return home and find and destroy the remaining books on the Labyrinth. The one in your house is an antique; there can’t be many left. They were made in desperation by the king before me and the text alters to fit the times but, heaven be praised, I’ve seen one burned! It’s completely possible.”
He stopped and made a small motion toward the crystal. At the edge of the platform a glowing portal appeared.
“My way home,” he said quietly. “I dearly wish I could bring you with me but you wouldn’t be allowed through. I almost broke my nose running into this thing headlong when the last man left. The transformation will commence the moment I depart.”
There was deep regret in his eyes as he took in the girl’s form. He was a grown man and he had barely made it through with any sense of who he was, who he had been, remaining him. How was she ever going to survive this?
If Sarah had been scared before, she was absolutely terrified now. It was one thing to fight Jareth as a person, but to fight Jareth as a part of herself was almost unthinkable. And it was about to happen any moment now.
“Will,” she called to him impulsively, her voice shaking, “please don’t leave me!”
In an instant he was at her side, bringing her to her feet and holding her tightly. It was intensely awkward - he was a complete stranger - but she found an odd comfort in the embrace, knowing that it came from someone who knew exactly what she was going through. At length he pulled back, gently holding her upper arms.
“I shall pray for your soul,” he said and gave her a small, chaste kiss on the top of her head, letting go, as he backed toward the portal. “Remember who you are, Sarah Williams. That’s all you have to do. Perhaps I shall see you again.” He took one more step back and was enveloped by the light.
He was gone.
The portal collapsed into a vertical line of blinding blue light and shot back into the crystal. And the crystal headed toward her! Sarah had to fight the impulse to run - there was no escaping this thing, whatever it was. She was suddenly showered in glittering sparkles of light and a palpable wave of electricity washed around her. She experienced an Olympian surge of physical strength and confidence and power, raw power, power enough to do whatever she wanted in this world and the arrogance and ease that went with it. She suddenly had the odd feeling of collapsing in on herself and the next thing she knew she was flapping her new owl wings effortlessly back to the castle.
She was Jareth.
By
Shadowlurker13
Chapter 1: William vs. Williams
“You have no power over me.”
Sarah heard her own words echo over and over, swirling about with the chiming of the clock in the surrealist limbo where she faced her adversary, bits of castle floating in slow motion everywhere. The Goblin King looked tired and spent as he flung his last crystal into the air… and then something very odd happened. His pallid skin suddenly took on a healthy flush, the strange eye marks gone. His hair fell limp as if the only thing that had been holding it up in the first place had been static electricity. And his clothes took on a more earthly look, albeit a bit antiquated, maybe mid-to-late 1700s: knee-length breeches with stockings and brown shoes, slightly poofy shirt, the whole nine yards. All of what had made him seem magical had all followed the crystal up into the air and dissolved around it simultaneously. The shimmering, twirling orb had its magical detritus circling it about twenty feet above them like a miniature planet. After a tense moment of them both staring up at it intently, he abruptly sighed in relief, breaking the intolerable silence.
“I can’t believe that actually worked.”
Sarah looked supremely lost and still a bit wary, not quite willing to trust her current company.
“Okay, what the heck just happened right here?”
“You freed me from a terrible curse. A thousand and one apologies, Miss Williams; I had no choice in my actions whatsoever.”
She blinked in surprise. “You’re human!”
“Alas, only a man, as you perceive.” He laughed a little nervously. “I’m afraid my nerves are still a bit rattled, I’ve completely forgotten my manners. William Cooke of London, England, at your service, Miss,” he said, extending a hand to her fingertips and lightly kissing the back of her hand. “Not that my service will do you much good.”
“What do you mean? Where’s Toby?”
“He’s safe back at your house. I’d advise you to take a seat,” he said, walking over to a bit of stairway and sitting down himself, gesturing for her to join him. Intrigued but having an odd foreboding, she did so. “What I have to say is not easy, and neither am I proud of my actions, but I must give you a chance.” He took a deep breath, staring at the paving stones. “Many, many years ago when I was young, I wished away my brother, just as you did. I won him back, as you have.” He stopped and looked at her. “And I have been trapped here as Jareth the Goblin King to this very hour. Do you understand what I am saying, Miss?” There were tears in his eyes. Sarah’s widened in horror. He simply nodded in sympathy. “There is no such person as Jareth. The real one was a little goblin who couldn’t take being treated as inferior by those stronger and brighter than itself and he… made a devil’s bargain of sorts. He got a spell that made him attractive and powerful but the price was human souls. When one finally bested him at his diabolical little game, he decided to have the last laugh and transferred the spell to the human who won. That was at least three millennia ago. From that time on, the Goblin King has always been the champion of the Labyrinth, both concealed and trapped by this hideous curse. To my knowledge I am the seventeenth. There have been two women and no one noticed the difference! The only way for one to gain one’s liberty is to lose the game and it is seldom played anymore. You are the first wisher I have seen in close to a hundred years. I had all but given up hope. God forgive me for what I have done! For what I must do!” He suddenly exclaimed, stricken with guilt, as if thinking about his involuntary actions for the first time, burying his face in his hands.
Sarah was overwhelmed and on impulse put one arm around his shoulders. If anyone ever needed a hug… After a minute he pulled himself together enough to continue talking, giving her an uneasy smile.
“Since I assumed no help was forthcoming I began to theorize alternative routes of escape. It helped to pass the time.” He gently moved out of her embrace with a nod of thanks, got up and began to pace what was left of the floor. “Every idea I could come up with was a dead-end.” He stopped. “Except one.” He looked up at the crystal a moment. “This spell seems to have one interesting little flaw: it overcompensates what one sees as one’s weaknesses, one’s insecurities. I am not terribly confident in my dealings with the weaker sex; I have always been naturally shy in general and…well… it most certainly did away with that, almost to the point that I’m a bit ashamed of myself. I really must apologize, Miss. Some of my behavior was quite inexcusable.”
He started pacing again. Sarah was too dumbfounded to speak and totally engrossed in what he had to say.
“The point being, if someone could be found who had no weaknesses in their own eyes to speak of, I think the spell could be neutralized. But it has to be someone here, someone who likes it here and wants to stay. And watching you and your entourage just now, I think I’ve found him.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “Sir Didymus?!”
“Precisely so! Upright to a fault. A natural leader. And such a glorious opinion of himself I don’t think the spell could possibly alter him at all!”
Sarah thought a moment. “What are the odds that he’d turn into a great big wolf with a short temper and an enormous… ego?”
Will did a full-body shiver. “I hadn’t thought of that. I suppose it’s a risk but I don’t think it’s likely. The man who was king before me told me of his experiences when I won and the king before him had told him the secret and the burden. The spell exploits weakness - not even real weakness, perceived weakness. I think he will be safe. It could break the cycle for good. You must try to get away before you are called upon to perform your duty, your payment for immortality and power! The dethroned king is always returned to earth. Hurry Didymus to the crown then return home and find and destroy the remaining books on the Labyrinth. The one in your house is an antique; there can’t be many left. They were made in desperation by the king before me and the text alters to fit the times but, heaven be praised, I’ve seen one burned! It’s completely possible.”
He stopped and made a small motion toward the crystal. At the edge of the platform a glowing portal appeared.
“My way home,” he said quietly. “I dearly wish I could bring you with me but you wouldn’t be allowed through. I almost broke my nose running into this thing headlong when the last man left. The transformation will commence the moment I depart.”
There was deep regret in his eyes as he took in the girl’s form. He was a grown man and he had barely made it through with any sense of who he was, who he had been, remaining him. How was she ever going to survive this?
If Sarah had been scared before, she was absolutely terrified now. It was one thing to fight Jareth as a person, but to fight Jareth as a part of herself was almost unthinkable. And it was about to happen any moment now.
“Will,” she called to him impulsively, her voice shaking, “please don’t leave me!”
In an instant he was at her side, bringing her to her feet and holding her tightly. It was intensely awkward - he was a complete stranger - but she found an odd comfort in the embrace, knowing that it came from someone who knew exactly what she was going through. At length he pulled back, gently holding her upper arms.
“I shall pray for your soul,” he said and gave her a small, chaste kiss on the top of her head, letting go, as he backed toward the portal. “Remember who you are, Sarah Williams. That’s all you have to do. Perhaps I shall see you again.” He took one more step back and was enveloped by the light.
He was gone.
The portal collapsed into a vertical line of blinding blue light and shot back into the crystal. And the crystal headed toward her! Sarah had to fight the impulse to run - there was no escaping this thing, whatever it was. She was suddenly showered in glittering sparkles of light and a palpable wave of electricity washed around her. She experienced an Olympian surge of physical strength and confidence and power, raw power, power enough to do whatever she wanted in this world and the arrogance and ease that went with it. She suddenly had the odd feeling of collapsing in on herself and the next thing she knew she was flapping her new owl wings effortlessly back to the castle.
She was Jareth.
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