Title: Sarah's Oubliette
Dedicated To: My third King forever (after God and Jordan <3), Bowie <3
Fandom: Labyrinth
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Jareth/Sarah
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Sarah finally makes it home. Only home is no longer home...
Word Count: 505 (I wanted this to be longer, and more poetical, but after work tonight and the deadline tomorrow -- Oh, well. It is what it is. *shrug* At least I'm getting it in!)
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 413: Negative Space
Warnings: Future Fic, Character Death, Tragedy
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.








This is not where she is supposed to be. Yet it is. She would know these grab slabs of rock and crumbling buildings anywhere. She has fought her way once again to the castle at the center of the labyrinth, and yet... Yet there is no one here. There is no life here. Even the castle itself is a crumbling ruin.

Her heart pounds as Sarah whirls round and round, crying out. She cries for her friends. She cries for the man whose touch, voice, and very eyes have haunted her every sleeping moment since she was a child, too young to understand what she was being offered. She could have healed him, healed them, but she had ran instead. No, worse, she had hurt him. Had she caused this? A sickening sensation gnaws at the pit of her stomach.

She has worked so hard, fought so hard to get here, but this is not the place for which she fought. This is not the kingdom to which she spent all her time in the above world yearning to return. Jareth is gone. Her friends are gone. Not even a single Goblin remains.

Perhaps she should have found a baby, adopted a child or had one herself, and then offered him or her up to the Goblin King. Could a sacrifice have made this any different? Sarah feels the answer in her heart. No, it would have done no good. As hard as he fought to escape the labyrinth, Jareth is not not here because of his own free choice. Something has happened. Something terribly tragic has happened.

She's been circling the old stones of the Goblin City, but now she turns and breaks into a run. She runs into the csatle itself, uncaring that its remains might topple upon her at any moment. She runs from room to room, calling out names, screaming for any of them who would to answer. There is no other sound, none save her heartbeat, her breathing, and her own voice crying and echoing back to her.

The palace is empty. The kingdom is empty. There has not been a single sign of life anywhere, not from the gates until here. There is only one answer: Jareth is gone, defeated, dead. At last, Sarah spies a spot of dirty white, not green, underneath a curtain. She runs to it, but it is only a skeleton, the last remains of a soul who hid from whatever attack happened.

Gasping aloud, Sarah sinks to her knees. She has never, in her entire life, felt so utterly defeated. The King is dead. She will never find him again, never feel his sensual touch or hear his majestic voice crooning to her again. All these years she's spent, her entire life since she was a meager fifteen years of age, trying to get back to him are for naught. She weeps. She howls. She screams her pain, her sorrow. But still, there is no answer as Sarah suffers in her new, eternal oubliette.



The End