Title: How Changed the Vision
Fandom: Labyrinth
Parts: 1
Rating: NC-17 for violence
Disclaimer: henson owns labyrinth, I have no part in it.
Summary: Sarah turns out very different from the movie, Jareth tries to
steer her in the right direction with disastrous results
Notes: This was written shortly after Columbine, and is I suppose a
commentary on things, on how a sweet kid could turn into a killer very
easily. It seemed a good idea at the time. It's a little stereotypical,
but it works. I also wanted to try writing an Evil Sarah story since
Jareth is always the villain...
I'm also proud to say that this fic has also been bashed on various
message boards, or at least I've heard that it has by word of mouth. You
know you have influence when people freak out publicly over a work of
fanfic.
******
Outside the large brick complex a young girl waited,
anticipation clouding her mind. It was almost time...just a little
longer. Licking her lips she glanced back to the others...there weren't
many of them, but there were enough. They would succeed. No matter what
it cost. The warm spring sun was almost stifling to her...yes, wearing
all black had its disadvantages, but it still gave her the intimidation
factor. She smiled wryly at that...who would have expected young Sarah
Williams to be intimidating? Her smile quickly turned into a carefully
hidden sneer. Those who were smart, that's who...
Glancing down at her watch, she silently counted the seconds until
the time was right...just a little longer...only a little longer....now.
Nodding to her associates, she adjusted her instrument and flung the
door open. In the past it had been she who was intimidated by
others...well, no longer. Now all she needed was for someone to pay
attention...
She turned in surprise as a student wandered down the hall, probably
trying to skip class. A pity...everyone knows it's wrong to skip class.
Especially on that day.... Silently, she shifted the automatic she had
acquired, giving the student a permanent *reminder* of how wrong it was
to break the rules...especially her rules.
"Spread out! Go for those who spit in our faces! But if it comes
down to it...kill 'em all." No longer was her voice sweet and
innocent...now, now it was one of viscious intentions. She had been
forced to grow up too early...all the adults in her life had wanted her
to grow up...well now she was. Sarah barely noticed as shots distantly
rang out from other parts of the school...it was all going well and she
didn't need to go check to make sure of it. She could tell by the
screams...
"Sarah Williams?! What are you doing?" One of her old math teachers
stood in the hall, perplexed. Turning slowly, she faced him, her face a
mask of apathy.
"I'm taking control...just like you all wanted me to." His eyes
widened as he focused on the barrell of her weapon.
"You don't have to do this...you have so much promise!"
"Promises are broken. I've found that out." Her mother had taught
her that...she never did call or visit anymore.
"What-" Pity. That would be the last word he ever uttered.
"I never liked math much anyway..." Sarah mocked, shaking her head
as she stepped over the body. The seventeen-year-old cocked her head as
the rumbling of explosions echoed through the halls. Right on time. Now
for the next act...
She ran into the cafeteria, taking aim. These were the ones who had
laughed at her, called her a loser, refused to think she was important.
They didn't want to date her? Fine. They thought she was a lunatic?
Maybe she was. They didn't want to be seen with her? They didn't have
to...Quickly, she sprayed angry fire over the populated room, relishing
in the screams that erupted, the mighty that began to fall, the blood
that began to spill. Finally, the tables were turned.
"Sarah..." She lowered her gaze to look under the table at a
cheerleader...her name was Mandy, or maybe Mindy.
"Please...help me...I never did anything to you..." The girl had a
shoulder wound that would cause problems if something wasn't done
quickly. She knelt and carefully removed the girl's hand from it,
frowning slightly as sticky warm blood rubbed onto her own.
"Please...help me..." Was it Mickie? Anyway, the girl practically
whispered it, her eyes filled with pleading and terror.
"Of course...how could I have been so foolish?" she murmured, and
the popular classmate's eyes filled with hope. Right up to the moment when
she shoved her gun under the table and fired.
"Hope that's better," she snarled, brown eyes blazing with a fury
few had seen. Exiting the cafeteria, still just as full, but now with dead
bodies, she stepped out into the hall and paused at a sound. Not
gunfire, though, and not explosives...music? Coming from behind
her...but very faintly...
"Sarah." Turning, her eyes widened slightly.
"You. What do you want?"
Jareth stepped forward slightly, glancing at the gun with an
expression of pity. "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking control, Jareth. I don't need you...you have no power
over me."
"Maybe...but you need to have power over yourself...maybe this is my
fault...I didn't think you would take what happened this badly..."
"Hah! Don't praise yourself...I did grow up. And growing up isn't
fair, just like life's not fair. I don't need your fantasy magic
anymore...I've got another world! And friends who understand me!" That
was true...now instead of reading fantasy, she read facist literature
on the internet. Instead of listening to classical music, she preferred
death rock. Her parents didn't care, they didn't even know. Only those
who had witnessed the change in her behavior at school knew...
"Do they, Sarah? Do they really? Do they know how hard you have
worked to be understood? Do they know your secret fears and loves? Have
they offered you your dreams or danced with you in a magic ball? Have they
done everything for you?" His voice was almost pleading, exactly like
he had been at their last confrontation. "I won't fear you, dear...you
can't hurt me with your mortal ways...I do love you, but only the you
that I know is real...and I will still be your slave...just let me and my
world have reign over you again...not this empty, meaningless statement!"
Her grip on the weapon trembled slightly and she slowly lowered it.
"I-I can't...I have to finish this."
"Sarah...come with me. Let me help you. I can still show you your
dreams if you let me..."
It would be good to have someone understand...but did he mean it,
or was it a trick? A way to get revenge? "I really mean it, Sarah. Come
with me, now."
Deep down, his voice, his eyes, his soul merged with hers
momentarily. He was within her again. Scared, she broke the connection,
but
the memory remained. She had listen.
"All right...what can I do?" Her voice trembled slightly and her
lip started to quiver. "My God...I killed-"
"There will be time to think of that later, dear...let's just get
you out...the police will be coming soon." He crossed to her, his eyes
intense and his muscles still tense. Slowly he offered his hand, and
she accepted after looking at it dumbly for a split second. He led her
through the maze of halls, past the carnage and chaos, protecting her
from the madly charging students.
"Sarah! What are you *doing?!* We've gotta finish this! Kill em
all, remeber?!" She turned and looked at a fellow executioner, similarly
dressed in black.
"I can't...it's wrong...I've gotta get out of here!" The other girl
stared at her dumbly and finally raised her rifle.
"I'm sorry, Sarah...but remember if you're not part of the
solution..." The sound of bullet flying from it's home and hitting its
target screamed through her ears. Shocked, she looked down, but found
herself completely unharmed. And unarmed. Turning, Sarah looked up at
Jareth, her hair flying in front of her face. She looked so unsure...so
disheveled.... He quietly lowered the weapon and looked down at the
body on the floor with a mixture of horror and relief.
"You know I'd do anything for you, Sarah..." She nodded, not knowing
how that felt...the cries drowned out all her thoughts and emotions,
though.
Oh, God, the cries...
"Sarah! What have you let him do!?!" She turned as the others
quickly found her, surrounding her and her protector until they were
encircled by black clothes and angry eyes.
"I am helping her..."Jareth quietly replied, suddenly sounding very
old and very tired.
"Then you will pay!" a boy growled, taking aim. Jareth gestured,
but no crystal came. Odd. Maybe it was because of the pressure...
"Do something, Jareth! Help me!" He gazed down into his beloved's
pleading eyes and didn't give a second thought before taking the
offered explosive and launching it into the circle. The blast was
magnificent, ringing forever almost. Smoke filled the halls along with
the stench of singed flesh and ended lives.
Sarah blinked as she realized she was still alive..."Wow," was all
she could mutter. They were in the theatre, on the stage at the other end
of the school. He must have transported them there. All because she had
wanted him to, because that was what she had mentally asked him, as
with the grenade. He really was her slave...maybe a change of life was
in order.
"Come, Sarah, they'll be coming for you any second! I'll have them
forget all this and you can start over, but we must hurry!"
"But...I'm a killer." Again was the uneasiness of adolescence.
Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder, expecting goblins to surround
her. She was almost paranoid.
"You have a soul, dear...I forgive you." His eyes were so pure, his
voice so tortured...he had been through a lot, and all for her.
"You do?"
"Yes, now please, we must go!" He grew aggitated as she removed her
hand from his grip.
"Can you first give me my dreams? So that I know it isn't a
trick...it's not that I don't trust you, but-?" she left the question
hanging, her hands almost trembling as she quietly walked up to him and
planted a soft kiss on his lips. "I need to know for sure..."
"Of course, love." Her eyes widened as a crystal formed on her
fingertips, and her gaze quickly shifted to meet that of the goblin
king's.
"Are you ready?"
"No." He paled slightly as her face took on a look of hunger, of
absolute evil intentions. "I don't think I'm ready yet...I have one
more thing to take care of...something that I should've done long
ago..."
"Sarah...please...I'll do anything for you..."
"You have no power over me, Jareth...now that power belongs to
me...all because I have played your game and won. You will do anything
for me..." A cruel smile lit up her features. I'm not sure I like you
visiting me like this...you remind me of my parents, always checking in
on me. I hate that." Jareth's eyes widened in horror as she raised her
gun and came closer. "I will have my dreams...but they are different
now. Wanna know what I want? Revenge...that's why I did this," she
said, gesturing to the calamity outside the theatre, "and that's why I
played you for a fool. You think I didn't notice you in your owl form
outside my window night after night? I figured you'd show up!" she
scoffed.
"I'm sorry, Sarah..." he whispered, gesturing. No crystal came.
"You will be...I have power over you now...no longer will you
control my dreams, my fantasies-"
He backed up slightly, as if that would do him any good. "I stopped
doing that the last time you beat me-"
"Then why am I still dreaming it!?" The statement was one of total
desperation.
"Maybe you miss your dreams..."
"No. Now you have no power, no magic, no hope. Just like me...
just like I was. But now...I have the power," she whispered, her voice an
ecstatic, lusty rasp at the beauty of it all. "And the beauty is that
you did do it all for me...and now, you lose again." With that, she
pulled the trigger. As the bullet caught him in the stomach, Jareth
dropped to his knees. Never before had he known such pain...why wasn't
he dead yet? In horror he collapsed to the stage, pressing a hand to
the gushing wound.
"Jareth! Oh my God, I'm sorry!" The girl rushed to his side and
pressed something against him. He couldn't really tell what it was, he
was beginning to become quite incoherent as the life flowed out of him.
So this was it...he really was beaten, and now there would be no more
opportunities for any other games. He looked up into frightened,
innocent eyes...that was the Sarah he knew, that he loved. She really
was in there. He moaned slightly and looked up at her, smiling
slightly. She held the crystal out to him like an offering and he
weakly reached up a hand-
"Wha-what?" he groaned as another wave of pain shot through him.
She quickly yanked the crystal back and her eyes hardened, leaving the
"real" Sarah a joke...merely an act all along. She gave him one last
evil sneer before firing again.
"I almost forgot...you have no power over me."
As he slipped away into whatever lied ahead, all he could hope was
that he would enter a land where nothing ever hurt again...
It was finished. Almost. She had finished the game and won...really
won. Sarah hated to leave things unfinished. Now all she had to do was
make her statement to those who wondered what was going on...
Quickly, she turned the gun around and fired a blast into
herself...pain seeped into her full-force...oh, it would be glorious!
Her parents, her family, her friends that were alive would suffer by
never knowing why she did it...she had her complete revenge. Sarah laid
down next to her enemy, smiling at his completely ruined form. It was
done. Slowly, she cherished each wave that took her closer to the brink
before she closed her eyes that final time...her last thought was of
dancing ballroom dancers and her sweet victory.
****************