This fanfiction actually has a lot of dream symbolism in it. If you’re interested, you can look it up on your own, or I have listed the pertinent dream symbolism below. My sources were “Dream Moods A-Z Dream Dictionary” (http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/) and The Dream Encyclopedia by James R. Lewis (2002, Visible Ink).

• Canyon: represents your hidden emotions and feelings. It may point to emotions and relationships you did not recognize.
• Bubbles: merriment, childhood joy; the bursting of one’s bubble means disappointment.
• Sunglasses: poor perception in a given situation; pessimism.
• Elephant (riding): you are in control of aspects that once caused you fear.
• Acrobatics: a need to balance one’s life.
• Bees (being stung by): you feel as if you have been wronged by someone
• Swimsuit: feeling exposed or, if comfortable in the swimsuit, at ease and relaxed.
• Pool of water: you need to acknowledge and understand your feelings better.

The glasses Sarah was wearing (glam, lip-shaped, purple sunglasses) were taken from these as inspiration:

I have to admit, I find them pretty snazzy. I wouldn’t mind having a pair of those, even if I’m not sure I could pull them off.

Story Outtake/Edit: I actually envisioned Sarah in a monokini at first, something like this, which clearly had a “top” and “bottom” attached. I mean, that’s the only type of monokini I knew. Then I learned that a monokini originally meant that a person wore a bottom part of the bikini without the top! Suddenly, the scenes in chapter one took on a whole new meaning. I decided, just to avoid potential pitfalls, I’d change the monokini to a bikini.

Also, the “official” song for this chapter — the one I listened to the most when I wrote it — was Nero’s “Promises.” Sometimes, a particular chapter just matches a particular song. I just liked the longing in Nero’s voice in this one, seemed to fit.

I know, once again, I’ve been absent. I have a good reason, though. It all started in August when I found a new job. Suddenly, I was working 50-60 hours a week! That didn’t leave me much time for writing, much to my chagrin (writing is a wonderful stress outlet, and boy could I have used the time for it). Then, my father-in-law suddenly passed away. After that bit of shocking news, my husband went to the funeral (I couldn’t afford to go, nor did I have the time off work). Now, it was the beginning of September and when my husband came back…he asked for a separation. Now, I won’t go into details because…well, they’re too painful and private. Needless to say, the end result wasn’t only a separation; it will most likely be a divorce. As I juggled a new job, I suddenly had to ask myself where I wanted to be in life. Our lease was coming up and we had already asked about another place, but that wasn’t suitable anymore if we were separating. So, in two weeks, I had to find another apartment. And in four weeks, I had to move into that apartment. My life basically fell apart around me and I had to build it back up, brick-by-brick.

Now, I’m living alone in a beautiful one-bedroom with a view to die for. Was the end of 2010 difficult? Yes. Am I still grieving for the numerous losses I suffered? Yes. But I think I’m coming back. And, you know, I feel stronger for it. So yes, CQ is back, and she’s back with a vengeance!

It’s been a few days since my last Red Thread commentary. I’ve been busily trying to edit my manuscript. I’ll try to get the next commentary update finished ASAP, but just didn’t want anyone to think that I’m disappearing again.

I spent today at a coffee shop which a friend of mine co-owns. It’s nice to have a friend who can slip you the occasional free cup o’joe. A writer’s dream come true, I tell ya. The photo above is from the coffee shop and includes a peek at my writing journal (I put all my story ideas, rewrites, etc. in there). Today, I ended up having to rewrite 90% of a scene, which ended up being a huge amount of work. I didn’t get as much page count down as I’d like, as a result.

Tomorrow, I’m heading back to a coffee shop. Dependent on my schedule, I may head to the same one again (unfortunately, it’s across town). I’ve found I get much more work done if there’s less distractions and if there’s one thing aplenty in my apartment, it’s distractions…

What is the commentary? It’s kind of like an “Extra Features” thing on a DVD. Join me as I delve in, explaining how my writing process went, how I came up with certain ideas, what I was trying to do with scenes, why certain things happened, and pointing out references I might have made to pop culture/literature/movies/etc. Hope you enjoy!

(All of my added commentary will be in this text instead of the usual one)

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about The Red Thread and I will answer them! Just leave a comment! Now, onto the main attraction…

The Red Thread – Part Two

The Goblin King looked at her in surprise. “Why?” he said, his voice incredulous. “After all these years you dare ask me why? And you even have the book!”

Well, here we go again. Once again Jareth just can't figure out why Sarah doesn't realize his feelings. Oh yes, and he manages to avoid saying the L-word quite eloquently. However, the funny thing is that he's essentially confessing his love for her here. He mentions the book, which outright says the Goblin King "fell in love with the girl." It's pretty dense of Sarah (and borne from disbelief rather than stupidity) not to realize the truth. But, Sarah has a highly developed sense of reality, despite having a very magical/unreal adventure at a young age. In her reality, the book is part of the fairytale. Right now, Sarah is definitely someone stuck in "the really real world" versus the Sarah who would play make believe.

“I haven’t read the book since I was sixteen. Since…” Sarah stopped, but in her mind she thought: Since I gave up hoping to see my friends and moved on.

He must have found her expression interesting because he studied her for a moment. His mismatched eyes were half-lidded and once again Sarah found she couldn’t read the Goblin King—she’d never been good at reading him. And the mask certainly wasn’t helping. But, even the last time she’d been in this grand room, the ballroom of her dreams, dancing in his arms, she hadn’t been able to read him. But there had been a few times when she’d caught something in his expression, in the way he looked at her…

Like when she’d broken the ballroom bubble with that chair and left him behind. Or when she’d said the Labyrinth was a piece of cake—boy, had she wished she could have taken those words back after she said them! Or when she had said those fateful words—”you have no power over me”—the words he hadn’t even wanted to hear now, ten years later.

Sarah is aware there was something in the way Jareth looked at her during these moments, however remember the recurring theme: perceptions of memory. Sarah still remembers her journey through the Labyrinth as a 15 year old girl. It's not until she sees her memories from the viewpoint of a grown woman that she realized just why Jareth was looking at her like that and what it meant.

Just for a moment, Sarah nearly grasped something…something twinkled in her mind like a star and she reached for it. Once she had it, she knew that everything would make sense: why she was here, why the Goblin King seemed so offended by her question, why he had looked at her like that those few times…even why they were connected by a red string…

But then the twinkling went out and she couldn’t remember…why was it just out of reach?

“If you can’t remember, after everything, I won’t tell you,” the Goblin King said, decidedly, strangely echoing her own thoughts.

Sarah rolled her eyes. He sounded like a petulant child—”Well, if you can’t remember my birthday, then I won’t tell you!” When was the Goblin King’s birthday? How old was this mythic creature before her? Hmm, those questions opened up even more questions…

Sarah pushed the thoughts aside and walked around the ballroom, looking at the beautiful platforms and the crystal chandeliers. “Fine,” she said, as she idly paced the confines of the ballroom, “don’t tell me, then.”

In some ways, this exchange ended up being a red herring. However, in other ways it shows Sarah's inability to really get over her past. She just can't see beyond the Jareth of her 15-year-old-self, to the point where she just can't remember things that don't fit her perceptions. Remember, "the way forward is sometimes the way back." Sarah actually has to relive her memories -- go back to that time -- in order to realize her own feelings and the Goblin King's.

While this was all interesting on one level, Sarah began wondering when this dream—if it was a dream—would end. Or, conversely, what should she do until it ended? Just walking around an empty ballroom wasn’t much fun, and the Goblin King was being sulky. He had gone back to sit on the chair and was watching her.

A very low-hanging chandelier, with crystals bobbing off strings at the ends, proved too much of a temptation and she stood on tip-toe to tap one of the crystals, watching it dance on its string. It clinked against the closest crystal bauble next to it, giving off a pure tinkling noise.

“I didn’t realize how beautiful this place is,” Sarah said.

One thing I never got to expand on was the idea of levels when it came to death. Much like Dante's Inferno, Sarah journeys through a few levels before she finishes her quest. Unlike Dante's Inferno, she isn't a damned soul (or a pure soul, for that matter) nor does she have quite so many levels to get through. The ballroom is the first level, which in my outline I called "The Waking Dream." It's a moment in time, a desire, she's kept from herself. This ballroom is where she was seduced by Jareth -- even if that seduction didn't lead to the bedroom, Sarah had her first awakening to desire there. Not only the connection she has with Jareth draws her back to this ballroom, but the fact that she has unfinished business. A part of Sarah has always yearned to accept Jareth's seduction instead of running away from him. A part of her knows she's dead and she has unfinished business concerning the Goblin King.

“It was like this before,” the Goblin King answered.

“I was distracted before,” Sarah said. “I—I found that particular ballroom very difficult. I didn’t like all those people—all those watchers.”

“Funny, you chose the dream. The peach only allowed it to come to the forefront. This ballroom, Sarah, is entirely your doing. It did not exist before, it has not been used since,” he said, tilting his head slightly to watch her tap another crystal. “This place is imprinted with you.”

That's definitely me taking liberties with the story. A person could argue that hell yes, Jareth chose the dream Sarah would have. After all, he's the one that blew the crystal-bubbles over the Labyrinth to her while she sat poisoned on peach. I, on the other hand, like the Freudian idea that Jareth just quieted Sarah's Ego and Super-ego. The ballroom scene is Sarah's Id run amok. A part of her WANTS the seduction because it's part of her fantasy adventure. The evil villain should try to tempt the heroine. Sarah wants to be tempted; Jareth's only too happy to oblige.

“And you,” Sarah shot back. “I know what you were trying to do.”

“Oh, what was I trying to do?”

Sarah didn’t look at him, pointedly staring at the crystal chandelier. In her mind, she could hear his silky voice from her memories: “…Turn it just so, and it will show you your dreams…”

“Trying to make me forget,” Sarah answered, softly.

“Or…trying to make me forget.” His voice was too close. She turned and he stood there, only a foot away. His eyes glittered behind the horrible mask, his full lips pursed, thoughtfully. He watched her. Sarah shuddered, unsure if it was from the weighted stare or his words.

I really liked how this exchange turned out. I think it really caught some nice dialog between these two. Jareth admits here that he's not the only one who was being tempted and seduced. He may have wanted to be the aggressor in Sarah's dream (and again, partly because she wanted him in that role), but I think as soon as he lowered that mask and saw her...there was no going back. While we later find out that the red thread was forged from the very start of the quest, I think this ballroom scene is the first time Jareth admits to himself he WANTS Sarah enough to offer her her dreams (which he does at the final showdown). I think it's also the first time he's willing to keep her forever, and suddenly it's no longer JUST a game.

When he says he was trying to make himself forget, he's essentially saying he wanted to forget what the purpose to all of it was: kidnapping Toby and keeping Sarah from him. Just winning the game.

He reached out a hesitant hand, almost as if he couldn’t help himself, and touched her hair with the barest brush of his fingertip. He shuddered now; she actually saw his eyelids slide down to hide his mismatched eyes. Before he pulled his hand away, before she had even thought it through, Sarah grabbed his wrist. The contact was unlike anything she’d felt before, pure sensory overload. Her fingers tingled and when she looked at her hand, she saw the red thread tied there. It had shortened so that the string looped around her wrist and went immediately to the Goblin King’s, looping around his, as well.

Remember when I said make sure and notice when the red thread appears for Sarah when Jareth doesn't point it out? This is one of those moments. Almost every time Sarah feels something or realizes something about the Goblin King, she sees the red thread. It intrinsically ties them together beyond just love but also their perceptions of each other. When Sarah thinks of him fondly, she sees the string. When she realizes something about her feelings for him, she also sees it.

This moment is perhaps when she first thinks it may not have been all about her, in the sense that Jareth was trying to thwart her. His actions are definitely not matching up to her image of the evil villain.

She asked again, because seeing it shorten and reappear made her suspicious of it, and because she felt he was keeping things from her, “What is the red thread for?”

“To keep us from forgetting,” he answered, hopelessly. He had opened his eyes again and he was staring at her with something she didn’t want to name, some fire that consumed him.

In a way, that really is what the red thread is about, in it's simplistic form. Love can't just be forgotten, after all. It may fade away, but you'll always remember it. As long as one person can bind the other with their feelings, with love, the red thread will be there.

She said, and was surprised when her voice didn’t sound bitter, “How the hell could I forget you?”

The Goblin King smiled. He moved to break her grip, but then held her hand in his, gently. His palm was warm. Sarah moved her hand in his grip until their fingers threaded together. She watched their entwined hands almost like she was watching another pair, as if her hand wasn’t connected to her anymore. She had a distinct feeling her expression was one of surprise, but not displeasure.

“Would you dance?” the Goblin King asked, curiously.

“When?” She glanced at his face. “Now?“

“Now. We’re in the ballroom, there’s no one around…”

He said it like he expected her to say no and something in Sarah’s heart clenched with a slew of emotions. Damnit, this was her reliving her past all over again. She was the confused, unsure mortal and he was still the magical being, the tempter.

She realized, feeling dread and exhilaration, that she didn’t want to say no. Did she always have to say “no”? This was her dream, after all—and she’d already won back her brother.

“Okay,” she said.

Remember, the ballroom is the Waking Dream. Sarah's subconscious unfinished business here is to let the Goblin King seduce her, like she's secretly always wanted. While the red thread may have brought them (and kept them) together at the moment of her death, it's Sarah's unconscious mind putting them in this ballroom.

The Goblin King blinked, then grinned and grabbed her other hand, and before Sarah could say anything more, he swept her away across the marbled dance floor. She was wearing tennis shoes and they slapped dully against the tiles as they moved gracefully. Sarah had never been a good dancer—she could do the usual bump-and-grind type stuff that was required of at nightclubs, but that was about it. However, with the Goblin King, she’d never needed to know how to waltz. Just like in her ballroom dream ten years ago, he could sweep her off her feet and suddenly her eyes were fixated only on him. He glittered unlike anything else. When she was with him, she felt like her whole life up till that point had been in black and white; he was the Technicolor.

This could get complicated.

But it’s a dream, she reminded herself. You’ve had a few about the Labyrinth, this is just another one.

“Me thinks the lady doth protest too much,” a voice said in her mind, sounding curiously like her old high school English teacher. Sarah felt a small bit of dread form in her stomach, heavy like a rock. If only she could remember what she had been doing, when she had fallen asleep…

She wracked her brain, trying to reconstruct the time before she had obviously fallen asleep. Okay, Friday, what had she done Friday? Gone to work…she worked in an office, pretty mundane stuff. She clocked out at five, like every weekday, and then…?

I went to the bank, she remembered. Right, it had been payday, so she’d gone to the bank…and afterwards? Called Jim and asked if he wanted to go to dinner. Right, Jim, her boyfriend. They’d met at an Italian restaurant and had some nice food and conversation. Jim had walked her to her car and kissed her, promised to call her Saturday about arranging a date next week, and then…?

Watched a late night movie, went to sleep…

Ah, the first indications that all is not right with the world and this is much more than "just a dream." Sarah is too smart (and suspicious) to just enjoy a moment like this blissfully without wondering what the reason is behind it. Also, this was never stated, but the reason she doesn't remember her own death is because journeying souls don't. Journeying souls simply make their way to Death's domain and it's at that final moment, in Death's embrace, that they realize their dead. Sarah has the Goblin King, however, and his connection to her -- and vise versa -- make it possible to be more than just a "journeying soul." That's why she eventually remembers.

“Sarah, where are you, Precious?” The Goblin King sounded amused.

Sarah focused on him and smiled triumphantly. “I did buy two grapefruits! I was going to have yogurt with them.”

He didn’t miss a beat in the dance as he swirled her to an orchestra only he heard, leading her, and she willingly followed. He raised an eyebrow. “Grapefruits? Yogurt? What are you talking about?”

“I couldn’t remember anything,” Sarah said, “so I was trying to reconstruct my day. I remember now: I did wake up Saturday and go to the grocery store. I bought two grapefruits, yogurt, milk, and some stuff for next week. Then I went to my car…and then…and then…” Sarah struggled to remember. Finally, she sighed and shook her head. “It’s gone. I can’t remember. But I must have gotten home and napped? This is a dream, right?”

“Why?” the Goblin King asked. There was something in his eyes that Sarah couldn’t identify, some emotion, and she wished she could take off his mask so she could see his whole face. “Why does this have to be a dream?”

“What else could it be?”

“Reality?” he murmured so softly she nearly missed it.

Jareth, of course, knows the truth. Sarah died in a car crash. He just doesn't want her to know. And I think a part of him wants to hear her say she loves him before she's truly gone.

Her heart picked up speed. Despite having danced with him for at least five minutes now—time tended to stand still when she was held by the Goblin King—she wasn’t even breathing hard, and he was pulling out all the stops, twirling her and spinning her across the ballroom. But now, her heart felt heavy and achy and her pulse thundered in her veins.

She could smell him: an earthy odor of fresh leaves, a smell that had permeated the Labyrinth and had always been associated in her mind from that day forth to magic. In the years that followed her visit to the Labyrinth, whenever spring came and she could smell it on the air, she thought of him and her time in his kingdom. Maybe, if she was honest with herself, she’d admit that a part of her glanced around looking for a white barn owl.

Maybe…if she was honest with herself…

“You said,” Sarah murmured, slowly, trying to work her thoughts out so she could speak them adequately, “the ballroom connects you and I, that something happened here that connected us. Jareth, do you know what it was?”

Remember: Jareth thinks the red thread was forged in the ballroom. So, he thinks the reason they're back in the ballroom is because of that moment of realization between them that created the red thread. However, it's really all Sarah's doing.

The Goblin King shivered, she could feel the tremor move along his body and echo in hers through their joined hands.

He answered her question with a question: “Have you thought of me, Sarah, even once since you left the Labyrinth?”

It wasn’t a question she had expected, and it wasn’t an answer for her. She raised her eyebrows. “Have you thought of me, Jareth?”

“The red thread makes it difficult to ignore—”

“That’s not an answer,” Sarah interrupted, impatiently.

“I don’t see why I must answer,” the Goblin King said, haughtily. He executed a complicated move that had her twirling to arm’s length, then he snapped his arm and she followed the motion, twirling back towards him—

Back towards him, a part of her mind whispered, as if the thought was important somehow—

It is. The whole journey through the Labyrinth when Sarah was 15 was a journey back to the Goblin King. Remember: "the way forward is sometimes the way back." This journey BACK to Jareth is something that happens again and again: she starts with Jareth in her room and on the clifftop, she ends her journey by going to his castle. She enters a dream looking for him and ends up in his arms (the ballroom scene is definitely a complicated seduction game, in my opinion, with Sarah and Jareth chasing each other). This theme of going back to Jareth is mimicked here, too. She unconsciously calls Jareth to her then offers him her soul nullifying the proclamation he has no power over her. She goes back through her memories of the Labyrinth to figure out her feelings of love for him. It's like the ballroom dance all over again.

And at the end of the twirl, she realized she felt fabric rustling against her legs and heard her steps making clack-clack noises instead of the dull thud of rubber soles. She looked down and squeaked with surprise to find herself wearing the white princess dress and matching shoes again. She reached up and touched her hair, feeling it held back from her face by the same crystal hairpins in the shapes of flowers and leaves.

I just couldn't resist bringing back the infamous dress and hairdo. With Jareth to match.

She looked up at Jareth in surprise and saw he was wearing the same costume as he had been in the past: the bejeweled jacket in midnight blue, the white shirt, and the gray breeches. There were even blue streaks in his hair.

Jareth grinned and said, “For old time’s sake.”

“You’re trying to distract me,” Sarah said as he spun her close. For a moment, she was tucked against him, her back to him, and she felt his arms around her. She swallowed, mentally trying to slow her racing heartbeat. Please don’t let him feel that. “You—you haven’t answered my question.”

“I said I don’t see why I must answer,” Jareth said, encouraging her into a graceful side-sweeping step then spun her so she faced him again. He settled a hand on her hip and Sarah could feel the warmth of his palm through the dress. “After all, I asked you first.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. Technically, his question had been an answer to her question, so he still owed her some answers.

Jareth's a master at not answering questions.

Feeling bold, driven by the pounding of her heart and a curiously light-headed feeling, Sarah reached up and delicately grasped the protruding nose of the goblin mask. She pulled off the grotesque thing and couldn’t help smiling when the Goblin King’s full face was revealed.

Masks and obscured faces are another recurring symbol in this story. Essentially its a visual representation of secrets being kept from Sarah. Jareth is masked because he's keeping his love from her, as well as the knowledge of the car crash. Sarah finally boldly takes off his mask, symbolically saying she's ready to get the answers she needs. Death also is faceless, but I'll go more into Death's facelessness when we get to it.

The only one who's never masked is Sarah and that's because she has nothing to hide. She's dead, her secrets are gone.

He was as handsome as she remembered—maybe more so, because now she could fully appreciate his looks as an adult. The high cheekbones, the angular features, the sweeping eyebrows over his amazing eyes, the straight and aristocratic nose over thin, sensual lips—oh yes, she remembered him.

“Why can’t you ever just answer me, Jareth?” she murmured, exasperated.

This is probably the first straight-forward, heartfelt question Sarah's asked.

Their eyes met and Jareth slowed, then stopped dancing. Sarah, still following his lead, stopped as well, but she didn’t take her eyes off of his. He still held her hand, but the other left her hip to cup her cheek. Sarah didn’t think it was possible, but her heartbeat picked up speed until she could hear it echoing in her ears.

Jareth’s mismatched eyes stared into hers. His blue eye looked like a clear ocean; his brown eye looked like a bottomless abyss.

He stroked her cheek, his touch leaving behind tingles and causing a shiver to run down her spine. He noticed, and smiled.

He leaned close and Sarah had just enough time to feel a spark of panic—Oh crap, this is really going to happen and I don’t mind! She thought—before his lips touched hers. It was a tender kiss, just the barest brush, soft like butterfly wings.

Sarah dropped the mask and heard it dully land on the marble with a soft rubbery sound, but the noise seemed far away. She reached up, wrapping her arms around the Goblin King and pressed herself against him, deepening the kiss.

Jareth took a sharp intake of breath, as if he was surprised by her reaction, and then he met her kiss with equal passion.

And Sarah’s world fell down.

Of course the Waking Dream will end there. The aim has been met: Sarah caved to Jareth's seduction in the ballroom (in the same clothes, no less). It's also the beginning of Sarah admitting her feelings for the Goblin King.

And just like the Waking Dream ends, so too this chapter's commentary ends. It's at the end of this chapter I also realized there's no way I'm finishing the story in 3 parts, like I originally planned. In the end, the story doubled in size.

Next time, part three's commentary! If you haven't already, I suggest joining the RSS (link at the top header) or the mailing list if you're interested in easily knowing when the content will be added to the blog.

If you have any questions regarding the story or my commentary, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post and I'll answer it ASAP! Don't be shy, I don't bite. Other things, maybe, but not bite.

(All of my added commentary will be in this text instead of the usual one)

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about The Red Thread and I will answer them! Just leave a comment! Now, onto the main attraction…

So, I knew early on I didn't want to have chapter names. I thought it added to the suspense if I kept it as "Part One," "Part Two," etc. Also, I wanted to give a feeling of suspended time. Sarah, after all, is traveling through the land of death, a very unknown future before her. Unnamed chapters mimicked that uncertainty.

Sarah opened her eyes and found she was in a familiar room. She would recognize those floating bubbles anywhere, not to mention the marble tiles, the luxuriant fountains, the strange steps, the floating platforms…

She was in the bubble ballroom, except it was empty.

No, nearly empty. Someone was sitting in a very familiar chair, a chair that once had provided her freedom from this very dream, the last time she had had it. The someone shifted and Sarah instantly recognized the mane of unruly, blonde hair, tendrils coming down to frame a face hidden by a grotesque goblin mask. In fact, that blonde hair had dyed black tips.

Jareth's looks have always struck me as strangely handsome. I know that half the reason is David Bowie, but really, that hair? That make-up? It shouldn't work...and yet somehow it does. I always liked how his hair looked with contrasting colors, like when there were blue streaks in it in the ballroom scene from the movie. I figured Jareth is very cognizant of how he looks to Sarah and chooses his outfits very carefully. Here, the mask coupled with the black-dyed tips paint a picture of enigma. Jareth has a thing for hiding himself from Sarah. I suppose one can't blame him, after all, he's been burnt once already.

He stood. He was wearing a bejeweled jacket with embroidery and black, tight pants. Just the type of pants she always remembered.

This outfit, as far as I know, is completely one of my own design.

On one level, Sarah was incredibly annoyed. Why was she here, facing down the Goblin King in an empty ballroom? Had he dared to bring her back? On another level, she felt a flare of excitement; felt her old self, the one that believed in adventures and wishes and magic, stir deep within her soul. Oh, she wanted an adventure now—she also wanted to challenge a certain Goblin King.

One thing I love about The Labyrinth is the dichotomies it has: temptation and responsibility; light and darkness; good and evil; friendship and enmity; sacrifice and yearning; adventure and foolhardiness. These dichotomies are ones I like to put in a lot of my Labby fanfics, and it's in "The Red Thread" a lot. Here, we see Sarah's anger at being drawn back by Jareth, because she did win their "game" last time and she doesn't want to go through that again -- yet, she kind of does, because she wants the adventure it brought her.

Sarah took two steps forward, but kept a good distance between her and the masked figure who could only be the ruler of the Labyrinth. “What am I doing here?” she asked—no, she demanded the answer. She wasn’t afraid of him, and she wasn’t young enough anymore to be confused by the plethora of feelings that jumped around inside her.

Ah, the first hint that Sarah may be more affected by the Goblin King than she lets on.

“Indeed, that is a good question,” came the shockingly familiar voice from behind the mask. Sarah shuddered before she could help herself. He lifted something and to Sarah’s shock, she saw it was a bright, red thread that was tied to his wrist. It curved through his palm, across the floor, and to her. “I believe this is the culprit.”

I no longer can remember exactly where I got the idea for this story from, although I do remember it jumped into my head and refused to go away until I wrote it down. The red thread is not a new idea; in fact, it's pretty popular in mythology. Perhaps the most well-known mythology about it is from Ancient China and Japan, where it's called "the red string of fate." In fact, when I first wrote this chapter, I was still working on the presumption that the red thread would show Sarah and Jareth's destiny to end up together, that they were, actually, soul mates. However, as the story continues, I changed my mind and decided that the red thread would be tied (har har) with not only love, but their perceptions of love for each other, as well as power given and taken. I'll talk more about that later.

Sarah followed the red (I got so tired of referring to it as "red thread" or "red string" or "the string." Can you tell? ) as it snaked up and found the other end was tied to her own wrist. However, when he released it from his grasp, the red string disappeared. Sarah lifted her wrist, where it had been tied a moment ago, but now it was gone. She felt along her wrist for it, but only brushed against skin. She could feel her thundering pulse at her wrist.

Notice the moments when Sarah can see the red thread, particularly moments when Jareth doesn't point it out. There's a purpose to it.

“What kind of game are you playing now, Goblin King?”

“No game, I’m as annoyed by this turn of events as you are.” And to her surprise, he sounded unhappy. “I suppose despite your words to me in that final scene at my castle, you are still tied to the Labyrinth—to me.” He lifted a hand to stop her from saying anything and continued, “It is not some manipulation on my part, I assure you. I would not have it this way if I could.”

Jareth did not realize the red thread even existed until he was called to Sarah by it.

“Oh…well…what happened? Am I dreaming?” Sarah tried to remember what she had been doing just before this moment. She had begun the day like any other Saturday: she woke at seven o’clock, enjoying the extra hour of sleep, before heading to the gym and sweating on a StairMaster (how she hated that machine, but she wanted to lose the extra ten pounds she’d gained in college, but the last three were giving her quite a lot of difficulty). Then she’d bought breakfast at the grocery store—fresh fruit, cheese, and milk for her oatmeal—as well as the next week’s groceries before heading home. Right?

Ugh, this is a sloppy paragraph. Honestly, sometimes I think I need a beta reader. <_<

Actually, the last thing she remembered was picking out two grapefruits.

Sarah scratched her head, frowning. She looked down and saw she was wearing a plain, old T-shirt and faded jeans. So, had she woken up on Saturday? Maybe she was just remembering her usual routine and in reality she was still asleep in bed, waiting for her alarm to wake her up. The clothes would be little consequence, then, she could have been wearing a chicken suit for all the control she usually had on her dreams. Although she was very glad she wasn’t wearing a chicken suit—that would have been embarrassing in front of the Goblin King. Then again, this dream seemed very real. Might as well enjoy it until she had to stop; it wasn’t every day she got to talk to the Goblin King.

Memory and perception is a recurring theme I play around with in this fanfic. Perceptions of one's memory can change everything, and Sarah keeps learning that throughout this story.

“It’s been a while, huh?” she said.

It had been ten years, actually, and in all that time there hadn’t been one bit of magic, one speck of evidence of goblins, and despite her friends’ words—“if you ever have need of us…”—she had never seen Hoggle, Didymous, or Ludo again. She definitely hadn’t seen the Goblin King.

Honestly, I find it difficult to write about Sarah's friends (Hoggle, Didymus, and Ludo) and oftentimes I find ways of just striking them from the story altogether. Probably not good for canon, as Sarah was prone to turn to her friends, and they joined her Aboveground at the end of the film. However, I find their various dialog nuances extremely difficult to write, and honestly, I find the interaction possibilities between Sarah and the Goblin King MUCH more interesting.

“Has it? Time flows so differently where I’m from.” He said it so non-chalantly that Sarah felt annoyance flare.

Ah! I always love a Goblin King who pretends he doesn't care (at least until he's shown Sarah does care). I think I like that portrayal of him more than the fluffy Goblin King, and definitely more than the vindictive one. I just don't see Jareth as vindictive. Seductive, yes. Selfish, yes. A master of manipulation, subterfuge, omission, and games...definitely. But not mean for the sake of it.

Fine, two could play at that game. She sat in a nearby chair, facing him, thinking that the five feet between them could have been a chasm five thousand feet across; his body language oozed cold detachment.

“Right, true. How’re Hoggle, Didymus, and Ludo?” Sarah asked, pointedly not asking after his well-being. She smiled when frustration flared in his mismatched eyes. Good, he’d noticed.

I also love Sarah who can meet Jareth step-by-step and play his game back at him. Remember that moment in The Labyrinth when she proclaimed his challenge "a piece of cake"? This is that Sarah all over again. In some ways, she just hasn't grown up.

However, the smooth, aloofness was back just as quickly and he smiled. The mask ended just above his lips. It obscured any close analysis of his expression. He said, “Just the same, I imagine. I don’t have time to visit all my subjects.”

“Because I’m just so important I don’t have the time,” his tone implied. Right, he was the all-wonderful Goblin King who ruled over the Underground.

“Of course,” Sarah said, sarcastically. “How could I forget?”

Her tone said: “However, it was very easy to do so.”

She felt childish satisfaction when the Goblin King stiffened. However, as amusing as this tête-à-tête was—and in a perverse way, she was having a lot of fun trading veiled insults back and forth with the Goblin King, and falling back into the way they had been ten years ago—none of it answered her most pressing question.

This is a sign that Jareth and Sarah are actually meant for each other. She actually likes these "sessions" she has with him (the tête-à-têtes ).

“What’s the red thread for?” Sarah asked. She suddenly realized that this dream may be more real than she cared to admit. She remembered that Jareth had mentioned they were connected—and what if they really were? Did she want that?

I don’t feel much anger or unhappiness about that, more like…relief? Relief that I’m still connected to the Labyrinth? She thought. Yes, relief was a good descriptor. She chalked the emotion up to her adventurous nature, which had a really hard time letting go of the Labyrinth and going back to her mundane life.

I always find it hard to believe when there's a fanfic that proclaims Sarah didn't miss the Labyrinth and is downright infuriated when it bursts into her life again. How could you NOT miss something so magical? I imagine Sarah would have very conflicting emotions regarding the Labyrinth. It was a time she was afraid (for herself and her brother), but it was also a time filled with wonder and adventure.

“It connects you and I,” Jareth said, enigmatically.

“Why?”

“Because of your time here.”

Something about the way he said it made Sarah think. He said “here,” not “in the Labyrinth.” She looked around the ballroom and said, “Here? Here here, as in the ballroom?”

“Yes, I suppose something happened during our encounter here that forged a link between you and I. One that, surprisingly, did not break when you rejected me later on.”

Jareth likes bringing up that "rejection" a lot. Later on in the story he mentions it again and again. Jareth strikes me as someone who doesn't easily let go or understand other people's motivations. He also probably would prod about this point till the cows came home. I can imagine him and Sarah together after some intimate time spent when he'll turn to her and say, "How's THAT for no power over you?!"

“Rejected you?” Sarah’s eyebrows rose. “What did I reject of yours, exactly? You took my brother! You tried to bog me! If anything, I rejected your cruelty and cunning!”

I think a lot of Sarah and Jareth's problem is that they misunderstand each other's motivations. And Jareth also goes about things the wrong way. Sarah thinks he's this person out to "get her" when really he's just "playing the game" the only way he knows how, and he's playing to win.

“Yes yes,” he said, and to her surprise, his voice was bitter. “I am the horrible villain who took your brother away when you asked it of me, and sent you on a grand adventure the likes of which you had only dreamt of before. I gave you challenges to cleverly overcome, heroic lines to say, put you in the path of friends, showed you magic in all its glory, and reordered time. I am a monster.”

Jareth really believes he's just doing what she wanted, so he's always confused when she rejects him. It's like if someone said "I wish I could just kick that man in the head!" You don't expect anyone to really kick him for you. Jareth would, though, if Sarah really wanted him to.

By the way, I really liked this brief exchange between them, I felt it summed up their equal indignation very nicely.

Sarah wasn’t quite sure how to react to his speech. On one hand, this was the Goblin King, who could not be trusted. But, on the other hand, she found it amusing and fascinating that the way he recounted events. He had conveniently forgotten tossing her in an oubliette or down a hole to nearly splash into the Bog of Eternal Stench; he had forgotten the Cleaners he sent after her; he had forgotten taking away her hours because she had tried to put on a brave front and told him his challenge was easy; he had forgotten the giggling and pointing of the ballroom dancers; he had forgotten the grabbing of the Helpful Hands and the Fireys who had wanted to take off her head. And, of course, he had smoothed over the unfairness of taking her brother based on a wish she hadn’t meant, then forcing her to choose between her dreams and her love for Toby.

RE: Sarah and Jareth not seeing eye-to-eye.

A choice that needed no deliberation at the end and one she had never regretted, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t lain awake some nights and wondered what might have been.

“You have an odd way of remembering the past,” Sarah said, after a few moments of weighty silence.

“Is it odd to remember it a little more rose-tinted, if bitterly heavy?” the Goblin King asked, fiddling with his mask, but he did not take it off. “I find your tendency to label me as ‘monstrous villain’ naïve.”

Later on, Jareth jokes that he wants to be villainous and I think there's a distinction between that and what he says here. Sarah has a tendency to label him as "monstrous" or "evil" when he's not. He does have a tendency to be villainous and do the wrong thing, but his intentions are not to really harm. Even though he did send the Cleaners after Sarah and try to dump her in a bog, I think he was, ultimately, fulfilling her wish to fight against a villain. Jareth, however, enjoys the role. And then he's confused by she won't love him.

Sarah didn’t like being called naïve, it was a little too close to the condescending words he’d spoken to her when she was fifteen—and now she was twenty-five (*sigh* This is a total goof on my part. I say she's twenty-five here, which is the age I usually choose for Sarah in my fanfics because one, it makes her an adult and definitely legal, two, it's an age I've been so I can relate to how one feels during that time, and three, it means it's been ten years since the Labyrinth, which is a nice, round number. However, I later change her age to twenty-eight. This is me forgetting what I've already said. Amateurish of me, I know. ), damnit! She’d graduated from high school, went to prom and shared a sweet night with her boyfriend (now her ex) afterwards, then went to college—and not just any college, but a very prestigious one! She’d graduated cum laude, she’d held a respectable job for two years now, and she was dating a very fine young man. She was a far cry from her fifteen year old self who hadn’t realized what was fair and what wasn’t, and had been a little self-centered and selfish, besides.

I have never been a big fan of fanfics that write about a Sarah who is, essentially, unable to continue with her life after the Labyrinth. She's unable to find a job, unable to find a boyfriend/lover, unable to be normal or move on, or has become irrevocably damaged by her time Underground. I think this goes against the point of her journey through the Labyrinth, which was to strengthen her sense of Self and her thoughts regarding her life -- to get over some of her angsty issues -- not the opposite. I think Sarah would have become stronger from her time in the Labyrinth and would have become a better person. Even if she had complex, convoluted feelings for Jareth (and I think anyone who "suffered" through his seduction attempts would, especially someone on the cusp of womanhood as Sarah was at the time), she wouldn't be paralyzed by them.

However, she tried to swallow her first few angry replies to his assessment of her. She would show just how mature she had become! She said, tightly, “I never thought you were monstrous. That’s your word, not mine.”

Her confession here, and her ability to look at her memories more deeply and realize her feelings, is definitely a sign that Sarah is NOT fifteen anymore.

He looked surprised, she saw his eyebrows shoot up, barely visible above the mask. “Pardon me,” he said. “I assumed you must, since I offered you everything you dreamed of and you simply said…”

“You have no power—”

“Yes, those words,” he cut-in, angrily.

Sarah looked at him. The mask was very detailed, with grooves and wrinkles and a large, bulbous nose that added to the grotesqueness of it, instead of making it more comical. However, it couldn’t completely hide everything, she still noticed the tightness of his mouth and displeasure twinkling in his eyes.

And looking into his mismatched eyes—which had always struck her as the most beautiful she had ever seen, full of contrasts and passion and mirth—she realized something. “You think I hate you!” she blurted out.

I think Sarah would be very surprised to realize Jareth thinks he hates her. Jareth would think that because she rejected his offer for her dreams, and he can't figure out why someone would do that, and Sarah can't imagine why Jareth would think she hated him because she was only playing a game based on rules HE'D set up from the get-go. Again, not seeing eye-to-eye.

The Goblin King didn’t say anything, but his mouth tightened and his body language changed subtly, enough that Sarah knew it was an affirmative.

“I don’t hate you,” she said, surprised that he could even care what she thought of him. She said as much. “I don’t understand why it would matter to you anyway! I mean, here you are, this very powerful, magical, good-looking, immortal being. What does it matter what I think?”

The Goblin King grinned, showing off perfectly straight teeth. Sarah felt something inside her thrum seeing that grin—she’d never seen anything besides the self-assured smirk he usually wore—and wished he wasn’t wearing the mask. She was sure that when the Goblin King smiled like that, it would light up his face.

“You think I’m good-looking?” he purred.

Oops. She hadn’t meant to say that part out loud. She didn’t want to hint he had any power over her. But, now that the words had been said, she couldn’t snatch them back. Hadn’t she learned? Words had power, after all, it was her careless words that had gotten her in trouble ten years ago.

This "words have power" theme is revisited through the story. Sarah got a taste of that in the Labyrinth, but it's something she keeps realizing, for example when she later is forced to do the test by Death, she proclaims the answer of when the red thread was forged.

Also, Sarah is afraid of letting Jareth have power over her. Poor Goblin King, he has to trample through Death's domain before she trusts him.

Sarah lifted her chin and set her jaw in a stubborn challenge. “Yeah, so I think you’re good-looking. So what? It’s not so surprising, all things considered. Besides, as I said before, I never hated you—okay, maybe a little, in the beginning,” Sarah added when she saw the doubt in the Goblin King’s eyes. “I might have hated you went you took away a couple of my hours.”

The Goblin King grinned again, remembering it. “I think I wanted to hear you say ‘that’s not fair’ again. I was keeping a running count, you know. You proclaimed many things were not fair in my Labyrinth, I found it amusing.”

Hmm, Jareth certainly likes a riled up Sarah. Maybe an indignant, angry Sarah is his favorite Sarah.

“You were watching me then?” Sarah asked.

The Goblin King looked at her. They gazed into each other’s eyes for a few long moments and something arced between them, something that hadn’t been there before—or at least Sarah hadn’t noticed it in him. The silence became heavy, pregnant with unsaid words and meanings. Suddenly, the Goblin King broke the staring contest and looked away first.

“Of course,” he said, so softly she barely heard him.

“I suspected,” Sarah said, with a shrug. The voyeurism didn’t bother her now.

I didn't specify exactly what I meant by this. Of course there were moments off-screen, unknown to us (the audience) as Sarah moved through the Labyrinth. I imagined her muttering to herself quite a few times, "This is so unfair!" and the like. And of course Jareth would be watching her through a crystal ball.

She felt antsy suddenly and stood, going towards one of the fountains. This dream was very long, and strange, considering all they seemed to be doing was talking. And in a companionable way, too, she thought with amusement as she neared the lip of the fountain. She leaned forward so she could stare at one of the cherub sculptures that adorned the middle spout. Her fingertips brushed across the cold, marble lip. Who knew it was possible to just talk to the Goblin King?

Which meant she had a wonderful opportunity, one she shouldn’t squander. Sarah turned and took a few steps towards the Goblin King again. “Since we’re here, can I ask a question?”

“Yes, since we’re here.” He gave a regal wave of his hand, encouraging her to continue.

“I’ve wondered this for a long time,” Sarah said, then took a deep breath and met the Goblin King’s gaze. “Why did you give me the power to call you?”

Ah! So Sarah begins asking the questions harder to answer without mentioning the word "love." She can be really dense and she's created this whole fiction where the Goblin King is just a villain who was dastardly enough to try and seduce her to win. She simply can't imagine that Jareth may have been trying to seduce her because he wanted her (as well as because he wanted to win ).

This finishes Part One. Ironically, I stopped here because the chapter was getting long and it was the only good stopping point I could see, but Part One ended up being my second shortest chapter (Part Two was the shortest chapter by 30 words). As the story continued, my chapters just got longer and longer.

I mentioned in the original Author's Notes (which you can read on Fanfiction.net) that this story is different than my usual stuff. There isn't much action or romance, two things that are aplenty in my other fanfics. The Red Thread started more as an exercise in character study and working an idea out to a satisfying conclusion. However, it grew into a full-fledged story in its own right. It is definitely darker, and most of the action is secluded in Part Five, where Sarah and Jareth must run from Death. Despite this, I think The Red Thread worked out beautifully. I hope you enjoyed the commentary. Until next time!

• Finding a job — and I finally found one! I start in August and it’s a pretty difficult and frightening prospect to actually be doing something that I majored in. I now have a career; I went to college for this. But, it’s going to be a lot of work transitioning into the job. I’m trying to finish my writing obligations before it starts.
• Editing my manuscript. I finished a novel and I need to edit it before July 9th. My critique group is taking a break for the rest of the summer and I want to get the finished manuscript to them before we all part, that way they can beta read it and when we reconvene, they’ll have my critiques for me.
• Working on The Red Thread, a Labby fanfic that came to be suddenly and demanded I write it. I’ve finished it, although I’m editing the last chapter.

Yes, you heard right. I’ve actually finished one of the fanfics. The Red Thread actually is a pretty ambitious project, since I ended up infusing it with a lot of nuances I didn’t really have the time to explain further. I have been reading a lot of fanfics with commentary from their authors and I’m thinking of posting the same, kind of like an “Extra Feature” thing. That will start tomorrow, so if you’re interested, I encourage you to join the mailing list or RSS feed so you’ll know when new blog posts are uploaded.

So, unless I get some time in the evening, expect the last update for “The Red Thread” on Thursday. I’ll even try and remember to bring my laptop to the social security office so I can type while I wait (I need a new SS card).

I came up with the story one day and it just kept insisting I write it until I finally sat down and pounded out part one. Liking where it was headed, I decided to post part one and continue. I think I should have the whole story finished by mid-week, also I think it’s going to have four parts. Originally, I thought I could finish the story in three, but I’m thinking it’ll need four parts now.

Check it out and leave a review telling me what you think!

And that was the tone of the whole story. Her husband kept mentioning how she was his wife, which meant she had to ask for his permission to do anything. He then goes about seducing her and of course, eventually, she falls in love with him (for no other reason then the orgasms, it seems to me) and all is hunky dory in the world. Oh, although her husband still controls her, she still has lost her inheritance to him, and he can still be a possessive jerk-wad. But, in the last 10 pages of the book, I suppose the author realized that she’d better make this guy likable to a larger majority of readers, because she makes him realize he’s fallen in love with her (that’s why he wanted to “seduce” and “ravage” her, because if she lost her virginity, she’d have a harder time asking for an annulment). So, I’m left with the feeling that I’m supposed to assume he won’t be a jerk-wad now because he lurves her. That he’ll stop all the mentions of basically owning her and all that because he’s thinking with his heart.

Yeah, excuse me while I gag on a spoon.*

But, reading these books reminds me occasionally reminds me why I write the way I do, especially romance scenes. No matter how much historical times can seem glittery and impressive, no matter how much a reader might love steam punk, costumes, etc., the simple point is that we’re not in a time period before women could vote. I can see the value of a historical novel that is made for its accuracy, but what’s so bad about occasionally having a historical romance with a really kick-ass heroine? More importantly, what’s so bad about having a romance where the heroine is in charge of her own sexuality? It always seems like the man must be so much more worldly, so he can introduce the woman to her own sexuality, and then it becomes this bargaining chip between them (in this novel, it was worse: she blatantly used it to get what she needed from him–and he encouraged the behavior!). Not only that, but the romance seems to stem from love of sex, not love of the person. Any good lover could make that heroine “cry out in wanton passion,” that doesn’t mean she should love him. A woman who knows about her body, her sexuality, and what she wants is sexy. And a woman who knows all that and knows what she wants in a lover and mate is even sexier. And a woman who knows all that and isn’t afraid to say it makes me smile every time. I’d rather read a book like that any day of the week. And I don’t think the woman has to be a slut to be like that.

Anyway, that’s my opinion, which is why my heroines are rarely, if ever, going to be meek virgins. Sarah will never cow-toe to Jareth. I want them to be equally matched; that was always an appealing aspect of the story. In my opinion, Jareth expected her to be bowled over by his charisma, his otherworldliness, his special trousers (oh, you know what I mean ), but she manages to hold her own against him in that final scene…the one that could have cost her everything…because despite temptation she remembered the words.

*And if you are wondering why I kept reading despite really detesting this guy so much so that I skimmed over the “ravaging” scenes (the whole point of reading romance, in my opinion), it’s because I don’t like making final decisions about books until I’ve read them. I have to find a book REALLY bad to put it down unfinished (ironically, the last time I did that was with another romance I picked up somewhere, except this one was less purple prosy about the manipulation of the hero. He outright raped her, but you know, she liked it in the end).