Labyrinth: Saving the Fallen City

Discoveries and Injuries

I lost all breath within me when the doors were opened. It was so different from the memory I held in my head. I stepped into the labyrinth feeling the same determination and helplessness as I did five years ago. The large door slammed closed behind me causing me to cringe. I looked at Jareth who stood with a frown on his face surveying the poor condition of the labyrinth. He had good reason; the ground held cracks that ran as far as the eye could see. Vines were slowly destroying the walls; the thick fog permitted little visibility and floated around feeling like it is suffocating every living thing in its path. I knew the labyrinth was not pretty the first I stood here, but now it was slowly destroying itself.

“This way” He said pointing in the direction I travelled when I first made it to the Labyrinth. We walked quickly and quietly not speaking a word. Roots slowly moved around as we passed while the walls moaned under the weight of time. Even though this labyrinth was the most hated thing in my life for the first year after, I still felt a pang of sadness. It reminded me of seeing a grandparent or old friend deteriorate before your very eyes. Worse yet, the stubbornness in Jareth’s eyes had hardened and his face sunken with thoughts I would never be able to figure out.

Jareth climbed over a large block of rock from his wall that stood in the path and I tried to follow but my foothold broke. I froze in place terrified to turn around. Finally, I turned my head slightly towards where we had entered from and clung to the rock. “Get yourself together” I muttered. Again and again, I jumped for the top of the rock that had fallen but resulted in falling short despite my just above average height. My ears started to deceive me by playing nasty tricks of footsteps and twigs snapping.

I closed my eyes to think clearly but a touch ripped me from my thoughts. A vine wrapped around the wall and moved over the ground. I touched the vine and it followed my touch. My touch teased the vine, drawing it from the crack it first emerged. I pressed my foot on the vine barely and it rose up to encircle my foot. Moving quickly, I pulling myself up the rock with the push of the vine slowly gaining on where I was on the rock. When the vine revealed enough of itself, I climbed up and over where Jareth waited for me.

He made no advance to ask if I was okay or if I were hurt, but nodded his head and continued on walking. Turn after turn we maneuvered throughout each blockade and every twisted corner. I could hear the rumbling of the changing labyrinth as our footsteps began to get absorbed into the walls. Jareth looked unfazed by the eeriness of his labyrinth but a level of disturbance still stirred in his face and fidgeting hands. Despite myself I felt bad for Jareth and his loss of control of his own kingdom and destruction of his labyrinth but another part of me was convinced he deserved it.

“Are you sure it is safe to travel at night?” I asked bringing myself out of my deep thoughts. As if conformation to my question a deep rumbling sounded not so far away. Jareth put a finger to his lips and motioned for me to follow. I turned my head slowly around to make sure we were safe before returning my gaze to where Jareth once stood with a wall now in its place. My throat tightened as I shuffled forward. I placed my hand on the wall beside me and took a couple deep breaths. I was alone in the labyrinth.

Suddenly the wall clicked and popped outwards. I let out a shaky breath and opened the wall. The door swung closed trapping me in between walls so tightly I could hardly move. “No, no, no this very bad” I muttered hitting my hands on the wall. The wall tightened on me causing me to panic. It was like the wall was swallowing me. I gathered as much force as I could and hit my hand on a brick. As if on cue the floor dropped and I was falling. I landed on a platform with my ankle twisted and my body collapsed.

With a wince I looked up and around where the wall had dropped me. Dark light was visible from strange holes in the ceiling only lighting the stairs slightly. I was sitting on a small platform of stone, covered in grass. From every side stairs jutted out, twisting around in a spiral going down. I looked to where the dark light ceased and saw the black fog that covered the ground in the labyrinth. It surrounded the staircase blocking out anything that tried to get through it. With no interest in staying on the platform, I stood and took to the stairs, biting my lip from my mildly twisted ankle. I was careful not to misplace a step on the staircase because of its twisted, narrow design.