Drabble #170: Enclosed

[jalenstrix]

...we had a nice response to my last posted drabble prompt of Drabble 165, with entries by redwolf and me (one of your intrepid drabble proposers, jalenstrix), and commenting by both redwolf and tojojo. Huzzah!

As always, special labyfic love to redwolf and tojojo for adding entries and comments for several previous drabble prompts. You guys continue to be the best!





For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Enclosed

Who's enclosed? In what (or who)? How? By whom? Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.




Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit for this month of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:
Word count: # of words
$your_beautiful_drabble


I'll aim to get my next drabble challenge out on the first Tuesday of next month (Sep 3).

I'm also very happy to take suggestions if something in particular strikes your fancy -- comment on this post or PM me with your suggestions. You can see our current collected suggestions here.


Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand. Authors generally write for love.)

Comments

Postage

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

Once Sarah had finally moved Underground permanently she’d always assumed that the things she’d miss most would be technology related, but magic had a way of filling in the gaps. Media from Above readily made its way into the Labyrinth’s vast library and current events took on a less urgent tone when she wasn’t either directly impacted or constantly bombarded by news outlets.

Sarah smiled as a gangly goblin, whose limbs appeared to have extra joints, approached her and handed her an envelope with a bow. “Thank you, Flip.” He caught his brightly painted saucepan helmet with practised ease as it slid off and grinned back, showing Sarah a fearsome set of fangs before he scampered off.

Slitting the envelope with an ornate letter opener, Sarah extracted several sheets of laser printed office paper that were enclosed within. She may not have ready telephone or email access to her family Above, but she did have a personal postal delivery goblin, which was almost as fast. Although she had found that it was advisable to bribe the courier before sending anything edible.

As she shuffled through the pages, something caught her attention and she snorted out a surprised guffaw. Toby had included a news story that had her husband all over it.

A query to the Labyrinth soon led her to the training room, where she suddenly found herself unable to recall the reason she’d walked into the room when the sight of a shirtless and sweating Goblin King successfully derailed all of her higher brain functions.

“How can I help you, my love?” Jareth grabbed a towel from the bench and started wiping himself down, grinning as he watched Sarah’s eyes follow his actions.

Returning his smile, Sarah handed him a sheet of paper. “This wouldn’t be your handiwork, would it?”

Jareth scanned the news article about a man being arrested for putting fake arrow decals on the floor of a store to create a labyrinth with no exit. Local police had allegedly received dozens of calls from customers who had been trapped in the store. “This old chestnut.” He passed the page back. “It’s an urban legend we traced to a satire source. The store and location change every time the tale resurfaces.”

With a sigh, Sarah sat on the bench. “Toby will be disappointed this wasn’t your work.”

“If it helps, I think the tale stems from an earlier prank of trapping people in small sections of Ikea stores to film their reactions.” He cut a side eyed glance towards Sarah in a mock glare. “Again, nothing to do with me. If people are incapable of navigating their way through a store, it is no fault of mine. Now would you care to join me in our chambers to assist me in a shower?” Jareth stretched his arms above his head, grinning at the way Sarah’s eyes slid down his body in appreciation. “Or we could perhaps find some other manner in which to work up a sweat.”

Re: Postage

[apachefirecat]

Love the idea of Sarah finding a way to still connect with the world above and thinking her husband would deign to have a hand in unnecessary things going up on there, and Jareth's smooth turn down! And who doesn't love a half-naked, sweating Goblin King?!?!?!?! =)

SO GLAD a friend turned me onto this comm!

Re: Postage

[redwolf]

Humans are more than capable of making their own mistakes without Underground assistance and half naking, sweaty Goblin Kings are far more interesting.

Welcome aboard! I stumbled in a while back and, as I like writing to word limit prompts, have managed an entry every week since. 🦊🧡

Re: Postage

[apachefirecat]

I'm usually one for longer stories, but I can NOT resist the fact that there is FINALLY an active Labyrinth comm again!!! Hopefully my future stories will be lighter. LOL

Again, SO glad my friend stumbled across this and sent me the link! Y'all need to advertise! ;)

Re: Postage

[jalenstrix]

I mean, who can blame Sarah for having her higher brain functions derailed? Perfectly reasonable response. ;)

Re: Postage

[redwolf]

Distracting Jareth is distracting 🦊🧡

[apachefirecat]

Word count: 500

(WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH WITHIN. Not the way I wanted my intro here to work -- LOL --, but the story had a VERY determined mind of its own!)

She ran her fingers lovingly down the leather spine of her favorite book. She had been an avid reader in her entire life, but this story has always remained her favorite. As a girl, she had wondered about the characters within the fantastical tale. Then she had lived the adventure herself, and like, as she had come to learn many years later, many of the girls before her, she had never forgotten him.

She had never forgotten him, but she had never found him again either. She had even adopted solely out of the desire to find a way back to him, rather than any actual idea that she might make even a half-way decent parent. She had been careful to adopt a child no other parent would want, but when she had offered the boy up to the Goblin King, he had not appeared. For a while, she had doubted her own sanity, but then she had begun, at last, to find others like her.

Jareth, it seemed, had made the rounds, and those who had been returned to their homes, like herself, had never stopped aching for him. Their brothers were safe, of course, and grew into men who had no idea what their older sisters had sacrificed to allow them to have the lives they did. It often drove a divide between brother and sister. Luckily, she and Toby had never been that way. She was glad their relationship had thrived, but sometimes, she wondered at what cost.

Sarah tapped the book, thinking of the latest picture she had enclosed within. Art was one of few cathartic exercises that seemed to actually ease her troubled soul. Perhaps Jareth had never wanted her -- he had only ever wanted Toby --, but to this night, there was a part of her that could not accept that. Yes, he had had many girls before and after, she was sure, but there was something about the bond they had shared.

He had allowed her to keep her memories. That had to mean something! But then, what of the girl who had written the novel in the first place? The author had been long dead before Sarah had ever encountered the story, so she'd never gotten to meet her. In the interviews she'd read, she'd only ever spoken of her story as being just that, a fantasy. The details were too authentic, Sarah knew from firsthand experience, to have been made up.

Her grandniece giggled in the next room; Sarah crossed over to stand in the doorway. It was storming again, but Sarah knew the child was safe. Of all those she had tried to offer, he had come for none. She turned the light off, murmuring the old words. When everything turned silent, Sarah's heart leapt. It had finally worked!

She found herself again standing on the same hilltop, his hand caressing her cheek.

"Sarah, Sarah, your own blood?"

"I would give anything."

Sarah Williams' body was found the next morn.

[redwolf]

On the upside, she did eventually get what she wanted. A wonderfully moody take on the challenge 🦊🧡

[apachefirecat]

Thank you! :) I admit I was nervous about posting this one. I LOVE happy Jareth/Sarah, but almost always end up writing dark and poignant for them. LOL

[jalenstrix]

Mmmm, such a sense of aching, smoldering yearning, quiet and neverending. Very poignant.

[apachefirecat]

Thank you!

[jalenstrix]

Word count: 400

It felt like petals falling away, like I’d been cocooned in some sort of ethereal metaphysical glowing web of mishmash that I hadn’t realized and now…there was an opening.

I could feel him. I could feel Jareth’s hand stretching across the void to me, peeling back those glistening, luminous petals. I just had to find the ability to somehow move my own hand to reach his.

Sweet universe, to touch his fingers again. To be wrapped in him again, to have his ice-crystal scent wash over me in a glorious wave of claiming, of protection, of desire and need and love braided together into something unbreakable…

I took a deep breath, willing myself to focus. I had to be able to move somehow, in this strange pocket of space-time. And I didn’t know if I could.

Jareth?

Sarah love. I’m here. I’m coming. Reach for me, sweetheart.

I almost sobbed. How?

A way will be made.

A wave of irritation centered me, washing away the jittery adrenaline that had been scattering my thoughts. That…is remarkably unhelpful.

I know. But now you can concentrate again, can’t you?

I almost laughed out loud. There was the conniving, sly man I knew and loved. I’ve missed you so.

I know, Sarah love. Now try again to reach for me. Look for the way.

Still unhelpful.

But accurate. And the way will be apparent when it arises.

I shook my head, and the movement somehow reverberated through my senses, physically and mentally, a strumming synchrony of self-aware sensation.

Jareth’s pleased laughter echoed between us. There now. Reach for me.

With a starburst of motion, I reached my hand out, pushing away the last of the diaphanous space-time strands that stretched in front of me. I’m coming. Where are you?

Right here. His fingers threaded through mine with predatory grace, and they were solid and so very real, and they pulled me forward with inexorable will. Right here.

I burst through something glittering and sharp and hissing, and then I was wrapped in his arms, in the velvety strength of him, in the familiar scent of Faerie king and shadows and home.

I had to remember to breathe as I held onto him, burying my face in the hollow of his shoulder.

“I’m right here, Sarah love. Right here.” He stroked my hair gently, his voice a whispering thrum in my ear. “I’ve found you.”

[redwolf]

Finally! So happy to have them physically back together again 🦊🧡

[jalenstrix]

Me too! ;)

[apachefirecat]

*sigh* Ah, yes, wouldn't we all love to be Sarah and be found by our King again? <3 Lovely!