A/N: Well, here I am again with yet another Sarah and Jareth fanfiction. I wouldn't expect another one from me for a while; I feel the obsession wearing off and I'm rather tired of my quarantine from other movies and books that I placed on myself to keep the obsession. But, enough for the meh, time for the Jareth/Sarah love!This has more explicit scenes--though I did refrain from using words that weren't tasteful--and there are two instances intead of one. I hope you enjoy this story; in my opinion, it's one of the best ones I've written...or at least I'll think so until I read it again a year or so from now XD
To those who reviewed Such a Fooled Heart, thank you so much! I love hearing from you guys; your reviews really made my day! I really hope you'll like Lost and Lonely as much as you liked Heart; I wrote it with you guys in mind. Without further ado:
Lost and Lonely
Sarah rolled over fitfully in her sleep. A week had passed since that rainy night, and that's all that Sarah remembered from it: a rainy night. No Labyrinth, no Hoggle, no Goblin King. It was all a dream to her, and it had been the last peaceful night's rest since. An angry sighed escaped from the sheets of her bed and she slapped the comforter, as if blaming it for her insomnia. Through the pale moonlight coming in her window, the figurine of the Goblin King from the novel stared at her.
Giving up on sleep, Sarah climbed out of her bed and stumbled across the hallway to the bathroom, getting a glass of water and slowly swallowing it. Dreams, some that left her feeling warm, others that left her in tears and with an empty, searching feeling, had plagued these past few nights. She never could remember them though, so all she had to grasp was the feelings they left her. Never did she think to connect them with that dream of the Labyrinth. That, too, had faded into a lost memory.
As she left the cool gaze of the bathroom lights and returned to her dark room, she curled up beneath the covers and tried to ignore that empty feeling. It had grown inside her more and more until she felt as if she would burst from its pressure on her. Sighing, she hugged a pillow to her side, wishing desperately for something to cradle her. This feeling of being alone was new to her. She'd never had a boyfriend to hold her, so these longings for a warm someone to hold her against his chest were strange. She felt confused and hurt and lonely, though she thought she had no reason to feel lonely.
Nothing had changed, right?
Jareth watched her sleep—Try to sleep, he corrected himself—through his crystal. Not that he really needed it. He saw everything through the eyes of the glass Goblin King on her vanity, a rather convenient method to watch her grow up. Sarah, the light that had been burning inside him for years. And now, he could wait no longer. She had proved herself to him, and now it was his turn to prove himself.
Still, the thought of waiting any longer for his bride made him agitated, as it had for these past sixteen years. Life before hadn't exactly been a picnic for his subjects either, but they had discovered just how rough it could be during these years Jareth denied Sarah to himself. He blamed most of it on sexual frustration; he couldn't really enjoy it anymore, not when he felt a little guilty afterward. Instead of regular release, now it was intermittent, maybe once a month. He was hungry for her now, though, and being a king for what felt like an eternity had made him selfish. He had to have her, and soon.
With a growl, the crystal turned to glitter and he leapt up, kicking goblins out of his way as he stormed off to his bedchambers. It had been a mistake to think about Sarah. His erection was heavy as he tore off his clothes and sunk beneath the cool sheets of his bed.
Maybe sleeping will help, he thought bitterly, though he knew nothing would help until he could sink within the depths of his love.
Sarah stared straight ahead, unblinking, unfeeling. Karen hugged tightly to Toby, sobbing into her baby. The straightforward words of the policemen bounced off Sarah's ears now as she tried to contemplate what was going on. Her father was dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.
The word repeated over and over in her mind until it was her mind, and she couldn't think, couldn't feel anything. She blinked. It was night. Somehow it was four days later. Her father had sunk into the ground that day, and she still felt like the hollow shell she had felt when the policemen first came to her house. Everything was blurred over, mostly from tears, the rest from despair. She was in her room, sitting on her bed, and she couldn't remember how she got there, the black dress she had worn to the funeral still on. Wet. Her cheeks were wet and tight. She felt them and discovered tears. She had been—correction, she was crying.
Sarah wanted to scream, wanted to kick something, wanted to beat something over and over until her fists bled. Her pillow was too soft, her wall too hard, so she flung herself into the seat in front of her mirror and stared into her hollow reflection.
"Sarah, I want to talk to you," came a voice from outside her door. Sarah wanted to scream at her to go away, to leave her alone with this grief, this heartache. Instead she opened the door to see a distraught Karen there, holding a fussing Toby. If anything, Toby would bring her comfort, so she took the baby from her stepmother. Toby quit fussing and curled an arm around her neck, closing his eyes.
At least he can sleep easily, she thought, and a bit of comfort came to her then. She caught Karen's annoyed look as she brushed past the children. Stopping in the middle of the room, she looked down at her hands and seemed nervous.
"What is it?" Sarah asked impatiently, wanting to be alone.
"Well…" Karen began. "Your father left behind a lot of debt, and the hospital bill from when they tried to save him is huge. Not to mention the damage on the car, insurance bills, and the funeral costs."
Sarah's blood began to run cold as she listened to Karen's words. It couldn't be happening. "No," Sarah uttered, sinking onto her bed, her arms protectively holding Toby to her. The baby started to fuss again as she held him a little too tightly.
"I'm sorry, Sarah, I just can't support all of us. I tried to call your mother, but—"
"How could you!" she screamed as she stood up, cradling Toby to her neck. "You couldn't wait until…until…You had to do it tonight!" Karen stared at Sarah's face without saying anything. "You bitch! I hate you! Get out of my room!" Karen reached out for Toby but Sarah stepped away from her, turning her shoulder to block Toby from her grasp. "Get out of my room while it's still mine," she hissed.
Karen looked uncertainly at her child before she decided against challenging the light in Sarah's eyes. She turned and strode out of the room, and Sarah waited until she was gone before she let the tears that were burning her eyes trickle down her face. A terrible tangle of emotions, she collapsed back onto her bed and held Toby close, sobbing into his striped pajamas. She was all-over anger, grief, heartbreak. Toby began to fuss over all the wetness, and she kissed his sweet-smelling head and laid him down on her bed, taking the spot next to him to make sure wouldn't roll out.
The baby giggled and reached for Sarah's hair, smacking it with a tiny fist. Sarah forced a smile for his sake. The one thing she had hated the most in the world, aside from Karen, and it was the only thing that could bring her comfort, what little comfort it was. Still, it was better than nothing, and Sarah kissed Toby gently, tears streaking her face.
Jareth fumed in his throne room. Goblins were flying every which way, and he almost picked up his throne for a minute before he realized he'd want a chair later. Instead he picked up a goblin and threw him down the hall. How could that miserable excuse for a parent hurt his Sarah? Sure, this would all just play right into his hands, but Sarah was hurting. Her pain spread through his body and pulsed at his temples, making him even angrier. He had to get her here, not only to serve his own needs, but to give her the love and comfort she craved. As he watched her in his mind's eye, he saw her with Toby, and he knew he had to have the baby too or else she'd hate him for a while for stealing him away from her again. Sarah was easy to get into his Labyrinth. He could even steal her now, if he wanted, but first he had to figure out about Toby.
Jareth, he smirked as he remembered the name he gave the babe in the throne room. He really had liked the infant, so the addition of him to his future family left no qualms in his mind. It was just a matter of finding someone who would wish him away of their own free will, without any influence of his own. Direct influence anyway.
He tapped his gloved finger against his lips in thought. Sarah needed to be pulled out of that house tonight. The thought of her falling asleep another night with that pain in her drove him crazy. His lips yearned to kiss her tears away. A plan was needed, and quickly. A crystal appeared in his fingers, and through its shining surface, he watched Karen sink onto a couch. He cursed her severely for a minute, and then a smirk curled over his features as a plan sprang into his mind.
Sarah sat on her bed, doing what she had been doing for the past week. Sit and stare. She didn't even feel at home anymore, especially now that she knew it wouldn't be her home. Her mother still hadn't called Karen back, and she wasn't surprised. How often had that woman come into Sarah's life anyway? Her only solace now came from the baby sleeping in the next room.
A flash in her mind jolted her from her mindless trance.
I offer you your dreams, Sarah.
She blinked and stared around her room. The voice was familiar, and it sent shivers along her skin. Her arms slid around her and hugged herself tightly, looking at every corner of her room. However, the gaze of her eyes never scanned her window, where a snowy white owl sat serenely on a branch before it alighted and flew to the other side of the house.
Karen glanced down at her sleeping child. A pang of sadness washed over her as she thought about the girl across the hall, but she didn't see how she could be expected to take care of the house, Toby, herself as well as Sarah. Especially college, not that she expected the girl would ever really go. She signed in frustration and looked away from the crib.
A red, worn leather book caught her eye. It seemed very familiar, and as she picked it up in her hands, she recognized it as the book Sarah had read nonstop for the past few months. She sank down onto her bed and flipped through it, stopping as she got to a certain part.
"I wish the goblins would come and take you away," she said to no one in particular, "right now."
Suddenly the lights in her room went out, and she heard noises all over the place, movement out of the corners of her eyes but she could never catch it. Rising to her feet, panic swept through her as a cold sweat broke out. Stumbling to the crib, she gasped to find Toby missing. A noise beat the window and she looked up to find a snowy white owl, all feathers on glass, beating frantically to be let in. In a flurry the window was open and she felt wind whipping about her, tossing her hair. It died down, and a man, all clad in black with a mass of blonde hair, stood before her. Two things about him screamed to her: the power in his stance and the flashing anger in his eyes.
"Please," she begged, tears creeping into her voice, "where's my baby?"
"Do you think you really deserve to be the mother of a child?" the man asked in a British dialect. Karen was confused, distraught, and getting desperate.
"Of course!" she spat out. "He's my son! Give him back!" Somehow her scream seemed to be absorbed into the walls, and her voice was quiet next to his power.
The man had been standing before her; now he approached her haughtily, a smirk toying with his lips, making him appear cruel and uncaring. "So you care for your son, but not your daughter?"
Karen felt her face fall. Everything within her sank and she ran cold again. "Sarah…Sarah put you up to this." It was crazy, but it was the only thought that ran through her head. He was pitting Sarah against Toby; Sarah had to be to blame.
"I'm afraid not. She's much too hurt and abandoned to busy herself with thoughts of revenge. I, however, am not. It is entirely your actions that have put me up to this. You have been tested as a parent, and you have been found wanting."
A scream escaped Karen's mouth, but the aura of this man sucked it up, and she felt powerless before him. He laughed, a cruel, mocking laugh, and shook his head at her. He pulled out a crystal and spun it between his fingers, waiting for the woman's attention to fall on it.
"What—what is that?" she choked out, curiosity getting the better of her grief.
"It's a crystal; nothing more. But if you turn it this way and look into it, it can show you your dreams." The man's voice had changed, and she felt herself being drawn to him instead of repulsed. She stared into the crystal, and she saw herself living happily in a large house without any worries. She looked up at him with questioning eyes, searching this strange man for any answers. "I can give you your dreams. Would you like them?" Wordless, Karen nodded. "Then forget about the baby. I promise you, no harm will come to him."
Karen was ripped into two pieces. Toby had been an accident, but she did love him dearly. As for Sarah…it wasn't that she didn't like the girl. She just couldn't afford her. Her eyes traveled up the man before her, taking in the very sight of him. Something about him screeched evil, but as he stepped toward her, the crystal still balancing on his fingers, she saw a look of earnest on his face.
"Karen," he said softly. "This is more than someone like you deserves. Sarah and Toby will be safe with me, and they'll never want for anything." He paused here and his eyes shifted, flashed with joy as she realized that he thought he was winning. "And neither will you. There're your dreams, Karen. Your every wish. Take it." Everything within Karen fell as she realized that he was winning.
"And they'll…be safe?" she asked timidly, looking up into his face, feeling weaker than ever. He simply nodded and gave a soft smile, pushing the crystal toward her. Her fingers reached out, shaking, and came down on the rounded, smooth surface.
Jareth grinned as the foolish woman disappeared. She was now some rich man's wife, most likely on a yacht in the Caribbean or something. Not that he really wanted her to have her grandest dreams, but she was too old to be a goblin, and he wasn't in the line of business to kill. Cruel though he may be, the worst punishment in his kingdom was just to smell bad.
Quick strides took him out of the room, boots making not much noise on the thick carpet. His hand hovered over the doorknob to Sarah's room, and then it fell as he debated upon the best entrance. The sounds of Toby fussing could be heard drifting from the other side, and he knew that soon Sarah would search for what happened to Karen. Hrm, not a bad idea.
When Toby had just appeared there on the bed beside her, Sarah was more than a little shocked, but since nothing really thought-challenging had happened, it took her a while to rouse herself to actually wonder how Toby had gotten in her room. It felt strange for her mind to be working again, as if it had been deeply asleep like her feet sometimes and she just realized it. Her fingers gripped the cold doorknob—flashes of her father, cold and frozen in his coffin—and turned it in, pulling back the door, a familiar groan as the wood moves.
A gasp, for there in front of her was a tall, otherworldly man, his hair wild about his face, a black silk shirt and black leggings under black riding boots. Something shifted inside her, but her mind was still numb, still caught in that moment of non-feeling before the tingling began. Her heart thudded in her chest and her blood spread through her whole body, her cheeks flushing hot.
"Who are you?" she asked, panic spreading through her voice, but her mind was still slow to move in its fog.
"A friend, Sarah. Karen has called me to take care of you and Toby." The man was lounging in the doorframe and he then stood up and strode past her into the room, bending over Toby and tickling his tummy. Toby stopped fussing and gurgled, raising his baby fists up to him. A warning shot through her mind but it didn't last very long, and Sarah stepped forward, drawn to him by the powerful magnetism that he emanated, and this feeling that she knew him before.
"How did you know my name?"
He turned his head to her, and she noticed that he had one blue eye and one green. A smile toyed at her lips at that. "We've met before, but you were a child then. I doubt you have any memories of me." His gentle smile made her heart warm. "I'm Jareth. Come, Sarah. Time grows short." A pale hand extended to her in the moonlight, waiting for her touch.
Wonderingly, numbly, her fingers slipped into his hand. A jolt of feeling surged through her, hot and electric, the shock emanating through her whole body. Whiteness filled her vision, then nothing.
A/N: I bit quick into the Labyrinth, I know, but I was anxious to get her there.