Ace Of Spades

Ace Of Spades

By Silverstar Wizard

One

The school bell rang, signaling the end to a very bad day. Sarah grabbed her book bag and threw herself against the door. She almost ran down the hall in her haste to be out of that class. Anna, who had the next locker and was a good friend of hers, caught up with her as she was collecting her books for homework.

"Rough day?" she asked.

"As you would never believe. You know my History teacher, Mr. Medlass?"

"The one who used to teach at West Point?"

"Yeah. Supposedly, though I believe every word of it. Well, first we were assigned an in class research activity. We're studying the Middle Ages, and we had to write a report on a mythical creature."

"Oh no. I can guess where this is going." Anna was the only person whom Sarah had told about her adventure in the Labyrinth. She wanted desperately to meet Jareth ("Sounds pretty fine, if you ask me. Look, I'm not implying anything, but if you don't want him, I do."), and Sarah had promised that if it were ever possible to ask him, she would try to arrange a meeting. Anna had also tried, briefly, to arrange a Goblin Support Group, which would petition the government to grant goblins and other oppressed and underrepresented races unquestioned asylum. Sarah had managed to convince her that that wouldn't work (and that she didn't want a bunch of goblins running around anyway), but she was still the Underground's biggest undiscovered fan.

"Right. So the Captain goes round the room, assigning creatures. Of course, I'm the last one. All the pretty cheerleaders sit up front and they take "Unicorn," "Fairy," "Elf," "Mermaid." Then all the boys, and away go "Minotaur," "Chimera," "Roc," "Dragon," "Basilisk." All around the room, until it gets to me, and all there is left is "Goblin." Why me? Why that one mythical creature out of all mythical creatures? I wanted to cry right then and there. I tried to trade, but Mr. Medlass heard me and said that I was trying to get something easier. Then he told me that I must be much more stupid than he had previously thought, because goblins were the stupidest creatures he had assigned. So he told me that not only must I hand in a full report, annotated and illustrated, on goblins, I must also research the Goblin King."

"And that's why you're upset?"

"Anna, I know I used to tell you that I hated him, that he treated me badly and tried to use me for god-knows-what. I know he stole my brother. But he was right: I asked him to take Toby. And now…well, I miss him. History class just reminded me…but wait, I haven't told you the worst part."

"It gets worse?"

"Oh yeah. Then, he handed out books to use for research. They were these big leather books, manuscripts. I can't imagine where he found them."

"Probably some occult bookstore."

Sarah laughed. She was starting to feel a bit better. "Mm-hmm. And I thought I might as well research Jareth and get it out of the way. I turned to the page and my whole story was there! Everything was there, even Ludo and Hoggle…the Escher Room. There was even a picture of us dancing in the crystal. Then some jerk I thankfully don't know saw the page, and told the teacher I was reading fairy stories instead of researching. I told him that a) I wasn't researching fairies so there was no need for me to be reading their stories, and b) if that was a fairy story, I was a frog. Of course, I couldn't tell him that that was me in the story, so I don't think he quite got the point that there are definitely more pleasant places to be than in the Bog of Eternal Stench. But everyone came over to see what was going on, and they all laughed because I had such an (and I quote) "ugly, skinny guy with bad clothes and 80's hair" to research."

Anna was trying to decide whether to feel sorry for Sarah or laugh at how little everyone else knew about the situation.

"He does have 80's hair, you know," she said gently.

"I know that, but that's no reason to make fun of it!"

"That's true."

"And they of all people shouldn't be calling other people skinny. They're all anorexic anyway."

Sarah laughed again. Anna always made her feel better. But she still couldn't shake the feeling that someone had insulted herself very deeply, which was strange since it was Jareth they had made fun of, not her. She wondered whether it might be Jareth himself making her feel like that, trying to make her realize that she missed him, or make her feel guilty that she had never called him. She knew Jareth was capable of putting words into people's mouths whenever he felt like it. But that didn't explain why she hurt so much.

Two

At home that night, Sarah was distracted and somewhat depressed. She was supposed to be working on her report, but didn't feel that she could bear to look at the picture of her and Jareth dancing again. It was too painful.

She sighed. She had all her other homework done, her report wasn't due for a week, and she needed some serious relaxation. She decided to run a bath.

"And if I don't deserve this now, may I never take another bubble bath again," she thought, somewhat bitterly.

When the bathtub was finally full, there was a heap of bubbles a foot high about to spill over the top. "So I got a little carried away," thought Sarah as she threw her clothes into a corner and got in. "But I'd sure like to shake the hand of the person who came up with the idea of bubble baths. They must have had a stressful life."

Sarah put her long dark hair up into a bun so that it wouldn't get wet, and leaned back against the wall of the tub.

As she stretched out her legs and started to doze off in the warm water, Sarah thought she could hear a soft voice singing somewhere in the back of her mind.

As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you,

All the thrill is gone, wasn't too much fun at all…

Sarah murmured in her sleep, and a small smile played across her lips. In her dream, she was in the crystal sphere again. Jareth was holding her close as her sang to her, and she rested her head against his shoulder. They moved gracefully through the crowd of dancing couples, the only two without masks.

…But I'll be there for you

As the world falls down…

Jareth pulled away to look at her face. He wasn't smiling. In fact Sarah couldn't think of a time when he had smiled, unless he was doing something horrible to someone. Or when he was coming up with some new way to put someone through hell. Like when she had first started through the Labyrinth. He had smiled then. Such a pity.

But now, when they were dancing, Sarah could see that the smile was all in his eyes. He wasn't unhappy; he just didn't show emotion on the surface. You had to look at him, and see the way his eyes never left hers, as though there was a thread connecting them, to know that he felt something for her.

Falling in love…

Almost as though he could hear her thoughts, Jareth pulled her to him for a kiss. It was relatively innocent: he only brushed his lips lightly against her forehead for an all-too-brief second and then pulled away again. But Sarah could tell from the way he held her hand tighter and pulled her waist a little closer to him, that it meant more than what it was.

Sarah looked up in surprise. His eyes looked softer than they usually did, mellow even. In those few moments, Sarah experienced a new feeling, that of complete contentment. She felt like she fit within Jareth's arms as though they had been molded just to hold her.

Jareth lowered his head to whisper softly in her ear, "Sarah, there is no time in the Labyrinth. Stay here for a day, and you stay for as long as you wish. I can give you everything, if you stay for me."

As he breathed the shadow of a kiss in her ear and made his way to the corner of her mouth, Sarah considered the consequences of accepting. Did he entertain young girls in this manner often? Even if he was only acting, he did a very convincing job.

"Of course…he's had an eternity to practice," she thought with a tinge of what might have been jealousy. But it didn't matter to her then, or even afterward when she thought about it. The timeless Labyrinth and its ageless King performed miracles in her mind, spinning feather dreams and webs of golden hope. They encircled Jareth's halo of golden hair and streamed from his eyes and pale face…Sarah could only hope that they were real in some time and place.

But suddenly, the music stopped and the crystal shattered. Sarah saw her friends Ludo, Hoggle and Sir Didymus running through the falling crowd.

"Don't worry, milady!" cried Sir Didymus. "We'll save you!"

"No!" shouted Sarah, flinging herself around for one last look at Jareth before she fell into the blackness outside the dream. "Stop! Jareth! Come back!" She stretched out a hand; hoping that he would make some movement to catch her, hold her near him.

Outwardly, Jareth betrayed no emotion, but there was such a look of pain and despair in his eyes that Sarah could hardly bear to look at him. She'd lost him again.

"It's too late, Sarah…too late…"

"No! Sarah screamed, jerking awake in the bathtub. She'd fallen asleep. Had she hurt Jareth that much in the Labyrinth? Had she been so caught up in her quest that she didn't take the time to look at his face? Or was his love for her just another effect of the dream crystal? Was it love she had seen in his eyes? There was no way to find out now.

Sarah looked at her watch.

"I don't believe it, it's after twelve! I'd better go to bed." She got out of the tub, wrapped a towel around herself, and walked out to get her nightshirt.

Sarah shrieked. There was a goblin on her bed, noisily shuffling through her blankets and various stuffed animals.

"Hello, Sarah," said a warm British voice behind her. She spun around. Remembering her dream, her face turned bright red and she felt her ears get hot.

"Jareth," she said as coolly as could be managed. He smiled and inclined his head slightly to acknowledge that that was in fact his name. "I didn't expect to see you…aboveground."

Jareth smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Sarah, would you assume that you were the first girl ever to wish away a young one? Surely you have more humility than that."

"You take…other children?" Jareth laughed.

"Still not taking the time to think things through, I see. Sarah." The Goblin King lowered his head and walked towards her, pulling out a crystal as he did so.

"Take this," he said, placing the shimmering crystal in her hand. She took it, and was immediately fully clothed, in her own white shirt and jeans.

"You are needed immediately. Take my hand, and I will explain forthwith." Jareth extended a hand towards her, and when she didn't take it immediately, he seized her hand tightly in his and the two disappeared immediately, leaving a faint scattering of silver dust where they had been only seconds before.