Sarah sighed, and dusted off her hands. She looked around her room and nodded happily, noting that she only had a few more boxes of clothes and knick-knacks to go through before her unpacking was done; and she was officially moved into her new apartment. She moved to one of the boxes that was simply labeled Sarah closet and fought with the packing tape before the box finally yielded, and she started digging through the box.
It appeared as though most of her dresses and coats were in this box and Sarah sighed as she pulled out some rather startling pieces of clothing. This box had been packed up and kept in storage since her sophomore year of high school, and it was obvious that her taste in clothing had changed drastically since then. Gone were the jeans and peasant shirts that used to make up her wardrobe. All of her vests had been thrown out, and Sarah had started wearing far less colors. By her freshman year of college black was the main staple of her wardrobe, as was apparent by the many different black dresses and coats already hanging in her closet. Sarah pulled a few paisley dresses out of the box and threw them directly into the donate pile she had started at the beginning of unpacking fiasco. She pulled out a few pairs of shoes, checked their size, and smiled when she realized that they still fit. Those got thrown haphazardly into her closet, thunking dully against the back wall of the closet before they came to a rest in her already mountainous pile of shoes.
Sarah heard a faint knock at the door to her bedroom, and called out "Come in!" before turning back to the box, and quickly throwing two garishly pink coats that no longer fit into the donate pile. Her roommate of two years, Lizzie, peeked into the room and chuckled when she saw the mess that Sarah was sitting in.
"Care for some help? I've just gotten done unpacking myself, and you have more boxes left to go through than I started with." Sarah nodded absently as she finally got to the bottom of the box she had been working on, dismantling it with relish before throwing it into one corner of her bedroom, where other gutted boxes were laying haphazardly. Lizzie moved into the room and used a pair of scissors to cut open the tape that was holding a box labeled Sarah bedroom shut. Sarah watched Lizzie carefully open the box, and let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding when she realized just what was in that box. It was most of her old games and books, and what looked like a few stuffed animals.
"I think you can go ahead and donate that entire box Liz, doesn't look like there's anything I want out of it." Lizzie tsked, her head shaking slightly as she rolled her eyes at Sarah.
"There might be something of value in here. We'll go through it together." Sarah, in turn, rolled her eyes and nodded. She knew that arguing with Liz was not going to end well, for either party. Sarah shifted closer to Liz and pulled a few games out of the box and tossed them directly into the donate pile. Lizzie rolled her eyes and pulled a few of the stuffed animals out of the box. She raised them up, and then raised her eyebrow. Silently questioning Sarah as to which pile they should go into.
"Donate Liz, I'm too old for that kid stuff now." Lizzie chuckled and threw the toys over into the donate pile. Sarah reached into the box, and her hand wrapped around something that had been wrapped in one of her old bandanas. Sarah pulled it out of the box and stared down at the thing, whatever it was. She moved to unwrap the thing, and then moved her hand back; as though whatever the thing was had bitten or stung her. Lizzie raised an eyebrow and wrenched the bandana from Sarah's hand. Sarah froze, horrified at what she had uncovered in her box.
Staring up at her, was her small plastic figure of the Goblin King, just as she had left him all those years ago. Sarah started shaking. She thought that she had gotten rid of everything that had reminded her of that nightmare encounter and of him. Sarah handed the doll to Lizzie, her hand shaking lightly. Lizzie took the figure from Sarah and watched her carefully, trying to assess if she was alright.
"Which pile is this going in?" Lizzie asked, waving the doll in her hand lightly. Sarah's eyes watched the miniature Goblin King's cloak swish lightly and she chewed on her lip. On the one hand, she wanted it gone, but on the other it remind her of him. She was heavily conflicted. Her therapist's voice resounded in her head, telling her to get rid of anything that reminded her of her 'bad dream' but there was also another voice, a very tiny one that was screaming at her to keep it. Perhaps if she kept it he could find her again, and they could reconcile. Lizzie waved a hand in front of Sarah's glazed, green eyes, trying to get a response out of her. Sarah blinked twice and looked over at Lizzie, smiling slightly.
"Put it in the keep pile. I'm not going to get rid of that one." Sarah's voice shook slightly, but after giving Lizzie a hard look she complied, and the Goblin King replica was thrown into a pile along with Sarah's shoes and clothes, and a few posters and CD's. Sarah took a deep breath and dove back into unpacking, hoping that her shaking hands would calm down so that she could regain some sense of normalcy.
A few hours later all of the boxes had been unpacked, and Sarah was laying facedown on her bed, one of her CD's blasting. A slight knock resounded on her door, and she muffled a loud "Come in" into her pillow. Lizzie opened the door, wearing a skimpy wine colored dress, and strappy heels that made her at least five inches taller. She smiled warmly and Sarah took in the large amounts of makeup that the blonde had piled onto her face.
"Sarah, get up. We're going to that party remember?" Sarah groaned and moved her face back into the pillow, sighing heavily. She did vaguely remember agreeing to go with Lizzie to some frat party to celebrate the last day being free of class, but she almost wanted to take her promise back, so that she could just stay at home and get some well needed rest before class the next day.
"Give me fifteen minutes Liz. Then I'll be ready." Lizzie nodded and stepped out of Sarah's room, shutting the door behind her. Sarah stood and moved to her closet, throwing the doors open and staring inside. Sarah sighed and tipped her head to the side, attempting to pick something to wear. She finally decided on a hunter green dress that barely covered everything, and a pair of thick black pumps, that had what her stepmother called a 'stripper platform' that added about two inches of height all on its own. Sarah turned and admired her bare back in the backless dress before turning back around and moving to the bathroom to fix her hair and apply makeup.
After deciding to just brush her hair and leave it down Sarah started on her makeup, applying far less than Lizzie had decided to apply. Lizzie knocked on the bathroom door and rolled her eyes, knowing that exactly fifteen minutes had passed. Sarah moved and opened the door, and smirked when Lizzie's eyes almost bugged out of her head.
"Damn." was the only word that Lizzie could get out, and Sarah chuckled.
"I can clean up pretty well." She said, with a slight shrug of her shoulders. Liz nodded, her mouth still hanging open. She had never seen Sarah in a dress, especially not one that showed off so much skin. Sarah moved to Lizzie and placed two fingers under her chin, and pushed up, shutting her mouth effectively. "Come on Liz. You know where the party is." Lizzie nodded and both of the girls moved down the hall, their arms wrapped around each other to make sure that neither of them fell over from their heels. Lizzie grabbed her keys and purse, and they both left the apartment, locking the door behind them.
Sarah pushed the button for the elevator and then turned her head quickly to look out of the window. She could have sworn that she saw something white swoop past the window. Sarah shook it off and smiled happily as the elevator dinged and the metal doors slid open. Liz walked into the elevator, and Sarah followed suit. The doors slid shut and the elevator lurched into movement. Liz swore as she almost toppled over.
"I forgot that this damned elevator is a death trap." The blonde muttered under her breath, glaring at the button panel in front of her. Finally the elevator lurched to a stop, and both of the girls exited before the thing decided to shut its doors once more.
They moved out to Liz's car, but a noise from behind them made Sarah jump. They both turned, and looked around. Lizzie's eyes opened wide, and Sarah took in a deep breath. Sitting in one of the trees near their apartment building was a large, white, barn owl. Lizzie tried to take a step to move closer to the creature but Sarah's arm reached out and grabbed her roughly.
"Don't." She murmured, watching the owl carefully as she started moving backwards towards Lizzie's car. Lizzie turned and looked at Sarah like she was crazy, but then she remembered that Sarah had mentioned a phobia of owls during their first year of living together. She nodded and moved so that she was facing the car. She helped Sarah walk backwards to the car, so that her friend could keep her eyes on the owl. Sarah was shaking when they finally got her in the car. Lizzie settled in the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition. Sarah took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down, having to close her eyes until she knew that they had pulled out of the parking lot, just so that she didn't see that owl again. It looked too much like him or at least, what she remembered his owl shape looking like. Sarah shook her head, trying to clear it of bad memories.
Lizzie turned on the radio and set it so that it was barely playing and then turned to look at Sarah quickly, before returning her eyes to the road. "You ok Sarah? You seemed pretty shook up back there." Sarah nodded wordlessly, hoping that Liz would just drop it. If she kept worrying about it she knew that she wasn't going to enjoy the party at all.
After a few silent minutes they finally pulled up to the frat house, and Liz parked her car quickly. Sarah climbed out of the passenger side and took a deep breath before smiling and linking arms with Lizzie, walking up to the frat house.
As they approached the door it swung open silently and they entered. One of the frat boys closed the door and then directed them into the large living area, where there was already a full-blown party going on. Sarah's eyes widened when she saw all of the booze sitting out, and here eyes continued to widen as she spied what she thought was a frat boy doing a line of coke off of the naked stomach of a cheerleader. Lizzie moved from Sarah's side, integrating herself easily into the party scene. Sarah sighed and stood by the wall, slightly uncomfortable with the whole thing.
She had been to plenty of parties before, especially during high school and her rebellious phase, but she had never been to a party like this one. Couples were practically dry humping on the sofas, the armchairs, and the floor. Almost every surface was coated in gyrating bodies, or people getting completely smashed. Sarah moved to the coffee table, grabbed an unopened bottle of beer from the cooler nearby, and then moved out of the room, trying to find a spot in the house that wasn't dissolving into an orgy.
Sarah ended up in the next room, which had a large pool table set up, and an overly large tv on one wall. While this room was also packed with bodies all of them still had their clothes on, and Sarah felt much more comfortable away from the techno and drugs of the other room. She moved carefully to the center of the room, and leaned against the pool table. Her eyes scanned the room, seeing if she recognized anyone in the overly large crowd. She recognized a few faces, and then her attention turned to opening her beer bottle. Once she got the cap off she took a large swig, and then continued people watching. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of someone that had extremely pale blonde hair. She turned her head to get a better look, and she froze, her beer bottle halfway to her mouth.
She caught the gaze of the stranger with the pale hair from across the room. Her heartbeat increased, pounding along with the beat of the light techno music that was playing in the next room. She felt a shiver touch the base of her spine, and she turned her gaze away; hoping to slink out of the party and back to her apartment without the man – who looked surprisingly like him – or her roommate seeing her. Her plan was quickly foiled when Lizzie spotted her.
"Sarah, where do you think you're going? The party's just started." Sarah shrugged and ran one of her hands against the back of her neck, trying to regain composure and ground herself with that simple action.
"I was actually getting ready to leave. I have class early tomorrow and I'm starting to feel sick." Sarah could feel the hair on the back of her neck raise up. She turned and half expected him to be standing behind her, the mortal clothing ditched, and his high collared black cape billowing in an nonexistent breeze. Instead there was nothing behind her, not even the heavily pierced blonde man she had seen earlier. She turned back to Lizzie and her eyes widened. There he was again, leaning against the far wall. Lizzie turned and her eyes widened as well when she saw who Sarah was staring at. She turned back to Sarah and noticeably squeed, happy that her usually cold roommate had finally found a man to lust after.
Sarah paid Lizzie no heed, her eyes focused on the man who looked so much like the Goblin King. His face was identical, except for his eyebrows, which weren't slanted at an odd angle. Sarah could tell, even from this distance, that his eyes were ice blue, and that one of his pupils was larger than the other one. His hair was wild, but cut very short, and it looked as though he had blue streaks in it, but with the strange lighting of the room it was hard to tell. Gone was the makeup she remembered gracing his face, but his face was not devoid of ornamentation. One of his eyebrows was pierced, a long bar stuck through it, with two small colored balls holding it in place. His left ear was pierced all of the way up, and his right ear sported a bar that went through the top of his ear, following the gentle curve of it easily. He also had a large earring dangling out of the lobe of that ear, that was shaped like the claw of a large bird.
Sarah's eyes travelled away from his face, and her mouth opened slightly. Gone were the tight grey pants that she remembered, and the peasant shirts had also been replaced. He was wearing a black V-necked tee shirt, and Sarah almost found herself wishing that the vee was deeper, so that more of his creamy chest was exposed. His pants were shredded, with large holes in the knees, and her eyes continued to travel down. She expected his feet to be clad in heeled boots, but converse graced his feet again. Sarah gulped and then met his eyes again. The look on his face was dangerous, and feral, and she felt her knees start to shake.
The world felt like it was melting. Memories of her time from the Labyrinth bleeding into reality, and Sarah really wondered if that man was Jareth or not. Suddenly she didn't have any time to ponder, because he had moved swiftly to stand behind Lizzie.