DISCLAIMER: Labyrinth and all its characters do not belong to me. Neither do the fairytale and other fictional characters whose names I unceremoniously ripped off for the hell of it all.
Sometimes Sarah
"Beware the stories, especially those you don't know. Because you never know, they might know of you."
– – –
She'd been called Alice, once. Exploring and inquiring about everything around her, fantastical adventures were written in her name.
Ah, but were it only that easy to lure her, as that piece of fiction in her name! Why, he would not have to go about scouring Above for her bright fire again and again, even as she resists him, again and again. But no matter. Soon.
Her name was almost never the same, but it was always at the tip of his tongue - whatever name she goes by, he makes a point to know. Always changing, that girl, and yet never.
She had gone by Miranda, Lucy, and, for a time – another lifetime – she was called Violet. Then, she was Sarah – and it would not be the last time that she was named thus.
Ah, yes. It would not be the last time. Not yet. But... Soon.
Even so, no matter how many times she lives, then dies - eluding him, always! Infuriurating girl... - her spirit stays the same. Curious, adventurous, stubborn, and proud. And so very cruel. Yes, his Sometimes-Sarah. Cruel to a fault, not only with her eyes, but with her actions and with her words.
Yet he loved her despite it, and perhaps, even more because of it.
Curiously, of all other names to go by, for whatever reason, the most recurring seem to be Sarah. How fitting it was, she does not know, yet. But...Soon.
He caresses her name with his lips, but wishes for more than letters rolling across his tongue, ghosting kisses on his lips.
He waits. It is necessary, yet nevertheless is a given – never with her – but he waits dutifully, if a little impatiently, perhaps.
He is no longer content with settling for the memories of her that had come - Diana, Rebecca, Elena, Allison, Michele... – and gone.
It's a difficult process, but one he's familiar with, by now - and why shouldn't he be, after all these years? - and watches. He watches a mother, full of wonder and fear and love, as she holds her child to her breast.
"I think... I think I'll call you Sarah."
He laughs, standing in the midst - right in the middle, and yet not - of mortals who don't know him or of his presence, and a mortal he knew. He will know. Again.
He watches her. No longer a babe, but not yet the woman he knows she had been - could yet be.
Somewhere, he has found the patience to watch, for now, as the girl runs his Labyrinth. If any could ever win, it would be her, he knows - she would be the only one to truly dare.
Dare to reject him, too, he knows. She is not yet ready - he lured her Under too early, too son - and she will reject him. But never forget him.
It hurts - no matter that he expected it, predicted it - but, waiting hurted as well. He could wait some more.
She was in his grasp, the moment she called to him. She was tied, irrevocably, the moment she took a bite of the Peach. She was his. It was only a matter of time, now, and growth. Then, she would call.
Because he would make sure that she would never forget.
Once upon a time, she had been Helen. Beautiful, clever, and cruel Helen, with various men attached to her like bees to honey. But now, there would only be him, and his Sometimes Sarah - ah, but "Sometimes", no longer.
For he had claimed her, – beauty, stubborness, sense of adventure, wit, selfishness, cruelty – and he will be damned before he claims less than all of her, not after he has waited all this time.
Soon.
– – –
END(?)
05.27.11