Tossing and turning in twisted sheets while dark images of dancing figures crowd behind my closed eyelids.
I sat up with a jerk feeling my heart beating too fast and my night gown sticking to me. It was just a dream I told myself shakily. It had been over two years since I had ventured forth into the Labyrinth to save my baby brother Toby, but Jareth had never really left me. The Goblin King haunted my waking thoughts and my dreams when I slept. I feared that I'd never be rid of him.
"You're no match for me, Sarah." Rippled through my head, as though he were standing before me with his strangely hypnotic eyes: one brown and one green eye. If there was one thing I absolutely would never forget, it would be his eyes.
"Sarah are you alright?" I looked over at my roommate who was looking at me with a worried expression. "It was the dreams again wasn't it?" She sat up throwing her legs over the side of the bed and sliding on her slippers. She made her way across the cold room to my bed and sat on the edge of it. "Sarah, I know I haven't known you very long, but these dreams you have cannot be normal." I shook my hair out of my eyes and nodded. "You're right," I said thoughtfully, "they aren't normal. I've been having the same dreams for two years now." I sat up in bed and looked out the frost covered window. It was fall still, but in the night it got very chilly.
"Sarah?" My roommate asked looking even more worried. I smiled at her. "Don't worry about me Rachel. Surely, I'll be fine. Look the sun is beginning to rise. We should get ready for class." Rachel nodded glad to be doing something to get her mind off of my dreams. She doesn't even know the half of it. If I told her what they were about, she'd really be worried. I grabbed my shower shoes and my towel and toiletry bag and headed down the hall to the showers. It was early yet so they were still empty. I loved having the showers all to myself. I stepped into the scalding hot water willing it to take the chill from my bones and to wipe away the last remnants of my dream. I'd heard his voice in my head over and over again singing to me. It was how I fell asleep most nights.
"Sarah?" I heard his voice whisper through me, "Let me rule you and you can have everything that your heart desires." He had said these words to me right before I destroyed his world and left taking my little brother Toby with me. I felt bad destroying his world and hurting him, for I knew by the end of my quest that what I'd said in the beginning was true. He had fallen in love with me, and I'd be lying to say that I didn't care for him.
I turned off the shower and wrapped up in my towel. I grabbed my toiletry bag and was leaving the bathroom when there he was in the mirror. "Sarah." He called out to me. I turned and ran as fast as I could from the bathroom. I ran into my room just as Rachel was heading out. She must have seen the panicked expression on my face, for she stopped and asked me what the matter was. "Nothing," I said quickly plastering a smile onto my face. She nodded looking somewhat convinced and went to take her shower. I looked in the mirror on the bedroom door and he was standing there waiting for me.
I looked down at the towel that was covering my body. "What do you want Jareth?" I demanded. "Do you want to drive me crazy? Because that is what you do to me when you send me these dreams and your voice. Tell me why you do this?" I approached the mirror. He looked at me with a great sadness and yearning in his eyes. "Sarah, you destroyed my world. Now I'm bringing my world to yours. It will start slowly at first, but one day soon my kingdom will rule your world, unless you come to me." I froze in my approach to the mirror. That was all the invitation he needed. I watched disbelieving as he stepped through my mirror as if it were a door and who's to say it wasn't. He approached me like one would approach a wild animal slowly and cautiously.
"Jareth." I whispered. This was my nightmare come true. My secret wish come true. I knew how he felt for me, but I couldn't allow myself to be so easily drawn back into his world. I turned my back from him. "Go away Jareth, please." I begged I could hear the tears in my voice. I hated sounding weak in front of anyone let alone him. The instant his hand touched my shoulder, I could feel all the feelings I'd been suppressing for the last two years come crashing down on me in a tidal wave of emotion. I turned into the warmth of his touch how could I not? My mind screamed no at me, but my body wasn't hearing it. His head descended to meet my own, and we just stared at each other breathing in the same air before he closed the distance and kissed me.