He slipped in the ebony darkness like a cruel, unyielding mist. The blackness enveloped him like a second skin and made him feel secure like it knew him better then he knew himself. No matter what happened tonight his darkness wouldn't leave. It would protect him. It would save him from himself and his own dark desires.

He glided across the hardwood floor like a spirit. He made no noise and hardly even disturbed the air that surrounded the beauty who laid so perfect and innocent before him. Her chocolate locks spilled across her pillow and her alabaster skin glowed faintly in the dimness, as if she were lit by an inner fire. He wanted to touch those flames. He wanted them to warm him as they warmed her.

She was living. She was beautiful. She was everything that he wanted. How could he have thought that he could get over her?

He looked at her closely as he moved ever closer. Soon he lurked directly over her bed. Her breath left her sweet kissable lips and wafted up to his eager nostrils. If he could have breathed in her essence right at that moment he would have. He would have taken everything that she was and secreted it away in his heart, where she should have been in the first place.

She had left him. He had offered her his broken and tortured heart! There had been such pain on his face, so much love and pleading, but she was so wrapped up in the game that she didn't notice. She didn't care, and he had lost everything.

Well, that wouldn't happen again. He wouldn't lose her a second time. It had been five long years for him, watching her grow up and change.

He tortured himself endlessly, watching her with his crystals whenever he could. He watched her finish high school. He watched her learn to love her family. He watched as they went on picnicks to the park together and longed for the day rthat he could join her like that. He wanted what she had- that sort of intimacy and happy togetherness.

Finally, last night things had changed for him. He'd been kept away from her because of those damned words that she'd said that cast him out of her life forever. There had been no way for him to go to her. But that all changed. He had watched her as she went to a party on the college campus where she attended classes.

She had too much to drink and was starting to lose control of herself. It was the first time she had ever been drunk, and she lost all her inhibitions. She ended up dancing with a guy who wanted to take advantage of her. He led her away from the dance floor into one of the upstairs rooms.

One of her friends had seen her head off with the guy and knew it would mean trouble. They'd followed the couple upstairs, but were too late. The man locked the door behind them, and then set to work on Sarah.

He pulled her to him and roughly began to fondle her breasts and sloppily kiss her neck. Sarah tried to push him off but she was too off balance from the alcohol. Jareth watched helplessly as the man threw her to the bed and worked to pull off his trousers.

The friend was banging on the door, but couldn't help. Sarah was struggling and yelling for him to stop. The man wouldn't. Frantically, Sarah yelled,

"Somebody, anybody, help me!" That was enough for Jareth.

He couldn't help her himself, but her call gave him enough power to unlock the door. Her friend came barreling through, saw the situation, and immediately knocked the jerk to his butt on the floor. They then called the university police, and the guy was taken to jail where he would be charged with attempted rape.

Sarah gave the best statement she could, and then went home to sleep it off.

She had drifted into a restless slumber, her drunken mind pulling up images that she hadn't thought of in years. Jareth's face came to the front. She dreamed of his mismatched eyes and his silken hair. She dreamed of his marble body, and in those dreams she felt safe, as if she knew she had a protector.

One word passed her lips, and that word was enough to change her world forever.

"Jareth."

And he came for her. He was finally here now. Her words had invited him. It was a risky thing he was about to do, but after all this time he wasn't about to wait any longer than he had to.

Without waking her up he laid down next to her. He drank in the sight of her perfect body, hidden only slightly by the thin sheets she slept under, and ran his finger up her arm. He ended at her neck, and traced a light pattern there. He followed the line of her jaw to her perfect lips, and leaned forward.

His warm, hungry lips seared onto hers just as she began to stir. She had no time to awaken or move before suddenly the room around them disappeared and was replaced by a much more elegant, elaborate room fit for a Queen.

Jareth had stolen her away to the Underground, and he would never let her go again.