Rain
Disclaimer: I don't own Labby. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs counseling more than I do.
A/N: This one was a long time coming. One of the life-sucking ones. Thanks to J, for finally getting me to finish it.
She had his cloak. The white one, with the feathers. After his defeat Sarah had made a wild snatch for it, holding on for dear life just as the Escher room faded, to be replaced by the dubious safety of the stairs at home. The owl still circled her and she clutched the cloak to her chest, breathing hard, eyes tear stained as she made a silent oath to quit her habit of going overboard with her endless gasps and gulps. The owl flew out of the open window, and she watched it go, lost in the night, throat constricted. Something was missing in the fact, though Sarah couldn't put a name to it until she could. Finality.
Something in Sarah wanted to call out to him. To shout his name into the night. She restrained herself and raced to check on Toby instead.
Sometimes, to need is… to let go…The Wiseman had told her that, that very night when she'd had her adventure. She was saying her parting words to the Very True Friends she hadn't expected to find. To need is to let go….
But she didn't let go. She held onto the cloak. Sarah kept it in the drawer of her bedside table, which stood with easy, familiar solidity on the left side of her bed. There it remained. Carefully folded, within easy reach. Though why she would want to reach it she did not know.
The following night Sarah had a terrible dream, of running and shadows and voices in the dark. Deep down she felt a desperation, though she could not name it in her half-dream state. When she woke up, tangled in her sheets, Sarah looked down only to find the fingers on her left hand bruised and slightly bloodied, one of her nails torn.
Her left hand.
Maybe a year later, she was in the park, alone. Yet another overcast day, that time in the Fall when the weather couldn't quite decide between rain and the first now fall. Inhaling the sharp, crisp air, Sarah kept her hands in her pockets and watched red and orange and yellow leaves float along the small stream, which bubbled in a tired, lazy sort of way. This was much deeper into the park than most people usually chose to go. It was getting late too, and the parents, who were just about the only people to be dragged to the park in this weather, had long since gone home.
Sarah frowned into the water, feeling the cold air, like water, on the skin of her face. Then she felt it. But she didn't jump and she didn't flinch. She went on staring at the small pebbles in the stream.
"You're following me." His reflection appeared in the water. Distorted, but every bit as haunting as ever.
A smirk.
"Am I?"
She turned around, to where he was leaning carelessly against a mossy tree trunk, frowning still.
"What do you want?"
"What do I want? Really, Sarah, dear, that's a bit far fetched, isn't it?"
Grey eyes flashed, she took an angry step forward.
"No. No its not, and you know it. Leave me alone."
"It was not I who summoned me here." Her eyes flickered as his rich voice cut the silence. His eyes remained impassive, studying her in that mockingly detached manner.
"I didn't do it." She knew this for sure. Sarah had made certain that she never uttered anything that sounded even remotely like The Words.
His smirk widened in unholy delight.
"There's more than one way of summoning someone, my dear."
Sarah opened her mouth to retaliate, closed it, and thought.
"Well, either way, I want you to leave me be. I don't want to talk to you…" She couldn't resist the dramatic pause, "there's nothing to talk about."
"Good. In that case, we won't waste any time." Her head shot up, eyes wide, as he threw his head back, laughing a terrible, ferocious laugh.
Sarah frowned, even as her eyes flashed again and her cheeks stained.
"I unwish it then! I unwish your presence here." She sounded childish even to her own ears. Petulant.
"No, you don't. You couldn't even if you wanted to, but neither do you want to." He paused, eyeing her for a moment, in a way that made her cheeks stain further yet. "You want me…to remain right here."
"I…no!" She gasped, outraged, reading innuendoes in spite of herself.
"I do not want you...here!" Sarah lied to the Universe in General.
"Really." The Goblin King was nowhere near as gullible as the Universe in General. "Then tell me, Sarah," all humor was gone from his glacial eyes, his lips twisted in a sneer, "tell me, if you want nothing to do with me, why do you tremble when I do this?" He reached out a leather encased hand, running it along her fevered cheeks. Sarah gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, waged mental war and lost. A shiver stole through her. Her breath quickened.
Then his hand was gone and she looked at him with all the resentment she felt. The goblin king appeared unfazed by her scrutiny.
"Why must you be so cruel?" She whispered fiercely, moving closer in her embarrassed fury. "Why? What have I done to you to deserve this?!"
Not waiting to listen to his mocking reply, Sarah turned on her heel and began stalking out of the clearing, fighting the tears that suddenly blurred her vision.
His biting laughter followed her.
"Cruelty is such a relative notion, my dear." His cultured voice rang far behind her, and right in her ear all at once.
Sarah stood in the rain, tears mixing with the falling droplets, clothes plastered wetly to her shivering form. She fought for breath, clenched her thin hands into fists and stared up into the fearful heavens.
Lacrimosa…
It was all over. Long over. Yet she still saw him. Here and there. A reflection in a window, a shape across the street. And now there. She supposed that it figured, that perhaps spending the weekend at her folks' wasn't such a good idea at all. Old room and old memories.
But it was unimaginable not to have attended, and impossible to stay at a hotel.
Toby's ninth birthday. Candles, cake confetti and cans of silly string. Tinsel and Spiderman party hats. And Him. Always him. She had felt him as one feels a shiver going down their spine. Then she saw him, standing in a crowd of well-wishers. Among them, yet somehow untouched by their presence around him. He just stood there, face cold, watching her, waiting for…something.
The heavens broke then, rain began pelting down. As soon as the merriment was well underway, Sarah snuck into the kitchen, and dashed out into the rain, not bothering with her raincoat.
"Sarah!" she heard them shout. Her father, and Karen. They had entered the kitchen looking for more paper plates just as the door closed behind her. She heard them come out, looking for her. But they went right back in, she knew. No sense spoiling a good party. They were practical people, sometimes painfully so, and they knew she wouldn't have wanted to ruin Toby's special day. They had come to a silent understanding. A truce of sorts. Though Karen still, albeit in jest, maintained that her stepdaughter was undeniably Weird.
It was Fall again, and the day had already turned dark with the raging storm.
She just stood there, in the refuge of her favorite park, praying for life and death, yet entirely unsure why it was that she suddenly felt that way. Sarah had her quirks, certainly, everyone did, but she wasn't given to running around parks in the rain, and feeling so remarkably morbid.
Pleading with him, in the silent voice that could drown out the world in its' intensity. She had called to him, then. Threatened, begged, pleaded, cursed, still he did not appear.
"Jareth? Where are you?!" Sarah demanded, kneeling on the muddy grass because her knees felt like they could no longer support her, heedless of the mud stains she was getting on the satiny blue dress she had worn for the party.
Then she felt it. Him. Strong hands grasped her arms mercilessly, pulling her to her feet. Sarah struggled to turn around, but he held her still. His fingers were beginning to bruise her arms.
She felt the wild strands of his hair tickle her face, as he leaned forward to whisper into her ear.
"And what do you think you're doing?" His quietly delivered enquiry seemed more terrible than anything else she was sure he could throw at her.
"I…"
"Really, Sarah, you should know better. Nice girls do not wander around rainy parks at night. You should know better."
"Yes," she agreed, lava replacing her blood at his nearness. "nice girls should know better." She turned then, and faced him, winning against his cruel grip.
"Then what shall I do with you?" He growled, darkened eyes meeting hers.
"What will I let you do?"
He laughed then.
"Foolish child! You're under my spell now."
"No, Jareth, no spells. Not anymore. There is no need for any." They stared at each other, hard. Their gazes burning until, finally, they molded as one. Then he looked away. Or was it Sarah who shifted her gaze? She wasn't sure.
Suddenly he stepped back, and Sarah looked up, feeling strangely disappointed. Rain drops dripped down his now-wet crown of golden hair, down his sharp features. Sarah reached out a hand to touch his cheek, but he hissed and moved to take another step back.
Sarah crossed the distance between them, then gave him a chaste kiss on the lips, ignoring the screaming voice in her head. Jareth stood, unmoving, face frozen in acute disbelief. She gave him a small smile, then turned and went back home.
She was beginning to see a certain pattern to the way these things went.
Sarah skipped all the way from the park, humming to herself as the rain fell on her.
"Sarah!" Karen gave an outraged gasp, staring at her stepdaughter, who had just closed the front door, dripping all over the new parquet floors.
The girl looked up. "Hhm?"
The blonde woman gave her another bewildered look, a tray of party dips in her hands.
"Sarah, you're dripping all over the floors." Karen reprimanded. Sarah's gaze was far away, her face set in an expression Karen had not seen for years.
Sarah's lips curled into a dreamy smile.
"Oh! Never mind." Karen huffed, setting the tray on a small table, and coming forward towards her step-daughter. She moved to take Sarah's coat.
"You're dripping! Sarah, what were you thinking, running out of the party like that? Everybody was extremely set aback."
"Party? Oh! Party! I'm sorry, Karen. Was Toby upset? I…I had to take care of someone- something! But I'm back now!" She gave a wider smile this time and Karen looked even more puzzled.
"So, I'm just gonna run upstairs, and change, and I'll be right down." She carried on, already rushing up the old staircase, a triumphant glint in her eye.
Yes, a definite pattern.
On her birthday, Sarah tried it on, twirling once around her room, in a sea of white material. She felt eyes on her and was glad.
For the rest of the night she smiled at shadows. Everyone dismissed it. Young women were a species all of their own.
She wore a red dress that night, and watched the world with otherworldly eyes. Lips snarling at nothing, even as she laughed at everything. She stood on a balcony, looking down on the city far below her. The lights pinpointed the houses and twisted streets, only to be bounced off the glittering surface of the river, snaking in the distance.
She took a deep breath. It was a different night, she knew instinctively and felt a smug sort of pity for all the poor souls barricaded at home, unaware. The corners of her lips twisted slightly. Tonight nothing would remain the same, even if it never ever changed.
The huge moon glowed slightly far above her. It was the same sort of glow as that which was in her eyes that night. She was there and then she was gone. A short, black coat, and a flash of white slung across one arm, heels flashing, she was out the door, into the dark street below.
The start of an engine and the screech of tires, like the cries of a banshee in the night.
Yellow eyes followed even as the small car had long since vanished out of sight.
She was in Ireland, on holiday. The rest of the family went to Disneyland for a week. Karen commented wryly that it figured that Sarah would rather hang around some swamp somewhere.
Thinking of the Bog, Sarah violently denied any such thing. Then she pointed out that Ireland was not just a lot of swampland. Karen snorted, not buying for a moment that Sarah was planning to go designer shoe shopping or monument seeing. Then she repeated that the chosen destination shouldn't surprise them at all. All those fanciful books Sarah read so religiously... Sarah reassured her that she wasn't going fairy hunting.
She hadn't mentioned that it was the other way round…
Oh, yes it had been a long drive. Then it started to rain and her visibility decreased dramatically.
It was one of her father's favorite lectures before she left on her impromptu trip. Never drive in such awful weather if you can help it, Sarah! He'd instructed, motioning towards the window, where a storm was raging. We only have one of you, you know.
Unfortunately, Sarah was beginning to feel as though there was more than one.
It was a funny thing, and a feeling within her stomach told her where to lay the blame. As she opened the door and stepped out onto the slippery, springy grass, her high-heeled sandals sliding as she walked, the rain ebbed to a slight drizzle, and the clouds cleared, revealing a moon of silver glass. Her coat lay, forgotten, in the car. It was unusually bright, reflecting off the raindrops that studded Sarah's hair, weaving into an unearthly crown.
She walked like she knew where she went, all the while knowing nothing at all. The cloak trailing behind her, brushing the tops of the tall grasses.
It was like a dream, Sarah realized, like the dream she'd been living since that night in the park.
So Sarah walked down the little hill, and stopped at the bottom, her breath catching. The flat plane was covered by a cut labyrinth. The old sort, that tourists often went to see.
They watched her as she walked. They, who were older than the hills. Or perhaps as old as the hills, part of the earth itself. They could no longer be sure of that themselves.
Shining eyes in the darkness, voices murmuring in the wind. And they pushed her onward.
The tall grasses tried to grab at her ankles, trying to stop the foolish girl from walking where she did not belong. This was Their territory this night. She had no business here except the kind that you never returned from.
All around her the air, that had been so soft a moment ago, bit into her skin. A warning.
"I'm not scared of you." She called defiantly into the wind, which was beginning to pick up. The distinct beating of wings somewhere far above her. An owl, she knew instinctively. She saw those around a lot.
"Aren't you?" Came the voice from all around her. It was that One voice, but if she strained she could hear many others behind it.
"No. We've established that already."
"So we have." He was behind her now.
She craned her neck, but there was no-one.
"Hhm." Sarah looked around, with faux interest. She could just make out shaped lurking, but before she could so much as blink they were gone. She shrugged mentally. Her business was with him tonight. The King. Maybe their King.
He chuckled, catching her thought as it drifted on the wind.
"Oh, no. Not theirs." Then his voice became cold once more.
"What do you want, Sarah?"
Now she did shrug, still not seeing him. "I've brought your cloak."
To think, it all started with the silly cloak! she thought, but kept the thought within herself this time.
"I see that. Why here, now?"
"It felt like the place." The girl replied, though she herself had no idea where the words had come from, nor what they could have possibly meant.
Then she saw him, face beautiful, hair wild and eyes livid.
"The place?"
"That's what I said." She noted how his armor complemented his coloring. Black on white.
"Don't play games, little girl, when you cannot begin to comprehend the rules."
"There are no more rules."
Jareth looked like a cornered animal, then he snorted derisively.
"Oh, but my dear, there are more rules now than ever before."
Sarah watched him impassively.
"You are in a labyrinth, during All Hallows Eve, no less."
"Halloween?" Sarah snorted. "I don't give into all that tosh."
"Your pointless little human customs have a basis in truth, my dear. You, of all people, should know that."
Sarah shrugged in a way that made her dress shift from her shoulders down. Jareth watched the ripples of red satin stained with raindrops, and she didn't like the smile that suddenly stole across his lips.
"So what?"
"I told you once, that no all summons are spoken…"
"And I asked you why you had to be so cruel." She whispered, interrupting him. Her eyes were suddenly wet.
"Yes, so you did. Ever the idealist, my dear. But at least you are a pretty one."
She remembered their last meeting, and he enjoyed the blush that stained her cheeks.
"None the less, by coming here, now, you have answered the age-old summons, my dear. A call and a challenge."
He eyed her curiously.
"Do you know why such labyrinths were built? The difference between labyrinths and mazes?"
Sarah thought for a moment, looking away from him and studying the pattern of grass and earth around them. As though they would give the answers. Here, now, she felt that they could.
"A labyrinth is a place to find yourself in. A maze is to get lost." It was a fact well known.
"Perhaps." This said dismissively, as though she had just pointed out the weather conditions, "But why, Sarah, why build it?"
"I…I don't know."
"It is a geis. And an ancient one. Older then the hills. But then nearly everything in our world, is isn't it?" He chuckled at a joke she failed to see, "You do not find all the answers at the end, though many mortals like to imagine that they do. It is a test. And somehow, without being torn to pieces, for challenging the spirits this night, you come out the victor, without having even known of the challenge…"
Something dawned in her eyes, her jaw clenched.
"And I find you at the end…you are my truth…my realization…because with the fey things of the world, words and prophesies tend towards the literal…"
More murmurs all around them, louder now.
Prophesies? What nonsense was that?
Sarah didn't look up from the rock she was trying to outstare, feeling that she couldn't face him now. Then the rock stared back. Still, Sarah did not look away what were startled rocks to her, now?
"And why is that, Sarah, do you know?" He asked, urgently, making to grab her arms, then falling back.
She didn't answer, for a long time. They stood there, as the voices grew louder by the moment. She didn't move as the wind picked up, nor as the rain began to fall harder, sticking to her dress and his shirt, slicking their hair.
Jareth did not prompt her, did not call out to her. Instead he pried his cloak from her hands, putting it around her shoulders, as she began to shiver.
Sarah noticed none of this, as her mind replayed this instance and that, this phrase, that word, looks and touches. And rain, lots of rain.
"You've sure got his attention!" Hoggle's accusing voice told her from years ago. She smiled on the inside. Yes, she sure did, and in the worst of ways, too.
Eventually, as water ran down her face, Sarah spoke.
"…love me…" the final plea, coupled with a veiled threat as only he could do.
"I love you." Sarah announced quietly, as much a discovery to herself as anything. He started, though she did not see it. Then she glanced up at him, gaze accusing, "Though I should know better. For what eternity is mine to give, I love you."
Jareth shook his head, eyes flinty, teeth bared.
"Sarah, Sarah. What a time to make such a confession."
Hurt flooded her face, like a wound bleeding out.
He smiled.
"You misunderstand. You see, my dear, selfish and cruel though you are, I did tell you once that we were well matched," She remembered. It had been an insult at the time.
"And though I ought to throw you into an oubliette for all eternity to avenge all the destruction you have wrought one way or another, I find to my horror that my offer still stands."
She didn't look convinced. His offers got better every time he spoke them, it seemed.
"…fear me, love me, do as I say…and I will be your slave."
No, if he wouldn't say it, she would die before acknowledging it. And she would never fear him. And she would never obey him.
The way things were looking from where she stood neither would live out the night. Blue lighting split the sky in two. And three. And five.
He sighed. He didn't want to say it, so he kissed her instead, sweeping her off the wet grass, pressing her body to his, molding their lips and stealing her breath.
"You were so cruel…" She whispered for the third time in may years, when they finally broke apart.
"Such a relative notion." He dismissed for the second..
Sarah shook her head, exasperated. There was no winning…
"Well, here we are. What now?"
"An answer to my earlier question would be appreciated, my dear."
Surprised, Sarah creased her brow, " But…I just…"
"Yes, you did, and it was all very well, and good, but it was hardly the realization you needed to reach just right now. Sarah, how did you find yourself in the ballroom that night?"
"A peach? Hoggle gave me an enchanted peach. Detestable things. Havent touched one since." And it was true too, Karen had raised eyebrows at Sarah's sudden phobia. Sarah saw Hoggle's face every time…
Hoggle, what have you done…
"A pity. None the less." He fixed her with a look, "Now, really Sarah you know this."
A peach…she'd bitten into it…bitten…Fairy food! Words and prophesies and legends… Her eyes flew open, angry.
"You tricked me!" she squirmed out of his arms.
"Maybe. But I didn't make you eat the fruit."
"I had no choice!" she'd been so very, very hungry…
His face darkened.
"You know better than that, Sarah. You had been warned."
She slumped.
"Even if you do make it to the centre, you will never get out again." Hoggle again, chuckling at her idealism.
"You take too many things for granted…"
His arms came back around her.
"Come, now, is it really so bad?"
She shook her head, resigned.
"No. That's the worst of it! Don't you see? I ought to be livid. You stole my future! My life! My…"
"Mortality?" He suggested, "And I would give you the stars in return." This was said bitterly.
I move the stars for no-one…
"I don't want the stars." She retorted, wondering when they'd reverted back to childish archetypes. Her storybooks had been gathering dust in her mind for years.
"Then what do you want, Sarah?" He asked again, a different question from the one he's asked earlier.
"The truth would be a good start. And don't tell me its all relative." She wondered if his fascination with that idea stemmed from that Escher room, or if perhaps it was the other way 'round.
"Very well. You ate the peach, even if only a single bite. This labyrinth called you back, as it calls us all, stragglers on this lonely night, so that we do not get lost in this mortal land. Not all can travel as I can. And the twisted paths of the labyrinths lead us home. Now, you, too, have become a creature within the magic. Or perhaps it is the magic that has come to rest within you. You will remain yourself, yet changed. Some might even say Marred. One of us, yet not. Forever."
The finality in his words rang in her blood and froze her heart. He wasn't offering white castles and flowing gowns. Marred. Stories had always softened the horror. That's why they remained ever as the tellers perished.
"Eternity." She said, voice flat.
"Its not as long as you think."
"Then I will have to leave my family, my life, myself…"
"No. You will ever be a creature of this world as much as Faery. The borders will forever remained blurred. To you at least. I do not say that it is a blessing, for it is not."
She nodded understanding. To stand unchanged while all around you crumbled to dust…still, she could not surrender her life…or maybe she could. It was all a matter of how you looked at it. He had been the one to teach her that.
She looked at him, diamond eyes softening. Jareth looked weary. She felt much the same.
"One last question."
His eyes warned her. His stance was defensive.
Sarah reached for one of the King's gloved hands, and he didn't flinch away, though he looked like he wanted to.
She reached her conclusion. They would agree to disagree in some things, even as they were forced to be of similar mind in others.
"Can we go back to the hotel now? I'm freezing." Innuendos were his domain, really.
A smile broke his face showing off his sharp teeth. It was genuine, though she still felt remaining wariness lurking in his mismatched gaze.
"Indeed. We ought to get you out of those wet clothes." She smiled, too. His predictability had been put on for her benefit, even as she knew that she could never hope to guess his mind.
As the couple, whatever they now were, vanished from sight, followed by Sarah's rented car, a few voices could be heard around the old labyrinth. Chuckles, and chortles.
Oh, yes, that one wasn't returning anytime soon.
Pah! Mortals. Or not.
And who knew that the king would fall in love with the mortal girl? But then he'd always had that certain wild streak.
The next day Sarah had a cold. She was groggy and sulky.
Jareth, lounging insolently on the bed, pointed out that it was a mortal affliction.
It wouldn't be there is she didn't go around thinking that it should.
Sarah chucked a crumpled tissue at him for taunting her, and missed. Good riddance, too. The man had a terrible vengeance streak.