He knows it's her when the words are said.
The Goblins know it's her.
Even the Labyrinth shifts uncomfortably at the feel of her return.
She looks the same, even if a bit younger, but the same. The same lips, facial expressions even hair hair color is the same. But it's the cruel eyes that do him in. Now the shoes on the other foot, and he has the power over her, over his young Queen and she's still oblivious to who she is or was. It's apparent by the rags she's wearing and the hideous footwear, his Queen would never be caught dead in something like that.
Secretly he wants her to remember. He says words and phrases hoping it will trigger her and she will grace him with that devious smirk. But she stares at him blissfully unaware of the connection they share. When he was a runner for his beloved (it's been so long, he can't remember her name) she would trick him in a way that only a woman can trick a man. The Queen would press him into the wall of the Oubliette with her hands on either side of his head trapping him, and her body flush against his.
"How are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" she would purr in his ear as she nibbled on his lobe.
It was against the rule to touch a runner.
But she didn't care, she forfeited the game.
His beloved had long since been safe back home in her bed whilst her father arranged a marriage to a brute in a faraway land. Yet he thought he was running for his life, her life, and their love.
"I love her!" he would shout while looking for a way out of the Oubliette. Now he wonders if he ever was speaking of his beloved at all, he can't remember anymore and tries not to think about it.
"You say that so much I wonder what your basis for comparison is." she would hiss and glare then disappear, leaving him aching for that woman, and not his beloved, as he traversed the Labyrinth.
She befriends the same creatures he did in the same ways. He wonders how many times they've played this game, he also thinks for the first time, what if he loses? What if she actually chooses the baby over him? Will he be haunted by those memories or can he erase them? Will he be able to exorcise the siren from his mind and heart? He wants to stop her and make her remember, at times he wants to shake her but it is illegal to touch a runner. Unlike his ignorant Queen he always follows the rules.
He barks at the dwarf, but he really just wants to sink into the ground and beg the dwarf to twist a blade into his heart. The dwarf should have warned him, but he was a coward. He told him not of his fate, and for that he can no longer call him a friend. Hoggle. He knows his name and yet names are for those that he respects. The rockcaller is too dimwitted and Sir Didymus would never have been able to warn him because of his allegiance to the Queen.
Now he is the King and should act as such.
He doesn't want to admit it but around her he still feels like a pawn in her cruel game, but he'll never show it. He's drunk with giddiness while she's walking through the Labyrinth. He does his best to make it easier for her he changes routes and when the traitorous dwarf feeds her the fruit he leads her closer to the castle, closer to him.
It's just a dream, but it's more than that.
Technically in this realm it's not real at all, but it feels wonderful to hold an armful of his Queen. Still she's strong and defiant and can see through the poorly constructed dream, she shatters his dream like she always does.
How he loves and loathes his Queen. No matter what he says or does she doesn't remember, yet it is always him who is doomed to a castle, her every whim, and one sided love. Sadly it is she who stands in the room where he dropped to one knee and professed his love for her and quotes the same words he should have.
He can't give up without a fight!
He offers himself, his inherited world, his love, all to her and she blindly tossed it away and fades. He jumps to hold on but it's too late and she's gone.
She's gone back to a realm she doesn't belong in.
She's gone back to a family who won't love her.
She's gone back to living her life and leaving him alone, again.
"You have no power over me." the words make his blood boil. He had given up everything for her and she didn't remember! She doesn't, and most likely never will remember him or what they had. He drops to the floor and his white and cream colored clothes morphs into a black tailored suit. He falls into his owl form and dives between worlds.
He's going to yell.
He's going to shove.
He's going to make her remember.
He loves her.
He had given up everything for her, and she was going to cast him aside again.
As he caught onto the branch next to her window he watched as she danced and partied with those traitorous creatures. His citizens danced with hsi Queen! As the party died down and his citizens returned to the Goblin Kingdom she prepared for bed.
"You have a lot of nerve, Goblin King." the girl transforms into his Queen. She shifts into her familiar black body suit, and it hugs every part of her body. He can hear the crunching of bones as she grows and changes, he can see the skin stretch over her body as it adjusts to her new curves and stature and her hair grows down her back. "You know you need to stick to the story book, what were you going to do to her?"
"That's between me and the girl." his wings turn into hands and talons into long strong legs wrapped in black pants.
"But it's not about the girl," she turned and stepped closer to him "It's about us."
"There is no us," he kept his head high and didn't let an inch of doubt sink into his person. Queen Sarah raised her hand to stroke his face, he was still a beautiful boy when he was angry. Jareth grabbed her wrist and tackled her onto the bed.
"My, my, Jareth has grown up, has he?" she taunted lightly with a nervous smile. She wondered if her games and tricks were finally catching up with her. His angelic features were marred by anger and bitterness and the still familiar tinge of fear and pushed back the wild strands of hair, watching as his hard features softened in the moonlight. The soft caress of her hand almost made the two hundred and fifty years of silence worth it, he dipped his face closer and pressed his lips against hers, The warmth of her mouth and the caress of her free hand seemed to heal and hurt him.
"No!" he shouted as he tore himself away, his breathing was labored. This wasn't real, he thought. This was another one of her tricks and he would awake in bed with his heart and body yearning for the unreachable. His manhood alread began to throb wickedly for what he would be blessed with again. "You... you.. you won't do this to me again, Sarah! Not again!"
"Jareth, my King, my love-"
"What do you know of love and sacrifice?" he spat back at her as his hands stayed balled up at his side. The woman on the bed lay dishelved and riddled with confusion. She levitated above the bed before standing upright and walking over to him. "You used my love and your power over me to trap me in a world you hated. You call that love?!" he laughed bitterly.
"You wished to save the girl, and I stupidly gave you a chance. You wished her no harm and no harm came to her. You gave me yourself," she stopped in front of him and looked deep into his mismatched eyes. "And I took you, not as my lover, but as my husband. You were not banished there. I never left you. You are my equal and could have left at any time but you didn't. You act as if you never read the letters!" she glared at the man, her husband.
"What letter?" he asked.
"I left it with Hoggle, I told him to give it to you! You never read it?" she asked, she was really upset now. Two hundred and fifty years of misunderstanding.
"I thought it was another attempt at the Goblins trying to unionize. I hadn't-"
"Nevertheless" she raised her right hand and stopped him from mumbling excuses. "I openly expressed that I wished for you to follow me. That I hadn't abandoning you and that I needed you to follow me. I wanted you to chase me, if you will."
"Two hundred and fifty years" Jareth growled, Sarah closed her eyes knowing that low tone meant he was going to get gradually louder. "I sat there waiting, stealing children from their bed, child rearing those damned goblins and now I'm told that you wanted me to chase you!"
"I was bored..." she murmured.
"Bored? Bored she says. Let us return home and I shall show you just how creative I can be" his feverish eyes raked over her body.
"Yes, my King." she smirked, Jareth disappeared first leaving Sarah alone in her room. A small necklace around her neck choked her. "Ah, yes" she took it off and tossed it on the bed and disappeared. A young girl appeared on the bed, she sat up in the bed and looked around. She thought she had heard two people arguing, she must have been imaging things again.
Author s Note: I got all excited about the prequel. What if Sarah was the Queen who tricked him? What if a part if Sarah knows? Some oddness I wrote a while ago.