Hallucination
Author's note: I had this story previously posted under my other name. Now I have it posted under this one. I hope you enjoy this story. Please review and let me know what you think.
"You have no power over me!" Sarah jolted awake and scanned her eyes around the room. Her nightgown clung tight to her as she climbed out of bed. She walked over to her window to notice the big bolts of lighting that cut through the night air. She walked over and braced herself against her nightstand. She looked up at her reflection and saw the crystal beads of sweat that rolled down her face.
She walked back over to her bed and sat down. She was 22 years old and she still had nightmares. The images still played through her mind. "Such a pity." She heard a voice on the wind. She turned round quickly and scanned her eyes once again. "Get a grip Sarah. Your losing your mind." She pulled a robe from her closet and walked into the kitchen.
"Look at what I'm offering you." Sarah dropped the glass she held in her hand. She watched as it shattered into a million pieces. "Go away!" she screamed. "Leave me alone!" She looked around at the dead silence that filled the room. "Sarah, you need to pull yourself together. There is nobody here. There is never anybody here. It is all in your head." She looked at the clock that blinked on the counter. "Another early morning at 5:30 a.m." She sighed and proceeded to clean up the sparkling mess.
"Sarah? Sarah are you there?" Sarah blinked her eyes as she came back to reality. She had been talking to her friend Anna on the phone. "Yeah, yeah, I'm here. Sorry I got distracted. What were you saying?" She heard her friend sigh deeply on the other end. "I wanted to know if you needed a ride to school today. You didn't show up yesterday and I'm sure Professor Andrews will start to notice." Sarah looked over at her clock as her friend rambled on. "I'll be there. I have to go if I'm going to make it there on time." "Sarah?" Sarah looked forward at her professor who was babbling on about influential writers in the 19th century. She leaned her head against her folded hand and closed her eyes. "…..Fear me, love me, and I will be your slave." Sarah jolted awake and screamed, "Leave me alone! What do you want?" She grabbed her head as the searing pain hit her.
"Sarah? Sarah!" Sarah listened as her books slammed to the floor. She looked through blurred eyes at her friend who was screaming and shaking her. Sarah jumped up from her chair and ran from the room. She made her way to her car and locked herself inside. "I'm ok, I'm ok." she repeated over and over again. "Sarah!" She looked up to see Anna running towards the car. Sarah turned on the ignition and rammed her foot down on the gas petal.
Sarah tripped through her door and started throwing things out of the medicine cabinet. "Where is my medicine?" she screamed. She soon found the pills and swallowed them. They were pills for anti-psychotic episodes. She laid down on her bed panting and gasping for air. She curled her knees up to her chin and tried to slow her breathing. "It's only forever. It's not long at all." She heard a faint voice singing on the wind. "Leave me be." she whispered.
"Sarah! Where are you?" Sarah bolted off her bed and stood close to the door. "Who is it?" she whispered. "It's Anna! Are you ok?" Sarah opened her bedroom door to find Anna standing behind it. "I'm fine." Anna looked at her with a stern look on her face.
Anna paced the room to and fro. "Sarah, you left the door wide open and it is pouring outside. Not to mention you flipped in class and ran away from me. What's going on? Are you taking your medicine?" Sarah turned towards the window and looked out towards the falling rain. It fell so rhythmically, that it hypnotized her. The voice of her frantic friend drowned out of her mind.
"Sarah? Answer me! What's wrong with you?" Sarah looked back at Anna who continued to yell at her. "Of course I'm taking my medicine. It just seems to be getting worse. I can't help it." Anna walked over to her. "Do you want me to stay?" Sarah turned back to the window. "No, I'm fine. I just need to be alone. I promise. I'll call if I need you." Anna seemed reluctant to the idea of leaving Sarah by herself. These episodes that she was having were getting worse. God only knew what happened when she wasn't there. She never understood why Sarah was the way she was. Sarah gave her some fantasy story but she knew there was something else lurking underneath the surface. She just did not know what.
Anna smiled nervously and left Sarah's apartment. She sat inside her car and leaned against the steering wheel. What was going on with her? She looked up at her window one last time. She could have sworn she saw someone else in the room with Sarah. "That's weird." She said aloud. I didn't think Sam was coming home for two weeks. Anna shrugged her shoulders and started the car.
Sarah watched Anna leave her apartment and then turned back towards the window. She continued to watch the rainfall as if in a trance. She pressed her face up against the cool glass of the window. She opened the old window and let the cold rain pour in. She watched as the water made a bright, silvery, reflective pool beneath her window sill.
Sarah walked over and sat on her bed. She continued to watch the water pour in through her window. She felt so strange. "Your eyes can be so cruel. Just as I can be so cruel." Sarah's ears started to pound as she heard the mystic voice drift in with the rain. "Leave me alone!" she shouted once again. "Why don't you leave me be? What do you want?" She screamed the words over and over. She was half expecting an answer. The pounding in her ears became louder and louder and more painful. She clasped her hands over her ears and screamed out in pain. She felt herself begin to spin around violently and felt her feet leave the floor. "Stop!" she screamed. The force seemed to obey her and she fell to the floor.
Sarah awoke from what seemed to be like hours later. She was lying on the floor beneath the window sill. Her clothes were drenched and she felt something warm coming down the side of her face. She looked back at her hand to see the red, coppery color of blood. Sarah struggled to get up off the floor and stumbled into the bathroom.
She looked at her hollow frame in the mirror and clasped her arms around her. With her clothes still clinging to her shivering body, she climbed into the shower and turned on the hot water. She pulled the curtains closed and pulled her knees up to her chin. "What's wrong with me?" She let out a staggered, painful sob and the hot tears rolled down her face.
Sarah climbed into bed and pulled the covers up over her head. She shivered violently even though it was quite warm. "How you turned my world you precious thing. You starve and near exhaust me." She heard the voice as if it were deep inside her mind. The blinding pain came back. It was coursing through her brain. She flung back the covers and fell to the floor.
The pain intensified as she held her hands tightly on her head. "NO!" she screamed. She continued to scream as the pain continued to grow. The window flew open letting in gusts of air and a bright blinding light emanated from the corner of the room. Sarah screamed as the light engulfed her.
The pain stopped. Sarah still clamped her eyes as tight as she could. It was utter silence all around her. All she could hear was the swirling of the wind. She slowly opened her eyes and the sun was so bright it almost blinded her. She stood up slowly wiping the dirt from her pants. As the realization hit her, she saw she was standing in front of the labyrinth.
She stared at the scene in front of her. It was the labyrinth, she was sure, but it looked different. It was falling apart. It was crumbling to the ground and parts were now missing. The goblin city was almost right in front of her. "This isn't happening." she mumbled to herself. All those years she dreaded this place. It haunted her nightmares and his voice plagued her mind.
She walked to the edge of the labyrinth and stepped over a piece of the crumbling wall. It was all so different. It was almost as if it didn't exist. She walked for an hour and came across no one. She saw a few familiar things but most of them were gone. "This is so strange. It is almost as if everyone disappeared.
She soon reached the crumbling walls of the goblin city. She spotted no one in sight. "What happened here?" The house had fallen apart and there was no one to be seen.
She soon reached the doors of the castle. What was she doing? Was any of this real? This is what had plagued her for years and she was going to walk in like it was nothing? As she laid her hand upon the smooth, cold stone of the doors, she heard a squeak behind her. She turned to see a tiny goblin dragging one foot behind itself.
Sarah mustered up enough courage and spoke to it. "Hello? Um could you help me?" The small goblin stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her. "I'll try my best but I don't know if I'll be much help. We don't get too many people through these parts now a days." Sarah knelt down next to the creature and began to speak.
"What happened to this place? Where is everyone?" The goblin looked at her and sat down on the dirty ground. He looked as if he had a long story to tell. "A few years back the Goblin King went mad. A girl came here and solved his labyrinth. She solve everything he had spent his life perfecting. Slowly everything began to fall apart. Creatures began to disappear. Because the labyrinth had been beaten, it too began to wilt and die. There are only a few of us left. We all live in the castle." Sarah blinked her eyes as she tried to take in the story. "What about the Goblin King?" The goblin stood up off the ground and looked at her. "He still lives in the castle. He seems to be plotting a revenge." Sarah once again looked at this goblin who stood in front of her. She thanked him for his help and he went on his way.
Sarah continued to sit on the ground in a daze after the goblin left. This is the place she had feared all these years? Was Jareth really evading her dreams? "Jareth." It was the first time she had uttered his name in years. She picked herself up off the ground and walked to the castle doors. She pushed against the heavy doors and they opened.
She walked through a corridor and a pang of pain hit her. "There's such a sad love deep in your eyes, a kind of pale jewel…." The words seemed to echo through the hallways. She began to panic intensely. Did he know she was there? She soon heard noise's coming from a room at he end of the hallway. She walked silently down the hallway and leaned against the wall before the door.
A thought fluttered through her mind. Could she do this? She sucked up all the breath she could and looked in a crack in the door. The large room before he was filled wall to wall with goblins. She held her breath when she saw who sat in the midst of them all.
The Goblin King was on his throne. His velvet gloved hand covered his eyes as his staff tapped the arm of the throne. He was disturbingly exactly how she remembered him. At this moment he didn't seem like a threat to anyone. He seemed overwhelmingly innocent. Don't' think that Sarah! Look at what he is doing to you.
"Jareth.' she whispered slowly, letting the name roll off her tongue. Her heart started to beat rapidly and got caught in her throat. The pain began beating in her head again. The pain began beating in her head again. He stood up suddenly between all the goblins. He was wearing a white shirt that dipped low. It was covered by a black vest. His pendant shimmered in the light. The gray tights he wore were covered to the knee by a pair of black boots. "Oh god." she whispered.
"Quiet all of you!" he shouted at his goblins. They seemed to unknowingly ignore him. "I SAID, QUIET ALL OF YOU!" His voice thundered through the castle, causing them to stop. Sarah shuddered. He looked swiftly across the room with his mismatched eyes. A cocky grin pursed his thin lips together. "Sarah." he whispered.
The goblins quickly scampered from the room, leaving Jareth alone. Sarah panicked for she did not know what to do. "Don't defy me Sarah." She had nothing to do but to emerge from her place behind the wall. She walked towards the center of the room. Her footsteps making a silent echo across the room. Sarah stared up at the almost inhuman man in front of her. "Been a long time Sarah." His eyes glittered as his cocky smile spread across his face. "Only if you count it in terms of years." she choked. He smiled again at her and walked back to his throne.
"How have you been enjoying my game Sarah?" He stared at her intensely waiting for her reply. "It has been you? Everyone thinks I'm crazy! I was beginning to think I was crazy! What are you doing to me?" His laugh rippled through the room making the walls shake. "Glad your enjoying yourself Sarah. I know I am." The pounding came back through Sarah's mind. She clasped her hands against her head. "What are you doing!" she screamed. She screamed as Jareth's laugh continued to echo through the castle walls. Sarah dropped her hands to her sides and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She fell slowly to the ground. Jareth bent over the fallen girl and whispered, "My dear Sarah, why do you always defy me?" Sarah awoke in a dark, silent room. She let out a groan and fumbled for something to hold onto. She reached the door handle but it would not turn. "Jareth! Let me go! What do you want from me?" She felt the air stir and she knew she wasn't alone. "Why my dear Sarah, I thought you knew what I wanted." She watched as his shadow figure, drenched in black, emerged from the twilight of the window.
Sarah backed herself against the wall and tried to slow her breathing. He stared at her with intent. He knew her every thought. He had listened to them for years. He had tortured her mind for years. He had stood by her bed and watched her sleep. "I am only repaying you for what you did to me." Sarah stared at his empty eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of any emotion. "You still haven't answered me Jareth. What do you want? What did I do?" "EVERYTHING! You defied me! You beat my labyrinth! You refused me! It took me years to perfect my labyrinth. Nobody had ever beaten me. Now my labyrinth is slowly disappearing and so am I. Why didn't you just love me Sarah? You only made it harder on yourself." Another pang of pain hit her so hard it flung her across the room. She watched as Jareth thundered towards her. "You'll learn now." Sarah's screams could be heard echoing amidst the dark shadows of the ever disappearing Underground.
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