Disclaimer: I own a copy of the movie...and that's it.
I Ask So Little
"What is the problem, my dear?"
I didn't bother turning around. "Go away, Jareth. You have no power over me." The words rang hollow, empty.
His mocking laughter rang from where he was seated at the windowsill. "Of course not, dear Sarah. It's you who holds power over me." I chanced to glance at him. Both his hands gripped the iron collar, as if he would pull it off. He was staring out the window again.
You miss flying, don't you, Goblin King. Ten years since you were last an owl.
"Jareth, I said leave."
"You have said it before, you will say it again, and yet it will never happen. You know that."
"I can hope," I muttered. I turned to leave. His hand on my wrist stopped me.
"Don't. You know…what will happen." There was fear in his voice, hard to detect but so clear to me now.
Ten years.
I shrugged him off and turned to leave again.
Ten years, with the smallest of magicks left to you. What has become of you, Goblin King?
"Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."
Words hold power in the Underground. Jareth had gambled, had gambled his kingdom and his freedom, and he had lost.
"I'm leaving, Jareth." I stepped out the door, ignoring the choked gasp and the sound of a body hitting the floor behind me. I knew, without looking, what I would find.
Jareth, kneeling, one hand clawing at the collar as the other clenched in the carpet. His body spasming, well outside his control, wracked with fiery pain as he tried to follow and could not.
"Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."
"Sar…ah…" I paused. He's never managed to say anything before, not while I was beyond the limit his curse allowed him. I sighed and turned to walk back.
I dew closer and he stopped writhing in pain. Gasping for air, he crawled closer to me, finally resting his head against my leg as I sat on the bed. He didn't have the strength to stand now, I knew that from past experience.
I was afraid of him in his Labrynth. I loved him when I thought of him in the dead of night, when I remembered that he had reordered time and turned the world upside down and he had done it all for me.
Then one night, he came to me as an owl. He asked me to return with him, at least for a short while.
And I did as he said.
Now, he is my slave.
I tangled my hand in his hair. It's been ten long years. Too long staying in this world we don't belong in. He never did. I may have belonged here once, but that was before…Before the Labrynth.
Maybe, in the Underground, this self-made curse can be broken. Maybe there, he can find his wings and play with his crystals. Can I stake my life on maybes?
"Where does this door go?"
"We don't know. We're just the knockers!"
Yes, I do believe I can.
"Jareth…Goblin King."
He looks up at me, mismatched eyes weary. For seven years he kept his fury; but as his magic faded so did his will. I wish he would throw me crystals again, offer me my dreams.
I wish…
"I wish the goblins would come and take us away. Right now."
GuardianSaiyoko: Ah, the joys of personal interpretation. Unlikely? Yes. Fun to write? Yes.