I had this looking lovely. Then I changed the note and re-uploaded it and it turned into hash. My apologies to anyone who tried to read it before and came back in hopes of it being fixed. Thank you for giving it a second chance.
Originally written in February 2000, this idea came to me in the shower when Sting's "Mad About You" got stuck in my head. So, of course any lyric fragments belong to him and Jareth & Co. belong to The Jim Henson Company. Since it is based on the song and this is as far as the song goes, this is as far as the story will go. It is intended to be complete and stand alone as it is now – no sequels, no further chapters. Generally, I don't like Jareth/Sarah stories and I don't write them, so this is pretty much all you're going to get out of me in that area.
Jareth walked through boulders on the edge of the thinning forest. He had been walking for hours, traveling miles. He looked up to realize that he was not far from what was often called Jareth's Illusion, the set of boulders cleverly carved to produce the image of his face when viewed from the correct angle in a certain light. He turned his footsteps in the direction of the monument.
He reached the clearing and stared at his own face etched in stone. The moonlight rendered it in stark silver and black. He turned to find the moon hanging huge and full in the spring sky against a field of a million stars scattered like sand on velvet.
He gazed at the moon longingly, fully mindful of the fact that she could be looking at the very same moon at this very moment. She was so close, yet so far away, on a distant planet spinning around the same moon.
As the moon set and the sun rose he returned home to his castle to struggle through another day.
.….
This time he was driven restlessly though thick woods, finally stumbling on a small secluded valley filled with sun and shadow, silence and sound. He followed the babbling of water in the silence to a tame waterfall flowing over mossy stones. He sat listening to the water's ancient music, tainting its happy notes in his ear with his own emotions until it was only a song of sadness. The bright flowers at the water's edge, visited by butterflies on jeweled wings, went unnoticed by his eyes.
Soon he found himself wandering again, trying to tire himself out, to outdistance his madness. But with every step he carried it with him in his thoughts of Sarah. He walked until he could no longer see where he placed his feet then changed to an owl and flew into the ocean of stars overhead. How much longer would he suffer this misery?
.….
The owl flew through the burning sunlight, bleached gold and bone white, passing over the shimmering sands. He had found no peace in his own kingdom, now he sought out the remains of an ancient kingdom, lost and buried in the sands of the desert. He spied it on a distant horizon and winged toward it. He circled over it, the ambition and vanity of an ancient king now crumbled and broken rubble, consumed by the sands. He lit in the shade of a sandblasted wall and changed form to wander among the ruins.
Under the windblown dust he could see the many-colored stones, polished and worn by centuries of storms. A vulture, scanning the sands below, caught his movement and soared overhead, satisfying its curiosity before passing on to more likely prey with a forlorn cry.
Jareth wandered through the streets of the broken city until he found a room with all four walls still standing. He entered through the empty doorway. The ceiling and roof had fallen in long ago, leaving it open to the sky. Opposite the door was the hollow opening of a window and he walked across to it to sit on the remnants of its sill.
He pulled a crystal out of the air and called up an image of Sarah in her current life. As he watched, she laughed and flirted with a man at a table. Pain twisted across Jareth's face as he watched and then suddenly threw the crystal against the wall, shattering it to dust to mix with the sand it came from.
He buried his head in his hands and memories of his final confrontation with her flooded his mind. She had jumped from the ledge and shattered his kingdom as easily as he had that crystal. His castle had floated in pieces about him like so many leaves in the wind. Then, when he had offered as much of himself as he could put into words, she had refused him and, with that one sentence, blown the remnants to dust, releasing everything he had bound with his magic.
He remained agonizing over that moment until the rising wind demanded his attention. It howled among the broken stones and he looked to the horizon. There, in the distance, a storm was gathering. He changed back to an owl and raced to outfly the sandstorm.
.….
Dawn found Jareth in the highest window of his castle, watching the sun rise over the Labyrinth. Everything he saw and then some was his. It was all part of his kingdom, yet he no longer cared for any of it. It meant nothing. He had never felt so alone and lost in his life as he had since Sarah had won back her brother. He took no pleasure in his victories over the few who had dared the Labyrinth since then or the in memories of the many victories before she came. He had not won the one thing he now found he really wanted, Sarah's heart.
.….
Jareth walked alone through the night again, his boots sighing in the sand. This time he walked with a purpose. He had tracked Sarah to the desert near the cradle of human civilization on earth. She had achieved her aspirations and was filming a movie nearby.
He had come to a decision. Let his kingdom fall to pieces. He had suffered long enough. He had to talk to Sarah, to try to tell her what he felt, what she had done to him that day, what she meant to him. He had to make her understand that he was lost without her. If he could not make her understand, well, the thought could not bear contemplation.
.….
Something called Sarah out to walk on this night. Something about the full moon or the millions of stars in the sky reminded her of a dream she had had a long time ago of crystals and mazes, magic and owls. She had not thought of it in a very long time, but the memory was vivid tonight as she gazed up at the moon.
"Sarah," said a voice from the dream.