She lay back against the grass, gazing quietly at the stars above her. The cool night breeze worked diligently to restyle the ends of her long silky hair, weaving it back and forth, but the girl with the emerald eyes paid no mind. Her mind was far, far away, somewhere between the stars.
A tune played in her mind, soft and sad. She felt as if she could almost catch the fleeting words, but they were just out of reach of her memories. They had had something to do with stars, she remembered, and Valentines, and mountains, and...and love.
The girl sighed, and the wind danced in companionship with the forsaken breath before returning its attention to her hair. Her heart ached tonight, as it had every night since last Thursday, which had coincidentally been her eighteenth birthday. She had gone to bed with an air of excitement, the excitement every seventeen year old feels on the eve of becoming an adult. She had wondered if she would feel different when she awoke, but she had never expected to feel so...empty.
That was the only word to describe how she felt. It was as though something very important had been taken away from her. Or perhaps it had been missing all along, and she had only just realized it. She pondered this as she pondered the night sky. Had turning eighteen, an admitedly random and arbitrary age, somehow magically enabled her to percieve a loss she had experienced sometime before.
The girl with the emerald eyes furrowed her ivory brow at this thought. She had gone round and round with it already, and it had gotten her nowhere. All thoughts of magic inevitibly led back to Him. He had become nothing more than an occasional abstract dream before last Thursday. Now, she couldn't close her eyes without seeing his ethereal face, or hearing his haunting voice, her name on his breath like a lover's touch..."Sarah."
She shivered at the memory of it, and her heart tore just a little more. A single tear made its way down her alabaster cheek, as the the girl put a face to her emptyness, even as she sighed in disbelief. He was nothing more than a fantasy. How could she ever fill this ache for a man that didn't exist?
The man in black leather gazed out at the night sky, at the stars that winked at him as though they were in on the joke. The stars did not please him, they were too mundane for his liking. He waved his gloved hand accross the sky and the stars began to move, to dance just for him. The circled, twirled, and rearranged themselves one by
one until they took on shape, becomming the image of girl with long hair and sparkling, innocent eyes.
The man smiled sadly at the image the stars had created for him. He had but asked them to bring him a pleasing shape, and this is what they had done. He felt the familiar tightening in his chest at the thought of the girl with the raven hair. She had turned his world upside down, and he had been willing to hand it right back so shecould do it again. He had marked her, foolishly thinking she could never refuse him. He had marked her as his,and inversely promised himself to her, damning them both. She had stuck to the script, banishing him from her life, and now that she had come of age to feel the mark, they were both doomed to suffer this emptyness forever.
A single tear slid down his perfect cheek, and the Goblin King angrily waved his hand back across the sky, sending the stars reeling into their original positions and erasing the visage they had created. He pressed his back against the cool brick of the archway, leaned his head back until it too touched the stonework, and clenched his fists to stifle the sob that was working its way from the center of his chest.
Suddenly, the air shimmered around him, a slight tingle in the back of his neck, just the faintest echo of a change in the fabric of reality. Something was happening. He tilted his head, listening intently to the wind, and just when he began to think he had imagined it, he heard her voice, carried softly across space and time and demension..."Oh...Jareth."
Immediately his eyes snapped open. She said his name! His heart leapt, and fumbled wildly in his chest. She said his name! It didn't completely break the spell, but it was a start! It would give him a foot in the door, so to speak. He hastily summoned a crystal, his mind screaming for the powers that be to allow him this one glimmer of hope. His prayers were answered when the girl took shape in his crystal, dressed all in white, lying back on the grass. She had been crying, he noticed, and he was both saddened for her and ecstatic just to be able to see her tears.
He willed his heart to be still, to be silent, as she moved her perfect lips to speak again. "Oh, Jareth...I wish..." he moved closer to the orb in anticipation. Yes, love, say it, just say it.
His thoughts were a mantra. "I wish you were real." He clinched his eyes closed. Wasted wishes were painful to him, this one particulary so.
"I am real you silly girl!" he thunderd, though he knew she couldn't hear him. "I'm flesh and bone and blood and right now every bit of it aches for you. Say what you really mean, woman! He watched for several more minutes, but she remained stubbornly silent, and his hope began to slip away. He should be happy that she had at least opened the door, and now he could see her whenever he wished. But seeing without touching would only make him more miserable. He slumped again against the wall, defeated.
In the crystal the girl sat up, her stargazing over. She stood and brushed the dirt and grass from her clothing, picked up her belongings, and began to walk the path that would lead her back home, to her empty room, her empty bed. As she reached the top of the hill she stopped, looking back once more at the starry canvas of the night sky. "Jareth..." She wispered again, and far away through space and time an ageless, lonely being leaned in to hear her better, desperately praying that this time she would say her right words. "Jareth, I wish you were here."
She watched the stars for one more long moment, hopeing for some sign, some indication that she wasn't losing her mind, but the stars kept their secrets and she turned once again to go home. She had taken barely two steps before the air seemed to buzz around her. She felt the air escape her lungs and her heart was filled with fear and...hope? She glanced around in the darkness searching blindly until a wark gloved hand caught her wrist. She stilled immediately, and looked up into the face of the Goblin King.
"Hello, Sarah." He said calmly, though there was nothing inside him that could be called calm. He wanted to pull her into his arms, to crush her mouth with kisses, to wisk her away, kicking and screaming if he had to, and fulfill every promise he had ever made to her. But his Sarah was delicate, and must be treated with utmost care. He couldn't afford to lose her again.
That is why he was utterly surprised when she flung herself into his arms and pulled his mouth roughly to hers. Her kiss was naive but full of promise, and as surprised as he was, he quickly met her passion with his own. She opened her mouth to him, and he gladly accepted the invitation, exploring the sinfully sweet taste of her as his hands began to explore her body. He was dimly aware that perhaps this was going to far, but he met no resistance when his gloved fingers stroked the soft flesh of her breast, only a moan of satisfaction. He was encouraged by this, and emboldened. He began to slip his hand beneath the soft fabric of her blouse, when she caught his wrist with her hand.
She pulled away from him, and the emptiness threatened to swallow them both. "Take me home, Jareth." She said, and he looked at her, a mixture of hurt and confusion in his eyes. She smiled and shook her head, standing on tiptoes to place a kiss on the soft flesh at the base of his neck. He shivered at the contact, barely able to control himself. She smiled at him knowingly and he realized, standing as close as she was, that she probably knew more than he intended. She pointed at the stary skies and repeated herself. "Take me home."
Jareth smiled then, and lifted her into his arms. Seconds later there was nothing left of them in her world but mists and momories and legends. But sometimes, when the stars are in a playful mood, you can look into the void and see them dancing accross the sky.