Chapter 2: Losing Your Head Over A Girl
"Do you think he's one of those fraternity boys?"
The voice drifted through the fog of a dissipating dream, the words sounding disconnected and fuzzy, as if he was underwater.
"I don't know, Jean, he looks a little old for that. Maybe he's just the victim of some prank gone wrong? Best not to judge. Besides, I haven't enjoyed such a fine view in a good many years-"
"Lois!"
"What? As if you weren't looking too!"
The voices were clearer now, but he wasn't paying attention.
What was that dream? It seemed important…. There was a man in a black cloak…a bonfire...chanting…
"Well, we have to do something! I've half a mind to call the police-"
"You'll do no such thing! He's on my lawn, and I intend to take care of the poor dear! Heaven knows what he's been through." Lois said, taking off her white knitted shawl and draping it over his hips.
His bare hips.
Jareth shot up from the ground, immediately projecting an air of regal confidence and dignity, a response that was made even more impressive considering that he had woken up naked and confused on the ground, with two elderly ladies smiling bemusedly at him and bits of grass sticking to him all over.
He quickly snatched at the shawl, which had slipped as he stood, and wrapped it around his hips, forcing his features to appear nonchalant and refusing to acknowledge the two blushing old women in front of him as he tied it around his waist and tried furiously to remember how he had ended up here, and in this undressed state, no less.
As he focused his mind, trying to remember, it all came back to him at once. The memories of all that had transpired the previous day and night hit him like a ton of bricks, making him gasp as if the wind had been knocked out of him, the distressing memories temporarily overwhelming him. He was trapped and powerless in this foreign world, and he had no idea why. Who would do this? How? Perhaps it was some sort of magical accident. No one had ever beaten the Labyrinth before, maybe it had something to do with that. He shook his head, trying to regain some composure, then set off in the direction of Sarah's house. He had to get through the mirror, back to his kingdom, had to figure out-
"Whoa, there, sugar, you can't go marchin' off down the street starkers, you know, you'll get yourself thrown in jail!" One of the old ladies, Lois, called after him.
Jareth stopped, realizing that he was indeed still in the nude, save for the loosely knitted white shawl he held around his waist, which really didn't hide anything at all. He sighed in frustration, then snorted as he pictured himself trying to get to the mirror portal looking like this.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Williams. I'm a fairy-tale king from one of Sarah's story books. Mind if I use your daughter's bedroom for a moment?"
That would go smoothly.
"Look, dearie, why don't you come inside. I've got the kettle on, a nice cup of tea will do you right." Lois, whom he surmised owned the property he had woken up on, said to him.
He turned around, but before he could respond, the other woman, Jean, interjected.
"Lois, you can't be serious, you don't know anything about him! He could be a, a..." The woman shot a scandalized glare at the near-naked king and whispered loudly in her friend's ear. "-a sexual deviant!" Jean looked emphatically at her friend, gauging if her words had had the desired impact.
Jareth raised his eyebrows, looking back and forth from one elderly lady to the other. Perhaps one of them owned one of those automobiles that people used. That would be convenient. And this Lady Lois seemed intent on making herself his ally.
Lois, however, was not to be swayed. "Nonsense, I'm sure he's a nice lad, just down on his luck is all. Isn't that right, dearie?" She smiled at him kindly, sharp blue eyes twinkling out at him from her deeply wrinkled face.
"I appreciate your offer of hospitality, ma'am, but there is somewhere I have to be-" Jareth said.
"Of course, of course, but first you must come in and warm up. I think my Jim's old clothes might fit you, he was a lean one, too." She gave him a wink and began tottering back up to her house, humming an upbeat hymn, and clearly expecting him to follow.
Well, clothes would be good… Jareth thought bemusedly, resigned steps leading him up the lawn and past Jean, who glared at him suspiciously through her thick, round glasses. Jareth winked and blew her a kiss. Jean gasped, blushing beet red before turning quickly and tottering off back to her own house across the street, muttering under her breath about 'the drugs' and 'that crazy old goat'.
Officer Beaumont stared at the distraught woman seated in front of him, trying to make sense of what he was hearing. He would have thought her mad and called in a psych evaluation right away if her husband hadn't been sitting there at her side, silently agreeing with everything she said. In his experience, these types of cases went into two categories: The normal crazy that he dealt with everyday, and the weird crazy that he called in the specialists for. He wasn't quite sure which category this case fit into yet.
"So, let's go over this one more time. Your daughter's missing, and you think a white wolf is somehow responsible?"
"Yes, yes! I know how it sounds, Officer, but you have to believe us, you have to help us! That beast is out there right now, people are going to get hurt!" Karen Williams tearfully implored him.
"And how do I know that you aren't responsible for your step-daughter's disappearance, that you're not just making up this whole 'wolf' thing as some type of bizarre cover story? Perhaps you intend to plead insanity when she's found? You did tell me that you and Sarah fought last night, over your son, Toby. Maybe you decided that she didn't fit in with your happy little family anymore." He fixed her with a hard stare, looking carefully with his practiced eye for any signs of deception or guilt. He saw none.
"I- I would never! Robert and I are good parents, our children are given everything they want, Sarah goes to the best schools, has everything she would ever want or need! She's a teenager, of course we fought, that's what teenagers do with their parents! I'm telling the truth! Right Robert? Robert?" Karen said, turning to her husband for support.
Officer Beaumont's eyes flicked over to the dazed, white-faced man who sat next to Karen. His eyes were unfocused, and his lips moved, though no sound came out. Glancing briefly at his wife, he nodded slowly in agreement. Finally, he managed a few frail words.
"It's all true. Karen would never hurt Sarah. Oh Sarah... where are you..." He trailed off, his eyes glazing over once more.
"Please, I've told you everything a hundred times, just help us find her!" Karen pleaded.
Officer Beaumont was torn. The woman had unconsciously referred to the alleged missing girl in the present tense after he'd provoked her, so he doubted there was any foul play on her part. The man clearly didn't have the stomach for any type of crime, so he was out as a suspect. His gut told him there was more to this than a runaway teen girl, but without proof, there was nothing he could do. Because she was over the age of fourteen, he wouldn't even be able to file a missing person's report until 24 hours had elapsed. He was about to tell them so when there was knock on his office door. Lindsey, the office secretary, poked her head in.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but your son needs a diaper change, ma'am. Also, Officer Beaumont, I think you might want to turn on the news."
Beaumont raised an eyebrow in question, but all he got from Lindsey was an enigmatic look before she led the woman from the room to tend to her child. He glanced at the man, who was still staring unseeingly at the desk that sat between them, before pushing his chair back and swiveling in the seat so as to be able to reach the little television he kept on the shelf. Letting out an irritated sigh, he turned the knob and pushed the channel button until he got to a news site. The reporter's energetic voice filled the dusty little office.
"Plenty of excitement today in our small town as several people make 911 calls about - a wolf sighting! That's right folks, you heard that correctly, and KYEM has even obtained some video of the wild animal running through our quiet suburban streets, as seen on the screen behind me. Authorities are asking citizens to keep their distance and call 911 if the wolf is seen, do not approach it! The questions everyone's asking: Where did it come from? How did it get here, and why? Stay tuned to KYEM channel 4, your reliable local news outlet, for more exciting updates as they become available."
Officer Beaumont blinked in disbelief. So this was the weird kind of crazy, then.
"Sit tight, Mr. Williams, I'll be right back, just need to make a quick call."
Robert Williams made no answer, he just sat staring solemnly at the TV screen. He had a sinking suspicion about where his daughter was, but he couldn't say anything. It was too bizarre to believe, but he knew it was true. The wolf, it had had her eyes...
Beaumont left the little office, stepping into an empty office across the hall and dialing a number that he only used for 'special' cases, like this one. He had been given the number after working a case with seemingly real, functional hoodoo dolls a decade back. After the news had latched on to the story, some government agents had swooped in and taken over the case, instructing him to call them if anything 'weird' ever happened in his precinct again. The first time he had called had been after a mother had come in, insisting that a woman had turned into a horse and carried off her teenage son, drowning him in the lake. The second time was a man with the alleged ability to walk through walls. Both times, he had made the call, and soon after, a half dozen black government vans had appeared in town, and the 'problems' would mysteriously disappear.
The ringing stopped as the person on the other end picked up. "Agent Huerk? Hello, it's George Beaumont, I've got a case I think you might be interested in…"
Engrossed in the conversation, he never noticed the extra shadow hovering directly behind him.
Sarah came back to herself about two blocks from the park. She froze, trying to push down her panic while reconciling herself with the fact that she was standing on four legs instead of two.
Calm down, Sarah, just breath, breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out…
She had to relax, had to calm down. She focused on her calming breaths, trying not to think about the fact that she was taking them through a snout instead of a nose. Everything that was happening was too much, she knew if she didn't get control over herself soon she would go into shock. She had seen her dad go into shock before, he would go all white and shaky and got lost inside of himself. He had gone into shock when Sarah's mother had left him, and when Grandma Williams had died a few years ago. Sarah had always prided herself on her ability to keep herself together in stressful times, to not let any situation get the best of her. This was no different, she told herself. Why, just yesterday, she had conquered a Labyrinth! She felt a little better as she thought about that, but she was still so scared…
Flashes of the wolf's memory ran through her mind, and Sarah lost some of her bravado. She saw her dad with the gun, heard the shot…
That's why my leg hurts so much! She thought. Looking back, she started a bit in surprise at the bloody mess all over her back leg. She knew it looked worse than it was, probably because the white fur made it stand out. She was walking well enough, a bit of a limp and more than a bit of pain, but everything was working and the bleeding had stopped.
More memories ran through her mind, this time of people pointing and yelling at her as she had ran through the street, people chasing her all around town. She looked around, noticing for the first time that several people on this little residential street were watching her through their windows. One man a few houses down was on his phone and pointing at her from an upstairs window. Sarah wasn't afraid of the supernatural, but she wasn't so naive to think that others would be accepting and helpful. There were too many scary stories involving wolves, no one would help her, she thought sadly. Even her own family had reacted in the worse possible way…
Sarah pushed the thought away, wondering absently if wolves could cry. Was she a wolf? She hadn't seen her reflection yet. She could very well be a dog, maybe a husky. But she felt like a wolf. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the persistent fog that was coming over her consciousness. She needed to hide, to lie low for a while until she could figure this out. The park was usually empty, and she could wash off the blood in the pond, she thought sleepily. She had wanted to go to the park all day, she always felt safe there. The wolf filled her mind then and took over, darting between houses and over fences in a loopy path to the park, not wanting to give away her destination. She never noticed the black cars on every block, watching her movements.
Jareth, now clad in slacks, dress shoes, and a respectable button-up shirt, stepped warily into the empty house, nerves abuzz with warning. He had never cared to familiarize himself with the day-to-day habits of humans, but he knew this was wrong. The front door of Sarah's house had been wide open, and there was blood on the floor. He bent down, touching some with his finger. It was dry, it had been here for hours. Why had no one cleaned it up? Where was Sarah and her family? He looked around the entry room for clues, but found none. The house seemed to stare back at him accusingly, the home's air heavy in his lungs. He followed the blood specks up the stairs, a terrible sense of foreboding settling in his stomach as he got closer and closer. Just as he feared, the trail ended- or started, he supposed, in Sarah's room.
The girl's room was in shambles. Furniture was overturned, books and clothes were shredded and littered the floor, pictures had fallen off the wall. Jareth stared blankly at the mess, wondering what in the seven hells was going on. His first instinct was to turn around and go look for Sarah, make sure she was all right. The blood loss was only minimal, but the state of the room and the emptiness of the house made him feel unsettled.
Why should I care what has happened here? She won, she left, what happens to her now is no concern of mine…
He knew the lie as soon as he had thought it, but the reminder of yesterday's events sent a fresh wave of anger coursing through him, breaking him out of his thoughts and hardening his heart. He stepped swiftly over the broken toys and scattered books and approached the mirror portal, which was blessedly unharmed. He paused in front of the mirror, his anger ebbing as he once again took in the mayhem of the room through the mirror's reflection.
I should find her…
But he did not turn around. He doubted she would want to see him again, and even if she was in some kind of trouble, what could he do without his magic? Decided, he reached forward and touched the portal, closing his eyes, waiting for the cool feeling of portal travel to envelop him.
But it did not come. He opened his eyes and glared at the mirror, putting both hands on it, spreading his fingers and feeling for the magic, then stepping back with a look of dismay. It was not there. Like the sky portal, the magic was gone, and the way was closed to him. He was trapped. Jareth's mind raced, one portal could have been a coincidence, a bizarre mistake. Two was something else entirely. He thought back to the night before, when he had been trapped in his owl form. He remembered how he had felt he had to stay close to Sarah, and how his owl-self had resented it. Whatever was going on with the portals, whatever had happened to him last night, whatever had happened here, it had something to do with Sarah. He would have to go and find her after all.
Anger welled up inside him once again, and reached a peak as he spotted the little red book on the desk. He picked it up and threw it against the wall in a rage, letting out a roar of frustration that cut through the silent house like a bolt of lightning through a cloudy sky. He glared at the book for a moment, fists clenched and breathing heavy, furious with himself for making the damn foolish thing in the first place. Had he really been so distracted by the girl that he had made himself vulnerable to attack? Whoever was behind this would pay.
After a moment, he pushed his anger aside and closed his eyes, focusing on Sarah. Sure enough, he could sense her presence nearby, maybe half a mile to the west. He let out a sigh and opened his eyes, resigned that he would have to confront her once again and somehow get her to cooperate with him so that they could figure this out and he could get back to his Kingdom. He was tired, he had gotten little sleep, and woken up in an unfamiliar part of town. After he had gotten away from his well-meaning but chatty elderly host he had spent most of the day trying to find Sarah's neighborhood, and hadn't had anything to eat or drink all day. It didn't look like he would be getting any rest any time soon, but there was no point in dwelling on it.
Before he left, he glanced back at the mirror one last time, and thought he saw something in the lower corner of it, illuminated by the light of the low sun that now sliced through the room from the window. He paused, sure that his eyes were playing tricks on him. Just to be sure, he stepped close and squinted, seeing quite clearly now the little mark through the mirror. The Goblin King's blood ran cold and he stiffened, breath catching in his throat and eyes locked on the small, dark gray, smudged triangle that was barely visible from the other side of the mirror. Magic always left a calling card, a signature that could point those who knew what they were looking for to the identity of the caster. This was a mark that he had never thought to see again.
No. No that's impossible….
Without another thought he turned and raced down the stairs, running at a sprint towards the park.
He got there just after the sun had started to set over the hills, but others had already beaten him to it. He paused at the edge of the park, assessing the situation. Several black vans and cars were parked on the green near the pond, and there were a dozen men in suits standing in a group by one of them, about fifty feet away from the tree he was peering around.
Jareth's eyes narrowed when he saw what lay on the ground in their midst. A person-sized bundle lay motionless on the grass, dark hair spilling out of one end and a pair of pale bare feet poking out of the dark wool blanket on the other end. Several of the men bent over and picked her up, carrying her limp, blanket-wrapped form over to a nearby van. Jareth's mind raced as he tried to decide on a course of action. He couldn't very well just go up and take her from them, not without his magic. He was stronger than any mortal man, even without magic, but he didn't like the idea of going up against twelve armed men at once, he wasn't an idiot. No, he would need to follow them, wait for an opportunity to take her. But how? These vehicles would likely travel faster than he could run. And even if he could obtain one in time, he wouldn't know the first thing about how to operate it.
He felt a cold wash of panic as the men shut Sarah in the van and began getting into the vehicles and driving away. He started forward, not thinking, but took only a few steps before he doubled up in pain, holding his stomach. He straightened up after a few moments, and started forward again, only to stop again as another spasm seized his whole body, nearly bringing him to his knees. Bewildered, he paused and focused inwardly, trying to figure out what was wrong now. His eyes widened as realization hit him. He was changing, changing to his owl form against his will. He pushed aside his irritation and confusion as he realized that this was the answer, he could follow Sarah by air. He gave in to the transformation, shrugging out of the now tent-sized shirt and spreading his wings, taking to the sky as the sun set behind the hills.
Shortly after the line of black cars and vans got onto the northbound highway, Jareth realized that he had made a serious miscalculation. The cars were going much faster than he had thought they could, faster than he could fly. Within a few minutes, they were completely out of sight, even though he was flying as fast as possible. He wasn't so much worried about losing Sarah, somehow he knew that he couldn't be too far away from her, even if he wanted to.
No, what he was worried about was what would to him happen if she did get too far. He didn't know what exactly what had blocked his portals, forced him to change shape, and tied him to Sarah, but he could feel it now, now that he was looking for it, like an unnatural shadow around him, and it left a nervous knot in his stomach. He could feel Sarah getting further and further away with every passing second, and the he could feel the tail-end of the spell coming up behind him like a freight train. He beat his wings furiously, trying to go faster, but it was no good. He reached the end of the magical leash and let out an avian shriek as he was pulled forward, faster than should have been possible for him to go, too fast. He felt reality began to slip around him, colors changed and flashes of other worlds shot by him as he was pulled along helplessly through the inbetween. It was not a pleasant experience. Travel through the inbetween without any magic to shield him felt like being dragged through hot coals, and Jareth knew that this form wasn't strong enough to survive it for long.
Thankfully, a few minutes later, the violent pulling stopped, and Jareth was able to fly somewhat normally. He was shaken and sore, but managed to stay aloft, beating his wings wearily as he followed the darkening highway from about a hundred feet up. After a few minutes he caught up with the black cars, which had stopped at a gas station to refuel. But they were back on the road again before he could catch his breath, and soon he was falling behind again.
How he survived the night, he did not know. He was pulled through the inbetween several times before it was over, getting to rest a bit when the line of cars went through a town and had to slow down or when they pulled over for gas or rest stops. By the time the vehicles reached their destination, he was nearly delirious with pain and exhaustion, he was missing feathers and was dangerously close to losing consciousness. There was still nearly an hour before dawn, when he hoped he would be able to turn back into a man, as he had the previous day.
But it might be too late then, he realized. He could hear Sarah now with his acute barn owl hearing, kicking and screaming in the back of the van, demanding to be let go. The van and the cars drove single-file into the entrance of a large, concrete building, then a metal door shut behind them with a thud and several mechanical clangs, locking him out. Drawing on the last of his strength, he flew around the place, looking for another way in.
In the grey dishwater light of predawn, he saw that the area was a secluded compound of connected concrete buildings, ringed by a high, barbed metal fence and surrounded for miles around by an evergreen forest. The windows on the buildings were small and barred, and the whole place had a secretive and threatening aura to it. He settled in a nearby tree and was filled with a sense of hopelessness. There would be no getting in there anytime soon, he was truly stranded in this desolate place, tied here by a girl that he could not reach. He cursed himself again for his foolishness, for becoming so distracted by Sarah that he had left himself open to attack, and had put her in harm's way as well. At least he would have time to try and figure out what had happened, and possible ways of reversing it. He shivered as he remembered the mark on Sarah's mirror. He hoped desperately that that was only a coincidence.
He settled in among some dense branches, watching the compound and trying to stay awake by going over everything in his head again and again. After he rested he would try to come up with some clever plan, though he hadn't the faintest idea where to start. But right now, all there was to do now was to wait, and watch, and hope.
Author's Notes:
In case you were worried, this is not going to be one of those 'Sarah in an institution' fics. Not that there is anything wrong with those fics, but I just don't find them very appealing. I'll touch on it a bit, but I doubt it'll be more than a few paragraphs. No, the big event next chapter will be our dynamic duo having their first, erm... 'meeting'. From now on, it will be mostly Sarah and Jareth.
And don't worry about redundant OCs, I like to use random people's point of view occasionally to help tell the story, and it was kind of necessary considering that the two main characters were separated, but it is unlikely that they will be seen again. Or maybe they will and I'm just saying that to mislead you and shock you later on. Or maybe not. :-D
Also, there probably won't be anymore of Sarah's family, so, if you hate Karen as much as I do, you're in luck. She has played her part.
Please review!
