Much thanks to Ellen Weaver for bouncing about with ideas.
"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none-
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
The world was remade as quickly as it had been undone. A strong sense of déjà vu struck me as the throne room fizzled back into life.
DARE.
I scrambled to my feet and scanned the room wildly. He was there, somewhere. I felt him; his icy eyes wreaked havoc across my skin, sending a ripple of goose-bumps up my arms. Clara was nowhere in sight and the gods only knew what was happening to her.
"You are too old for hide and seek, your majesty." I called to the corners of the room, pretending to be brave.
"Quite right, my dear." His cultured voice sang into my ear as a vice-like grip tightened around my waist, anchoring me to him. My breath caught in my throat as I tried to deal with the fact that I couldn't see his face standing behind me like he was.
I wanted to kindly remind him that he had no power over me, but somehow I knew it wasn't true. Not then, perhaps not ever. Maybe he'd been humoring me all those years ago, at any rate his previous conversation with the Doctor sounded like a funeral keening to my ears. I was not safe there in his arms.
"You're oddly quiescent." He hummed.
"I'm simply calculating my next move, your grace." I growled.
"That a girl." Roughly, he pushed me from him.
I turned to gift him with my most deadly glare and he smiled in the face of my ferocity.
"What do you want, Jareth?" I could still feel his hands on my waist.
"This isn't about what I want. You have to finish your challenge." He arched an eyebrow in a way that would've been playful...for another being.
"What would you have me do, game-master?" I mimicked his uncanny head-tilting.
"Come to me." He extended his gloved hand in my direction. I looked at him warily, knowing that I had to see the dare through.
I did as he required feeling like the proverbial virgin approaching the proverbial volcano-primed for sacrifice. "Is that all?" I drawled, my voice bored.
Jareth's hand, his actual hand, not a gloved one, grazed my cheek, combed through my hair and down my neck. Against my will, I shivered. His eyes laughed as they caught my reaction.
"Now kiss me." He smirked, but his eyes were flat, deadly.
I swallowed hard. I'd thought of him kissing me before. Who wouldn't? He was gorgeous...I was not blind or a nun. Sister Sarah Williams was not ever going to be a thing, but I had never considered kissing him. Always, in any dream or misguided fantasy, he'd kissed me. Now he was daring me to do the unthinkable. And, he was doing it out of spite, not passion, which was doubly mortifying.
"Fine." I threw my arms around his neck, closed my eyes, and went right to it. The kiss was hollow, at first, he'd made me bend, but his stiff triumph melted beneath my lips. He pulled me to him, and deepened my half-hearted attempt. The effect of his attentions were far more potent than any damnable peaches.
I lost it. My resolve, my mind, my purpose, my name, my everything flew out the round window. I wanted to rip him to pieces. I was a mad woman. My skin tingled, my heart beat in my chest like a caged animal, and I just wanted him. I wanted him like I'd never wanted anything in my life.
A miraculous bit of sanity shone into my soul and I pushed him away, panting. Maybe my starved lungs had awoken me from the temporary bout of insanity. I may've kissed him to death.
"Oh, I hate you." I panted. Tears were pooling behind my eyes. There was too much emotion, too much to process, and I just didn't have time to deal with that. I had a game to play, to win. He was distracting me again, and his tactics were so much more effective now.
Jareth's expression was one of thinly concealed victory as his canine grin reappeared. "You're such a precious thing," he snarled.
"I kissed you. I completed your dare. Let me go." I fought to control my voice, to steady it.
"It's inevitable, you know. You will be mine." His eyes were once again flat and serious, which was more frightening by far than his snarls and mocking.
"I won't."
"Everything I've done, I've done for you." His haphazard eyes searched my face.
They were the last thing I saw before I felt Clara shaking me awake.
"Sarah…Sarah!" She called. I opened my eyes slowly, still swamped with too much information, too many feels.
"It's ok, I am up." I fumbled to obtain a seated position.
Everything I've done, I've done for you. Those words, they had haunted me for years, and once again he had thrown them at me.
"Ugh." I grunted, dropping my head into my hands.
"That wasn't so bad." She slumped against the wall. The mirror had swung open like a door, waiting to be entered.
"All those awful things Jareth said about your friend. Are they true?" I asked, trying to distract myself from my own troubles, trying to pull myself back together. I blinked at Clara, readjusting to the dark.
She was quiet a moment. "Yes. I suppose they are."
"I'm sorry." I mumbled.
"Don't be. It doesn't matter, he's still my Doctor and no jackass time-man is going to keep me from him." She stood, looking resolute. I needed to regain that feeling.
"Is he a good man despite what Jareth said?" I asked.
"I don't know. But he's mine." She extended her hand to me. I took it and we stepped through the looking glass.
Short chapter...probably should have finished this and tagged it on to the last one. Oh well. Thank you guys for the reads and reviews. They are much appreciated. I didn't intend for this story to be more than a few thousand words, so thanks for sticking with it.
