I thought things would get better once winter vacation started. I was wrong.
"Basically all you have to remember is that the exponents must be equal if the bases are the same."
Sarah tried to concentrate on her teacher's endless droning as he explained the exponential functions, but his words were slipping in one ear and out the other. She knew she should be paying attention, but she couldn't seem to make her self sit up, or lift her head off her curled hand. Her only consolation was that the other students were just as bad. There was a restless air to the classroom in general, and she could hear everyone shift in their seats, the rat-a-tat of clicking pens blending with the teacher's voice.
Sarah wasn't overly alarmed when she began to hear music.
It started soft. It was such a tenuous sound that at first she thought she was imagining things. It would fade in and out as the teacher's voice washed over her, lulling her into a hazy zone of boredom. Her eyelids grew heavy and she could feel her head growing heavier.
As it gradually got louder she was able to shake off the awful lethargy that math gave her even on good days. Instead of blending with the teacher's voice it collided, made a jarring note that had her looking around discretely for the source. Finding none, Sarah assumed with a silent shake of her head that someone had left their I-pod on high and they would turn it off soon rather than risk attracting the teacher's attention.
Instead of disappearing, the music increased, and Sarah felt the first tingling of alarm when the teacher never once paused in his lecture. Heart pounding, Sarah sat up straighter. It was nothing, she assured her self. Her professor was prone to ignoring distractions when he was in full lecture mode, and he was just giving the culprit a chance to turn off the I-pod without causing a scene.
As the music continued to grow louder, she began to make it out better. It was the kind of music a person could sit and listen to. The soft tunes held a slow tempo that discouraged dancing, but made it easy to drift away on one's thoughts as it inspired memories or emotions.
The music was pervasive, a haunting, taunting melody that dug up memories that should have remained buried. Against her will her gaze turned inward to a ballroom that glittered, filled with laughing, dancing beings that watched her from behind shining masks.
Sarah discretely slipped her hands over her ears, wanting to block it out. Only the music did not lessen, and instead kept growing in volume. Sarah fastened her gaze on the white board, using the equations and linear graphs to anchor her self to the real world, the world that mattered.
As frightening as the music was, it was the sudden words that accompanied it that terrified her.
"No one can blame you, for walking away
Life can be easy, It's not always swell….."
Sarah bit her lip to hold back the gasp as the smooth tones washed over her, the hypnotic voice echoing through her mind. And she knew the music was in her mind now. The voice was achingly familiar, and she hated that it still had the power to affect her, even after all this time. She was supposed to be done with that world.
"Don't tell me truth hurts, little girl
'Cause it hurts like hell….."
By now the music was deafening, and the words she could hear in Jareth's silky voice sliced at her mind like glitter coated knives. Old dreams and youthful mistakes bombarded her in time with the music, and it became too much to endure in silence. Shoveling her stuff into her backpack, Sarah fled from the room. The shocked stares of her classmates were ignored, and she didn't hear her teacher's complaint, not when she had Jareth's voice sliding through her mind like poisoned honey.
"But down in the Underground
You'll find someone true….."
Sarah reeled as she stumbled out of the classroom, fighting back tears of frustration as the music followed her, as Jareth's voice sank into the shadows of her mind. Hands shaking as she clutched at the thick straps of her backpack, Sarah forced her self to move, shivering as she faced the blatant proof that her past was not as far behind her as she had hoped.
"Down in the underground
A land serene, A crystal moon…."
The doors at the end of the long hall loomed closer, and through the stained window she could see the sunlight. Her steps echoed against the pale walls, and in the shadow of their echoes she could hear the faintest rustle, followed by chittering laughter. Underneath it all the music continued to play. By the time she shoved at the heavy metal door she was running full out, the swaying of her long hair mimicking the mocking touch of gloved fingers.
"It's only forever
Not long at all…."
The doors smashed against the walls with the sharp clang of metal striking stone, and she stumbled through them, falling onto a bench bathed in sunlight. The welcoming warmth chased away the faint laughter and the scuttling shadows. It anchored her Aboveground as her world threatened to drown beneath enchanting music and dreams turned into nightmares. Sarah clutched at the safety of the stone bench, feeling the heat of the sun bathed stone seep into her bones to counter the cold chill of fear.
"Lost and lonely
That's the Underground….."
Sarah had hoped and prayed that her story with the Labyrinth was done. When she was younger she had been told that her dreams could come true, and she had embraced that knowledge whole heartedly. That childish faith was coming back to haunt her now. She'd made her wish, and it had come true with all the horrors that her young mind had been unable to truly fathom. Sarah almost wished that they were truly horrible, that they were gruesome memories that she could will her self to forget. But what made them so horrible was how beautiful her memories were of the Labyrinth, and how no matter how much time she put behind her, the longing for that world below ground never faded.
"That's Underground."
The empty courtyard echoed with the silent strains of music that only Sarah could hear, and the silky voice of the Goblin King reverberated through memories that would not be left behind.
Far down in Underground, Jareth hummed as he gazed into his crystal, and he smiled.
Jareth makes me smile.
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