Hey, everybody! =]
So, this isn't exactly a filler chapter, but it's more of a shorter one where you have to get an inside-look on what Jareth is planning and what's going on in Sarah's head. It's not very long, but pretty necessary to understand why Sarah does some of the things she does in later times, and why Jareth does a few of the things he's done.
So! This chapter is dedicated to Wolviegurl, who was the first to review my third chapter. :] Thank you!
Sarah Williams-Creed was pissed.
And she'd given her daughter, Holly, the brunt end of it.
No, she hadn't necessarily been correct in verbally tearing Holly's head clear off her shoulders – after all, Jareth had convinced her that he was a friend of Sarah's. It wasn't Holly's fault that she accepted the gift.
However, Jareth hadn't had the right to come Aboveground and track down Holly at a major event in her lifetime. Yes, the man may have been her inevitable future husband – for now – but Sarah still had just under two years to figure out a plan to save Holly from an eternal marriage to the Goblin King. The more these thoughts drifted through Sarah's conscious mind, the more it made her feel physically ill.
Just the thought of her teenage daughter wearing Jareth's ring, bearing Jareth's heir…
Stopping in mid-pace, she turned in the master bedroom and ran for the connected bathroom. Collapsing to her knees in front of the toilet, she wretched somewhat violently. It was a dry heave – of no good to her quaking stomach. It took a few more jerking motions before Sarah had the ability to force up anything.
Finally, some six minutes later, she was able to get to her feet on shaking legs and wander over toward the sink. Grasping her toothbrush, she groped the sink for the toothpaste bottle as she stared into her reflections eyes.
Her face had lost a little color due to the vomiting, but she was slowly regaining it. Her cropped hair brushed her forehead in neat, straight pieces. Her mossy green eyes were tired – whether due to the long day, or from the stress of Jareth's constant hovering, Sarah didn't know.
What she did know was that she'd have to lay down some ground rules.
After brushing her teeth to rid the tart taste of bile, Sarah threw her toothbrush into its cup and stormed into her bedroom.
"I wish for an audience with the Goblin King – right now!"
Jareth's entrance startled her, but she did her best not to show it.
He swooped into the open windows of her bedroom from the outside; a great, black owl. It hovered over Sarah for a moment before taking rest on the edge of her bed. In a moment's time, the bird had fanned its wing over itself and swelled to the size of a human man. As it grew larger, the wing lost its feathery texture and became silky.
When it was thrown back, it had become the silk lining of a black cape. There sat Jareth, donning his riding boots, slacks, and a white, ruffled shirt. Sarah stared at him, an eyebrow cocked like she was ready to sock him in the face.
He only smiled.
"Might I inquire about your reasons for summoning me here? I was in the midst of wedding plans."
"Oh go to hell, Jareth." Sarah hissed as she snatched the claw-footed crystal off the dresser beside her bed. With one hand on her hip, she lifted the orb in her other hand. "Would you like to explain this hunk of junk to me?"
Jareth's mouth twitched at the corner as Sarah called his – clearly – priceless gift junk. Despite the annoyance that was clear in his eyes, he kept his voice even.
"It's Holly's graduation present. My God, Sarah, do you think that I wouldn't thoroughly spoil my wife-to-be on the most important day of her lifetime up to this point? What do you take me for? A duke?"
Clearly, the joke greatly amused Jareth, but Sarah was in no mood to be reckoned with.
"Listen, I don't want you coming anywhere near Holly, do you understand me, Jareth?" Sarah hissed through clenched teeth as she carelessly tossed the orb to the side.
Jareth's frown grew deeper as he flicked his wrist and sent the orb to change directions in mid-air and come floating, gracefully, into his outstretched hand. His agitation swelled.
"Be careful with things that don't belong to you, Sarah." He sneered as he placed the orb on her bed. Standing, he rose to his full height and virtually towered her. "As for your wishes to stay away from Holly, I'm afraid I can do no such thing. Unless you've forgotten, Sarah, the girl is my wife."
"Not yet, she's not." Sarah glared back. "And I promise you, Jareth – I will do everything in my power to stop this marriage from happening."
Jareth only smirked. Sarah inwardly winced.
Jareth's smirk was the sign that he was accepting a challenge.
"I wish you the best of luck in your attempt, madam. Unfortunately for you, should you try and alter precious Holly's future, I will take extreme measures." Jareth straightened up and crossed his arms. "I do not fool around, Sarah, as you recall."
Sarah frowned as she glared on at Jareth.
"What kind of measures are you talking about, Jareth?"
The Goblin King looked pleased with her asking.
"Without hesitation, should you attempt to keep my bride away from me, I'll take her before her twentieth year. She'll live in my castle, and the wedding will go on – as planned – when her twentieth birthday arrives."
Sarah was shell-shocked.
"You can't do that! It wasn't part of the wish! You can only take her before she's twenty if I die, and I'm in good health, Jareth!"
Sarah's attempts were desperate – but she was almost afraid of what measures he would take if her life was a complication.
Jareth shrugged.
"Holly is eighteen now, Sarah. Should she wish to come with me to the Goblin City before she turns twenty…well…who am I to deny her whatever she wants?"
His smirk was challenging.
Sarah was up for it.
"Good luck getting her to do that, Jareth. She doesn't know you. She wouldn't just wish herself away to Goblin City."
The eerie silence that followed Sarah's response had put her on edge. Jareth's expression was bold, as if he'd won some enormous challenge – as if he'd put Sarah in checkmate without her knowledge.
"You know so little of my power, Sarah, that it surprises me. I'm not above hypnosis. In fact, I find the process quite stimulating. Holly isn't of magical origin, nor too strong-willed to fight off my power. Should I choose to bewitch her mind, I'm sure I could convince her to wish herself to my kingdom."
Jareth's statement was simple, yet earth-shatteringly true. Holly was at his disposal completely.
"You…you can't do that." She trembled as she stared at him. "She's my daughter-"
"I'm aware of your attachment, Sarah. I do have a heart, you know. Had I not, I would have compelled her to wish herself away with me years ago."
Sarah found this to be true also. Enough time had passed that Jareth held all the cards now.
"Then…why didn't you, Jareth?" Sarah's voice was soft.
Jareth seemed surprised at her question, but he did nothing to make it too obvious.
"Because, Sarah," his snarky tone was gone. "You're her mother. And during your illness, you needed each other."
Sarah was flabbergasted with his explanation.
Jareth had a heart after all.
Maybe not a whole, complete one – he was still planning to take Holly as his wife when she turned twenty – but enough emotion to see that Sarah needed Holly for a time that was greater than usual. Had she died and Holly had been with Jareth, it would have broken the young girl's heart.
Perhaps it was more for Holly than for her.
Sarah sighed.
"Fine. I won't attempt to keep Holly away – if you promise to allow me time to say goodbye when the time comes."
Jareth's face was firm, but yielded slightly.
"I can do such a thing." He nodded, expressionlessly.
Sarah was torn between thanking him and keeping her pride intact.
Luckily, she didn't have to make a choice to do either, for Jareth spoke again.
"If I may be so bold, Sarah…I'd like to make it clear that Holly will be under her own free will in my care. She will not be a slave to me, nor to any other person. If she asks me to allow her to see you, I will not deny her wishes."
Despite that this should have caused her at least a small amount of relief, she found no lessoning on the tightness in her chest.
Merely, she nodded and turned away from him as she sat on the side of her bed. Taking this as a sign to leave; he lifted the claw-footed crystal in silence, turned, and strode toward the window.
By the time Sarah had turned to look in that direction just five seconds later, he was gone.
He was a shadow draped across Holly's sleeping body. A black spot caressing the olive skin that looked so milky in the moonlight. His form covered her, shrouding her in darkness as his sharp, glowing eyes studied her, intrigued by every movement she made.
When she'd turn, he'd study the way her muscles rippled under the skin at the gesture. Any soft sigh from her lovely mouth sent his back to stiffen in delight.
Here she was, laid before him as he sat in her window and gazed at her.
She was delightful when she was awake, but to see her innocent form at its most powerless…it made Jareth's spine tingle.
Holly was completely vulnerable where she was. So lovely, so delicate. A fragile, mortal human.
Jareth realized that it was part of what made her lovely to him. A human bride was a rare thing to beings of magical origin. His father, and his father's father before him had taken dozens of wives and several harems together; but each woman had been of fae or goblin origin. Even his grandfather, hundreds of thousands of years ago, had claim to both a harpie and a siren – both tamed, both serving in his harem.
Holly would be the first human wife of his bloodline.
When she became his bride, they would consummate their wedding night and thus grant her immortality after their first year of marriage.
All things would go smooth. He'd have a lifelong wife.
Despite that there was always the chance of him seeking pleasure in other women of varying species – fae, goblin, magical creature alike – Jareth would be able to hold his wife and have her give birth to his heir one day.
He no longer had to search. He'd found a female of worthy bloodline.
The daughter of the labyrinth's first champion.
Time was carrying on. It would be daylight soon – he'd need to be Underground when the sun broke over the sky. There was still much to plan in terms of the wedding, and Holly's immortality. Her signatures had to be claimed soon – the signs of her immortality. It would require further studying before such elements would be taken to claim.
But…first…
Jareth lifted himself from Holly's window sill and quietly approached the girl's bed. She rested there on her back, one arm draped across her waist and the other resting near her forehead. Her face was turned upward, toward the ceiling. Her breasts rose and fell as she quietly slept.
Jareth knelt on the edge of her bed. Leaning forward, his hands were placed on either side of Holly's head. Lowering himself at a steady pace, he stared at her intently, studying the way her parted lips trembled with each breath. His nose was almost touching hers…
Her eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Jareth was standing beside her vanity table half a second later. His eyes took in her sleeping form once more as she stirred, and rolled over with her back to him. Reaching into the pocket of his cloak, he extracted the reflective crystal with clawed feet that he'd selected as a gift for her. Placing it gently on her table, he glanced toward her once more`.
By the time she had settled again, he was a brown owl, soaring out of the window and across the sky on great, dark wings.
Ending on a cute note, I think. :]
By the way! There's this awesome chick who goes by the pen-name of Kagura on FanFiction. :] You can find her by going on my profile and clicking 'Favorite Authors'. If you AT ALL like my stories, you'll love hers. Read Iris! Go!