A/N: Last chapter!
Sarah was in complete shock.
Was is weird that she was more struck by the fact that this warlock just admitted to having feelings for her than the discovery that she had fate-controlling powers?
But, were the feelings genuine if she held so much sway over him?
"You-you love me?" She asked shakily.
Jareth's eyes opened, and though his face was still turned away from her, she could see the quiet sadness within them.
"With all of my being."
"But-but how?" She pressed in confusion. "I'm only fifteen and-and you just said that you were basically a slave to my every whim! So, how can you really feel that way?"
"Sarah," the Goblin King sighed as he faced her," you're talking about this situation as if you had cast a spell over me. It's not the same thing. You changed my destiny and I was aware of it. It was as if I was looking into the unalterable future. I watched you grow from a child into a strong, capable young woman and I fell more and more in love with you as each and every day went by."
"However, I won't lie to you. I did resist. I desperately fought against my growing devotion to you. I even tried to hate you for trapping me in the Underground and subconsciously forcing me to literally construct your dream world. But I couldn't. Hating you gave me no pleasure. It only made me feel hollow and cold. But when I allowed myself to love you, I felt comforted and warm."
"As for your age, even if you were ninety-nine right now, I'd still be several thousand years your senior and I wouldn't love you any less than I already do, so it isn't really a concern to me."
"If you felt this way, then why didn't you say anything before?" Sarah gently demanded. "Why did you act like the bad guy when I ran the Labyrinth?"
"Because you expected me to." He said. "You wanted a villain because you were still cleaving to your childish fantasies. You weren't ready to admit you wanted a prince. Had you been more inclined to stories of romance as opposed to heroism, things might have turned out differently, but alas, you are a wild and willful one aren't you, precious?"
The corner of his mouth perked up in amusement and her stomach fluttered.
"I tried to push my luck with that gift. I tried to show you my feelings and your changing desires all at once, but you were still too much of a frightened child to understand. So you ran from me and refused to listen when I tried to appeal to you in the Escher Room."
"I thought you were just trying to distract me."
"In a way, I was," he admitted, "but mostly, I was trying to make you reconsider your position towards me. Remember the song?"
She nodded.
"Those weren't exactly my words to you. They were quite the opposite actually."
The girl's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Huh?"
"When we danced together in the peach dream," Jareth explained, "I read your heart. I saw how you really felt about me."
The memory of his voice in that horrible stair-puzzle flooded her memory:
How you turned my world, you precious thing.
"I turned your fantasy world into a dream come true." He translated.
You starve and near exhaust me.
"I starved and nearly exhausted you with my challenge."
Everything I've done, I've done for you.
"You unconsciously gave life to the land in your book because you were fascinated by me and wanted me to be real most of all."
I move the stars for no one.
"You'd never done anything so grand for anyone else and you never would."
You've run so long, you've run so far.
"You made me come to you from a place so far away and wait for so long."
Your eyes can be so cruel, just as I can be so cruel.
"You were frightened by me; by our similarities."
Though I do believe in you. Yes, I do.
"Though you still believed in me with all of your heart."
Live without the sunlight.
"You only felt really alive in the dark of the night, when you were dreaming of you and me in the Labyrinth."
Love without your heartbeat.
"But I was just a figment of your imagination. You'd didn't think of me as really being alive."
I can't live within you.
"You couldn't admit to yourself the connection between us because you thought I was nothing more than a beautiful lie that could offer you nothing."
"That is why Silence awoke, Sarah." Jareth whispered. "When you denied me, I suppose you could say I lost the will to live. A rather crass expression you humans invented, but I honestly can't think of a better descriptive. After watching and waiting thirteen-hundred years for you, after you'd eternally chained my heart to yours, you rejected me simply because I wasn't real enough to satisfy your doubts."
"No wonder you quoted the last conversation in to book to me. If you just followed the rules, all would be well. The dream would end and you'd be free to go about your business and not have to worry about the devilish Goblin King until you felt the need to play pretend again. I was a toy you liked to play with, but somehow your friends were an exception."
"Silence sensed the weakness in my power and reacted accordingly. The only reason you were able to defeat him with words was because you were quite right. This is your Labyrinth. It always has been your Labyrinth and it always will be. And now, I must ask you to decide what you're going to do with it."
Sarah hadn't realized that there were tears sliding down her cheeks until a drop of wetness splashed on the back of her hand.
"What? What do you mean decide?" She wiped her eyes hastily.
"You're about to be an adult, Sarah." Jareth clarified. "You must decide if you want to keep your dreams or let them fade away with childhood. Should you choose the first, nothing will change. The Labyrinth and all its inhabitants will go on as long as you wish. If you choose the latter, my magic will die and Silence will come and finish what he started."
"That's no choice at all." She stated firmly. "I'll keep the Labyrinth for the rest of my life."
The warlock averted his gaze.
"I'm sure Hog-brain and the others will be glad to hear of your decision." He replied solemnly.
"What about you?"
"I will continue to be your slave."
Sarah bit her lip in anguish. The last bit of understanding fell into place.
"Jareth?" She murmured, placing a hand on his bicep. "The last time you said that to me, you were just asking me to consciously return some of the feelings you had for me, weren't you?"
When he didn't answer, she moved from the chair and sat on the bed beside him. Ignoring the girlish shivers under her skin and the bright red blush on her face, she reached down and pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss.
Pulling away, she stroked her fingers from his temple all the way down to the corner of his jaw. She forced down a giggle at the way he leaned into the caress.
"You've waited thirteen-hundred years for me, already," she began, "do you think you can wait…just another two-hundred?"
"Oh Sarah," He purred, tracing her bottom lip with his fingertips. "For you, I would wait forever."
"Well," she grinned taking his hand from her mouth and lacing their fingers together, "I promise that this time, forever won't be long at all."
A/N: And so it ends. I realize this story is short and not too heavily detailed, but that was on purpose. Less is more, give the audience some imagination and all that. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed My Labyrinth!
