"Sa-ara-ah!" his low moan caused me to pick my head up and search the room frantically.
"Ludo?" I cried, glancing at the baby, then the door. I had been up half the night tending to the child, but I was sure I had hear Ludo calling for me. It couldn't have been just a dream. I got up and pulled on a pair of green, silk slippers, shrugging on a robe of the same color material before I reached the door and dragged it open.
I popped my head into the hallway. The golden morning light was warming the cold dome and flooding the place with light. I crept towards the staircase, taking careful looks around. Surely Jareth wouldn't like me to be venturing out alone in his castle – it was quite big, and I could get lost easily. Though fear tempted to drag me back to bed, I padded down the stairs and to the grand entrance hallway, softly calling, "Ludo? Ludo?" over and over.
I got to the front door and paused, then looked behind me. The hall was clear, so I took hold of the large brass doorknob and heaved. It was a heavy door, but somehow I managed to open it.
There was Ludo, standing on the stairs with one foot in a shrub and the other occupying half the step. "Ludo!" I cried, and he looked down at me. I ran over to give him a quick hug, but pulled away quickly. He smelled almost as bad as the Bog of Eternal Stench!
"Ludo, where have you been staying? You stink!" I cried, wrinkling my nose in disgust.
"Smell ba-a-ad." He said slowly and I laughed.
"Yes, you smell ba-a-ad!" I copied his tone.
He looked at his feet guiltily. "Ludo stay with Ambrosius. Ambrosius frie-e-end."
I smiled up at him. "Ludo, it's nice to see you!" I took a quick glance around at the slowly lighting yard, noting how early it was by the sun's position. "Ludo, I can't talk right now - can I visit you later?" I asked gently, careful to tiptoe around his feelings.
He nodded his large head and slouched off into the labyrinth once more. He really was a sweet creature, and nice to be around. I turned, looking up at the castle before heading back in.
I spotted Jareth in a balcony window and waved. He looked… concentrated on his thoughts, and stared at me oddly. I shrugged and headed inside, entering my room without spotting Jareth again.
When I pushed into the room, I was met by an unhappy female goblin who had the baby in her arms. She was growling some lullaby to it, and the child looked content. She stopped when she saw me, and it began to scream.
I covered my ears and she winced at the sound. "Take baby!" she yelled above the noise, holding out the child to me. I reluctantly took it in my arms, rocking in gently.
"She likes lullaby!" the goblin shouted above the baby's screams. She then proceeded to push past me and make her way towards the kitchens, leaving me with the child.
Frantically I began to sing the only lullaby I knew. "Hush little baby, don't say a word, papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird…" I tried to remember the next lines and ended up filling in my own verses.
I looked down upon the small, angelic face, no longer contorted with raging screams. She had dark brown eyes and wisps of honey colored hair. Her cheeks were rosy and plump and her small lips formed a somewhat contented smile.
"Hush little baby, don't you scream, papa's gonna buy you a nice ice cream…" I sang softly, my arms falling into the rhythm of rocking her. Her small eyes closed and her breathing began to even, but I wasn't sure she was asleep. I took small, slow steps towards the cradle, still whispering the song.
Gently I laid her down, rocking the cradle by pushing its curved feet lightly with my own foot. "Hush little baby, don't you cry, papa's gonna sing you a lullaby…" I stopped singing and heaved a soft sigh of relief – she wasn't crying anymore, she was sleeping.
"Who's this father you mention?" A teasing voice behind me made me jump. Jareth leaned against the bedframe leisurely. His gray eyes sparkled, but I did not detect any humor in his voice. He was genuinely interested in my response, or so it seemed.
"I don't know." I whispered, taking a few steps towards him. "It's just a song. I guess… I guess the whole song is a lie when I sing it to her. There is no papa to do what I'm singing about…" My own answer surprised me. It really could be considered a lie, couldn't it? I frowned, thinking about it. It was kind of unfair how it all played out.
Jareth stretched out a hand and lifted my chin. "Do not frown so much. It's very unbecoming." He said, then stepped closer. We were standing pretty close, and it worried me.
I didn't trust Jareth enough for him to be so near to me. I took a step backwards, then quickly sidestepped him and headed for the door, calling over my shoulder, "Whoever's last to breakfast is a rotten egg!" It was childish, I knew, but I didn't want to just leave without a word.
I turned to exit the room and race down the stairs, bursting into the dining room and taking a seat. Then I noticed he was sitting right across from me, a smug grin playing across his lips.
"That's not fair!" I cried, frowning. I had forgotten he could pop in wherever he wanted to be with merely a thought to guide him.
"You say that so often I wonder what your basis for comparison is..?" Jareth questioned tauntingly.
I smirked back. "Repeating ourselves, aren't we, Jareth?" I teased. "You know, I've always wondered why you gave me the chance to enter the labyrinth…" I said slowly, no longer teasing. I honestly wanted to know.
I stood to travel closer to the center of the table with my plate, piling it with small sausages and a few bits of French toast. I glanced at Jareth and found his eyes watching my every move.
"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah." He used that scolding tone once more. He got up and began placing a few things on his own plate delicately. "You were an interesting creature. I wanted a closer look at you."
I set my plate down and pretended to be offended. "I was an interesting creature? Am I no longer a creation that interests you?" I teased.
Jareth set his plate down as well and took a few steps forward, grasping my hand in his own. His hand was cold and smooth and held my hand tightly as if keeping me from vanishing away somehow.
Though I was slightly confused, I did not pull away, but looked up into his icy blue eyes. They seemed to always be changing color on me – were they not hazel before?
"You will always interest me, my dear…" he murmured, lifting my hand to press his lips against my knuckles.
His actions caused me to doubt my feelings for him. I did not hate him as I once had, yet I did not feel for him as a friend. There was something else I couldn't place my finger on.
As I pondered my feelings, his other hand gripped my waist and he gently pulled me in. My mind screamed for me to pull away, raging and asking myself what I was doing; my body ignored my mind.
My heart pounded in my chest as he let go of my hand, placing both of his on my waist. We were hardly a few inches apart. I imagined I could almost hear his heartbeat, though I couldn't really. It just made the situation seem more intimate, more like a story I would read.
He guided me closer, and I was almost touching him. I kept looking up into his eyes, wondering what he would do next, when the inevitable happened: he kissed me. When his lips connected with mine, I felt a jolt of electricity. I had never kissed anyone like this before, and it was energizing.
Our lips moved together, his kiss slightly abrasive but I liked it. It seemed like forever before we broke away, separating ourselves with one inch. His hands remained on my hips, though and he did not let go; he was not finished.
His breathing was staggered and forced, my own the same. We had just kissed – and I kind of liked it. What was I saying? This man held my brother captive for thirteen hours! But only because I asked him to… he had meant no harm, really.
Before I could keep thinking, he pulled me in again and our lips met. There was barely any space between us, and he pressed closer. He clutched me to him and I allowed him to. Within seconds we were no longer in the in the dining hall, but instead in a bedroom much like my own.
I broke away and he gently pushed me against the bed, crawling over top of me. He bent his neck to continue the kiss, but pulled away faster this time. He lips traveled my skin, working down my neck to my collarbone where he stopped.
His hands moved to the neckline of my nightgown and popped a few buttons open. I did not move for a moment, getting a grip on all that was happening. It was really happening…
I reached up a hand to tentatively tug at the collar of his shirt, but stopped. The faint sound of a baby wailing pulled me back into reality and I moaned. "The baby…" I trailed off.
"Someone can tend to it…" he murmured, fingers playing with another button.
"We can't do this – we don't want another child on our hands…" I tried to treat it like a joke, but I couldn't, really. This was pretty serious business and I was only 15 – I had no place dealing in such affairs and he knew it.
Jareth laughed lightly as color tinged his cheeks and I realized I had never seen him embarrassed nor nervous before. He got up and stood next to the bed, offering a hand to help me up. I accepted his hand and he pulled me to my feet.
Standing, we looked at each other awkwardly for a moment. His eyes traveled my gown, staring pointedly at how far my dress was unbuttoned. It was my turn to blush as I quickly moved my hands to fix my clothing.
He sighed at the same time I did and we laughed together. I heard the baby wail again and frowned. "I had better go check on her…" I trailed off and he grabbed my arm without a second's hesitation.
We were in my room, a few feet away from the baby's cradle. He took a seat on my bed and I went to pick up the baby. She was hungry, but I couldn't off her the nutrition she would expect from a mother. I simply rocked her in my arms and took a seat next to Jareth.
"She's hungry." I stated, making my voice soothing so as to keep the baby calm.
He frowned. "I am not one who would know what to feed a child." He muttered and I laughed lightly.
"Neither am I, but I'll have to manage." I replied, looking down at the baby. "Isn't she pretty?" I commented absently.
He shrugged. "I suppose. What do you call her?" he asked and I was surprised. I knew babies didn't come with their own names - parents had to pick them out of course. But I was not her parent – who was I to name her?
"Evanescence." I came up with the prettiest name I could think of. It wasn't really a name, but a word, meaning a fading away or vanishing, but I liked the sound of it. "Her name is Evanescence."
Jareth nodded, almost wisely. "Ah, a beautiful name…" he murmured. "She seems a bit testy, though. Perhaps we had better take her to the kitchen, and see what we can fix up for her to consume?"
He did not grab my arm to pop me into the kitchen, merely got up and walked to the door. I suppose maybe transporting both me and the baby would be difficult.
One of the female goblins fixed up a nasty looking concoction that the baby loved. She had poured warm milk and sugar into a bottle, and then mixed in mashed up peaches and nectarines. I honestly don't know what was up with the strange ingredients, but if it stopped Evanescence's screaming, I was down with it.
I spent the rest of the day caring for the baby and sketching whenever I had the chance. The book I brought from home was soon filled with rough sketches of my rooms, the baby, and, of course, Jareth. I always made sure to hide away such drawings when he came in to check on me, but I think he knows anyway. For some stupid reason, I'm embarrassed by them. Should I be?
Evanescence's sweet face reminded me of when Toby was that little; he had grown up so fast. I kind of missed the little guy – he was my brother, and, no matter how much I denied it out loud, I really did love him on the inside.
Thinking of Toby caused my thoughts to shift to Brandi and my dad. She was probably home, rejoicing over the fact that she didn't have to deal with me while she forced Dad to go find another slave to take care of the son she barely looked at. I could picture it in my mind, even! Poor Toby…
The thoughts of home and my family started to drag my feelings down. I wasn't particularly hungry, so I skipped dinner. It was a bad choice – without Jareth and good food to distract me, I was trapped in the labyrinth of my thoughts.
Every way I looked at something would lead to a dead end and I was forced to go back and choose another way to look at the situation. The path kept changing and it was worse than being stuck in the real labyrinth. The physical labyrinth could only wear you out and it ended eventually; the mazes of my mind and heart were mental and I could never escape them.
Eventually I just curled up in bed, worrying about my family and scolding myself for being so weak at the same time. During all of this, thoughts of Jareth and our morning kept creeping in on me; I didn't even want to think about them at the moment. Throw in Hoggle's warning, and it was all just so complicated!
Curled over on my side, staring blankly at the wall, I cried into the side of my pillow. That was how he found me, looking small and pitiful, bawling my eyes out for apparently no reason.
Awkwardly he sat beside me and folded his hands. "I could show you your home." He suggested quietly, twirling the bubble on the tips of his fingers like I had seen him do so many times. It almost taunted me, the idea that my family was so close to me yet so far.
I sat up and moved closer, leaning against his shoulder to get a better look at the glass.
It was like a small television; I watched my family move through their day like a reality show. Lazy little Brandi sat at the table and moped, while Dad seemed angry about something – probably couldn't find a maid to replace me. Toby just played with toys all day – including Lancelot, might I mention. Maybe it reminded him of me… probably not.
Merlin was the only one who truly seemed to miss me, and he was a dog! He spent his day slinking around the house and nosing around in the garage. At least Brandi let him inside – it was raining pretty heavily.
The glass wasn't done showing me everything, though. Glimpses of my room appeared and I could not restrain a gasp; someone had been messing around in it, moving my things and trashing the place. My music box was toppled over, and a few of the stuffed animals on my shelf were missing. Most likely, Brandi gave my toys to Toby, though I didn't see him with them. She probably knocked over the box out of spite of my mother.
I was entranced by the glass, and I could not stop looking at it. It took me through my route to the park, and I got an overhead view. It was pretty empty and nothing really changed about it, except there were a few footprints in the mud near the woods.
I squinted to make them out, but I couldn't tell much from them. They looked like women's boots, but the rain could have messed them up anyway.
I looked up at Jareth, as I didn't think there was anything more, just in time to catch the picture changing out of the corner of my eye. I turned my focus back to the bubble and saw something that confused me – Jareth and I, laughing together as we took a moonlight stroll through what appeared to be the castle gardens. I turned to Jareth, asking with my eyes as he popped the bubble and it vanished.
"The glass shows you what you want, Sarah." He murmured, looking into my eyes.
He leaned in as I was captured once more by his gaze. He pressed his lips against mine quickly, and pulled away, standing up. He offered a hand to me with a grin.
"Would you like to go for a walk in the gardens?" he asked, a gleam of mischief in his eyes. I grinned right back and grabbed his hand.
Sorry it took so long! I was writing for a contest and I got distracted from finishing the chapter. If you would like to read my contest entry, you can find it at: .com/stories/4e4dc2672447984304040460 If not, wait another few days for the next chapter! :) Thanks for reading! ~Val