Sarah knew she was dreaming. She told herself so. She had to be dreaming. Nothing in real life had ever prepared or fueled her imagination for this kind of situation.
She was in a ballroom.
Music was playing and it dipped in and out, preparing for a haunting melody that was just beginning to emerge in the background.
Sarah looked down and saw that her body was encased in a beautiful white ball gown. Touching the bodice, she felt the hard sequins of the design. Tentatively, she swished her skirts. Without a doubt, it was the most beautiful thing that she ever wore. A far cry indeed from the simple play acting outfits that she usually wore.
Hesitantly, she felt her hair. Whispers of ribbon were threaded through her hair which was piled on top of her hair in a half bun.
Sarah felt very grown up with her hair caught away from her face.
She also felt very exposed. The sequin white dress, although very beautiful, revealed more than she usually did. Her exposed back and chest felt chilly in the ballroom. Couples that were dancing whizzed by her and Sarah heard the whish of the skirts and the chill that seemed to emanate from their very dancing.
Looking around her, she saw that she was surrounded by mirrors and dancers. It was the perfect ballroom scene from out of a story book. The women and men were also dressed in attire that was appropriate for a fancy masquerade. Everyone wore masks that were common to a masquerade theme. Some of them had mouths and were shaped in smiles, but Sarah found them slightly frightening and threatening.
The men wore tight fighting pants and slim jackets with lace undershirts. The women wore ball gowns in crimsons and gold. The clothing itself on both sexes was tight and revealing. Necklines dipped on both the men and women. The fitted pants made Sarah want to blush and never look downward. The cloth accentuated every crevice and bulge.
None of them wore white. Sarah felt that she was a white conspicuous cloud among fall leaves.
People were dancing all around her. She looked at them, watching them waltzing beside her. They were all talking to each other and laughing enthusiastically.
Sarah walked slowly around them, trying not to bump into them as they danced. It seemed to her that they took no notice of her. Sarah thought that somehow they would be surprised that she was there, but this wasn't so.
They watched her though without looking at her.
Ignorant of this, Sarah did her best to push gently past them, searching for something...something that she couldn't put her finger on.
"What am I searching for?" she thought to herself. The haunting melody picked up and Sarah felt a strange prickle in her spine.
"This is so familiar" she murmured, staring at the dancers. Continuing to push back the dancers, she felt the prickle intensify as a man behind a mask stepped out and moved towards her. Sarah gasped and blinked.
"He's gone" she said to herself, "Where did he go?"
The laughter in the ballroom faded out as the melody got stronger. Sarah ignored the dancers as she pushed at them more forcibly, trying her hardest to find him again.
"As the world falls down..."
Sarah looked frantically around. The dancers seemed to multiply and she was being pressed in from all sides. It was becoming hard to breath. Panic rose up in her heart and Sarah prepared herself to run or scream.
A hand laid itself on her shoulder.
"Its you" Sarah thought in relief. "I found you".
The man was tall and elegant in a cold way, but Sarah didn't care about the lack of warmth. He smiled and it was sardonic and somewhat cruel. A normal person would have been wary, but Sarah pressed into his arms.
"I hardly know you" she said aloud. Dancers that were close by them laughed.
The man only smiled .
"Though we're strangers for now..."
Together they twirled around the dance floor surrounded by the other couples. A woman laughed loudly in Sarah's ear as she spun past her.
Sarah cringed and leaned closer to the man.
It seemed that this was a place that Sarah did not belong to.
Looking around her, Sarah felt out of place, waltzing in a grown ups daydream. She was still a teenager and thus still a child in many ways. No one had ever told her that she could feel like this in the arms of a stranger. Especially a stranger like this one. With his white gold hair and mismatched eyes, the smile that he gave was overwhelmingly deep and beautiful, but deep inside Sarah felt the danger that was part of this man.
"Your name..." Sarah began. She stopped as the danced faster. Somewhere in the distance, she heard a clock tone.
It felt like from beginning that she wasn't suppose to be here. This situation was wrong.
It was too adult.
The man gripped her waist as they spun and Sarah felt heat rise to her cheeks.
Pressed closely together by the dancers, Sarah could feel the man's hard body against her bodice. Her heart pounded fiercely as she felt the hardness of his body.
He was wearing clothes like her, but somehow she felt the heat of his body through all the layers.
The man smiled again at Sarah, guessing how she felt. Sarah blushed deeper.
The music took a turn and the man spun Sarah into him. Sarah's breath stopped in her throat and her feet stumbled clumsily beneath her tulle skirts.
The man put his hand on Sarah's back and steadied her while pressing her deeper to him. Sarah felt a tingle in the lower part of her body.
"Stop" she said. The man said nothing but his mismatched eyes gazed at her.
"Everything is dancing" she said. For although she stood pressed into the man, the dancers in th ballroom had not ceased their dancing. Sarah felt like she had done a dozen pirouettes, she felt so dizzy.
"Sarah" the man said at last.
"I am giving you your dreams."
Covered in a sweat, Sarah woke up gasping.
She clutched the bedclothes to her, struggling to orient herself.
The room was empty. Whoever was there before was now gone.
Or rather, whatever was there before was now gone. Sarah shivered as she recollected that the man from her dreams was not human.
He was Fae. The Goblin King to be exact.
But what did he want with her?
She was a young nubile girl to be sure. Sarah was smart enough to be shrewed about what most men wanted. Although she was an artistic wild child, she was not stupid.
Thank goodness.
Glancing around her to make sure that no one else was in the room, Sarah took a deep breath and calmed down.
Her fear abating, Sarah calmed down enough to think about the situation.
She smiled wryly and bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing aloud. The king of the Goblins was dancing with her. But whatever for? He was the KING OF THE GOBLINS. Sarah struggled to not laugh hysterically at the absurdity of the situation. Whatever magic spell had kept her parents asleep was probably gone. The last thing she needed was for them to start thinking she was losing her mind while also defying social norms.
What a pity.
Really though, what girl in a fairy tale actually thought beforehand about what it meant to leave a slipper, prick your finger or eat an apple. If she remembered correctly, in the Labyrinth it was wishing children away.
Who could do such a thing?
"Somebody with no brains" Sarah murmured softly to herself. Her hands grasped her sheet as she thought about pressing against the Goblin King's body.
"It was so familiar" Sarah said aloud. The fear totally gone, Sarah climbed out of her bed and went to her vanity table, searching for the leather bound book.
"It was here somewhere."
Sarah thought that if she could her hands on the book she could find some of the answers she was looking for.
"Dammit, where did it go?" Sarah tossed perfume bottles and clutter aside as she searched on the table. Glancing at the mirror she saw that it was normal now. No strange girl was captured in the glass.
Sarah gave up on the vanity and searched the floor of room, looking for the book.
"It can't be missing!" she said. Sarah closed her eyes and tried to remember where she put it. She rubbed her temples in frustration.
She took a deep breath and looked around the room. Perfume bottles lay on the floor. In her jeans she found tissues with blotted lipstick. The dress she wore earlier lay in a heap on the carpet.
"I won't find it. Its gone. Someone took it."
Slowly rising from the carpet, Sarah felt a small amount of dread beginning to gather in her stomach.
"What I remember about the Labyrinth is not enough. I just took it as a story. Nothing more...Nothing less."
Sarah tilted her head at her thoughts.
"Nothing more, nothing...less"
" I feel like this happened before. Why is the Goblin King seeking me out? I am just a girl. He could have anyone he want. I am not a child. I have nothing that he wants...what is it then?"
Sarah paced her room for the rest of the night, pondering the nature of the Goblin King and desperately wishing that she had her book.
Because what she remembered was not enough. All she could do was shake her head in puzzlement and fear.