Thanks for the reviews, all. Not to be vain, but I find my writing is best when it's dark. I'm amazed by how many people though it was dark...Oh well! It is what it is, I suppose. LODOWN: thanks for the sympathy! There's a lot of stuff like that going on around hereXX Bleh. But whatever. Well, common tags apply. I don't own this. It was all Jim Henson & George Lucas. Blame the geniuses for the genius. Not the n00b with no internet.

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Sarah tossed in her sleep. For now it seemed like Jareth was keeping his distance. She hadn't dreamed about him for two nights. She prayed that tonight would make the third. She slept lightly, preparing to wake herself up if he showed.

Sarah walked along a dusty road. It looked like the stretch of land it was ploted on had long since been abandoned. The buildings were few and broken. The dirt was so hard it seemed that anything planted would die instantly. Her eyes took in the sights, feeling happy yet sad at the same time. She felt a slight longing for whatever it was she couldn't have, but she ignored it as best she could.

There was a soft clattering noise coming from behind one of the abandoned buildings. "Hello?" She spoke, hoping it wasn't that she thought it was. There was no answer, but the clattering grew louder as she walked towards it. Then it changed, sounding further away. Sarah decided to follow it. She followed it into a comepletely different place. Here there was a lush garden with high stone walls surrounding it. In the middle a gigantic fountain lay. The colours of the water seemed to change with each spurt. Sarah was enchanted by it. She stared for what seemed like hours at each different change. Purple, green, blue, pink, she stood, rooted to the ground, comepletely absorbed in the water. Until she heard that same noise. It sounded like someone throwing rocks at a stone wall. She ripped her eyes away from the water, trying to identify where the noise was coming from. "Who's there?" No answer. She continued walking through countless hedge mazes, the noise growning further away and then coming to sound as if it was right next to her.

Sarah spun wildly, yet still could not determine where the noise was coming from. She followed it into another place. A place she knew all too well.

She looked down at her apparal, thankful she was still in jeans and a t-shirt. A familiar tune started playing, and Sarah felt she wanted to kill herself from all the feelings that it struck.

There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes

A kind of pale jewel, opened and closed within your eyes

I'll place the sky within your eyes.

There's such a fooled heart, beating so fast

In search of new dreams, a love that will last

Within your heart

I'll place the moon within your heart.

As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you

Every thrill has gone, wasn't too much fun at all

But I'll be there for you

As the world falls down.

Those words struck her deeply. "I'll be there for you...As the world falls down." Had he truly met them, she wondered. There was something wrong with the song this time around, though. It was lower, more minor chords. The tune was lowered and fragmented, sounding very broken. His voice sounded like it was in slow motion. The scenery wasn't as she remembered it, either. The bubble walls seemed to be clouded, darkened, polluted. The other people within the bubble weren't showing any gaiety at all. Their faces seemed somewhat blurred, but still readable, lifeless blank expressions drug across their faces like a dead cat's blood would be drug into it's owners house by the dog next door. It was truly disturbing, in Sarah's mind. She hadn't remembered Jareth ever trying to win her over with darkness. It was then that she noticed him. Dressed in black from head to toe, a leg thrown over a throne plotted in the middle of the Masque, holding blood red crystal in hand, was Jareth.

"Jareth?" Sarah questioned, not sure if it truly was him. This amount of darkness couldn't be possessed by Jareth. It was impossible! But his head slowly turned to look Sarah in the eye, giving her the least bit of recognition possible. A dark curtain of sorrow passed before his eyes and quickly flashed to anger. He turned his head back to look at the crystal he had in his hand. It too was warped, the inside of it being comepletely crimson. Sarah grew timid. She wanted to back away more than anything, but could only stare in horror at Jareth.

He stared into the the crystal, forming pictures within it. An outline of a happy family, mother, father, daughter, son, reflected in the red. Next there was a passionate couple reflected back in it. Jareth parted his lips, as if to speak, but he couldn't find the right words. After much internal struggling, he spoke. "So happy...How is it possible? They reflect so much happiness and affection, is their ever anger and sorrow for them?" Sarah stayed silent. Jareth thought to himself and after much deliberation, flung the heavy crystal against the bubble wall. The crystal burst, the blood that had been within it spilled over onto the floor. It was right in the middle of the peolple lifelessly dancing. They continued on, not noticing the bottom of their dresses and shoes were getting comepletely blood stained. Jareth sighed and Sarah's attention was back on him. "No. I suppose not." Sarah couldn't help but crying. It was terrible. How could the people not see the blood that stained them? Why would Jareth be so upset? Could it have been her?

"You monster! How could you? Have you gone ocmepletely crazy! You beast!" Sarah let the tears rack her body.

"Sticks and stones, love." He replyed, not bothering to look at her.

"Why?" Sarah challenged, "Why are you behaving like this? What happened?"

"What happened. What happened! You want to know what happened? Let me tell you what happened!" Jareth stood and the entire room faded to black. There was nothing and no one there except Sarah and Jareth. "I stayed with you, through all of this, to keep you in your safe little sanity. I ould at least excpect some kind of respect for that, but no! You still don't think I'm real! I've done so much for you! And yet you continue to neglect it all!"

Sarah tried hard not to collapse. "What have you done for me?" She stuttered. The last time she had had confrontation with him, those three years ago, they had this same conversation. Yet she was even more afraid of him now than she was when she had been 15!

"What have I done for you? Everything! You told me I was the only thing keeping you sane, and within the next few days you were out of that pathetic little white room. And Alicia! You asked of me to bring her back. You don't see her with no recolection of anything, do you?" Sarah shook her head slowly. "And you ask what I've done for you..." Jareth chuckled, only quietly at first but it quickly grew to be uprorious laughter. Sarah was quite surprised at this, but soon was even more frightened. She new that laugh. Being in a ward full of them made her quite aware of it. It was not the laugh of any normal person, but the laugh of someone who had gone insane. Giddy and loud, not having any idea why they were laughing.

"Jareth, stop it! You're scaring me!"

He continued laughing. "Am I? You should have thought about that before you rejected me!" His laughter grew harder and his face grew contorted.

This was no dream. It was a nightmare.

"Jareth?" Sarah questioned meekly. it didn't seem like he was even in there any more. It was just a hollow shell of someone she had once loved. "Jareth I didn't reject you! I was scared! i didn't excpect you to just come to the real world without so much as a hint to it before. But now...God Jareth now I don't even know who you are anymore! You were never like this!" She grew bolder and stepped closer. "You're so concerened with how you feel you don't even bother to think about how you could effect others! Damnit I loved you! I told you before and I guess there's no denying it anymore." Jareth continued laughing. "SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME! God come back to me! Stop being such an ass!" His laughter quieted, but was still there. Sarah couldn't take it any more. A rage burned inside her that she didn't know she could ever possess. With anger burning in her heart like a towering building being engulfed by spiteful flames, she slapped him across the face. He stopped laughing immediatly.

Jareth stood, amazed at Sarah's sudden boldness. Sarah was amazed as much as Jareth was. She never dreamed she'd be able to hit him, yet here they were. "S-Sarah?" Jareth spoke like the sense had been knocked into him. She nodded, trying hard to show no trace of emotion. Jareth put his hand to his face where she had hit him, pulling away slightly as it stung. "You hit me." Sarah kept her poker face.

"I did."

"Why?" Jareth looked truly hurt. Sarah couldn't stand it, but still kept her distance. She felt that she had to, that the person she had hit wasn't the person she had grown to love.

"Find out for yourself." Sarah said coldly.

"Sarah! Wait!" Jareth pleaded, knowing that she was probably to wake up after that. It was so out of character for Jareth to plead, but the urgency and sadness in his voice was the only thing that got Sarah to turn around. "You're right. Perhaps I was thinking selfishly when I came to you. I didn't know how you were to react. It was wrong of me to think that just because I came you would be happy. Could I have another chance? Please." He kept a strighat face, but in his eyes she could tell that he was hurting. It was impossible for her to stay mad at him. Her eyes warmed and instead of answering she embraced him.

"Hold me." She whispered into his ear. She felt good knowing that he really was real and that she wasn't in love with a being that dwelled in her head. He nodded and held her closer. "Are you going to come again though?"

"What?"

"To the real world. Cuz you have to go through all this paperwork and crap and you can only come during, like, between 12 and 5. And-" he cut her off.

"Do you want me to come again?" Sarah held her breath but nodded.

"Then I will." Sarah's eyes widened and she held him closer, wanting to never let him go, having just gotten him back. She still did not understand why he had gotten so crazy. Sarah was thankful that it was a spell that only lasted for an hour. But that hour had been one of the worst times of her life. She feared of what would happen if it happened again.

"Is it time for me to wake up yet?" Sarah asked, her voice dreamy.

"It doesn't have to be..."Jareth's voice drifted off.

"Good." She snuggled closer into Jareth's shoulder. As if he could read her mind, Jareth transported them both back to the Labyrnth, away from the madness of the little black room. Away from the muddled Masque. Now it really was just he and Sarah. The way they both were before. The way they should have been from the beginning.