Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.
Chapter 21
A Kiss in the Dark
She stared at him dumbly, unable to phrase a word. All color had fleeted away from her face. Sarah didn't know if she should laugh or cry. This, truly, wasn't fair!
Sarah lowered her eyes and thought for awhile, before she returned her gaze to him. "I...My mother..." She couldn't bring herself to continue.
"Yes." Jareth nodded, saving her from the trouble of looking for the right words. "You are correct." He gave her a momentary smile. "It was your mother who wished you away to the Underground, and to me."
"But how...?" Sarah stared him, too shocked to even shed a tear. "When..?"
He sighed. It might be he was possibly feeling sorry for her, and it might be that he possible wasn't. His face revealed nothing of his true sentiments. "It happened when you were only a few weeks old." His held that same indifferent tone.
"But..." Sarah quietly gasped, still not quite understanding. "But how's that possible? How can it be true? I've lived all my life in my own world! How is it possible?"
Jareth gave her a long look, before he answered. "By accident, as I already told you many times. Let me assure you of that." He swiftly eyed the curving night sky, and his mouth quivered shortly before he spoke. "Sarah, you're now 23, isn't that right?"
"Yes..." Sarah answered confused as she tried to invent a reason why her age had anything to do with the matter. "But I'm afraid I fail to see the point here."
He answered her, his tone sounding oddly jovial. "Exactly 23 years ago, I was summoned from the Goblin Realms to your world. I take you know at least some things more about the exact duties of my obligations as the Goblin King..." He noticed her giving him a small nod, and continued his explanation. "Then you must be aware by now that when I'm summoned, I can not refuse, and I must obey the call." The merriment disappeared from his voice, and he suddenly appeared older. "So, as I made my appearance in your world, I found myself faced with a young human woman, who had just given birth to her daughter. The woman was an actress, and she felt that her pregnancy and child delivery had injured her career..." His words made Sarah shudder, crushed, she closed her eyes. She nearly couldn't believe her ears.
"Yes Sarah..." Jareth's words were silent. "She was your mother. She was Linda."
Sarah softly, barely recognizing it, whimpered, and moved her hands to cover her face. She finally felt the tears falling down her cheeks, and she couldn't bear to let the Goblin King witness it. Her own mother! Sarah couldn't believe this! Her world was crumbling down. Hiding her desolation, Sarah turned around, not being able to face the Goblin King.
"Please..." She gasped, and lowered her arms as she stared at the moonlit garden around them; the tears making their way down her cheeks. "Don't make me hear this..." Her words were barely a whisper.
His words sounded callous, though she didn't see his face to witness whether it truly was so. "But Sarah...I thought you wanted to know the truth...?" She could imagine him arching his brown high; staring at her; his thin lips in that expression that could just barely be described as a smile. Sarah couldn't maintain her shivering as she remembered her previous encounter in the world of the water nymphs. What irony! She knew, she had said she wanted to know what lied behind, but...
"Not this way..." Sarah sighed, wiping the tears from her face, and turned to confront the Underground King of the Labyrinth "...and not these words..."
"Sometimes you don't have the option of choosing." He sounded as bitter as he looked, and Sarah swallowed at his statement.
True.
"No. You're right." Sarah sighed.
They stared each other for awhile, before Jareth spoke aloud. He had a thoughtful look on his face as he explained to her; maybe to make her feel better? "Your mother hadn't known anything about the Underground, which usually is the case, but accidentally, in anger, she had shouted the right words. She didn't believe in magic, or any other races, not to mention worlds or universes. Rightly, she was scared, terrified even, as I made my appearance. She immediately understood who I was, and why I was there. For her defense, I must tell that she begged me to give her back the child, her daughter that was you." Jareth paused for a moment, pondering. "I declined of course, but I gave her the chance to run through my Labyrinth. The same chance I give to all who have done that irrational wish, for it is only fair. I do not find pleasure in snatching helpless children from their parents, despite what you might believe."
Sarah decided she wasn't interested about his personality at the moment. They were talking about her, and not about him. He might not take pleasure in his work, but at the moment, she didn't have the energy to feel any sympathy for him. It was her life that had been on the stake, and not her brother's. This time she truly felt she had the right to be selfish. "And...?"
"She failed, of course." Jareth answered her somewhat irritated. "Like I told, no one has ever solved the Labyrinth before you."
"But why didn't I know about it before this?" Sarah desperately wanted to know. She just couldn't believe her mother had hid this from her!
"Because..." Jareth heaved. "I became tangled in a web of social obligations and duties that forced me to wholly concentrate on them. For a brief while, my obligations as the Goblin King were put aside as I was called elsewhere at the same time, but for very different reasons this time."
He must have been talking about the princess of the fae, and his relationship with the Fae Lands, and its ruler, Sarah understood even through her ordeal.
"But..." Jareth frowned, like remembering again the moment of those days many years ago "...for my immediate displeasure, I found your mother to be as stubborn as you. She did have her own methods making progress, and she charmed one of my servants to help her..." He shook his head. "Like mother, like daughter..." Jareth's mouth shortly twisted in a smile. He hastily continued before Sarah had time to respond to him. "She declined to leave the Labyrinth without you, even when she had lost her lawful chance to win you back. So, there I was, facing an awkward situation as your mother, Linda, persisted to stay, and create as much havoc in my world as she could. At the same time, the political situation in the Underground had become extremely tense, and there was a profound need to have a meeting with the rulers of the different worlds within the Underground. I was coerced and troubled by the present state of matters, so I finally decided on a solution." He raised his eyes up, looking at the constellations in the night sky above them. "I made a promise to your mother I would give her back the child, and let her keep her until the day Linda would perish and die." He aimed his mismatched eyes back to her. "I gave her a promise to claim my right on the child, on you, only then..." The Goblin King flashed his pointed teeth at her. "I decided I could live without another human servant, and so the situation was solved with your mother and you. Finally, I was able to concentrate on other matters that needed my attention. You returned with your mother to Earth, but kept on being part of my world, and the Labyrinth, the way all of my other subjects are."
"But it changed when I made that wish..." Sarah gasped; her eyes wide, things clicking into place. Her mother's guilty look and her need to leave her family were now making so much more sense to Sarah. Linda hadn't been able to live with her memories, and with the knowledge of what had happened. In the end, that had been her reason to leave her daughter and her husband. It also explained something else, Sarah suddenly grasped. "This also explains why I had the book that told the tale of your world!"
"Yes." Jareth confirmed. "Because I wanted you to be aware of the Underground, I made Linda give you that book. She had to agree, but she didn't do it willingly. And she hated it when you fell in love with the book; I could sense it." He smiled at her, somewhat nastily. "You adored the world of the Labyrinth, and not even knowing the truth behind the story, or your involvement with it. And I found it extremely amusing as I was summoned to your world again eight years ago, and I found it was you who had made that call and wished your brother to me."
"Amusing?" Sarah repeated offended. "I can't but disagree with you. I find nothing funny in it."
"You don't see the world the way I do." Jareth arrogantly answered, and the sudden gust of wind made his dark cape swirl around him. "But trust me...it was amusing. Again I was summoned, but by a girl, who had already been given to me when she had been only an infant. Not knowing this, she was offering me her brother, and I must say I wondered if there was some curious joke being played by the higher powers; that there was a design I couldn't perceive yet." He heaved; the wind died, and his shoulder slumped. "I was right, but I had no idea about how very right I was..."
His expression turned remorseful. "Because, against all odds, and my expectations, you won my game that no one had won before." He shook his head in disbelief. "I hadn't foreseen it, and at first I wasn't even certain what you had done then..."
Sarah's mouth was dry, like she hadn't tasted water for days. "What?" Her words were hushed. "What did I do...?"
He looked her, before answering. "You freed not only your brother, but yourself too."
Sarah waited, sensing this wasn't all.
Her wait was rewarded after some time as the Goblin King finally told her. "You freed yourself from me, and broke the chains that claimed you as one of my subjects. But, you didn't break the ties with the Labyrinth; they even became more severe when you announced yourself as my equal. You didn't deny your ties with my world, and that was the reason it saw to bid you as its keeper."
"But why now...?" Sarah barely whispered. "It happened eight years ago. Why is all this happening to me now?"
"Think Sarah, think." Jareth answered her mockingly. "You were clever enough to beat my Labyrinth. Certainly you must have wits to solve this little slice."
She chewed on her bottom lip, her forehead furrowed. "You told me you made a pack with my mother..." Sarah mused aloud, staring at the black leather boots of the Goblin King.
"True."
How peculiar... Sarah noticed suddenly that his boots were so polished they shined even in the dark light of the Underground night. They reminded her of the funeral parlor they had used in her mother's funerals, and the mortician who had used a similar kind of boots. Hadn't Jareth told her something about waiting until her mother's death...? She raised her eyes, and met the Goblin King's stare, knowing that she was on the right track. "The pack was that you would claim your rights after her death."
"True once again."
"It never ceased to exist." Sarah realized; her eyes wide as she grasped this. "The contract, it never lost its meaning despite of my victory eight years ago!"
Jareth nodded at her. "Yes Sarah." He gave her a very artificial smile. "Like I told, you were always such a smart lass."
"Don't mock me!" Sarah snapped at him then. She was furious that he was yet again showing her how ruthless he could be. "This is my life were talking about. I don't think it's funny at all for the record!"
"For the record, your point is taken." Jareth shrugged his shoulders as a reply, and Sarah cringed at his gesture. He was getting insufferable. "But as you see now, you really can not escape, or deny your connection with my world." His lips gesticulated in a scornful expression. "You might have freed yourself from my direct domination, but let me emphasize that, at the moment, I'm your only ally here."
"So now I have to choose?" Sarah spat at him disgusted by his attitude. "It's either you or Gaway?"
His tone was flat as he answered her, "Precisely."
"Excuse me if I don't feel at the moment any kind of need to make my decision on your behalf." Sarah stared at him, a vehement look on her face.
His white, pointed teeth briefly flashed in the darkening night, and his hair shone like silver in the light of the moon. "Take your time..." Jareth said to her, sounding amused. "I have all the time in the world..." After all I'm an immortal...were his unspoken words. He had all the time to wait, but she didn't.
She stared at him for awhile before spinning around. Sarah clutched her fists tightly together, and took a deep breath. "So does this mean I'm finally allowed to withdraw from your company?" She bitterly asked, clenching her teeth together.
His tone was like velvet as he spoke next, and his fingers unexpectedly caressed the dark pile of her hair, and then glided down on her slender neck. She couldn't help it, but the touch of his gloved fingers made her feel like a shivering whelp.
"No. Not yet." Jareth's locked his grip on her shoulders, and his previously so gentle stroke on her skin turned into a stronger one, though it didn't hurt Sarah. "Before you leave, I want that kiss you so cowardly fled before." He casually informed her.
"You want?" Sarah icily replied, keeping her back turned against him. Sarah sensed him smile, and he spun her around letting his eyes wander lazily on her face.
"Yes, maybe it's more fitting to say..." He mused aloud. "A kiss that you want..." He corrected his words, and Sarah swallowed air.
True…a kiss that I want… She stared at the fae king, and besides of his title and race, saw in him a magician, and a man. Kiss that I want… Jareth had returned from the shadows, but Sarah was more afraid of this Jareth than Jareth, the Goblin King. This was Jareth, who had possessed the main role of the seductive and desirable villain in every daydream during Sarah's teenage years.
She was petrified in front of his eyes, unable to move; and the blood drained from her face. Far in the distance, Sarah could practically hear roses start to bloom once more.
Kiss that I want…
She was yet again fifteen, facing the man in his parents' bedroom. She was the innocent heroine in a decadent ball, mesmerized and spellbound by him. She was the young child reading and fantasizing of him and his world.
She was the child, who was given away to the man. She was the teenager, who was too young to understand things that were hidden when she confronted the man. She was the woman who wanted to be kissed by the man.
So kiss me and hold me tight. There's no tomorrow. There's just tonight…Words from a song she had heard a long time ago glided through the darkness, and echoed in the back of her mind. The child, the young, and the woman, they all raised their heads; and each of them saw a vision of each other in that expanded stream of time. The vision shattered, and shrunk into two shadows of the man and the woman, who became one underneath the pale light of the moon; and the child, the young, and the woman, they all disappeared along the kiss each of them had waited for. They all disappeared along the kiss that was given in the silence of a gentle night.
A/N
So, as told, I'm going to keep a vacation of the "What Lies Behind". I have some other projects, I wish to finish, but I will return on the story after some time; not just now. Oh, and the words belong to a song of Dean Martin, that's called "There's No Tomorrow". (I hope I'm not getting banned because of this...)
Yet again, I want to thank Lindsay for her constant help. I wouldn't have been able to reach this point without you. This chapter is my present for you. Thank you a lot!
Layla Wendel: Correct. Sly mom, wouldn't you say? (and thanks)
angelwingz2: I obeyed, and updated fast, didn't I? When I shall continue this piece in the future, I have no clue of yet; hopefully soon.
Harik: Thank you! (BTW, you're not sounding anyway as a broken record, despite of your fears.)
jumping-jo: Yeah. I know. She does have a hard life, doesn't she?