"Like the leaves that cling to the tree...oh my darling cling to me"
Sarah dreamed that she fell asleep, propt up against a mound of ice.
No.
That was incorrect. In her dream, she could see that it was actually an ice sculpture. A glittering sculpted man. Sarah was kneeling, or rather pooled around it's feet, like some weak Madonna.
Her hair was loose and flowing down her back. Clad only in a thin white nightdress, Sarah told herself that she should be cold.
Shivering uncertainly, she wrapped her loose cotton gown closer around her body, even though her mind told her this was a dream. In a dream, you were never really cold.
"With your kiss my life begins..."
She opened her eyes.
Only a dream.
One does not freeze in a dream, after all.
A snowflake landed on the tip of her nose. It was snowing...and it was cold, or it seemed to be cold. Sarah's muddled thoughts tried to gather themselves.
Looking around her, Sarah saw that she was somewhere and then again she was nowhere.
She was in the woods. Tall pine trees stood grouped together. Snow was gathered on the tops of the branches.
The sky was dark. Sarah thought it was night. The air certainly smelled like night. It was cool and sharp.
An owl hooted in the distance.
Like a dummy, Sarah was rooted to the same spot. She did not rise to go off into the woods and explore. She did not do anything except sit on the cold forest ground, leaning against the ice sculpture as the snow drifted down from the sky.
She was very calm. A child of dreams, she trusted them. She knew no harm could come to her here.
A fluttering of wings broke the silence.
More owls.
Sarah was briefly reminded of the lake and the reeds and brushes where she saw the Owl. The one that led her into all this madness.
But this forest was unfamiliar to her. Her parents did not believe in camping, so Sarah had never been. Aside from the lake, this forest scene was novel to her. Still she was relaxed. At peace.
She leaned back against the ice sculpture and closed her eyes. The wind blew softly and then something changed.
"I could be so kind to you."
"What?" Sarah startled gently. Her hands stopped touching the ground and instead she reached for the ice.
It was cold but it was not ice that her hands touched.
"You make it so hard."
"I...do?" she murmured drowsily, not caring that she was talking to the Goblin King. He was not a glittering ice sculpture, he was a glittering man. A glittering fey.
Fear shot through her heart for a moment but Sarah willed herself to be calm. This was a dream after all. It was a refuge of sorts. Nothing bad could happen here.
"If only you remembered" the King said.
"I know the story" Sarah said simply. "A girl wishes away her brother...and the Goblin King offers anything to keep him."
"To make the girl stay" he corrected. "The human version is always absent the moral of the tale"
"Moral? I though that was the moral. To not make wishes" Sarah said.
"Nothing is ever what it seems. Especially in this world."
"But I was not in this world" Sarah told him.
"No" the Goblin King looked at her, his dark eyes searching her green eyes.
"Your fate was to cross over into mine. You were always meant to be here."
"But how?" Sarah sputtered, confusion breaking her daze. "I was born human, not a fey, not a magical being."
"You were born to relive your destiny. It was always meant to be with me" Jareth said, gazing off into the trees, a look of intense concentration on his face. "You were always meant to be my Goblin Queen."
"How? I was born a nuisance. A trouble maker. An unwanted orphan. If anything I was born to be an actress, not a Queen. Least of all a Queen."
"You were born to return to me" the Goblin King said.
"Return...from where?" Sarah asked, still very much confused. Her fingers clutched his calf, a thing of steel muscle encased in white grey tights.
Glittering eyes looked down at her.
"From the dead" he told her.
"I died?"
"You went where I could not follow. Mortal deaths and Fey deaths are different. When we do succumb to the end of our life span, we reach for a new world. We do not go to Hell or Heaven, or whatever it is that mortal do. I made it though so that you lingered, in a limbo of sorts. You were reborn quickly."
"I died?" Sarah repeated again, not believing what he was saying. Although she knew that Goblin King was of sound mind, everything he had said, told her not to do and to do, had come to pass, she could not for the life of her follow his logic.
He nodded, "You died, but you have returned."
"How did I die?" Sarah asked, still in disbelief. Snowflakes landed on her shoulder and she brushed them away impatiently.
"You were murdered" Jareth whispered.
"I was? By who?" Sarah said. The wind blew hard and Sarah grasped Jareth's leg. The force of it shook her body, almost tearing her away.
"By those who will not live to see another snow fall."
"Jareth...I" Sarah began.
She reached up to touch his glittering face. His dark eyes stared down at her. His gloved hands stilled at his sides.
Without thinking, she leaned upwards and kissed him. His cold lips met hers and Sarah felt a thrill of warmth.
"You touch me...I hear the sounds of Mandolins"