The Goblin King, for once in his long life, was speechless.
For a moment the air in the room seemed to shift and Sarah thought she could make out the outline of a cape flaring behind him and the hint of the dark armor he had once worn to torment her in darker tunnels shaping around him. The room seemed to contract, the lights dimmed and for the briefest of moments she was worried; then he breathed out and it all faded back to reality.
There he stood in front of her, still all sharp lines and wild hair, still with a flair for the dramatic, still a little otherworldly and disconcerting, but intriguing at the same time. She couldn't help but notice that he appeared a little more sedate in his choice of clothing; a little less glam rock ren faire with his shirt cut more simply and his hair, though it appeared to be fighting the effort, pulled back at his neck. She was surprised to feel a moment's embarrassment at standing before him in old leggings, a stretched-out tanktop, and an old baggy sweater. He scowled and flexed his gloved hands at his side.
"Now, Sarah, whatever could I have done to deserve that?"
The laugh that came out of her mouth surprised her, "Oh I don't know, your majesty, maybe stalking, kidnapping, emotional and physical trauma, thirteen more years of stalking and having to be on guard for everything thing I think, say or dream so I don't get pulled into your insane depravity again."
"Well, when you put it like that… it just sounds like fun," he said with a smirk.
"Bastard."
He shrugged, tugging on a gloved hand.
"That maybe, but I hardly think that you called me here tonight to discuss my many, many charms. Dare I ask what demands will you make of me this time? Are you feeling the need to destroy more cities? Beguile some more of my gormless citizens? Wreak havoc and destruction on everything I do for you?"
"Everything you do for me? How dare you! You tried that line on me once before Goblin King, it didn't work when I was a teenager and it won't work now," Sarah spat at him as she stalked toward him.
He moved quickly and began to circle her and quickly he was too close.
"Sarah, Sarah," he crooned, leaning close to her ear, "Still trying to cast me as the villain in your little play are you?" Sarah froze; acutely aware of just how close he was to her. "Did my Labyrinth not teach you that things are not always what they seem?"
He broke away quickly and she had to stop herself from stumbling from the release of tension in her entire body.
"You, for instance, appear to be a normal, mild-mannered," he scoffed a bit at his own words as he rubbed his cheek, "young woman." He reached up and tucked a gloved finger gently under her jaw. Instead of taking a step back as she knew she should have Sarah
locked eyes firmly with him as he continued; his voice smooth and soft once again. "But if I look this way," he turned her head ever so slightly to one side, "I see a brave heroine, beloved by all, the savior of wished away babies in the clutches of evil kings. A young woman worthy of the awe and reverence of all that gaze upon her. And if I look that way," he turned her face to the other side, a sneer sliding into his tone, "I see a brazen little force of chaos and destruction and an obnoxious thorn in my side."
He dropped her chin and turned away from her.
"Thorn in your side?" she hissed. "That's rich coming from someone who stalked me in both my dreams and reality for years."
She could see the muscles across his back tightened with that and he let out a little, sardonic laugh, "Oh little Sarah, you still have the audacity to believe that you could tear my world apart and it would still revolve around you? You made it quite clear in our last meeting don't you remember?" He glanced over his shoulder. "I have no power over you."
The words shook her. She had forgotten just how much power "right words" had around him.
"But you've been here," she reached out and took his arm, forcing him to face her. "You show up all the time. You show up as that damned bird and you follow me just out of the corner of my eye and try to force your way into my head while I sleep. You're constantly around and you're saying you had no control over that at all?"
"Sarah, you understand so little of the world that I come from. You laid the terms of your victory, you made it clear to the fates and all magic that I could not reach out or approach you. No actions of mine could pull, guide or sway you from then on. But I am still who I am, I am at the beck and call of all who know of me. Most of my kind can only appear in this world if someone calls for us and you, my lovely little force of destruction," he leaned toward her, a mischievous glint in his eye as he brushed a dark lock of hair behind her ear, "have a bad habit of calling for me, personally."
Sarah could feel the heat rise up her neck and spread across her face.
"However," he continued, "you are still exceptionally good at being vague and inviting my presence only to a point. I can not tell you the number of headaches you have caused as you push and pull for me in your dreams alone. Really my dear, just make up your mind."
"So that's it then?" Sarah spat. "This is all my doing and since I won't let you close enough to fully invade my life or my dreams you've started sending your lackeys to do your dirty work for you? Honestly, your Majesty, I would have preferred a closet full of goblins to your latest detachment."
His eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"
"You know perfectly well what I mean. The dream you sent me last night with the crows and then the people that showed up today at my job. Is this all because you can't get to me in the normal routes? Because that is a sick and twisted head game even for you. I don't care if we have to battle this out until doomsday, you can leave my kids out of this."
"Sarah," he said, reaching out for her hand. She tried to pull away, but he held tight and met her gaze with those mismatched eyes. "Sarah, I promise you I have no idea what you are talking about. While you may call me in your sleep and pull me into your dreams, I have no power there."
Sarah watched him closely, her green eyes tracing over his face watching for the slightest tell of deception. Her brows furrowed as the realization struck her, the dreams where hers. How many nights had she woken from dreams of green hedges and stone pathways, of swirling dresses, of searching and finding.
"What did you dream of, Sarah?
"I dreamed of birds, crows actually, but they weren't right. There was a big one that talked, had these teeth. And there was a line of my kids, the kids I've worked with over the years and I tried to them, but I couldn't. And then this creepy group showed up yesterday at work, they were wrong, off somehow. Even Hector felt it. I don't think they were human. So if you didn't send this "committee" then who did?"
He suddenly gripped her hand tighter, pulling her closer to him, "What did you say? What did they call themselves?"
"They kept saying they were a committee," she said cautiously. "Why? What does that mean? What's going on?"
His grip loosened and he stumbled backward a step, "Damn it."
Sarah froze as his hand fell away from her arm; the air in the room went still and heavy and something pricked in the back of her mind. A warning, a siren; fear. She had felt like this only once before, after biting into a peach that wasn't what it seemed.
"What did you do?" She whispered, swearing to herself she would not cry; that he would not see her break.
He didn't respond.
His mismatched eyes seemed dazed and out of focus. She stopped her foot on the ground as hard as she could and shouted, "What. Did. You. Do!"
This shook him out of his melancholy trance, he snarled, "What did I do? What did I do? Oh yes, we're back to this song and dance again aren't we? I do everything you ask. I stay at your beck and call. I let you pull my very world down around me and when it all goes to hell, you have the nerve to ask me, what did I do?" He stalked past her, "To use that lovely expression you are ever so fond of, precious, it is not fair."
"Damn it, stop talking in riddles tell me what you mean. I have done nothing but try and live my life since I ran the Labyrinth. I've tried to leave it all behind me and move on and do something good with my life, which is more than I can say for some."
He let out a truly callous laugh this time, "You foolish, impudent little thing. Do you still believe after all these years that you could just close the door on the Underground and set it
aside like that little book and your childhood toys, tucked away and forgotten? You spent time in the Underground, you went up against magic and won; that is not something you can just put inside your toy chest with the rest of your childhood. It changed you in ways you do not understand, and now it's finally caught up with you. You never did learn to ask the right questions and you still refuse to think about the consequences. You've been out here in the world using the little magic in you to continue to play the hero, but you forget that for every plucky heroine there is a villain waiting just around the corner."
Sarah rolled her eyes at this as she broke off his monologue, "Yes, and mine is a one-man, glitter-covered variety show with a knack for dramatic lighting."
"Oh Sarah," he sighed with a wry grin, "I don't deny that I can be quite villainous when needs be, but I am most certainly not your villain."
She was about to retort again when, mercurial as ever, his mood changed and he reached out for her hand. This time it was not a show of agitation or a tease, but a gesture that, in a human, she would have considered sincere. She placed her hand in his tentatively, as if offering a truce.
"What is after you now is worse than anything you could ever find in my maze and though I can see in your face that you are not afraid," he pulled her closer and met her gaze, "I am."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Have I mentioned I'm a fan of the slow burn and these two have a few things to work out on the way.
And poor Sarah, I feel like there was a post-Underground follow-up packet and survey (please rank your experience) that she missed all those years ago, they would have had pamphlets titled like "Good Magic, Bad Magic: Coping Skills for the Newly Fae Touched Human", "Does This Look Weird? A Guide to Infected Fairy Bites.", "So You Had Fun Storming the Castle...: and inserted would be a handwritten missive from Jareth titled "Now That I've Ruined You For Other Men..."