~~~~~~{~~~~~~~~~{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{~~~~~~~~~~@ -- a rose?
Three years later. Jareth choked back tears watching
Sarah, his now beloved, at her senior prom. The Abovegrounder she danced
with looked...well, nothing like the Goblin King. But the song in
the background was like the one he heard in that dream...and her dress,
so like the one she wore as she and Jareth swirled, together, across the
dance floor. The King closed his eyes, imagining himself in her arms once
more. He would only have to wait three more years. Then the charm would
work and they would both be 21. He could see it. She'd be walking in her
own special area of the Labyrinth, all paved with yellow roses and baby's
breath. A warm breeze would cause her to lift her head and give a smile
to rival the air's warmth. She would be smiling at Jareth. He would smile
back, reaching for his wife to pull her into his embrace....they would
kiss...
..... He sat up straight. Yes, kissing was happening.
But it was the Abovegrounder kissing the King's beloved...and she didn't
look happy at all! Jareth nearly doubled over in sheer pain. He wouldn't
have it! He was going Aboveground, risk or no! "Hoggle! Watch the castle!"
The king was so distraught he actually got the dwarf's name right! But
Hoggle had no time to think about it. A swirling black cloak lay where
Jareth had once been.
"There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes,
a kind of pale jewel, opened and closed within your eyes..."
Jareth looked down at himself in suprise. He was wearing a loose white
shirt that was actually buttoned, and a pair of softly-shining, medium-baggy
black pants..
(Finally, a Jareth who's got enough sense to steer clear
of hosery!) Not a bad outfit. He enchanted the pants, however, so that
they were gray instead. His bright black shoes gleamed in the pale light
as he strode over to the dancing couple. A fly on the wall. Invisible to
all but Sarah. They were speaking.
"Brian..."
"Yes?" His voice was deep, seductive. He was in
his element. A player on the only field he wanted.
"Listen, about what just happened.." Sarah sounded
frail, not the strong warrioress Jareth had last seen.
"What? Want another one?" Brian grinned. This was
fun! She was harder to convince than most girls he had..had.
"No! Brian! Stoppit!" He was trying to kiss her
again, trying to get her against the nearing wall, trying to hold her still...
"STOP! Damn you! Get off!" She shrieked in fury
to match the feeling she was engulfed in when she was last a at a dance...the
crystal ball. In fact, the punch had been peach-flavored. Sarah had, of
course, ignored it. But Brian hadn't. And she could read his breath: the
punch was spiked!
Dancers chuckled. Brian had another one! And the
weird girl, yet! The girl who did nothing but read that silly red book.
Some big word starting with an "L". Didn't matter.
"No! You..." Sarah gasped in panic. Her eyes, frightened
and searching, caught Jareth's, and he felt his heart drop, to shatter
into a million shards on the cold floor. Like the sight crystal he had
so laboriously repaired two weeks before.
"Jareth!!! I wish for you to help me!" She screamed,
a muffled sound with Brian's lips cutting off the words. Deep, so deep
inside, she chided herself for being the maiden in danger, for needing
rescued...especially by....him! The angry Goblin King came up behind
his love's attacker. Hurtling forward an invisible hand, he picked the
teenager up the same way he picked up Yungle so long ago. He tossed Brian
across the dance floor as easily as a wind. The teenage boy stood
shakily and tore out of sight, an odd prickling sensation burning around
his neck where the invisible King had grabbed him.
Sarah fell to the floor and cried, her tears staining
her white dress. Her long black hair hung in damp wisps around her face.
Jareth longed it brush them out of her eyes, to stroke the soft white skin...being
the Goblin King to come and take this pain of hers far away from her....But
no. Never. Sarah looked up quickly. Was he really there? A figment of her
nightmares. "You!" her breath straggled out of her. "You ruined my life!
You... vile..." Jareth felt as if someone had switched off all the
lights inside his soul, tossing him into blackness.
"Go on.." his voice was but a whisper.
"Everyone thinks I'm crazy! You were so cruel! It's
not fair! How could you just...just...how could you just..." she broke
off, to enraged to continue. The dancers ignored her. Weird girl who talked
to air.
"Goodbye Sarah." The King turned to go. As he did,
Sarah heard, "You never were one for gratitude...such a pity."
"Jareth?" He left her staring into the crowds, tears
streaming from her eyes. She sat down again, having risen to run after
him. What was going on???
********************************************
Jareth sang to no one, alone in the tallest tower
of the castle. He loved her so much! Now his heart belonged to a girl just
out of college, about his age, mathematically. But his heart wrenched when
he thought of her, and new tears, still jet-black, graced his eyes. His
Labyrinth was still perfect as ever, and he spent many a lonely hour in
the oubliette, walking and pondering.
It would be so easy to jump... he would fall.. his
boots scraping the ledge as he toppled to the courtyard.. the loving stones
rising to embrace him like a lover he hadn't seen in years..falling...
"...falling....falling...falling in love...."
And a warm collision with the ground. Sarah would never know...she
would never miss him. She never missed him anyway! Right? Jareth had spent
the
past few years wondering. She was never without her copy of The Labyrinth.
She kept it in her purse. And a folded-up copy of the "Through dangers
untold" speech in her back pocket. Just in case, Jareth was sure. Gone
from him, and afraid of his return. Just like her mother! Just like her!
His fingers tightened on the stone sill. To fall, yes, to die. Hurtling
forver into oblivion. A forever without Sarah...or Aileen, for that matter.
Aileen. What of her. Jareth didn't care. Females! Tcha. Who needed them?
Liar. Liarliar! Jareth bit his lip and turned away
from his temptaion and picked up another. The sight crystal. He gazed into
it. And was very suprised to see her staring back at him.
Sarah was looking at the ceiling of her new apartment.
Se was weaving a letter in her mind, a letter to Jareth. He'd never get
it, who cared. He hated her. Sarah was pretty sure, since she hadn't seen
him, the last few years. After he saved her life. She tossed in her bed.
Saved her life. Yes, that was right! The moon glared at her through the
window. Such a dark moon...
"I'll place the moon.. within your heart..."
Sarah knew, like she always had, deep down. Everything.
Everything!
Everything was what she wanted. She wanted to live a fantasy. She wanted
a terrible tyrantic king to scare her into becoming a hero. She wanted
him to call her back, though. As she flew home, she saw his face, ripped
in agony only the two of them would understand. And she had needed him,
like she had said. But he hadn't come.
How confusing.
"I'm sorry Jareth...." she whispered quietly. And
as she fell asleep, "I wish the Goblins would come and take my heart
away. Right now!"
"And what do you propose I do with it?" And Jareth
was there, smiling mockingly at her, as always. Sarah smiled sleepily.
A beautiful apparition. Everything about her longed to go to him, to wrap
her arms around him, to sob into his chest and tell him she was sorry again
and again, until he believe her.
"You'd be so much easier to forgive.... if you weren't
so damned arrogant."
"So I'm told."
"But I do...."
"You do forgive me?" Hope leapt and took flight.
"No....I want you to take my heart away..please....release
me..." The bird Hope was shot down by the huntress's cruel arrow. She meant
it, there was no sleepy cushion now.
He stood, unchecked onyx tears dripping onto his
shoulder. Jareth squeezed his eyes shut tightly and took her hand. "Is
that what you want?"
"I'm sorry, Jareth. I can't love you...I need one
of my own kind. That's the way it's done." Her own kind. The words
stung.
"If that is the way things are done, then, that
is the way you must do it..." Jareth spoke tonelessly.
He began to lift into the air, taking with him any
memory she had of him, of the Labyrinth, of anything unusual and splendid
in her life. He waved goodbye, a small gesture of a dove-grey gloved hand.
Vanished. All memories but one: The last words Sarah heard that night before
she dripped into sleep.
"I...can't...live..with..in...you..."
************************************
Jareth sat in empty space. "So, this is a villian's
lot at the end of a tragic story. I am the evil of the Labyrinth.
I was created so that I could suffer. Only to suffer, and to give our heroine
something to be heroic about. Do you see now, Sarah? Everything I do I
do for you." Feeling like he had wasted a life, two lives, the Goblin King
floated off, floated away.