Chapter 4: Back Again
He picks her up as if she weighed no more than a handful of feathers and sets her back against the side of the wall, brushing grit and sand off her face and out of her hair.
"My poor, abused Sarah." He smirks. "Isn't it all so unfair?"
Her knees tremble, but she digs her heels into the dirt, pushing herself harder into the wall and using her shoulder blades for leverage until she's standing straight.
"Fuck you." She croaks, coughing up more dirt.
"Now, now." He pulls a long strand of her hair out of her mouth and she gags a little from the feeling of it being removed from the back of her throat where she'd nearly swallowed it. "Is that anyway to address someone who's about to give you everything that you want?" He brushes a thumb across her cheek and she can feel a slight stinging where goblin claws scratched her skin.
He holds out another crystal between them. It shimmers like the others but inside the glass a fog is swirling darkly.
"Another birthday gift?" She sneers, refusing to look at it directly. Not wanting to be hypnotised by the glamour of it. Not again.
He twirls the crystal around his fingers, defying gravity with it.
"You remember, dear sweet Sarah, that once I offered you your dreams. I offer them still."
With a flick the crystal floats off his fingers, no longer a weighty ball of glass but a rainbow hued bubble.
It hovers in front of her, shimmering iridescently. Inside, as if watched through a window, her bedroom window she realises with horror, a picture of herself lying on her bed appears.
Not just a picture, a vision. Her long hair is spread up and over the pillows, the t-shirt she sleeps in rucked up around her stomach.
Her hand between her bare legs.
Sarah gasps, humiliation all but stealing her breath.
"You were watching?"
He doesn't answer, his eyes not leaving hers.
"You pervert." She hisses.
He raises an eyebrow, reaching a gloved hand up to the bauble. He touches it lightly and the image ripples.
"A somewhat hypocritical reaction on your part I think, darling."
Overlaid by the first image fades in a second. Two Sarah's now. One real, one imaginary.
One alone, and one distinctly not.
One in a soft loose shirt, one naked. Bound in ropes, hands and feet tied tight to the bed. A head of soft, near white-blond hair bobs slowly between her legs as she pulls against the restraints, back arching, wordlessly pleading for more. Long fingered hands, in tight black leather gloves, gripping her thighs...
"Even in your fantasies I'm still your villain, am I not?" Jareth sighs as if hurt by the thought of it, but it doesn't quite land. "I could so easily be your Prince Charming if you wished."
He places his palm against the wall near the side of her face, caging her there with his arm. Eyes so feral, burning at her. That wild blond hair. Sarah can't help trembling, the memory of her fantasy invading her mind. It had been so strangely real.
Almost like it wasn't her thoughts at all. She could still feel the tongue slipping against her if she thought about it hard enough.
He was there? In my dreams? He's been worming his way in all this time-
The thought of it unnerves her completely.
He strokes gloved fingers up over her jaw, running a thumb under an eye as he tilts her head up so he can watch the thoughts moving around in her head.
"At least you were thinking of me."
Her eyes grow wide, his meaning dawning on her. Just fantasies, everyone has them. Private little thoughts, just for herself, but the more she picks it apart the more his face is interwoven in them. Through them.
They're built around him. Soft feathery hair, cascading down razor sharp cheekbones, and wild eyes that barely blink, drinking her in.
Had he been the base note for her fantasies without her realising?
Had she ever thought of anyone else?
Her waking self had pushed the memory of him deep down, but her subconscious wouldn't be so easily deterred...
"I..."
She pulls back hard from the thought before it stings, simultaneously yanking her chin out of his hand.
"I wasn't thinking of you, Jareth." But even she can't twist her tongue around the lie this time.
He smiles, sort of pityingly this time, leaning in even closer so his cheek brushes hers, nuzzling loose strands of hair away from her ear.
"I don't go where I'm not invited, my love. If you call me, I will come. Always." He whispers and his words tickle her ear, trickling down her spine. The skin on her neck erupts into goosebumps and she swallows hard, forcing herself to regain some of her anger. Gritting her teeth at the thought that she'd inadvertently summoned him, giving an inch to a creature that relished pushing her to her limits.
Giving far more than an inch, it seemed...
"Untie me."
"Is that truly what you want? How much longer are you going to deny your own dreams, Sarah? I knew humans lied but I'd no idea so much of it was to themselves."
His free hand cascades downwards over her, pulling at the knots under her breasts, making them squeeze her tighter, intimately so. She purses her lips to suppress a moan as her nipples pebble hard underneath her shirt from the feel of the rope around her. His hand strokes further down until it rests on her hip. He tugs her shirt out from the waistband of her jeans, undoes a couple of buttons from the bottom one-handed.
"I like the boots." A wolfish hungry grin spreads across his thin lips. "But the rest doesn't suit you, precious."
"Enough. Untie me."
He ignores her, rucking the shirt up further, fingers swirling over the white expanse of her stomach. One leather tipped finger dips into her navel, and Sarah's head knocks back against the wall as he grips the skin below with his thumb and pinches her hard.
"Stop!"
Without warning his mouth is against her neck, sharp pointed teeth worrying the sensitive skin as he sucks at her pulse. She gasps, tries to stop her breathing from becoming panting as he licks a line up to her earlobe.
Each time his lips touch her skin is like a little electric shock, tiny flickers of magic jumping from him and piercing her.
He'd kept his distance before, the first time he'd played this game with her, touching her only once with gloved hands. The feeling of his bare skin brushing against her is all but pushing her to the edge.
The needles of his teeth squeeze the soft flesh of her ear and she moans. She fails to stop it from sounding desperate, her pride momentarily stumbling as the feeling of his tongue against her neck makes the heat between her legs flare.
It's enough to distract her from where his hands are going, wondering lower and lower still to the button clasp of her jeans. The sound of the zipper being yanked down snaps her back just in time to feel his gloved hand slide underneath the denim, dip under and between her thighs.
The leather of his glove is warm and soft and he kneads her gently with his index and middle finger, teasingly, purposely never quite touching her where she needs it. Goading her into moving of her own accord against his hand for release. Sticky wet heat starts to flood between her legs and it's all she can do to keep her hips still.
"I-" she swallows. His free hand has wrapped itself around her ponytail, pulling her head back to release her neck to him. She shivers as he nips and bites her, kissing any mark he leaves behind. The hot breath at her neck floods her mind with the crystal's vision, how that heat had felt surging against her thighs. His tongue lapping against her with a cruelly slow pace. Torturing her as the ropes bit in- "I SAID STOP!" She snarls, angry at her body's betrayal.
"Say my name, Sarah," he hisses in her ear as his fingers swirl against the lace of her underwear, earning another moan as he toys with her. "Command me. You know your power over me. Take what you want, I give it freely."
Power is in the name. It dawns on her that he's already given her the keys out...
But the thought is slippery to hold on to as his mouth works its way round to her lips, laying soft kisses against the side of her jaw whilst his fingers have splayed out and down further, squeezing just shy of pain. Slipping a middle finger between her folds, held at bay by only the thin layer of lace.
She swallows, not ready to admit to herself that she's burning to feel how much further he'll go-
Until she feels the veil of fabric being pulled aside-
"STOP JARETH! Release me!"
He stills completely. Sighing almost aggressively in her ear before all the pressure binding her lifts. His hands are off her, as are the ropes, lying like dead snakes at her feet.
"Coward." He growls, stepping back away from her.
"I'm not afraid of you, Jareth." She glowers, rebuttoning her jeans.
"Clearly not. You're far more afraid of yourself."
She repositions the shirt back down over her stomach, pointedly ignoring the hunger in his eyes. Ignoring the disdainful look on his face at her clothes.
"Whatever happened to that fetching green dress you had in velvet?"
She rolls her eyes.
"I'm 21, I don't play dress-up anymore." She retucks the shirt back into her waistline.
"I see, this outfit is your usual attire now is it?"
Damn it.
"Oh well, I guess you got me there," she scowls sarcastically, massaging blood back into her wrists, before spotting her hat. It's perched on top of several grinning goblin faces. One rather toothless goblin with a face like a half rotten apple is happily gumming the rim, leaving long tendrils of drool on the leather.
Her face flushes at the thought that they'd had an audience. Did he know, or just not care?
"How long have they been there!?" She growls.
Jareth casts a lazy gaze down at the small congregation of goblins at his feet, seemingly unconcerned about their lack of privacy.
"Shoo."
They scatter instantly, darting back and forth and tripping over themselves as they bound away into the half dead undergrowth, abandoning the hat in their wake.
Sarah decides to leave it there, it was ridiculous to start with.
She straightens her spine, matching his longing gaze with a glare of her own.
"Take me back, Jareth." There's a heartbeat, a tiny microscopic second where his smug superiority slips. Underneath, for just the slightest of moments, his face looks hurt. Hurt as it had been the first time she'd rejected him.
"No."
"I command it!"
"And I refuse. You made a bargain with me, you are honour bound to keep it."
"I was just a kid!"
"Yes. And you're most decidedly not one any longer."
His face remains passive, but a hard blush scorches her cheeks just the same. He smirks, watching as it colors her chest.
He takes a step towards her, thinking to touch her again, and she takes a step back, blocked by the Labyrinth wall. He smiles wickedly.
"Come now, what happened to the brave hero of five years gone? My Sarah was never so fainthearted."
That does it, and he sees it, his taunt stealing her nerves, making her blood boil just enough to be reckless about it. She sets her jaw.
"How much time do I have?"
He takes her by the shoulders and turns her to face an antique looking clock hovering above her.
"Thirteen hours. As before."
The minute hand is a half past the thirteenth hour. Sarah flushes angrily. He'd started her time as soon as she fell down the sandy hill.
That's not fair. She nearly voices her indignation but swallows it down. It'd make no difference.
"Not planning on stealing any more hours this time?" She sneers.
"Not unless you wish it."
"I didn't wish it the first time."
He levels a condescending stare at her.
"I think, sweet Sarah," he edges her back against the wall, tracing her bottom lip with his thumb, "once you've lost, we should have a very serious talk about the amount of lies you tell."
Once I've lost. Ass.
"In your dreams, Jareth."
His eyes shimmer, big and owlish and mismatched, and for a second it seems like she can see the apparition of herself strapped to the bed reflected back at her.
"In yours. Sarah."
And with that he's gone, abandoning her at the wall of the Labyrinth.