A/N: Arghhh! I repeat, Arghhh! Stupid, stupid story! All
right, so I apologize a thousand times over for taking this long,
but…grrrr! Can you tell I'm more than a
little frustrated? See, I'm posting
this as I write it, with no definite ending in mind. The other night, I was suddenly struck with this perfect
inspiration, the perfect ending. Then I
realized that what I had already posted conflicted with this perfection I had
in mind. So I've been ditzing around
trying to figure out a new solution, and just being generally annoyed. Anyways, I bring you, a very short part, but
I needed to post something.
Disclaimer: These characters
aren't mine, okay? Just leave me alone
already! *starts sobbing hysterically* I can't create anything of my own, I'm
unimaginative. *bangs head against the
wall* Why can't I be like Jim
Henson? Why, why?
For You
Part Nine
Sarah awoke the morning after her little snowball fight, in a very good mood from a night filled with pleasant dreams. Very pleasant, Sarah thought, blushing. And as comfortable as she found her soft, feathery bed, she was dying to see a certain Goblin King again. After soaking in a claw-foot tub for a little too long, pulling on a forest green colored satin dress, and running an enchanted brush through her hair, Sarah ran off, none too elegantly, searching for the enigmatic king.
Sarah was beginning to believe that Jareth had disappeared. That he didn't want to be found just then. Smiling to herself as she searched the gardens, Sarah found herself worrying over him.
"I've fallen in love with the enemy." She smiled softly, spying him. Jareth was lounging on a stone bench off in a corner of the gardens, a worn book in hand. Sarah studied him for a moment. She studied his shining black riding boots, and his delicious gray tights. She studied his airy, white poet's shirt, opened slightly at the chest so she was able to see where his pendant should of hung. Fingering the emblem which now lay against her own skin, she studied his perfect white-blond hair and his arching eyebrows. Finally she gave up stalling and approached him.
Sitting beside him, she laid her head on his shoulder, and smiled when she felt him jerk underneath her. But he did not raise his eyes from his text.
"What are you reading?" Sarah asked innocently.
"Fae history." Jareth said simply, still reading. "It wouldn't interest you."
"You're a fae then?" She saw a mocking smile spread across his lips.
"Well what did you think I was? Do I look entirely human to you?" Sarah let the question go unanswered.
"Then you're parents are fae?" Sarah said, closing her eyes and letting his voice wash over her.
"My, you are full of astute assumptions today, now aren't you?" Jareth's arm softly sneaked around Sarah's waist. Sarah turned her attention to his hand, taking it in both of hers.
"How old are you?"
"I don't know." Jareth answered, distractedly.
"You don't know?" Sarah repeated, looking up at him. "How can you not know how old you are?"
"I just, stopped counting sometime after three hundred. Seemed somewhat pointless." Jareth lazily flicked a page
"Are you immortal then?"
"In a sense, yes." Sarah thought about countering this vague response, but was struck by another sudden impulse.
"Why do you always wear gloves?" She asked, softly tracing over his hand with her fingertips.
"Fae custom." Jareth answered, but Sarah had already pulled off his velvety glove and tossed it lightly to the ground. He looked at her for the first time that day, a teasing light in his eyes. His hand was pale, yes, but soft and smooth, not to mention strong.
Sarah, turning to face him, took the book from his hand and also tossed it down to the ground, quickly followed by the other glove. She then settled back against him, allowing him to draw her close and envelope her in his arms.
"Why the sudden curiosity?" Jareth asked softly in her ear.
"I don't know." Sarah replied, a slight blush rising to her cheeks. "You know everything about me. I just want to know about you. Who you are."
"I most certainly do not know everything about you. I do not, for instance, know what your favourite colour is."
"Midnight blue. Like the night sky."
"I don't know your middle name."
"Anne. Sarah Anne Williams."
"Sarah Anne." Jareth repeated, liking the sound of the name as it rolled off his tongue. "Beautiful."
Unsure as to whether Jareth was referring to her name, or the tendril of her hair he was fingering, Sarah interrupted their game of twenty questions.
"Jareth? What do you think really happened to Toby?"
"What are you inferring?"
"You saw the van. Toby's car seat was on the passenger side, and that side was barely touched. It was the driver's side that was mutilated. The strange thing is that no one else seems to have noticed."
"Are you saying you want the truth, Sarah?"
"Always."
"Then the truth is that I think you're right. Your baby brother did not die from an ordinary automobile accident, for more reasons than one. But I've no idea what really happened."
"You'd tell me if you found anything out, right? Anything at all?" Her eyes were shinning with pushed back tears as she turned to face him again.
"Of course, Sarah. Just as I know you would tell me anything."
***
"Damn." Sarah whispered softly to herself, swaying back and forth on the garden swing. "Damn him and his stupid cult."
Jareth had left more than an hour ago, begging her pardon when a messenger from some other fae appeared. He had said it was only politics, nothing important.
"Damn." Sarah repeated for what felt like the fiftieth time. But she couldn't think of anything else to say. She was trapped. She had trapped herself, boxed herself in, and now she knew it.
"No matter what I do I'll be betraying someone. I know Hoggle doesn't mean anything by his little underground movement, but still…" She paused, thinking.
"But Jareth said he trusted me. Do I deserve it? What if this is something serious? I should tell him. Just let him know that something's going on and he can deal with it himself. But what if it's nothing? Then I'll only get Hoggle in trouble and he'll be mad at me instead of Jareth. I can't pick between the two!"
Finally it seemed that fate had gotten tired of her whining, as many may agree, and decided to send her an answer, once an for all. That answer appeared in the form of Hoggle, poking around the gardens. Now this would not seem unusual to the casual observer, as Hoggle was a gardener, it was only natural that he would sooner or later show up in the gardens. But there was something, a bunch of somethings really, attached to his belt, and glittering in the afternoon sun.
Last year the goblins took all me jewels in taxes. Every last one.
"Liar!" Sarah cried, marching up to Hoggle and dropping any pretense of giving him a chance to explain. "You nasty little liar!"
"What?" Hoggle managed to splutter before Sarah continued.
"You said that the goblins had taken all your jewels. You said they did! But your jewels are hanging right off your belt. Explain that!"
Hoggle paled. And he stared, opening and closing his mouth, trying to think of something he could say to save his skin. He failed.
"What else have you lied about? Your little 'secret society?' Or Toby? I thought you were my friend!"
Hoggle's brain finally started putting together comprehensible trains of thought and he was able to utter a rebuttal.
"Sarah, I am yer friend! I swear, I'm only doin' what's best for you."
"What's best for me? And how, exactly, do you know what's best for me?"
"Sarah, I'm not trying to hurt yeh. I'm trying to keep yeh from gettin' hurt. But Jareth, he's just plain bad news."
"Don't start that again!"
"Remember what it was like, Sarah. Back when you were on our side. The King's a monster to his people. Throwin' creatures in the bog and such. He terrorized yeh, don' you remember?"
"That was just a game." Sarah stated flatly.
"Not for us, Sarah. That was life."
***
" – Abien, I really haven't got time for this. As much as I love accepting advice from a lovelorn fool, I do have more important things to do. I am not your concern. And furthermore, - "
"Jareth?" Jareth jumped at the sound of Sarah's voice. "Jareth, who were you talking to?"
"No one." Jareth answered a little too quickly, making the crystal fade away to nothingness behind his back. His frustration slipped away as he looked upon the breath-taking creature before him. What did Abien know, anyway?
"Jareth, we have to talk." Sarah said seriously, allowing his to draw her over to him and onto his lap as he sat on his throne in the surprisingly clean throne room.
Slowly Sarah began. "There's something I haven't been telling you."