AN: Ahem, I forgot the disclaimer in the previous chapter. So umm,
*inserts hastily imagined trumpet fanfare with fireworks*
Standard discalimers apply.
*the fireworks smoke as the trumpets sputter to an embarassed silence*
Yeah... I'm in an odd mood. =) Please, please review! I'm working on a
ton of stories and the one with the most reviews will probably be the
one most worked on. What can I say, I'm a glutton for encouragement.
*winks* Toodles ya'll. Enjoy chapter two. Thought I would post it
and fill up the looming plot holes that mark a badly written story.
'Yes, I know very well Sarah could have just not have a kid...'
well... read on for explanations and of course, more Jareth!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices Chapter One~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
20 years later...
Sarah cooed as she rocked Melanie. The toddler giggled
tiredly and clutched Sarah's robe with one chubby hand as the other
stubbornly curled towards a mouth already full with a pacifier, thumb
outstretched. The defeated hand relaxed and absently caught a tendril
of Sarah's long hair, unconsciously twirling its silken tresses. She
smiled and planted a kiss on Melanie's soft brow. The little girl's
forehead wrinkled as sleep took her.
Sarah flicked off the light in the nursery, which was then
illuminated by the gentle glow of the blue night-light. She walked
the few steps to the almost too small crib and started to gently place
the child atop the blankets. Melanie, still half-asleep, protested
with a mumble and a tighter grip before waking up enough to murmur,
quite clearly, "Mama."
Sarah's breath fled as she clutched the sleeping child to her
breast, heart thumping madly with joy. 'Oh God, wait till I tell
Devon.' It was her fondest hope, her most treasured desire, to be
loved by his child. Melanie was two and already half orphaned. Her
mother, Devon's wife, had died due to complications in childbirth.
But now Devon, two years later, was her fiancé and his child, the baby
that Sarah had practically raised, had called her 'Mama'. Melanie
loved Sarah but never, in all the time that she had talked, had,
perhaps by unconscious knowledge, called her soon to be stepmother,
'Mama'. To be trusted with such a title, it was more than Sarah had
dared to dream.
A clatter and sudden lightning strike that lit the room with
silver glory startled her. Sarah held the little girl tighter as
premonition, dread, filled her. She had left the drapes closed, she
always did at night, but the scratchings, the thunder that was
suddenly growing outside, was too familiar for comfort. She backed
away, closer and closer to the nursery door when suddenly it slammed
shut, as if by magic. Horror ate at her as terror bid her to flee.
She took another half stumbling step backward until her back pressed
against the cool wood of the locked nursery door, a door that could
only be locked from the inside, not the out, even as Melanie slept on
soundly. The noise, the dancing lights, the confusion of chaos
increased until suddenly...
The doors to the balcony blew in as glass shattered,
disappeared, and Jareth, King of the Goblins, entered her home.
He had changed little in twenty years. In fact he hadn't
changed at all. The imperialness, the kingliness, the way his
presence filled the room, all was unchanged. He hadn't aged a day and
he looked, he looked as wonderful, as beautiful, as alluring, every
damn bit as dangerous as Sarah remembered, especially attired as he
was in a motley array of silks and leathers dyed various shades of
gray and black, all streaked with silver. He strolled across the
distance that separated them and bowed mockingly to her, hungry,
fearsome eyes glue to her face, putting her under a fierce, studying
regard that made her feel and regret every line, every wrinkle, every
scar, every ounce that she had added to her waif like body.
"Hello Sarah." Her mouth worked a moment without producing a
sound as she fought through old fear, too familiar panic. He made her
feel so inadequate! But even when she spoke her words weren't quite
as brave as she had hoped for.
"If you've come for your payment you've come by mistake." She
spoke but Jareth ignored her as he glided closer. One black gloved
hand reached out and touched Melanie's sleeping cheek, even as she
tried to shield the girl.
"Is this the baby?" Jareth asked, curious, pleased. Sarah
bristled and darted sideways, past the Goblin King.
"You can't have her Jareth." He straightened and watched her
with deepening amusement. She never let her eyes leave him, both for
fear and for, for some unnamed, unacknowledged thing that yearned for
what she most despised.
"Can't Sarah?" he mocked even as his soft tread followed her
around the room languidly. "Can't? I assure you dear girl, I most
assuredly can, and I shall. She'll by my daughter I believe. I tire
of the goblin's incessant chatter and adoration. Come Sarah, don't be
a foolish girl. Give her here." Sarah spat, her anger overcoming her
fear.
"She's not yours Jareth because she isn't mine, and I haven't
been a girl for years!" He ignored her last outburst as he addressed
the first with a smile that made her knees quake.
"Not yours? I heard her quite clearly name you as her Mother
dear Sarah." She laughed wildly and edged still further away.
"Perhaps so Jareth but she isn't mine. Firstborn... and I have
borne no children. You cannot claim payment yet." He was at her side
in a flash and she stood fearfully still as he held her chin in gloved
hands.
"Cannot? Dare not assume to tell me the limits of my
abilities Sarah. You might anger me." There was a flash in the
unreadable depths of his too deep eyes, a spark of some old hurt, some
bitterly clung to memory. Sarah shut her own eyes against the weight
in his and the pressure on her chin eased as he released her and
touched Melanie's hair.
"You suffer in indignation under a false presumption Sarah. I
never bargained for your firstborn, I bargained for your first child.
This girl may not be borne from your body but she is the child of your
heart," at this he startled her by touched the skin above her beating
heart, "and soul. She named you Mother and you, by fighting so
fiercely for her, name her daughter. She is most definitely yours,
and thus, by forfeit, mine."
She cried out and turned, holding Melanie tighter. The baby
murmured softly but slumbered on. Jareth touched her shoulder.
"Come Sarah, I do not have the time or patience for this show
of motherly instinct. Give me the child." She whirled to face him
and he was momentarily ataken back by the tears that streaked down her
cheeks. The Sarah of his memory had never cried, not so openly, not
in front of him.
"I won't." Jareth frowned as anger began to smolder in his
severe features.
"Don't push me..."
"I won't!" Sarah cried, this time with more vehemence. "Take
anything, anyone else, just not Melanie! Please Jareth, I beg you."
This not of desperation was new, and this willingness to beg. The
Sarah of youth had been a prideful thing.
"What of value could you possibly have to bargain with
Sarah?" She looked at him, pained for a moment, before
straightening. She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin in
defiance, and answered.
"Me Jareth. I offer myself. Myself, all of myself, for the
child." Jareth sneered as he studied her in laughter.
"You Sarah? You? What makes you possibly think that I would
want you now, when twenty years of age has scarred and weighed upon
you? What makes you think that you have held my interest for so long,
you impetuous mortal, you child who was part of my world for less than
a day?" Sarah looked away, briefly, before looking back at him. She
took one step forward before replying so softly he could barely hear.
"I offer you the woman who beat you, the Goblin King. Who
triumphed. Rule me Jareth, only let this child be, and I will swear
my loyalty to you. You shall be my King." There was silence inside
of the nursery for a long time, silence broken only by a sleeping
baby's deep breathing and the sound of light rain hitting the now
exposed carpet. Thunder sounded in the distance, a world away.
Silence and then...
Jareth was beside her once again, so close that Sarah could
smell the cologne that he wore that had haunted her dreams for twenty
years. Two fingers played with one lock of still brunette hair, hair
not yet touched with silver, before he answered her in a voice just as
quiet.
"Very well." Sarah stepped away, broke the uncomfortable
contact.
"I want your word, your promise as all you are and all you
will ever be, that Melanie shall not know you. That she will never be
known in the Labyrinth. That even, should she beg, that your world
will be closed to her. That she will grow up ignorant of true magic
and the fulfillment of her fantasies. That she will live in blindness
like the rest of this world."
"Very well, you have my word." Sarah shook but pushed
farther, despite the coolness in Jareth's voice.
"Your promise." He hissed but Sarah did not retract her
words.
"You mistrust me that much Sarah? When did I ever lie to
you."
"Never," she whispered, "But you twist words so well Jareth.
Please, I need to hear the promise." He stared at her for a long
moment; she felt the weight of his gaze upon her, even if she refused
to meet it now, before replying evenly enough, despite his anger.
"I promise." Sarah's strength broke after that, and several
more tears slipped by her defenses to be seen by Jareth's too
observant eyes. They gleamed in the light of the stars, and in the
trusty night-light that cast the room in blue. She walked, unsteady,
with Jareth as her shadow, to the crib's side. She placed Melanie in
it, tucked her teddy under one arm, and pulled her blankets up,
tucking the girl in. She leaned over and kissed Melanie, her
daughter's, sleeping cheek, before straightening and turning.
Jareth held one ungloved hand out. She started at it for a
long moment before asking.
"Devon?" Jareth smiled again and it was a hard, glittering
thing.
"To your fiancé," the word, a distasteful thing, was spat,
"and this world you will be nothing more than a dream. There will be
no going back after this. You shall belong to the Labyrinth. You
shall belong to me." There was a finality to his words that was
especially heart wrenching but what choice did she have?
Sarah swallowed, stole one last look at Melanie, and accepted
Jareth's outstretched hand. The King of the Goblins laughed as he
brought her home.
*inserts hastily imagined trumpet fanfare with fireworks*
Standard discalimers apply.
*the fireworks smoke as the trumpets sputter to an embarassed silence*
Yeah... I'm in an odd mood. =) Please, please review! I'm working on a
ton of stories and the one with the most reviews will probably be the
one most worked on. What can I say, I'm a glutton for encouragement.
*winks* Toodles ya'll. Enjoy chapter two. Thought I would post it
and fill up the looming plot holes that mark a badly written story.
'Yes, I know very well Sarah could have just not have a kid...'
well... read on for explanations and of course, more Jareth!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices Chapter One~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
20 years later...
Sarah cooed as she rocked Melanie. The toddler giggled
tiredly and clutched Sarah's robe with one chubby hand as the other
stubbornly curled towards a mouth already full with a pacifier, thumb
outstretched. The defeated hand relaxed and absently caught a tendril
of Sarah's long hair, unconsciously twirling its silken tresses. She
smiled and planted a kiss on Melanie's soft brow. The little girl's
forehead wrinkled as sleep took her.
Sarah flicked off the light in the nursery, which was then
illuminated by the gentle glow of the blue night-light. She walked
the few steps to the almost too small crib and started to gently place
the child atop the blankets. Melanie, still half-asleep, protested
with a mumble and a tighter grip before waking up enough to murmur,
quite clearly, "Mama."
Sarah's breath fled as she clutched the sleeping child to her
breast, heart thumping madly with joy. 'Oh God, wait till I tell
Devon.' It was her fondest hope, her most treasured desire, to be
loved by his child. Melanie was two and already half orphaned. Her
mother, Devon's wife, had died due to complications in childbirth.
But now Devon, two years later, was her fiancé and his child, the baby
that Sarah had practically raised, had called her 'Mama'. Melanie
loved Sarah but never, in all the time that she had talked, had,
perhaps by unconscious knowledge, called her soon to be stepmother,
'Mama'. To be trusted with such a title, it was more than Sarah had
dared to dream.
A clatter and sudden lightning strike that lit the room with
silver glory startled her. Sarah held the little girl tighter as
premonition, dread, filled her. She had left the drapes closed, she
always did at night, but the scratchings, the thunder that was
suddenly growing outside, was too familiar for comfort. She backed
away, closer and closer to the nursery door when suddenly it slammed
shut, as if by magic. Horror ate at her as terror bid her to flee.
She took another half stumbling step backward until her back pressed
against the cool wood of the locked nursery door, a door that could
only be locked from the inside, not the out, even as Melanie slept on
soundly. The noise, the dancing lights, the confusion of chaos
increased until suddenly...
The doors to the balcony blew in as glass shattered,
disappeared, and Jareth, King of the Goblins, entered her home.
He had changed little in twenty years. In fact he hadn't
changed at all. The imperialness, the kingliness, the way his
presence filled the room, all was unchanged. He hadn't aged a day and
he looked, he looked as wonderful, as beautiful, as alluring, every
damn bit as dangerous as Sarah remembered, especially attired as he
was in a motley array of silks and leathers dyed various shades of
gray and black, all streaked with silver. He strolled across the
distance that separated them and bowed mockingly to her, hungry,
fearsome eyes glue to her face, putting her under a fierce, studying
regard that made her feel and regret every line, every wrinkle, every
scar, every ounce that she had added to her waif like body.
"Hello Sarah." Her mouth worked a moment without producing a
sound as she fought through old fear, too familiar panic. He made her
feel so inadequate! But even when she spoke her words weren't quite
as brave as she had hoped for.
"If you've come for your payment you've come by mistake." She
spoke but Jareth ignored her as he glided closer. One black gloved
hand reached out and touched Melanie's sleeping cheek, even as she
tried to shield the girl.
"Is this the baby?" Jareth asked, curious, pleased. Sarah
bristled and darted sideways, past the Goblin King.
"You can't have her Jareth." He straightened and watched her
with deepening amusement. She never let her eyes leave him, both for
fear and for, for some unnamed, unacknowledged thing that yearned for
what she most despised.
"Can't Sarah?" he mocked even as his soft tread followed her
around the room languidly. "Can't? I assure you dear girl, I most
assuredly can, and I shall. She'll by my daughter I believe. I tire
of the goblin's incessant chatter and adoration. Come Sarah, don't be
a foolish girl. Give her here." Sarah spat, her anger overcoming her
fear.
"She's not yours Jareth because she isn't mine, and I haven't
been a girl for years!" He ignored her last outburst as he addressed
the first with a smile that made her knees quake.
"Not yours? I heard her quite clearly name you as her Mother
dear Sarah." She laughed wildly and edged still further away.
"Perhaps so Jareth but she isn't mine. Firstborn... and I have
borne no children. You cannot claim payment yet." He was at her side
in a flash and she stood fearfully still as he held her chin in gloved
hands.
"Cannot? Dare not assume to tell me the limits of my
abilities Sarah. You might anger me." There was a flash in the
unreadable depths of his too deep eyes, a spark of some old hurt, some
bitterly clung to memory. Sarah shut her own eyes against the weight
in his and the pressure on her chin eased as he released her and
touched Melanie's hair.
"You suffer in indignation under a false presumption Sarah. I
never bargained for your firstborn, I bargained for your first child.
This girl may not be borne from your body but she is the child of your
heart," at this he startled her by touched the skin above her beating
heart, "and soul. She named you Mother and you, by fighting so
fiercely for her, name her daughter. She is most definitely yours,
and thus, by forfeit, mine."
She cried out and turned, holding Melanie tighter. The baby
murmured softly but slumbered on. Jareth touched her shoulder.
"Come Sarah, I do not have the time or patience for this show
of motherly instinct. Give me the child." She whirled to face him
and he was momentarily ataken back by the tears that streaked down her
cheeks. The Sarah of his memory had never cried, not so openly, not
in front of him.
"I won't." Jareth frowned as anger began to smolder in his
severe features.
"Don't push me..."
"I won't!" Sarah cried, this time with more vehemence. "Take
anything, anyone else, just not Melanie! Please Jareth, I beg you."
This not of desperation was new, and this willingness to beg. The
Sarah of youth had been a prideful thing.
"What of value could you possibly have to bargain with
Sarah?" She looked at him, pained for a moment, before
straightening. She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin in
defiance, and answered.
"Me Jareth. I offer myself. Myself, all of myself, for the
child." Jareth sneered as he studied her in laughter.
"You Sarah? You? What makes you possibly think that I would
want you now, when twenty years of age has scarred and weighed upon
you? What makes you think that you have held my interest for so long,
you impetuous mortal, you child who was part of my world for less than
a day?" Sarah looked away, briefly, before looking back at him. She
took one step forward before replying so softly he could barely hear.
"I offer you the woman who beat you, the Goblin King. Who
triumphed. Rule me Jareth, only let this child be, and I will swear
my loyalty to you. You shall be my King." There was silence inside
of the nursery for a long time, silence broken only by a sleeping
baby's deep breathing and the sound of light rain hitting the now
exposed carpet. Thunder sounded in the distance, a world away.
Silence and then...
Jareth was beside her once again, so close that Sarah could
smell the cologne that he wore that had haunted her dreams for twenty
years. Two fingers played with one lock of still brunette hair, hair
not yet touched with silver, before he answered her in a voice just as
quiet.
"Very well." Sarah stepped away, broke the uncomfortable
contact.
"I want your word, your promise as all you are and all you
will ever be, that Melanie shall not know you. That she will never be
known in the Labyrinth. That even, should she beg, that your world
will be closed to her. That she will grow up ignorant of true magic
and the fulfillment of her fantasies. That she will live in blindness
like the rest of this world."
"Very well, you have my word." Sarah shook but pushed
farther, despite the coolness in Jareth's voice.
"Your promise." He hissed but Sarah did not retract her
words.
"You mistrust me that much Sarah? When did I ever lie to
you."
"Never," she whispered, "But you twist words so well Jareth.
Please, I need to hear the promise." He stared at her for a long
moment; she felt the weight of his gaze upon her, even if she refused
to meet it now, before replying evenly enough, despite his anger.
"I promise." Sarah's strength broke after that, and several
more tears slipped by her defenses to be seen by Jareth's too
observant eyes. They gleamed in the light of the stars, and in the
trusty night-light that cast the room in blue. She walked, unsteady,
with Jareth as her shadow, to the crib's side. She placed Melanie in
it, tucked her teddy under one arm, and pulled her blankets up,
tucking the girl in. She leaned over and kissed Melanie, her
daughter's, sleeping cheek, before straightening and turning.
Jareth held one ungloved hand out. She started at it for a
long moment before asking.
"Devon?" Jareth smiled again and it was a hard, glittering
thing.
"To your fiancé," the word, a distasteful thing, was spat,
"and this world you will be nothing more than a dream. There will be
no going back after this. You shall belong to the Labyrinth. You
shall belong to me." There was a finality to his words that was
especially heart wrenching but what choice did she have?
Sarah swallowed, stole one last look at Melanie, and accepted
Jareth's outstretched hand. The King of the Goblins laughed as he
brought her home.