Disclaimer: My hand hurts like hell, so I'll make this short and sweet. Listen up morons who might believe I own Labyrinth. I don't. So there. Leave me alone.
Author's Note: My hand hurts. Really long story involving Electric clipper's in Ag class, followed by idiots butchering a sheep when all they were really supposed to be doing is shearing it. What's a girl to do but rescue the poor defenseless creature? So I'm patched up with a throbbing hand and y'all should be pleased I'm even making the attempt to type this. As promised It's all Sarah's p.o.v. since y'all seemed to like Jareth's so much, and do forgive Sarah if She's bitchy, she's not supposed to be, but I'm not in the greatest of moods at the moment, due to the whole throbbing hand and stupid idiots in my Ag class,and my mother whose working graveyard shift right now. (Any of you who have parents who work shift work should know exactly what I'm talking about). After all an author can only be expected to keep her personal feelings out of chapters for so long.
"The Irony Of It All"
Chapter four: "Dream Confusion"
I can hear her close the door, and for some reason the expected feeling of relief that always follows Karen's departure doesn't come. I think I know why, but what I don't know is why the reason should matter any at all.
Karen and I are not what you'd call close by any means. She resents the fact that I exist, and I resent the fact that she blames me for that. I can't go back and be unborn, it's impossible to do so, even if I wanted to, which I don't. Why am I always the one in the wrong?
I was here first, and everything was fine. Then Mom left and she showed up with her perfect manners and her stiff and starch elegance that I suspect was fed to her on the silver spoon she was born with in her mouth, convincing my father that she knew how to handle a 'head-strong emotional teenager.' Because after all, 'I was once like that myself dear'. Ha! I don't think Karen was ever a child. That would mean that she knew what it was to dream when she obviously doesn't. That by the way is one of her favorite harps. 'Sarah, when are you going to grow up?'
I can hear the condescension in her voice just remembering that phrase.
But strangely enough, even remembering all that, I still don't feel the relief that I normally feel when she leaves me to myself. Why?
True, our fight was particularly nasty tonight, and each of us said things that we hadn't ever been brave enough to say before now, but we each knew them to be true so why does it make anything different by saying them aloud? I don't know. I really wish I did, because maybe if I could figure this one little thing out I could figure out everything else.
One thing is for sure though, neither one of us is going to be able to pretend that this didn't happen. It's simply not possible, too much was said to begin with and more importantly to much of what was said is true. This night isn't going to go away… She was acting like everything was my fault, and maybe some of it was but….but…
But if she hadn't come barging into my room this wouldn't have happened at all! She never gives me any privacy and I couldn't let her find out about Hoggle! I just couldn't! And I know that telling her the truth would have sent her flying and me to an institution.
So…. maybe I was a little too hasty in trying to get rid of her, but that doesn't mean she had the right to enter my room in the first place. Hoggle didn't tell me he was leaving all together and so I thought that he might still be in the room and what would have happened if Miss 'I have perfect- manners-even-though-my-stepdaughter-is-obnoxious-and-immature' had found him?
It wouldn't have been all that easy to explain. Not that any of what happened tonight would be easy to explain. If you want to be honest I'm still having a hard time believing it myself.
Seeing the Goblin King for the first time, accepting his challenge, looking into his cruel, mocking, mismatched, oh-so-irritatingly-gorgeous, eyes….Hold up.
Gorgeous? That's the second time tonight my subconscious mind has inserted that word into my head. Hello? Sarah to reality. He stole my baby brother, and then put me through thirteen hours of torture to get him back, changing the rules whenever he saw fit to arm his fancy!
But it was all for you. He even reordered time and the stars to give you chance of redemption….
Okay. It is most definitely time to remember other things.
What's worth remembering more? His eyes, his smile, his voice, or maybe the dance in his arms…Well Sarah? What'll it be?
Things like…
His laugh?
Finding out the first secret of the Labyrinth, how to see things, and later-
His voice when he was singing to you?
Meeting all my friends, first of all Hoggle…
The way his arms felt around you dancing?
By the way where is he?
Jareth?
Hoggle!
He's no longer in my room, and I didn't know he could come and go that easily, not that I know all that much about the way traipsing between worlds/realms/lands/dreams (or anything else you want to call it), should work, but still…it can't be that simple. Can it?
And how in the world (which now seems a lot bigger than it used to) did he know that Karen was coming? I didn't even hear her, and I have this thing for knowing exactly when Karen is coming around. The hairs on the back of my neck raise. So how did he know? Maybe it's a magical thing, but then if it's a magical thing do they know about everything before it happens? That would have meant that he knew I would have beaten the Labyrinth, so maybe I should trust that he knows Jareth is alive.
But he never answered me did he? In fact, come to think about it, he out and out evaded my question. Why? All I asked him was how he knew that Jareth was alive and he seemed to stall for a moment, and then all of the sudden he comes out with 'Why is you getting' so worked up 'bout Jareth anyhow?' Like that's any of his business!
Wait a minute…why am I getting so worked up about Jareth? When I replied the first time I almost said that 'I'd thought I'd lost him…' Why should I care? In fact, if you want get real technical I should be relieved at the thought that he's gone.
But I'm not.
This doesn't make any sense. None at all, relatively speaking (going out on a limb here and taking for granted that any of what happened tonight made any sense whatsoever).
He was my enemy, well, maybe not an enemy but my opponent at least. I shouldn't feel anything toward him but ….but…
I don't know what I should feel toward him.
Animosity? I don't feel that.
Curiosity?
Betrayal? What has he done that betrayed me? He never hurt me, and though he refused to give Toby back to me, it seemed like he was being governed by a set of rules, like me (although they seemed to bend a lot more easily for him than me!)
Concern?
Hate? I don't and don't hate him. How can you hate someone who offered you your most incredible dreams?
Interest?
Dreams…………….
Why does it feel like I know him? From even before tonight? I feel like that dance with him in the crystal was somehow repetition, like we'd done it before, only it was different. I could see him. But that song, and his arms, that much was familiar.
Is it possible? Have I dreamed of Jareth before? It feels like it. Almost as though he's the one…no way, it couldn't be. It's not like he's the one I conjured in my dreams so long ago is it?
But he did offer you your dreams…what if he was your dream? 'I'll lay the stars in your eyes, and place the moon in your heart' So long ago, it was, that, you dreamed of your prince charming, so you'd have someone to love who'd love you back. Someone who told you your dreams could come true. Isn't that what he offered you?…Your dreams?
Is it?
Author's note: Now my hand really hurts, but never the less I have got to let y'all know some things. First of all This chapter wasn't supposed to take the turn it did, but like I said I'm slowly learning that I can throw all my plans out the window because come mud, flood, Hell or High water this fic' now has a mind of it's own, and is going to turn out like it damn well pleases. Anyhow, this chapter was supposed to contain, Sarah trying to contact Hoggle as well, still all from her pov. It didn't turn out that way. SO I suppose the next chapter is going to be, an interactive with a little bit of Hoggle's pov. And then the next chapter, I'll re-enter Jareth and hopefully one of my new characters. But like I said it's slowly beginning to sink in that what I want matters very little (if any) at all. So don't hold me to it, if Jareth doesn't appear for a while * ducks while cannon balls are volleyed her direction * Okay! Okay! No later than chapter 6 I promise! * mutters under her breath * Or seven…hehe.
* Murderous glare from the crowd * We heard that!
Changing the subject…Again major thanks to everyone whose reviewed me. It hurts to badly to type out everyone's name, but I have to thank Tenila for posting the most outrageous comment on the review sheet. 'the best fic on the page' – Girl you have got major imagination. But you did make me feel better. ^.~ SO everyone else thank you and please don't take offense, my hand really is killing me.
By the way, thanks Celestia for your patience the last few days. You're a saint.