Chapter Sixteen
She came to him, her clothes tattered and her body badly bruised. But as she
walked her skin became porcelain- flawless, and her hair coiled up into a network of tight
brunette spirals that cascaded down her elegant neck along the smooth silk of a ruby
dress. Sarah stopped in front of him and opened wide her eyes that had been a vague
hazel and now glowered black in the night.
He offered to her the goblet of red wine, and she took it into her hands and lifted it
to her burgundy lips. Sarah drank hungrily, tasting the bouquet of flavors at the back of
her tongue, where it lingered and tingled even as she lowered the cup and looked at
Jareth, licking her wet lips.
In the background the snow beat against the old barn and it creaked and moaned in
protest. Sarah drew the goblet away, held it in her right hand and then, as she reached to
touch Jareth's face with her left, let it fall to the hay-covered ground. There it shattered
and bits of crystal scattered as they danced and cartwheeled over old planked, but
strangely dark wood. Sarah smiled again and let her nailtips etch the path of Jareth's
highly arched cheekbones.
*Prince of night* Sarah's voice filled the air between them as she tilted her head
just slightly. Inside herself she felt something blossom and fill her so completely that she
wished for nothing more than to water it and make it grow until it consumed all that she
had been.
He touched the curve of her neck with the smooth and supple leather of his gloves
and carefully bent to brush his mouth against hers. Sarah sighed against him and then he
jerked and his head bent towards the door where his icy eyes fixed. Voices from outside.
*Mimi* Sarah thought briefly, and for a moment the dark veil fell from around her
and she felt herself stepping back into the reality. Jareth was there first, and he led her,
willingly, back into a fantasy that was the deepest and most surreal aspect of the human
mind. As if they stepped into the very ID of the subconscious level. Freud would have
enjoyed it immensely.
Into the spot where they had once been a shaft of flickering lantern light fell,
briefly blown into a vivid dance by the gust of ice wind behind the two figures at the barn
door. Mimi struggled within, bundling Toby underneath her arm as she forced the heavy
doors closed. Again the barn creaked and moaned and Toby shivered as he looked for his
step-sister.
"SARAH!" he called and his voice echoed along with that of the storm.
Mimi walked the line of the lower level of the barn, letting the light of the candle
within the protective lantern fall across the slick hay and the rotten wood. Worm holes
and black mold ate into the barn. She felt the weak points beneath her old sneakers, that
were soaked through from the short battle with the snow and the deep drifts.
And then Mimi stopped and Toby, from near the ladder, heard her drop the lantern
and it shatter. He startled and turned just as the last light left the barn, and heard Mimi cry
out hopelessly- like a lamb bleating before the slaughter.
He crawled his way towards her, feeling for her with nothing but the sound of her
horrified and struggled breaths leading his way. "Mimi?" Toby asked, his own voice so
quiet that it sounded small and dead in the vast and empty barn. There was no answer.
But he felt a sneaker stuck out of the hay and Toby stopped, poking the leg to get his
aunt's attention.
"Mimi!" Toby demanded and crawled nearer to her. He moved the hay out of the
way, scuttling over the ground until he was on his knees and reaching to hold her hands.
But they were cold, icy, and he could still see little more than vague shadows that were
slightly more dark than the already horrible darkness.
He tried to say something again, but the feel of the rubbery skin, so dull and
lifeless, instantly struck him. With a trembling hand Toby reached out, and found his
fingertips brushing the dull stubble of a chin that hadn't been shaved that day, and the
glossy gel of open eyes.
He shrieked and backed away, until he run solidly into the wall and then, jumping
to his feet, Toby clawed the wood until his fingernails bent back and his own blood
became thick across the lacerated flesh.
* * * * *
Sarah found herself again in the middle of a wide black maze, with a brilliantly
dark night sky overhead, scattered with sharp stars and a sickly yellow moon. She turned
and looked the night over for the snow, but saw nothing, and felt little more. Silence so
thick that it soaked into her dress, encased her. And she felt a presence of raw energy in
the horrible air.
The shared mind and thoughts she had, since then, felt with herself and the King,
was gone. Severed and cut, and she felt as hollow as if she had had a child taken from
her. Sarah turned again and watched her hair drift evenly back into place. It had been
loosed from the tight coils.
And her dress was gone, and she was in jeans and a white shirt that billowed out at
the sleeves. Sarah held out her arms and calmly observed her cream vest, one she had
long ago given to Good Will. Then, as lightening broke the barrier of the clear night,
Sarah saw the solid outline of the Castle at the center of the Labyrinth highlighted bone
white against the navy sky.
"Through Dangers Untold....," Sarah mused, and liked her own voice. While she
had thought herself drawn into her darkest mind, and saw it in the view of the evening, she
felt another part of herself fighting against the constrains of the festering seed that Jareth
had planted. With the thought, Sarah smiled.
So she began walking.
* * * * *
Jareth sat on a golden throne and leaned forward, steepling his hands below his
chin as he watched an image of the girl in his crystal orb that hung, suspended, in the air
before him. Surrounding the chair, scored of clocks ticked and tocked in unison that was
almost deafening. The King tilted his head.
"Do you already think yourself winning? Do you already think of me, your King,
as weak? How quickly those ill perceived thoughts return to minds that have tasted the
darkness of humanity and enjoyed," Jareth grinned and showed pointed teeth. "But look
at what you made for me, Sarah... a new kingdom."
Another bolt of blue lightening tore the sky in half and rumbled the castle just
enough to remind Jareth of the weak foundations. Something was tearing the fabric of his
rebirth, and the ageless spirit within Jareth raged against her disobedience. His face grew
dark a moment, and his eyes became white orbs that danced with electricity. Just as
quickly, though, he had returned and Jareth merely smiled more broadly and turned away
from the crystal.
He rose from the throne, clasped his hands into the small of his back, and began
humming as the night danced behind him.
* * * * *
Sarah jogged down a thin passage that led downwards and downwards, until she
thought she would dive right beneath the castle. A vague sound of water echoed off the
walls, and traveled to her as a ceaseless dripping, and then a slow flowing, and finally it
sounded as if there was a creek that was running no more than a foot ahead.
The mystery was answered as she stepped into it and felt water spatter across her
stonewashed jeans. Sarah recoiled and looked over her shoulder, nervously sensing the
eyes upon her that were His. "You gave me something, Jareth..." she trailed off and
smiled as she watched the water change its coarse as it missed a pale purple book, laying
face down in the middle of the stream.
Sarah bent and retrieved the book, turning it over and snapping it closed firmly.
Ahead of her the brook faded and nothing more save dark bricks of masonry remained
behind. The tunnel shook and the walls cracked and Sarah stood silently as she waited.
But that was all that happened, and soon the walls were as strong as they had been before,
though somewhat more transparent.
The illusion was fading.
She turned and walked up a set of wooden stairs, that were left behind when the
flow of water faded. Sarah tucked the book tight against herself, trying hard to remember
back before Jareth. But there wasn't much. She felt his eyes upon her, and felt the
darkness he had loosed within her begin to bubble and fight to infect her again.
Her white shirt had turned a deep black.
The stairs ended at a mirror, and Sarah stood before it looking at a girl she had
once known so long ago... herself. Herself when she was fourteen and when she had
defeated the King the first time. Herself when she first experienced therapy, when she cut
the threads and lost her friends, when she left the Underground in sad ruins, and a King to
wander homeless back into her life.
Why she had had no power over him was the most perplexing of all.
But then, he had had no power over her. Now, the tables had turned and suddenly
she felt herself encased in his hands. As she watched the mirror her eyes grew black and
became as deep and dark as her pupil. The sclera was starkly white as she widened her
eyes and groaned.
"I have fought my way here to the castle!" she cried out, and drew her arm back
with a brief sob. Sneering, her elbow connected and the glass shattered. Sarah breathed
in and out as she listened to the glass spread out across the ground before her.
* * * * *
Jareth jerked as he heard the sound of breaking glass. *She has the book* his
mind cried out as he raced back into his throne room. And there she was, calmly
observing him with eyes so black he thought he would be lost in them.
"Jareth," she whispered, realizing the power that was in saying his name. He lifted
his head higher and took a single step nearer her.
"I gave you another chance here, Sarah, in the Underground. You have made it
much more to my liking this time around," his sardonic grin was wavering and she
matched it with her own.
Sarah held out the book and sighed. "I thought I was lost when you gave me this
darkness. It destroyed me, for a moment," she turned the corners of her mouth down as
she threw the book across the room. It slid obscurely into the farthest corner. "Was this
your plan all along? Give me another book, tempt me, seduce me, win me, overcome
me?!" She breathed deep and rushed upon him, grasping hold of his arms so tightly that
he hissed in air. "You wanted me so that I can give you new life and finally set you free."
She brushed the side of his face with the back of her hand. Jareth was silent. He
looked into her blazing eyes and then reached out to grasp her face and force it forward.
He seared them together with a kiss, bruising her lips against her teeth. Her hands raked
through his hair and across his back.
Then, he pushed her back, and she could feel her hold over the situation slip.
Sarah looked long at the book in the corner, until Jareth began to walk around her. "You
are a vessel, in which I inherited a kingdom in a fantasy so rich that it was reality. I was
birthed in your dreams, Sarah, but not the first time." He pounced in on her and she fell
backwards, watching him become great and glorious, like an antichrist framed in black
fire.
He knelt down over her, crouching low so that his aquiline face was mere inches
from hers. Now it was he who stroked her face and she trembled under the touch. "But
we became more than host and guest," he grinned briefly at the analogy, "You have my
own self within you, and I, am hopelessly connected with your own life energy. Do you
see, Sarah, no matter what you do, I will always exist."
He leaned back and gripped the soft fabric of both her vest and her shirt. Sarah
watched plaintively, shuddering only once as he tore the clothing open and revealed her
naked to his empowered eyes. Her jeans shredded and fell around her, nothing more than
scraps, and Jareth knew that he had her completely.
She came to him, her clothes tattered and her body badly bruised. But as she
walked her skin became porcelain- flawless, and her hair coiled up into a network of tight
brunette spirals that cascaded down her elegant neck along the smooth silk of a ruby
dress. Sarah stopped in front of him and opened wide her eyes that had been a vague
hazel and now glowered black in the night.
He offered to her the goblet of red wine, and she took it into her hands and lifted it
to her burgundy lips. Sarah drank hungrily, tasting the bouquet of flavors at the back of
her tongue, where it lingered and tingled even as she lowered the cup and looked at
Jareth, licking her wet lips.
In the background the snow beat against the old barn and it creaked and moaned in
protest. Sarah drew the goblet away, held it in her right hand and then, as she reached to
touch Jareth's face with her left, let it fall to the hay-covered ground. There it shattered
and bits of crystal scattered as they danced and cartwheeled over old planked, but
strangely dark wood. Sarah smiled again and let her nailtips etch the path of Jareth's
highly arched cheekbones.
*Prince of night* Sarah's voice filled the air between them as she tilted her head
just slightly. Inside herself she felt something blossom and fill her so completely that she
wished for nothing more than to water it and make it grow until it consumed all that she
had been.
He touched the curve of her neck with the smooth and supple leather of his gloves
and carefully bent to brush his mouth against hers. Sarah sighed against him and then he
jerked and his head bent towards the door where his icy eyes fixed. Voices from outside.
*Mimi* Sarah thought briefly, and for a moment the dark veil fell from around her
and she felt herself stepping back into the reality. Jareth was there first, and he led her,
willingly, back into a fantasy that was the deepest and most surreal aspect of the human
mind. As if they stepped into the very ID of the subconscious level. Freud would have
enjoyed it immensely.
Into the spot where they had once been a shaft of flickering lantern light fell,
briefly blown into a vivid dance by the gust of ice wind behind the two figures at the barn
door. Mimi struggled within, bundling Toby underneath her arm as she forced the heavy
doors closed. Again the barn creaked and moaned and Toby shivered as he looked for his
step-sister.
"SARAH!" he called and his voice echoed along with that of the storm.
Mimi walked the line of the lower level of the barn, letting the light of the candle
within the protective lantern fall across the slick hay and the rotten wood. Worm holes
and black mold ate into the barn. She felt the weak points beneath her old sneakers, that
were soaked through from the short battle with the snow and the deep drifts.
And then Mimi stopped and Toby, from near the ladder, heard her drop the lantern
and it shatter. He startled and turned just as the last light left the barn, and heard Mimi cry
out hopelessly- like a lamb bleating before the slaughter.
He crawled his way towards her, feeling for her with nothing but the sound of her
horrified and struggled breaths leading his way. "Mimi?" Toby asked, his own voice so
quiet that it sounded small and dead in the vast and empty barn. There was no answer.
But he felt a sneaker stuck out of the hay and Toby stopped, poking the leg to get his
aunt's attention.
"Mimi!" Toby demanded and crawled nearer to her. He moved the hay out of the
way, scuttling over the ground until he was on his knees and reaching to hold her hands.
But they were cold, icy, and he could still see little more than vague shadows that were
slightly more dark than the already horrible darkness.
He tried to say something again, but the feel of the rubbery skin, so dull and
lifeless, instantly struck him. With a trembling hand Toby reached out, and found his
fingertips brushing the dull stubble of a chin that hadn't been shaved that day, and the
glossy gel of open eyes.
He shrieked and backed away, until he run solidly into the wall and then, jumping
to his feet, Toby clawed the wood until his fingernails bent back and his own blood
became thick across the lacerated flesh.
* * * * *
Sarah found herself again in the middle of a wide black maze, with a brilliantly
dark night sky overhead, scattered with sharp stars and a sickly yellow moon. She turned
and looked the night over for the snow, but saw nothing, and felt little more. Silence so
thick that it soaked into her dress, encased her. And she felt a presence of raw energy in
the horrible air.
The shared mind and thoughts she had, since then, felt with herself and the King,
was gone. Severed and cut, and she felt as hollow as if she had had a child taken from
her. Sarah turned again and watched her hair drift evenly back into place. It had been
loosed from the tight coils.
And her dress was gone, and she was in jeans and a white shirt that billowed out at
the sleeves. Sarah held out her arms and calmly observed her cream vest, one she had
long ago given to Good Will. Then, as lightening broke the barrier of the clear night,
Sarah saw the solid outline of the Castle at the center of the Labyrinth highlighted bone
white against the navy sky.
"Through Dangers Untold....," Sarah mused, and liked her own voice. While she
had thought herself drawn into her darkest mind, and saw it in the view of the evening, she
felt another part of herself fighting against the constrains of the festering seed that Jareth
had planted. With the thought, Sarah smiled.
So she began walking.
* * * * *
Jareth sat on a golden throne and leaned forward, steepling his hands below his
chin as he watched an image of the girl in his crystal orb that hung, suspended, in the air
before him. Surrounding the chair, scored of clocks ticked and tocked in unison that was
almost deafening. The King tilted his head.
"Do you already think yourself winning? Do you already think of me, your King,
as weak? How quickly those ill perceived thoughts return to minds that have tasted the
darkness of humanity and enjoyed," Jareth grinned and showed pointed teeth. "But look
at what you made for me, Sarah... a new kingdom."
Another bolt of blue lightening tore the sky in half and rumbled the castle just
enough to remind Jareth of the weak foundations. Something was tearing the fabric of his
rebirth, and the ageless spirit within Jareth raged against her disobedience. His face grew
dark a moment, and his eyes became white orbs that danced with electricity. Just as
quickly, though, he had returned and Jareth merely smiled more broadly and turned away
from the crystal.
He rose from the throne, clasped his hands into the small of his back, and began
humming as the night danced behind him.
* * * * *
Sarah jogged down a thin passage that led downwards and downwards, until she
thought she would dive right beneath the castle. A vague sound of water echoed off the
walls, and traveled to her as a ceaseless dripping, and then a slow flowing, and finally it
sounded as if there was a creek that was running no more than a foot ahead.
The mystery was answered as she stepped into it and felt water spatter across her
stonewashed jeans. Sarah recoiled and looked over her shoulder, nervously sensing the
eyes upon her that were His. "You gave me something, Jareth..." she trailed off and
smiled as she watched the water change its coarse as it missed a pale purple book, laying
face down in the middle of the stream.
Sarah bent and retrieved the book, turning it over and snapping it closed firmly.
Ahead of her the brook faded and nothing more save dark bricks of masonry remained
behind. The tunnel shook and the walls cracked and Sarah stood silently as she waited.
But that was all that happened, and soon the walls were as strong as they had been before,
though somewhat more transparent.
The illusion was fading.
She turned and walked up a set of wooden stairs, that were left behind when the
flow of water faded. Sarah tucked the book tight against herself, trying hard to remember
back before Jareth. But there wasn't much. She felt his eyes upon her, and felt the
darkness he had loosed within her begin to bubble and fight to infect her again.
Her white shirt had turned a deep black.
The stairs ended at a mirror, and Sarah stood before it looking at a girl she had
once known so long ago... herself. Herself when she was fourteen and when she had
defeated the King the first time. Herself when she first experienced therapy, when she cut
the threads and lost her friends, when she left the Underground in sad ruins, and a King to
wander homeless back into her life.
Why she had had no power over him was the most perplexing of all.
But then, he had had no power over her. Now, the tables had turned and suddenly
she felt herself encased in his hands. As she watched the mirror her eyes grew black and
became as deep and dark as her pupil. The sclera was starkly white as she widened her
eyes and groaned.
"I have fought my way here to the castle!" she cried out, and drew her arm back
with a brief sob. Sneering, her elbow connected and the glass shattered. Sarah breathed
in and out as she listened to the glass spread out across the ground before her.
* * * * *
Jareth jerked as he heard the sound of breaking glass. *She has the book* his
mind cried out as he raced back into his throne room. And there she was, calmly
observing him with eyes so black he thought he would be lost in them.
"Jareth," she whispered, realizing the power that was in saying his name. He lifted
his head higher and took a single step nearer her.
"I gave you another chance here, Sarah, in the Underground. You have made it
much more to my liking this time around," his sardonic grin was wavering and she
matched it with her own.
Sarah held out the book and sighed. "I thought I was lost when you gave me this
darkness. It destroyed me, for a moment," she turned the corners of her mouth down as
she threw the book across the room. It slid obscurely into the farthest corner. "Was this
your plan all along? Give me another book, tempt me, seduce me, win me, overcome
me?!" She breathed deep and rushed upon him, grasping hold of his arms so tightly that
he hissed in air. "You wanted me so that I can give you new life and finally set you free."
She brushed the side of his face with the back of her hand. Jareth was silent. He
looked into her blazing eyes and then reached out to grasp her face and force it forward.
He seared them together with a kiss, bruising her lips against her teeth. Her hands raked
through his hair and across his back.
Then, he pushed her back, and she could feel her hold over the situation slip.
Sarah looked long at the book in the corner, until Jareth began to walk around her. "You
are a vessel, in which I inherited a kingdom in a fantasy so rich that it was reality. I was
birthed in your dreams, Sarah, but not the first time." He pounced in on her and she fell
backwards, watching him become great and glorious, like an antichrist framed in black
fire.
He knelt down over her, crouching low so that his aquiline face was mere inches
from hers. Now it was he who stroked her face and she trembled under the touch. "But
we became more than host and guest," he grinned briefly at the analogy, "You have my
own self within you, and I, am hopelessly connected with your own life energy. Do you
see, Sarah, no matter what you do, I will always exist."
He leaned back and gripped the soft fabric of both her vest and her shirt. Sarah
watched plaintively, shuddering only once as he tore the clothing open and revealed her
naked to his empowered eyes. Her jeans shredded and fell around her, nothing more than
scraps, and Jareth knew that he had her completely.