Chapter Fourteen
Sarah tore herself away from Jareth, forcibly remembering what he had just done.
What they had just done. Mimi was packed down in clothes, tramping through the back
door to get to the barn, where she had kept her dead husband's old rifle, wrapped in oil
clothes in the loft. Something kept her from hiding the gun away in the house, while Toby
was there.
"Funny," Jareth began as he stood solemnly, hands clasped behind his back,
looking out the large bay window in the living room, "this life you chose."
"Fuck you!" Sarah muttered as he turned his head just enough so that she could
see the caustic grin that touched his lips. His eyes were dark, shadowed in the semi-light
of the living room and the eerie glow from the snow outside. It had grown so that it
scraped the bottom edge of the window.
She pressed her hand to her mouth a moment as she thought, looking at Jareth's
backlit form against the dark of the window. Watching him standing there, Sarah could
almost think that she was fifteen again, the incentive of her once great determination
welled inside and she got up, sturdy on assured legs.
"Why are you here?!" Sarah demanded.
Jareth tilted his head to the side and then slowly brought two elegantly white hands
up to the curtains. His leather gloves were gone. They clutched the thick material and,
with a snap, he drew them closed and turned to acknowledge his truest adversary.
"Did you really want to know?" Jareth inquired.
"I have a right. I was the one who made you!"
At this Jareth breeched her personal space, grabbing her flailing hands in a tight
grip as he slid himself so near to her that she saw only his flashing eyes. His mouth moved
against her cheek, and she felt the smooth sturdiness of his teeth against her jawbone, his
breath tantalizing her flesh.
"I wouldn't be so cocky, Sarah," he said, breathing in her scent as one hand jerked
her head back by her long hair.
Sarah cried out briefly, until she realized that one hand was free from his restraint.
Reaching back, she grabbed his pale, vulnerable hand, and dug her manicured fingernails
into the flesh. Jareth recoiled, letting her free as she stood her ground. "Times change,
Jareth. I'm not fifteen anymore."
"I've realized as much," he purred, his hand healed from the semi-circle incisions
she had inflicted a moment ago. Her heart pattered at the realization when he snapped his
fingers in front of her face and she jumped back a good foot, hopelessly intimidated. Then
he began to move around her, skirting the coffeetable without so much as a sideways
glance towards it.
She wiped her hands on her slacks and lifted her chin upwards, revealing a dark
bruise on the left side, where he had bitten her earlier. Not everything was made to appear
as if their sex had never happened. The twinkle of approval in his eyes hindered her
infuriated statements, as did the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
"Sarah?!" Toby cried out, leaping down with a fervor as Jareth, scowling, turned
away from his prey. Sarah rushed out, her hair falling, fortunately, across the marks over
her pale skin.
She met Toby in a firm embrace, and she could almost feel his heart rushing like a
hammer against his ribcage. "What happened?" she demanded, pushing him out at arms
length. His baby-powder eyes flicked momentarily towards Jareth, and the brilliant
splotches of red on his cheeks immediately turned ashen.
"The attic window was shattered," he whispered, his eyes even wider than they
had been before.
"Did you lock up the door?" Sarah demanded, her hold on her brother tightening
as she felt her adrenalin pump wildly into her body. Fight or flight, her entire system
seemed to demand. Toby nodded in response to her question and then slipped his arms
out of her hands, as Sarah relinquished her hold on him. "God."
The back door clattered open, a deep bellow of wind cascading throughout the
living room as it did. Sarah heard plates fall, clattering to the linoleum, and the pressure in
the farmhouse seemed to drop. Everything was quiet for a moment, and then the door
slammed again, and they all heard footsteps, sogged down with snow and sopping wet.
"Mimi?!" Sarah called, running to the kitchen just as her aunt flung open the door.
She had the gun under her arms, and her thick scarf was completely plastered against her
head and her neck. She stripped herself from it, looking much more old than she had ever
seemed before.
"Worst SnowBlind in years. Toby, get the transister," Mimi ordered, as she let the
coat fall from around her and walked, shivering, to the fire where she kneeled down and
was tempted to jerk her numb hands into the enticing flames. She turned briefly towards
her neice and offered Sarah a sympathetic smile. "Come sit by the fire with me. You too
Gabriel."
Sarah cringed at the sound of the phoney name. Jareth merely dropped her a
subtle grin and walked over nearer the fire. "Toby said the attic window was broken in."
Sarah managed as she sat beside Mimi and wrapped one arm around the older woman's
shoulders. She laid her head on Mimi's shoulder and watched the fire dancing in front of
them.
"Just trying to scare you, Baby," Mimi whispered, touching Sarah's head absently,
never truly committed to the movement.
The air whispered behind her and Sarah turned to watch Jareth traversing the room
to the stairs. He stood there solemnly, watching them. Sarah knew that his enticing eyes
were on her, his darkly cloaked face ominous in the dull shadows. She wanted to look at
him, to show that she could take whatever it was he dished out, but she didn't. Instead
she shivered and tucked in nearer to Mimi.
"I'd suggest we stay together," Jareth began, dropping his hand on the banister.
For a moment the house trembled, and this time Sarah did look accusingly at him.
"What!" Sarah demanded, making Mimi jerk beside her.
Jareth merely shrugged and, narrowing his mysterious eyes, his face darkened. In
another moment the house stopped shaking and he began to take the stairs, slowly, one at
a time. "Gabriel!" Mimi called after him, getting to her knees as he joints ground together.
The first cold snap always signalled a stiffness to her joints. "Thought we were staying
together?... Toby!"
Mimi grabbed hold of the fireplace as she worked her way up and hurried her way
back into the kitchen at the response of the boy. Once more Sarah was alone, trying to
watch the flames. But she saw him in the corner of her eye, at the middle of the stairs ,
standing solemnly.
"Come with me Sarah," Jareth spoke naturally, but an electricity filled the air, like
static. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up abruptly and Sarah moved her eyes
towards him. And she saw the black silk across him, again.
"What do YOU want?!" Sarah bit out, her temper, usually restrained, had boiled to
the surface. In the midst of hysteria she jumped up and ran at him, grabbing hold of his
slender arms as he had done earlier.
She didn't know what she was doing, but she felt their bodies smack together,
landing on the painful points of the carpeted stairs. Jareth wooshed out air beneath her,
but his laughter filled the farmhouse, cynical and dark. So dark. Sarah felt herself
growing so small beneath the pressure, as she tore at his silk, crying and screaming.
The sound of a transister radio snapped on, white noise of an off-channel filled the
air. Sarah rose, clutching soft fabric in her hands. But he wasn't beneath her anymore.
Her mouth tasted bloody, and she wiped it. A single smear of blood was stained across
her hand as she held it out to see.
"Did I fall?" she thought to herself, letting the black fabric fall.
As it hit the ground it disintigrated, like ash. A little pile of black powder as fine as
cocaine. Sarah ran one finger through it, and then watched in horror as it drifted into the
air as if it had caught a breeze. Another window open???? But it danced and swirled so
unnaturally, straight up the stairs, fading away where the electric lights stopped.
*Cross-Roads County, Kettle County, the greater urban areas of Calumet....*
Sarah heard the distant sound of an announcer as she picked herself up, sniffing
briefly, to traverse the stairs. She could see the faintest glow up there, like a beacon.
Maybe there was someone waiting.
*Jareth*
Her voice filled her mind, seemed to echo around her as if she had screamed it.
Then his laughter began again, dipping her into a strange atmosphere of unease. Sarah
moved back at the touch of a cobweb against her cheek, banging her hip against the
banister. A little picture of Mimi's parents clattered from the wall, toppling over itself
downstairs.
Sarah turned, seeing each piece of glass as it uniquely shattered and rested on the
ground. The frame seemed to split in half, one part stopping on the stairs and the other in
the living room beside the actual picture itself.
*Yes Sarah, come to me.*
A veil of darkness shrouded her a moment, and she felt changed as she finally
made it to the second floor. Again the light shown, and she knew that it was from her
room. Sarah moved out her arm, and found a flowing sleeve of black silk, the same she
had been holding in her hands earlier. She paused momentarily, turning to the wall that
was no more. Instead an entire length of sparkling mirrors shone out, and reflected back
an image of a princess, dressed in black chifon and silk, tight fit to her body.
*Why are you calling me?* once more her voice filled the void around her as she
walked, seemingly slower than she would have naturally.
*Sarah, Sarah... my dark angel. Come to me*
She lifted her heavy skirts and kicked the black shoes off of her feet, feeling the
plush of some furry carpet beneath her feet. She let her toes sink in as she sprung
forward, into a run. The room grew further from her and Sarah reached out frantically,
with her open hand. Flailing to reach it.
*My dark angel. You are my dream, my weaver of spells and worlds and
promises. Come to me, Sarah.*
She heard his richly accented voice, like a promise of so many things that had
never happened right in her life. Sareh reached for it, gripping the doorframe as she drug
herself into the massive entryway and saw the room for the first time. And understood
that it really wasn't hers anymore.
*Where are we?* she questioned, her mouth not moving, but the words spoken
anyway as she gaped at the surroundings.
A whole medly of multi-sized black candles rested around the expansive room.
Sarah stepped beyond the threshold, feeling the air close in on her like the candlight that
licked across her skin. Like a lover. She shivered beneath it, looking for the man who had
called her. Her King. Jareth.
And she saw his shape resting on the bed, surrounded by the candlelight, like the
room. A black sheet draped around his body, presenting him like some gift for her. Sarah
felt her heart beat rise as she moved in closer.
*A dream?* she asked, moving towards him, her lips a dark smudge against her
face, she saw in another mirror (this one tinted gold). Jareth rose up, his clothes blending
to the bed sheets. His skin was as pale as twilights, Sarah realized.
*No.... this is what could be Sarah, what could have been.*
He held out his hand a moment, beckoning her to take it. Sarah hesitated, looking
down at her own hand that was ultimately prepared to accept his invitation to dine in the
darkness and lust of such sinful fantasies. And a part of her desired it more than anything
else. A part that had been attracted to Brian, knowing his tendencies. She wanted this
king to touch her again, like he had done earlier.
Her nails were long, a dark red. She turned her hand over, gazing at a smooth
palm. *You are my slave.*
*Your fear me... Sarah.*
With his words he drew his hand back to him and began to rise. Jareth tilted his
head to the side as he observed her, reaching out to touch her. To run his own flawless
hands into her dark hair, that rested along the subtle curves of her back. Sarah nodded,
standing for him to take her into his arms.
*You love me.*
*You and I are one, are we not?* she asked, smiling easily. Her seductive grin
made him move quicker, until his hands worked around the bodice of her gown. They slid
across it, like sheets on sweaty bodies. Sarah shivered under his touch, rolling her head
back a moment as his lips pressed against the hollow of her throat.
*Then do as I say*
He grasped her face in his hands and then made her eyes focus on him. And he
saw in them something that was not Sarah there. She continued to smile her seductive
smile and then brought her own hands up to lay over his. This time her mouth opened and
Jareth felt something inside him worry, just for a moment.
"Jareth.... You have no power over me."
Her smile sparked the end of the illusion. And then she heard the storm again, and
felt the true terror return. Brian was inside.
Sarah tore herself away from Jareth, forcibly remembering what he had just done.
What they had just done. Mimi was packed down in clothes, tramping through the back
door to get to the barn, where she had kept her dead husband's old rifle, wrapped in oil
clothes in the loft. Something kept her from hiding the gun away in the house, while Toby
was there.
"Funny," Jareth began as he stood solemnly, hands clasped behind his back,
looking out the large bay window in the living room, "this life you chose."
"Fuck you!" Sarah muttered as he turned his head just enough so that she could
see the caustic grin that touched his lips. His eyes were dark, shadowed in the semi-light
of the living room and the eerie glow from the snow outside. It had grown so that it
scraped the bottom edge of the window.
She pressed her hand to her mouth a moment as she thought, looking at Jareth's
backlit form against the dark of the window. Watching him standing there, Sarah could
almost think that she was fifteen again, the incentive of her once great determination
welled inside and she got up, sturdy on assured legs.
"Why are you here?!" Sarah demanded.
Jareth tilted his head to the side and then slowly brought two elegantly white hands
up to the curtains. His leather gloves were gone. They clutched the thick material and,
with a snap, he drew them closed and turned to acknowledge his truest adversary.
"Did you really want to know?" Jareth inquired.
"I have a right. I was the one who made you!"
At this Jareth breeched her personal space, grabbing her flailing hands in a tight
grip as he slid himself so near to her that she saw only his flashing eyes. His mouth moved
against her cheek, and she felt the smooth sturdiness of his teeth against her jawbone, his
breath tantalizing her flesh.
"I wouldn't be so cocky, Sarah," he said, breathing in her scent as one hand jerked
her head back by her long hair.
Sarah cried out briefly, until she realized that one hand was free from his restraint.
Reaching back, she grabbed his pale, vulnerable hand, and dug her manicured fingernails
into the flesh. Jareth recoiled, letting her free as she stood her ground. "Times change,
Jareth. I'm not fifteen anymore."
"I've realized as much," he purred, his hand healed from the semi-circle incisions
she had inflicted a moment ago. Her heart pattered at the realization when he snapped his
fingers in front of her face and she jumped back a good foot, hopelessly intimidated. Then
he began to move around her, skirting the coffeetable without so much as a sideways
glance towards it.
She wiped her hands on her slacks and lifted her chin upwards, revealing a dark
bruise on the left side, where he had bitten her earlier. Not everything was made to appear
as if their sex had never happened. The twinkle of approval in his eyes hindered her
infuriated statements, as did the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
"Sarah?!" Toby cried out, leaping down with a fervor as Jareth, scowling, turned
away from his prey. Sarah rushed out, her hair falling, fortunately, across the marks over
her pale skin.
She met Toby in a firm embrace, and she could almost feel his heart rushing like a
hammer against his ribcage. "What happened?" she demanded, pushing him out at arms
length. His baby-powder eyes flicked momentarily towards Jareth, and the brilliant
splotches of red on his cheeks immediately turned ashen.
"The attic window was shattered," he whispered, his eyes even wider than they
had been before.
"Did you lock up the door?" Sarah demanded, her hold on her brother tightening
as she felt her adrenalin pump wildly into her body. Fight or flight, her entire system
seemed to demand. Toby nodded in response to her question and then slipped his arms
out of her hands, as Sarah relinquished her hold on him. "God."
The back door clattered open, a deep bellow of wind cascading throughout the
living room as it did. Sarah heard plates fall, clattering to the linoleum, and the pressure in
the farmhouse seemed to drop. Everything was quiet for a moment, and then the door
slammed again, and they all heard footsteps, sogged down with snow and sopping wet.
"Mimi?!" Sarah called, running to the kitchen just as her aunt flung open the door.
She had the gun under her arms, and her thick scarf was completely plastered against her
head and her neck. She stripped herself from it, looking much more old than she had ever
seemed before.
"Worst SnowBlind in years. Toby, get the transister," Mimi ordered, as she let the
coat fall from around her and walked, shivering, to the fire where she kneeled down and
was tempted to jerk her numb hands into the enticing flames. She turned briefly towards
her neice and offered Sarah a sympathetic smile. "Come sit by the fire with me. You too
Gabriel."
Sarah cringed at the sound of the phoney name. Jareth merely dropped her a
subtle grin and walked over nearer the fire. "Toby said the attic window was broken in."
Sarah managed as she sat beside Mimi and wrapped one arm around the older woman's
shoulders. She laid her head on Mimi's shoulder and watched the fire dancing in front of
them.
"Just trying to scare you, Baby," Mimi whispered, touching Sarah's head absently,
never truly committed to the movement.
The air whispered behind her and Sarah turned to watch Jareth traversing the room
to the stairs. He stood there solemnly, watching them. Sarah knew that his enticing eyes
were on her, his darkly cloaked face ominous in the dull shadows. She wanted to look at
him, to show that she could take whatever it was he dished out, but she didn't. Instead
she shivered and tucked in nearer to Mimi.
"I'd suggest we stay together," Jareth began, dropping his hand on the banister.
For a moment the house trembled, and this time Sarah did look accusingly at him.
"What!" Sarah demanded, making Mimi jerk beside her.
Jareth merely shrugged and, narrowing his mysterious eyes, his face darkened. In
another moment the house stopped shaking and he began to take the stairs, slowly, one at
a time. "Gabriel!" Mimi called after him, getting to her knees as he joints ground together.
The first cold snap always signalled a stiffness to her joints. "Thought we were staying
together?... Toby!"
Mimi grabbed hold of the fireplace as she worked her way up and hurried her way
back into the kitchen at the response of the boy. Once more Sarah was alone, trying to
watch the flames. But she saw him in the corner of her eye, at the middle of the stairs ,
standing solemnly.
"Come with me Sarah," Jareth spoke naturally, but an electricity filled the air, like
static. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up abruptly and Sarah moved her eyes
towards him. And she saw the black silk across him, again.
"What do YOU want?!" Sarah bit out, her temper, usually restrained, had boiled to
the surface. In the midst of hysteria she jumped up and ran at him, grabbing hold of his
slender arms as he had done earlier.
She didn't know what she was doing, but she felt their bodies smack together,
landing on the painful points of the carpeted stairs. Jareth wooshed out air beneath her,
but his laughter filled the farmhouse, cynical and dark. So dark. Sarah felt herself
growing so small beneath the pressure, as she tore at his silk, crying and screaming.
The sound of a transister radio snapped on, white noise of an off-channel filled the
air. Sarah rose, clutching soft fabric in her hands. But he wasn't beneath her anymore.
Her mouth tasted bloody, and she wiped it. A single smear of blood was stained across
her hand as she held it out to see.
"Did I fall?" she thought to herself, letting the black fabric fall.
As it hit the ground it disintigrated, like ash. A little pile of black powder as fine as
cocaine. Sarah ran one finger through it, and then watched in horror as it drifted into the
air as if it had caught a breeze. Another window open???? But it danced and swirled so
unnaturally, straight up the stairs, fading away where the electric lights stopped.
*Cross-Roads County, Kettle County, the greater urban areas of Calumet....*
Sarah heard the distant sound of an announcer as she picked herself up, sniffing
briefly, to traverse the stairs. She could see the faintest glow up there, like a beacon.
Maybe there was someone waiting.
*Jareth*
Her voice filled her mind, seemed to echo around her as if she had screamed it.
Then his laughter began again, dipping her into a strange atmosphere of unease. Sarah
moved back at the touch of a cobweb against her cheek, banging her hip against the
banister. A little picture of Mimi's parents clattered from the wall, toppling over itself
downstairs.
Sarah turned, seeing each piece of glass as it uniquely shattered and rested on the
ground. The frame seemed to split in half, one part stopping on the stairs and the other in
the living room beside the actual picture itself.
*Yes Sarah, come to me.*
A veil of darkness shrouded her a moment, and she felt changed as she finally
made it to the second floor. Again the light shown, and she knew that it was from her
room. Sarah moved out her arm, and found a flowing sleeve of black silk, the same she
had been holding in her hands earlier. She paused momentarily, turning to the wall that
was no more. Instead an entire length of sparkling mirrors shone out, and reflected back
an image of a princess, dressed in black chifon and silk, tight fit to her body.
*Why are you calling me?* once more her voice filled the void around her as she
walked, seemingly slower than she would have naturally.
*Sarah, Sarah... my dark angel. Come to me*
She lifted her heavy skirts and kicked the black shoes off of her feet, feeling the
plush of some furry carpet beneath her feet. She let her toes sink in as she sprung
forward, into a run. The room grew further from her and Sarah reached out frantically,
with her open hand. Flailing to reach it.
*My dark angel. You are my dream, my weaver of spells and worlds and
promises. Come to me, Sarah.*
She heard his richly accented voice, like a promise of so many things that had
never happened right in her life. Sareh reached for it, gripping the doorframe as she drug
herself into the massive entryway and saw the room for the first time. And understood
that it really wasn't hers anymore.
*Where are we?* she questioned, her mouth not moving, but the words spoken
anyway as she gaped at the surroundings.
A whole medly of multi-sized black candles rested around the expansive room.
Sarah stepped beyond the threshold, feeling the air close in on her like the candlight that
licked across her skin. Like a lover. She shivered beneath it, looking for the man who had
called her. Her King. Jareth.
And she saw his shape resting on the bed, surrounded by the candlelight, like the
room. A black sheet draped around his body, presenting him like some gift for her. Sarah
felt her heart beat rise as she moved in closer.
*A dream?* she asked, moving towards him, her lips a dark smudge against her
face, she saw in another mirror (this one tinted gold). Jareth rose up, his clothes blending
to the bed sheets. His skin was as pale as twilights, Sarah realized.
*No.... this is what could be Sarah, what could have been.*
He held out his hand a moment, beckoning her to take it. Sarah hesitated, looking
down at her own hand that was ultimately prepared to accept his invitation to dine in the
darkness and lust of such sinful fantasies. And a part of her desired it more than anything
else. A part that had been attracted to Brian, knowing his tendencies. She wanted this
king to touch her again, like he had done earlier.
Her nails were long, a dark red. She turned her hand over, gazing at a smooth
palm. *You are my slave.*
*Your fear me... Sarah.*
With his words he drew his hand back to him and began to rise. Jareth tilted his
head to the side as he observed her, reaching out to touch her. To run his own flawless
hands into her dark hair, that rested along the subtle curves of her back. Sarah nodded,
standing for him to take her into his arms.
*You love me.*
*You and I are one, are we not?* she asked, smiling easily. Her seductive grin
made him move quicker, until his hands worked around the bodice of her gown. They slid
across it, like sheets on sweaty bodies. Sarah shivered under his touch, rolling her head
back a moment as his lips pressed against the hollow of her throat.
*Then do as I say*
He grasped her face in his hands and then made her eyes focus on him. And he
saw in them something that was not Sarah there. She continued to smile her seductive
smile and then brought her own hands up to lay over his. This time her mouth opened and
Jareth felt something inside him worry, just for a moment.
"Jareth.... You have no power over me."
Her smile sparked the end of the illusion. And then she heard the storm again, and
felt the true terror return. Brian was inside.