Vengeful Nightmares
Chapter 6
Sarah gave the appearance of a guppy, standing there with wide-open mouth as she stared at him. First the color left her cheeks, then it returned strong, staining her face a deep, bright scarlet. Now it was her turn to be angry, but her numbed lips refused to form words.
Jareth placed his gloved hands on his hips, and approached them slowly, like a stalking cat. "Why don't you answer?"
"What do you want me to say?" she asked dully.
"Ah, no, this won't do. We're beginning very badly." He held out a hand, palm-up, and beckoned. "Come here."
Sarah let go of Hoggle's hand, and slowly inched her way forward. Hoggle remained where he was, looking about as sick with fear as a dwarf could look.
"You too, Hoggle."
Jareth led them into a reasonably uncluttered room, and sat down sideways on the window seat. Hoggle and Sarah found chairs, and waited. "Well, Sarah, would you care to save a lot of valuable time by giving yourself to me? Or shall we do this the hard way?" he smiled charmingly. Hoggle's eyes narrowed in disgust. Sarah stared at her folded hands and said nothing. Jareth nodded sagely, as if he expected it, and went on almost cheerfully, "Very well, your choice. First of all, I wouldn't have actually hurt you; the main thing was to get you here. Now, you will tell me what you have done to me." His smile turned icy, and his miss-matched eyes turned a wintery blue.
Sarah shook her head slowly. "I don't know what you mean."
"I haven't been able to cast a decent spell in months, and you seem to have acquired some interesting powers of your own."
"Like what?"
Jareth raised an eyebrow, and got up to pace the room. Agitation was evident in his every movement. "Little things, too insignificant to really mention, except for one; you can call my subjects from my world to your own with no effort at all! No human can do that, not even those gifted in their feeble version of magic. Now, you are not a fae, so you should not be able to do this. On the other hand, I am a fae, a fae of considerable power, and now I find that power literally cut in half!" He brought his right hand down in a slicing motion, and sat down again. He shook his head as something dawned on him. "I really believe that you don't know what you've done! Or, even, how you've done it. This alters things a little." He frowned.
"What…what do you think I did?" Sarah asked quietly.
"Somehow, half of my magic got siphoned into you. I've known that for months. I brought you back so that I could make you restore me, but how can I now?" he threw up his hands, and began to pace the room again.
"What's the second thing you wanted?"
Jareth stopped, turned, and smiled slowly at her as she cringed. She knew what was coming, and so did Hoggle.
"I want you. I thought you knew that already." He extended his hand towards her as if presenting her with himself in some small way, and she slouched down in her seat so that her head was level with Hoggle's. Jareth drew his hand back with a look of slight displeasure on his face, and continued, "But that can wait. Right now, we must find some way to reverse this. Or, rather, you must. I can't tell you how to do it, because it is different for every fae."
"But I'm not a fae!" she cried in exasperation.
"This hardly matters. You have a fae's powers; my powers, and they've somehow adapted themselves to you. Only you can do this. You will cover as much of the Underground as you need to find your special way. I can't help you in this."
"But why can't you just use your power to do the same thing?"
Jareth held up his finger for silence, and replied, "Because then I'd be giving my power to you. I wish to be restored. Of course, if you were willing to stay with me…" he advanced slowly, "I might be willing to let you keep that other half of my powers."
Sarah stood up quickly, and hurried to stand behind her chair. "No deal. I just want this thing out of me!"
"And never be able to see Hoggle or the others again?" he asked with mock gravity. Her face fell, and she bit her lip. "Yes, I suggest you think it through very thoroughly."
He turned and left the room, locking them in.
* * *
Jareth leaned against the locked door, and closed his eyes. How could I have been so utterly stupid? Of course she didn't know what happened. Now what? He didn't like to admit it, but this revelation had frightened him badly. How had she done it? How? And without his knowing about it! She was just an ordinary human. No, not ordinary, but definitely a human. So how had she done it?
This wasn't going right at all. Threatening Sarah was no way to make her love him; he had tried that before. He could force her, but would get no enjoyment out of it, knowing that she was not enjoying it. He wanted her to enjoy him. Wasn't it a privilege to a human to be chosen by a fae? Of course it was! But she was treating it like it was a punishment. Magic could not create love, or he would have used it already. It could only bring out feelings that were already there, and at the moment Sarah only had fear and anger directed at him.
How to get his magic back? He would just have to trust her to take the right paths.
* * *
"Sarah, you has to go back." Hoggle whispered as soon as they were alone.
"I—I don't know how!" she sat down next to him, giving way to the tears that had been threatening since she had arrived there. Hoggle just sat there and held her hand, saying nothing. Of course, there was nothing to be said. He could tell her not to cry, but he felt as bad as she did. He couldn't think of anything to tell her, and he knew that words would make no difference. They were stuck in their situation, and there was nothing they could do. Sarah could leave with her newly discovered magic, but she didn't know how. In a sense, Jareth really did have some power over her.
They sat there for some time, until a hand closed over Sarah's shoulder, making her give a muffled scream.
Jareth stood behind her, and the look on his face puzzled her more than anything else had. There was pain in his eyes. Real pain. "Sarah, you've nothing to weep for. I've come to a decision; if you go on this quest and figure out how to use your powers, I will let you decide what to do from there."
Sarah looked at Hoggle in disbelief, and he shrugged. He didn't know what was happening either.
"You will start tomorrow morning. I will see about your rooms. Hoggle will go with you." His face became impassive again, and he left the room. Hoggle gave Sarah his handkerchief, and they sat and waited.
"Yet another trip through the Labyrinth." Sarah muttered.
Hoggle grunted negatively, "I don't think so. He's the only fae around here. I think he means for us to go in search of other fae that knows more than him, an' kin teach ya better than he can. I think he would if he could."
"But…I don't understand."
The dwarf got up, and went over to the window. "Neither do I."
