Chapter Five: Of Attitudes and Sweet-Tempting Hell:

Everybody was stunned speechless and, for a while, Sarah was glad for that. She needed a couple of minutes for her true personality to take hold of her. When it did she assumed a disdainful, royal-like posture and manner.

"What?" she asked everyone in the Gym "Too much make-up? Or maybe it's the cleavage… Jareth really wasn't thinking with his head"

Her eyes were full of superiority, and amusement. Power, she was the representation of Power and Beauty. She had changed in the blink of an eye. Suddenly the boring, odd teenager was replaced with the frivolous yet wise and elegant woman with the apparent innocence of a little girl, yet mundane and witty. And of course, it seemed like is she knew everything. She inspired superiority from every angle.

"Sarah? What happened to you?" Karen finally stuttered. Sarah threw her head backwards and let out a melodic laugh.

"I feel good. That happened. I stopped hiding, mind you. This is what I am… But I have no place here. My place I lost it, even before I was born. I was misplaced…" she whispered, but everyone could hear her. She chuckled slightly yet angelically upon seeing the looks of horror of her father, her step-mother and everyone in the Gymnasium. "Really, am I that bad?"

"Sarah, don't mind them. I am waiting" Jareth murmured into her ear. Sarah rolled her eyes boldly. Trust the Goblin King to sneak up on your back, of course. When she looked at him he sighed: her eyes were full of pain. Pain for having to be another person to be accepted, pain for the realization that her real self didn't have a place Aboveground.

'She belongs in the Underground. Jareth, you know very well that she is a fiery creature. She will eventually dim and die if you let her here' a strange and deep voice inside his voice muttered.

'But if you break the Prophecy she would be normal again…' another voice, the voice of his pride, retorted.

'No! She would be a walking dead, half a person. The real Sarah would die… Only the mask would survive. Are you ready to face that? An eternity without fire, without spirit and stubbornness? An eternity without her?'

He found himself refusing to even think of that possibility. But he didn't want to think either about the implications of the fact that he didn't want life without Sarah.

"Remember your promise, Jareth" Sarah whispered before placing a tiny hand in his gloved one. The leather felt cool, not warm as she supposed it would feel. She shrugged the thought off.

With the agility of a cat and the experience of thousands of years of Balls and Masquerades the Goblin King pull the woman close to him, placing firmly a hand on her waist and looked at her intently, almost trying to see through her. But this time Sarah had almost the same look in her face. The same aristocratic air around her, same disdain and elegant cruelty.

"I was wondering, Jareth, if your 'I am cruel, noble, selfish, stuck- up' attitude is just something that comes with magic. Because I find myself horribly mimicking your actions sometimes. I can't help it really…" she commented wickedly. Jareth chuckled slightly.

"I fear that you are right, my dear. But my… how did you put it? Oh, yes 'I am cruel, noble, selfish, stuck-up' attitude is common in the Fae race… The thing is, that in Faes with crystal magic the attitude is worse" he replied nonchalantly. But the answer caught her attention.

"Fae? I am not a Fae, Jareth… Or am I? What are you hiding?" she suddenly tried to pull herself from him, but he held her tight. Her eyes flashed with anger… not childish anger, but real, mature and powerful anger… Red anger.

He spun her around trying to cool her temper.

"Listen to me, Sarah. Whatever happened, I didn't do it. You were born like you are now; the Labyrinth just woke your dormant self. It was predicted to happen, a mortal born with powers, and… immortality even. That's why they are attacking you. Fae people don't like other immortal beings with powerful magic walking around free"

Sarah sighed then, resting her head on his chest and placing a hand in his neck for support, actions that surprised Jareth greatly.

"I am so tired…" she mumbled, pain showing clearly, only because she wanted to. She wanted to show him what his kind had done to her.

"What is it, Sarah?" the Goblin Kin asked, suddenly noticing how weak her magic was. "You haven't been sleeping and you used too much magic recently" he accused her softly. She laughed against his chest, a mocking, hundred percent Goblin King Laugh.

"Of course! Every night those dammed creatures appear to try and kill me. Every night I fight them, and every night I become weaker. No matter how much I rest, I can't regain my strength. And they attack me because of you; that I know. So make it stop!"

She almost collapsed upon saying that last word, the eight of the last month threatening to squash her. Jareth held her in place, nevertheless, always the gentleman… when it agreed with him, of course.

"Cassandra, I swear for the love of the Underground you will pay dearly for try to defy me" he swore under his breath. The mortal girl was of his own, according to the Prophecy. She was His: his servant, his slave, his torture, his hell… and his fall.

"Sarah?" he suddenly asked but he realized she was slipping away to unconsciousness. She was too weak to even support the journey to the Labyrinth.

"Well, dear Sarah, if you are listening to me don't slap me for what I am about to do. I fear it's the only way for you to regain some strength" he whispered before placing a hand in her neck and bring her lips to his in a soul-searing kiss. The technical purpose of this so called 'love demonstration' was to pass her some magic. What resulted was… well, a lot more.

The first thing he noticed was that she tasted like pure honey. That surprised him beyond speech because he had never actually tasted anything while kissing someone.

It was like sugar, or better… Candy. Tempting for sure, but he knew it would bring him only Hell…

He realized quickly that power was not the only thing irradiating from him to her. Somewhere in the middle passion and overwhelming hunger had found their way to the link he had temporally created to pass his energy to Sarah. And the worst was that he sensed her arms encircling his neck and her mouth wanting more. He really knew that what she was seeking unconsciously was energy for her weak and wanting body, but it felt like she was answering to his maddening, irrational passion.

Jareth allowed himself more than he should have for his own good. No need to say that the audience of this strange transfusion was struck speechless (yes, most of the girls were too envious to even utter a word). Jareth reminded himself he should let go of her at some moment, but neither his will nor Sarah allowed him to.

By the Underground, she held too much power over Him.

Author's Note: No, I am not going to blackmail you again with reviews, so fear not. I was just thanking all the people who review and saying that it would be perfect if you, my dear readers, would review without having me forcing you to do so. Really, a review takes one or two minutes but means a lot to me.

By the way, I do not have all the story written, but I am always one or two chapters ahead of the last update so, when I cannot write, I still can post regularly.

See you soon,

Sabina