Phase 3: A Suitor--A Fae Suitor

After hours of ceaseless running, Sarah slowed to a halt. Her breaths grew heavier. She broke out in a cold sweat. She felt dizzy. "Could this be my lymphoma catching up with me?" she asked herself. "Oh, why hadn't I paid attention to the symptoms of my horrible and eventually tragically fatal disease?!"

He healed you, said a voice in her head.

This wasn't her voice. This was a different voice. A male voice. A Fae voice.

He healed you, the voice repeated. But you flee from him. With every step you take, the effects of his magic wear off. Your disease is returning, Sarah, my delicate bloom.

"Jareth?" Sarah asked. But then she thought better of it. Jareth hadn't reached a point in his character development that would make him address himself in the third person. "Who are you?"

I am the man with no name.

"What?"

Codan. My name is Codan.

"But you said—"

Effect, my sweet. Dramatic effect.

"Wait. Who are—"

Shhh. Don't speak.

Once again Sarah opened her mouth in protest, but stopped suddenly as a thick mist began accumulating around her ankles. The air grew heavy with moisture. Panicked, Sarah tried to run away, but she found her body much too weak. Defeated, she slumped to the ground.

"I'm done for," she sighed, "a victim of this accursed lymphoma! Most debilitating of the terminal illnesses!" Her breathing became more labored. "I'm so weak," she managed. "If someone were to approach me with the intent of ravishing my supple young body, I would be powerless to stop them!"

The mist grew thicker. Sarah noticed a shadowy form walking through the fog toward her. She gasped.

Hello again, my dearest Sarah.

That voice again. Did it belong to the being before her?

The fog cleared around the figure, revealing a striking gentleman, clearly of Fae descent. He wore an ostentatious outfit of red and black motley, each red chevron the most brilliant scarlet velour, each black section the finest of ebon-hued velvet. A cloak of shimmering black taffeta flowed regally from his shoulders, and a pillowy, red velvet hat sat rakishly atop his head, a single long peacock feather its only ornamentation. His codpiece, a bulging pouch of black velour, was studded with rhinestones. And he had the most curious smile Sarah had ever seen.

The man extended his pale, well-manicured hand towards Sarah, who took it without thinking.

Your hands are softer than silk.

"Excuse me?"

I said… I mean, "I said, your hands are softer than silk. I'm quite taken with them."

"Perhaps. But please, stop stroking them."

"My apologies."

"You are Codan?" she asked, noting that the man's codpiece seemed… heavier… than Jareth's did.

"You are correct." His eyes grew wide as Sarah breathed heavily, her chest heaving slowly up and down. He found his eyes unable to part with the sight of her generous cleavage. Her gown was also quite beautiful. Not nearly as much velvet as he would have liked, but an exquisite dress nonetheless. A few sequins or rhinestones would have made it perfect.

Sarah coughed. Apparently it was something lymphoma patients did. "You are ill," Codan said. "Jareth healed you, but with your escape, his magic fades. Typical. A deliberate ploy to keep you by his side."

"How… how do you know all this?"

"I am Fae."

"Right."

"Would you like some tea?"

"No, thanks, I've had plenty and—"

"Manservants!" Codan shouted.

From the mist shuffled two lanky goblins, wearing nothing but black leather straps, spiked collars, and tight-fitting codpieces. One was gagged. The other carried a tea tray.

"Would the mistress like some cream in her tea?" the one goblin asked, thrusting a saucer and a cup brimming with hot tea into her pale hands.

"Rr srm srgr?" the other said, tapping a sugar bowl.

Sarah ignored the goblins and took a tentative sip from her cup.

"Does the tea please you?" Codan asked.

Sarah weakly shrugged.

"Ah, but the atmosphere does not! Fear not, my voluptuous goddess! I shall remedy the situation immediately! For I am Fae!"

Suddenly, the fog receded. No longer were they in the Labyrinth, but a decadent palace draped in velvet. Everything shone with the glitter of precious metals and the sparkle of generously applied rhinestones.

"Welcome to my home, my luscious angel."

Sarah was shocked. The cold stone of the Labyrinth beneath her had been replaced with an elegant mahogany chair with a red velour cushion. A table heavy with more assorted teas than the British Isles sat before her. Codan stood at her side, gently stroking behind the pointed ears of one of his goblin servants.

She noticed her strength had returned. "Did you… am I healed?"

"Indeed."

"But… when did you do that?"

"A few seconda ago. My powers are Fae. Also, you can't feel when they're working," he explained. "More tea?"

"No thanks, I haven't finished this cup and—"

"Manservants! More tea for my elegant garden bloom!" he demanded. "Listen, my darling Sarah, I have healed you. I may only be his cousin, but my healing powers far exceed those of Jareth."

Sarah nearly choked on her tea. Did he just say he was Jareth's cousin?

"Jareth's healing powers always come with a price, you see? With you, it was the need to stay within the confine of his castle. With others he has healed, they have transformed into a form completely unlike their own. The goblins populating this realm, the creatures Jareth claims kingship over? They were human once. All of them diseased like yourself. Cancer. Tuberculosis. Syphilis. Pinkeye. Jareth cured them all, yet with time they became twisted goblinoids." He gently patted the rear of the closest servant, who scurried off to get more tea and perhaps a velvet-covered footstool.

"I can heal without such side-effects. But who do the ill flock to? That hack Jareth! It isn't fair, you know. It just isn't fair."

Sarah took another sip of tea. "Yes, but… what do I have to do with all of this?"

"You, my dear, will be used as revenge."

"Excuse me?"

"Revenge! And I love you!"

"You love me? But you just met me!"

"Nonsense!" said the smiling Fae. "We may have just met, but I have been watching you with this," he said, producing a crystal sphere from some hidden pocket. "You look shocked. Jareth's not the only one who has one of these. And I can actually do the neat juggling thing without requiring a stand-in hand!"

"You fiend! You've been spying on me!"

"Maybe a little. But what I've said is true, Sarah! I love you! I love you more than I've loved any woman. And I mean that in every possible way!"

Sarah's eyes narrowed. She slammed her cup down onto the table, spilling tea onto the lacy white tablecloth. A goblin rushed in to clean it up. "You're no different than Jareth! When will you Fae learn?"

"You don't share my feelings of love for you, pretty one?"

"No! I don't even know you!"

"But I told you so much about myself! That was pertinent information! I don't share that sort of thing with just anyone!"

"I don't care! You can't simply say, 'I love you,' and expect me to feel the same way. Love takes time, Codan. Its something that just sort of happens," she said, unsure if that made any sense at all. "And for starters, you have to romance a woman first. Not fill her with tea!"

Codan smiled. "Romance?"

"Yes!"

He snapped his fingers. Suddenly, ensorcelled chains flew from the walls behind Sarah, whipping aside her chair and wrapping themselves around her wrists. Then the chains dragged her backwards, pinning her against the wall. Codan smiled wider as the chains tightened around her, spreading her limbs and pushing her chest a few fractions higher.

"My apologies," he laughed, "but my idea of 'romance' may differ slightly from your own!"

Sarah gasped, her supple wrists pinned to the not-nearly-as-supple wall. "What are you doing!" she cried.

Codan smirked, strutting towards her slowly, like a slow strutting thing. "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah," he said. "Don't deny that this has always been your fantasy!"

"Never!" Sarah cried, turning her face away from Codan's dastardly handsomeness.

Codan came closer, so close that she could smell his exotic scent; perhaps he was wearing Brute, or Axe. Despite everything, she felt her knees shudder as he leaned into her. The power of him was exhausting and his codpiece was enthralling.

Codan's mouth opened, and out poured a sonnet, written by his cruel, dark heart.

When I beheld your bouncing bosoms sweet

And had perused your diaries - seen them all,

I knew the way for you and I to meet

Was for myself to chain you to a wall.

And when I had, my codpiece stood right proud

I strok'd my velvet - sleeves - with great renown

For with you chained, I was right quick allow'd

To tear away your lapis sky blue gown.

You thought I was a man you wished I was,

Jareth! That fool, he could not keep you near.

But you were happy enough to do his cous',

And I am smart enough to keep you here.

You will rule with me the realm of S'aan,

Beside the man without a name. Codan.

"Sarah," he said after his sonnet was completed, his whisper brushing against her lovely dark tresses. "I know your fantasies, more so than even Jareth."

"How?" she whispered back, noticing that his eyes were not multi-colored.

"I can read your thoughts." Codan stepped back from her. "I also read your diary."

Sarah gasped. "The one on my bedside table?"

Codan grinned. "No."

"The red one with yellow ribbon that I hide in the bookcase downstairs?"

"No."

Sarah gasped. "Not the little black book underneath the bathroom tile!"

Codan winked. "The very same."

Sarah whipped her shackles into action. "How dare you! You bastard! I mean—You fiend! You will not have me! No matter how many of my many diaries you have read!"

Codan frowned. "I will have you, whether by your own will, or by force, it does not matter." He strode over to her quickly, pinning himself against her.

Sarah squirmed, she shoved, she even tried to shimmy, but to no avail. Codan's hard and deliciously scented body was upon her and refusing to budge.

"Shhhhh, my sweet berry," Codan whispered. "I will be gentle. I know you have never known the warm burning hot touch of a man."

"Only because you read my diary!" Sarah cried.

Codan's well-lubricated left hand stroked Sarah's shaking side. "No, it's not just that. Though it did help me decide what I was going to wear today."

Sarah's lips trembled as Codan bent his head and placed his lips upon the hollow of her neck. Sarah's eyes closed momentarily. She was held against her will, yet Codan was so skilled with his lips, and as he gently bit her alabaster skin, she wondered if he had read her last diary entry, describing a detailed fantasy of she and the Vampire Lestat.

"Just relax, Sarah," Codan ordered, his lips making a slight geometric pattern of pentagons and obtuse triangles, up and around her neck. "I know your fantasy."

Sarah's eyes opened. "I just thought—"

Codan pressed a finger against Sarah's ruby red lips. "You thought I was Jareth? Ah, now that is the fantasy I am more accustomed to my sweet berry." He looked deep into her one-dimensional eyes. "I am Jareth." His voice deepened into the deepest recesses, his look, hypnotizing her. For a moment Sarah could actually see Jareth standing before her.

"No, you're not Jareth! You're not!" She cried, moving her head sideways, trying to avoid Codan's burning, searing eyes.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me," he whispered furiously, raking his hands across her tethered body.

Oh Jareth, if only it was you raking my tethered body and not this rake!

"Never!" She shouted as he grabbed her porcelain chin, forcing her to look into his non-multi colored eyes.

"Sarah," he whispered delicately. "See what you want to see. Feel what you've always felt. I know your dreams. Better than Jareth, better than Toby, better than your therapist Mr. Jameson who you see Monday, Wednesday and Friday of every week. Let me soothe you. Let me give you want you desire."