A/N: The chapter opens to Jareth going to the garden, where Tehran is waiting for Sarah, to confront his "friend" with the truth.
Disclaimer: I don't own Jim Henson's Labyrinth or any of his characters. I lay claim to only my original creations
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Chapter 7
Garden of Sorrow
(At the garden)
Pacing anxiously, Tehran's nervous trance was snapped by swooping claws that met his flesh. Screaming out in agony he stumbled into the forgotten garden. With blood trickling down onto the sacred soil he led the wild bird right to him. He was trapped in the very place he had so often held his angel and tenderly taken her. Lost in panic his fond memories were shattered by dark blood and the cries of a rampant owl. His eyes shut tight at the blow he expected yet everything stopped suddenly in an eerie calm.
Swirling about, his eyes fell upon nothing but that of the night's darkness.
It was all too much, the confusion, the hurt, the pain. He collapsed to his knees in vain, " You've hunted us down like some new toys in you labyrinth. You've discovered the truth so what now Jareth? Am I to lose all that I love? What crime do you hold against me? Trumped up charges of simply loving somebody can't keep me!" The rage in his eyes finally fell upon his foe's sudden presence.
"She was never yours to love!" Jareth's noble stance was cracked with pain and the vile taste of disloyalty spewed forth in his words.
"Nor was she yours. She belonged to no one except herself, that's where you failed her. Keeping her in that gilded cage of a castle. Her prison walls were that charade of a marriage and her bars were forged from the image she had to live up to."
"You tread on thin ice. If I were you I would not speak of things you do not understand!" Mismatched eyes dared Tehran's rage to lash out, to dig deeper into the king's crumbling heart. The two men circled each other trying to judge the other's stance in a primal rage.
It was Jareth who finally stopped the infinite silence, "If I could have chosen from every women who breathes on this earth the face I would most love, the smile, the heart, the very soul itself, every detail and feature to the last strand of hair would all be Sarah's." His mismatched eyes quickly looked away so as to not shed forth tears. His stare faded off towards the castle where her body now lay cold. The same castle walls that held a marriage, a birth, and now a death. The king's thoughts only furthered his boiling rage and hurt that he now turned to emit onto his new enemy.
Again aligning his stare with that of Tehran's he continued, "If I could have chosen from every man on this earth a man for my brother, a man for my son, and a man for my friend they would all have been you. I loved you both and you answered me with pain and torment. " His ache poured down on Tehran as he finally ended, "but it is of no importance now, Sarah is dead by her and your own sin."
Just as quickly as he had arrived from the night's sky the king returned to its comforting ebony haze. All that remained was a simple white feather in Tehran's grip.
"SARAH…nooooooo…."
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Well, that's all folks (for now). I'd appreciate it if you'd leave your comments/ideas in a review for me…. pretty please with little Jareth sprinkles on top?
~Clover