The Dream Within
Act: Finale
Author: Winter
Rating: G
Summary: "You were never like the others, forever the dreamer…" set many years after the Labyrinth.
In the years to come after her victory over the arrogant persona known as Jareth, Goblin King, did Sarah ever think back upon the coincidences, the similarities she met in that bright world? The Underground. A place where everything seemed possible and nothing was as it seemed… how true that had been. But if that were the case, then what truly was the Labyrinth? Long years left empty by retirement leaves a person with a good bit of thinking time on their hands; such was the Dreamer's case.
At first it had been nothing more complicated then idle amusement found in the face of boredom. But as more time had passed, the question had begun to consume the better of her time and thoughts. It became almost in essence, the question of her entire existence. However, it was not until time and the aging of flesh had caused her to be confined to the cold comfort of an infirmary bed that the questions began to answer themselves. Not until lack of action and the dimming of intellect did she realize what exactly was the entity she has met at the tender age of fourteen… herself. Or, more exactly, her subconscious.
Now, lying here in the dim of night after the nurses' nightly rounds had been completed and the aged left to their own slow thoughts, the 98 year old dreamer found, for the first time in decades, just how close to the real world the dream one was.
Shallow breathes rattled through her nasal passages, weakly driven by the failing power of her lungs and faltering heart. Sarah's eyes drifted open, then closed again, her tired mind caught in that place between sleep and awake; that place where other still remember dreaming…
"But you never forget, do you dear heart?" a slender hand encased in soft leather brushed a stray lock silvery gray hair off the wrinkled cheek, "You were never like the others… forever the Dreamer."
The woman smiled though her eyes remained closed. A pale pink tongue flickered out to wet dry, cracked lips, allowing a rusty voice to answer the darkness, "You came."
Jareth smiled softly, the cold hard planes of his face smoothing slightly, "Of course I did."
The crows' feet around the corners of her eyes deepened as she chuckled weakly, a cough cut off her wry mirth and the week body spasmed violently. The smile disappeared from the monarch's face and he gently stroked the mortal's shoulder. He made quiet noises, softly humming an old familiar tune to soothe her.
The coughs tapered off and Sarah finally opened her eyes, the glazed orbs the color of green leaves left out too long in the hot summer sun. a glassy sheen blurred her vision slightly, but the ethereal beauty of the sprite before was not lost fully on the aged human. She raised a feeble hand towards his face, the purple veins standing out against paper like skin. She ran her fingers lightly through the silky strands of his hair, "My beautiful Goblin King." She sighed softly, "Always so cold and remote, so and arrogant and strong… where did you go?"
Jareth took the hand in his own, stroking the wrinkled skin. His eyes glowed softly with unshed tears for the failing woman, once so strong and full of life she had had the imagination to create himself and his domain, it a feat in and of itself. He carefully smoothed away a small mat of thick hair off her clammy brow, "Shhh, I never went away dear heart, you just grew up."
Sarah gave him a watery smile and closed her eyes once more, turning her face away from the dream, "Will you stay?"
"Sarah, Sarah, how little faith you have in me." He sat down upon the bed, still stroking her hand, "I'll never leave." He laughed brokenly, "I can't leave."
Her voice was soft in the deathly silence of the shadowy room, "Even though it will destroy you, to live within me." She turned back to him, eyes clearing momentarily as she struggled to make her last and only important amends, "I understand. I didn't then, but I do… now, when it's too late." Her breath grew louder, more labored. "Now when it's too late to set you free. I've doomed my beautiful Goblin King." Her eyes closing, her words so quiet Jareth was forced to lean closer, the warm breath barely ghosting over his pale features, "Such a pity…"
A single crystal tear welled from the icy blue eye, falling onto the translucent skin of her cheek. And thus, with the dreamer dies the dream…
Finis