Sarah went directly to her room when she returned to the castle. Seeing Hoggle had lifted her spirits, but the walk through the Labyrinth back to the Goblin City had acted as a weight on her, drawing her back into the depression that had assailed her that morning. She felt she needed a moment alone to try and compose herself before she had to see Jareth again.
My captor, she thought, frowning at her reflection in her vanity mirror. And, the only other person here.
She grabbed one of the brushes off the table, drawing it through her hair to smooth it from the wind-ruffling that had happened during her walk.
Except he said he isn't a person. Not human. I'll have to ask him about that at lunch.
When Sarah got to the dining hall, though, it was empty. The table was heaped with different foods, but Jareth was nowhere in sight. Sarah frowned, filled her plate, and ate. It was lonely business, eating by herself in the huge, echoing, shadowy dining hall, and Sarah found herself actually missing Jareth's company.
He may be a sneaking, lying, cheating rat, and he may be infuriating... but he's the only person in the castle who can even remotely be called my 'friend.'
It wasn't until dinner that Sarah saw Jareth again. As she walked into the dining hall, she saw him at his usual place at the head of the table, holding yet another elaborate glass filled with a dark liquid.
"I missed you at lunch," Sarah said truthfully, sitting to his right.
"Did you?" His voice was pleased, and he smiled faintly, swirling the liquid in his glass.
"You're the only person in the castle I can talk to, after all. Goblins aren't good for conversation." Sarah paused, and Jareth made a small motion, her plate magickally filling. "Or, the only thing close to a person."
"You're curious about what I am, aren't you?" Jareth raised his glass to his lips, resting the rim on his firm lower lip but not drinking. He watched her like that, the rim of the cup slightly depressing his lip.
"How can I help but be curious?" Sarah replied, digging into her plate. She'd eaten poorly at lunch, made uncomfortable by the hissing silence around her. Finding herself with company at supper, she found she was starving.
"I am the thing you fear the most," Jareth said enigmatically, sipping his drink finally.
"Oh, a math quiz. Funny--you don't look much like a math quiz."
Jareth's eyebrows drew down over his eyes, but the corners of his mouth twitched, trying to hold in a smile. "Sarah."
"All right, I'll be serious."
"I am every nightmare you've ever had. I am that thing that you run from, but can never escape. I am the ultimate hunter, the best player in the game of life."
'The boardgame?' Sarah wondered absently, chewing, listening to Jareth's musical voice--which sounded a little sad and... lonely.
"I've been alive for longer than you can ever know, Sarah. And before I saw you, I lived a life..." Jareth paused, as if searching for the right words. Sarah shoveled another forkful of food into her mouth, trying to divide her attention between Jareth and the food before her. "A life unsavory."
"Oh," Sarah said, beginning to lose interest. She enjoyed theatrics, but Jareth was taking it too far.
"I see you're losing interest," Jareth said, his face emotionless. "A confession might bring you back to yourself. Before I saw you, so young and innocent, I was the very worst creature. I killed not just for pleasure, but out of boredom. The Labyrinth has been around since before I was brought into existence. It took years before it accepted me as an equal, and when it did, it helped me in my pastimes. Often, the people who came into the Labyrinth searching for their wished-away children got no further than the first turn in the path. I killed them easily, without remorse, using creatures I created by twisting and manipulating the magick Underground hundreds of years ago. Occasionally, I would take a particular fancy to a young girl, and allow her to get all the way to my castle. Once she reached my front gate, though, I would strike her down." He paused, eyes dark. "Very few people who ran the Labyrinth in the beginning escaped alive."
Sarah's food had grown cold before her as she listened. She was aware that her mouth was hanging slightly open, but couldn't seem to draw herself together to shut it. She had known Jareth was bad... but she hadn't imagined this. She had thought trickery and lying were the extent of his wickedness. But murder?
"As time went on, I became bored with the killing, but I did not stop. I began breaking the rules of the Labyrinth, evicting those who were working their way through it before their time was up, or else trapping them with an inescapable doom. Too many times, I twisted the Labyrinth, forcing my victims into the paths reserved for the Aljunnu. I let one or two escape, of course... but at a great price, much greater than the lives of the children they were seeking."
"Aljunnu? Isn't that another word for a genie?" Sarah asked, her food completely forgotten.
"Yes. An ancient, powerful word which, I think, was inspired by me." Jareth smirked faintly, obviously proud of being the inspiration for a word. "Those few that escaped with their lives had heard me say the word 'Aljunnu,' and told their painful tales to those around them. Eventually, the meaning got twisted into a creature that grants wishes. Of course, before the word became the weak 'genie' it is today, it was understood that the wish the Aljunnu would grant would not be a wish most people would want granted. But, with time, things become twisted and confused. Eventually, 'aljunnu' became 'genie,' and people believed they would be granted three wishes."
"What are the Aljunnu, then?" Sarah asked, truly curious.
"They are... monsters." Jareth raised a gloved hand, stopping her questions before she could even begin them. "I don't want to describe them any further, Sarah. Just understand that there are still paths in the Labyrinth you should not walk on."
"Okay," Sarah said, resting her elbows on either side of her plate, cupping her chin in her palm. "You were a murderer, and you created monsters. Then you met me."
"Yes," Jareth agreed, "then I met you."
"And?" Sarah prompted.
"When I saw you... you were shining in the sunlight, like an elf. You seemed to be full of sunlight, as if it were glowing through you. You were like light, and I felt the first dark shadows in me weakening and disappearing. I knew I had to have you then."
"To ruin me? To make me as dark as you?"
"No, Sarah. To cherish you. The sight of you warms me. It makes me... want to erase my past."
"I make you want to be a better man?" Sarah asked, smirking, repeating lines she'd heard only too many times in romance novels and romantic movies.
"More than that," Jareth disagreed, leaning toward her slightly, his eyes intense and focused. "You make me want to be a man."
Sarah felt a chill run through her body, and she leaned back into her chair, away from him. "What do you mean?"
"You make me want to be human, Sarah. I'm not. I never will be. It isn't possible."
"You never told me what you are," Sarah said softly, feeling a sudden wild trembling in the pit of her stomach. She was suddenly afraid, not sure she did want to know what he was.
"Some would call me Fae, which is not far off. I have a bit of the Royal Blood of the faeries, elves and magickal creatures in me. But more than that, I am a demon." Jareth smirked then, his smile brittle, more a grimace than a smile. "I am cruel because I am half demon, Sarah."
Sarah sucked in a breath as if to say, 'I knew it!' but said nothing, her gray eyes gone huge.
"Even the term 'demon' doesn't really describe what I am. I come from a people who live to make mischief. When people vanish without a trace, that is us. When people lose passages of time, that is us. We are a wild card, thrown in to keep things in a constant state of flux. We step in, mix things up, then leave. We kill people, we destroy lives, and we create confusion where there was clarity." Jareth paused, tossing her an arch glance. "I am actually the nicest of my people. It's the Fae blood in me."
Sarah could think of nothing to say, so she nodded politely. Her mind was trying to grasp the concept that Jareth was a demon.
A demon fae, she thought wildly. A red monster with horns, a tail, and pretty butterfly wings.
"I can tell you're thinking ridiculous things, Sarah. You have that look on your face." Jareth's voice was tender, and Sarah suddenly realized his gloved fingertips were touching the back of her hand. She stared at his fingertips resting lightly as a kitten's patting paw on the back of her hand, then looked up into Jareth's eyes.
"Like Beauty and the Beast," she said suddenly, causing Jareth to frown.
"What?"
"The Beast fell in love with Beauty because she was beautiful and kind, and he hoped she would love him someday, and rescue him from his curse."
"I'm under no curse, Sarah."
"No, I know that. It was just what came to my mind. Besides, the Beast took Beauty because he fell in love with her; you don't love me."
The silence after her statement stretched on and on, and Sarah felt her heart slowly beginning to pound. Jareth just stared at her, his proud face unreadable.
Why doesn't he say something? she thought wildly. Why doesn't he agree?
"Sarah... you think I don't love you?" Jareth's voice was soft, the words warm and gentle. The fingertips on her hand moved gently, lovingly, stroking the soft skin just behind her knuckles. Sarah found she suddenly couldn't speak, couldn't even think. She stared at him, her eyes huge and innocent, like a young fawn surprised in the woods by a human. Her throat constricted suddenly, and she gave a weak little hiccoughing gasp.
"You can't," she whispered, unable to move. "I'm nothing. I'm just a wimpy little human. I'm not talented or beautiful or brave or very intelligent--"
"You are," he contradicted softly, still stroking the back of her hand.
"And you're so powerful," she continued, as if she hadn't heard. "You have a kingdom and magick and--"
"And I'm lonely," Jareth said softly, moving his hand to encircle hers, lacing his gloved fingers through her own trembling, bare fingers.
"Then why not kidnap a princess? Or... or a poet, or an artist, or a scientist. Someone with power or intelligence or a talent for something other than screwing things up?"
"I don't want a poet, or an artist, or a scientist. And I have a princess." His hand squeezed hers gently. "You."
Sarah jerked her hand away then, breathing hard. "I can't love you, Jareth. You kidnapped Toby. You cheated me, and almost made me lose. You lied and you tormented me. I can't love you when you've... you've made me hate you! You're a monster!" She rose with the last word, stumbling away from the dining table. Jareth rose too, stretching one hand out toward her departing figure.
"Sarah!" The word was spoken with longing, but Sarah did not turn. She left the dining hall, practically running from him. Jareth settled himself in his chair again, steepling his fingers under his chin. "A monster, am I? Even the Beauty learned to love her Beast."
Sarah was in such a hurry to get to her room, she forgot to whisper instructions to the castle, a habit she'd formed. After rushing blindly up a winding stair and down a twisting hall, Sarah found herself at her own bedroom door.
Oh, she thought, staring at the familiar carvings on the strong, dark wood. I guess I don't actually have to tell the castle where I want to go. Maybe I'll keep doing it, though--it's nice to hear a voice sometimes. She pushed the door open, then shut it behind her and leaned her back against it in a totally ridiculous motion of trying to keep the door shut. If Jareth wants in, Sarah thought, palms pressing against the door at hip-level, I doubt my leaning on the door would stop him. She sighed, stepping back from the door, gazing at it almost reproachfully as if it were a serving maid. "You could have told me he loved me," she said to the door, only half meaning it. The door gave a tremble, not like someone was rattling it, but the way a horse shivers its flank when a biting fly lands on it, a rippling that crossed and recrossed the solid oak as if the door were sentient, and understood her. Sarah had the sudden feeling that the door was ashamed of itself, and trying to show her it were sorry. "I didn't mean it," she said quickly, and the door stopped trembling.
I'll have to remember I'm in a magickal castle, she thought, going over to her vanity table and sitting down. And I'll have to try not to make ridiculous requests of doors.
She gazed at her face in the mirror, and was startled to see that her cheeks were flushed and her eyes had a shine to them she only saw when she was completely happy. Instantly, she tried to force a grave expression on her face, but her cheeks just flushed all the merrier.
"My God," she whispered to her reflection. "How can he love me? I'm so... so nothing. And I can't love him." Her dark brows drew in, and a frown pinched her face. "I just can't. And he knows that now. Maybe... maybe he'll just let me go." A smirk twitched at one corner of her mouth. "Well, no, of course Jareth wouldn't give up. But at least now he does know. Maybe in time he'll find someone else to be infatuated with, and he can let me go without feeling like he was giving up."
Sarah could see in the mirror that behind her, the bed sheets were turning themselves back, and Sarah half expected to see a lady's maid waiting next to the bed to help her undress.
"All right," she said, rising from the vanity and dragging her Renaissance dress off. She walked over to the bed, crawling into the sheets and pulling them up. "I just have to be patient. Jareth will give up eventually... and then I can go home. Oh, home..." A longing filled Sarah, and she repeated the word softly over and over until she finally drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.