No Choice At All
Part 4
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Sarah held her eyes tightly closed. A cold chill traveled down the length of her spine at the squeal and laughter of goblins. They had been the things of nightmares and memories long wished forgotten. Where the chilled surface of a crystal had been placed into her palm, leather and the warmth of Jareth's hand was pressed into hers.
He let her linger a moment against the warmth of his body. But then she felt the hand twisted around her wrist tighten and he pulled her away from him in a twirl, as if they had been dancing all these years.
"Welcome to my Game Room, Sarah," his silky voice made her feel all the more dizzy as she slowly opened her eyes. The goblins laughed at his words and he laughed along with them shortly. As soon as he stopped, the grand room fell silent.
Sarah looked around herself cautiously. Her hands suddenly felt very empty and she worried them together in front of her for want of something to do with them.
The room was made of old stone, edges rough and wearied. Towards the ceiling, cut directly from the stone, ran a small balcony the length of the room, far above their heads. Goblins nested there, pushing and pulling at each other's fur and space.
Sunlight filtered into the room catching on dust lifted into the air, giving the illusion of glitter. This did not unsettle her until Sarah turned around and realized there were in fact no windows into the room. The light fell from the rims of three floating doors.
During the short time that Sarah had taken in her surroundings, Jareth had stood beside her with his arms folded across his chest, a smug smile upon his lips.
"This is the game?" Sarah asked, stealing her eyes from the doors to look back at Jareth. "These doors?"
"Not the doors themselves, of course. They merely offer possibility." Jareth placed his hands on her upper arms and forced her a step forward. "What they offer," she looked back to him but he pushed her chin back with a long, gloved finger with an, "-uh uh-," so that she would look ahead again, before continuing, "there lies the game, waiting for choice."
"Choice? What do I have to choose?" she asked, sneaking a glance at him from the corner of her eyes.
"Everything. Or nothing, if you so choose, but then you would've chosen something, wouldn't have you?" he answered, in his own way.
"I'm supposed to choose one of the doors?" It was the only thing she could reason from his words.
The goblins laughed hysterically at this, falling over each other at some joke Sarah did not know. Jareth smiled indulgently for a moment before turning back at them sharply.
The room became silent again.
"Unless you wish for me to choose," he offered, too kindly.
"No!" Sarah almost immediately said, automatically sure she did not want to choose any door Jareth would. With that thought she looked to the Goblin King slyly. "But I wonder which you would choose."
"The left, of course," he offered with a charming smile.
She looked to the door on her left. It was crafted from cast iron, dark as ebony, but far less precious. The door looked dangerous, all the more so with Jareth's choosing.
Sarah's immediate response was to look to the door on her right; the opposite of what Jareth would've chosen.
"A tip amongst friends?" Jareth's voice seemingly came out of nowhere to speak directly into her ear. To her credit, Sarah did not jump.
"What's it going to cost me?"
He exhaled in a sort of laugh and his hot breath rustled the air around her ear. She shivered.
"Nothing. This one is free."
"I don't believe you."
He sighed with annoyance, pushing her hair behind her shoulder, almost in a caress. "Sarah, love, you have no hope of winning this game without the test of risk. The question should be: can you risk not at least hearing my advice?"
"Alright," Sarah decided it would not hurt to at least hear what he had to say.
"Never, ever, under any circumstances, whether they be dire or otherwise . . ." He paused.
"Yes?" she prompted, now anxious to hear what he was to say. Sarah turned towards him, their bodies far too close but unable to will herself to make distance.
He cocked his head slightly to the side, a nasty glint in his eyes. Neither did Jareth make a move to distance himself.
"I am no longer sure you deserve my advice."
Sarah made a rude noise of disbelief. "Figures!" she cried, throwing her hands into the air and accidentally –yes, accidentally – touching Jareth across the chest. He took no small measure of amusement from this.
"Alright," she expelled with a frustrated breath. "It was probably a trick anyway." Sarah looked to him searchingly, as if he would somehow give away the answer. Jareth raised one eyebrow at her stare. "Right," she muttered, turning around.
"I choose-," she began, taking a step towards the right.
"Choose the right door," he finished causing her a lengthy pause.
Sarah turned around slowly again, a pleased grin growing across her face.
"No," she said pointedly. Hopefully that would cause him half the frustration he caused her. Jareth's face did not change but remained impassive. Sarah took that for his annoyance.
"I choose the middle door," she finally decided, taking a step towards the plain, wooden door before them.
"As you wish," he said and the pleasure in his voice was palatable.
It was the silence that first unnerved her. She looked up quickly to make sure the goblins were still there. They were, but they remained silent. They were waiting and watching as Jareth moved to open the door.
Their silent observation scared her and she cried out to Jareth, "No! Wait!"
"Too late," Jareth said as he pulled the door open with a creak.
Involuntarily, Sarah drew in a sharp breath. Inside the doorframe there only appeared to be shadow. But as Jareth stepped back from the door left ajar, two old hands grasped the bottom of the doorframe. Soon followed elbows as someone was seemingly pulling himself up and out the door. Then came shoulders and a head, capped in graying hair. The face kept its eyes on Sarah as he pulled himself the rest of the way out. His eyes were oddly colored. Purple they were yet Sarah could not wait for them to leave her.
He smiled crookedly, baring a pinkish tongue between perfect teeth.
"What a pretty, pretty thing. Beautiful," the man purred, taking no step towards them. He plainly stood three paces before the door from which he came, chewing on his tongue. His eyes turned to Jareth as he took a step towards the door.
"And Jareth, magnificent as always. You haven't aged a day!"
"I would hope not," was his answer, moving to sidestep the old man. His figure was quite imposing as Sarah saw that he was taller than the Goblin King, who towered several inches over her.
"I would think you'd take steps to avoid me, since our last meeting," the man continued as Jareth drew beside him.
"I am," Jareth said as he stepped behind the man and walked with a proud stance into the doorway. For a moment, Sarah swore she saw him stand on thin air. But a moment later, he fell without sound from her vision.
The old man looked genuinely put out before he returned his attention to Sarah. A bright smile grew across his face, without matching his next words. "Such a pity. Pity, pity, pity. Pity the Goblin King. But where the Goblin King has gone Sarah will not follow."
"How do you know my name?" she asked in a threatening tone.
"Jareth spoke it. Do you not remember?" he asked back, chewing his tongue between his teeth.
"No, I don't." Sarah took a step back.
"Do you fear Jareth? Do you fear the Goblin King?" He took a step forward, his hands twisting the cloth of his long, dark robe. "You should. He's going to hurt you. You can never escape him, Sarah. He cares nothing but to win the game. He cares nothing for you. No. No, Sarah. He feels nothing. He is a monster!"
Sarah began retreating as the old man spoke. She felt a coldness grow heavy within her chest as he verbalized her fears.
"Poor child," he said with a smile. "Just stay here and he'll never touch you again. He'll never hurt you again. You are safe here. Yes, sit down. I will keep you company."
When the man paused for breath, the room was so deathly quiet. As the old man opened his mouth to speak again, Sarah held up a hand to hush him. Momentarily, it did. But, quickly, he recovered and began speaking again.
"Jareth has trapped . . ."
She tried to ignore him as she looked around herself. The goblins were silent and quivering, huddled together, as far away from the edge of the balcony as possible. They were terrified.
"You have no power over me," she said, quickly looking back to the old man.
His grin grew and he continued speaking. Well, it was worth a try.
"You have no power here, Sarah. You are as powerless as a child. But this is what you want, isn't it? At heart, you know you deserve this for what you put Toby through. Jareth is not the villain. You are."
Sarah knew that she had to get to that door. She had to follow Jareth. He was allowed to just pass the man by. Maybe it was that easy. Still, she was afraid. Of course, she can walk in fear. With resolve, Sarah moved to pass the man to the door.
The loud slap registered in her ears before the sting on her cheek. She lightly touched her cheek in disbelief.
He'd hit her!
She'd never been hit by another person in the whole of her life. It somehow had never occurred to her that she'd actually be hit. Philosophically, yes, but it was a distant thing to never actually happen.
"You don't want to do that, child," he warned in a smile and suddenly very severe tone.
Sarah ran past him, towards the door. She knew she had to get to the door and follow Jareth down into shadow. She cried out as she felt arms –too strong, far too strong for her to hope to fight- wrap around her waist. And she was thrown through the air.
She hit the stone floor hard, and bit back a cry though several tears ran down her cheeks at the pain. In an analytical part of her mind, she heard her nightgown rip.
Sarah was angry. Never had she been used like this; thrown like a doll. She was so angry, Sarah wanted to hurt him back.
"I hate you!" she said, low in her throat, almost as a growl. The man took a step back at her words. Sarah felt stronger with the show of power.
She rose to her feet unsteadily. Her bare feet slapped on the floor softly as she ran at him, the sound covered by a chorused gasp that fell from the balcony above. Hitting his body, she felt him stumble back. His ankles hit the bottom of the open doorway and then they were falling.
She was falling alone in shadow. Sarah closed her eyes and waited to hit the bottom. Idly, she wondered if Jareth would've waited for her there.
Sarah opened her eyes as her skirt settled back at her calves and her hair fell in her face and on her shoulders.
"I was beginning to think I'd won already." Jareth sat before her in a chair beside a desk.
She was surrounded in the shadow but as she looked up, she saw the light from the doorway. The fall had felt so long. But the doorway was only a couple feet above the reach of her hands.
Where Jareth sat, light fell on a well-sized office, with shadow for walls. It seemed so strange to see Jareth surrounded by what appeared to be the most modern furnishings.
"Don't tell me you've gone mute, too? How dull," Jareth said, throwing a leg over the leather armchair in which he was seated.
"What the Hell?" Sarah muttered, walking into the office and light. A lounge stretched beside Jareth's chair, like the ones in an old film's impression of a therapist's office. Books lined towering bookshelves without titles.
"Apparently not," Jareth drawled at her words.
Suddenly, as she realized its existence, a door behind the grand oak desk, laden with papers and –strangely enough- Slinkies, was pushed open and the old man walked in. Sarah was too confused to gasp. He entered hastily with two large, medical files in his arms and a pair of expensive-looking, wire-rimmed glasses falling off the bridge of his nose.
"Sorry, sorry I'm late," he muttered, pushing papers off the desk and setting the two files down heavily on the surface. "Oh," he said as reflex and grabbed one of the Slinkies. "Do you . . ?" He held the metal toy out to Jareth and Sarah felt her eyes widen to see the Goblin King accept it. "Do sit. Do sit," he said to Sarah, pulling his chair over the array of papers on the floor. The crunch made her cringe. Finally, he sat in his seat and grabbed the larger file that he had brought with him, which conveniently sat atop the much smaller. "Sit!" he ordered and Sarah mechanically walked over to the chair opposite Jareth's, to the other side of the desk. She sat slowly as if afraid she were about to fall straight through the chair.
"Now, let's get down to business." The old man opened the large file in half and let it fall over heavily, causing more papers to fly and flutter. "Jareth, let's begin with you, shall we?"
Jareth perked up from what appeared to be his nonchalant boredom with the whole of the man's arrival. He tossed the slinky over his shoulder and steepled his fingers across his chest, somehow causing the move to draw Sarah's full attention. She blushed at watching his long fingers lace tightly one into the other.
"Yes," he said, drawing Sarah back to the conversation he had been having with the man.
"Let the record show Jareth, Goblin King, entered the middle door, selected by Sarah Willliams, at the twenty-second minute of the sixteenth hour," the old man said without raising pen or otherwise to the paper. For a moment, he paused and considered the file before him, chewing his tongue in a habit Sarah was beginning to find nauseating. "Do you wish to add anything else?" He looked up to the Goblin King expectantly.
"Add "walked fearlessly into shadow,"" Jareth instructed, running a hand out before him in a grandiose gesture from left to right as if touching the page on which the words would be written.
"Let it so be amended," the old man said without care, already pushing the file aside, still open. He grabbed the smaller one and opened it delicately, as if its sparse pages would tear.
"Sarah," he muttered, fingering the two pages that made her full file. "Well, well, haven't we room to grow?"
Jareth laughed lightly, sweeping down a long arm and retrieving a paper from the mess around his feet.
"All concerning the Goblin King I see. A little obsessive?"
"What?" Sarah exclaimed, hands tightening on the armrests. "How can you say that; I am not obsessed." There was a momentary pause before she added, "If anyone's obsessed, it's him!"
"Sarah, really," Jareth chided, glancing at the document in his hand. He must have found something interesting as he pulled the paper further away as if to better view it.
"Looks like we have a conflict of opinions here," the old man said in a tone far too similar to that of her therapist at home for her comfort.
"Look, old man," she began.
"I am a doctor, young woman!" he interrupted.
"Very touchy," Jareth said, moving the paper momentarily aside to see her as he spoke before moving it back again. Sarah couldn't tell if he'd meant the doctor or herself.
"You chose the door, did you not?" the doctor asked, seemingly unaware of Jareth and her exchange.
"Yes," she said cautiously.
"Why didn't you choose the door Jareth recommended?"
"Because Jareth recommended it!" She closed her mouth with a snap at using the Goblin King's personal name.
"Issues with trust," the doctor dug out a pen and began writing wildly in her file.
"Wait! That's not fair! You wrote nothing in his file," she objected, edging forward in her seat.
"Not fair!" Jareth mocked in disgust. "I had hoped you'd grown out of that detestable phrase."
"I see the sexual tension goes both ways," the doctor muttered, putting his pen to Jareth's medical record. Well, what Sarah took to be a medical record.
Both she and Jareth startled at this. Jareth stiffened in the chair, a silent, calculating gaze on the doctor.
Sarah spoke without thought, "Sexual what?"
"Tension," Jareth supplied in a pleasant, low tone that caused the doctor's pen to stop for a moment. At seeing Jareth's glare, he decided he had written enough.
"I heard what he said," Sarah muttered, sliding back into the depths of her chair. "I just want to know what this has to do with the game."
"You owe Jareth an apology," the doctor said.
"What!"
"An apology," Jareth repeated. "Really, Sarah, are you sure your hearing's alright?"
"I've reviewed your file and I've decided you owe Jareth an apology," the old man explained.
"Alright. Why?"
"Because you did not choose the left."
"You have got to be joking."
"You lose. Now you must apologize. Your lack of trust was truly deplorable," Jareth said, tossing the document in his hands aside.
"You've lost the first game. You must give the Goblin King something precious: an apology," the doctor dictated. At her hesitation, he waved a hand impatiently.
She turned towards Jareth and opened her mouth but then quickly looked to the doctor. "What am I apologizing for?"
The doctor sighed through his teeth. "Anything. But it must be heartfelt."
"Heartfelt, huh?" Sarah muttered, turning back to Jareth. He raised his brow expectantly. She cleared her throat, giving herself time to think. "I . . ."
"Yes?" Jareth prodded ruthlessly. She muttered quickly under her breath, like how she used to apologize to her step-mother, not long ago. "What was that?" Jareth asked with a grin.
"I'm sorry if I hurt you. Last time. When I won," she said, forcing herself to look up to him.
Jareth's smile fell quickly, replaced almost by a frown. She didn't know how to take his reaction.
"You didn't hurt me. You can't," he said, placing a smug smile back on his face.
"But I remember the look on your face and I'm sorry," she explained.
Jareth smiled viciously, pushing himself up in the chair; for a moment sitting properly. "I hope this is not a portend of things to come. I had been hoping for a more precious reward for my win."
"Too bad," the doctor said, causing even Sarah to gap that anyone would talk to the Goblin King in such a way. "Jareth, Goblin King, passes the first trial. Sarah Williams, contender, does not pass." He picked up the files and found half a danish underneath. "Let it so be noted." He placed the danish between his teeth and rose form the chair, mumbling byes around his mouthful before slipping out the door again.
"How many trials like this will there be?" Sarah asked as Jareth rose from his chair and pulled at his gloves.
"Three," he answered, stepping on and over the lounge chair to move towards where they had fell.
"Will he be there?"
"No," Jareth said, looking up to the door above their heads, with his hands on his hips.
"Thank god," Sarah muttered.
"The feeling's mutual," he added. She didn't know if he meant that he felt the same as her about the doctor or if the doctor felt the same as her about them. Sarah decided to trust in the former.
She rose from her chair, and stepped over the slinky Jareth had thrown, to walk to his side. Sarah looked up to the door with him.
"Don't tell me we have to get up there," she said.
"We have to get up there."
Sarah smiled and added, though she knew it childish, "I told you not to tell me."
She looked to him to see him turn his eyes from the door to her.
"Unlike what you seem to think, I do not do everything you tell me to. I am not your slave."
Her breath caught in her throat at his words. She remembered their significance as obviously did he. Sarah decided to change subject.
She walked over to stand below the door and reached out for the wall. She nearly stumbled at finding none there. "There's no wall to climb!"
"No. That would be convenient, wouldn't it?" Jareth smiled at her in humor.
"Why don't you do your thing?"
That caught his attention. He looked to her and asked curiously, "My thing?"
Sarah blushed at the emphasis and hoped he couldn't see in the shadow. Of course, with her recent luck, he would have night vision. She cleared her throat and looked to him as evenly and adult-like as she could. "Yeah. You know, magic."
"Ah," he said, nodding slightly, causing his light hair to fall across the darkness of his shoulders.
"So?"
"Can't," Jareth reluctantly admitted, looking back at the door.
"You can't?" Sarah asked, smiling despite herself.
"I'll find another way," he said, obviously trying to change the subject.
She couldn't help herself and added in retribution for what he started, "You can't use your thing?"
He looked to her sharply and asked with a sneer, "You ever want to get out of this hole?"
"Yes," she answered as seriously as she could.
"Then do shut up," he said, looking back to the door. She forced the smile from her face, though her lips still twitched at the corners. Sarah must have struck a good blow, one that annoyed him more for his having played into it, and she liked it.
She followed his gaze for some moments as he looked between the door and then back to where the office had been. It was no longer there. The only light fell from the door and they were left with nothing but themselves.
"As much as I rue the thought, I believe we are going to have to work together," he said almost to himself. It was only halfway into the sentence Sarah had realized he was talking to her.
"How?" she asked, cautiously moving to stand next to him, to better see things from his point of view.
"If I lift you to the door, you must promise to help me up, as well," he said, decidedly not looking at her.
She looked to him sidelong. "Jareth," she paused after the word. "Goblin King, are you trusting me?"
He looked to her straight on. "Give me your word."
"Alright, alright." She looked up at the door, perhaps two feet above Jareth's reach. "How am I to get you up once you get me there?"
"How strong are you?" he asked, sizing her with his eyes from toe to top of head.
"How heavy are you?" she asked back, looking him up as he had her. "Okay, I have an idea. You lift me up. I climb through the door. Then I will grab your hands and you jump as high as you can and I will try to pull you up that extra couple of feet. It's really not that far. I can pull you two feet." At the end, admittedly, it sounded as if she were trying to convince herself of her abilities. But Jareth nodded after a moments' consideration before turning to her with his hands open.
"Umm . . ." she murmured, walking towards him and letting him place his hands on her hips. "Okay," Sarah said and she really wasn't quite sure why. Almost to reassure herself that she had survived the contact so far.
"Put your hands on my shoulders and push off," he said, business like. His seemingly unaffected continence only caused her to be more uneasy, but she tried to ignore it the best she could and did as he said.
"Whoa!" she said as he lifted her up towards the door. "Got it!" It was then she realized something, as she was pulling herself through the doorway and felt Jareth's hands pushing up her feet. "Don't you look up my skirt, or I won't help you out."
Jareth didn't reply but gave her foot the final shove to send half her body up into the Game Room again. She scrambled to pull herself all the way up. The goblins were talking amongst themselves excitedly and the sound was reassuring after their silence. She rested for a moment on the floor, gathering her skirt around her ankles.
Sarah looked to the door and saw only the shadow from where she had came. She wondered . . .Never did she really give Jareth her word. Not really. She could close the door right now and he'd be trapped down there. Would she win then? Or would the game stop altogether?
No. She had in fact intended her words to be an oath. Sarah had given her word essentially. And she couldn't leave him down there.
Sarah moved cautiously to the edge of the door and look down. She could see nothing. Perhaps it was a one way sort of thing. Maybe he could see her but she couldn't see him. She had to at least try. Of course, she didn't want to fall in, either.
Glancing around the door, she realized that in the Game Room it was merely a doorframe, and from the side, she closed her leg around the frame, as if straddling the wood. Finally, she leaned forward her whole body and reached down her hands.
She felt hands, gloved in leather, grasp her wrists and she pulled. The idea that two feet was not very much when hoisting a fully grown man from below was a ridiculous idea once put into practice. She fell forward slightly and was relieved to have a leg around the doorframe. The weight lessoned as she took a breath, then she pulled again, harder, throwing her whole body back and she felt the hands leave her own. Sarah was disappointed that it hadn't worked until she saw the hands on the edge of the doorframe and Jareth quickly pulled himself up to rest his elbows on the ledge.
"I told you I could do it," she said, defiantly, pushing her hair behind her shoulders.
"I had no doubt you could," he muttered as he pulled himself the rest of the way out, far too easy for Sarah's tastes. As Jareth stood to his feet, Sarah unfolded her leg from the doorframe and stood as well. "I merely doubted if you would," he finished and Sarah knew the truth in those words and possibility. Sarah had made her choice, and she raised her chin slightly, proud of herself and unwilling to doubt. Jareth smiled and stepped back.
"Are you ready for the next trial?" he asked, spreading his hands out before him.
Sarah had to move out of the way as the door closed itself and the goblins erupted in laughter.
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To all readers and reviewers:
Thank you for reading and I'd appreciate a review with feedback.
Goodness: I'm glad you enjoy the story so. Especially that you like how I am portraying Jareth. I admit that I take care to make sure I am not playing safe with the character, and making him dull, like he's ever repeating old lines, but I also try to make sure I don't have him acting OOC. Thank you for your review.
Lady Tremere: I'm glad that the piece got across that Jareth really had no intentions towards her child. Her husband is an interesting character. What will be shown of him is given through Sarah. The reasoning behind that is that to her, he really was chosen as a role. She wanted a protector, a provider, a figure, and name. She didn't so much care as the depth beneath it though she'd fight nail and claw if someone said that to her. I think you are right about the adjective being hyphenated. I'm glad you think I've captured Jareth's voice. I always worry over that. Since he is my favorite character and all. Thank you for your review.
TerpintineMind: You hope she looses?! LOL! You're my kind of reader! Sorry that I haven't had the time to mosey over to your account. I've been writing up a storm in all my stories (original and otherwise) and have been writing essays on top of it. I think I will read Stolen Dreams and Unforgotten Dreamers. I hope to read some of it as soon as I get the chance. It doesn't help it's on FF.net though. I admit that I really hate reading on FF. The site is so annoying. Thank you for reviewing.
Applekrisp14: You never log in! How am I supposed to check out your stories and favorites then? Well, I could of course look it up, but that'd be effort! LOL. I find a lot of things amusing, too. Life would be horrible without the constant twist of irony and general humor. I'm glad you're enjoying the suspense. Thank you for reviewing.
Lady Silma: I agree completely about the manipulation and I'm so glad you picked up on that. Thank you for what you said about my characterization. Luckily, I don't have the problem of picturing little Sarah when I am reading a fiction unless I happen upon one where she is close to the age in the movie, but I tend to avoid those if they are too intense. I think its because I have seen Jennifer in other roles, older roles. And it isn't hard for me to disappear into a story if it is written well. I had at first planned on five parts, but now I think it will be seven. It just would've been too rushed in the planned five. Thank you for reviewing.