The White Crow and Black Swan
By: Kill Bill
Thank you for reviewing. Yes, I know I'm evil, heh heh. But, sadly, Sarah will suffer. And for those who want to know what Ship this story sails, it sails the… No Pair Ship. Now don't be discouraged, it'll have a hint between the two fighters, maybe a strong hint, but no smushy-moochy, gutter dwellers. We must clean those minds of yours! Purge the demons of smut from your soul! Okay, I couldn't resist going weird on you. Well, on with the story….
"WHAT!"
The word echoed around the ballroom, causing pain to the Kings' ears as it kept vibrating and bouncing back off the walls to him. He cringed slightly and cocked his head lightly as he watched the young girl collapse to the floor.
He clucked his tongue as he watched with the façade of amusement, hiding his tortured heart, as the young girl stared in space, disbelief in her face. He had dealt his cruel cards and it seemed she cracked under his words, his truth, why would he lie about something so important anyway? He cracked her, or so he thought.
Sarah couldn't believe what he just said as she stared in space, everything in her life was fake? Every memory of her mother, the mornings she would find herself wrapped securely in warm arms, waves of protection comforting her in nights when she had nightmares, it was fake, according to him. The times she spent nights at her grandmother's trailer when she was small and racing a young dog around her half acre, always losing until he reached a ripe age. Her first story that was told by her mother, her most favorite, Peter Pan, the emotions she carried as her mother told the story from the book seemed so real, too vivid.
He's playing with me. At this thought, she looked up at the man who was watching her with a smirk on his face and unleashed her fury.
WHAP!
The sound hurtled around the large room, almost breaking the ballroom from its ferocious volume. Jareth stumbled from his spot, almost falling back into the loveseat. He felt as if his jaw was first hit with a speeding train and then glued tightly back in place. He put a gloved hand up to the right side of his face, his eyes dazed from pain and wonder, he didn't even see her move to stand up or draw her hand back. A thought struck him suddenly; he has just unleashed a hurricane. Hurricane Sarah, he smirked at the thought, though it pained him greatly.
"How dare you say that all I've remembered is fake!" she seethed out, her face was flushed a deep crimson pink as her eyes turned almost black, no light reflecting in their depths. He looked at her from the corner of his eye since he thought it best to keep his head turned away from her and saw that he wasn't look at Sarah, but a potential killer that he would have no protection from, not even his magic would save him. That was her aura, and it was radiating off her in great waves that only the most extreme of surfers would take on, and she was only getting more upset.
"YOU HAVE GALL TO STAND THERE AND SAY MY MOTHER WASN'T REAL!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, her aura turning darker. He really did get himself in a really bad mess, he mused. He had touched a very soft and opened nerve. He turned to look at her again, afraid of what she might do, when a fist connected with his nose. He fell back into the loveseat with such force that he almost knocked it over.
Yes, he did touch a raw nerve. More of a nuclear bomb so sensitive to touch that a fly would set it off, he thought as he clutched his nose, amazed that it wasn't bleeding or broken. He looked at her underneath his hair and found that she was shaking her hand from the pain, but the pain didn't seem to register fully, because she didn't show any hint of actually feeling the pain.
"How can I not be real? How can I be some sort of weird figment of your imagination?" she asked in a deadly calm tone. He knew he had to choose his words carefully; it would be his doom by horrible painful death if he didn't focus on his words.
"How can you be a figment? Quite simply my dear." He said and stood up, quietly sniffing and routinely checking his nose to see that it was still attached. She had a good right arm, a very good right arm, he thought to himself, as he looked her in the eye. "I'll show you." He said and with a sudden gust of wind they had changed scenery to that of a hospital delivery room where Sarah's mother was giving birth to her.
"What's this got to do with anything?" she asked, but instead of malice in her voice, awe and sadness graced it's edges. She moved closer, not really expecting him to answer her. She looked at her mother; it had been a very long time since she had seen her mother living, a long time since she good be this near to her in person.
Her mother looked very much like her, in fact, Sarah was sure that when she turned thirty she'd look exactly like her mother, something that she was proud of.
"It has everything to do with our current situation." Jareth replied as he came up behind her and watched as Sarah's mother pushed and heaved, her thick hair matting to her sweating forehead. Sarah tore her gaze from her mother to Jareth's eyes. She didn't even need to say anything; she knew it was plainly written on her face. What the heck did he mean by that?
"You're not making any sense!" Sarah exclaimed, exasperated and turned her head from glaring over her shoulder to look at her mother, her eyes softening. Jareths' eyes followed her movement as he stood still behind her, his hands, like always, clasped behind his back. His eyes adverted from Sarah's form to one that was now wailing and crying, being held in a woman's arms.
Sarah's mother had just given birth to her first and only baby and was now holding her in her arms. She smiled brightly and tucked the hair that fell in her face behind her left ear as she held her daughter with her right arm.
"Oh my." The woman said as her smile grew brighter. "You're so beautiful!" she gasped out as small little tears came sprouting from her eyes. She quickly dashed the small trails away before she wrapped her left arm around her daughter. Baby Sarah had gone quiet and was looking at her mother through skeptical and bright eyes. Then, all of the sudden, the Baby Sarah gurgled and lifted it's arm as best as it could, trying to reach her mother's face. Sarah's mother smiled and softly grabbed the tiny hand and kissed each finger before bending down, closing her eyes, and gave a mother's first kiss to her daughter on her forehead.
Wind picked up suddenly and Sarah soon found herself back in the ballroom. She slowly turned around to face Jareth, who she didn't remember that he was that close, and almost brushed her nose against his face. But she didn't seem to notice; her eyes were blank of any readable emotion. Luckily for her, they were in the same stance, as when they first took off, so she didn't have to worry about embarrassing herself when she fell on her bottom on the plush floor chair.
She missed her mother, very much so, and seeing that part of her past increased the feeling ten fold. Her mother loved her very much, more than what she could comprehend. She knew her mother loved, oh yes, but, just to what degree she didn't pinpoint as high until she saw that moment in time, now she knew there was no scale to pinpoint how much her mother loved her. Her mother's love for her was like numbers, never ending, you could always keep adding a digit to what seems the highest number and still get another number; there isn't any end to them. And so that was how her mother loved her, to no end. No matter how silly Sarah was, or what she did, her mother would always love her; just because she added something to the mess didn't change a thing with the love she was receiving.
At this realization, Sarah felt like the fungus that grew underneath mold. She always took her mother's love for granted, thinking there was a limit to it. So, like any normal child that thinks this, she would always pester her mother, asking what she would do, how much did she love her and so forth. She would get in trouble in school for whatever; bring shame and disappointment to her mother. She felt guilty then, for doing that to her mother, but now she felt low, extremely low. Her mother loved her before she was born, that's what her mother said to her, even before she was conceived, her mother loved her with all of her heart. Her mother would tell her on the crack of dawn on her birthday, after she crept into Sarah's bed, that she use to dream of her when she was a little girl. She would tell her that she knew her before she was born and how she knew what she was going to come out looking like. But when she was born, it was a different story, she couldn't possibly think that she was going to come out that beautiful.
Every birthday her mother would tell her that, and every birthday she would get the wave of feeling loved, extremely loved. She grew up to think that her mother was being evil to her and everything, like normal teenagers, but she wasn't, she was just being a caring mother.
Never in her life did Sarah feel this bad and all she could do was sit there and stare into space, realizing that she could never tell her mother how sorry she was.
AHAHAHAHAH!!! It's short, I admit. I have a new kitten that I adopted. A kitten that won't stop purring and shoving herself in my hands and face. So, to avoid making incoherent sentences, I have to keep it short. I'll get the next chapter posted as soon as possible. Sorry folks, but I thought you might like some of it instead of none. Sorry! Oh, I'm waiting, but I really want to apply for the column thing, so, I was wondering, am I column worthy or do I need to sit down and shut up? Be honest, seriously, I'm asking for it.