Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. Short chapter today! (Ha, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.)

Disclaimer: Not mine, just writing about it.

Chapter 5

The morning after she had arrived, Sarah had been allowed to venture into the castle. Too shy to meet the faes that stared at her dark hair and murmured curiously about her, Sarah took the outside scenery. After a few days living in near seclusion under Frieda's watchful eyes, she had a chance to slip free. It was like a fairytale, the gardens. Better than anything the park at home had to offer. Sarah waded through the flowers, her heart light and her spirit happy.

It was like a kaleidoscope, a myriad of jewel toned blooms. Not like earth flowers. These were more exotic than anything she had ever seen. Around her blossoms exploded from different colored stems; red flowers on silver stems, white atop plum, deep gold attached to pink. Some were elegant; a slim silhouette of closely grown petals resting on long stalks. Others seemed to be made to amuse; petals shaped like fireworks of different shades floating on grass-like stems. The colors were so bright, so opaque, so intense that every time Sarah turned, vertigo threatened to overwhelm her.

Sarah leaned against the firm wall the leaves of the hedges made, her mind swimming from perfume. She was in the royal gardens. Actually, one of the royal gardens, to her surprise, Frieda informed her that the king was quite fond of nature and "flowers and the like." After living with Lavinia's parents, Sarah was grateful to have someone else to talk to. It wasn't as if Lavinia's parents were mean, they were just so…cold. They reminded her of….

A twig snapped, Sarah went rigid.

She peeked from the corner of the hedges of the royal garden.

No one, good.

Sarah sighed in relief. Although she had been quite lonely being left with Lavinia's parents, Frieda being her chaperone was starting to get on her nerves. She was eighteen! Old enough to take care of herself, she had said so. But all Frieda replied was: "My dear girl, eighteen is much too young to be left alone, especially in the castle." Sarah had argued that eighteen was considered an adult age Aboveground, but what was the use when the people down here lived forever? For all she knew eighteen might be toddler age according to faes.

And another thing: where was Jareth?

Two weeks of living in the Goblin City and in the castle and not a sight of its ruler. While Sarah was afraid to seek him out, she was a bit disappointed when he did not appear. What did she expect? For him to appear and…what then? She shivered with the possibilities of what might happen.

And what to do about the Labyrinth ruler? She debated with herself nightly about what she should do. Seek him out? Set up a situation where he would come to her? But no, that would have him ask questions that she was not prepared to answer. So instead she would wait, bide her time and refine her plans to net, capture and break the heart of the King. It would be like…Romeo and Juliet, except Sarah had no intention of dying for anyone.

Romeo and Juliet, she had been Juliet for her 8th grade play. Smiling and whirling around Sarah recited her favorite lines, capturing Juliet's perfect despair.

"My only love sprung from my only hate!" She gasped, an air of tragedy around her, something the director had seen right away when they were casting. "Too early seen unknown, and known too late!" She looked at the sky in anguish, cursing the gods, "Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy."

Laughing at her silliness and lost in her thoughts, Sarah treaded through foreign flowers and back into the castle.

Jareth came out from the shadows, his heart thundering. A million questions swirled around him, most pressing of all -

Why was Sarah here?