Whispers
No Escape

Disclaimer: You've seen them all before, but just so that I don't get charged (this would be a very bad thing, you see) Labyrinth doesn't belong to me. The only things that do are my own characters. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Author's Note: Oh ... man, I cannot even thank you guys enough for all the wonderful reviews, it just made my week. You deserve a proper tribute down after the chapter!

Oh, and this chapter is dedicated to my sister, Kelsey, for getting me candy during my horrible strain of writer's block.

"Jareth?"

That voice. The slight fear that lay on the edge of each syllable gave him the shivers; it was the same feeling he had experienced the first night of meeting her, when she couldn't help but quiver in his presence. 'The good old days,' he thought, a subtle smirk twitching at the corners of his thin lips. His mismatched eyes stayed focused on Sarah, cold and emotionless, but on the inside, he was anything but. Though she had changed a fair bit on the outside, her entire aura remained the same; like that of a frightened little girl, though she was most definitely not a little girl anymore. How odd they must have looked, standing there in their own little world, hardly noticing the people hurrying by.

Aubrey looked as though his brain might explode if he attempted to think any harder about what was going on, eyebrows creased downwards, glaring at the new boy. 'What on earth could make Sarah act so strangely? He's just a nicely dressed, completely gorgeous and mysterious new student,' Aubrey thought, before realizing what he had just been thinking about. 'Right, stop acting like an idiot.' Thank goodness that nobody could hear his inner monologue, or else the situation would have become a tad bit more uncomfortable than it already was.

Bottom lip shaking slightly, Sarah refused to allow herself to be torn to shreds by the presence of the Goblin King. After all, this wasn't his world; he had no power over her here, or anywhere else. Though, from the confident smirk appearing on his face, she could tell that he was enjoying her sudden lapse of strength.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked, her voice cold and demanding, matching the icy glaze covering her normally warm chestnut eyes. However, in response to her question, he was so bold as to ignore her completely, not having said a single word to Sarah in the span of five minutes. Instead, he glanced over to Aubrey and sniffed derisively, hoping to stare him down.

Not bothering to look directly at Sarah, Jareth kept his attention focused on her friend and replied. "I'm going to school, what do you think?" Of course, when it came to the Goblin King, nothing was quite that simple, but his words remained light and careless.

Their gazes were locked, Jareth's stare seeming to penetrate Aubrey's very soul, rendering him dazed as he attempted to look away. All that he could see ahead of him was the blank stare, though it wasn't frightening to Aubrey. Instead, he just blinked a few times slowly, acting as though he had just awoken from a deep sleep, and narrowed his eyes towards Jareth. "Do you have Heterochromia Iridium?" he asked suddenly, noticing the difference in each orb. Being talented in the science department, Aubrey had a tendency to remember every condition known to mankind, though this was rare.

Though he didn't know what it meant, Jareth nodded slowly, relieved to see the boy relax. "I've never heard that term before ... what does it mean?" Jareth asked warily, the lilting accent dangling on the tip of his tongue, threading its way into every word he spoke.

Puffing out his chest, Aubrey found himself grinning broadly. Advantage number one, he knew more than Mr. Tall Dark Handsome over here.

"Oh, it's just a rare condition, which involves having different levels of melanin in each eye, causing both eyes to be a different color from each other," he explained quickly, making rapid hand motions, almost smacking one of the secretaries in the head. With a single condescending smile, Aubrey glanced from Jareth to Sarah, noting the fact that she was still looking at the new student in a state of shock.

"I suppose you two will be showing me around, then?" Jareth broke the silence hanging over them, still smirking to himself in a way that suggested he knew much more than he was letting on. Brushing a spider-like hand through a tuft of sunlit blond hair, he passed over his school schedule with the other hand to Aubrey, eyes shifting towards Sarah in the meantime.

It took every ounce of self-control she possessed to look away from Jareth, averting her eyes to the ground, which had suddenly become much more interesting than everything else in the room. Such a pity that she wasn't at all stealthy in her actions.

"Look Sarah, he's in our Biology, Math, and English classes." Pointing to the schedule, Aubrey ran a finger down it, stopping to show each individual class, Sarah's stomach sinking with every typed character she read. "Oh, and he's in your Drama class as well." Just fan-bloody-tastic, the one place where Sarah felt she could escape the harsh grasp of reality and jump into a new character, here she was; about to be subjected to Jareth in four of her school classes. If anyone ever said that school was the worst place on earth, they honestly had no idea. How could Aubrey be acting so excited? It was almost like he had stuck a nice sharp dagger through her heart, or given her a friendly heart palpitation.

"Great," she said in a less than enthusiastic voice, both of her deep brown eyes focused on a stain in the ancient carpet, hardly listening to any words being exchanged. 'Why is he back here ...?' she repeated the question to herself, feeling borderline sick to her stomach. Knowing Jareth, it wasn't something so simple as 'going to school,' oh no, it would be something involving drama and many soap-opera moments that Sarah found sickening. If only she could figure out what was going on ...

"Sarah," came the soft voice of Aubrey, who was looking her way in a concerned manner, a lanky arm outstretched, his hand cupped around her right arm. "You alright?"

With all of her might, Sarah wanted to scream 'No, I'm not alright! The one person I haven't stopped thinking about for four years has finally reappeared, and he's in my DRAMA class. I'm ready to hit myself over the head with my books and hope that I never wake up.' But, of course, being the level-headed girl that she was, Sarah responded only with a simple, "I'm fine," before smiling falsely and leading the way out of the office, hoping that she'd feel better once stepping out into some less crowded quarters.

Without another word, both Aubrey and Jareth followed her out, her best friend confused, while Jareth had to restrain a cold laugh. 'I don't even need to command your fear anymore, Sarah, it comes freely,' he thought to himself, walking a few steps behind the pair, observing every small move they made with his acute eyes. She would find out why he came soon enough, he knew that much for sure. Sarah continued to lengthen her strides down the hall, head up, eyes forward, stopping only when they reached the homeroom, where she figured Jareth could go and make a bunch of new friends, leaving her out of it. She was sadly mistaken, of course, for as soon as she opened the classroom door, all eyes were on her, and all hopes of sneaking out were crushed.

"Ah, Miss Williams, you decided to join us again." Mr. Whyte's voice was quite cold, especially for someone who could look so jaunty. She could never understand what was with teachers and sudden moody changes in attitude; they were almost as bad as teenagers. "All of you," he barked, "take your seats so that we can all just get this torture over with, and you can go off to your first classes. Sarah and Aubrey, I expect you to look after our new student for the next little while." Of course, with this, Sarah just grumbled and took an empty desk, Jareth and Aubrey filing in on either side of her. 'Thanks a lot, Mr. Whyte, making my day that much better,' Sarah thought, tossing her sheet of chocolate brown hair behind her and skillfully tying it up in a messy ponytail, just so it didn't fall into her face.

She could feel both boys watching her curiously, as though, by some strange occurrence, she was going to sprout wings and begin spewing out poisonous gas. Since that was not likely to happen, she could just sigh, resting her head down on the wooden desk and pretending to fall asleep.

'You chose this path ...' the same bodiless voice that haunted her dream whispered, as Sarah's head snapped up from the desk, only to find the vast majority of the class looking in her direction. Carefully avoiding the gazes that were focused on her, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks, Sarah just set her chin on her hands and waited patiently for the bell to sound, signaling her short span of freedom. Glancing over to her right, Sarah noted that Jareth had ceased watching her; instead he was sparking up a seemingly interesting conversation with a girl in front of him. Even with his slight change of appearance, Jareth was still the same in her eyes, in every manner. It wasn't until Jareth turned to face her, that Sarah realized she was gawking at him, and obviously he noticed this as well.

"Jealous, are we?" he asked, his lips curling upwards into a grin, referring to the fact that he had been talking to another girl.

Before Sarah could even snap back to reality, she began shouting, standing up from her desk and pointing a finger directly in Jareth's pointed face. "I can't even BELIEVE you!" she began, the blood pumping through her veins as her heart beat faster. "You're an insufferable pig! The whole world DOESN'T revolve around you, and I certainly don't give a damn about what you do!" Perhaps if she hadn't been so angry, Sarah would've noticed the astounded looks on everyone's faces as she continued to yell at the new kid. "Just get out of my life!"

With that, Sarah stormed down the row between desks and walked out the door, slamming it behind her. Rounding the corner and stepping carefully down the hallway, she vaguely heard the sound of a door opening and closing. 'Probably Mr. Whyte coming to tell me that I've been suspended for yelling at a new student,' she figured, stopping in the hall to open her locker. 6-23-15, the numbers rotated on the small silver lock, opening with a small click as she tore it off and flung open the metallic door. Inside were a bunch of books, notepads, and most importantly, her journal ... oh, and school stuff, but that wasn't important.

"Sarah?" came a soft voice from down the hall, the sound of footsteps getting louder as they neared her locker. Without a response, Sarah proceeded to grab her books and journal from the locker, shutting it quietly and slinging the bag over her shoulder, prepared to leave without a word to anyone. Taking off at a quick pace, she completely bypassed the oncoming person, keeping her head tilted downwards at least until she reached the front doors. "Sarah." The voice called out again, and she couldn't help but recognize it.

With her hand lightly touching the door, Sarah stood there impatiently as the footsteps caught up with her, walking up from behind. Not bothering to turn around, she spoke coldly, her throbbing head threatening to burst if she was put through any more of this bullshit. "What is it, Jareth?" Nothing in her voice could be mistaken even remotely for kindness or warmth, her words sharp and cutting. "No, you know what, I don't even care. I'm leaving." Sarah decided quickly that there was no point in even continuing this conversation, since it would only lead to misunderstanding. Not to mention a wicked migraine.

"You can't escape me, Sarah," Jareth sounded much more like he had four years ago, overconfident and commanding. His words echoed through her skull, and finally she whipped around to face him, her cheeks flushed with silent fury.

"We'll see." And with that, she walked out of the school, going wherever her feet decided to take her at that point. It really didn't matter anymore ...

Author's Note ... again: All of my reviewers kick so much ass, and I love you all already. The praise I got from some almost made me cry of happiness, because I've written so many lousy fanfics with horrible reviews, and so finally I have GOOD reviews, and it's just like ... wow.

Please do keep reviewing, I appreciate it so much, and it lets me know what you guys like.

After all, the customer is always right ;)