Disclaimer: Wow, sorry about the long wait for this chapter to come out. I've been busy with school and my sad excuse for a social life I apologize profusely! And here's an update for the few who still want to read this story.
Tear Drop Masquerade
Chapter Four
By:
Vale (Saturn Angels)
Last Time
Jareth nodded then smirked, "Or perhaps a miracle is needed."
"A miracle for what??" Sarah asked becoming agitated as she became more confused.
"Perhaps you'll find out for yourself at a later time. As for today, I bid you good night." Jareth bowed, and it wasn't a mocking bow, and disappeared.
Though this time the glitter left a little mess on the floor which she'd have to explain to her roommate.
But that could wait until morning.
This Time
"Wakey wakey!" Marie's voice called out and Sarah felt something hard and thin poking her in the ribs.
She blearily opened her eyes and recognized the 'thin, pokey' object as Marie's fingernail. "What time is it?" she questioned curiously, her voice was muffled seeing as it was pressed into her pillow. Marie found it fascinating that one could sleep like that and not suffocate.
"It's already seven in the morning. Don't you have a class at eight?" Marie asked, picking up and showing Sarah the clock on her nightstand just for emphasis. "And if your habits haven't changed since the last time we met then I think it's safe to say you usually need more than one hour to get ready."
Sarah mentally flipped a coin on whether she wanted to stay in bed or not. "To be late to my first class or not to be late, that is the question." She mumbled.
"Yes, yes, whether tis nobler in the mind and all that nonsense. No one cares about Shakespeare; all right that was a bit of an exaggeration. I'm sure a ton of people still care about dead poets, but I'm not one of them and therefore I'm not planning on spending any more time standing here and listening to you quote them. "Are you getting up or aren't you?"
"Have you made me breakfast?" Sarah asked, pushing herself up and turning around so she was now sitting up in bed. Her heart leapt wildly as she caught a glimpse of someone standing in the corner of the room, but soon the figure had disappeared.
"Oh, Miss Royalty now, eh? Of course I haven't made you breakfast, when have I ever made someone breakfast?" She asked, her expression grim and unbelieving that it would be expected of her to make breakfast. "It's on the table-you still like your eggs sunny side up right?"
Sarah, immediately forgetting about what she'd probably just imagined seeing, nodded, "That's right. You don't forget anything do you, Marie?"
"Wow, I think that's the first time someone's said that to me. Usually it's more along the lines of: 'You forgot again!?' 'How could you forget!? It was written on your forehead' or just, you know, the usual, 'This is an extraordinary case of Alzheimer's in young people'."
In case it wasn't clear before, it definitely was now-Marie still loved exaggerating. And her exaggeration skills only heightened as time went by; contrary to popular belief it wasn't just in the morning.
"Why are you up so early Marie? Last time I remember you were always the one who needed wake up calls." Sarah said, sliding out of bed and searching for something to wear. First impressions were everything after all.
"Well I turned over a new leaf since the last time we met, actually I turned over quite a few leaves until I actually found one that suited me... but," she grinned, "I'm up because I've signed up for early classes as well seeing as I have two part time jobs, one in the afternoon and the other is the night shift, so I won't get home until late and I'll have to stay up to do school work."
"How are you going to stay awake?" Sarah asked skeptically, "It doesn't seem like a smart thing to do."
"That's where you're wrong, again. I'm not going to sleep-it'd be a waste of time. So! I'm going to drink in my free time. Stay awake and lively twenty-four, six. Sundays are my days off-I'll sleep all day Sunday."
"You're still an alcoholic, eh?" Sarah asked amused, granted Marie wasn't as bad with drinking as some other people she knew yet she still liked teasing her about her 'addiction'.
Marie snorted, "Say what you want, but I'm putting the food on the table missy! Unless you have a part time job as well?"
Sarah shrugged, "Who knows, perhaps I'll get one just to help out around here. I don't expect you to pay everything for me."
"Which is a good thing because I wasn't planning on paying everything!" Marie said laughing merrily, "Anyway-are you going to get ready or not? I'd hate to think I woke you up early for nothing."
"Well technically this isn't early-" Sarah started but was cut off by Marie's words of 'Oh shut up and go get ready.'
Sarah headed to the bathroom to change into a pair of tight-fitting jeans and a poet shirt.
"Oh and Sarah?" Marie questioned when the brunette was halfway to her destination.
"Yes?"
"What was with the glitter on the floor? Still into 'Fairy Dust' and all that? You weren't pretending you were a Fairy Princess were you? You've grown up."
"Oh hush." Sarah said, her cheeks a bit puffed out in stubborn embarrassment, "It wasn't anything like that." She hadn't wanted to be a 'fairy princess' since the Labyrinth. When she'd seen how evil fairies could be!
At her memories she wondered for a moment how Hoggle was, how everyone else was doing.
"Yeah Sarah, you can head into the bathroom now. I'm not going to suddenly ask another question."
Sarah snapped out of it, her hazel eyes losing the glazed look, "Ah! Right, sorry must have been daydreaming." She headed into the bathroom and it didn't take her more than fifteen minutes to get ready.
Marie glanced over Sarah then she shook her head, "No no no. You're an adult now-no more ponytails." She yanked the scrunchy out of Sarah's hair in a practiced way so that Sarah didn't even know what hit her before her hair was loose. "Back into the bathroom, I don't care if the breakfast gets cold, I made it anyway."
When Marie and Sarah exited the bathroom yet another fifteen or twenty minutes later Sarah's hair was curled extravagantly. It looked like she was going to a ballroom dance rather than her first day of school at Harvard.
Ballroom dances... she smiled softly, that had been a good memory. Not that she'd ever admit it to anyone, not even herself. But subconsciously she knew she had enjoyed it.
Classes for both Marie and Sarah, who had found out that they'd applied for the same classes in the daytime, had gone by slowly. It was more of a lecturing day, and reviews, then a ton of homework to continue reviewing in 'their own time'.
Their professors words had been, "It doesn't matter to me if you do your work or not. It's not my life that's at stake here, you don't do it then you fail, there aren't any second chances. I have no time to waste on you." He seemed to be a very caring man indeed. Note the sarcasm.
But, everyone had to admit he had the looks down. Handsome, young, but overly mature... he seemed more like a bitter eighty year old trapped in a thirty year old's body more than anything. Professor Harwell...
A bell rang and students filtered out of the room, Marie dropped Sarah off at the dormitories before going on to work.
Sarah took the elevator, reached the room and found it silly that she was actually standing outside her door nervously for over five minutes.
"You're being childish!" Sarah scolded herself, it's not like there's anything inside that wasn't there when you left." She paused, her word choice didn't really reassure her. It wasn't until some fellow students walked passed her that she finally gathered the courage to head inside.
The room was silent, and dark because neither had bothered opening the blinds so Sarah made that a first priority. She wandered over into the kitchen and opened the blinds, the front door clicked shut slowly. She shivered, she couldn't take being in the room alone. She had to go, leave, somewhere. Now.
As she grabbed her coat, for it was getting rather cool in Boston, she heard the bathroom door creak open then slam shut. Her face paled, she definitely had to leave, but maybe it was just... someone she knew. Maybe it was Jareth. With those thoughts she gathered up enough courage to shout, "Who's there?"
There was no response but the air did seem suddenly tense. As if she'd been noticed. She wandered halfway down the darkened hallway before deciding that she'd rather investigate with Marie-right now she only had one thought on her mind.
There was a thump from one of the rooms and she turned around and began hightailing it.
"OOF!" She'd run into something solid, and though that should have comforted her it only put her into a more panicked state. She screamed and tried to fight out of the grasp of the, the, the thing that had taken hold of her.
"Let go! Let go!" She cried, though she knew that in itself was futile.
"Sa--"
"Leave me be!"
"Sarah! Snap out of it!"
Immediately recognizing the voice Sarah calmed down and looked up at the Goblin King standing before her, "Wha-are-you-was-Jareth! There's something in the bathroom." She cried, not giving a rat's ass that she seemed completely weak in front of him. She could care less at the moment.
"Calm down Sarah, that was just me."
Sarah's face flushed in anger, she pounded her fists on the Goblin King's chest for a few seconds before storming away from him, "YOU! How dare you scare me like that! I hate you!" she muttered, stomping off down the hallway.
"Sarah, I was only jesting. That wasn't me in your bathroom."
Sarah stood still not even two feet away from the bathroom door, an empty room to her left and daytime darkness surrounding her. She rushed back out into the main room, cursing vehemently, "We're going!"
"We?" Jareth asked amused, "Where do you suggest we go?"
"Out! Just out! I hate this place, it creeps me out."
"What about my Labyrinth?"
"Oh? For tea and crumpets? Come on! Why do you even suggest something like that?" Sarah asked, opening the door and walking through it not waiting to see if Jareth was going to follow.
"Come now, Sarah."
She really did love the way he said her name. She couldn't describe it but it always gave her a strange feeling that made her wan-all right, not following that train of thought any further.
"Challenge my Labyrinth again."
"Why?"
"I've made adjustments."
"You want me to be your guinea pig?"
"You're the one who defeated the old one. I want to see if it's at all possible for someone to defeat the new one. Without any help this time of course."
"I can do anything WITH help. It's because of the help of my friends I was able to get through the first time, no one else teamed up with your creatures did they? No, I bet not, and that's why they lost."
"Even so, I'd like you to try it."
"Jareth, you're really very bad at making sales pitches. Never be a used cars salesman."
By now they were standing outside, in the crisp almost-autumn air.
"I'll get you to say yes, somehow."
"Oh?"
"I have a gift for you?"
"A crystal? Will this one 'show me my dreams'?" Sarah asked rolling her eyes, "No thank you Jareth. I really am quite tired of you."
"That hurts me Sarah. You have 15 mortal hours of free time, which would be about equivalent to 195 hours in the Underground. In other words, about a week and one day. What do you say?"
Well... she had been bored lately.
A change of scenery might be nice.
She'd only be gone for about fifteen hours, which was fifteen hours that she wouldn't have to be in that damned dormitory alone...
"All right."
Jareth grinned.
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TO BE CONTINUED.