Owl: a vignette
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She held her arms before her face like a bent and awkward cross, hiding her eyes as the wind burst with a howl through the glass doors; rain drove into the skirt of the carpet near where the doors had been thrust open, and here where the gauzy white curtains shivered and whipped with the storm.
A man stood where the owl had cupped its wings and slowed, black and pale and cruel like winter behind the twisting cloth of the curtain.
"You're him, aren't you?" she said.
The words came from her throat without thought, before she could realize he could not be there - owls did not become men, and certainly not --
"You're the Goblin King."
He smiled, with a sleek callousness, a terrible, indulgent smile that condescended to her, as if he was familiar with her.
As if he knew her.
Even as she spoke again, panic and disbelief almost choking her as she pleaded - she looked at his amused and asymmetrical eyes, gleaming beneath surreally curved eyebrows and oddly colored eyelids.
You're the owl from the park, she thought with a sudden terror -- to know, now, that he had watched her (panic in her breast, thick and horrified).
And from the air he pulled her dreams, elegant as a god and sharply intent as an owl.
--
Disclaimer: Jareth, Sarah, and the Labyrinth (and the goblins, and Toby…) belong to Henson, Froud, Lee, etc.
Feedback: Got concrit? ;]
Thanks To: Lisy and Lady-Misericordia both for your very encouraging feedback. I'm very appreciative!
Note: This vignette was inspired largely by the fact that Mr. Bowie's makeup as Jareth mimics the eye design of an owl's. Whether or not that's actually vignette-worthy…
