Ch 2

Sarah

Every day seems the same. Each morning, I wake up, get dressed, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed, and then it starts all over again the next day. Weekends are a slight break in the routine, but then they are routine in their own right. My weekends are filled with take-out food and television.

I rarely go out; my friends often try to lure me to a bar or nightclub, but it all seems silly to me. What's the point? Get all dressed up to show yourself off, in the hopes of picking up a man? Why would I do that, when the man I want no longer wants me?

I push that thought out of my mind. Don't think about him, I remind myself. Because when I do, it brings nothing but feelings of sadness and loneliness.

I sigh. It's no use. I go through this routine every day, trying to put him out of my mind but always giving in to the thoughts and memories. I relent and allow myself to picture him, and it makes me smile. Perhaps time had dimmed the real image of him and I was simply glorifying him in my mind, but he was, quite simply, the most beautiful man I had ever seen.

Oh, how I had hated him. I think back to those first few years after I had left him, and I remember a burning hatred. How I hated him for taking my brother! How I hated him for trying to deceive me! How I hated him for making me fall in love with him!

Yes, I had fallen in love with him. Although being barely more than a child, I could hardly have been expected to understand that, could I? It wasn't until years later that I realized the truth. I had been feeding a burning hatred for a man who had done nothing more than I had asked him to do. He had truly turned the world upside down, just for me.

I was horrified when I came to the realization that I loved him. How could I love a man who I had only known for thirteen hours, who I hadn't seen in almost five years, a man who I had spent a great deal of energy hating? I didn't understand how it could be, but I accepted it. Sometimes you just know when something's true and there's no point in trying to deny it. So I accepted that I loved him.

What I couldn't accept, however, was the fact that the man I loved was a king in a magical fairy-tale land, and that there was no hope of me ever seeing him again. Because why would he want to see me? He had offered me my dreams, he had offered me his heart, and what did I do? I left him. I had turned him down. I had rejected him. He must be feeling the same hatred for me that I used to feel for him.

So for these reasons, I made a pact with myself to put him out of my mind. I had accepted the fact that I loved him but couldn't have him. I decided to get on with my life. This pact was made a year ago.

In the year since, I don't believe I have kept my word with myself for even one day. Sometimes I even start to worry that something is wrong with me. How can it be normal to be so obsessed with a man? But I usually ignore that thought when it occurs to me, for nothing was normal about our brief relationship. I can't expect my feelings about an abnormal experience to be normal, can I?

And so here I am. I am a twenty-year old woman leading a dull, meaningless life. I sit here at night trying to think of anything but the man who haunts my dreams, but I usually fail. He is always there, in the back of my mind, and I think a part of me thrives on the memory of him. I close my eyes and I can almost hear him calling me. Sarah, I hear, but I know it's only in my head. I know he will never call for me. I sigh as his name softly escapes my lips.

"Jareth…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Thank you for reading, let me know what you think! I appreciate the reviews.