Ch 3

Jareth

As I sit here brooding over the foolishness of love, I hear something I can't quite believe. Jareth. It is her voice, that's for certain, and I am filled with a mixed set of emotions. Ha, emotions! Until this day I had convinced myself that emotions were obsolete; I did not allow myself to feel much of anything. But today, all of my repressed emotions are coming back to haunt me, and as I hear her voice-Jareth-my heart is filled with something I can't identify.

Is it love? Most surely love is part of what I feel. But no, I also feel something else, something I am much more comfortable with, and that is anger. Anger that she has ignored me for five years, and now she calls my name? And she used my name, nonetheless! Never had I heard her speak my name, and in the midst of my mind's confusion of dealing with my feelings of love and anger, I suddenly come to a realization.

She thinks of me as a man. Not as the Goblin King, not as a heartless villain. No, she said my name, and in doing so she has acknowledged, consciously or unconsciously, that I am a man, a person with a name and feelings, and this small realization makes me—what is this, am I feeling joy? Yes, I suppose it must be joy, this alien feeling that makes my heart race.

But I cannot allow myself to show this joy, this elation at what has been revealed to me. I must concentrate on the brief flash of anger that I felt, because that allows me to stay cruel and cold, which I have been for so long that it hardly feels like I'm choosing to be that way. For centuries, I have just been. I haven't thought about why I was the way I am, until she came along and made me question everything.

Did I like having my life turned upside down because of that girl? No, I tell myself, you would have been much better off had she never come to your kingdom. But alas, she has been here, and I have seen and felt how much better life would be if she were here still, and I can't ignore this. No, I can't ignore this, but I do not have to like it.

I make my decision. I decide to go to her. She has called me, and I cannot ignore that call. Whether it was intentional or unintentional doesn't matter. I must go to her and solve the unresolved issues in my mind, and I know that only another confrontation with her will allow me to set my mind at ease.

I feel a surprising flutter of nervousness in the pit of my stomach as I think about seeing her again. I frown. I am nervous about seeing a mere mortal girl? How can his be?

Because you love her, you fool, and you are terrified she will reject you again. I curse at this thought, and without allowing myself to dwell on it any longer, I change myself to my long-abandoned owl form and disappear, heading in the direction of her call.

Sarah, beware. I am coming, and I fear for both of our hearts.

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A/N: Thanks so much to those of you that reviewed, I really appreciate it! If you're reading and not reviewing, PLEASE review, even a really short one will make me happy! I wasn't too sure about this story, and I'd like to know what everyone thinks. Thanks!