Who You See In the Mirror

(Dream Sequence)

Sam looked around and found herself in a forest. It was sinister and peaceful at the same time. She was walking through what appeared to be fog when she heard a twig snap. She whirled around but saw nothing. Her eyes wide she began to walk faster. She heard something like drums in the distance. Suddenly, a hairy, red creature jumped out at her.

"What do you want!"

"To chilly down...Don't got no problems, no problems. Ain't got no suitcase, no suitcase."

"Woe, woe hold up. We can't do this man."

Sarah saw one of the red clan approach what she assumed, was the leader.

"Don't you remember what happened the last time we did this?"

"Yeah," another one interrupted. "The babe threw our heads."

Sam ears perked up and she swallowed. "Threw your heads?"

"Yeah, and it's against the rules to throw other people's heads. You are only aloud to throw your own head." The leader threw his head up in the air and it landed back on his shoulders.

"Well, I guess that rule is only fair." Sam rolled her eyes and approached the leader.

"Listen, who are you, and, where am I?"

"We are the wild gang... Chilly down with the wild gang, Think small. Bang heads..."

"Okay, okay. I get it. Please, just don't sing anymore. I will leave you to your little party."

"Don't you want to know where you are," one of them asked, dribbling one of the heads like a basketball.

"No! I mean, I will figure that one out on my own."

"Man, she is crankier than that Sarah, lady."

Sam whirled around. She ran back to them. "Wait, you know my sister, Sarah?"

The leader whacked the big mouth in the head and it flew off.

"Maybe," the leader replied.

Sam contemplated a second. "She is the babe who threw your heads, isn't she," Sam laughed.

"Yeah," the big mouth, head replied from the ground. Another member kicked the head into a bush, as the body stumbled around looking for it.

Sam, giggled. "That's my sister. Well, I can't tell you how intriguing this has been, but, I need to go." Sam started walking away.

"Where," the big mouth yelled from the bush.

"Funny, I have absolutely no idea." Sam turned around and found herself speaking to dead air. The wild gang had disappeared.

Sam shrugged and walked on. Suddenly, she found herself directly in front of a stone wall, with a rope hanging down in front of it. "Oh, how convenient," Sam said out loud. She started climbing the rope, amazed at her own arm strength. She seemed to get to the top in nothing flat. "Ah, the wonders of this place."

"I'll say," said a familiar voice.

Sam turned around and came legs to face with, Hoggle?

"Oh, hi Me." Sam smirked down at the dwarf. He was about to reply when she said, "Joking, I know your name, Hogwart."

"Oh, it's Hoggle," he said, putting his hands on his hips.

"Well, at least I finally got you to tell me your name." Sam smiled, and for the first time Hoggle smiled back.

"You have her smile," he said.

"Who's?"

He was about to answer, when a dog in old fashioned clothing suddenly appeared.

"Who is this charming, young lady," he asked, as he pulled her hand down to kiss it.

"This," Hoggle rolled his eyes, "is Samantha Williams."

Sam raised her eyebrows. "How did you know my name?"

"Things are not always..."

"what they seem in this place," Sam finished. "I know, I know."

The dog dropped her hand and said to Sam, "Thou, should meet thy brother."

"Why are you speaking like Shakespeare," Sam asked. Before she could get an answer she saw a very, large shadow form on the stone floor. Sam turned around and saw a huge, monster with tusks and horns.

"Augh!"

The monster bent forward and, gave the screaming girl a big hug.

"Ludo, fwend."

Sam stopped screaming and Ludo put her down. She looked up at him, in surprising recognition. "Ludo, I remember Sarah used to tell me about you. I always thought you were someone she made up."

Sam patted his arm, feeling an odd sense of nostalgia. She turned to the dog and said, "Let me guess, you are Sir Didymus."

"My Lady," he said, bowing to her.

"You know, I have been in this dream for a while, you guys. I wonder why Jareth hasn't made an appearance, yet," Sam asked as she turned around and paced.

She didn't get an answer, for when she turned around her new friends were gone.

"You, know. You are a real, popular guy, Jareth. Whenever you are seen or your name is mentioned, everyone seems to disappear," Sam voiced aloud.

"Well, I guess I will have to find you myself. It will be a piece of cake."

With that the stone floor gave way under her feet and she began to fall. Sam fell, she seemed to fall forever. Sam finally landed on what seemed to be a staircase. She looked up and saw another staircase, only, it was hanging upside down. Sam backed up and swung her arms to keep from falling off the edge of the stairs. Just before she could lose her balance, Jareth's strong arms snatched her by the waist and pulled her back up.

Jareth's face was inches from her's and he said, "You need to watch your step around here." Jareth's voice was husky and he wore a sardonic smile.

"Yeah," Sam breathed, heavily, "thanks for the tip."

Now away from the edge, Sam pushed away from him gently. Suddenly nervous, she quickly looked down at herself. She sighed with relief, grateful she was wearing her blue jeans and oversized tee shirt. The last thing she needed was to be wearing something revealing in front of Jareth. She looked him up and down, trying not to appear obvious. He was wearing all black. A black poets shirt, black breeches, and black boots, and as usual, a medallion around his neck.

"Are you wearing leotards?" Sam covered her mouth, shocked at her blunt, statement.

"What," the Goblin king replied, in a threatening voice.

"Um, I mean, well, um, how are you doing, Jareth?" Sam winced, as his eyes studied her, menacingly.

"Oh, I am just peachy." Jareth's voice dripped with disdain.

"You know what, you need to loosen up. Don't get your tights in a knot."

The moment those words came out of her mouth, she knew she had gone too far.

Jareth approached her quickly. Unfortunately, Sam could not retreat because the staircase was painfully narrow. All she could do was watch him as he stalked towards her. He was instantly in front of her and all she could think about was, how much she regretted not writing out her will.

"Remember what I warned you about the first night we met?"

Sam shrank under his gaze, he was so close she could feel his body heat.

"Can I have a hint," Sam said, lamely.

Jareth raised an eyebrow. Sam waited, expecting him to yell or strike at any moment.

He did neither. He took a step back and laughed. It wasn't necessarily warm, but it wasn't evil. It was just, sincere. Sam couldn't help but smile.

"You know, I just don't think I will ever win with you." Jareth looked at her with amused eyes."

"Jareth," Sam paused, weighing her words, "I wanted to apologize for last night. I was drunk, and I wasn't thinking clearly."

Jareth looked at her, his cool mask back in place. "Which part are you sorry about, your display of the splits or the kiss?"

Sam's eyes widened, amazed at his bluntness. She figured people dealt with these kind of issues like her family did, like ignoring them all together.

"Well," Sam replied, trying not to blush," are you?"

There was silence for a few moments as Sam searched his eyes for his answer, as usual, she couldn't find one.

"Well, the splits were quite impressive."

Sam glared comically.

" Okay, it was... nice." There they had it. In just three words the Goblin King had summed it all up. It wasn't passionate, it wasn't sexy, it was simply, nice.

For the first time Sam saw warmth in his mismatched eyes. Sam felt her aloofness melt away. "It was. Jareth, I, just, I needed someone."

"I understand." He did. He understood more than she knew.

For a moment they just stared at each other, striving to keep emotions in tact. Jareth then broke the silence.

"Well, Miss Williams," Jareth said, retreating back to his business like demeanor, "I hardly think the issue is about your gymnastic skills or about a kiss. The question is, why did you do it."

Sam played with her hair, avoiding his gaze. "Why did I do, what?"

She didn't here him approaching and only noticed when he put a finger under her chin and lifted it up.

He looked into her startling eyes and said, "Why did you get drunk?"

His voice was surprisingly gentle, which was a pleasant change from his usual sardonic manner.

"I guess, it's because I had a fight with Sarah. I got angry and upset, so I caved."

"You are lying, you know."

"What," Sam replied, startled.

Jareth slowly walked away from her and then turned around to face her. "You didn't drink because of the fight. You drank because of what you fought about."

Sam's temper started to rise, which became visible to Jareth when her face began to change colors. Of course, this didn't faze the Goblin King. He went on.

"Could it be that you drank because, what Sarah said about you was true?"

Sam struggled to keep her voice even as she responded.

"You are seriously reaching, Goblin King. I know damn well what Sarah said was true. It doesn't make a bit of difference to me. I know who I am and I am proud of it."

Sam nodded smugly, thinking she had won. She was in for a big surprise. The goblin King once again approached her. He looked down at her and laughed. This time it consisted of irony and sarcasm.

"What I find amusing is not that you're lying to me, but, the fact that you're lying to yourself. You actually believe that you like what you have become. In reality, you can't stand who you see in the mirror."

"Listen, Sigmond Freud, you can't possibly begin to understand me. You have goblins for subjects, for goodness sakes. You can't even begin to understand who I am and why I am the way that I am."

"By all means, enlighten me." Jareth waited patiently, leaning against the wall of the stairs. He almost had her, he could feel it.

"I don't have to explain anything to you. I want out of here. Let me out of this dream."

Sam started pounding on the wall like a child and Jareth roughly grabbed her wrists with his hands. "Samantha, you cannot hide from this anymore," Jareth said, forcing her to look at him. His voice started to rise and echo off the walls of the weird room.

"You hide from yourself, you envy your sister, you take no pleasure in life, and you push the people you love away. Why won't you dream, why don't you reach out in life, why won't you live."

Jareth squeezed her wrists. Sam winced and tears threatened to fall, not so much from the pressure of Jareth's hands as it was his words.

"Answer me, damn't Sam." The frustration was clear in Jareth's voice as he locked eyes with hers. Tears had finally been set free, confined within her eyes since childhood. They spilled over her face, as if the tears themselves were anxious to leave her.

"Because, I am afraid," she yelled. "If I dream and if I have goals I will try to reach them. And if I try to reach them I will only fail. What if I don't succeed in anything? I would rather live with a lie then expose who I really am. Then, at least I wouldn't be setting myself, or everyone else, up for disappointment."

Sam gulped, emotionally exhausted. She was amazed how easily this realization had come to her. Her true feelings had been laying dormant for so long, she didn't realize she was even aware of them anymore. Distracted by her thoughts, she didn't notice Jareth put his arms around her. He gently caressed her hair, surprising himself with his own tenderness.

"So," he started, "that is why you are so aloof and depressed. You are hiding who you are because you are afraid of not succeeding. You don't have goals, then you and no one else have any expectations of you."

"Why?"

Jareth barely heard her, because she had her face in his chest and it came out muffled.

He lifted her chin and started wiping her tears away with his thumb.

"Why am I so afraid? I can't even remember when I started feeling this way?"

Sam looked around, suddenly noticing they were no longer in the staircase room. She was sitting on a bench in a beautiful garden, with Jareth right next to her.

"Well," Jareth replied, "maybe we can find the answer together."

He started to caress the palm of her hand, when she noticed a glow coming from his. He moved his hand slowly away from her palm and in its place was a round crystal.

Authors Note: Okay, I am going to end it here. I know, I am evil. In the next chapter we are going to find out when Sam started to change, and we may even have some reconciliations take place. Ripper101: About Sarah's reactions in that conversation with Toby in chapter 11, I wasn't necessarily trying to convey her as childish. I know from personal experience, that people can react irrationally when under stress. She loved her sister, and she was frustrated. Sometimes people can say things they don't mean when upset. Anyway, thanks always for your reviews.