Chapter Fourteen: Where Are You Going Now, My Love?
The first time that Sarah woke up, it was very early in the morning. The light in the room was dim and cool, blue-tinged; near dawn, but still dark. Mentally and physically exhausted as she was, her mind wasn't up to much computation. Sensory input was acknowledged by the mind, but not digested.
She was laying in bed, hair spread wildly about her. Her body—bare all the way down, guessing from the feeling of cloth against skin—was curled around a warm unmoving mass. Another body. One leg was thrown slightly over it, or him, rather, and her face was buried in the crook of his neck. A masculine arm was resting across her waist. He smelled very good. Sarah began to drift off again.
Her bed-partner/pillow breathed deeply and shifted. He muttered something that sounded quite like "damn" before sitting up. More than half-asleep, Sarah whimpered in protest.
"Someone has wished a child away," Jareth said in disgust, voice rough with sleep—a very appealing sound, Sarah decided. She made a vague noise in her throat. His words failed to register. Her eyes closed.
The next thing she knew, she was alone in bed with the blankets tucked around her. The Goblin King was standing over her, impeccably dressed and entirely unruffled.
"Know that I find this intensely frustrating," he said sourly. "With luck, they won't want the brat back and I'll be able to return in an hour or two. Please sleep as long as you like. I rather enjoy the sight of you naked in my bed."
"Mmmpgh," she mumbled in reply. Sarah turned onto her back so she could see him better, squinting against the light. He looked resigned.
"I'll see you this afternoon." He paused and stared, an odd look on his face. Almost wistful. He bent down then and kissing her ferociously on the mouth, just for a moment—and then he was gone.
Sarah shivered and closed her eyes.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The third time she awoke, she woke up for real; an infuriatingly bright ray of light was drilling relentlessly into her eyelids.
Damn sunlight, she thought irritably. Waking me up. Stupid birds singing by the window. Don't they know people are trying to sleep in?
Irrational irritation with the world was a hallmark of Sarah's morning moods. She gathered her tangled hair into one mass, out of her face, and sat up grumpily. The feeling of cool air caressing her bare upper body drove all vaguely-homicidal thoughts from her mind. She looked down and then around.
I am naked... I am in someone else's bed... because...
... I had mad passionate sex with the Goblin King last night.
"Oh, my god."
Sarah groaned again, with more gusto, and let her face fall into her hands. Yes, she remembered now. Very vividly. Oh, yes. Some of those memories were quite tactile. She could feel her face turning bright red.
Just once would have been forgivable. I could have blamed it on shock or something. I was, er, disturbed. Grieving for my lost humanity. Easily taken advantage of. Just once would have been okay. But how the hell do I explain four times? Can't reason myself out of that.
"I would like to take this moment to say 'holy crap'," spoke Sarah out loud. It didn't do much to assuage her feelings. The girl spotted her clothing from yesterday tossed over an armchair on the other side of the room. Hmm. Don't remember that. Guessing rightly that the situation wouldn't disappear if she went back to sleep and ignored it, Sarah scooted over and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. This wasn't particularly easy, between the width of the bed and the slight discomfort in her pelvic region. Well, it was to be expected. I dare say it was worth it. I believe that I quite encouraged the actual process.
No. No regrets, not exactly. Just embarrassment and a sort of... exasperation, really. A what-the-hell-do-I-do-now feeling. Not to mention that the entire mess from yesterday was still hanging ominously overhead, just waiting to crash down and squish her to a bloody pulp.
Ugh. Alright. Enough with melodramatic analogies. I will take a bath, get dressed, and shuffle back down to where I live. I'll figure this out then.
So she did. The bathroom was located with no trouble; she had used it the night before to scrub blood from her forearm (Jareth had needed to stop her before she rubbed the skin raw). It was of the same archaic construction as her own facilities, though considerably more luxurious. The bathtub was more of a small pond sunken into the marble floor than an actual bathtub. Very nice, once it was full, but she had to leave the faucet running for ten minutes first. The warm water was heaven to her sore body and the soap smelled lovely. Rather like... Jareth. Hmph. It takes no great leap of the imagination to figure out why. And now I smell like the Goblin King.
Was that a good thing or a bad thing? What on earth was she going to do?
Sarah donned yesterday's clothes, a little the worse for wear, and left her damp hair to hang free. She probably looked like the embodiment of a woman who has spent the night over, but there was no helping it. Thankfully, she was unlikely to meet anybody in the hallways that was likely to care. But she cared.
She left Jareth's chambers quietly, shutting the door softly behind her. Down the spiraling stairs (surely this building had a record numbers of staircases), down a short passageway... and yes. Here was the star room in all its glory, brighter today because of the unobscured sunlight. She emerged in front of the owl-point and smiled. Mystery solved. The rest of the way was easy—just walk until she found the throne room, and back through familiar territory to her room.
When she passed the throne room, the doors were firmly shut. Sarah could here a great mass of beings inside, squalling and chattering with every fiber of their raucous goblin bodies. She heard something that might have been the wail of a young child. Stifling a cry in her own throat, she lifted her skirts and broke into a run, away from the troubling truth behind the doors. She was not ready to think about that. Not at all, no way, nuh-uh.
Back in the familiar environs of her chamber, Sarah changed swiftly into fresh clothes—blue this time, a comforting color. Then she couldn't stay still. She paced from side to side, growing increasingly nervous.
What to do, what to do, what to do? She needed time to think. She needed time... to think. Just figure stuff out. Who she was, what she wanted, where she was going. What she was going to do. Was she even human anymore? If not... then what? The question was too much for her mind to comprehend. Not human? Not human? Not human? What did that mean?
It was as if she had never really believed in all of this. Jareth, the goblins, the Labyrinth, Jeremy, Angharad, the step-cousins, the Middleground. It had never really sunk in. A pleasant diversion or a frightening experience, something to be dealt with. No, that's a bad way to put it. Of course she believed in them. But... but...
It had always had an end in sight. She left the Labyrinth when she finished it. She left the Daras after the wedding. She would leave the castle after she learned enough magic. That was exactly the problem. The Underground has never been the "real" world, just a brief detour. How could I have been so deluded, to think myself so separate from it? I am as much a denizen of this place as Hoggle or Meggedy. Lady Sarah, pendant around her neck, practicing petty magic and wandering the Otherwood with the children.
She had to get out. She couldn't get out.
Sarah spotted the tome of magic theory laying calmly on the table. She swept it up in one hand, hesitated, and left her room again. Her feet—quite unconnected to anything in her mind—kept going until she was out of the castle, down the stairs, and striding through the Goblin City. The looks she received were mostly perfunctory; only the children saw any novelty in her presence anymore. When the girl reached the edge of town, she hesitated again. Where was she going? To the Otherwood, to get advice from Addie? Probably she could understand her predicament more than anyone else in the Labyrinth. She had slept with Jareth too, once upon a time 4,000 years ago. Addie would warm some spiced cider for her, sit her down, and show her how silly she was being.
Reassurance wouldn't solve any of her problems. Ariadne's motherly understanding would just summon the tears that she had cried the day before. Sarah couldn't go to the Otherwood.
The walls of the Labyrinth loomed before her, their serpentine lengths beckoning. Come, they called. Lose yourself in our turns. You can hide here among us. You can hide well.
Tempting, very tempting. A couple of years ago, she had found her self in the corridors of the Labyrinth. Maybe now, troubled again, she could do so once more. Sarah took a step forward, and then another; she pulled her protecting pendant from her bodice and let it hand free in front of her. She crossed tentatively over the threshold, smooth paving stones under her slippered feet. The floor didn't open up and no monsters jumped out to swallow her. She relaxed, slightly, and choose a direction. Then she went.
All I want is a nice secluded place, far from the castle, where I can sit and read. And ponder my existence. Screw Jareth and his advice. Okay, bad word choice.
"He's never doubted himself," she muttered fiercely. "Bastard." She saw a patch of eye-moss turn sharply to glance at her. Sarah glared back at it. "What? Never seen anyone talk to themselves before?"
It averted its eyes quickly.
"That's right."
Now she was sounding like him, snapping at everything all the time. Yeek. Sarah clutched the books against her chest and moved faster. Fly away, little bird. Run away from all of your problems, like a good little avoidant.
No. That wasn't fair. She just needed space. She wasn't running away.
Right.
The Labyrinth here was fairly tame, but the area was getting gradually wilder. Weeds and wildflowers were pushing up between the not-so-smooth rock on the ground. The walls were overgrown with ivy, covering most of the sandy beige masonry, and the leaves twitched with unseen life. Turning around, Sarah couldn't see the castle towers behind her. Far enough.
A few more turns brought her to a niche in the wall, furnished with a nice shady bench. How convenient.
Deep breath, in and out. Again, and again. The quick pattering of her heartbeat slowed into a more measured rhythm, but the leaden feeling in her gut remained. She tried to draw serenity around her like a woolen cloak. The result was more like fishnet.
First, concentrate on exterior things. Clear blue sky, bright sun. Olive-jade-emerald leaves, warm rocky walls. Deep blue velvet and paler gauze. A single singing bird in the background, the wind whistling over the tops of the walls. The heat of the sunlight pouring over her hair and face.
Close your eyes. What's the matter?
Confusion. I am changing. She couldn't stop it any more than she could halt the march of time. Gradual change wasn't so bad, no, but she had been hurtling along ever since her birthday. Sarah felt rather as though someone had pushed her off a cliff. Who could she blame? Her mother, Jeremy, Jareth, Angharad?
No, herself. Always herself. It had all started when she wished Toby away to the goblins. She might have left the Underground, but she had never escaped the Labyrinth.
Hopefully there was someone with a trampoline waiting at the bottom of the cliff. Otherwise she was going to meet the ground with a tremendous splat.
She could stay here forever, sleeping in the Goblin King's bed and dining at his table. Toby would grow up in the Aboveground, his half-sister fading into hazy memory. Her father would grieve for the last remnant of his youth and failed marriage, the troublesome daughter as dark as his ex-wife. Karen would support him, wondering if she had driven her step-daughter away. Dinah would cry and Ben would wrap her in his gentle arms. Aaron would move on, find a new girlfriend, go to college and get married; maybe he would always remember the quiet girl he had kissed in high school. Sarah would become a news story, a throbbing ache, a statistic, one more lost child. They would never find a suspect, never find a body, never discover her living on the streets fifteen years later. No longer human, she'd be a faded photo and a wistful memory.
Fifteen and hurting, she had rejected this. At eighteen, she still couldn't bear to cause that much pain. So easy, but so... unfair. Maybe life wasn't fair, but that was no excuse for her to act so selfishly. Sarah had to sort all of this out herself. Figure out who she was, figure out what Jareth was to her, and get back home.
Sarah opened her gray-green eyes. She opened the deep red book.
No index. Typical. The girl flipped through it, watching closely for any mention of traveling between the worlds. Conjuration, enchantment, healing... no, no, no. Illusion? Interesting, but no. Summoning spirits... definitely not.
Some four hundred pages later, her breath caught in her throat. "...walking the layers of reality..."
She read on.
"... complicated to transport oneself from one point to another. This action requires extreme powers of concentration and a great deal of practice. Most apprentices in the Art spend many months, if not years, transporting inanimate objects or small animals before they attempt the spell on themselves. First, one must have a clear understanding of where one is and where one wishes to be. Secondly, one must have an acute knowledge of oneself. Mistakes can lead to lost body parts or even death. At the very least, one will appear in an unexpected location. Far more difficult is the journey from the Underground to the Aboveground, which traverses more than just physical space..."
Well. Well, well, well. The gall of that man. The sheer nerve.
Was she surprised, really? Had she really expected Jareth to just let her go once he had lured her back into his kingdom? No, she wasn't that foolish. Not at heart. Above all other things, the Goblin King was a devious man. He was other things too—a careful teacher, a skillful lover, a mediator to his people. But he wanted her, for whatever reason (not just revenge, there's more to it than that), and he was going to keep her. If it took lies to make her tractable, so be it.
Fuck it. I can't deal with everything at once. I'll think about Jareth after I get myself straightened out. In the mean time...
"Jareth's not the only wizard in the Goblin Kingdom," she said aloud, grimly, still staring at the book in her lap. She hadn't found Daedalus yet.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sarah's actions depended on one supposition : if Daedalus wants to be found, he'll let you find him. There was no way that she could search the entire kingdom.
So the girl just picked random pathways as they came, avoiding any of the puzzles that could put her off course. She fell into no oubliettes, lucky enough, but she now knew to pick 'up' when the Helping Hands asked where she wanted to go. Eventually she passed out of the stone-walled area of the Labyrinth and ended up in the hedge maze. By then her feet were tired and her abdomen was rumbling to itself.
Definitely a bad idea to just eat anything that she found growing here. A conjured apple would give her no nourishment, but it would at least fool her stomach for awhile. Sarah stretched out her hand, palm up, and a crystal appeared in its center. Good. She mentally prodded the magic inside, urging it to become golden yellow, shiny, crisp on the outside and juicy in the middle, sweet and tart...
Poof. Well, not poof. But there was her apple, a perfectly reasonable Golden Delicious. Excellent. Sarah took a bite out of it, pleased when it crunched pleasantly and the juice filled her mouth. It even tasted right. Her conjuration was improving.
She stood there for a few minutes to finish eating. When she was done, she threw the core up into the air, where it disappeared without a trace. Sarah smiled slightly. She really was improving.
A step forward again, and then an interruption from in front of her.
"Hallo?"
A face appeared from behind one of the hedges, followed by a body and feet. It belonged to a sweet-looking boy—an undeveloped fifteen or sixteen, she guessed. His eyes were large and his chin pointed, his curly hair an unlikely shade of teal. His was clothed in dark brown and turquoise; the apparel was richly colored and well-cut, but it had clearly seen some wear-and-tear recently. There was a smudge of grime on his cheek.
"You're not a foundling," said Sarah, frowning. The boy looked uneasy.
"I... no." He took a few steps closer, eyes searching her face. He raised his chin a little. "My name is Filip. Could you... would... I need to find the end of the Labyrinth."
Oh. Oh ho. So that's how it was. Sarah felt a wave of anger well up inside of her.
"Good luck, kid. I'm still looking for it, myself."
His big eyes got larger.
"I h-have to get there. I'll be in trouble if I don't get my sister back..."
"Well, you should have thought of that before you wished her away!" Sarah snapped. The kid shrank back. "You live in the Underground! You knew that the Goblin King would actually come to take her!"
"I thought it would be easy," he muttered under his breath, a thread of surliness weaving through his uncertainty. A spoiled child, unused to opposition.
And how were you any different, my girl?
Sarah sighed, relenting. "I can't take you to the castle myself. It actually serves my purposes to keep you searching as long as possible, but I feel sorry for you. I came from over there." Sarah waved her arms behind her. "It's been a fairly circuitous path, but I haven't been walking for more than an hour. Just keep going this way, until you leave the hedges for stone walls. That means you're close. From then on, you'll be able to see the castle towers from over the walls. Just follow them. Don't leave the hedges for anything but the stone-walled area. Understand?"
Filip nodded. He didn't have any choice but to trust her.
"Do you know where I could find some food?" he asked, a little shyly. Lips twisting into a sardonic smile, Sarah quickly conjured a couple of apples for him.
"Here. These will keep you going, but please don't take food from anyone else. Unless it's a woman named Addie, but... never mind. I doubt you'll see her. Do not take food from Jareth." She handed the fruit to the boy quickly. "Good luck." She moved past him.
"Wait!"
"Hmm?" Sarah turned.
"Who are you?" Poor boy, he didn't want to be alone again. He had never found a Hoggle to befriend him.
"... my name is Sarah," she said. "Just another lost traveler. Do a favor for me, will you? When you go home, be nice to your sister. She deserves it."
She escaped then, turning a corner before his puppy-dog eyes lured her into helping him further. He obviously wasn't a clueless human like her; he'd find his way to the end. Probably Filip would go home mostly un-scarred; perhaps an appreciation for his baby sister would linger, but he wouldn't have an obsessive Goblin King on his tail. Huh. She was almost jealous.
Sarah heard Filip's footsteps fade off into the distance. Turn, turn, another turn... Sarah halted.
There was a house in front of her, a sort of hobbit-hole dug into the side of a hill. She could feel her mouth gaping open.
"This couldn't have been here when Filip walked past," she told it severely. "He would have stopped here instead."
"Quite right, my dear."
A figure walked from the side of the house toward her... someone new. A gray-bearded man with white hair, black-eyed and olive skinned. He was dressed in dark gray robes and leaning on a heavy walking stick. His eyes reminded her of a bird's eyes, dark but bright and watchful. Birds, wings, flight...
"Daedalus," she said uncertainly. The man smiled warmly. It was a grandfather's sort of smile.
"Exactly. Pardon me for staying out of sight until the boy passed. He needs to get through the Labyrinth on his own."
"And me?"
"You, I think, could use some guidance. And you've earned it."
"How did you know that?"
"I am well acquainted with the Labyrinth. It was quite worried when you came storming in here after avoiding it so assiduously for weeks. It provided you with a place to sit for awhile and went to summon me."
Sarah blinked.
"The Labyrinth is alive?"
"To a certain extent. Would you mind continuing this conversation inside? I'm a feeble old man."
'Feeble' was the last word Sarah would have used to describe him, but she allowed him to herd her into the house. It was small but compelling; the ground rose into a steep hill here, giving a person room to build into the side of it. The front door was heavy and square, flanked by two round windows on either side. A low fence was placed some distance before the door, allowing room for a couple of garden patches and a gravelly pathway. The interior was reminiscent of Addie's home, cozy and slightly cluttered. The front room was littered with odds and ends, pushed against piles of books. Sarah was pretty sure that she saw a cassette player and an old Gameboy on one of the shelves. She blinked.
"Please sit down, don't mind the mess. Yes, there—just put those books on the table. There." Sarah found herself sitting at a small table with a mug of water in front of her. "Would you like something to eat? Addie Otherwood just sent me a fresh loaf of bread this morning."
"Sure. Thanks."
He bustled around the house cleaning things up, letting her eat and drink in peace. When she was done, settled into a chair across from her.
"Well child, you've certainly changed since I last saw you. How old are you now?"
"Eighteen." She decided not to ask him where he had seen her before. "I'm sure that age is the least part of the changes I've gone through," she added dully. Daedalus chuckled.
"Don't look so stricken, my dear. Experience is the only real transforming agent in our lives. Everything else is superficial."
Sarah, faced with magic and supernatural recuperative abilities, raised her eyebrows.
"I've always been an engineer at heart," he told her, switching the subject. "Magic is only one medium that I use in my creation. The Aboveground has done some wondrous things since I was last there."
"You don't visit it?" she asked curiously. Daedalus shook his head, shaggy pale hair swinging.
"Oh, no. I don't have the freedom of Jareth, or even Ariadne. I've thought about it for years—I've come to the conclusion that, for most intents and purposes, I was killed in the backlash when the Labyrinth returned to the Underground so long ago. I'm just a ghost in the machine.
"But I digress. I was talking about the Aboveground. Just think of how different the world of a hundred years ago is from the world today! I've existed for an extraordinarily long time, so the changes in the world Above have always fascinated. Bits and pieces of technology, things of that sort, filter down to me every now and again. I like to pick through them and take them apart.
"My point, though—it took thousands of years of civilization for humans to fly through the air. Years and years of little change, followed by a couple hundred of rapid innovation. Did something about their structure change? Did they grow smarter? No. Experience, I say, is the only thing that makes them different from their forbears."
Daedalus sat back and sipped on a cup of tea.
"Don't let me monopolize the conversation, child. How have you been?"
"Not so well," Sarah replied hesitantly.
"Having trouble adapting?"
"Is everything that obvious?"
Daedalus laughed out loud. How pleasant, to be so entirely content with one's existence.
"If I walked past you on the street, could I tell that you were going through a great mental ordeal? No, I could not. But I know of you and I know that you've had many surprises thrust upon you. It helps that I am very old and wise." This with a wink. Sarah was forced to smile in response.
"I just need a little time to sort things out," she mumbled. "It's a little overwhelming. Yesterday, I... I realized that I wasn't quite... human anymore. Because of something did when I solved the Labyrinth."
"Yes, Jareth told me of it after you left the Labyrinth. He was quite furious, you know."
"I can imagine. Idiot. It's not like anything happened to him."
"I don't think that he'd agree with you about that."
"He can think anything he wants to, it won't make it true. Jareth is... he's... I need to get away from him for awhile, so I can think by myself. And I need to tell my family I'm okay." The words began to tumble out of her mouth, freed by the kindly concern in his face. "I just can't let them worry about me anymore, they deserve better than that. That's why I was looking for you, really, I need someone to send me back into the Aboveground. Jareth always said that I could go when I learned how to transport myself, but..." Sarah gestured to the red book, which she had placed on the table in front of her.
"The book says that I won't be able to do that for years, maybe. Jareth was just trying to keep me quiet. A month's bad enough, Daedalus, I can't leave everyone wondering for that long. Maybe Jareth would just come back and fetch me the moment he noticed I was gone, but I have to at least tell Dad and Dinah and Toby. I have to. Could you please help me? I'm desperate."
Now the man was thoughtful, no longer jolly. He regarded her seriously.
"Are you sure that's what you want? To return to the Aboveground?"
"Yes. I need to get away from here to think clearly." I have to get away from the Goblin King.
"Jareth will be angry."
"He's a grown-up. He'll get over it. I've always been a bother to him, I'm sure he won't mind."
"Is that so?" he murmured, disbelief clear in his voice. "He's lonely here, you know."
"I have to live my life!" Sarah half-yelled, pent-up frustration pouring out. "I'm not saying that I'll never see him again," I do want to see him again damn him how could I not how could I not, "but I need a break. Just to clear my mind and work through my issues. He'll be fine."
Strange, that the Goblin King should figure so largely into her decisions. That his feelings should matter. When had he twined so thoroughly into her life?
"I see." A pause. "My dear child, I do understand your predicament. If you're absolutely sure that you want this, I can make you a better offer."
"I'm sure."
"So be it. Sarah, there are many layers of reality, the Underground and Aboveground being two of them. Time is another. You need time. This is my proposal: I will send you back to the Aboveground, just a moment after you left it in the first place. No one will have noticed your absence. You will have four weeks to think without any interference from the Underground."
"... you can do that?" Sarah's spirits lifted, slightly, in the presence of hope.
"I can. It's a major use of magic but I am, as I said, very old and very wise. Just remember that you cannot contact the Goblin Kingdom for the duration of those four weeks—you will still be here during that time. Understand?"
"Yes. Yes, I understand." Sarah jumped out of the chair, grabbing the book in her hand. "How soon can you do it? I need to leave before Filip reaches the Goblin City."
Daedalus didn't ask her who she was talking about. "Right away, if you wish. I don't have anything better to do with myself."
"Good. Good." Sarah felt a tiny pinch of guilt, and she gave into it. Seems like I'll never have peace, wherever I am. "Could I borrow a pen and paper to write a note to Jareth?"
"Certainly." Materials appeared on the table. Sarah uncorked a bottle of ink and dipped the quill pen into it. Her hand hovered over the parchment. Well. What do I say? I'll be back in a few? Don't wait up for me? Sorry, bye, I had a good time last night? Thanks for the support? Eat shit, asshole?
That wouldn't do at all. She thought for a moment more before writing:
"Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
pinned down by need and moaning for release
or nagged by want past resolutions power,
I might be driven to sell you love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would."
Sarah signed it with her name, nervously. She doubted the Edna St. Vincent Millay would mind. Maybe it was a little too revealing, but it might help assuage Jareth's ire when he found her gone.
When the ink dried, Sarah folded the paper into quarters and handed it to Daedalus. He stuck it in a pocket.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes." She sighed. "The way forward is sometimes the way back."
"I'm glad you've remembered my advice, child. I wish you happiness and good luck. Goodbye."
The world dissolved around her, a more gentle transition than being hurtled through the dimensions.
When the stars cleared from her eyes, a veil of darkness hung before them. The air was lightly warm, the feeling of an early summer evening. Sarah turned quickly. Yes, there was the familiar bench, and her oak tree welcoming her home with outstretched branches. There were the floating lights, the emerald grass, the line of the forest in the distance. There was the murmur of the crowd, and the strains of music floating through the night air. There...
... were police cars?
Yes, a number of them whining in the parking lot, strobe lights flashing. Officers were getting out of the car and yelling to the gathered teens—the band on the stage, Ben and Aaron and Vince and Tim, had put down their instruments in surprise.
Sarah tried to figure out what was happening, a month ago. Now. There had been a concert, the band was playing, the fairies had come out to dance. It was Beltane, May Eve. Some kids had brought along beer... oh, yes. Beer and harder drinks, vodka and whiskey. This was a raid, then.
Some of the kids were trying to discreetly sneak away; a few dark shapes were wandering in her direction. Reality began to close in around her. The red book of magical theory was still clenched in her left hand. Her body was still swathed in her Underground clothes: dark blue velvet overgown, a pale blue undergown with silver threads woven in. Leather slippers, a bit the worse for wear, covered her feet. Her gold-and-silver necklace hung over her breasts, symbol of everything she had lost and gained. Her hair—had it grown noticeably in the past month?—hung free around her face, dark and shining.
Her skin was not glowing in the dark. Thank God for small favors.
Over two years ago, standing in this spot with a dress sweeping around her ankles, she had run home in the rain. Her dog Merlin had been with her then, poor Merlin who had died last winter. But she knew the way home, and she knew that she had to get there without being seen. I cannot go down there, I can't let the police arrest me, I cannot let everyone see me.
The book was a problem. She bunched her skirts up in both of her hands and clutched the tome against her chest with them. Awkward but functional. Time to blow this joint.
Sarah ran through the shadows and the moonlight, the darkness like the velvet of her dress and the moonlight as cool and pale as water. The well-trimmed grass gave way to pavement, but her soft shoes made no noise against the concrete. The town was asleep at this time of night. If she had been fully cognizant, Sarah would have realized that the ever-bright street lights were off. She didn't notice the lights flashing on again after she passed them, didn't notice the glowing globes following her, laughing, playing with the electricity. She didn't notice the aid that the Earth-fairies gave her, seeing her as one of their own.
Sarah crossed into her neighborhood, running through neighbors' yards. In one darkened home, an eight-year-old girl looked out her bedroom window and saw Sarah flash past with her honor-guard of fae. In the morning, she'd remember a princess in a cloak of stars. She wouldn't tell anyone, but she'd hold onto that one moment of mystery with a desperate longing, remembering it for all her life.
Lungs burning, hair tangled, face pale, Sarah skidded to a stop on the front porch of the Williams family home. Every room was dark. Luck. She pulled on the door handle—locked. A cry rose in her throat. She had to get in. Sarah summoned a crystal thoughtlessly, twisted her hand. A cool brass key settled in her palm. Sarah unlocked the door quietly, opened it quietly, and crept into the strangeness of her home.
Home. Home. She was home. Wasn't she?
Close the door. Go up the stairs, watch out for the creaky one near the landing. Down the hallway (passed Toby's door very quietly), into her own bedroom. It was dark in there too, only a little moon- and star-light filtering into her small window. The ceiling seemed so low, the space so enclosing. But here was the peace and quiet that she had been hoping for.
She stripped off her Underground clothes, hanging them up in the back of her closet and pushing other things over them. No one but her ever went into her closet, so it should be safe. The book was easily hidden in a drawer of her vanity.
Sarah donned an over-sized T-shirt, her usual sleeping apparel. In this place, at least. It felt too light and insubstantial. She left her necklace on.
Only thing to do now was crawl under the covers (her gut said that they should be musty, but of course she'd only slept in them the night before). The dry-wall ceiling, patterned with light coming through the blinds, stared back at her.
She still smelled like Jareth. She couldn't go to sleep.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A/N: And there is the end of Chapter Fourteen. Sarah is back home. Now comes the coping.
Questions? Comments? Please review the story or (since is going to read-only mode for a couple of days) send me an email at . Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: Cariah Delonne, Midnight Lady, Amora-Ryuko, Acantha Mardivey, Solea, Scary Miss Mary, Bex Drake, Eleanora Rose, Awhina, Lil Kawaii Doom, An Entertained Reader, Musicgirl141, Draegon-fire, Golden Usagi, cali-luv, Tellergirl, Velf, Moonjava, Just a Starving Writer, Original Proxy, Mav1, and Kaio ( yes, they did actually do it. (-; ) Happy Thanksgiving next week to all of you who live in the U.S. of A. Everyone else—happy Thanksgiving anyway.