Chapter Four

Things Are Not What They Seem

Sleep had crept onto Sarah and when she awoke around four in the morning she was in her own bed. Once again the graceful white nightgown was on her, its soft fabric comforting in itself. At this point she was wide awake and it seemed useless to try to sleep. She rolled out of bed and dressed in a floor length green leather bodice dress. It curiously split up the front and back and laced itself from the split to the top on both of the sides. She slipped on some leather pants and riding boots that reminded her of Jareth.

The air outside her window was clear and crisp. Light was just beginning to fan the sky in the horizon. Sarah found her way back to the terrace and watched as the stars faded from the sky. Once it was light enough to see well, she wandered into the gardens. As she reached the bottom of the set of steps, she saw a tall woman wrapped in a black shawl walking off around to the front of the castle. She was no more than twenty feet away, and just as Sarah began to look away she dropped something.

"Excuse me, you dropped something," the woman did not look back but continued moving along, perhaps increasing her speed. Sarah ran over to the dropped item and realized it was a glistening purple plum. It was smooth and cool in her hand as she picked it off the ground, "Hello!" she called again but the woman soon vanished around the wall.

Sarah wondered if she was a servant collecting the fruit, she might have been an old woman who was hard of hearing. But that did not explain why she seemed to speed her walk. "Besides she had to have been Fae, and then she would not be a servant. Maybe she was not supposed to be here and did not want to be caught taking fruit. Oh well," Sarah looked at the plum. It had a very reflective surface, as if it had just been washed. She strolled into the garden and sat on a bench by a fountain.

Just then, Sarah heard a faint and familiar voice calling her name. She turned and looked up at the castle and noticed a balcony up near where her window. Jareth was waving to her and she returned the greeting.

"I will be down in a moment, wait there!" he shouted, though it sounded as if he were merely whispering her name.

Sarah smiled and felt her stomach turn. She looked again to the plum and decided to make it a light snack before breakfast. She sunk her teeth into the tempting fruit, anticipating its sweet and refreshing taste. To her surprise, it had an thoroughly unusual flavor, as if it had been blended with strawberries but at the same time had the earthy flavor of potato skin. She chewed it thoughtfully and swallowed carefully. Despite being a very unique flavor, she seemed to remember it from somewhere, she just could not recall where.

Her eyes focused on the fountain and marveled as the water seemed to flow up and the sprays swirled around in the air as if gravity were of no consequence. Next to her grew some daisies. Before her eyes they all bloomed and began to sway with some unheard music. A butterfly whirled through the air and also took up the sway as it circled Sarah's head, beating it's wings to a slow time. On the ground, the gravel took up with the beat and the gardenia bushes joined.

"Where is it?" she rose, looking for the nonexistent music, "What is doing this?" through the pathways she wandered, sinking to the grass beneath a magnolia tree.

"Sarah!" Jareth hailed, running to her. "Why were you walking away? Could you not hear me?"

Sarah turned glazed eyes in his direction but they could only seem to focus on the dancing earth, "Jareth, look at them!" he turned and glanced around, sinking to study her face.

"What is it?" he took her shoulders, "Sarah, what's wrong?"

"I want to dance with them! Let us go dance," she tried to rise and Jareth helped her.

Confusion set the exotic brows of the King, "What do you mean?"

Sarah suddenly brought her attention to Jareth, her eyes wide and serious. Then she began to giggle, "Have you been giving me peaches again?"

"I don't understand you-" he broke off, remembering the enchanted peach. She was having the same experience now. "Did you eat something?"

"I found it, over there," she pointed vaguely back toward the castle. "I wanted to eat it. Where is this place?"

"Eat what? Sarah, you must tell me how you found it!" he shook her, but her body grew limp in his arms and she began to sink to the ground again. Her face was paling and her eyes closed. Jareth lowered her to the ground and batted her face to keep her conscious. When her eyes flipped open sleepily, he saw that they were clouding over.

"I am so tired, let me rest for just a bit. It is so dark and cold now that I don't think we could dance. I forgot why I wanted to dance with you."

Jareth realized that she had been poisoned with some magic fruit, but not the same way he had poisoned her eight years ago. This was far more serious. She was dying. "No! Sarah stay awake, stay with me," he panicked.

"Just one little nap, but I could sleep forever. It's not long at all, you know. Someone told me that onetime," her eyes closed and he felt her pulse weaken. There was only one thing he could do.

"I love you Sarah," he murmured, blinking back tears.

"I love you too."

Wind began to blow fiercely and Sarah seemed to turn to sand and blow away with it, trickling out of Jareth's arms as a tear trickled down his cheek.

"Jareth!"

Sarah sat upright in bed. She was at home, in her old bed. The ballroom music box sat on a shelf nearby, one of the few precious reminders of childhood. Next to it lay the red bound book.

Sarah looked at the clock, nine in the morning. What had happened?

"No, it can't be…" she felt her head, but found no trace of the injury she thought she had sustained. There had been a small bump before. But why did she have a bump? It was fading quickly, like a dream that is thought about too hard. She had been in the Underground again, just like all her other dreams. This one had felt so real though, she had been with the King, they had argued, but something happened and she forgave him. They had-

"Oh!" Sarah blushed as she remembered kissing the King. "But why am I here now? We were just going to go walk in the garden, he had called to me,-"

"Sarah, breakfast!" her dad called from the kitchen.

"No! It was only a dream?"

"Sarah, are you up?"

"Yes dad, I'll be right down," she called back, attempting to smear tears from her face. It had felt so real this time, just like the first time she had been into the Labyrinth. She had let herself believe that she was finally right, that she was not just over-imaginative. Yet again, she was wrong.

She was wearing black silk pajamas. The same ones she had bought in Spain. "Spain! I thought I was in Spain! What is going on?" she ran downstairs, slipping and twisting her ankle. The pain didn't register.

"Morning Saz! Are you alright? You look terrified."

"Why am I here? What day is it?" her father looked disbelievingly at her. "Tell me now!"

"It's Sunday, you just got home yesterday night. You were really tired, so we let you sleep in a bit, but you need to get back on American-time. You don't want jet-lag!" He tried to sound cheerful, but his face reflected the worry in his mind.

"Yesterday? I don't remember it at all. I don't even remember anything from the last week!"

"Do you want to see a doctor? Maybe you are stressing out again. Should you go back to the shrink?"

"No! I don't want to go anywhere!"

"No need to yell honey. Do you want eggs?"

Sarah looked at her father with exasperation. In truth, she probably should see her shrink. If she told the shrink the truth though, she would be admitting that she was only dreaming.

"Sarah?"

"I'm going up to my room. I think I need to sleep some more" she quietly went back upstairs and into her room. The lock clicked behind her. Light poured in through her window and she yanked the curtains closed, fighting bitter tears.

She had thought it was real. It had felt so real. She didn't want to be back here, in the Aboveground. Tight laughter escaped her lips. "And just a few days ago you wanted home. But I guess those weren't even days were they?"

An idea took her mind quickly. She hurried out of her room and into the bathroom. In the box of pills and band-aids, she found what she had been looking for: a large bottle of sleeping pills. Her stepmother had suffered from insomnia years ago, before she and Sarah started to get along. Sarah dashed back to her room with a cup of water.

"If I am only happy when I dream, then I may as well sleep," she took two pills at once, then popped a third for good measure. In her mind, she realized she could overdose; in her heart, she did not care.

Several minutes later Sarah was in a deep sleep. The last thing she saw was her music box.

"Sarah! Sarah please wake up!" Toby was screaming in her ear. Her eyes flipped open. The room was only lit by the large pale moon outside and Toby's flashlight, but it was enough to see the look of fear upon his face. It was clear that he had been trying to wake her for a while.

"What's up, little guy?" She mumbled sleepily, then remembered what had happened before she fell asleep. The expression on his face relieved slightly once Toby heard his big sister awaken, but it still betrayed a look of shock.

Suddenly she realized that she couldn't remember why she had been so upset. I had realized something, something very upsetting. I felt let down, but why?

Toby laughed a little, still clearly disturbed, "You were sleeping really soundly. I couldn't even tell if you were breathing, and you felt so cold. I got scared."

"I got really tired. I'm alright," she added, his face relaxing a bit more. "What's wrong?"

"I had a nightmare," he clutched Lancelot a little tighter. "Can I tell you about it?"

"Sure," even at age nine, Toby still loved his stuffed bear. Ever since Toby was a toddler he had crept into Sarah's room when he felt afraid or had a nightmare. Once she left for college, Sarah had told him to call her anytime. Now that he was older, she told him about dream theories and together analyzed their dreams. He was the only person who knew about Sarah's Labyrinth dreams.

"I was walking along a hedge. It was really twisty, like a maze."

"Like in Labyrinth?" she glanced at the red-bound book.

"Yeah. It was nighttime. Pretty soon I reached a clearing. There was a tree in the middle. I kept walking to the tree, and then a big owl flew out at me."

"Was the owl white like the Goblin King?"

"Uh huh, and the owl turned into him, too. I was scared at first because in the dream I thought he would make me into a goblin like the other little kids, but then I realized he was friendly. Then he bent over and put his hand on my shoulder and he asked me if you were okay."

"He did?" she was startled by this. What she would give to have dreams about the Labyrinth. "I wish I would have dreams with the Goblin King."

"What do you mean? You always dream about him."

Sarah strained to remember a dream, but realized that she couldn't think of any. It was as if she had never dreamed before but felt some sort of gap where her dreams should be.

"I don't remember them anymore," she tried to shake off the worried look that Toby gave her. "Oh well, keep going."

"Alright," he hesitated. "Then he told me that he was worried about you and he thought that something bad might happen to you," he paused, clearly thinking about Sarah's strange behavior. "He told me that you had been there and something bad had happened and you had to return to the Aboveground. He didn't want you to leave because he was afraid you would forget him and then something bad would happen again and he couldn't help you."

Sarah laughed a little, "Believe me, if I had the chance to meet Jareth I would never forget it," she sighed, but Toby cut her off.

"He told me you would say that too! I think something magical happened to make you forget, Sarah! I think you really were in the Underground."

"Whoa, slow down there. I haven't been anywhere recently."

"You were in Spain yesterday though," Toby seemed puzzled.

"I was?"

"Yes, you told us it was a really, really boring plane trip back."

"Funny, I don't even remember it now."

"See? You can't remember. Maybe you can't remember being in the Underground either," he looked up into her face. Sarah was deep in thought. Some flash of the morning before had caught her mind: She was scared that she had forgotten her flight experience and remembered something else from that time. What was it?

"What else did the King tell you?"

"He said that he was worried someone would try to hurt you here but that you wouldn't remember that he could save you. He can't talk to you because then whoever hurt you might find you before he could by poking his mind-"

"You mean probing?" something else flashed through her mind.

"Yeah. What does that mean?"

"The same thing as poking. It's when you can see someone's memories." Where had she learned that?

"Anyway, he wanted me to check on you. It wasn't really a nightmare I guess, but I did get scared when I couldn't wake you up."

Sarah didn't respond. She was thinking very hard. I must remember. What happened? It's like I hit my head- Wait! I did hid my head. It was after Jareth had probed my mind. But there is more. Remember, Sarah! Remember how it felt, remember every little detail.

Sarah pulled her hand out form the comforter and twisted it around to scratch her forehead but she suddenly felt something grow in her hand. She let out a little scream and sat up, grabbing Toby's flashlight. She shone the beam around and it spotted on a floating orb.

"Sarah, it's a crystal! And look, you can see people inside it!" They leaned closer and sure enough, there was Jareth. He was wearing a mask and a long cape. Sarah took Toby's hand and broke the crystal. Once again she was in the ballroom. She recognized the crystal from the balcony. Suddenly memories were coursing through her mind and she remembered every little detail from the past week. It seemed to fly by instantly, slowing down as Sarah picked a plum off the ground and then skipping to her taking a bite. Jareth ran to her and she could feel his anguish, something she had not felt at the time. She remembered the strange dancing sensation, but this time she could detect what Jareth was thinking. He was afraid. She saw herself dying in his arms, but he forced her out of the Underground and back into a domain where magic could not harm her. I love you Sarah. "I love you too, Jareth."

Toby and Sarah were sitting on Sarah's bed again, hands clenched tightly.

"Sarah," Toby breathed. "Did that really happen?"

"Yes, it did. Do you understand it? Was it too fast for you?"

"It felt like a long time to me."

"It has only been a few minutes at the most-"

"You kissed the Goblin King?" Toby laughed. Sarah giggled and playfully pushed him. She was glad that they had not done anything but kiss so far, considering that her little brother might have seen them.

Toby was giggling too, but caught his breath, "What did you mean when you said that I wasn't a part of your wish this time?"

Sarah stopped laughing immediately. She knew that she needed to tell him about last time, but she also knew that she needed to find Jareth.

"I wish I had time to tell you, but I have to go back."

"Why don't you make another crystal?"

Sarah thought for a moment. "Well, I suppose I could try." She summoned all her thoughts from the first adventure in the Underground and twisted her wrist. This was getting easier. "Toby, I promise you that I learned a lot the last time I was in the Labyrinth and I love you very much. I will talk to you soon, but in the meantime I need to get back. Do you want to wait and meet Jareth?"

"Yeah!" Toby jumped up onto his knees.

"Alright," she cleared her throat dramatically. Toby giggled again. "I wish that Jareth would come and take me away right now!" she said.

Outside the wind began to blow fiercely and she quickly rose and opened the window. Sarah saw the white owl soaring closer and she stepped to the side. With a flash of lightning, he was in the room. In a swirl of feathers and fabric, the owl grew into a man. The cape fluttered itself into the same brown leather one that he had worn eight years ago and blew away form his face to reveal the piercing mismatched eyes.

"Hello there Toby. Nice to see you again." Toby climbed off the bed and shyly smiled at the King. "You did a great job. I don't know how I can thank you!"

"It was nothing," Toby peeked up at the king.

"Sarah, I thought I might never see you again until I remembered Toby. I knew that he often told you about his nightmares because he interrupted your dreams. I visited him in just the same way I used to visit you," he broke off and stepped forward to hug her tightly. Sarah felt tears on his cheeks. "I love you."

"I love you too," their lips met briefly, and then Jareth turned back to Toby.

"If it is alright with your sister, I would like very much to have you come visit me at my castle sometime. Tonight is not a good time though, Sarah and I have to find whoever tried to hurt her. We will make you a crystal telling you all about our adventure once we are finished. I am going to charm everyone to forget about Sarah except for you until she comes back to visit again."

"Is that why she didn't remember flying home from Spain?" he asked.

Jareth smiled in wonderment, "Exactly."

Sarah bent down and gave him a big hug and kiss. "You can't talk about me to anyone until I come back, okay?" Toby nodded. "Don't forget about the crystal over there. Just touch it once you are ready."

"Alright. Bye Sarah! Bye-" Toby looked at Jareth.

"You may call me Jareth," Toby blushed and mumbled another farewell to Jareth.

Jareth wrapped his arms tightly around Sarah and she did the same, leaning her head against his chest as they were transported back into the Underground.