A/N: Bleh, this chapter is late. Sorry about that everyone. Grad school is a busy time. lol
I hope you all enjoy!
Merv's was only three blocks away from Sarah's apartment building. Barely a five-minute walk on a bad day. Despite this, ten minutes after leaving the cafe and her insanity behind, Sarah had not made it more than halfway to her building.
First, it was because she took a wrong turn and ended up two blocks back instead of forward. She blamed the Goblin King for that one. Then she shook her head and blamed herself because she was the one not paying attention and it was her fault that her old storybook nemesis had space in her head at all.
Retracing her steps, she found herself in front of an adult bookstore with the shades drawn and a neon display of a busty woman spreading her legs open lighting her way to the curb. Merv's was just across the street, meaning she was back where she started and beyond frustrated. Unable to stop herself, she shot a glance at the window. No poofy blonde heads to be found. Just a guy with a green mohawk sipping tea and Jake the chef chatting with one of the waitresses.
Sarah started walking again, paying close attention to where she was going. After the porn shop was a uniform supply store that always seemed to be open despite never having any customers. When Sarah first moved here, that was her landmark for letting her know she was going in the right direction. All she had to do now was turn the corner, walk another hundred feet or so, and she was home free.
Except she couldn't get off this bench no matter how far the temperature dropped.
This was what she got for not wearing a jacket. It was the middle of May for Christ's sake, and it was supposed to be warm out today. Or so the forecast had claimed when she checked this morning. That was the last time she trusted the Weather Channel. Now she was stuck out here in a thin long-sleeved shirt, afraid to enter her apartment just in case another imaginary friend followed her home.
"Stupid King," Sarah muttered through a series of shivers. "Stupid Goblin King. I didn't think about you for years. Why show up now?"
That wasn't entirely true, as she knew quite well without that smug little voice in her head reminding her. After her trip to… her dream of the Labyrinth, Jareth the Goblin King had been a frequent guest in the world of her subconscious. Scenarios ranged from the weird (he was eating cinnamon rolls with her father in a house that wasn't theirs and had purple hair for some reason) to the mundane (her Spanish teacher was out sick so he taught them prepositions in her place) to the… well, more mature (she was absolutely not going there). Those were just the ones she remembered. There was no way of knowing how many times he'd invaded her sleep.
Of course, all of that stopped when she was seventeen. The same year she got her first boyfriend, had her first real friend group, and realized she could make the stories and fantasies of her youth into a legitimate form of study.
Coincidence? Sure, why not.
None of that explained why he'd suddenly come back after so many years. She could think of several instances of suddenly remembering old songs or TV shows from childhood that hadn't crossed her mind in ages, but none of that ever came with hallucinations.
These last few days had felt so real. She wasn't entirely convinced that they weren't. The criminally nice part of her still felt bad for walking out on him. He'd sounded pretty scared back there. Had she jumped the gun accusing him of lying to her? If he was telling the truth, she'd just spat in the face of someone's trauma. Professor Twill would have her ass for that.
"For Christ's Sake," Sarah groaned, rubbing her temples until they hurt. "What are you even doing here? Just go home."
With that self-reprimand, Sarah left the bench and started walking. She didn't look behind her. Unless she heard footsteps there was no reason to ever do that, and the streets were empty tonight. There was no one around except her and the shadows.
'The shadows-'
Sarah stopped. Jareth's voice echoed as she glanced all around her. The lights were on and glowing bright, casting an impression of her against the brick and concrete buildings. Their reflections bent on the sidewalk, towering over her like Jack's giant. Sarah raised a hand, and her shadow matched her. She waved. It waved back. She took a step and it followed her.
She felt stupid.
"Do your homework," she told herself, walking a little bit faster. "Take out the trash. Vacuum the living room. Go to committee meetings. Graduate and go to grad school. Get your teaching certificate. Publish a book. Meet a guy-"
Something snapped.
Sarah whirled around, wishing she had a dozen more eyes to cover every direction all at once. There was nothing straight ahead or in the alley. Nothing to the left. Nothing to the right. A car drove by, but it didn't slow down. The person inside didn't look at her. There was no one else for miles.
A light wind blew, barely strong enough to feel. Sarah brushed aside her hair, watching the silhouette on the sidewalk mimic her. She stayed in place, waiting for something to move or jump out at her. When nothing did, she allowed herself to breathe again. She kept walking, quickly at first until she made herself slow down. There was no reason to run. It was just the wind, or maybe a bird or a squirrel.
She approached the final checkpoint, the corner convenience store where they sold cheap booze and didn't ID. Sarah passed the blinking OPEN sign and a piece of paper taped to the window advertising half-off hot dogs every Tuesday. Both had been there as long as she had. Totally normal. Nothing to be scared of.
The door swung open.
Sarah shrieked, stumbling back as a man with a six-pack of beer and a bag of chips stepped out of the store. He stared at her, head cocked to one side, then continued to his car snickering to himself. Sarah didn't see him leave. Once he'd left her line of sight, it was like he didn't exist. No one else walked out of the store. It was empty except for a girl reading a magazine at the checkout counter. She glanced up as if sensing another customer. Sarah started to smile, but thought better of it, leaving her with an awkward sneer.
Nothing followed her down the street. No one was there when she turned her head. The sights and sounds and smells were a hundred strong, but nothing she wasn't used to. Sarah had never been a jumpy girl. Not even when she was five and accidentally walked in on her dad watching The Exorcist. The monsters lurking in the dark never scared her as much as a creepy crawly or the lunch ladies' Wednesday Surprise. Her senses had never shot so far over eleven like this so that every single swish of her pants or pad of her shoes was like a nail hammering into her skull.
She picked up the pace. That was okay. It wasn't because she was scared, it was because it was late and cold out and she still had homework to do so of course she wanted to get home as soon as possible. Hell, she could break into a jog if she wanted to. Exercise was somewhere on that to-do list of hers. What better time to start than now?
Another click near her left ear. Sarah walked faster. She thought she heard a giggle. Faster.
A car alarm went off and sent her running. She panted with the exertion, more than she'd given since her last trip to the gym over a month ago. She kept her eyes on the gate, her ticket to freedom. It got closer with every step, but so did everything else. People were talking all around her, their windows yanked up for some godforsaken reason. Wind whipped at her back. When had it gotten so punishing? She spotted that one gap in the sidewalk the city kept promising to fix just in time to dodge it. One clean jump and she was over the hurdle. No 'tripping over nothing' horror movie crap here.
Not that she was running from anything. Because she wasn't. There was nothing to run from. No ghosts or goblins or kings or shadows. She could stop any time she wanted, she just didn't want to. This was cardio. It was good for her. She was fine.
And now she was home.
Sarah smacked the front door like a game show contestant at the end of a challenge. The cheering studio audience was instead her shallow breaths as she doubled over on her knees. She came down quickly, the light and the door lending a sense of safety. Nothing could get her now even if it wanted to. Sarah took one more look down the empty street and laughed.
"I really do need to hit the gym," she said.
With one more thing to work into her schedule, Sarah fished out her key and inserted it into the lock. God, what a day, and it wasn't even over yet. There was a dirty kitchen floor and a pile of dishes in the sink with her name all-
Cold hands pulled her off her feet.
A scream flew out of her mouth, more surprise than terror. That didn't come until she felt the pavement on her face, and sharp rocks filling her mouth. The trees that were once rooted to the ground were now in the sky. Lights dotted her vision at random. They might have been streetlights, but Sarah's eyes were full of dirt. She couldn't see the door anymore. Concrete turned to grass turned to gravel. That was when she realized she was being dragged.
Those hands were not hands. Her head flopped and her chin crashed into her sternum. The pain was non-existent, all her receptors focused on the pressure building in her chest. Massive tentacles thicker than an octopus squeezed her from legs to chest. She opened her mouth, but the tendrils closed over it. The rest of her screams were lost in its depths. She struggled, but it did no good. Every move she made seemed to tighten their hold.
Sarah flew down the street, her cheek scratching the gravel, protected by the tendrils from bloodshed but not from pain. She tried to dig her teeth into the squishy flesh, but when she snapped her jaw shut, she only sliced through air. It tasted like nothing. Just cold emptiness. Only her eyes were uncovered now, allowing her to watch the world spin out of reach. There was no one around. No cars. No windows open. She had a horrible feeling they wouldn't see her anyway.
The shadows divided into formless shapes, surrounding her like a police escort. None of them made a sound. Sarah couldn't hear anything except the friction of her clothes against her skin as it pulled her down an unfamiliar street. Sarah couldn't see much. A few stores with closed signs up, a bar she'd never gotten around to checking out, and a bench by the curb where a homeless man slept under a newspaper. Sarah lifted her head as much as she could. It felt like her body was made of lead, but she could just make out the alleyway the shadows fed into. She looked away like that would protect her, and gasped as a rough jerk around the corner knocked the wind out of her.
It was dark. Too dark. She thought she'd gone blind until she saw the eyes. They looked like gems at first. The kind you'd find in amusement park gift shops. Bright and shiny, perfect for children to ogle at. Except when she dared look closer, there was something behind them. Far deeper than any three-dollar trinket or pebble off the ground. Those sparkling eyes, the ones in front of her face and every other pair that opened to greet her brimmed with the deepest, most oppressive hatred Sarah had ever seen.
The tentacle jerked her into the air. She just barely avoided smashing her head on the wall and then she was higher than the roofs. She hung upside down, blood slamming into her already aching skull. The lights of the city shone like stars above her. A car far in the distance could've been a comet. Sarah tried to follow it, but her thoughts were muddy. Then the tentacle reared back and threw her in the air.
She flew twenty feet and started to fall. It caught her instantly, wrapping around her arms like a clothesline. When Sarah tried to move, the shadows hardened into stone. She slowly descended back into the alley. The eyes now had heads, reptilian, lupine, and shapes she couldn't even fathom. Without discernible features, it was hard to say if they were real animals. They painted the brick buildings in darkness and smiled at her with mouths she felt rather than saw. The thing holding her elongated and grew its own set of opal eyes that glared at her as intensely as the others. Sarah shied away as best she could. Everywhere she looked, they were watching her, and closing her eyes only made her feel weaker.
In the center, towering above its monstrous minions, the shape of a statuesque woman stretched an uncomfortably long arm and took Sarah by the waist.
"So…" Her voice was raspy like she was shaking off the rust of centuries. "You are the one she protects. I had a feeling it might be you, but I was never certain. Not until my fool of a son decided to lead me right to you. Perhaps he is a good boy after all."
The shadow wolves and dragons flicked back and forth, circling Sarah like hungry lions around an antelope. They were more than predators. They were soldiers at the feet of their queen, salivating with the need to serve her. One of them snapped at Sarah's foot. She squeaked and pulled her legs up to her chest. It was hard to do mid-air and the shadow woman laughed at her efforts.
"Be still, my dear, they will not bite." Her grin grew past her face with dozens if not hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. "Not unless I bid them to."
A shadow dragon whipped its tail at Sarah's back. It missed cutting her, intentionally so it seemed. The phantom pain was more than enough to bring tears to her eyes. She tried to wipe them, but the tendrils kept hold of her wrists. They ripped her arms apart until she was little more than a roast on a spit.
"Oh my," the shadow woman said, bringing a wispy hand to her mouth. "Does that hurt? Poor dear… almost as bad as rotting in an oubliette alone for centuries."
She shook Sarah hard enough to dislodge something in her shoulder. Pain tore through her skin. Sarah wanted to scream, but she didn't dare make a sound. Not while those luminescent eyes holding her so deep in their grasp. The shadow creatures howled, a scratchy sort of laughter. It drowned out the desperate voice in Sarah's head, telling her she should have stayed in the diner.
"But I suppose that isn't fair," the shadow woman said. "You are the one who freed me after all. I wish there was more I could do to thank you for your assistance. Alas, the most I can offer you is a painless end."
The shadow woman held Sarah over her head as her free hand charged with white-hot electricity. Bolts of lightning zapped between her fingers. It looked anything but painless. Slowly, as if building up the drama for her pets, the shadow woman raised her pointer finger to Sarah's forehead. There was no halt, no hesitation. Sarah stared at the blinding light, the last thing on this earth she would ever see. She wished she could say she kept her eyes open out of defiance. In reality, she was too scared to close them.
A massive, glowing rock slammed into the shadow woman's side.
'No wait,' Sarah thought as the shadow woman shrieked and let her go. 'Not into her. Through her.'
She saw the other side of the building through the gaping, though rapidly healing, hole in the shadow woman's stomach. Plunging back to earth, Sarah's throat finally dislodged and she screamed through a mouthful of hair and dust particles. She thrashed at nothing, her survival instinct failing to grasp that there was nothing for her to cling to. She tried not to look at the ground. It was closing in fast. Her only hope was that the impact would knock her out quickly. Maybe it wouldn't even hurt.
Sarah landed on something soft. Clothlike. Her clothes? Maybe she was dreaming. The mind often fired off multiple signals at the moment of death. Life flashing before your eyes. A white light. All of that stuff could be explained by the mind providing comfort in those final moments of life. Falling into the arms of a handsome man was far preferable to splattering all over alcohol-stained cement in a million bloody pieces.
Closing her eyes, Sarah waited for oblivion to wash over her. It was taking its time. Plus, it was a lot colder and louder than she expected. Like a woman screaming with rage. Sensation wasn't leaving her. It was more like they were dialed up. She could feel hard muscle underneath a puffy shirt. Smell the sweet scent of one of Merv's cinnamon rolls. When she opened her eyes, she saw the shadow woman stumble on her hands and knees, her non-face illuminated by the glowing rock. Except when Sarah looked closer, it wasn't a rock at all.
It was a crystal.
"Well then," Jareth's deep voice vibrated in his chest, sending shivers through Sarah's body. Even when she was seconds away from defeating him, refusing his offers of power, and defying him at every turn, he had never sounded like this. "You finally dare to show your face."
The Demoness snarled as she shrunk down to human size. Her wound had closed up, stitched together by an invisible string. At a normal height, she was still tall as a skyscraper. She threw back her head, wisps of darkness flowing like tufts of hair. She laughed. "I could say the same to you, boy. Here to save your little mortal? How adorable."
"I'm here to end this," Jareth said, letting Sarah down and pushing her behind him. "One way or another."
"Oh my, not a word for your dear old Mum?" The Demoness pressed a hand to her chest. "Here I thought you would miss me."
"I didn't."
Jareth threw a crystal, not at the woman but her army. Sixteen shadow wolves and dragons had just enough time to scream before a burst of light snuffed them out. When it cleared, they didn't return. Those that remained rushed Jareth as one, crying out for blood. Revenge for their fallen brethren.
Revenge they wouldn't get. Not a single one of them made it more than an inch away from Jareth's face. He flung crystals with expert precision. Balls of fire took out those who survived. A shadow dragon tried to sneak up on him from behind, but before Sarah could open her mouth, Jareth summoned a dagger and sliced the creature in half. Every move was as fluid as water. He never missed a shot. Soon, the last of the shadow creatures fell at his feet and dissolved into sand. Its dying howls echoed through the void. Long after they vanished, they rang in Sarah's ears. Imprinted in her skull along with The Demoness's smile.
"You think destroying a few pawns is enough to scare me?" she chuckled.
"Then stop hiding behind them and fight me yourself," Jareth snarled.
"Hmmm… a few centuries sitting on a pittance of a throne and you think you know it all."
"You would've killed a thousand men for my throne."
"Is that so?" The Demoness raised a hand. It stretched unnaturally wide, fingers elongated and flattening, taking the form of a curved blade. "Well then, what's two more?"
She rushed at Jareth, gliding like a ghost and howling like a beast. A crystal blast slowed her progress, allowing Jareth to shape a sword and meet her head on. The striking of blades sliced through the air and Sarah's ears. She curled up against the wall, shielding herself with weak, shaking arms. Through the gaps, she saw Jareth parry her blows and nick her in the arm. She hissed and whipped at her face. He dodged.
The Demoness's back arched. Jareth's swing missed her stomach by an inch. She didn't straighten up. Her back continued to bend backward at an agonizing angle. Bones jutted out of her skin, growing long and sharp. The whole time, she kept on the offensive, distracting him with the blade in her hand so he wouldn't see the one in her back.
The Demoness reached for the second sword as Jareth charged. Sarah screamed. "Jareth, NO!"
But he didn't hear her. The Demoness roared in triumph as she brought the sword down on his head. Jareth caught it with his hand and shoved another crystal into her face. The light cracked all the windows. Jareth's injured arm spurted blood. The Demoness screamed and shattered into pieces. The ground shook under Sarah's feet. She rolled onto her side and covered her ears. The shards of The Demoness scattered, seeking refuge behind lampposts and in the grates of parked cars. A disembodied voice hurled words Sarah couldn't understand.
That was all her body could take. The last thing she felt was Jareth's arms around her.
Sarah awoke to soft blankets and a warm ray of light on her face. She rolled over, taking the pillow with her and only daring to open her eyes when she was sure they were safe from the sun. Sand sprinkled out from her lashes, wakefulness bringing to her memories of all the homework she hadn't finished last night that she'd have to do today.
Then came the shadows.
Sarah sat upright. Her head ached and she had to lay back down. This was definitely her bedroom. Her desk was still disorganized after her and Jessie's search. That one shirt she'd been too lazy to put in the hamper was still in the corner by the dresser. Her closet door was open. She rarely ever closed it. Everything was right. Everything was normal.
Or so she wished.
She was still in her clothes from yesterday. Only her feet were bare. Her coat was hanging neatly over her desk chair. She never did that. There was a massive dirt stain on the back. All the rinse cycles in the world wouldn't wash that out. Sarah took a few steps and her feet were steady. The sensation of falling hadn't fully left her and she had to pause several times to let her head clear. She held onto the wall and fumbled for the door. It had no lock, but she couldn't remember which way to turn it.
In her living room, Jareth rested on the couch. His massive head of hair was all she could see over the back, but it was unmistakable. His head bobbed and she heard chewing. Another apple was missing from her fruit bowl. As Sarah stepped into the room and Jareth caught sight of her, he sat up and dropped the core into a waste bin that literally walked to him.
"Good morning," he said.
Sarah tried to say it back, but her throat was too dry.
"I brought you home," Jareth said, curling his hands into fists and wincing. "I hope you don't mind me staying the night."
"No," Sarah managed.
She shuffled past the couch to the loveseat. It curved around her like a hug from an old friend. She tried to find the calm and happiness she usually found in this chair, but it wouldn't come. It felt like a hand around her neck instead.
Jareth licked his lips, looking rather like a nervous intern at a job interview. "I… don't know how much you remember about last night, but… if you need me to explain-"
"It's okay," Sarah said, putting her head in her hands. "I believe you. I'm sorry I didn't before."
She couldn't help but hate herself a little for the relief washing over him. That nagging sense that it didn't have to be this hard. It bit at her, sucking away whatever appetite she had left. Good thing he ate all her fruit, otherwise, it would've just gone bad.
As if reading her mind (and who's to say he couldn't?), Jareth shook his head. "Do not blame yourself. To bring you back into a world so foreign to that rigid logic of yours… it would be a lot to ask of anyone. Much less one who has already left it behind."
"I didn't leave your world behind, Jareth," Sarah said. "I just joined a new one. The real- the other one. I didn't…"
She couldn't find the right words, so she stopped talking. He seemed to understand what she meant. That or he just didn't want to ask. He leaned his head back, hair splayed all over her wall as he rubbed his shoulder through his sweat-drenched shirt. He said something Sarah couldn't understand. It turned into chanting as his hand lit up. A ball of controlled flame burned through the fabric into the skin as he gritted his teeth hard enough to draw blood from his gums.
For a long time, he didn't make a sound, and Sarah felt a split-second irrational fear that maybe he had knocked himself out. Then he gasped, and Sarah jumped. The light grew brighter and then burst. Sparkles floated and died mid-air, the last remnants of his spell. He clutched his chest, gasping like a marathon runner. Sarah stood, not knowing what she could do to help, but feeling like a useless lump sitting down.
A trembling hand reached for his shirt, pulling it down his shoulder. His entire arm was solid red. Sarah clamped a hand over her mouth. It wasn't enough to stop the squeak. Jareth sighed and waved a hand over it. Instantly, the blood vanished and the skin was clean. A jagged line of stitches, longer and angrier than before, was all that remained.
"It was almost healed," he grumbled. "Another night without sleep then."
Sarah walked to the kitchen. "Do you want some coffee?"
"Hmm?" He readjusted his shirt carefully. "No thank you. It doesn't agree with me."
"How about milk?"
"That will do."
Sarah poured him a glass. Her kitchen table was covered in books and papers, so she cleared a space on the coffee table. Jareth stared at it aimlessly for a time, then picked it up and took a sip. He winced. "It tastes bland."
"It's skim."
"That explains it."
Sarah snorted. "Guess I should expect a king to be picky."
She waited in the kitchen for her coffee to brew. One could say it was so the pot wouldn't overflow (as had happened before with the old clunker she relied on), but really, it was because she didn't know what to say.
Where did they go from here? He had saved her life and sliced his mother to pieces so that she, technically a stranger, would survive. It didn't exactly make for good chit-chat. Sarah glanced into the living room. He was staring at her blank TV and drinking his milk. He made a face at every swallow, but he didn't complain again. Sarah wondered if she should get out some biscuits. Her stomach was full of bricks right now, but he might be hungry.
"Does it bother you," Jareth began, stopping Sarah with her mouth half open, "that you were not the first to defeat the Labyrinth?"
He stared far past her eyes. A look like this should make her feel naked, but it didn't. This wasn't a prying look. He wasn't even particularly happy making her squirm. He could barely keep his head up, let alone play mind games.
Licking her lips, Sarah considered her words carefully. "Before yesterday, I had convinced myself it was all a dream. Just the fantasy of a young girl grappling with adulthood. That sounds ridiculous now, but it made sense then." She glanced at her bookshelf, the myriad of fantasy novels and mythology texts that made up her collection. That one red volume leaped out at her. "It all seems so silly now… but no, it doesn't bother me."
"Some would think they are not special," Jareth said.
"Everyone is special," Sarah replied. "And no one is."
He nodded, his smile bearing only a hint of pain. "Then I suppose we are not so different."
Sarah was so busy studying him and the unsullied sleeves of his shirt, that she almost missed the coffee pot filling up. She turned it off quickly and made her cup. Two sugars and one milk. Nothing new except for her houseguest.
Sitting on the other side of the couch, her eyes passed over the clock. "I have to go to class in two hours."
"If you think that's safe," Jareth said.
Sarah started to nod, then paused. "Why wouldn't it be safe?"
He gave her a look that brought all the anger back full force. "How quickly we forget almost dying. Are humans really so nonchalant about their safety?"
"Wait a minute, you killed her last night," Sarah said, standing up. "I saw you do it."
"You saw me cut her up. She is a creature of darkness and shadow who seeps power from the world around her. It will take more than a simple blade to do her in."
"Well, it shouldn't!" Sarah waved her arms futilely until they finally dropped to her sides. "So she's still out there? She's going to come after me again."
"Most assuredly," Jareth said, having the decency not to sound casual about it. "She tried to attack you once before, didn't she? At your library?"
Sarah flashed back to the day Jareth first appeared in her kitchen. That strange shadowy hand reaching for her from the shelves. Chills overwhelmed her. How had she forgotten about that?
The look on her face must have been enough of an answer. Jareth sighed. "I thought she had found you then. That's why I revealed myself. It seems it was merely a test. Now that we've failed, the real danger begins."
'Stop talking like a Lord of the Rings character!' Sarah wanted to scream. That she didn't was only because her throat had closed. By the time it opened again, all she could manage was, "but…"
Jareth swatted the word away like a fly. "We'll have to increase your security. I've already called in all the favors I could. Perhaps an armed guard at your door."
"An armed guard?"
"No, I've already stationed all the goblins I can." Jareth rubbed his chin, continuing to pace. "I suppose I'll have to stay close. Protecting you while maintaining the barriers over the Labyrinth will be difficult, but I can manage as long as I don't sleep until-"
"Wait a minute!" Sarah stepped in front of him. "First off, stop talking about me like I'm not here. Second, you cannot just plant yourself into my life and follow me around wherever I go."
"If this is a matter of what people will say, I can disguise myself," Jareth said.
"It's a matter of not wanting to be watched twenty-four seven!"
"As you recall, we've already had this conversation," Jareth said, folding his arms. "Look where your stubbornness has gotten you."
"Oh, so now it's my fault. You pompous…" Sarah bit her tongue, fighting off shudders as the memory of those shadow hands wrapping around her threatened to take hold. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just freaking out right now. I want this to be over."
"Believe me, so do I," Jareth muttered.
"And I know you don't want to be here anymore than I do," Sarah snapped, "so I don't see how this ends with anything other than us killing each other."
"It's not about what either of us wants," Jareth said, leaning against the couch. "By protecting you, I protect myself and my people. By letting me protect you and not complaining at every turn, you protect yourself and my people. It is a mutual exchange. I hope you can understand that."
'That sounds like it's all about you,' Sarah said to herself. Instead of starting yet another argument, she nodded. "Fine. I will not complain." 'Not out loud anyway.'
"Thank you," Jareth said.
He stuck out a hand, which Sarah haltingly took. They swayed more than shook and took the first chance to let go. The next few moments were painful as Sarah dropped her hands into her pocket and stared out the window at nothing. Who would've thought their big reunion would lead them here? "Well… I usually go to the library before class starts. The bus will be here in about ten minutes, so if you really want to come with me-"
The library appeared around her. Sarah started, nearly walking backward into a shelf. She blinked a few times, rubbing her eyes as hard as she could. It was always the literary criticism section in front of her when she opened them. Looking down, she was still in yesterday's clothes, but they were cleaner and lacked the disheveled quality of having been slept in. Jareth stood beside her, waiting for her to calm down. Or start yelling. With that crooked little smile of his, it could be either or.
"What the fu-"
"I told you no public transportation," he said. "Don't worry, I intentionally choose a spot with no one around. Enjoy your studies. I will be near."
He disappeared as Sarah's cheeks puffed out. An enraged, semi-coherent grunt burst through her teeth as she waved her fists in the air. A librarian stepped out of another aisle and smiled. "Do you need help with anything, Miss?"
"Yes, I do. So much."
She stormed off, leaving the baffled librarian in her wake.