Notes:
The Labyrinth: The Way Back
Author: Aviry Nolane ()
Date: November 26, 2003 – January 2011
Notes: Chapter 2, all dressed up with somewhere to go!
Standard disclaimer: They're still not mine. Just on loan from the good folks at JH.
Chapter 2 - Page Turner
The urge rose over her like a morning sunrise. It flowed through every pore, every muscle, and every crevice of her being. It enveloped her senses fully, pushing her to her very limits. Her eyes shone with the passion that filled her, and her desire pulled her towards his still form.
She wanted to slap him.
She wanted to slap him across the face, badly.
Unfortunately, though her body practically steamed with her desire to plant a firm blow across his pompous face, she could not, no matter how she tried, muster the power to force her body parts into action.
Decidedly out of other options, she held firmly to her last resort; attempting to burn holes through him with her eyes.
Apparently, he enjoyed this.
Judging by the amused smirk that wound its way around his features, he was quite satisfied with being assaulted with Sarah's best feral glare.
She was shocked. She was appalled. She was confused.
For a moment, she remained so. However, once she had examined the situation further, the confusion evaporated; leaving only the shock and disgust behind.
She followed his gaze, which she had realized was not locked on her own, but somewhere beyond her. Or at least, beyond her face.
She gasped when she saw for herself exactly what The Goblin King had fixed his sights on. His eyes followed the smooth contours of her exposed legs that lay tangled in her silken sheets below her. Not that her night shorts left much to the imagination either, which, she reminded herself, wasn't her fault in the slightest.
She hadn't exactly been expecting company. Certainly not his.
She was frozen in place as his eyes traveled up the muscles of her thigh, past her midsection, where she was sure that just enough milky white skin was visible to embarrass her thoroughly, only to be lost in the heaving curve of her breasts. Of course, this is not to say that her breasts were typically bursting at the seams in such an enticing fashion, but she was nearing an apex of emotional tension and found it nearly impossible to fuel her lungs with enough oxygen.
Finished with his rather open appraisal of Sarah's womanly development, Jareth took a slight step forward, leaned against a mahogany bedpost, and raised an eyebrow her way.
"Why so quiet, Sarah? After our last encounter, I thought it would be quite a treat to see you again. Is it possible that you've become such a terrible bore in your old age?"
Sarah's stunned gaze transformed into pure fire and brimstone at this declaration. Sarah was no fair maiden in distress. She had grown up. She had blossomed from vulnerable adolescent to an independent, martial arts trained, mace spray carrying, defensive car key wielding, school of hard knocks, city streets of New York type of girl.
She was not about to be intimidated by some... some... well, ruler of the Underworld or not, he was in her house now, and they we're playing by her rules this time.
"Excuse me, Goblin King, but I fail to see how my behavior, decrepit or otherwise, is any of your concern. In fact", she continued, "I fail to see how your presence here is at all necessary."
His eyes gleamed at this, and she could have sworn he was actually pleased by her astute rebuttal.
She tried another tactic.
"Get out!" She shouted. "There is no room for a Goblin King under my roof!" He inched closer and she fumed on, "And especially not in my bedroom!"
She received a genuine laugh at her efforts at this, and Jareth slid his slender form onto her bedside.
She internally slapped herself. This was not what she needed. She needed him to back away and disintegrate into the walls or something. Then she needed coffee. Good strong coffee. Then she could wake up in the morning and feel secure when she told herself it was all simply a bad dream.
He reached out a gloved hand and she backed away at this sudden closeness. She didn't know exactly why, but she was suddenly a fifteen year old girl again inside, tumbling backwards against the pull of her sheets she moved out of the way of his touch. No amount of coffee in the world was going to make this seem like a vague dream. It was beginning to border on pornographic.
"I don't think so, Goblin King." She spat. She was well aware of the meaning behind the passages in her novel, and that they had undoubtedly come from the mythological being perched on her bed.
"Really Sarah," he snipped, "I would have thought that we were past the formalities now. I am no more the Goblin King to you, than you are a mere innocent child to me."
His hand moved toward her bared shoulders. Her insides screamed for any logical motivation.
Inside, she may have felt the part of the balking adolescent, but outwardly she appeared every inch the seductive temptress Jareth had imagined her to be. His smirk only grew larger as she drew backwards against the creamy folds of her bedding. Her eyes grew wider with the physical proximity he gained, and if nothing else, he was amused by this.
His clever little Sarah, now nothing but a plaything before him.
He internally counted to ten after she made her little retort, and plastered a snide grin across his lips. 'Oh Sarah', he mused, 'You are too predictable.'
He summoned a crystal to his open fingertips before her. He had, of course, been intending to reach for her, but after careful consideration he decided against this, and instead opted for plan B, conjuring. A nice save, if he did say so himself.
She practically laughed out loud, her midnight charade shattered. So it was this again? Is that all? "Let me guess, Goblin King. This is the part where you offer me my dreams on a silver platter, or at least your version of my dreams, and I get the thrill of turning them down?"
His grin faded into a menacing snarl. "No, dear Sarah. This is the part where I make you understand just how alike you and I really are."
With that there was a loud crash, and the world began to fall away around her.
