Chapter 28

So this is what LSD feels like

Jareth cleared his throat. 'Well, Sarah, it seems that I must recount a time in my childhood when those whom I call my friends committed a cruel act against me.'

'It wasn't that bad-' began Legolas.

'I WAS WALKING AROUND IN DIRTY PANTS!' cried Jareth in an unusually high voice.

Legolas looked down at his plate.

'Anyway, Ramona and Legolas were at my castle for a play date. It had been raining but we went into the gardens regardless. We started playing Ring-A-Ring-A-Rosie, a game in which we linked hands and spun each other around until we got so dizzy that we couldn't see straight.

So we started playing. But, just before I became really dizzy, the other two let me go, and I landed in a very deep mud puddle.'

Sarah snorted and then choked on her pizza.

'Landed backside first,' added Ramona.

'And it wasn't really that deep, you just had trouble getting out because you were crying an flailing around,' said Legolas.

Sarah's laughter rang through the hall. She could hardy breathe. When she regained her composure, Jareth continued.

'When I picked myself up, my pants were… soiled.' There was a lengthy pause in which Sarah laughed so hard her lungs felt like they were on fire. 'And everyone thought I had…'

'Oh, stop,' gasped Sarah. 'That's too much, I can't take it…' Then all coherent words were swallowed up by her inane giggles.

'Hey Jareth,' said Ramona. 'I hate to break it to you, but I never told Sarah any of that stuff.'

'What?' asked Jareth and Legolas at the same instant.

'She just told me you'd do something funny if we sang Ring-A-Ring-A-Rosie,' said Sarah.

Jareth put his head in his hands.

Sarah looked at Jareth. 'Want some pizza?' she implored. Boy, did they go too far. We went too far.

Jareth looked up at her and vanished.

'He always takes things so seriously,' said Ramona.

'I'd better go find him,' said Sarah guiltily. 'Dinner's been great.'

'Sarah, don't go,' said Legolas.

'Sorry, Lego, no can do, See you.' Sarah rushed out of the hall.

Legolas glanced at Ramona. 'What did she call me?'

0o0o0

Sarah had no idea where to look for Jareth. I should have asked for directions, she realised.

Sarah took a few hesitant steps right, but then felt compelled to go left. At the nearest branch of corridors, she went right, but this lead her to a dead end. There were flickering torches in brackets attached to the walls everywhere, casting eerie shadows and making the stone seem to drip and bleed.

Freaky, thought Sarah. I should go back… But she paused and instead obeyed the strange feeling that was telling her that Jareth was nearby. He was so close… He was-

HERE! thought Sarah triumphantly as her hand slipped though the 'wall'. She passed through the ersatz wall and found herself, not in a cleverly disguised side corridor as she had expected, but a richly furnished sitting room.

Books lined shelves along one wall, silk woven rugs covered the floor in a riot of unspoiled colour and strangely there was a gilded window showing the star sprinkled sky, despite the fact that the room appeared to be in the core of the castle.

Portraits of regal looking fae and elves were crammed on the walls. There was a cold dead fire in the marble hearth.

The room was lit by lamps sitting on the tables and one magnificently decorated stained glass lamp rested upon a low-set coffee table that sat in the centre of a ring of comfortable looking armchairs and couches.

It was in one of these armchairs that Sarah saw the top of a very blonde head. Jareth was staring at the ashes of the long derelict fire.

Sarah picked her way past the tables and chairs towards the back of Jareth's head, and, hopefully, the rest of him.

She sat down on the arm of his chair and picked up his right hand in both of hers. 'I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad.'

Jareth jiggled her hands. 'I know.' He suddenly jerked his hand roughly and Sarah slid into his lap.

Sarah let out a squeal as she fell and then looked up at Jareth. 'Hi. Why'd you do that?'

'I didn't mean… uh… That wasn't… uh,' Jareth stammered.

'Uh, huh.'

Jareth cleared his throat. 'That aside, how did you find this place? This is a private sitting room known only to the royal family. And now you, I suppose.'

'I don't really know. I just took a left and a right and then I was here.'

Jareth stared at her hair thoughtfully. 'Has anyone ever told you that the castle is merely an appendage to the Labyrinth?'

Sarah leaned her head against Jareth's chest sleepily and made a noise that was too soft to be distinguished between an affirmation and anything else for that matter.

'Well, perhaps the Labyrinth helped you to find me. After all, the Labyrinth is an-'

'Entity with a life force and presence of its own,' finished Sarah drowsily.

Jareth tilted her face up to meet his. 'And how did you know that?' he asked huskily.

'I-uh… I don't know.' Sarah sighed.

Jareth's head was a veritable spaghetti side dish of thoughts. And Sarah was little better.

Sarah felt a strange presence telling her to move forward a little-- she wasn't entirely sure if it was herself or another… something, and, frankly, she found she didn't give a damn.

But before she could do anything, Jareth had already captured her lips with his. Sarah's eyes snapped closed and her mind went curiously blank except for one solitary sentence that floated through the turmoil of thoughts like flotsam drifting in a stormy sea: So this is what LSD feels like…

Just as Sarah began to see dancing elephants behind her eyelids, Jareth leaned back and broke the kiss. Sarah gasped and drew a shaky breath and Jareth grinned at her, his pale, thin lips for once having colour.

'So what were you telling me about the Labyrinth?' asked Sarah sweetly.

I love you, my reviewers and the fluff does not stop.