Warnings: mentions of rape, PTSD, isolation, conflicting emotions over potential pregnancy. (ps please read the bottom A/N before commenting about Lisa's story).
Chapter 3
It had been an incalculable amount of time since Sarah had been shut into the dark room, but Sarah suspected around four days. This was, of course, assuming they were delivering her three meals per day, but who really knew with these people? The room remained as unlit as when she'd arrived, forcing her to grow used to fumbling around in the dark. The only people she'd seen any sign of were those who delivered her meals, and even they seemed determined to be invisible. Her meals were delivered on a through a dual-ended box set in what felt like an unpolished wooden door, and by the time Sarah opened her side to receive it, the other side was tightly sealed. Half-starved to talk to someone—anyone, even her captors—she tried numerous times to engage the person in conversation, asking them what their name was, when could she be let out, and could she please just speak to Jareth?
Sarah hadn't seen him since the ceremony, and she wasn't totally sure whether or not she should be worried for his sake or furious at him.
When they'd first tossed her in the room, for several moments all that had existed was the sound of Sarah's rapid, stuttering breaths and the feeling of soft carpet under her naked thighs. She knelt in place and blinked rapidly, waiting for the darkness to subside like before, but it remained. The room seemed to be totally unlit, with no windows and the door tightly sealed. Was this another part of the ceremony? She wracked her brains for what little information Jareth had told her—he'd said they'd allow her to go home, but 'not for a while'.
Before she could discern what that meant, a wave of cold horror swept over her skin at the remembrance of the Goblin King. Faced with the reality of what had just occurred, Sarah found herself trembling uncontrollably, stomach churning with the realization that those people had been watching them—these… intruders had just witnessed every expression Jareth made, heard every word they'd shared. And she'd just… forgotten they were there. For a brief moment, but nonetheless. Sarah had been forced to have sex with her childhood villain in front of dozens of strangers, and she'd forgotten they were there. What would her friends and family think of her if they knew?
She instinctively curled herself up to cover up her nudity, unable to shake off the phantom sensation of thousands of eyes watching her, feeling a piece of her innocence die off. She could just imagine what her stepmother's reaction would be, heard her voice shouting "You're a harlot! A disgusting little whore!" inside the walls of her skull. She stupidly tried blocking her ears with her palms, her shuddering turning into terrified, ungraceful sobs until the carpet underneath her head was soaked with tears. Her breath came out in stuttering pants, sounding too loud in the empty void. She wished for a brief second, with all her heart, that Jareth was with her.
This gave her pause. Why wouldn't Jareth be in here with her? Why was she the only one being held captive? The Council had chained them up in the same cell together, so why not this room as well?
What if all of this really had been a trick? Sarah's panicking mind began to warp her memories of her time with Jareth, scanning every moment in a desperate search for anything to prove it. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath when her mind found absolutely nothing but sincerity in Jareth's behavior. The way he'd gazed at her had rattled her soul, and still did. She had been the one to initiate sex with him in the dungeon; she had been the one to coax him through the ceremony.
Another murmur of, "Whore," arose from her thoughts but she pushed it aside, swallowing hard, somehow fortified. Pushing herself up slowly with trembling arms, she swept her arms out in search of anything that she might run into and, finding nothing, set out to explore. Her hands first met the door through which she'd entered, wincing at the bark-rough texture of the wood and pulling her hand away before she got a splinter. She shuffled to the side, keeping her hands on the smooth stone walls for balance and grounding.
Her knee knocked into something hard and she grunted, pulling her hands away to feel out the culprit. It was a thick mattress set into a wooden bedframe, and was draped in some kind of soft duvet that felt like animal fur. She crawled on top of it to gauge its width—it was massive, surprisingly—and her foot unexpectedly caught on the familiar fabric of her denim jeans.
Sarah cried out in delight as a quick feel around the bed produced all of her missing clothes, and she fumbled to yank them on properly. Feeling a little safer with her pants on, Sarah slipped off the bed and continued her search. A bit more exploring found a small adjacent room without a door, which contained a bathroom with a working sink, toilet and bathtub. Sarah almost sobbed with relief when she sat down to pee for the first time in over a day.
Since then, it had been an endless cycle of sleeping, eating, waiting, crying, repeat. Sarah had far too much time to think, worrying herself physically sick over what they may be doing to Jareth, wondering if he was also locked up somewhere or if he was just too ashamed of what they'd done to see her. Involuntarily, she started thinking about what it would feel like to have life growing inside her—Jareth's child, no less—and she disgusted herself with the days when she wasn't sure if she wanted to protect it or claw it out of her.
Sometimes she could hear people's footsteps bustling outside the door, the chatter of idle conversation, the swish of someone's robes against stone. Sarah had pressed every possible inch of herself to the door when two people stopped to have a conversation outside of the door—servants, it had to have been, since they'd been talking about some lord's robes getting lost in the laundry and how they worried for their positions. Her mind raced as her brain processed the first stimulus in too long, and she'd actually cried when their inane conversation was shooed away by another person scolding them for being idle. She was terrifyingly sure that the minor noises from outside were the only thing keeping her sane.
Sarah was drifting off to sleep after another monotonous day of nothingness, when the faint creak of an opening door and then a second, much louder creak rang through the emptiness. She bolted upright, wide awake at once. Had they finally come for her?
"Who's there?" she said, voice cracking after being unused for so long.
"Sarah."
Jareth's desperate call through the darkness triggered a fresh wave of tears, this time of relief. She shoved the duvet covers off her legs and stumbled onto the floor in search of him.
"Jareth!"
Arms outstretched in a now-natural position, she swung them around in frantic search of him, whimpering in relief when her hand grazed the silky fabric of a shirt. She unashamedly tossed herself onto him, pressing herself as close to him as possible until she could feel the hard planes of his chest against hers. His heart beat frantically underneath her ear, and she was so wrapped up in the relief that he was finally here with her, she didn't register he was speaking to her until he repeated her name with slight panic.
"What?" she said, pulling her head away and realizing he'd also been running his hands all over her body.
"I asked if you were all right," he said, now cupping her face and feeling for broken skin with his fingers. "Are you injured anywhere?"
"No, they just locked me in here," she assured him, closing her eyes to enjoy the feeling of his hands. God, it was so nice to be touched by another person. "How long have I been in here?"
"Half a week," Jareth murmured. He sounded regretful. "I've been trying to get in here since the cere—since they took you away."
"Why did they put me in a room with no lights?"
"It's a ridiculous after-ritual for human participants," he explained, a tremor of rage in his voice. "They believe secluding them in a room without light or any interaction with people decreases the chances of complications caused by magical interference. That is why they wouldn't let me see you, Sarah. No one is allowed to interact with you until after they've determined your… state."
She scowled, even knowing he couldn't see. She hated it when he tiptoed around the subject for fear he'd set her off.
"Why did they let you in here, then?"
"I was permitted to enter only if I agreed to keep my power suppressed."
She suppressed the little thrill at the thought of the Goblin King choosing her over his power. "How much longer do I have to stay here?"
"Not much longer, I believe—a day or two, perhaps."
"Praise the Lord," Sarah groaned, imagining the day when they'd open the door and reintroduce her to light.
"What the hell did they furnish this room with?" Jareth said, and Sarah imagined his nose wrinkling.
"I think just the bed—I stopped exploring after the tenth time I walked into a wall." She paused. "Wait, can you see in here?"
"Barely. There is a very small amount of light coming from the cracks in the stone."
Sarah frowned, having never once noticed any light coming from anywhere. Oh God, she probably looked like a dirty mess, being camped out in the dark (and a dungeon) for so long. She'd given up on untangling the knots from her hair ages ago—could he see that too?
"Oh my God, stop looking at me, I look like death," Sarah groaned, feeling her way up his face to press a hand against his eyes, one hand on his chest to steady herself.
He took her hand away from his eyes and laughed, and Sarah wished desperately to see it.
"You look lovely as ever, my Sarah," he said gently, voice rumbling in his chest against her palm.
The absolute warmth in his voice was too much for her emotionally fragile state, and she ducked her head when tears and a vicious blush burned her eyes and face. She hoped he couldn't see it, but from the way he swept his head down to brush a kiss over the warmth in her cheeks, she knew this wasn't the case.
"How long do you get to stay?" Sarah asked on a whisper, hiding her face against his chest.
"I've already told them I'll be staying until it's over," Jareth murmured, his now gloved fingers slipping up her neck into her hair. "I shall stay for as long as you want me, Sarah."
"The whole time? Until they come back?"
"Of course."
He led her with a hand on her waist towards the bed, lowering her gently onto the rumpled duvet. Pushing aside some pillows with her arms, Sarah made room for him and shivered at the feeling of the mattress dipping as he lay his weight across it and curled against her. What would happen, Sarah thought as she tucked her head under his chin, when the Council returned in a few days to get her? If she was pregnant, would she get to stay with Jareth until it was born, only to have it torn away and given to a family of strangers? What if she wasn't pregnant—would they let her and Jareth say a last goodbye? Did she want to say goodbye?
She didn't voice her thoughts, but she didn't need to—they were both thinking it.
Time went much faster with Jareth at her side, and if Sarah wasn't so goddamn sick of the dark she would have said it was too fast. Jareth was trying his absolute best to keep her entertained and it showed—he told her about his kingdom at first, and some of the beautiful places he'd like to take her (neither mentioned she would probably never get to see them, in what was perhaps the best of the two bad situations). She oohed appropriately, envisioning the splendor as he described a garden in the forests, where the fruit blossoms were in constant fall and a river flowed up the mountain rather than down.
"I've also met with your friends in the time since," Jareth had said, while they shared Sarah's meal of unknown finger foods on the carpeted floor (Sarah had refused to risk losing any food in the bed, since they wouldn't find it until one of them sat on it).
"They know I'm here?" Sarah frowned around a mouthful of seedless raspberry-tasting fruit.
"I've left the reason why to tell them at your discretion," Jareth replied, a little hesitantly. "It is likely they… suspect, however—I had them summoned to the High King's castle after news of my participation reached my kingdom."
He absolutely spat the word, sounding so upset Sarah scooched herself a little closer to his side.
"If anyone would understand, it's them," Sarah said, glad she had friends genuine enough that she could say something like that and know it to be true.
His answer had been to tuck a mussed lock of hair behind her ear, in a wordless gesture of gratitude. The solemnity of the moment had soon devolved into joviality as they decided to play a game of 'guess what food this is', which had devolved further into Sarah tossing what she had dubbed a blueberry with the texture of a snow pea in Jareth's general direction. He was able to see it, the smug jerk, and managed to toss it back at her in a perfectly aimed shot at her chest.
"Jareth!" Sarah exclaimed, laughing as it bounced off her collarbone and into her cleavage.
It was on both their minds to suggest Jareth go get it himself, but both refrained—there was too much uncertainty about where they stood anymore. Was it even appropriate to talk about it, considering what had happened? They were at an impasse at this new level of intimacy, always close together and enjoying each other's company; they had both clung to each other for dear life the first night they'd slept in the darkness, and it wasn't awkward for even a moment, but they never went any further. While the thought was always there, in the back of her mind, Sarah was just trying to savor his presence. He seemed to want to do the same.
"Dance with me," he said on the third day, taking her fingers in his palm with a heartbreaking amount of gentleness.
"In the dark?" Sarah said curiously, allowing him to guide her into the empty darkness of the room.
"I have no light source to give you, Sarah, so yes, the darkness will have to suffice," said Jareth cheekily, interlocking his fingers with hers and guiding her hand to his shoulder.
With likely little room to truly sweep her into a dance as he had in the ballroom, the two waltzed in small circles, bodies close. Sarah had titled her face up to where his likely was, feeling his breath play across her face, wishing she could see him staring into her eyes with his endless, entrapping gaze. He hummed a gentle, fantastical tune to their rhythm and she dropped her head to lay it on his shoulder, enjoying the vibrations in his chest against her cheek. Sarah closed her eyes as their dance became more of a rhythmic swaying, his head dropping down to rest on hers. She would miss this so, so much when things were over; miss the kindness of this strange and wonderful man, miss his warmth, his hands, and his painfully beautiful face. A lump rose in her throat the more she thought, but she stubbornly swallowed it down, refusing to ruin the moment.
The choice was taken from her when the telltale creak of the door made them both freeze in place, heads whipping towards the source of the noise. This time the first door wasn't closed, the door in her room opening to spill obscenely bright light into the room. The two yelped, Sarah especially as the first light she'd seen in a week seared fire into her eyes. She gripped Jareth's shoulder tightly with one hand, the other shielding her face.
"It is time," said Eggplant's weird, whisper-soft voice.
"Give us a moment," snapped Jareth, lowering his own arm from his eyes and squinting daggers at the other man.
Sarah rubbed at her watering eyes with her free hand, determined to at least see the outcome. A few moments of careful squinting and blinking made the light dim considerably, and it didn't take long before Sarah was able to see the source—a glaring, firelit torch on the wall behind Feylan's scowl, that was far dimmer than her untested eyes had thought before. She could finally see Jareth too, and almost teared up at the sight of him, his already unruly hair in an unfairly sexy mess from days in darkness.
"Are you ready now?" said Feylan impatiently, holding out a crystal in his stocky fingers.
"No," Sarah muttered, but extended her hand before he had the chance to grab hold of it.
She winced at the crystal was pressed deeply against her palm, so hard she could feel the crystal's glassy hardness against the thin bones in her hand. She blinked when nothing happened—it didn't change color like last time, but rather sat there uselessly, reflecting an inverted image of Eggplant's waistcoat. She wondered if they had to wait longer, but Eggplant pulled away the crystal without further delay.
"Wait, nothing happened," Sarah said. "What does that mean? Why didn't it change color?"
She looked to Jareth for answers, but he simply stared at the crystal with his mouth pressed in a hard line, expression indistinguishable. Sarah looked back at Eggplant, who was just as impassive. Without answering, the other man simply tossed the crystal at her; she dropped her hold on Jareth to catch it, only to have it pop between her fingers like a fragile little soap bubble, like the crystal filled with dreams after the castle fell apart.
When Sarah blinked next, there was dewy gravel underneath her palms, scuffing her skin as she found herself stumbling down to the ground. Her head snapped up, taking in the muted roar of a nearby highway, the humid April air and the cool breeze of early morning wafting through her hair. Her book bag lay in a crumpled heap where she'd dropped it, her notebooks dampened by the humidity. Pushing herself up and wiping her dirtied hands on her jeans, Sarah lurched out of the alley she'd been taken from and leaned against the cracked redbrick, watching the burnt oranges of sunrise play across the cityscape horizon. It could only be a few hours since she'd been taken, a week gone by with only two or three missing hours here to show for it.
They didn't even let her say goodbye. She'll never see him again, and they didn't even have the decency to let her stay for the thirty seconds it would have taken to say goodbye and ask him to come see her sometime, maybe. The rush of blood roared in her ears as she turned away from the rising sun, snatched up her book bag and made her way home, eyes burning, shoulders squared.
"So I'm pretty sure I got like at least a B+ on that bio chem midterm," Sarah's friend Lisa was saying through a mouthful of her mom's chicken parm. "I had that TA supervising, you know the one with the weird eyes that looks kinda like Jack Nicholson from The Shining? He really likes it when I wear the blue cotton shirt, if you know what I mean."
"The one that makes your tits look bigger?" Sarah said, only half-listening as she absently chewed on a grape and watched other students mull around campus.
"Yes! I don't know what it is about those thick-material shirts but they're like magic." Never noticing Sarah's expression growing downcast, Lisa added, "Anyway, he's a perv but if I get a decent grade on the bio chem it'll make up for how disastrously I did on that pharmacology test. Why the hell did I let Tim talk me into pre-drinks and bar-hopping the night before? He's such a prick, right?"
"Mhm," said Sarah noncommittally, picking at her nails with a deep-set frown.
Lisa cocked a pierced eyebrow, but continued, "And I could tell that TA had a thing for me since that first time I handed him back the pop quiz after the Valentine's Day kissing booth, remember that?"
"Yep."
"Yeah, I totally saw him hovering after that. And after Mr. Wiley's lecture last Tuesday, when we were in line to ask questions for the midterm, the TA grabbed me and pulled me into the supply closet, and made me go down on him for a better grade."
"Hmm."
"Sarah," Lisa said sharply, making her jump and lift her eyes up from the grass. "Did you even hear what I just said? Don't answer," she scoffed when Sarah opened her mouth, "I know you didn't, 'cause the Sarah Williams I know would have been grabbing the TA by his balls if you'd heard."
"Wait, what happened with the TA?"
"You tell me. Not what happened with the TA, what happened with you. You've been walking around like a soulless corpse since Tuesday."
"Thanks, I've always been told my complexion has a nice deathly pale glow to it," said Sarah sarcastically, stuffing her food back into her bag with more force than necessary.
"I'm serious," Lisa said, hand around her arm before she could storm off.
Sarah flinched and yanked her arm away, still a little sore from when Eggplant had grabbed her.
"See, this is what I'm talking about! You've barely said anything all week, you're not eating. You're acting like a trauma victim—it's like your head's in another world whenever I talk to you now." Watching with concern as Sarah's expression crashed into something heart-wrenchingly desolate, Lisa sat the other girl down with a gentle hand on hers and asked, "Are you okay?"
Sarah opened her mouth—whether to tell her friend she was fine, or to somehow explain something, anything about the outrageous bullshit that had just happened to her, she didn't know—but her words stuttered in her throat when a pair of large hands clamped over her eyes. She shrieked, jumping out of her seat and shoving the person off her.
"Sarah, it's me, relax!" shouted Tim as he stumbled backward, hands up in surrender. "Man, I didn't mean to scare you like that."
"Christ, Tim, what's wrong with you? She's shaking!" Lisa snapped, hopping over the picnic table. With comforting hands around Sarah's trembling shoulders, she said, "Sarah, did something happen to you?"
Her voice was so maddeningly soft and sweet, the textbook way to talk to a patient, as they'd both been taught. It was a little infuriating, but Sarah tried to refrain from glaring at her, knowing her concern was genuine. Even if her voice sounds fake as fuck right now, she thought.
"I'm fine, Lise," Sarah said, brushing her off and sending her glare at Tim instead.
Lisa caught the look and shooed Tim away with an annoyed hand gesture and a mouthed 'wait for me'. He had the grace to listen without complaint, giving Sarah's shoulder an apologetic squeeze before heading over to meander by some trees. Sarah blew out a huffed sigh and was about to repeat her reassurance until Lisa interrupted.
"What's that on your arm?" her friend said in horror, turning over Sarah's arm to see the faint yellow-purple bruising from Feylan's harsh grip. When Sarah struggled to find an answer, Lisa looked up at her with teary eyes. "Sarah, were you assaulted?"
"No, no, don't worry," Sarah assured her, although it was a little bit true. "He just… caught me the wrong way, that's—"
"Who is 'he'?" she interrupted, looking even more horrified. "Were you ra—"
"It was not rape, and it wasn't him that grabbed me," Sarah half-shouted before she could dare finish the word, her whole body flushing cold for some reason.
Lisa didn't look convinced and took on that stupid fake nurse voice. "You know, it doesn't always hit you until later that that's what it was. Like, remember that time at Beth's house party when Craig Fulcher waited 'til I was completely plastered and then came onto me really strong, and I just kinda went with it? Maybe it wasn't rape but it wasn't, like, right of him, you know?"
"But it wasn't like that," she whispered, really, really not wanting to think about it. "I came onto him both times. I wasn't drunk. The first time he asked if-if I was really sure. It wasn't like that."
"Then why are you so worked up about it?" asked Lisa.
"I just… it's not about that. I think I'm getting sick, or something. Felt like shit all week, but I didn't want to miss midterms."
It was a total copout, and Lisa clearly didn't believe her, but conceded, "Yeah, maybe it's that flu that was going around last week. You should go home, I'll page you if there's a quiz or something you need to get a note for, okay?"
"Thanks," Sarah said, with true gratitude.
Sarah parted ways with her friend with a quick hug and left campus with her hands shoved into her pockets, shoulders slumped. God, she needed to deal with what happened and just move on—she could barely concentrate on any of her midterms, the medical jargon present on every test suddenly seeming like nonsense. Her mind kept going to Jareth—what he was doing, if he had his powers back yet, if he was using them to murder whoever made the two of them go through with the ceremony (and/or exile Eggplant).
If he was missing her.
Her eyes burned for the hundredth time at the thought, and she angrily blinked them back as she powerwalked to her apartment. If they'd just been able to talk before she'd been dumped back home, discarded like an item that had outlived its purpose, things wouldn't be so bad. There was so much left unsaid, and that just made everything ten times harder—especially since Sarah couldn't tell anyone. She'd thought about telling her friends dozens of times, or even a counselor, but the thought was almost instantly shut down when she envisioned how that conversation would go. 'Hey Lisa and/or licensed professional, don't think I'm crazy or anything, but I was kidnapped and forced to have sex in front of a crowd of people with my childhood ex-villain, who happens to be a fucking gorgeous king of a magical world, so they could take the baby that might have come from it, and then I was dumped back into the real world like a used tissue.' That would earn her a psych visit if she was lucky.
And why hadn't she seen Jareth once while back in her world—in any form, owl or human(oid)? Sarah knew he had the ability to travel here, at least for a little while, otherwise the barn owl she'd spotted meandering in the park during her declamations wouldn't have also burst through her window and turned into a smirking king the moment she'd made her wish. Did the Council or the High King or whatever shitty Underground power forbid him from visiting her ever again? These thoughts had been running on loop in her head since she'd dragged herself home from the alley and collapsed into bed, shaking with tears and sleeping with all the lights on because she could. And she was just so tired of the endless loop, never getting any answers, just finding more questions to obsess over.
Sarah trudged up the stairs of her modest 2 ½ and shut the paint-peeled door behind her, tossing her keys onto the counter and pressing her fingers to her closed eyes. At least she'd (somewhat) made it through midterms. She'd been studying for weeks before that last night when she'd been grabbed.
Sighing, Sarah tossed her bag wherever and sank down onto the couch, covering her eyes with her forearm and letting her other arm dangle off the couch. Maybe she'd just take a quick nap, fight off the mental exhaustion for a little while. She wondered if Jareth was half as wrecked as she was. She hoped not—he did have a kingdom to run, even if it was a kingdom of goblins. Come to think of it, who had been running it while she and Jareth were in the dungeon…?
Sarah groaned, face burning at the memories of the dungeon, the same ones that she'd used to help Jareth get off during the ceremony, when they'd been in a sweet secluded bubble of just them and his tongue had flicked rapid licks over her clit while he touched himself, his pleasure taken from the noises he brought out of her. Her core throbbed at the remembrance of the absolutely gorgeous face he made when she'd just used a sweet utterance of his name to make him fall to pieces, permanently seared into her brain and ruining her for anyone else.
She let out an angry shout that she buried into a cushion, resisting the urge to slip her hand downward. Would there ever be anyone else? She didn't think she even wanted anyone else, instantly hating the vision of any future man she might encounter. God, how did it come to this? She almost wished she still had the angry, forceful idea of the Goblin King as an absolute truth in her head—it was a lot easier to live without him before she knew he was someone she'd probably fall in love with, if she wasn't already kind of there.
"What the hell am I gonna do?" she whispered, the tears she'd been holding back finally spilling over.
She pressed the cushion into her face and let out a choked sob, only to scream when she felt a little tug on the sleeve of her dangling arm. The cushion dropped into her lap as she shot upright, staring through reddened eyes at a wide-eyed little goblin holding a potato half as big as he was.
"Here ya go, lady," he (it?) said in a scratchy voice, holding out the potato with a mottled green hand. "Make ya feel better."
She took the potato blankly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Thanks," she said, sniffling as she patted his head, somehow actually feeling a little bit better. At least the goblins understood, in their weird, potato-y sort of way.
"'Tatoes always cheer me up," it said with a toothy smile. "King don't like 'em. Gets mad when we leave 'em on his fancy throne."
Her stomach dropped at the mention of Jareth. "D-do you know where he is?"
"Doing king things in the castle, I 'magine," said the goblin unhelpfully.
"I mean, have you seen him? Recently?"
"No, he's been gone awhiles. We're leavin' a nice 'tatoe pile on his throne for when he gets back."
"I thought you said he got mad when you did that?"
It thought for a moment and shrugged. "Maybe he'll like it this time."
Well that was unhelpful, she thought, sinking down a little more in the couch. Her only connection to the Underground and it was this sweet but addle-minded creature.
She gasped, dropping the potato into her lap as her eyes blew wide. She was an idiot—this little goblin wasn't her only connection to the Underground. Jareth had said Hoggle and the others knew a little bit about what happened, knew she had been in the Underground. If anyone knew what Jareth was doing, it'd be them. Why didn't she think of this before?
"You're a genius, little guy," Sarah exclaimed, smiling for the first time in days.
"Whazzat mean?" he frowned through an already gnarled mouth.
"It means that you can help yourself to all the potatoes you can carry," Sarah told the goblin, watching as he swelled with excitement.
"Y'mean it? The onions too?"
"Go for it."
He whooped, hopping into the kitchen and clicking his heels together while Sarah hastened to her landline. While the phone rang, Sarah absently grabbed her pager off the counter and let Lisa know she'd be out sick for a few days.
"Karen, hi, it's Sarah," she said, when her stepmother's voice rang through the speaker.
"Sarah! Is everything all right? You don't usually call this early," Karen replied with concern.
"Yeah, everything's fine. I just… do you think it'd be okay if I came home for a few days? I know it's a little earlier than usual, but I really need some downtime."
"Of course, I'll have your room tidied up for you," the women replied, with a warmth in her voice that teen Sarah had never picked up on. "I hope you won't be missing school—I thought you were taking exams this week?"
"Yeah, I just finished," Sarah said, watching as the goblin dug his way gleefully through her cupboard and stuffed vegetables into his patchy coat. "Don't have anything else 'til after the weekend, so I have a few free days."
"Well that's great! I'll let Toby know, he'll be so excited," her stepmother exclaimed, making Sarah smile. "He just got a gold star for being teacher's helper today. Pretend it's a surprise when he shows you."
"Will do," said Sarah through her smile, hanging up the phone and hurrying to pack a go-bag.
She waved the goblin goodbye with an order to stay out of the rest of the pantry, and hurried to the bus stop, waiting for the bus with foot-tapping impatience. Lisa paged her back to acknowledge her message and wish her good health when Sarah clambered onto the bus and dropped into the nearest seat. The usual forty-five minute ride was agonizingly long, and the whole while Sarah wondered what to say to them. How were they going to react when she told them she'd been forced to sleep with Jareth for the ceremony (and one time slept with him of her own volition)? Hoggle would probably have a fit just from the mention of Jareth's name. Although, hadn't that been a lie, since Jareth had hid his true character to mold her adventure into something she'd wanted? All the conversations they'd had post-adventure in the Labyrinth had held no mention of the Goblin King.
She ended up so lost in thought she almost missed her bus stop, only noticing when the bus was just starting to pull away from it. With a shout she got the bus driver to stop, earning herself a slight glare as she bolted through the doors down Castle Heights avenue.
"Well, you're here awfully quick," Karen said, as she opened the door to find a slightly out-of-breath Sarah holding her things.
"Wanted to see Toby's gold star, what can I say?" Sarah joked, allowing herself to be ushered in by the women.
She let Karen taken her coat and set it on the rack, itching to get alone and upstairs but figuring it would be rude if she just disappeared. Her plans were impeded by a blond streak hurling itself through the doorway and clamping onto her legs hard enough to make her stumble.
"Sarah! Momma said you'd be here! Why are you here on a Wednesday? Guess what happened in kindergarten today!"
"Toby, take a breath," Karen exclaimed, while Sarah laughed and set her things down to hug her brother.
"Where's Dad?" she asked, letting Toby slip his sticky hand into hers while the other made its way up his nose.
"Still at work, he's caught up in some deal with Bannock & Lieberman," Karen said, leading the two into the kitchen where a pot of chili was bubbling. "You hungry? Dinner'll be a little later than usual since your father won't be home 'til seven, but I can make you something quick."
"Sarah, look at my gold star," Toby said, wiping his hand on his corduroys and grabbing a crumpled sheet of paper from the kitchen table.
"I'm good, thanks Karen," Sarah said, giving Toby a pat on the head and a whispered 'good job kiddo!' to placate him. "If it's all right I'm just gonna wind down in my room? It's been a rough couple of weeks."
"Of course honey," said Karen, taking Toby's hand so he wouldn't follow her. "Let's let your sister rest for a little bit, okay?"
"But I wanna show her what I drawed in arts 'n' crafts."
"I'll look at it later, Tobes, I promise," said Sarah absently, already halfway out the room.
She snatched up her bag and hurried up the stairs. Her door was already ajar, and it looked as though Karen had given the floors a quick vacuum. Dumping her things on her bed, Sarah shut her door and sank down into her vanity chair, heart pounding, eyes wide and sunk into her face. She grimaced, trying to tidy herself up a bit, before taking a deep breath.
"Hoggle, I need you."
She almost cried when Hoggle's gnarled face almost immediately rippled into view, buggy eyes wide with shock.
"Sarah? What're you doin' back up there? Jareth told us you were in the Underground!"
"Oh Hoggle, you have no idea what I've been through," she breathed out, trying not to cry and failing just a little bit.
"What happened? Er, hang on a mo'."
Sarah turned away from the mirror to find him standing by her bedside. She threw herself down to give the little dwarf a giant hug, sniffling and finding an absurd amount of comfort in the little pats he gave on her back. It was almost like a return to normalcy… except it was the opposite.
"Now tell ol' Hoggle what's goin' on," he said, once they were sat with their backs against her bedside.
Sarah inhaled deeply, her head resting on her palms. How the hell could she put this into actual words?
"Well, you heard what happened with Jareth? And the ce-ceremony?" He nodded, frowning, and she took another deep breath. "Well… they took me too."
"WHAT?!" he roared, instantly on his feet, and Sarah flinched and shushed him, hoping her family wouldn't hear. "Sarah, yeh had to… yeh were… with the King?!"
"Yeah!" Sarah found herself shouting as well. "Those fucking assholes kidnapped me in the middle of an alley and chained the two of us in a dungeon."
"But yer here, that means yer not…" he trailed off, eyes trailing down to her stomach.
"I'm not pregnant, Hoggle," Sarah said bitterly, drawing her knees up to her chest and hugging them. "They kept me in a dark room for a week after the ceremony and then dumped me back on the street when they found out. Didn't even get to say goodbye to Jareth. It was horrible."
"Gawd, Sarah," her little friend exclaimed, head in his own hands. "I don't believe it! Did he hurt yeh at all? That potion can—"
"Jareth was a perfect gentleman about it, Hoggle," Sarah interrupted sharply. "And he didn't take the potion."
They just sat there in silence for a few moments, Sarah watching through the corner of her eye while Hoggle's dumbfounded expression shifted the more he thought.
"He told me that time in Labyrinth was an act," she said, continuing to watch him intently. "Is that true?"
"Toldja that, did he? Well, thankfully Jareth ain't a no-good rat, that's fer sure," Hoggle chuckled, giving her knee a pat. "Not normally, anyhow. He was playin' yer villain—but we wasn't playin' your friends," he added sharply, and Sarah smiled.
"I know," she said, before hesitating. "What… I mean… did you see him?"
"Not since I talked to him right after the ceremony. I'll let yeh know though, if yeh like?" Hoggle added, noticing her crestfallen expression.
She nodded, and the two friends hugged with Hoggle's promise to greet Didymus and Ludo on her behalf as well. She watched him disappear into the mirror again with a sigh, sinking down onto her bed, feeling a little less dead inside. Hoggle would see Jareth soon and bring her news, whether he was as upset as she was or utterly indifferent. With a sudden urge to reminisce, Sarah jumped to her feet again and began digging through her drawers, pulling out the little red book with care and longing. A quiet tapping on her door that could only come from Toby's tiny hands stole her attention.
"Come in, Tobes," Sarah said, opening the door for him.
"Momma said not to bother you, but I heard you talking to somebody," Toby said, waddling in and looking around. "I don't see a phone though. It's not fair that you get a phone in your room and I don't."
"It might not be fair, but that's the way it is," Sarah said with a smile, sinking down onto the bed and patting the space next to her.
With little grunts and breaths Toby hoisted himself up, immediately wrapping his hand around the ear of a stuffed animal as he examined her.
"What's that? It looks old."
"It's a book from when I was younger," Sarah said, showing it to him. "Careful now," she added, when he snatched at it with careless, stubby fingers. "It's actually a true story."
"What's it about?"
"Well," she said, sitting up, "a young girl wishes her baby brother away to the King of the Goblins, and runs a magical labyrinth to get him back."
"Hmm." He sat on her bed, absently sucking on his thumb as he processed her words. "Can we go to the park after supper?"
Sarah laughed, setting the book down. "I just told you a tale of magic is a true story, and that's your answer?"
"Well, I don't know what that thing you said is!" Toby half-shouted, pouting at her laughter.
"Don't worry about it, kid. Tell Karen I'll be down for dinner in a bit, then I'll take you to the park if she says it's okay. Sound good?"
He nodded, wriggling his way off the bed and bumbling out of the room, her kidnapped stuffy still in his hand. Shaking her head, she leaned over to shut the door with her foot before settling herself back against the pillows, little red book in hand. Sarah ran her fingers over the gold lettering and the bumpy red leather, before flicking through the pages. Things hadn't quite turned out like the book—Sarah certainly hadn't been a Cinderella-type, do-all housekeeper, no matter how hard she wanted to believe it—but her heart still clenched at the familiar words. She sat up abruptly, heart stuttering as her eyes fell upon a specific passage.
But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and he had given her certain powers.
God, how much truth was there in this? Memories of blazing looks, desperate pleas, fingers kissed and 'you look lovely as ever, my Sarah's made her breath hitch, tears burning yet again. When the heck did that even happen? Back in the Labyrinth? It had to have gone earlier—he'd told her he was the King of Dreams (or whatever the actual words were) and fashioned his whole self to what he believed she wanted most. And after it was all over, he'd still begged for her love, and stupid, innocent child-Sarah had thrown it in his face, thinking it was a trick, and told him—
"He has no power over me!" she burst out, sitting up so sharply the book flew off her lap and landed on the floor. "Oh my God, that's why he hasn't come—he can't come!"
And he gave her certain powers.
She groaned at the same time a giant grin began to grow on her face—God, how could she be so stupid? Tossing herself off the bed, fists clenched, Sarah squeezed her eyes shut and shouted, "I wish the goblins would come take me away. Right now!"
When next she opened her eyes, a plethora of muttering goblins, varying in size, shape and wild hairstyle, had scattered themselves around her bedroom. They all watched with wide, curious eyes as she extended her hand to them, heart pounding in her ears.
"Please," Sarah said, an excited smile on her face. "Take me to your king."
A/N: About Lisa's story. It is absolutely rape. But since this story is situated around the early/mid 90s, our current attitudes about assault weren't the same back then. Just know that if a guy knows a girl is drunk and pressures her into have sex with him, it ABSOLUTELY is assault.
Also does anyone remember pagers? (young'un here, never even seen one outside of 'House' lmao). I take all responsibility for inaccuracies about pre-med college exams in the States. Special thanks to Margot Grazyna, Eyir-AllMight, furionbeauty, jackswoman and Fleur24.