CHAPTER: Inside the Dream of You
It was as she remembered it. Passing through the innocent looking archway, she was in the Escher room one moment and outside the low old oaken door the next. Leaning against the pale sandstone of the door frame Sarah pressed her hands against her mouth as she fought down the nauseating dizziness. Bile filled her mouth and she wanted badly to just spit it out, but it just felt too wrong to throw up inside Jareth's mind, it just seemed disrespectful to her, and so she had no choice but to swallow and suffer. Running her hand across her lips, Sarah frowned at the foul taste, before she set off down the narrow spiral staircase, which should lead her into the small runners room.
The room was dark and quiet as she entered it, the stale air heavy with the stench of dust and charred flesh. Blinking against the rusty dusk light, Sarah did a slow turn, at first glance it looked just like the last time she had seen it. Only difference was the burned sticks and meat in the round fire pit, and a thick layer of rubbish on the floor. And by the holy Ghost it reeked, it smelled like a barbecue that had gone horribly wrong before being abandoned to rot in the sun. Gagging Sarah pressed the loose cloth of her wide sleeved peasant blouse against her nose and mouth in a vain attempt of keeping the stench out, as she picked her way through the thick layer of refuse. Pausing beside the pit, Sarah glanced briefly at what had once been the large bone throne, and shuddered. The symbolism was clear to anyone...
You are no longer king Jareth, not even in your own mind, your throne has been toppled and burned.
Tears burned behind her eyes as she knelt beside the charred remains that still seemed to cling to the great crumbling horn as if trying to pull it from the flames, even as the same flames had consumed its own flesh. The skeleton looked human, but young, no more than four or five years of age. A fact that caused rage to flare and momentarily drowned Sarah's world in ruby light. A child, the very symbol of the future that Jareth fought so fiercely to protect, to save.
Jareth was a protector, a guardian, and to torture him with the cruel death of a child, and in the sanctity of his own mind no less was too much for Sarah to bear. Hatred cold and clear filled her, steeling her resolve and washing the ruby light away with a bright focus. This would not stand, no she would find him, and together they would reclaim his mind and freedom.
Rising she turned from the pit and fueled by this new hatred, she speed from the room.
The castle was dark and cold as she raced through it, and she was alone, she could see that. And yet she still found herself, stopping at odd times to look behind, fully expecting to find someone there.
But each time she would find herself alone in the sombre gloom.
The corridors seemed to go on forever, until finally she emerged through the huge gate she had only seen in her youth. But she didn't stop to reminisce, or admire the view. No gripping Jareth's pendant firmly, she descended the short stairs in three leaps.
In this version of the castle, there were no courtyard or expansive ground to separate the castle from the still smoking ruins that remained of the Goblin city. Nauseous fumes filled every narrow street and claustrophobic alley. They were the smells of rotten burned flesh and old blood, the stench of battle, but not the one that she waged, this was more, much much more.
This had been an all out carnage, like she had only read about in the papers. And the sight of it sickened her.
Corpses lay everywhere, men, women and children of all the races of the underground, from goblins to gnomes, elves and monsters. Most bore obvious signs of having meet their fate by the end of a blade, while some looked to have been burned alive and others showed no obvious outward marks.
Kneeling by three corpses who looked as if they were clinging to one another, Sarah spoke into the smoke-filled darkness: "What happened to you, what caused this?"
"You..": Came the soft malignant hiss:" You did this... your childishness and selfish needs did this..."
Her muscles froze as the perfect creatures honeyed breath caressed her cheek.
Turning slowly as if she was facing a venomous serpent poised to strike, Sarah whispered: "No... I didn't. .. I never hurt anyone, not even when we assaulted the goblin city..."
"Oh ": It crooned wickedly: "Is that so..."
Raising its hand, the creature smiled with cruel glee as a crystal faded into existence at its fingertips, and was rolled over it's fingers with mesmerizing dexterity. Spinning it gracefully just in front of Sarah's eyes, the creature cooed: "Then see the reality of what YOUR little adventure cost the city..."
Sarah wanted to resist him, to tell him to go fuck himself, but the sight of the burnt buildings reflected in it's spinning centre was too captivating to ignore.
Misty figures moved in the depths of the crystal, men and women screaming in horror as their city went up in roaring flames and huge rocks rolled through the streets crushing all those who were caught in their paths. Children cowering as buildings collapsed on top of them, burying them in the massive rubble. To die as they were burnt, crushed or suffocated.
"No "
The word spilled from her suddenly numb lips. She knew that it couldn't be true. She had been there as it fell, and there had been a battle yes, but nothing to even begin to touch the utter carnage that the creature was showing her. But the seeds of doubt had already been sown, and were beginning to grow into barbed thorns.
Could it be true? Had she really caused this much devastation? But surely Jareth would have told her wouldn't he?
Turning slowly the crystal shifted perspective, to show Jareth, standing livid with anger as he sent his knights to stop her before she laid waste to the entire city.
Bile rose in her throat as she watched Jareth try to negate damage that she and her companions were causing.
"There! No stop those boulders before they reach the hospital! Do it now, at any cost do not let them hit it! I do not care what you must do to prevent it, as long as you get it done. .."
Jareth paced back and forth in front of the runner rooms only window, Soot and blood darkened the skin below his right cheekbone, giving him a gaunt skeletal look. A look that was only enhanced by the troubled expression he wore as he leaned out of the window, trying to peer through the thick smoke that billowed around him. Screams echoed off the stone walls of the runner room, and his frustration at being caught inside the room was obvious as he snapped at an unfortunate goblin who approached him bearing more ill news.
"My liege, the fire is rampant in the cloth makes street, it will soon reach the dyers quarter and should that happen..."
" Well then stop it you simpering fool, do not waste your time in informing me! go fight the fire before it consumes us all..."
"But my liege.. these forms... we are helpless to stop the blaze we are not fast nor strong enough..."
"And who made them thus ": The perfect creature hissed: "They were helpless, mere babes to the slaughter and you never saw them ... You. Never. Cared."
"No ": She cried:" No it's not true. .. it was not like this... there was no fire... no dead... And I did care."
"Oh did you now... and how would you know what truly happened?..": It snickered.
"They would have told me, Hoggle or Didymus, or even the goblins... Sir Thurber would have told me.."
"Like he told you that his king was missing... Oh you naive child."
Stalking around her It stared her down with open disdain, as It delivered It's lacerating words: "Because you were... Oh so diligent, in inquiring about the aftermath of your little victory... hmm.. No you vapid goose! You simply assumed that it was your right, to lay waste to our world. And all because of your own immature desire, to be the absolute epicentre of your father's life... all you wanted was to be daddy's little princess... the little hero to save the child that you yourself put in danger... and now that daddy is dead you think to make yourself queen by righting the wrong that you committed in the first place... you arrogant child..."
Anguish filled her as the barbed words tore through her, with their razor edged truth. She didn't know what had happened and she had never bothered to ask any of her special friends. She had been too absorbed in her own newfound adulthood. The unbidden question burned into her brain with physical pain.
What if she had asked.. what would she have been told... could she have helped? Could she have called Jareth sooner? Could she have saved him before he was so brutally tortured...
"No.." : The word was strangled and weak as she spun and raced down the nearest passage. She had to get away from the accusing voices, from the unbearable images of Jareth begging her to save him, to spare him the pain that she had caused. It was all she could do, and still it was not enough.
Hurtling down the narrow passages, Sarah leapt over blackened bodies as she threw herself blindly around tight corners. deeper and deeper she ran, but no matter how fast or far she ran she would see that perfect creature out of the corner of her eye, it's venomous words constantly goading her, with their barbs.
"They died because you didn't care..."
"A city laid to waste so you could be the hero..."
Her lungs pumped like bellows as she ran to lose herself from the voice of the creature, but no matter how far she ran or how fast, she just couldn't outrun the silky voice and soon she was forced to stop and catch her breath.
Her body might be still but her mind raced on a mile a minute, as she doubled over in the middle of a small square.
Bodies littered the ground as they had every step of the way. It was a ghastly sight, but as the creature stalked from the shadows of a burnt out house Sarah suddenly froze, as Jareth's soft broken voice whispered through her mind drowning out the perfect creatures harsh hiss.
"This isn't real precious...any of it. It just needs you to believe it is... please fight it... please I need you to. ... fight"
It was not real, none of what she saw here was.
Not to her at least. Shuddering at the thought that Jareth was caught here in this nightmare, Sarah breathed in deeply as she straightened and turned to face the perfectly false image of the man she loved.
"It's not real": She said in a conversational manner as she brushed the greasy ash from her hands and enjoyed the stunned annoyance that furrowed his brow: "You just need me to think it is, so I'll give up and run around this nightmare until I lose my way and becomes trapped in here... Was that how you ensnared Jareth? Did you assault him with his worst nightmares and deepest fears until he lost his way? "
Smirking coolly the creature leaned casually against a soot encrusted pillar and fussed with the lacy cuffs of It's billowing shirt.
"Indeed. It seems that I have underestimated you Sarah, or perhaps it was a little gnat that whispered that little titbit in your ear? In either case my sweet you will come to find that not all you will experience in here are without consequence to your physical form. But yes this city is... not a memory, at least not a physical one.."
"Okay" : Leaning back against the half crumbled edge of a dry fountain, that she vaguely remembered as having given Manneken Pis a run for its money, Sarah decided to see how much she could get this polished creature to reveal about what was happening in this cruel nightmare: "So what is this?"
Grinning the creature threw It's arms wide in an elegant movement, that managed to emphasize Its lean physique and perfectly emulated: "It is a dream, a dark fear, one that always lays just below his oh so collected surface. This is the one thing that he truly and rightfully fears. To be unable to protect those who depend upon him. That he will end up causing their deaths... And he is right, he will."
Turning towards a dark archway the perfect creature made a sharp pulling motion towards it, causing a broken and hurt Jareth to be forced out into the dull rusty light. Grinning the creature used an invisible force to drag the weakly struggling Jareth across the jagged rubble leaving a bright trail of blood behind.
"You know that, don't you, you sniveling pile of ineptitude. You will fail them all in the end, because you simply do not have the strength not to. "
"No" : The broken Jareth whispered, as his blind eyes filled with defiance: "No I will not... I will not fail them.. and I will not give up... I will not let you win... Sarah please it is nothing but illusions, shatter them and free yourself...".
His arms were reaching out, digging desperate trails in the ash and rubble, as he tried to stop his slow torturous drag towards the gloating creature. But with nothing but bloody stumps where his hands should have been, there was nothing he could do, And the sight of his struggle brought pained tears to Sarah's eyes.
"Stop.. don't hurt him.. Please"
Looking up from the struggling fey the perfect creature nailed Sarah to the spot with a cool calculating glare, and Sarah instantly realized her mistake.
"Don't hurt him" : It drawled sarcastically as It gripped the broken Jareth by his hair, and pulled him into a half kneeling position against It's immaculate black pants and gleaming boots: "And what would you do to keep me from hurting him? Hmm, No wait do not answer that, I have a far more delicious idea. You will run this Labyrinth again, from here to the entrance finding his missing parts on the way, and because I am feeling generous I will grant you all the time you should like to do this... But I will of course do my utmost to stop you"
Yes Sarah knew that this was a trap of monumental proportions, and she knew that she was not walking but throwing herself straight into it as she asked: "Okay and what is the catch, this is way to easy."
"Oh no catch Sarah dear, well at least not one of my making, but a word of caution a body is the souls mirror."
"Oookay and what the fuck do you mean by that load of guru crap, the body is the souls mirror? "
Smiling with deceptive softness the creature cooed: "Oh you will figure it out, you are after all such a clever girl."
"And if I agree to do this then what will I win? "
Snorting in a condescending manner the creature nudged the softly groaning Jareth with it's knee: "I would think that, that was rather obvious, but I can understand why you would want it. You will win the chance to free this pathetic creature. But if you should get lost or give up, then you will forfeit his life. Do we have a deal?"
Biting her lower lip Sarah suppressed the sudden urge to run and hide, as she looked at the predatory gleam in the creatures eyes, but there was no choice, she knew it and so did that smirking bastard.
"Fine.. Let's do this. I find my way to the edge of the Labyrinth and you give me a chance to defeat you and free Jareth... Have I got it all ? "
"Yes and remember Sarah ...The body is the souls mirror."
And with those last cryptic words the two Jareth's vanished in a cloud of shimmering dust.
Pushing away from the crumbling wall, Sarah ran a faintly trembling handover her face as she murmured: "What the hell have I gotten myself into now.."
Straightforward as this would seem, Sarah had no doubt whatsoever that what she was about to do was far more than it seemed to be.
And with that thought running tight laps around her reeling mind, Sarah set off looking for the gates of the ruined city.
It didn't take her long to get to the gate leading to the field of trash that lay just outside the city gates.
Stopping for breath, Sarah hunched over, with her hands on her knees, and drew in a deep breath.
Only to instantly regret it.
The stench in the city had been horrendous, but it was lilies and roses compared to the utter undiluted reek of raw sewage and putrefied garbage that now assaulted her nostrils and caused her to gag and dry heave. Pressing her hands against her tightly closed lips, Sarah shook her head hard as she fought the desperate urge to throw up. But in vain, this time there was no way, that she was holding the burning bile back. And soon she found herself on all four, as her body expelled a viscose tide of bile and ichor.
It took longer than she would have expected, but finally Sarah were able to sit back and wipe the oily residue of her lips, with a disgusted sigh: "Oh god Jareth I'm sorry about that but... god the smell! It's worse than the bog... Jesus who knew that your mind was this filthy. .. damn..."
Chuckling at her own joke, Sarah pulled herself up and froze.
"It was not quite as filthy a few minutes ago... But you do seem to have that effect on me precious... Though it is usually in a more carnal manner. "
The smooth drawl was somewhat tainted by a husky rawness in his voice, but still it whipped Sarah's head up and around to face him.
"Jareth... Oh goddess... is it you?"
He stood before her as the words slipped from her lips, in a faint nearly transparent form. Unfelt winds shifted his long tattered cloak, making its midnight cloth shimmer and sparkle in the dusky light, as it wrapped around him hiding his body from sight.
Giving a light bow, Jareth flashed a pale ghost of a smile as he answered: "Yes... in a way. I am what remains free of the spell's grip, however little that may be... "
"And the rest of you? What's happened to that? Is it still hidden in the labyrinth mind of yours? "
Smiling wistfully, Jareth cocked his head as he reached out with his right hand to caress her cheek with the back of a black glove: "I know not, I am but a memory of what I once was and a token of what I may become once more."
The touch matched the faintly whispered words, as it ghosted over her skin in a barely felt caress. Reaching up, Sarah caught his fingers with a gentle hand, holding him in place as she soaked up the ghostly heat of his spectral presence.
It was like holding a warm wind wrapped in the finest silk, and Sarah barely dared to breath lest she break the spell.
"So what you're stuck here in this gigantic pile of crap?"
His smile grew a little sad as he chuckled softly and shook his head: "In a way yes, though this is not as you so affectionately call it crap."
Pulling his hand from her grip, Jareth threw his hand out wide in a gesture that encompassed the entire vast plain of debris: "This is the discarded memories of not only my own four thousand years of life. No here lies the outgrown memories and emotions of every runner and wished away child... every broken and decayed piece here once held meaning and worth for someone, even you... do you not remember? "
Oh yes Sarah did remember.
She remembered far too well how close she had come to being bogged down with meaningless keepsakes and childish feelings, who's only value had lain in showing her where she had been, and not where she was heading. Shuddering Sarah turned her attention from the incorporeal figure before her and to the mountains of discarded possessions.
There were broke pots and pans, lying beside slowly rotting stuffed animals and exquisitely painted dolls. Detailed toy cars mixed with unrecognizable cloth and frameworks. Rusted bicycles wrapped around the crumbled remains of doorways and sparkling crystal chandeliers.
And emotions, once Jareth had turned her attention to them, it was like a floodgate had been opened, and hundreds of different emotions had flowed around her, brushing against her, but never breaching the walls of her mind.
There was hatred here, and sorrow, along with envy and jealousy, those Sarah were expecting, and thus they offered no surprise. Nor did such emotions as distrust and disinterest. But the love, joy and happiness that brushed past her like broken butterflies, to vanish into the desolate gloom, brought startled tears to her wide eyes.
"I.. I sense love here... Joy and happiness? ... Why, Who would discard that... why leave that behind?"
He had moved without her noticing, and as he spoke his soft whisper caressed the shell of her ear as he leaned into her: "Not all who are wished away are glad for it, not all who run, are victorious. And not all return to lives where those emotions have a place. Each leaves here that which they have outgrown.."
Tears rolled freely from her eyes as Sarah asked: "But who would return to such a life, why not just accept the crystal? Why not ... stay?"
The fleeting warmth of his touch briefly warmed her cheek, as he cupped it and sighed: "There are those whose dreams are all but dead and who cannot imagine a better life, for them it is better to discard that which causes them pain."
"But.."
"No Sarah it is a pain that I pray to the great mother, you will never experience, but the sad truth is that many live lives where joy has no place... And this": Stepping back Jareth gestured to the piles once more: "Is where it will end...funny how things that mattered so much for one can matter so little to others... like this..."
Nothing Jareth ever did could be called mundane or boring, not even something as simple as bending and picking up a half eaten peach. Swallowing the sudden nervous nausea, Sarah watched in spellbound fascination as Jareth spun the soggy fruit around his near transparent hand the sight was nothing short of mesmerizing as the fruit was tossed spinning into the air, instantaneously becoming a clear crystal glowing with a subdued inner light.
Giving it a final spin, Jareth bowed lightly as he offered it to her with a flourish: "For you my precious... A memory..."
Cradling the glistening orb, Sarah licked her lips nervously: "What, is it the ballroom dream again? "
Shuddering the spectral being seemed to fold in on himself, as he shook his head and whispered: "No... no it is not... it is mine, and mine alone. ... but I need... I. ...no... no not yet..."
The ground itself shuddered as Jareth began to dissolve like smoke, his hand reaching desperately for her even as it lost integrity and was carried away by the suddenly building wind.
His eyes were wide and burning with the need to tell her something, but his words were lost in the roar of the rising wind that blew him away. Clutching the crystal tightly, Sarah screamed: "Jareth... No come back... Jareth. ."
Turning full circle she searched the now windblown piles for any sign of Jareth. But there was nothing, not even the smallest evidence that he had just stood before her. She was once again utterly alone. ..
Holding up the crystal Sarah sighed as she watched her own warped reflection in its clear surface. The look in her magnified eyes reflected every inch of the fear and uncertainty she felt, and though she tried, she could not erase the expression.
Dropping down to sit on a half gutted pillow, Sarah sighed again as she huddled against the growing gale. God she was tired of these incessant riddles, why couldn't this be straight forward, just this once it would be nice to do something other than fumbling around in the dark, while hoping that it all worked out in the end. But no why would this be any different than all the other insane things she had experienced since diving headlong, Alice in Wonderland style, into this insane rabbit hole.
Running her trembling hand through her loose hair cursing as her fingers were caught in the mother of all knots: "Oh fuck this! "
Pulling her fingers free in an agitated manner, only rewarded her with another hard jerk, that drew more tears to her already wet eyes. Letting her hand drop into her lap, she shuddered as she caressed the cool surface of the crystal with icy fingers, as she reluctantly let herself recognize that the tears wasn't really about pain, well not her pain at least...
And Sarah had no desire whatsoever to witness the pain that she suspected was hidden beneath the crystals deceptively clear surface. But there was no real choice, and Sarah had a nagging feeling that if she didn't face it on her own then the labyrinth or rather Jareth would force her. A turn of events that she was utterly certain that she didn't want to be a part of. And that just left her with one choice.
"Okay hands let's do this."
Lifting the crystal, Sarah spun it and let it roll over her fingers in a pale imitation of the contact juggling that Jareth did so well.
. . .
The world turned black for the shortest of moments, and then it brightened into a supernova of light and heat searing her skin. Gasping Sarah struggled against the feeling of being torn apart and then pressed back together, as she tumbled through a strange glittering purgatory, surrounded on all sides by images of Jareth being subjected to horrific torture and agonising humiliations. Spinning head over heels, she fell for an eternal second, before landing on the soft stone floor, that felt like a down pillow.
Blinking away the stomach churning disorientation, Sarah sat up, and rubbed her eyes as she took in the cave she found herself in. It was large, and having no real light source but a small crack in the massive stone it was locked in a moist darkness. But even with little light, Sarah could still make out the array of machinery, whose sole purpose was to inflict as much pain as possible on its hapless victim.
Drawing in a deep breath, Sarah found herself gagging and retching as her sinuses was flooded by the nauseating stink of vomit, waste, blood, raw and burnt flesh, and sickness.
Using the rough wall as an aide, Sarah finally pulled herself up to stand on shaky legs, she turned and shuddered. Torture devices of every kind filled the cave to capacity, with their ominous presence.
The sight alone was enough to cause panic to bloom in her chest, ruthless like a razor bladed rose. Gripping Jareth's warm pendant in a trembling fist, Sarah fought a losing battle against the tears. This was the reality of the horror that Jareth had lived for almost seven years, these walls and the pain that they had witnessed, had been his only world.
His own screams and his tortures his only companions.
No.
Rubbing her face with her hands, Sarah wiped the treacherous tears away, with determination. She was here to save Jareth, not to crumble like a child, when she was confronted with what she already knew he had been through. What she saw now was nothing but vivid images of the past. The wounds already healed and the scars slowly fading.
Standing up straighter Sarah squared her shoulders as she approached the machine closest to her, it was a classic Gothic horror movie rack complete with heavy rusty shackles and drying blood. and the sight of it made bile rise as her inner eye "helpfully" supplied her with an image of Jareth's pale lean form stretched out on its rough hewn boards. But this time it only served to fuel her desire to find Jareth and end this memory as quickly as possible.
"Jareth?, Jareth where are you... Jareth? "
Moving slowly through the silent inflictors of pain, Sarah tried to see through the dark, but the gloom was just too deep for her to see more than a few feet in front of her. She needed a light of some sort, anything. Spotting the faint glow of a dying brazier off to her left, Sarah sighed with relief, as she snatched up two, three feet long, and half inch thick metal rods from one bin and a handful of oily rags from another. Walking briskly towards the dim red glow, she wrapped the rags around the rods and tried to not imagine what use oily rags and metal rods could be put to in a torture chamber.
The brazier stood beside a huge wooden X about the height of a man and angled so that it was just as wide. Using the poker and bellows which lay conveniently close by, Sarah quickly stoked the remaining embers into a bright ruby glow that washed the closest objects in a bloody light.
Plunging the rags into the ruby embers, Sarah felt a wave of relief wash over her as the rags caught fire, and burned with a bright golden flame.
On one hand having light was good, there was the primordial sense of comfort and security that it brought as it illuminated the immediate surroundings. On the other hand it illuminated the immediate surroundings, and that was anything but comforting.
She was now in what appeared to be the centre of the room and around her stood more implements of torture than she had ever imagined existed. There were Judah cradles and wooden horses, standing beside large chain draped frames whose purpose she could not even begin to imagine. Racks and heavy metal tables stood beside a spike covered chair and a display of different whips. Whips that still gleamed with wet blood.
Pushing the new spurt of nausea down, Sarah turned away from the whips and froze.
Flickering golden light washed over his back, making the wide bloody bands of raw flesh glitter and glisten like rubies set in ivory. Running before she had realized that she was moving, Sarah closed the distance in just a few seconds.
He hung naked, suspended by chains from a square frame, large enough to stretch him out to the point where he was held completely taunt by the shackles around his wrists and ankles.
Calling his name softly, Sarah moved around to his front, trying her best not to cry at the sight of his numerous wounds. His back with it's latticework of open wounds had been bad, but his front was worse.
His chin rested against his chest, and his hair cascaded forward obscuring his face, but leaving the rest of his body on obvious display. Small irregular wounds covered him from his neck down, weeping thick lines of crimson, which stood in stark contrast to the creamy gold of his transparent and oddly clean skin.
Her fingers had released the torch and were in the process of pulling the locking pins from the shackles around his ankles before she even had a chance to consider, what that would do to Jareth's wrists. Pulling the pin from the last ankle shackle, Sarah was sent into utter panic as his weight shifted to rest solely on wrists that were already damaged, causing Jareth to scream, as the flesh was pushed up like a glove by the knifelike edge of the metal.
"Oh god I'm sorry.. I'm sorry I didn't think I..."
Desperate she wrapped her arm around his chest in an effort to hold him up as she released his now profusely bleeding wrists, but any movement forced more cries of pain from his already raw throat as the whip lashes reopened and the small wounds tore once more. Speed, she had to move. That was the only thought that filled Sarah as she whimpered and struggled through her own tears to release his arms before she caused any irreversible damage.
"Oh god Jareth I'm sorry": The words were too little too feeble to even penetrate the agony that enveloped him, yet she kept muttering them in a frantic litany as she finally managed to pull the blood slicked pin free and ease his shivering body onto the floor, as the metal clamp released his arm.
Blood covered him from head to toe, all fresh and scarlet as it trickled from the reopened wounds, to create small puddles on the uneven stone of the floor. There were literally hundreds of them, and kneeling on the cold stone with his torso resting on her legs, Sarah felt utterly useless as she realized that she had nothing with which to ease his suffering, nothing but her love for him. Reaching down with trembling fingers, she gently ran her fingers through his hair, pulling it away from his face.
Away from his eyes...
She wanted to scream and cry as she was suddenly confronted with the horror that the hair had hidden. Coarse black thread had been used to sew Jareth's eyes shut, the ends of it had been tied together at the back of his neck, putting the delicate tissue under agonising tension.
"Oh god Jareth... why?"
"Sarah ?": His voice was rough, a testament to the screams that had been ripped from him as his body had been destroyed, but the word still conveyed a desperate hope and heart rendering fear, as his nearly useless hand reached for her.
"Yeah, I'm here, Jareth, I'm here and you are not alone anymore. .."
"No ": He whimpered, even as his limp fingers found hers and twitched pathetically against them as he tried in vain to grip her hand: "Please you can not be here... please... no..
"Ssch don't fret, I'm here and I'll. .. I'll.."
She would do what?. They were in a dungeon, deep below god only knew what, not to mention that Jareth was too broken to move, let alone walk. Oh and his eyes...
They took my eyes: He had said. But never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that it had been literally.
Gently stroking his protruding and bruised cheekbone, Sarah sighed and bit her lower lip as she watched the painfully cinched skin tremble. Blood had run from the brutal wounds, to form a thick scab that appeared to almost fuse the lids together. She had to do something about this.
Steeled by this new sense purpose Sarah gently cupped his chin and turned him to face her as she spoke in a soft clear tone: "Jareth you have to listen to me, I have to get the treads out of your eyes, okay... I need to get some water to do that okay, but I will be back okay..."
"Sarah.. It is a dream.. it is just a dream ": His voice dropped to a pained whisper while his finger tightened his barely there grip: "You are dead.. I saw it.. oh goddess I saw it and I could not stop it... oh Sarah how I wanted to save you to keep you safe.. but I failed you too. I failed you all. Can't you see precious... I failed you all, and now they are all dead, so many souls. .. so many lives all dead all lost... because I was weak.. I was weak. forgive me precious. . forgive me. .. forgive me... forgive me"
Curling up into a tight ball of agony, this broken shattered shell of Jareth kept whispering his plea for her to forgive him. And it ripped her heart out to watch him cling to her warmth while still being convinced that it was all a dream. He was so convinced that he didn't even flinch when she slipped her fingers from his, and eased him off of her warm legs and onto the frigid floor. Rising quickly Sarah picked up the still burning torch and held it up shining its meagre light on her surroundings.
Getting the things she needed to remove the threads was easy, it was a dungeon, a very well stocked dungeon. And thus finding reasonably clean water, rags, a sharp scalpel like knife and even a few thick blankets took less time than Sarah would have expected. She even found a clean silver bowl, a pot and a small brazier so she could boil the water, before using it to wash the blood from his eyes with.
It took her a few trips, but in the end she ended up with a now unconscious Jareth resting as comfortably as she could make him in a small nest of mouldy blankets and surprisingly fresh hay, while the small brazier blazed beside them, giving of both warmth and light as the water boiled.
Running her thumb over his sharp cheekbone, Sarah fought back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes and fall on him like summer's rain. He had been broken when he came to her, but it had been nothing compared to the shattered shell who now lay before her. This Jareth had given up, fully and completely resigned to live an eternity in agony to keep his world safe and the world's depending on him, free. With only the dream of a woman he thought dead to give him comfort, it was unfathomable how he had survived, and it also told Sarah that no matter how whole he appeared, it was a mask, that hid just how utterly broken he had to be. How vulnerable he truly was. It was not just he who was having his eyes opened.
And speaking of opening eyes, picking up the scalpel with faintly trembling hands, Sarah ran her thumb gingerly along the edge of the blade testing the sharpness, as she eyed the thick threads nervously. It would be best to remove the stitches before he regained consciousness, but fear stayed her hand. Fear of him moving as she cut the threads, but most of all fear of what she would find once the threads came out. What if ..
What if cutting the threads wasn't what he needed, what if there were no eyes to free... What if he had been blinded then what?
And why the hell was she thinking about that?
Shaking her head at her own foolishness, Sarah allowed herself a small breathy laugh as she gently stroked his cheek again. This was a memory nothing more. All this had already happened. .. in some form or another, Sarah wasn't certain how anything like this was possible, but then after all that she had seen and done she knew that she didn't have to know exactly how something worked for it to function. All she had to do was get on with it.
And with that though, Sarah cupped the side of his face, keeping him still as she sliced through the first thread...
It took only a short while for Sarah to cut the threads and peel them out. Then it took a terrifying eternity to gently wash the coagulated scab away, and now as she sat back, she watched the bright crimson blood stain the once cream cloth, until it was utterly swallowed up by the dark red.
Blood locked water streamed down his face like tears, as Sarah finally let the soaked cloth fall to the ground. It was done and all that now remained was for him to wake up, open his eyes and see her. Truly see her.
A weak flutter in his swollen eyelids were all the warning she got before she found herself staring into his bloodshot and milky white eyes.
"Oh god Jareth what have they done to your eyes.. your so... broken... I don't know how to make this right... If only I had known what I was doing to you, I would have stayed, I would have...": Pressing blood soaked hands over her trembling lips, Sarah fought back the useless whimper that was trying to force its way out of her, as she stared at the milky ruin in front of her. His eyes might be open, but they were dead orbs bleeding thick bloody tears onto parchment white skin.
"No ": He whispered: "You were too young, your body... not yet ready to hold your magic... I missed you Sarah. I missed our lives together... I waited for so long, and now it is nothing... nothing but dust... dust and blood... I do want to join you precious.. but I am trapped here in this flesh.. I am trapped here... Alone, and all I want is to feel your skin against mine just one more time, to see your smile light up the darkness, instead of the back of the car that became your grave... "
Frail broken hands sought hers blindly as the tortured words filled the air between them with fear and pain. Anguish rode Sarah's heart as she laced their fingers together.
"Oh Jareth, I'm not dead... And this is just a memory... Please Jareth."
Sighing softly he squeezed her fingers: "I know Love and soon we will leave this place and go walking in the sun... yes... yes ... let us... go there... to the flowers and the tree's. ..."
Pain filled her as she curled in on herself, bringing their foreheads together and creating a sheltering cave within her cascading hair, she pressed his hands against her aching heart. Sobs shook her shoulders as the pressure of every unspilled tear filled her until it felt as if she would burst with the force of it.
It was the tears that she had not spilled when cancer stole her mother, before they ever had the chance to be reconciled. It was the tears that she should have shed by the graves of her family, which she had never visited. And it was the ocean of tears that she had yet to shed for the pain and horror she had caused with her unthinking childishness.
Laying her lips tenderly against his, Sarah whispered: "Yes let us go to the flowers, love... My love, my only love..."
It was as if a dam had burst behind her already sore eyes, and golden tears burst forth, drenching them both despite her feeble attempts at staunching the flow with her hands.
Scalding drops flowed unhindered through her fingers until they spilled down her arms and drenched Jareth's face, flowing into his eyes, setting them ablaze from within as the milky layer melted away, like snow under the sun.
It was more than tears, it was love and hope, it was pain and healing and it was magic as old as time, a spell all in itself as it restored what had been stolen. And it felt like an eternity as her body continued to purge not just her mind of old pain, but also wash the scales of magic from Jareth, and only once the very last tear had left her feeling light and free, did it end.
Light shone from his glorious bicoloured eyes as his soaked fingers knotted in her hair, drawing her down into a kiss that held enough emotions to set water ablaze. All that existed was them, their lips and hands reclaiming what had been so cruelly stolen, and the gleam of greedy eyes, trying to burn into the other.
"You live ": He murmured against her neck: "You live..."
"Yeah."
What else was there to say as the dungeon shattered with the loud crash of brittle crystal, and everything became a vortex of class, tears and pain.
Falling through the flying debris Sarah screamed his name and clawed at everything she could in a vain attempt at going back to him, but it was too late, the spell had been broken and the memory rend asunder.
And then all turned black.