The Chapters of Life

Chapter Ten: Seven Impossible Days

Sunday morning

Out of my mind

Feel like it's going to waste

Twenty five years

Seven impossible days

Mr.Big, Seven Impossible Days

Days and weeks had passed, and the end of the school year was approaching rapidly.

Since the strange, sleepless night, many things stayed the same. Despite Sarah's requests and even threats, Keith came to school only once in a while, though the two met sometimes at the park. Thomas continued to be annoying. Katherine and Francine were looking towards their graduation with eagerness and regret. Toby started singing in mornings, just before breakfast, which fascinated Karen at first and annoyed Sarah endlessly.

Yet some things changed. Jareth did not sit on her bed again; the innocence of the simple act was lost. When he visited the next night, a comfortable sofa had been sitting in her room, and smiling a little, he had sat there without saying anything. Their relationship remained the same on the outside: teasing and light. But now Sarah felt something deeper, something darker, lying undercurrent to their interactions, and often wondered whether it had always been there, or had just begun.

Other things changed as well. The next morning after the Strange Night (as it had been dubbed unconsciously in her mind), Sarah walked down in the morning, and asked Karen about her condition. Before her father could say anything, Karen had answered her, surprisingly calmly. And Sarah took the news calmly as well.

She would be gone for university – for she began receiving both rejects and accepts – but she would have a new baby sibling.

That was cool.

J Y S

Sarah sat still as someone graciously fell to the ground right beside her. "Do you remember the first time we saw each other here, in the park?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the sunset.

"I do." Keith was stretched out on the ground, looking up at the sky. "The sun was setting, then, too, except it was much earlier than right now, because it was still winter then – and now, it's spring."

"Almost summer," Sarah said.

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment.

Finally, she spoke again. "Do you remember what we talked about?" she asked, in a low voice.

"Full of questions and reminiscences today," he said. Then he sighed. "Yes, I remember. We asked questions, then, too… and we only ever answered one of them, each."

"You asked me why I came here," Sarah said. "And I asked you what I should remember."

"I answered you, then," he said, a bit shortly. She glanced down at him to see him turn to his side and tilt his head as he looked at her.

"I never did realize where I saw you before." She hesitated for one moment, then gave in and laid on her back as well, looking up at the darkening sky.

Keith laughed, low and relaxed. "No, I don't think you ever did. I didn't really expect you to."

They both stared up at the sky for a while. The sun continued to go down.

"Next week's graduation," Sarah spoke first.

"Mm-hmm" was Keith's reply.

She turned her head, to look at him. His eyes were searching the sky, and he seemed engrossed in his task. "This is probably going to be the last time we see each other here," she said softly.

His hand, which had been rising to pull back his hair from his forehead, hesitated for a moment before coming to rest on his eyes. "Probably," he agreed.

"Why did you keep coming back here?"

"Do you really not know?" Keith's answer was muffled. "Or are you just asking?"

"I don't think I know," Sarah answered.

Keith sighed, then ran his hand down his face. "Because you wanted to be here," he whispered.

That was a strange answer, thought Sarah. She changed subjects. "Well, since this is the last time, I wish you'd tell me where I'd seen you before," she said, lightly.

He did not say anything for a moment. Then: "Have you ever tried looking for constellations?" he asked.

Sarah looked back up at the sky. "When I was a bit younger," she said, going with his strange flow of conversation as she always had. "Although it was always in winter, so that it would be easier to actually see the stars," she teased.

Keith smiled only a little. "You can see great stars during the summer, too," he said. "You only have to wait a bit longer, for it to get dark."

She glanced down at her watch. "Well, I don't think I can stay long enough today for that," she said, regretfully.

"Come back here after dinner, then?" The look he turned to her with was open, honest – and longing.

Sarah hesitated.

"You can sneak out even later, if you want," Keith said, with a real smile. "I'll be here, waiting."

She bit her lips. "I…" The image of Jareth came to her mind, and then she was shaking her head. "I don't think I can, Keith," she said in an apologetic voice. "The final exams coming up, and with everything else, I just don't think I can spare the time. I wish I could, though," she added in an actually wisftul voice. She did want to see the summer stars.

"If you come," Keith's voice turned low, inviting – seductive. "I'll tell you, finally, where we've met before."

"Now that is a tempting offer," Sarah said, grinning at him as she stood up. "But no – I'm afraid I must be a boring girl who'll now obediently go home on time and spend her night studying."

"What a pity," Keith said mockingly, shaking his head. Sarah felt a strange feeling go through her body at that, and she paused in her actions, staring at him and feeling hesitant.

He waved her away. "Go, then. I think I'll stay here, waiting for the stars to come out all by my lonesome, and possibly catch a pneumonia from being out in the chilly night air by myself."

Sarah laughed as she dusted away any stray grass from her back. "I'll be sure to go to your funeral."

Keith only gave a slight grunt as he settled back.

"Don't actually stay out too late, Keith," Sarah called out as she walked away. "Don't want you actually catching something before graduation."

She walked for quite some distance, humming a little to herself. The stone bridge, the link between the park and the outside world, was just in front of her, and she began to walk onto it.

A hand wrenched her back, turning her so that she was gasping into its owner's face.

He was breathing hard from the running, and his hair was tousled, glinting in the dying sunlight. His gaze on her was intense.

"Keith?"

"Do you remember a crystal ballroom?" he asked, ignoring her. "It was a large, extravagant room."

Sarah stared at him with wide eyes. His voice turned softer, his eyes never leaving her, as it went on in a rhythmic tone.

"In it, everything was overdone – the masks, the pearls that hung from the ceiling, the chandeliers… Glitter was everywhere, on clothes, on the walls, even in people's hair." He reached out, and his hand stroked her hair, tenderly, as she stood rooted to the spot.

"You were wearing a big, white dress," he recalled. His breathing had slowed down, now. "And silver ornaments in your hair. A glassy necklace on your neck…" His hand smoothed the base of her neck, caressing.

Sarah took a step back, away from his touch, onto the bridge. Her eyes, wide with shock, were staring at him.

Keith gave her a sad smile. "You looked scared," he whispered.

"Keith." She wet her lips. "How… how do you know this? What are you talking about?"

"That's when we've seen each other before," Keith said, the longing that she had seen fleetingly on his face at times now very apparent in his expression. "I spoke to you, briefly… do you remember?"

Sarah could only stare at him in wonder. She could remember only one person who had said anything to her during that particular dream, if dream it had been. She had no idea how Keith could know about it, unless…

Unless…

"You ran away," Keith whispered. "At the end, before the song could end… you ran."

Sarah took another step back. Dimly, in the background, a clock struck seven. She shivered, feeling a sense of déjà vu – would her life always be ruled by the ominous chiming of the clock? "I have to go," she said.

Keith nodded. "But Sarah?

She turned back to him, apprehensively.

"The offer to watch the summer night sky is still open." He gave her a smile. "Besides, I haven't actually told you the answer yet."

"No?" the word left Sarah's mouth before she could rethink the decision.

He stepped back, his hair no longer glinting; the sun had gone down completely. "No." His smile turned secretive. "You see, I've told you where we've seen each other before – but I still haven't told you the first time we've met."

"When…" She shook her head. "There isn't going to be much point in asking, is there?"

"No." Keith's grin was wide.

Sarah stepped onto the bridge. "I still can't come out later," she said, as if trying to convince herself.

He shrugged.

"Bye, Keith." She began to walk away, more quickly this time.

She still heard his whisper behind her. "Good night, Sarah. Sweet dreams."

J Y S

"Coffee?"

"Yes, please." Sarah held out a hand; a mug was placed in it. Without looking up from the text she was reading, she put it to her mouth and drank.

Jareth fell into his usual place on her sofa with a huge sigh, having done his duty. "You're no fun when you're studying," he complained. "I thought you were going to have more time as you approached the end of your school year."

"I am," Sarah replied absent-mindedly as she highlighted another passage. "It's just that it's not that close to the end of the year yet, and I've got final exams, by which I mean huge, extremely difficult, and taking up a lot of percentage of the final mark."

"I thought you already got into the university you wanted." Jareth was not to be discouraged by the lack of attention paid to him by his courted.

"They still look at my final marks," Sarah answered, finally looking up from her notes with a hint of annoyance. "Now, can I study in peace, or do I have to chase you out?"

Jareth merely scoffed at the threat. "You were sleeping when I got here – I had to wake you up with promises of making you coffee. Without me, you'd still be sleeping."

Sarah stuck her tongue out, but had to grudgingly admit the truth of his words to herself. She'd gotten way too used to sleeping after dinner – it seemed that Jareth had to wake her up every evening. Kind of ironic, she reflected, that it was the goblin king who was waking her up to study.

The said goblin king was watching her closely. Jareth rather hoped that Sarah wouldn't be too bummed out about the fact that she would not actually be going to university when – if – she chose to live with him.

His mouth thinned. There would be a lot of things Sarah would be giving up if she chose immortality, chose him… but she would also be giving up a lot even if she chose to stay a mortal.

Either way, it was a difficult choice for her.

Sarah took another long drink of coffee before returning to her notes. "Just a few more days," she muttered darkly.

"Good," Jareth muttered back.

Without looking up, she threw her highlighter at him, which he dodged with ease. Yawning loudly for her ears, Jareth settled down to doze.

When he opened his eyes again, she was sitting beside him, her knees drawn up to her chest, her head cocked as she watched him closely.

"Finally finished?" he asked.

Without answering, she continued to stare at him, a smile tugging at her lips.

He blinked. "What?"

"Nothing," she said slowly. She shook her head, a grin breaking out. "It's just… well, sort of strange."

"What is?" he asked idly as he conjured a crystal, not missing her drawing back slightly at the sight, but ignoring the fact and moving the crystal around in his hands, lazily.

"This," Sarah said quietly. "It's almost similar to having a human boyfriend – just one my parents don't know about, and one who only visits me at night in my room without anyone knowing, but still… we're both used to doing this, spending time with each other regularly, finding each other so familiar…" She gave another shake of her head.

It was even more so, she knew, because Jareth dressed down for her. She'd complained after a while that his goblin king attire just seemed so out of place in her room, and after a rather surprised session of blinking, Jareth had dressed a bit differently, helping to put her at ease. She hadn't really thought that he would change his clothes, and was more than a little surprised the first time he'd come without his cloak and other glittery adornments.

Jareth, on the other hand, was giving her a strange look. "Do you want to have a human boyfriend, Sarah?" he asked in a different voice.

She was thrown off balance. "Well…" She twirled a stray strand from the sheet under feet, wondering what to say. "I just meant that this is similar to having a boyfriend." She felt strange now, referring to the goblin king as her boyfriend.

"I meant," Jareth insisted, the strange look still on his face, "Do you want to have experienced having a human boyfriend? Do you wish it?"

Sarah eyed him warily at the word. "You can't suddenly turn into a human just because I 'wish' it, can you?"

The goblin king laughed out loud at that. "Ah, but you're still avoiding my question – or was that a yes, seeing as how you were testing what would happen if you did wish it?" He was relieved, inside, that she wasn't thinking of meeting someone else at all, taking for granted that it would have to be always him.

"Honestly? I don't know," Sarah shrugged. "I've never had a proper boyfriend. Up till when I was fifteen, I was too busy with plays and games, and after that… well, to tell you the truth, I never really was quite normal enough to keep a boyfriend for long."

"You mean after encountering the Underground – and me," Jareth said, a bit subdued.

Sarah hugged her knees. She was feeling a bit jittery, for some reason. "Well – yes," she said honestly. "After I learned that magic was, is, real… nothing really ever felt the same, you know? It always felt like there was something else." She shrugged, knowing that her words did not adequately describe it, not really, but not knowing what else she could say.

"I'm sorry." The words were quiet.

She looked up to find Jareth leaning closer, his hand brushing her cheek in a now familiar way – fnding each other so familiar – as his eyes seemed regretful. "I guess you never were given a chance to live normally – nor ever will be," he said.

Sarah shook off the gloom. "That was my fault, remember? I was the selfish girl who had wished away her little brother – and you were the goblin king who was obliged to grant my wish, then give me a chance to go back on my world – even if you did give me a rather hard time about it," she gave him a teasing look.

"I did more than that," Jareth protested. Sarah merely laughed at him.

But what no one knew was that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl…

Sarah blinked, then shook the memory away. "Well, are you going to teach me tonight?" She held up a crystal.

"Wait." She gave him an inquiring look. He inhaled, deeply, before saying, "Would you like to have a normal… date? Tomorrow's Friday, right? We could go somewhere, if you liked."

Sarah paused. "A date."

"Yes."

"With you."

A slight hesitation. "Yes."

She stared at him. "I didn't even know you knew what the word meant," she said in a wondering tone.

He frowned at her, but only mockingly. "I know more about the ways of the Aboveground than you think."

"Oh, really? Why is that, I wonder?"

"Is that a yes, or no?" he asked impatiently.

Sarah hid a laugh. He sounded as impatient as any human boy waiting for an answer, if a touch less nervous. "Fine. But I don't suppose you have any idea where we'd go?"

"I could say yes, and make tomorrow absolutely miserable, since I have no idea. But I think I'll be nice, and admit that no, I don't, and you'll have to organize it."

"Oh, goody goody," she grinned at him, liking the idea better and better. "But you have to do your part – you have to dress like a human."

"I can dress like a human," Jareth said flatly. "But I can't dress like a human teenager."

Sarah had to concede that point. "No, I don't think so. Now, are you going to teach me crystal, or no?"

"So eager to learn tonight, are we?" Jareth muttered as he conjured another crystal. He did not miss her flinch.

"Can you stop doing that?"

"Why are you so nervous about it?" Jareth asked back, having wanted to ask for a while. "You said you didn't mind magic – you've felt that magic was around you for over two years now, in any case – but you still wince whenever I do that. Why?"

Sarah shot him a look. "Can you blame me if I associate magical crystals with rather bad memories?" she asked ungraciously.

"No," Jareth said. "But you can still get used to them, can't you? Here." On an impulse, he threw the crystal at the girl, who barely caught it in time. "I think tonight, we'll learn how to deal with magical crystals."

Sarah looked nervously down at the clear orb in her hand, as if worried that it would suddenly jump up and bit her nose. "What do I do with it?"

"Relax, Sarah," Jareth said, amused. "It's a crystal, nothing more. It won't suddenly jump up and bite your nose."

She only directed him a dark look as she gingerly held it out in front of her.

He could tell that she did not believe him, as absurd as she knew it was, and hid a smile. "Now try doing a simple turn, like the first ones you learned to do," he instructed.

Tentatively, she turned her wrist and rolled the crystal around her hand completely once. Immediately the crystal lit up, and she gave a little gasp, losing her focus. The crystal dropped to the floor, still that unnatural glow oozing out from its core.

Jareth watched her, the smile completely gone now. "Sarah," he said quietly, "Why are you so jittery? I don't think you were this concerned with magic."

"No," she said after a pause. "I don't think I was, either."

"So why are you now?" Jareth picked up the glowing crystal. He had conjured it only for the purpose of having something to do with his hands, and the crystal had not had any other magic than lighting up.

She was quiet for a moment. Then she sighed, running her hand through her hair. "I don't know. It might be from the paranoia that I developed for a while back. I used to feel as though I was being watched, all the time…" she shivered. "And I would always think that I saw something dark out of my eyes, and turn only to find nothing."

She gave a little laugh, one that was little too shrill for Jareth's peace of mind. "Normal paranoia, I suppose. But after a while, I just started avoiding anything strange, I guess."

If Sarah had looked up at that moment, she would have found immense guilt written on Jareth's face.

"Sarah," he began, "maybe it's time to get you off that paranoia."

Sarah looked up in alarm. "I'm fine. I'm getting better, really. You don't have to worry about conjuring crystals in front of me."

"Oh, but I don't think that's good enough." Jareth gave her a charming smile. "I think," he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "that you should start by doing magic yourself."

"What? Oh, no –"

"Yes." Annoyingly calm despite her alarm, Jareth grabbed her unwilling hand and pressed the crystal into it. "Don't drop it," he warned, "Or it might burst into flames."

Sarah started, then realized that he was joking and glared at his laughing face.

"Sarah. Really. It won't bite your nose, or burn up, or anything other than glow innocently in your hand. Now turn it off."

Jareth was enjoying too much for his own good, Sarah decided. She glanced down at the crystal that looked anything but innocent; she rather imagined that there was a sinister streak in that pale glow.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to turn it again – then dropped it in her anxiety. The light flickered for a moment, then settled down once more.

"Close," Jareth observed. "But you have to actually turn it once completely to turn it off. Come on, Sarah – I thought you ate such turns for breakfast?"

"That was with different crystals," Sarah muttered, but his taunting worked. Without further ado, she swiftly rolled it around her hand. The light faded.

"Bravo," Jareth said calmly. He leaned back comfortably watching the girl, who seemed now fascinated and was turning it again and again to see the light go on and off, and grinned.

As for Sarah, she was beginning to get mesmerized by the crystal. She tried different juggles, seeing what would happen if she turned it this way and that –

then she blinked in surprise, as the crystal suddenly disappeared in her hand.

"Ah, yes." Jareth watched lazily from where he was sitting. "It tends to do that if you turn it that way."

Sarah smiled sheepishly as she looked up to meet his eyes.

"Right, then." Jareth briefly considered teasing her a bit more, but abandoned the thought; after all, she had twelve very solid crystals that did not wink out of existance at her disposal, and he didn't want to get chased out as an owl anymore. Instead, he lazily flicked his wrist and conjured another similar crystal that he tossed to her.

She caught it with more ease this time, then casually did a simple turn to find that this one lit up in a bit different hue. She grinned up at Jareth. "This is cool."

"Glad you think so," Jareth said easily. He figured learning any more new turns were out of the question, tonight, and decided he might as well show her more magic. "Now make that one disappear. I want to show you something else."

Casting him a bit wary glance, Sarah did a two-hand juggle, a bit sloppily as she was not used to that yet, and the crystal disppeared.

"You don't have to do it that way," Jareth said, sitting up a little. He conjured another crystal, then held it out so that she could see it better. "A crystal like this contains magic," he said, tapping the crystal with his thumb. "And it doesn't necessarily have to be juggled like that, if the user has magic on his own, since he can trigger the magic with a small burst of his own. However, if a user does not have magic, the crystal needs to be triggered – by turning it this way."

He did a simple turn; instead of lighting up, music began to softly fill the room. She glanced around once, then turned back to the crystal, a wondering smile on her lips.

"If you do a turn that covers its surface enough," Jareth continued after a pause in a quieter voice, matching the melody that was flowing from the crystal, "it disappears." Reluctantly, he demonstrated it.

"Just how much can you do with it?" Sarah asked, wonderingly.

Jareth studied her for a moment, then lowered his eyes. "I'm the goblin king, Sarah," he said quietly. "My magic doesn't have limits in uses, if in amounts, with or without crystals."

"Oh." Sarah felt a bit uncomfortable, reminded sharply of the fact that the man sitting in front of her was fey, magical – and a king.

Jareth suppressed a sigh.

Always, there's always, something between us…

Then Sarah grinned. "So I can ask you to create a crystal that can tell me the answers to me during my test tomorrow? After all, you owe me for keeping me up so late."

"On your own for that, I'm afraid," Jareth said, frowning at her mockingly. "And since I don't want to be accused of being responsible for letting you fail your test, I should let you sleep, now." He stood up, then offered her a hand from the sofa so that she could get into bed.

She took his hand without much thought – so familiar – and stood up, then paused, looking at his hand.

"What?" he asked, curious.

Instead of answering, she brought up her other hand, so that she was held his hand in both hands, and studied it carefully.

Jareth let her, a smile playing at his lips. "What?" he finally asked again.

She looked up, still holding his hand. "You're wearing gloves," she said with a puzzled look.

"I'm always wearing gloves," Jareth answered, gently pulling back his hand.

"You were always wearing your goblin king outfit before, too, but then you changed…" Sarah said, slowly, still looking as though she was puzzled at herself for not noticing it earlier.

Jareth tilted his head, truly not knowing where she was going with this. "You want to see my hand?" He slowly tugged off one of his gloves, watching her.

She caught the bare hand with her own. "You have slender fingers," she said, as if such a thing was amazing.

Jareth nearly stuck his tongue out at her, and mentally decided that he really was spending much too time with her, picking up such strange habits. Instead, he said mildly, "I prefer the term pianist's fingers."

Immediately her head came up. "You're a pianist?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Jareth frowned.

She was staring at him for a moment – then dropped his hand, a slow smile beginning to appear.

"What?" the goblin king asked, putting his glove back on.

"Nothing," she shook her head, then smiled more widely. "I just think I know where to go tomorrow, now."

I realize I babbled on enough last chapter. So here it is, nice and simple: Thanks to all those who reviewed so far, they mean a lot to me, and thanks to all those who've read this story. We've got some way to go, though the actions are finally rising towards the climax, so I hope you'll bear with me for a bit longer! Thank you!