Sarah had wandered to a little fountain in the midst of the dark looming walls of the Labyrinth's topiary gardens.
Her mouth was parched, and so stooping she cupped some of the brackish water and tried to pass it through her lips. She was sure it tasted something awful, but her body was severely dehydrated. She took a few more palmfuls before sitting back again to meditate on her current state.
How strange it is…how strange. To know that you are enslaved to another in your entire being and yet that means nothing, solves nothing, serves no purpose in and of itself…
"Sarah…" a voice cut in. No need for her to turn and see who it was. The sound of it plucked every fiber every sinew in her body.
She sat outwardly unflinching, head slightly lowered to the side.
Let him come forward, I am nothing in this state…she remarked darkly to herself. From her current condition, it would have meant just as much if she had sat in supplication and abdication at his feet—namely, nothing.
So she did nothing. Consumed by a heavy and resigned patience. She could not leave the Labyrinth, not now. Not when she knew this was what she herself had chosen. Her boldness and bravery gone, the only thing left was to endure. Perhaps the mere act of enduring could be a kind of love…or a kind of folly…she laughed internally at her own reasoning.
Some stirring in her core made her at last look up to where the voice had sounded.
Jareth was standing still as bird of prey, eyeing her with terrifying resolution.
"What do you want," Sarah stated flatly.
"My dear Sarah, the question for you is rather this—what do you want?"
"Hah!" Sarah chuckled, bitterness gilding her throat, "Does it matter to you?"
Silence.
"Perhaps," she began to grow thoughtful, "Perhaps I want what I want to matter to you."
"Do you think it does?" he retorted with some semblance of sincerity.
"How on earth would I ever know?" Sarah looked up to the heavens and spread her hands in a gesture of apathetic helplessness.
He smiled, cocked his head.
"Perhaps you won't." And left her with a new koan to contemplate.
Speaking to herself, as was the developing custom, Sarah mumbled under her breath, "Perhaps I won't indeed. Ah, Jareth, Jareth, Jareth…why come to me at all then? When will I be allowed to love? Will I be allowed to love? Is this loving what I do now? What is it here that I do? Is this love what you do to me? Ah, Jareth, Jareth, Jareth…tyrant over Goblins, merciless ruler of this silly heart…"