Chapter 11.
Opening her eyes, Sarah found herself in the compromising position of being watched by the man in the Black mask. "Answer me, slave."
"Yes, I wanted him to kiss me…and more." She admitted wondering if she'd said anything while under the spell of the Labyrinth within her mind. "I wanted him." She lowered her face.
"Why ask for his forgiveness, now?" The man questioned softly.
"I don't think I can answer that." Sarah whispered back.
"Cannot, or will not?" He inquired in a gentle tone.
Sarah didn't answer. Something inside her had changed. She chose not to answer, this was too private. This was something that belonged only to her.
With gentle pressure he turned her face to his, "I would have you obey me."
"I don't feel well." She said quickly.
His attitude changed in that instant, he went from demanding to concerned. "You feel ill?"
"Yes…I feel…sick…" she found she really did. She bent over, and clutched her stomach.
"What can I do for you?" He asked quietly.
"I need to go home." She moaned.
"Of course," he moved from the bed, picked up the phone and pressed a button. "Pablo, tell Sophie that her friend needs to go home, she's ill. Thank you." He moved back to the bed. "Sophie will take you home, my dear."
"Thank you." She looked about. "Where's my dress?"
"I'll give you a few moments of privacy so you may collect yourself." He pulled on his dressing gown and left her alone.
Sarah gathered her gown and held it close. She dressed quickly and prepared to leave. Sophie met her at the door, solicitous and concerned. She ushered Sarah out of the house and down to the car. Sarah sat huddled against the door, when they arrived at Sophie's house, Sarah frowned. "I want to go home."
"But I thought you'd stay with me until Sunday." Sophie protested.
"No. I want to go home."
The blonde sighed. "Come in and change, you don't want your folks seeing you in that getup!"
Sarah looked down, having forgotten she looked like a human sacrifice. "Fine," she followed Sophie into the house, then up to the other girl's room. She changed into her mundane clothes and stuffed the Grecian gown into her overnight bag. Sophie was waiting for her at the front door and smiled. "You do look a little green around the gills."
Sarah looked at the blonde. "I just want to go home." She said softly, not really wanting to speak to the blonde.
When she stepped out of the car, at the curb in front of her home, she thanked Sophie and waved her off. Once inside her own home she rushed up to her room and locked herself in. She sat on the bed, wrapped her arms about herself and rocked back and forth. "I'm never going back there." She vowed. "I'm never going back."
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Jareth stood for a long time looking out the substantial arched window. The trees on the grounds were nearly bare now. The wind had changed and there was a distinct chill in the air. Something was wrong; he could feel it in his bones. Drawing a crystal from the air, he looked into its depths, commanding. "Show me the girl." The orb filled with mist then cleared to reveal the form of Sarah on her bed rocking. "Why is she upset?" he asked aloud.
"Did you expect her to be overjoyed at being made a slave?" Pablo leaned on the frame of the door entering the room. "Surely you knew she would not take well to that idea."
"I can't truly say I gave it much thought." Jareth admitted still gazing into the orb.
"Master, I think you should have left this one alone." Pablo said as he watched the man.
"Leave her alone? Impossible." Jareth gritted his teeth as he answered. "She rejected me; after I offered her the world…I offered her, her very dreams Pablo."
"Most generous," the man said sarcastically. "I wonder how she could resist such an offer."
"She lied to me, Pablo. She wanted to accept my offers, she wanted to be…with me." Jareth said heatedly. "She lied, and she must pay for that as well as for having rejected me. She left my kingdom in a shambles. Am I to ignore that?"
The Artist shrugged, "I cannot tell you what to do. I am but one of your many subjects, Sire." He tapped the orb. "But I can tell you, this one, this one will not be easy to subjugate. One can not rule the wild wind. And that is what I see in that girl."
Jareth lowered the hand holding the orb. "I don't remember you being this philosophical. When did this transformation occur?"
The Artist mused. "I think my time with dear Sophie has done this."
The Goblin King laughed scoffing at the artist. "Sophie, that shallow little piece of fluff?"
Pablo's features went stern as he began to defend the young woman who now shared his bed whenever she could. "Sophia is not nearly as shallow as she pretends to be."
Jareth paused, his laugh died in the air. "Sophia?"
Pablo nodded. "That is what I call her, when we are intimate." He stood his ground bravely. "She is not a piece of fluff, Sire."
Jareth looked at the orb in his hand. "Perhaps I misspoke."
The artist looked at the orb. "I had thought when we began this crusade that you were handling this correctly. Now, I wonder."
"And how would you have administered punishment on the wayward girl?" Jareth asked iterated at not having his way.
"I think your timing was … rushed." Pablo said calmly. "If you want her to be your slave, you should have made her want it as well."
"Courted her?" Jareth smashed the orb to the ground, it shattered into fine dust. "I tried courting her once before."
Pablo shook his head and turned to exit the room. "Forcing a woman-child to run your Labyrinth is not the common perception of a courtship, Goblin King."
Jareth looked at the shattered remains of the orb, crossed his arms defiantly and fumed.
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Karen came up on Sunday afternoon with some chicken soup for Sarah. "Honey, Sophie called. Do you want to call her back?"
"No." Sarah said quietly. "I don't want to talk to anyone…Mom."
Karen sat down. "Honey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, I just don't feel well…" Sarah sipped the soup to placate her stepmother. "Must be coming down with some bug or something…Thank you for the soup."
Karen touched Sarah's brow. "You don't have a fever."
"I just don't feel well." Sarah repeated.
Karen stood up and headed toward the door. "Sarah…were you…drinking at that party?"
Sarah shook her head, "No…I didn't drink."
Her stepmother stood at the door. "I mean I'd understand if you did… I was young once too, not so long ago."
"Honest Mom, I didn't have anything to drink." Sarah smiled at her. "I'd tell you if I did."
"Alright then, you just rest." She pulled the door closed behind her and found Robert in the hall.
"Well?" he asked.
Karen looked back to the door she'd just shut. "She says she didn't drink, and I believer her." She looked at her husband. "Maybe she's just overwhelmed by the excitement?"
Robert bit down on the stem of his pipe. "I suppose."
Sarah looked around her room; the shadows on the wall told her it was late in the afternoon. She put the soup on her night stand and closed her eyes only to lay there hearing every sound the house made. She sat up and began to pace the room, stopping only when she stood in front of her vanity mirror. "Hoggle!" she called out. "Hoggle I need you." The mirror didn't change.
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Sophie arrived on Monday morning as if nothing had happened during the weekend. "Good morning all, where's our Miss Sarah?"
Karen smiled at the girl's enthusiasm. "She'll be down in a few minutes, would you like some toast Sophie?"
Sophie shook her head, "Nope, dieting until Thanksgiving so I can tie the old feed bag on and not worry about the pounds."
Robert shook his head behind his paper. "I will never understand you females." He muttered.
Sarah looked pale when she came into the kitchen. "Good morning." She greeted everyone. She looked at Sophie, "I'll be ready to go in a little bit."
"No hurry." Sophie said and touched her friend's face. "You don't look so good, pal."
"I feel awful." Sarah admitted. "But I don't have a fever so I may as well feel awful at school." She sat down at the table and chewed a few bites of dry toast.
"My mom's got a great herbal tea; I'll call home and see if she's still there." Sophie went to the kitchen phone and dialed the number.
Sarah watched the blonde girl with weary eyes.
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Jareth looked at the leather masks on the bed, one black one green. Had he made a mistake? Had he rushed the girl? He closed his mismatched eyes and thought about the moment of surrender. He thought of her reactions to his reciting the words of Solomon. Just as he was about to congratulate himself on having seduced her, he remembered that her reaction had been to ask Jareth to forgive her. He picked up the masks and hurled them out of his sight.
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A week had passed and Sophie stood at Sarah's locker at the end of the school day. "Come on, no one will even know."
"I don't want to." Sarah said stiffly. "You want to go out to the Wilde house, you go right ahead, but count me out."
"Sarah, don't you want to see… HIM again?" Sophie asked directly for the first time since Halloween.
Sarah put her head on the cool metal of the locker door. "No." she said.
Sophie's jaw dropped. "Did he hurt you?"
"Not the way you think." Sarah said closing her eyes.
"Sarah…" Sophie placed a hand to her friend's arm. "Pablo called me and said he's asking about you. Can't we just go and you can tell him you're not interested or ready for what he wants."
"I can't see him again, Sophie." The dark haired girl moaned.
Sophie whispered. "But I promised I'd bring you…"
"You what?" Sarah turned to glare at her. "You promised you'd bring me? What am I? Some kind of …. Pastry?"
The blonde backed off, shocked at the force with which Sarah spoke. "No." she said defensively. "I just… he….wanted to see you…and didn't feel he could call you himself…"
Sarah slammed the door of the locker. "Alright then Sophie, fine…I'll go with you. I've a few things I'd like to say to Mr…. Master…."
Sophie gulped, feeling like she was caught in the path of lava. She kept quiet as she and Sarah left the school and drove out to the house known as Paradisia. Once in the gate, and headed toward the main entrance she looked at Sarah. The fire in the green eyes told her to keep her silence.
Pablo was coming out the door, pulling an overcoat on. "Sophia!" she greeted the blond happily. "I'm so glad you are here, now I don't have to walk alone." He smiled over at Sarah. "Miss Williams, good to see you."
Sarah clenched her jaw. "Where is he?"
"He asked me to send you to the pool house." The Artist pointed toward the great glass building down the path. "He's waiting for you." Pablo looked down at Sophie when Sarah stormed off. "He's taken a tiger by the tail, yes?"
"She's pissed about something." Sophie admitted as she moved into the warmth of the Artist's arms. "I'm glad I'm not him."
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Sarah entered the pool house. It was more like a lush garden room instead of just a pool house. There were tropical plants of all descriptions, many were in bloom. The air was filled with fragrant odors and the sounds of birds.
"Hello." She called out.
He watched her from a vantage point behind a plant as she moved in to the interior of the building.
"Hello?" She called again.
"Hello." He said from behind her.
Sarah turned expecting to see him, see his face. He was wearing his mask, hiding his face and his eyes from her. "I came here to tell you, I won't be coming back again." She pulled her coat closer; in spite of the warmth in the tropical environment she was chilled. She tipped her face up defiantly.
"I see." He said calmly. "I'm disappointed." He remained calm. "I had thought we were making remarkable progress."
"I don't want to be a slave, or a…submissive to any man!" she said firmly.
"Really?" He mocked standing less than an arms length from her. "How odd, when it was so obvious, unmistakable in fact that you took great pleasure in my mastery." He smiled. "Or are you going to deny that you enjoyed your adventure in my bed?"
Sarah turned her back on him. "I'm not going to talk about it at all."
"Green eyes." His voice deepened. "Turn and face me."
Shaking her head, she refused. "I've said what I've come to say, and now I'm leaving." She took a step and found an arm like a steel band at her waist. A hand harshly gripped her hair and yanked her head back. Lips crushed hers as she cried out.
The man in the mask kissed her deeply, feeling her melt and her knees go out from under her. Soon he was supporting her full weight. He raised his head. "How I love your fire, my green eyed witch." His groaned huskily to her.
"I'm not doing this." Her voice quaked. "I'm not going to be your slave. I'll be no man's slave, ever!"
"We could argue that point, I suppose." He teased as his mouth moved over hers. "You are willful." He lamented.
"Let me go." She warned.
His hands shifted and he was pinning her against a wall. "Green eyes, do you really want to fight me off?" He pressed his body to hers. "Would you not prefer to be cradled in my arms?"
"You're not offering me anything I can accept." She pushed at him.
"So you will go on rejecting what is offered to you." He snapped. "You would add me to the list you are beginning of men rejected?"
Sarah slapped him as hard as her hand could slap. "I don't have a list! I'm not a whore and I won't act like one, not even for you!"
The man in the mask reacted to her tantrum with a laugh. "I don't want a whore." He told her. "The world is more than plentiful with whores."
"I won't be your slave." She repeated this time tears were stinging her eyes. She broke free of the grasp on her and moved toward the door.
"Was that the cost you could not pay for your dreams, Green eyes?" He called after her.
Sarah stopped; the door was only a few feet away. Her brain told her to move, run, and get to the door and escape. Instead she turned and glared at the man. "No, that was not what he asked of me."
"Enslavement is so fearful a thing to you, it must be because you wanted enslavement… from this other …this Jareth." He turned his back on her and moved deeper into the pool house. "I've had many reactions from women to my prowess… never once did they whisper another mans name, begging for forgiveness." He paused at a table with tea set out, and lifted his cup to his lips.
Sarah followed him. "Quite the contrary…he offered to be my slave."
"Indeed." The man in the mask mocked. "I find that astounding."
"That a man would offer to enslave himself to me?" She felt her cheeks burn with anger.
"No," He set his cup down. "That you would reject such an offer. Few women, if any would."
"The cost was too great." Sarah looked away.
"What was the price asked?" He inquired.
Sarah glared at this intruder in her life. "I'm not going to discuss that or anything else with you."
"Still, you must admit, Green eyes that it's rather out of the ordinary that at a moment as intimate as we shared, you speak this man's name and ask his forgiveness…With tears in your eyes." The Master "Gives one pause, does it not?"
Sarah bit down on her lower lip.
"I mean you were so beautiful in your abandon, so completely hetaeristic… a goddess. Never have I witnessed a woman so fulfilled… and then you weep as you say his name and ask forgiveness. What exactly were you lamenting? Not taking up his offer, paying his price, or having paid mine?" He was taunting her carefully. One way or another he'd trick her into saying something he could use.
"You'd never understand." She said walking past him, looking at the pool with its man made waterfall. "I couldn't take his offer, I couldn't pay his price."
He moved to stand behind her, ready to strike. "But you wanted to, didn't you wicked girl?"
"It's not fair." Sarah whispered looking at the waterfall but not seeing it. "You tricked me into giving you…"
Jareth looked at her, his mouth opened as he gasped. "What was his?"
"I wish I could have done it differently…." She lamented.
Jareth placed his hands at her temp, allowing power to flow though his fingers into her. "Do you really? Let's find out." He snapped.