Chapter 2: A Change in the Wind

Meg was left in Sarah's room, blinking in surprise. She cautiously moved towards the mirror, her fingers reaching tentatively for the castle behind the glass until she spotted the gossamer silver-white figure of Sarah in her dress disappear into it and her fingers curled into her palm, recoiling from the sense of entrancement she had felt. She scolded herself, reminding herself that she should have expected to see something like that after Sarah's story.

Resolving to watch a different movie, Rocky was no fun alone; she backed away from the mirror, turning to the door and pushing it open. Her bare feet padded softly down the carpeted hall until she paused at the top step, her toes gripping the carpeted edge. Meg put one hand on the banister, turning her head to glance at Toby's room. Finally, the emptiness of the house pressing her forward, she shuffled down the hall to his poster covered door.

As silently as she could manage, Meg pressed herself against the door, leaning into it as it opened. Toby lay on his bed, curling slightly around his teddy bear, which was tucked alongside his Batman comforter, pinned beneath his right arm. Meg breathed a sigh of relief, dropping her weight back on her own feet as her right hand grasped the door frame. Slipping away with a renewed, peaceful contentment, her left hand pulled the door closed and her right helped it to ease back into the socket with a barely audible click.

Returning to the top of the staircase, Meg hurried down, more than ready to fill a bowl with popcorn and settle in for a good scary movie to take her mind off things. She returned tot eh living room after throwing her popcorn in the microwave, extracting a copy of A Nightmare on Elm Street and pushing it into the VCR to let the previews play out. An echoing –beep!— resounded from the kitchen and she jumped, rushing to retrieve her popcorn before the noise could wake Toby, and finally sat down, snuggling into the couch's padded cushions to watch her bloodbath.

* * *

Somewhat mystified, Sarah's hands had released her skirts as she drew nearer to the music. The corridor she had walked down had been short, and she could hear her gleaming white heels click against the stone steps as she walked somewhat hurried up the stairs and finally arrived in a magnificent cavernous ballroom. The sheer beauty of it had made her stop, gazing around at the mystical décor and, although many frightened her with their seemingly menacing aura, the radiance each of the guests had.

She began to glide about the room, taking care to keep away from the other guests and their villainous looks. Sarah's eyes searched for Ludo, or Didymus, but she knew neither would be there. From the moment she entered the room she knew this would be only the high class, seemingly coldhearted people who had accompanied her in her dream while in the labyrinth, only now there was no mystification. She knew why she was here, and everything still seemed so…wrong. She wasn't sure why, but she knew that this wasn't what she was meant to be doing.

Her thoughts began to slow as she drifted about the room and finally stopped dead, every muscle in her body freezing from that familiar presence behind her, from the velvety voice that made no noise. A wave of, well, she didn't know what raced down her spine as she spun slowly to face Jareth. He smiled at her, the corner of his lips seeming to be a genuine smile despite the smirk she had grown used to in his eyes and he bowed deeply to her, one hand bent behind his back and the other sweeping across his regal, sparkling robes before he gradually raised himself again, his piercing, mismatched eyes gazing at her. "May I have this dance?"

Sarah wanted her feet to move backwards or forwards or she couldn't make up her mind but her eyes just stared at him, her lips slightly parted as if ready to give an answer and she desperately tried to reign in her thoughts and bring herself back to reality. Her eyes flickered down to his gloved hand as he extended it to her and waited anxiously, hiding the fear from his eyes at how long it was taking her to accept. Finally, she managed to raise her arms, placing one hand delicate in Jareth's and the other on his glittering shoulder.

The instant her hand slid into his, Jareth curled his fingers around Sarah's, raising their arm to dance and reached his opposite arm out to hold her waist, pulling her closer against himself. Sarah was a bit surprised, and the same electric wave tingled down her spine again, but before she could try to move further away from him a feeling of safety enveloped her. She let Jareth sweep her away, spinning slowly to the music as she realized that she couldn't feel any danger when he held her.

But no matter how safe she felt physically, her heart was fluttering like hummingbird wings, and she couldn't bear the silence of the two of them only dancing together.

And then Jareth had to move in to speak, too fast to get to emotions she didn't want to deal with. "Why did you leave me here alone?"

She felt a feeling of guilt hit her as if she had run into a brick wall, and very shyly tilted her head up to meet his mismatched eyes. "I-I'm," she stuttered, changing her tactic. "What do you mean? You took me here, and I went—," she paused. "I went home. I don't belong here."

When they danced he had felt a shelter building itself around him, and her as well, and he had begun to feel so happy for the first time in years, but with her words he could feel the love-tinted glass shattering, and dagger-like shards piercing his heart. He could feel the punch in his stomach, and the wind knocked out of him and his lungs will to gasp for air. His emotions controlled him now, and he felt raw and vulnerable. Even tears pricked at his eyes and a raspy whisper tried to escape his throat while he tried his best to think of an answer. But none of that could happen.

He was the Goblin King, he silently reminded himself and instead he cleared his throat with a choked-sounding –ahem— and nothing in him changed save his pleading, heartbroken eyes. "Yes—yes, you're right." He assured her, nonchalantly, "I can feel it even now—you don't belong here."

Sarah felt a pain issuing from her heart and pounding through her as her heart beat it through her body, and she tried to think it was only from his words but then she saw his begging eyes and she dipped her head down, even more pain coursing through her when she saw the amount he held. She suddenly felt like she wanted to make up for it but she couldn't figure out what to possibly do. Trying to reason with herself, she thought he was the one who had done everything wrong. The one who was controlling and…psychotic. And why does it matter anyway? She reminded herself again, I'm here for one night. He can't expect me to fall in love with him in one night.

But you did, a voice inside of her informed her, and she tried to subdue it. You fell in love with him—before you even met. You wanted a prince, and you got the king of goblins. You loved him even when he was trying to distract you from Toby by offering you—by offering you your dreams.

She shook her head, scolding herself as her realizations flooded to her. Of how he had offered her everything she wanted. Was willing to give her everything he would offer to someone and more—if it was for her. Confused, and knowing she wanted to get rid of his pain, she picked her hand up off of his shoulder, and rested it behind his neck, pressing herself against him and leaning her head into his chest.

Everything that had gone wrong washed away from him when he felt the static race down his spine where her fingers touched his neck. He was scared, he needed to be in control, but then he felt the peacefulness slip over him as her head stopped over his heart, and her hair tickled his neck. In that moment he forgot about the guests he was supposed to hide from—who cared about them?—he had Sarah in his arms and he only moved the hand of hers that he held against his chest, holding it there and brought his other hand up to gently stroke her hair, finally enjoying how perfect everything was for once.

* * *

Meg screamed, the pieces of popcorn she had been holding flying over her as she jumped and Freddie took another victim. Her shallow breaths gradually returned to her as the suspenseful music dwindled away, and the intensity of the scene was lost until his next murder. The sudden calmness seemed to echo out of the television and into the house, and Meg shifted uncomfortably on the couch, pulling popcorn out of the cushions.

Again, as the murders were never far apart in slasher flicks, she felt the suspense building and the eerie music creep under her skin but before it could get to her, she heard a door open in the house. Goosebumps prickled at her skin and she found herself repeating under her breath, "I'm not asleep, I'm not asleep, I'm not asleep." She tried to push the sound out of her mind, assuming her brain was tricking her, when she heard another door open and panicked. Carefully, she set the bowl down on the table and quietly crept up the stairs, calling out and trying to hide the fear in her voice. "Who's there? I've got a bat!" She lied, and then it hit her. Toby.

She suddenly raced up the stairs, grabbing the wall to spin her into the turn and hurled herself down the hallway to his open door. Shoving it open further, the door cracked against the wall, revealing the entire room to show her…nothing. In a panic, she turned, running down the hall to search for him at the next open door that she realized, too late as she neared it, was to Sarah's room with nothing dangerous in it but—the portal.

Wrenching the door open, she hurled herself inside to see, again…nothing. However, her heart still pounded in her chest, more so now that Toby was gone, and her breathing was ragged from her sprinting. Rushing into the room, she knocked down the chair in front of the mirror to see Toby wandering aimlessly towards an enormous labyrinth. "Toby, NO!" She bellowed, but he couldn't seem to hear her. With only a moment's hesitation, she bit her lip, glancing over her shoulder, and pressed her hand against the mirror, dropping into the street of the Goblin City.

Meg dropped harshly on the cobblestone ground, feeling a bruise form on her lower back where she landed, but stood up quickly turning around in rapid and desperate circles to find Toby. Not seeing him, she rushed towards the entrance to the labyrinth she had seen him enter, running down one corridor after another until she reached a fork. She bit her lip again, not wanting to get lost looking for him—and possibly waste more time. Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes turned back to the fork only a second as if to apologize to Toby before she was sprinting towards the castle.

* * *

"Stay with me," Jareth murmured into her hair.

Sarah moved her head away from his chest, shaking it slowly. "I don't know, Jareth! I mean, I do like you, and everything seems so much simpler now but please, understand, I can't stay with you." She tilted her head up to look at him, afraid to see the same hurt in his eyes, but he looked, if anything, as if he were filled with…disbelief.

"Jareth?"

He looked down at her. "What did you say?"

"I'm sorry, I want to but—"

"No," he stopped her, "no. Did you say my name?"

She paused, suddenly realizing she had never addressed him that way, always having kept him detached with the 'Goblin King' title, so that she could make herself see him as evil, inhuman. "Jareth," she whispered.

His smile stretched across his face, and before she could say anything more he dipped his head down and captured her lips. Sarah slid her hand out of his and placed it behind his neck, his free hand now holding her waist as well and her hands held his face against hers until the scream echoed through the room.

"Sarah!" Her eyes opened wide against Jareth's lips and she drew her head away, turning her face to see who would know her, but her hands still on Jareth's neck.

"Meg?" She asked, unable to comprehend as to why her friend would be there. "What are you doing here. Where's Toby?" Meg began to fight her way through all of the dancers, growing closer to them, and Sarah tried to step back, Jareth still holding her lovingly as she tried to face her friend.

Next to them, Meg didn't seem to notice anything around her, her eyes intent on Sarah as she panted, "Toby…gone…he's," she paused, taking a deep breath and straightening up. "He's lost—in the labyrinth."

Sarah felt all of her serenity crashing around her, and the room was clouding and she couldn't see and she was crumbling and she shook her head. "No…." she murmured and then, trying to bring herself to the task at hand, she pushed against Jareth, trying to escape his arms. "Let go!" She hissed, her hands releasing the gentle grip on his neck to shove hard against his chest, forcing him to release her. With one pained look at his face, she turned to Meg, and the two ran from the room.