Author's Note: Bet you thought it would be another year, didn't you?
For the second time that day, Sarah found herself stunned to silence.
First the mark of the Dryn, now a hundred years lost!
She felt dizzy and the room danced before her vision. She didn't realize she was about to faint until Jareth caught her and lowered her gently to the bed. Though she reached for him, he moved cautiously away, watching her through an expressionless mask.
"A hundred years," she breathed. "I had no idea. A hundred years..." She looked at him with new sight, piecing together all the oddities she had witnessed since her return. How he trembled at her slightest glance. How the fathomless walls he hid behind had eroded into nearly nothing. How the despair had twisted within him. "So it was all because..."
"It wasn't only that," he said quickly. He was uncomfortable, she could see. He didn't want her to say it, to announce his weakness, so it might be seen and studied and used against him. She stared at him for a long moment, letting him know that she knew the truth, and it would be no less true whether it was said or not.
Jareth looked away first. She was not from this world. She did not know how the spoken word could give things power. "It wasn't only that," he repeated.
Sarah studied him, a slight frown creasing her forehead. Though he sat only a few feet from her, she felt as if he was flying away as fast as his wings could carry him. She wondered what he was trying to escape. "What was it then?" she prompted.
"It was defeat." His hands clenched on his thighs. The rays from the sun were streaming through the window to light the hard planes of his face and sparkle in his hair. Sarah thought that he looked both noble and tragic at once. "Think of your fairy stories, Sarah. Think of the evilest villain you can recall, the one who lived in your nightmares and lurked behind every corner, waiting for you."
"That's not you," she told him firmly. Jareth inclined his head marginally, accepting her remark for the moment.
"Even so," he continued, "What happens to that villain when he is defeated? Who fears him then? Who believes in him? No one." His voice had become as desolate as a frozen wasteland. "No one fears the defeated. No one believes in them. In the end, they are all forgotten."
He looked at her then and she saw an eternity of emptiness in his eyes. An infinite Alone. He was a child who had looked into the coffin and seen himself lying there, and known the meaning of Death.
His eyes begged her. If no one believes in me, am I real?
And Sarah knew that in that moment she could reach out her hand and take him into her arms and, in that moment when he was defenseless before her, she could touch his pain and take it away.
"I believe in you, Jareth." She reached for him, but he blurred before her eyes and the room seemed to dim. She fell back against the pillows and the chance was lost. His yes, like windows into his soul, shuttered, closing him off from her, and Sarah wanted to scream at the weakness in her body.
And then something strange began to happen.
Jareth breathed deeply, eyes closed, struggling to rebuild the barriers that Sarah so easily broke through. He couldn't afford to give her this control over him. He didn't want to give her the power to destroy him again. Yet somewhere deep within in, refusing to be smothered, was the faintest flame of hope.
He opened his eyes when he heard Sarah rise from the bed. She was moving towards the door slowly, as if sleepwalking. "Sarah?" She didn't answer, though she turned her head to look at him. He came alert at once, seeing a flush on her cheeks and a blank look in her eyes. He wondered if she was even seeing him. After a moment, she again began moving, trancelike, towards the door.
"Wait," Jareth leapt up and grabbed her arm, surprised when she only struggled weakly. "Stop, Sarah," he commanded. She ignored him, continuing her attempts to pull free. Her lips were moving feverishly and he leaned closer to hear.
"Alryn, I'm coming, I hear you, Alryn, Alryn, I'm coming..." She repeated the strange litany over and over under her breath.
Jareth's surprise and confusion melted away into a heated glare. He moved firmly between Sarah and the door. "No," he said calmly. "You are not going to Alryn."
She paused for a moment and then, the blankness never leaving her eyes, a feral rage twisted her features and she lunged at Jareth, kicking and clawing like one possessed.
That was exactly it, Jareth realized, as he fought to hold the struggling woman. She has been possessed.
Wrestling her backwards, he threw her onto the bed, pinning her gently but firmly with the weight of his body. "No, Alryn," he snarled into Sarah's blank eyes. "You can't have her, not this one! She belongs to me! Do you hear me?" The struggling stilled and something dark moved through Sarah's vision. As Jareth watched, a pool of inky blackness poured across the warm brown of her eyes. Then her entire body went taut, fingers crabbing into claws and back arching even with his weight bearing down on her. Her neck craned and her mouth gaped open in a soundless scream.
A sense of Alryn filled the room, darkening the sunlight, dripping off the bed sheets, and sluicing over Jareth like a viscous, omnipresent slime.
"No!" Jareth growled again, and for a moment, through the black nothingness that had become her eyes, he thought he saw Sarah looking out at him. It was her own helpless fear and desperate struggle that wracked her body now. She tossed her head from side to side in frantic terror, and he cradled her face gently between his palms, smoothing her hair back. Her eyes darted across him unseeing, so he kissed her, putting into the caress all of the love and passion and devotion that he could not put into words.
I'll be there for you...as the world falls down.
She stilled finally and, with a shuddering breath, Alryn's presence seemed to withdraw.
Then Sarah began to move again and Jareth broke the kiss with a gasp, for now her struggles had turned to seduction. Her body, which had previously twisted away from him, now molded against him and her fingers scraped down his back, tearing away the fabric of his shirt. She buried her face in his neck, nipping and teasing her way across his flesh.
He threw himself away from her, horrified that Alryn had such power over her that he could control her body in this way. But the gaze that looked up at him was again Sarah's chocolate eyes, though filled with a hunger that nearly staggered Jareth in its intensity. "Please," she whispered. "Please..."
He realized then that it was not as he feared. Alryn had left her, but he had left behind his own lusts that had not been satisfied. What Sarah felt now was the full hunger of a Dryn in heat. A hunger that could not be staved off or denied, but could only be...fulfilled.
"Jareth, please…" Her hands begged for his touch, pulling off her robe, offering herself to him, but it was only her eyes that he cared to look at. In them, he saw fear, regret, and understanding. In his, he hoped she saw the same.
He let her draw him forward, giving in to the wild desire that threatened to consume her.
It wasn't until much later, when she had fallen into a restless, exhausted sleep, that he climbed weakly from the bed and fell to his knees, weeping silently.
Sarah.
She woke to the dim light before morning. The events of yesterday were a cloudy haze in her mind. Jareth was sleeping beside her, his back to her, and she wrapped an arm loosely about his waist, snuggling closer.
Something rough brushed her cheek and she ran her fingertips over Jareth's back curiously. She couldn't yet see what the narrow grooves were, but the sunrise was quickly approaching. As the room brightened, Sarah stared in amazement at the long scratches covering Jareth's back. She pulled him towards her and saw that his front was the same, but riddled with small bite marks, some of which appeared to have drawn blood. He opened tired eyes and surveyed the damage with smugness and a touch of trepidation.
"You seem to have enjoyed yourself at my expense," he smirked.
Flashes of the previous night began to return to her. She felt light-headed suddenly as memory overwhelmed her. "I did this to you," she whispered. She licked her lips and tasted the sweet tang of blood. Lifting her hands, she saw her nails were stained red. She swallowed against the bile rising in her throat. "What kind of monster am I becoming?"
"Sarah?" Jareth touched her cheek, turning her face towards his. "Are you alright?" The concern in his voice threatened to send her into hysterical laughter. How could he speak to her so tenderly after what she had done to him? Would she never do anything but cause him pain? She began to tremble uncontrollably.
"I did this to you," she repeated numbly.
Jareth pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair gently. "Shhh, it's fine. It couldn't be avoided." Sarah buried her face against his warm chest. He continued to hold her and murmur comforting words until her trembling subsided.
It was only then that she realized she was crying, tears streaming silently down her cheeks.
"Sarah?" Jareth asked, realizing she had quieted.
Sarah sniffled. "I never wanted to hurt you again," she mumbled against his chest, voice quavering. "I love you so much." His arms tightened reflexively around her, but he made no other movements.
Finally, she cried herself out. She felt empty and somehow cleansed, more like herself than she had since the arrival of the Dryn. She relaxed in Jareth's arms, feeling safe and warm, and drifted towards unconsciousness. Just before sleep claimed her completely, she thought she heard Jareth speak, his voice a warm rumble in her ear.
"I forgive you, Sarah."
But then, perhaps she was already dreaming.
Response to reviews:
Cree: Well, a little over a month between updates is 'soon' compared to a little over a year, right?
LadySorrow: Oh, I'm jealous! I love Switchfoot, but I've never had the opportunity to see them. But hearing that you think my story is original is one of the best compliments you could give me.
draegon-fire: You're still here! Yay! And wow…you know, honestly, I threw in the hundred years bit at the last minute. I was going to end last chapter with Alryn calling to Sarah. Even after I posted it, I couldn't figure out why I put in the time difference. It took your comments for me to realize what my brain was trying to tell me. Thanks for the inspiration!
DelusionalReality: A classic case of reading so many bad stories that would be really good stories if they only could get the grammar and punctuation right. They drive me nuts too! I periodically try to go back and check through older chapters, because I don't like things that detract from the story experience. I appreciate your comments.