Chapter 5 is here! Just so you know, this is probably going to be a "quick fic" with a faster plot and less detail, especially compared to my other HP story that's still going, BUT I want to get through all the trivialities of the Aboveground quickly so that we can get into the Underground again because I do have a lot of interesting plot twists planned. :) Please keep taking the time to review/message me! I really appreciate it!

Chapter 5

Two weeks later, it was finally opening night, and despite the hours she had put in practicing, Sarah was still full of jitters. Sarah's part was not particularly large – she was just a sophomore after all – but it was terrifying all the same.

Despite this, however, Sarah actually woke up feeling well-rested that Friday morning. According to Jessica, Sarah's sleep talking had not come back, and her legs had stopped hurting in the mornings, so she continued to self-medicate. She knew that she needed to find a more permanent solution to her strange insomnia, but she hoped that once the play was over, her stress would begin to ebb and she would finally be back to her usual self.

She hoped.

Showtime wasn't until six, but Sarah was already in the dressing rooms at three-thirty working on her hair and makeup. She had already donned her airy pink dress and had wrapped some climbing ivy around her arms and legs, but she knew her makeup would take a considerable amount of time.

She sat in front of a brightly lit vanity and began to apply her first layer of what would soon become heavy stage makeup. After putting on some setting powder, she began painting body glitter on her shoulders, hands, and legs before returning to her face.

So much sparkle…the Goblin King himself would approve, Sarah thought sarcastically before she could stop herself.

She went to dip her brush back into the glitter on the table in front of the vanity, but she jerked her head up as a voice responded, "I do."

Sarah cried out in surprise and flinched, falling out of her chair and smacking her makeup off the table in the process. Glitter went everywhere, but before the sparkling explosion, Sarah could have sworn she saw someone standing just behind her in the mirror. Someone tall, slender, blonde…

No. That's impossible. He's not even real…

Climbing back into her chair, Sarah looked around the room frantically, but there was no one else there. The leads were having their makeup done elsewhere, and none of the other minor characters were expected to arrive for another thirty minutes.

She must have imagined it all…

"Get a grip, Sarah," she breathed under her breath, resting her head in her hands and her elbows on the table. She took a few deep, steadying breaths, then groaned while trying to shake the extra glitter out of her hair. She fumbled around on the ground to pick through the chaotic pile of makeup and brushes, cursing the strange tricks her mind had decided to play on her.

It looked like she was going to need that extra time to get ready.

*break*

"Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed, let's go!" the stagehand hissed in the now nearly-empty green room.

Sarah and her 3 costars, also underclassmen, rose from the chairs they had been sitting in and followed him backstage. Sarah felt her nerves rising up again.

Relax…you have like four lines! she thought to herself, but that didn't seem to help much. The whole incident from earlier had unnerved her, even though she wouldn't admit it to herself. It was just her mind playing tricks on her. Of course it was…

She waited anxiously in the wings, listening to the uproarious laughter from the audience.

The crowd sounded massive. Sarah swallowed.

Get this other nonsense out of your head and FOCUS, Sarah!

She was trying her best, but before she knew it, she heard their cue, and the four new fairies entered the scene, reacting to their queen's dialogue. The audience laughed and clapped accordingly, and Sarah did not forget any of her meager lines.

She ran off stage during the blackout prior to the final scene, where everything returns to "normal" for the humans in the play. She finally breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that maybe that would be the case for her life, too.

A few minutes later, the house lights came up, the music played, and the audience applauded. Sarah returned with the rest of her cast for their bows. Taking stage right in the line of her castmates, Sarah looked out over the crowd and smiled as she spotted Jessica and Alex in one of the aisles on the right side of the theater.

But her smile suddenly vanished when she saw who was sitting behind them.

In the very back by the theater door, shrouded almost entirely in shadow, was that same man who she had thought she saw in the mirror.

This time, though, he was most certainly real.

Even from her place on the stage, she could see his blonde hair, his sharp features, and his piercing blue eyes fixed upon her.

This was unmistakably the man from her dreams, her nightmares, and she breathed his name under her breath in shock.

"Jareth…"

As the cast took a collective bow, the arms on either of her shoulders forced her down, and Sarah lost her visual on the strange man. When she straightened up again, to her surprise, he was still in his seat, not vanished like the hallucination he should have been. He offered her a coy smile before making his way toward the exit, soon lost in a crowd of people, almost like he had never existed.

But Sarah knew deep down that wasn't the case at all.

The moment the bows were over, Sarah ran through the wings of the stage and around to the front of the building, bursting out of the doors still in full costume. There was a steady flood of people leaving the theater, but the infamous Goblin King was not among them.

"Sarah?"

The voice nearly made her jump out of her skin.

Jessica laughed at her friend's bizarre reaction. "What on earth has gotten into you? You look like you saw a ghost!"

Sarah looked away from her friend and hopelessly scanned the crowd one more time. Breathless and terrified, Sarah responded, "Well…I guess you could say that I did."