A/N: I just want to take this brief opportunity to point out that this story was only supposed to be two chapters long at just a couple thousand words. Now that it's complete, I can say that it ended up being six chapters and about 12,500 words long. It also took a decidedly different turn than what I was aiming for, but that could help me to merge it with another, longer Labyrinth fanfic I've had rotting in "incomplete hell" for a while now. This "different turn" of events doesn't actually take place until chapter five, so this chapter is along the lines of what I originally wanted.
::~*~::
Sarah shoved the key into the lock. Her arms were laden with groceries to fill up her empty refrigerator and she could barely manage to get the key to turn without losing everything all over the ground. Through careful maneuvering, she managed to get the door unlocked and open. When she had left, the sun had still been up, albeit obscured by layers of cloud cover. Now the sun had set, the storm was raging, and she was trying to feel her way into the darkness of her new apartment by waving her foot around for obstacles she hadn't yet learned the locations of. Kicking the door shut behind her, she used the brief flashes of lightning to make her way into the kitchen. Dumping the bags onto the counter, she heaved a sigh of relief at having made it without losing anything.
"Hello, Sarah."
Gasping, she grabbed for the handle of a knife out of the block on her counter and spun to confront the intruder. As she faced the darkness of her "empty" apartment, she gave a silent prayer of thanksgiving that her father had been so insistent about sending the makeshift weaponry with her for her first night alone. "Heaven forbid anything should happen to you," he'd said, "but I want to make sure you have a fighting chance to defend yourself." One night! She couldn't even stay safe in her apartment for one night!
Sarah was torn between turning the light on and revealing the intruder and keeping the lights off and hiding in the shadows. In the flash of lightning that tore through all the un-shuttered windows in the room, she saw a figure leaning casually against the wall next to the balcony door. Sarah frowned. Who was he? He certainly wasn't making any attempt to attack her, but that may simply be because he knew he could catch her before she had a chance to wrench the front door open again. Holding her weapon out in front of her, she tried to inflect authority into her quavering voice. "Who are you? I'm warning you, I'm armed."
In the dark, she could hear him scoff. "What are you going to do? Peel me to death?"
Confused, Sarah used the next flash of lightning to see what he was talking about. She almost groaned when she saw the "weapon" in her hand. Throwing the potato peeler on the counter, she grabbed another handle and pulled it out, satisfied with the glint of light on the long metal blade. Turning back to the figure, she almost fainted when she saw emptiness where he once stood. "Where are you?" She was so ashamed at how her voice shook in terror.
"Right here," the voice whispered, directly behind her right ear. Exclaiming in shock, she spun around so fast she lost her balance, falling to the hardwood floor. Terror washed over her as she heard the knife clatter out of reach on the floor. Scrambling to a sitting position, it was all she could do to scoot backwards, away from the stranger, her eyes fixed upon him so he couldn't disappear on her again.
"Who are you?" she asked again, her voice barely more than a whisper, almost drowned out by a crash of thunder.
"I'm hurt that you don't remember me."
"How can I recognize you when I can't even see you?" she shouted in frustration. Even as she said it, she felt a sinking in her stomach. His voice was familiar, though she still couldn't place him. Like a dream hovering just beyond comprehension. Her back finally hit the wall and her heart started beating faster as he walked slowly towards her. A few more feet and he would be standing between her and the door, closing off any hope for escape.
"Perhaps a little illumination then." She had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming when a ball of flame erupted from his hand, but upon closer inspection she saw the flames were enclosed in a glass sphere. A crystal. Mismatched eyes and white-blonde hair stared at her over the flaming sphere. Groaning in pain, she clutched her stomach as convulsions wracked her body. A dream that had long been lost to the past was flooding through her in its entirety and the overwhelming sensations were making her physically sick.
::~*~::
Sarah had no idea how much time had passed but when she regained her senses, she discovered that she had fallen to her side and was huddled on the floor, curled up in the fetal position. Lights were blazing in the apartment and Jareth was leaning against the wall again, his eyes watching her intently. Outside, she could hear the storm continuing unabated.
Suspecting there was no graceful way to ignore what had just happened to her, she slowly sat up, bracing her back against the sturdy surface of the wall behind her. She eyed the Goblin King suspiciously, but he made no move towards her. "Did you even try to help me at all?"
His lips curled into an amused smile. "And be accused of assaulting you? I think not."
"You and I both know that you have nothing to fear in my world."
"Ah, I take it your memory has returned. Let's just say I made sure you weren't dying and that was the extent of it."
Sarah could still feel her body trembling from the aftereffects of the dream returning to her, but she felt confident enough to stand. Sliding her back up the wall, she carefully got to her feet, but, she always was one who tried to run before she could walk, so to speak. Taking one step away from the wall, she almost fell forward and Jareth put his arm out to catch her. She caught herself before falling against him, but she had to hold onto the wall for support. All this movement was making her stomach feel queasy and she debated attempting a run to the bathroom to purge her stomach, despite not having eaten since breakfast. She wobbled on her legs, but stayed standing.
Jareth gestured to the empty living room. "I'd invite you to sit down on a chair, or something, but it would appear you haven't gotten that far."
"I'll be fine," she grumbled, almost regretting the effort it took to speak and the lurching of her stomach in response. Opting for the only seating room available, she pushed past him and hoisted herself up on the kitchen counter, making sure to keep the sink close by. The queasiness was already fading, but it wasn't completely gone. Deciding it was high time to find out what the Goblin King was doing in her apartment, she looked up to face him.
Startled by a glass of water only an inch from her nose, she peered around it to see him holding it out to her. "Water?"
She accepted the glass and dumped the contents down the sink. Rinsing it out several times with scalding hot water, she replied, "I learned a long time ago not to accept anything from you. Thanks to you, I have an aversion to peaches now." She turned the tap to cold and filled the glass back up. Eyeing the glass warily, she took a tiny sip and glared at Jareth while she waited for any adverse side effects to present themselves to her. Instead of being affronted by her distrust of him, he looked quite amused at her chosen response.
"What a pity. Peaches are such wonderful summer fruits."
"Yes, they were," she angrily replied. "And now I can't enjoy them because of you."
He shrugged his shoulders as if he hardly cared about her current opinion of peaches. He took a moment to survey what he could see of the unfurnished apartment. Sarah took the opportunity to size her opponent up and down. Everything about him was just the same as she remembered. It had been four years and she had grown up quite a bit, but he looked as though he hadn't aged a day, which she suspected was the truth. His white blonde hair wildly framed the sharp features of his face. His lean body was clothed in attire that reminded Sarah of Renaissance festivals and medieval eras long gone; a loose, white shirt under a deep-burgundy vest, opened to reveal a strange silver medallion resting against his chest; black breeches tucked into knee-high riding boots. Naturally his appearance wouldn't be complete without the ever present gloves covering his hands and the black riding crop that was tucked under his right arm. So focused on her study of him, she had failed to notice that he had turned back to her and was now studying her in turn. Caught in the act, she did the only thing she could think of. She drained the glass of the rest of the water, failing to notice she still had more than half the glass left.
"See something you like?" he asked.
It came as no surprise that Sarah's immediate response was to start choking on the water she had foolishly tried to down in one swallow. Jumping off the counter, she leaned her head over the sink as the water came pouring out of her mouth. Jareth took the time to thump her across the back a couple of times before she moved quickly out of arm's reach of him.
"How dare you?" she sputtered.
"How dare I?" he replied. "You were the one who was leering at me."
"I was not leering at you," she retorted, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. Anxious to move on to another topic, she asked, "What are you even doing here?"
"Would you believe me if I said I missed you?"
She shook her head. "I'd call you a liar and order you out of my apartment."
He shrugged and turned away from her, choosing to walk the perimeter of her empty living room. Sarah leaned forward to peer around the kitchen wall, watching him curiously. "No, seriously, what are you doing here?"
He sighed exasperatedly. "Come on, Sarah! I know you have better questions to ask than that! You've just regained an incredibly fantastic memory."
"And, yet, that's what I keep asking."
He gave her a contemptuous look before electing to stand at the balcony door, watching the storm's spectacular display from the relative safety of her apartment. The silence stretched out between them.
"Don't ignore me," she demanded. "Up until yesterday, I remembered nothing of you, or goblins, or Hoggle," she paused as the memory of the stubborn dwarf came to the forefront of her mind, "or any of my friends." She swallowed hard, the thought that her dear friends may have forgotten her as easily as she had forgotten them threatening to invoke tears. "I'd forgotten everything about the Labyrinth and the Underground. All of a sudden, little things here and there start to produce thoughts and ideas that make no sense to me and, next thing I know, here you are. If you don't want to answer the question, then here's another one. What did you do to my friends after I left? How did you punish them for helping me?"
"I did absolutely nothing," he replied nonchalantly.
Sarah crossed her arms over her chest and spoke in clipped tones, "I don't believe you."
"Fine," he said. "Believe me or not. It doesn't change the fact that I am telling you the truth."
"That's not in your nature."
"How do you know what my nature is?" he spun to face her, and Sarah was surprised at the open anger displayed on his face. "You think that because you spend thirteen hours traveling thru my Labyrinth that you know me? You think that because you read of my character in the pages of a book that you know me? Dear Sarah, you don't me at all." His face softened slightly. "Since you won't ask the right questions, let me direct your thoughts. Let me tell you why I took away your memory of that night. Let me tell you how and why you really beat my Labyrinth. Let me tell you why I have missed you, to some degree. Let me tell you why I truly did not harm your friends after your departure."
Conjuring two crystals from mid-air, he blew them out of his hands and Sarah watched them float as gently as bubbles through the air, descending the further they went into the living room. When they were about two inches from the floor, the crystals burst and in their place stood two overstuffed chairs. They were far more elegant than anything Sarah had hoped to grace her apartment. He gestured to the chairs, allowing her first choice. Sarah had a distinct feeling that things were getting serious, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. The manner of his speech and the emotion in his expression…did she really want to hear what he was about to tell her? She sat down.