Ch. 18

No. It couldn't be. - she thought, flatly denying her memory, squelching even the smallest fluttering of feeling. No, no, no and no. She couldn't think of him right now - she was already teetering on the edge after she thought she heard him answer her question the other day. If she lost control now, she might go right over that edge. She was losing it. As in, completely and totally. She needed to stop this. Cut it out! - she told herself – Come on, Sarah, pull yourself together. We've been through worse, we've gotten through worse.

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered...

But somehow, it didn't get easier to breathe. The man in front of the class looked nothing like the Goblin King – much darker-skinned than her dream-turned-nightmare-turned- something she didn't dare name. He had black, curly hair, slicked into a ponytail at the neck, his eyes were not mismatched. They were both a dark brown, almost black in this half-light. A different person altogether. Breathe, she told herself. Almost an order. But her body was revolting, caught up in a whirlwind of sensations. It doesn't even look like him!

But there was something about him that was just too familiar. Impossible to ignore. Sarah's old instincts told her to run, to get out. But there was another set of instincts now, instincts she really didn't trust. And they whispered different things.

It feels like bells ringing through your body in response to his voice, they told her. Do you feel it pulsating through you? they asked, Like music.. like a quickening pace...?

And she did.

You are tuned to him, already in synch with him, they whispered. There's no fighting it, they assured, almost purring.

But the last assertion was too much. The old Sarah shook her head, fighting, no longer giving in. She bundled these new, traitorous thoughts together with her unwanted thoughts of Jareth, and decided she would ignore them both. Fantasies weren't real. They simply couldn't be. No matter how strong their siren song. She promptly threw them into an oubliette.

To forget about.

Then she decided that that was too generous of her, and mentally banished them to the Bog, feeling a fleeting and inexplicable satisfaction, which unsettled her even more.

She couldn't believe she was starting to think in these categories!

Jareth watched as Sarah's face betrayed the emotions that ripped their way through her in those short few seconds. He saw the recognition, and nearly dropped his disguise in excitement. He saw her unable to put up her internal walls, overwhelmed by new sensations that hadn't been there before, that had lain dormant for years. The sensations which he had now awakened. But, as anything that tried to gain control over his Sarah, whether internal or external in origin, it was sure to alarm her. He saw her defenses triggered, saw the protective walls slammed back into place.

He hadn't expected an immediate victory, so he did not let himself give way to disappointment. She was his Sarah, his Labyrinth runner, his conqueror. Of course she would not surrender. He was hoping to win the war, however many lost battles it took in the process.

But she was definitely shaken, there was absolutely no doubt about that. And now, bit by bit, her mind would give way to him. She had felt his call, and had, despite herself, reacted. For now, that was more than enough.

As she steeled herself against him, Jareth remembered his charade, realizing with a start that he was, in fact, standing in front of an expectant class. The female majority of which were already overreacting to his presence.

He had picked his disguise off-handedly, trying to choose the model in the catalogue who didn't have any of his features. Not that his features were all that common, he noted smugly. He wanted the safety of anonymity during their first meeting. He was too used to observing without being observed, and he preferred to keep the ball in his court.

"Hello, class," he said again, this time talking to all of them, rather than just Sarah. "My name is Terrence."

"Eric has asked me to fill in for him today..." Jareth trailed off, smiling at his little fib. Well, he would've asked me to fill in, if he wasn't gagged in the back of his own truck right now... Jareth made a mental note to tamper with the man's time later. Turning it back a few hours wouldn't hurt anyone.

"So here I am." He looked around, smiling. The kids in front of him weren't all that different from a throne-room-full of goblins. All they really wanted was to be impressed. Already, they thought they knew what he was, and that just made it easy as pie.. or was that cake?

All he had to do, was to fit the role they cast him in – that of a handsome dance teacher. Although - some of the girls present had better developed imaginations, Jareth noted, giving them credit, as he felt their fantasies swirl around his form. Maybe slightly too well-developed for their years. His disguise wouldn't last very long, if they kept imagining it off! He'd better get on with the show. In his pre-Sarah days, he might have taken them up on their challenge... But he had other tasks at hand.

He glanced at Sarah again, trying to settle on a strategy. He wanted to experiment with the whole lets-unhinge-Sarah's-pentup-feelings-and-grown-up-emotions line of action. It seemed to yield definitive results.

He knew that she was mesmerized by the waltz, and that it would open her to any outside influence easily... but it was slightly boring – coming all this way, coming up with the perfect disguise, just to waltz with her. He could, of course... But there wasn't danger there, there was nothing that would remind her of him. Maybe of tearing herself away at the masked ball, of the last words and the last ringing of his thirteen-hour clock.. It had potential, he admitted grudgingly.

What he really wanted to dance was a Tango. But that, he felt, might not go down so well. He'd have to make sure not to get carried away, and he didn't know if he could do that. With his darling so close, he might not be able to hold onto to his disguise, and he wasn't sure he had her mind completely on his side yet. He couldn't risk that.

He scanned the crowd. They expected something "cool". He smirked. Oh, he could do "cool". In fact, anything he showed them today would blow their tiny mortal minds. But it didn't bring him closer to a decision. He suddenly found himself sympathizing with Sarah's dress-choosing issues that had annoyed the crap out of him earlier that day.

"Before we get started," he said, stalling, "could anyone tell me what you work on with Eric last time?"

A few hands shot up - all ladies, of course.