Chapter 7
It's Only Forever… Not Long At All
Sarah stumbled when she felt a pair of strong arms jam around her stature, and she was pinned to the castle floor immediately. Jareth's triumphant face blazed over her.
"Now then," he said with a grin. "Will you listen?"
Sarah elbowed him off irritably and dusted off her (his) clothes. He rose with her, to see that he was in his old bedroom.
"Don't be too triumphant, Goblin King," she said crossly, glaring at him. "You're at the castle, but you haven't passed the test." She then pointed at the eleven-hour clock hanging on the wall. Jareth noticed that none of the hands were moving. "You see? Your time is frozen, and it will continue to remain frozen until you're back in the Labyrinth, in the same spot as the second before."
"Clever," Jareth complimented. "But when I grabbed you, I wasn't thinking about passing your test. And I have no intentions of going back just yet."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"I will not let you die," said Jareth firmly. Once again, that hint of the old Sarah shadowed the new Sarah's menacing features, and she stared at him with a slack look. Then it sharpened.
"Die?" she echoed blankly. "You think I'm going to die?"
"My power cannot properly be controlled by a human for very long. It has already begun to destroy you, and soon it will be too late."
Sarah scoffed. "You sound like a False Alarm, which pretty much sums up my suspicion. You're lying."
"I am not," said Jareth sharply, and for a moment he felt the familiar sense of power as he towered over her. "I have never lied." Sarah scoffed again, and Jareth gripped her shoulders tightly. "Do not ridicule that fact. I have tricked you, but I have never lied." Sarah's brows furrowed together as she thought it out, and Jareth smiled when her cross look deepened. "You see? Now relinquish the power to me."
Sarah took a step back from him. "No. I have to get home."
Jareth sighed irritably and muttered, "Still stubborn, just like before. You may have changed considerably, but you still possess your old qualities."
"You've changed too," Sarah noted, crossing her arms. "You used to be so…"
Angry, demanding, menacing, intolerant, power-obsessed…
"You were different," she finished lamely.
Jareth chuckled and replied, "Yes, I was."
"What made you change? My beating you?" Sarah added proudly.
"Yes, I suppose it was," Jareth said thoughtfully, and Sarah was taken aback. Another thing that old Goblin King hadn't possessed was straightforwardness, yet this Goblin King was admitting his defeat straight to her face. Sarah glanced down at the red crystal hanging from her neck. This was her only ticket home, but if Jareth was telling the truth — and Sarah highly suspected he was — then her case might be hopeless.
Is it really so repulsive, Sarah? To be with me?
It wasn't anymore. Jareth had changed considerably, and Sarah couldn't help but wonder if life with him would be worse than being a celebrity. Had her life really been as great as she'd stated? To be constantly annoyed by stupid fans, having one-night stands to fill some sort of void, hating her family (especially Rosamund)…?
A sharp pain erupted through her brain, making her cry out in alarm and her knees to give way. Jareth caught her swiftly, and immediately her senses were dizzied by that spicy, unique scent that Jareth held.
"There now," Jareth cooed in her ear, smoothing back her hair gently. "You see what this power is doing to you?"
His hold, his touch, his words… they were all held a gentleness that was extremely unfamiliar to Sarah. It almost overwhelmed her, made her want to cry. But she tried hard not to.
Instead, she leaned over and gifted him the softest of kisses, attempting to ignore the pain in her head. Jareth's lips opened immediately, accepting the kiss with no hesitation. He captured her in his grip, startling her enough to cry out underneath his lips. Her cry intensified his need considerably, and he immediately dove forward to deepen the kiss. This action confused Sarah.
What is he doing?
She slid her hands over his chest to push him off but she suddenly felt the intrusion of Jareth's tongue, which flicked over her own softly and dizzied her senses. Her concentration lingered back to her hands, which were now snaking underneath his shirt to feel the rippling muscles and pecks packaged so elegantly beneath his skin. Jareth groaned and pinned her to the wall, his own hand disappearing into her breeches. He pushed aside the offending fabric of her panties and pressed his thumb onto the bundle of nerves. Sarah inhaled sharply, suppressing a moan, and her hands began to slide over his sides and his back, leaving no part of him unexplored.
"No," Jareth demanded, pulling his lips away from hers. "I want to hear you sing for me."
He licked up the length of her neck, nibbling and kissing her skin and causing her to sigh. His thumb began to move in delicious circles over her aching clit, sending pleasure zapping through her body. One finger delved into her folds, slick with desire, and began pumping in and out. Sarah whimpered, exactly what Jareth wanted to hear, and his ministrations sped up considerably to reward her for her reaction. Sarah spasmed underneath his grip— he was driving her insane, pushing her to a seemingly unreachable peak that only got higher and higher as time passed.
Sarah had had many partners before, who had been good at giving her pleasure. But Jareth's hands were talented beyond imagination; his fingers danced inside her and his lips painted kisses over her neck. She'd never craved anybody's touch so much in her life.
"Sarah…" Jareth groaned out, his voice full of need. With a swift motion he swept her to the side and onto the bed. Sarah gasped at the sudden movement. Jareth straddled her waist and rocked against her in a steady rhythm, continuing to service Sarah below her waist.
Between spasms and pants and sighs, Sarah glanced down and studied the effect she'd given on him. One of her hands wriggled out from underneath his shirt, slid into his breeches and gripped his length tightly. Jareth growled in unison, and his free hand slid up her shirt and grasped her breast. His thumb rolled and rubbed her sensitive nipple, causing it to peak. Sarah groaned again and began to repeat her earlier actions in the Oubliette, raking her nails up and down his length and causing his hips to buck against her hand.
Jareth's hand withdrew from her panties and slid up her shirt, preparing to pull it over her head when...
"Oh my God!" Sarah gasped, chest heaving. She whipped her hand away from him and scrambled backward.
What the hell had she been doing? He was supposed to be running the Labyrinth to get her home. Sarah had given in to weakness and lust, allowed him to play with her emotions like she was just some toy...
"Get off," Sarah snapped, elbowing him, fixing her shirt indignantly and storming away.
"You need to understand what you just felt, Sarah," said Jareth sharply, standing up and following her out of the room.
"I felt nothing," Sarah snarled, whirling around and glaring at him with those cruel, now mismatched eyes of hers. "You're going back to the Labyrinth and getting me the hell out of here."
"Sarah, I love you!" Jareth shouted angrily, which once again brought on that slack look to Sarah's face. "Do I wish to hold you? Kiss you? Please you? Of course! And I will not let you die because of your own stubbornness, because you constantly tell yourself that that empty life in the Aboveground would be a million times better than a life in the Underground, with people who care about you."
"Yeah?" Sarah sneered. "Like who? Hoggle? Ludo? Didymus?"
"Actually yes," said Jareth coolly. "You see Sarah, despite your neglect and cold demeanour toward them, Ludo and Hoggle still wish to see you, wish to save you from destroying yourself." Sarah put her hands on her hips, the irritated look now wavering from her face for one moment.
"And why, Goblin King?" Sarah said, with her mismatched eyes narrowed. "Why do you constantly continue to claim that you love me? Especially when all I've ever demonstrated to you is hate, and on our first meeting, fear?"
"Your anger and hate towards me is not genuine," replied Jareth, crossing his arms. "It is merely a mask, to demonstrate to me that you are not weak, and that you can be more powerful than I. To answer your question, precious, I am as stubborn as you are, and do not give up easily. Also... your pleasure in the Oubliette and in my own bedroom provided passionate examples of your feelings toward me," he added, smirking as Sarah's face reddened with anger and embarrassment. "Why not give up, Sarah? Why not just stay here, with me and your friends in the Underground, instead of allowing your inflexibility to kill you?"
"I feel nothing for you," said Sarah coldly.
"You did not answer my question, precious," Jareth growled, his gloved hands balling into fists. "What is there in the Aboveground that is so important to you?"
Sarah thought for a moment. "Toby."
"And yet you offered him back to me," Jareth sneered. "But you do certainly enjoy his company."
"You were the owl!" Sarah gasped. "You were there at Nobu, and at the park, when I was with Toby! And... and you watched me dress," Sarah suddenly remembered, glaring at him. "You pervert."
"Indeed," said Jareth in unison, grinning stupidly at the memory.
"I also noticed that you stole my copy of the Labyrinth," Sarah added irritably. "And you were also spying on my conversations with Hoggle with that... mirror thing. You really are one hell of a pervert."
"Indeed," Jareth repeated. "Now Sarah, do stop avoiding the subject and answer my question. What is so terrible about being with people who love you?"
"Well there's a very simple explanation, Goblin King," Sarah said bitterly. "Imagine, spending eternity with the likes of you. One would go insane after less than a day."
"You are so very cruel, aren't you?" Jareth sighed. "Forever is not nearly as long as you believe, Sarah."
Sarah smirked and turned her back on him again.
"It's only forever..." she sang, and once again Jareth was hypnotized by that melodic voice of hers, only being able to stare at her back with his mouth hanging open stupidly. "Not long at all..."
Jareth jerked himself back to Earth and growled, "Send me back to the Labyrinth. I will get to the castle in time, and I will get my power back from you. And you can go back to that hellhole of an Aboveground that you so desperately wish to go back to."
Sarah's face slacked yet again, and she turned around with her eyes saddened, watching Jareth's blazing, determined look. For a moment she wondered if she even wanted him to send her back. His expression was so true to his words... perhaps he had not been lying... perhaps he did in fact love her, and she might just have a better life with him in the Underground. She'd make amends with Ludo, Hoggle and Didymus, and they'd be friends again just like all those years ago...
Sarah let out a noise that sounded like a growl.
"You can utter a million pretty words like those, Goblin King," she snarled, holding her head high to prove to him that she would not be so easily wavered. "It won't change anything. I won't be the one to give up."
Sarah turned her back on him again and waved her hand idly. The scene dissolved in front of Jareth's very eyes and he saw that once again he was standing in the archway. Hoggle and Ludo were resting against a False Alarm and had been apparently waiting for him.
"King back," grumbled Ludo, waving his big hairy hand. Jareth waved back and actually smiled, taking all three of them by surprise.
Even if it means releasing you back to the Aboveground... I will beat this Labyrinth. I will not let you die.
A/N: So, I'm posting this and the next chapter today because I know I'll forget tomorrow -_-' I'm kind of bad at that.