Short chapter/dream-sequence! Enjoy. (:
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Chapter 2
Everything was swimming in flashes. Masked courtiers, grotesque and beautiful simultaneously, danced around the ivory ballroom. The ballroom itself was unfinished – half-pillars like melted candles were tossed around in disarray with no thought to architectural integrity. Chandeliers, dripping with clear crystals and covered in gaudy carvings, gave Sarah the impression of over-enthusiastic grandeur. Young Sarah. Fifteen-year-old Sarah lost in a world of immorality, wearing a pure white gown of innocence as she looked on to the cavorting dancers.
What was her purpose? Why was she here – an innocent amongst many ugly sins. What brought her to this place among all other places, this place that she most obviously did not belong to? No matter how she tried, she would never be able to dance like them, with their chaotic steps and turns like windstorms, falling away into a world of transgression, all the while their faces turned up in laughter that even they didn't know the target for.
Then she heard the music… It was lilting and beautiful, flutes and strings and a trance-inducing melody. She caught a glimpse of him as he lowered his mask and Sarah's breath caught in her chest. This was why she was here. He was why she was there. In his blue tux, bright and vibrant and wonderful – blue was the color of royalty, of the ocean and skies – the most standard forms of wonder and beauty. He moved like the ocean, or perhaps like the clouds swirling in the sky, like wind and silence and all things wonderful. He was as beautiful as the music she heard – perfect and charming, the ideal Prince to her Princess.
Then he was gone.
Frantically, Sarah searched the ballroom for her prince. She pushed away the dancers one by one. They danced rapidly – off beat to the music that Sarah heard. The innocent music that whispered through the laughter and drowned out the earnest fear that she'd been feeling… Why had she been feeling that?
Sarah stopped for a moment to think. She wanted to remember what she'd been so afraid of. Questions swam dizzily through her mind as she wondered and thought, but no answers followed them. Perhaps they simply just didn't matter – perhaps all that mattered was what was happening at that moment, the strings in the song and the lilting flutes… But still, she felt that fear in the pit of her stomach like a heavy stone and she wished nothing more than to be rid of it.
Then she heard his voice, and it no longer mattered. Nothing mattered, except him.
Sarah started again on her search for Jareth. She looked in all directions, but ever half-pillar and chandelier looked the same. Every dancer pulled her and pushed her and laughed horribly in her face, at her dress and the pearls that were entwined in her hair. She didn't wear a grotesque mask like they did, and they laughed at her for that folly. This was, after all, a world of ugliness and Sarah was anything but ugly.
She could feel herself breaking down; feel the hopelessness setting in as she almost collapsed in the center of the ballroom. What was she to do? The dancers spun themselves into blurs of dark colors and Sarah drunkenly looked on as faces turned to little more than fanged countenances, still grinning horribly like they couldn't stop the maniacal feelings that bubbled up through their bodies. Sarah could feel the tears stinging her eyes, blurring her already blurred vision, when she felt a presence at her shoulder. She turned around, and there he was.
He put his arms around her and all was right in the world. She could no longer feel her feet or her head, or feel the fear she felt before. All she felt were his hand in her hand, and the other on her waist. All she knew was the world in his eyes. All she could hear was the voice that came from him and from nowhere at the same time. The voice that spoke of love and eternity and promises that Sarah didn't hesitate to believe.
Falling, falling in love…
All that mattered was that he held her. The rest of the world could go to hell, so long as Sarah danced with him.
His face was as beautiful as she'd expected, his eyes alight with love and wonderful secrets that Sarah wished to know. His lips moved and his voiced seemed to dissolve into her mind and heart, echoing through her soul. Her fear was whisked away as if by a comforting wind, and the laughter began to fade into the back of her mind.
Slowly, he smiled. It wasn't the charming smile that she loved – it was a wicked smile of deception.
As if newly learning to focus, Sarah began to hear the laughter again. The music started to dull and the laughter grew into a raucous din. She could feel his hand holding hers all too tightly, and her heart began to beat faster and faster as his lovely eyes turned to darkness. She could hear a clock chiming
One… Two… Three…
Sarah ripped her hand from his and tore away from his hold. The dancers all turned to watch her, their gaping mouths in twisted mirth as Sarah looked somewhere – anywhere – for help, but no one turned to help her.
Six… Seven… Eight… the clock boomed, each chime getting louder and louder in Sarah's aching head.
With a gasp, Sarah remembered. Toby. He had Toby. He'd given her thirteen hours… She remembered.
Nine… Ten… Eleven… Time was running out!
Sarah ran through the laughing, cackling crowd. She reached the clock and stared at it. There was a mirror behind it, and she could see herself - her ball gown, the pearls in her hair. She was ready for a party, but it was just a trick. He wasn't in love with her at all. She had to save Toby, and her time was almost up.
"Time to say good-bye, Sarah," he said softly.
Sarah opened her eyes wide as she stared at her reflection. It wasn't right. She wasn't right. None of this was.
Twelve…
It wasn't Toby she was meant to save, after all. It was herself. Sarah stole a glance back at Jareth, who looked at her with a calculated, monitoring look like a scientist watching a lab rat run through a series of tests… Except, unlike a scientist for his rat, there was a look of hatred on the Goblin King's beautiful face.
Thirteen…
The clock had run out.
Sarah was all out of time.