Dawn glowed inside the massive chamber, warm rays landing across Sarah's face. The morning air blew through the open window carrying the fresh scent of a restart, a new beginning. Birds flew by the balcony gracefully chirping little tunes to their friends. Stirring from her slumber Sarah opened her eyes and tested all of her muscles. Stiff from not being used but they weren't aching, she didn't feel as dizzy, she even wished there was food nearby. Looking around the room she felt as though she'd literally died and fallen into a fairy tale. Smooth gray stone walls, high arching ceilings, velvet tapestries hung elegantly to the sides, the shades were pulled back from the balcony letting the beautiful golden light into the room. Just off to the side of the balcony Sarah could make out flowers of unknown species covering the rail in all the colors of the rainbow. All the bureaus, doors, and tables were carved from a dark mahogany wood, each engraved with a special design all unique yet matching each other. A huge fireplace with a couple chairs sat off in the farther side of the room. Sitting up she admired the four post bed she was in, the soft silk sheets caressing down her legs, although it was large enough to hold six or seven more people. Dangling her legs off the side, she made a move to stand up when her legs gave and she began falling towards the ground. Before she hit the ground, however, a strong arm was around her waist, holding her tight against him.
"Careful love," he said his voice full of amusement at watching her catalog everything into her mind.
"You're not that strong yet," he set her down on the bed and reached over to the nightstand to uncover a silver lid now steaming with warm food. Sarah's stomach growled loudly as her mouth began watering to eat.
"How long have I been here?" she asked reaching for the toast in front of her. The first bite crunched into her mouth and tasted like heaven. Some sort of jelly had been spread on it, reminding her of peaches, but having a slightly berry aftertaste. Swallowing she looked up at the Goblin King who now stood before her, watching her with a smirk at how she'd devoured a piece of toast and was moving onto her next victim.
"Almost a week and a half now, you've been sleeping for about two days though," he said. Her eyes widened slightly, but she didn't appear to be disrupted by this fact. She did stop eating and look up at him with confused eyes.
"I don't understand. How did I get here? What happened?" she asked furrowing her eyebrows in concentration trying to remember that night's events. He watched on with keen interest as she sorted through her thoughts, he wasn't about to tell her he could hear them clearly. Someday perhaps he would tell her, but for now, it was best to remain silent.
Sarah thought back hard, trying to gather what details she could. She'd been at work, finishing a project. But why was it important when it was due? Ah, that's right, it had to be done that night. She'd finished it and had to leave around midnight, but it was pouring rain. Sarah rubbed her head in frustration.
"I know I'm missing something," she mumbled more to herself than the King standing next to her. She looked up at him, hoping his eyes would maybe give way to some improbable explanation. As if the eyes which mystified her could also magically give her understanding that she needed. Sarah closed her eyes to help her focus, only hearing Jareth's breathing and the wind. There was lightning, and an alley, one of the ones she usually walked down to get home. There were two men at the end, but they began walking towards her, she'd tried to back away, but he'd come up too quickly behind her; pinned her arms. Sarah winced and remembered the blows the man with the beard had delivered, his intoxicated breath, the ring that hit her eye, or right near it. He had been reaching for her pants, Steve had scratched her wrists trying hold onto her, she had kicked and flailed about, trying to scream. The bearded man was just about to hurt her when she'd screamed. She had screamed for Jareth.
Outside of her memory, she didn't realize she'd curled herself into a ball and was beginning to scream as well, she was reliving the nightmare of her past inside her head, and it wasn't relenting its torture towards her.
"Sarah! Sarah look at me!" Jareth's hands tried to wrap around hers, but she kicked and thrashed about, scared and frightened.
"Sarah! It's not real! Look at me!" he tried again, on the brink of pleading with her. She opened her eyes at last and stopped moving about. Tears welled up on her eyes as she finally realized what had almost happened to her.
"He-he almost h-had me," her voice came out barely above a whisper. Jareth reached over and pulled her so she was sitting in his lap. She didn't sob, she was stronger than that, but she did grip herself to him as he held her, humming a familiar tune to her.
"There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes, a kind of pale jewel, opened and closed within your eyes, I'll place the sky within your eyes"
Her tears stopped falling and her breathing was more evenly paced. He set her down on the bed again, glancing back at her once before he walked out of the room. He sighed and walked down a number of great halls. His castle was just as confusing as his Labyrinth, making it easy for anyone not allowed in here to get lost. Easier for him to trap them and dispose of them how he saw fit.
"Sire," a taller goblin came up to him looking a bit annoyed, "I understand how much she means to you, hell, all of us here do. But you're also our King! We need your help with things!" the goblin threw up his skinny arms in exclamation. Jareth nodded to him and began walking again, the goblin following.
"I know, and I apologize for not getting back to this sooner. Send Dangle to look after her will you? She's bound to wake up again fairly soon, she's recovered quite a bit by now." He ordered to the goblin, who bowed and scurried off quickly to do as he was told. Jareth opened the heavy wooden door he was now in front of and entered his study. Papers were scattered about in what would appear to any onlooker a disorganized mess, to him it was a delicate system never to be touched. Sorting through his massive stack of things to do he began prioritizing it all, most of these were disputes that had most likely had already been resolved without his help. Small land claim, chicken claim, or drinking issues fit nicely into this category. A larger issue at hand was a dark magic beginning to spread over his kingdom. It was contained in the Northwestern Sliding Forest for now, but it was starting to break over his barriers, it wouldn't be long before it was on the move again. Anything the "fog" touched consumed it with hatred and anger, it was deadly. If someone already had any deadly emotion already tucked into their heart the fog would intensify it. But the dark magic had a mind. Someone was behind it, controlling its movements. Some of its victims became its henchmen rather than killing the vessel off. The Goblin King looked over the Sliding Forest's map watching as the fog swam back and forth at the border, biding its special time. Jareth tossed the map aside annoyed, the medic goblins hadn't found a cure for it yet. They hadn't even found anything that worked to even slow the process. It consumed its victim so fast they didn't have hardly a thought in between the change. He set the matter aside for now and began sifting through routine matters. He checked on the trade, settled some ridiculous disputes, and was about to eat a late lunch when a messenger goblin appeared in front of him.
"What is it?" he asked with a sharp edge, he hadn't slept well of late for obvious reasons. The little goblin hesitated then said, "Moirah is down at the castle lobby asking about your decision." Jareth rubbed his temples, he'd forgotten about Moirah ever since Sarah had called for him.
"Alright, I'll go down and talk to her. Keep Sarah upstairs please, I don't want her to get the wrong impression from this," he ordered with a hint of urgency and strode off down more of the elaborate hallways.
Sarah turned around in the mirror, seeing the full design of the dark green dress the goblin, called Dangle, had picked and helped her put on. "It looks lovely miss," Dangle told her, snapping her fingers around the room to clean it with magic. Sarah looked over at Dangle with a soft smile.
"Please just call me Sarah, I'm not used to regal formalities," Sarah told her shyly. Dangle curtsied to her, "As you wish Sarah." She walked carefully around the room, running her hand over the stone and wood as she went, convincing herself this wasn't a dream any longer. She was truly here, back inside The Underground. She stepped out onto the balcony looking out at what had become of the goblin city. It was as she remembered it, order amongst chaos. Sarah's hand traced over the nearby flowers, smiling at the smooth feeling their petals gave. She felt joy spread through her and suddenly the whole aura of the Labyrinth seemed to become at peace, happy even. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as the maze began to shift itself, become even more intricate than it already was. Dangle motioned her over and placed a small hair band upon her head.
"His Majesty specifically requested that you wear this," she said straightening the ties on the corset she was wearing. Sarah looked at it in the mirror, admiring the blue and purple shine it gave in the sunlight.
"Can you show me around the castle Dangle? I'd like to see more of it." She turned her green, yellow face and gave a uneven toothy grin.
"I'd right be glad to Miss Sarah, what would ye like to see first?" she asked the miss not truly sounding formal now. Sarah answered she didn't mind anything so long as she got to see more.
They left the bedroom and began walking down a long chamber; Sarah had to hasten to keep up with Dangle's movements so she didn't get lost in the maze. They wandered up and down flights of stairs that didn't really make sense with their movements, but ended up at destinations regardless. Sarah was shown the giant kitchen where everyone's meals came from, servants and royals alike. The throne room, which was empty at this time," normally would be full of mischievous goblins making a ruckus so loud even his majesty gets annoyed," Dangle explained as they continued walking. They walked on an inside balcony and Sarah stayed to the shadows as she saw Jareth talking with a woman down below, from the sound of it the conversation wasn't going pleasant like.
"Miss Sarah, we really shouldn't be eavesdropping," Dangle whispered as Sarah crept stealthy forward to hear what they were saying. She motioned for Dangle to step back if she was worried, and tried to hear what was going on.
Jareth's expression kept calm and composed and he tried to explain to Moirah he had changed his mind. She was becoming frustratingly difficult.
"Moirah please, I told you before we started nothing was for certain. You agreed to that."
"You told me this had changed less than a month ago! You told me about how your feelings had become more for me, you told me you'd forgotten about her!" The beautiful blonde Fae argued with him, her eyes glowing an imaginable shade of pink. Her features were incomparable to any human, even Sarah felt slightly jealous of her as she looked on.
"Because you'd told me she'd died," Jareth's voice became a low hiss as he leaned in by Moirah's ear. "I was foolish enough to listen to you rather than check on it myself." Moirah stepped away and glared spiteful daggers towards him.
"Your kingdom fell to ruins because of that girl! If I hadn't been here this kingdom would have fallen a thousand times over!" she yelled and threw one of the nearby vases towards him, missing terribly.
"You think you're responsible for my kingdom's welfare?" Jareth's arms balled fists at his side. "I keep this kingdom going with my power and my magic, you had no part in my kingdom's condition," he stepped in closer to her now, "don't you ever forget that!" he hissed and stepped away, walking tensely. Sarah had quietly walked down a side staircase and was on the same floor as them only a couple of yards away.
"I helped you when she was gone, you thought she was dead and you found me, what's any different now?" Moirah asked slyly walking around so she was hardly an arm's length away. "You used me to fill those empty holes she left in you, and I still want something," she said in a low voice licking her lips in a venomous manner. Sarah's legs tensed, this Fae was going to do something.
Jareth's hand flexed at his side, it had been a mistake to ever become involved with this Fae, she was only in it for his crown and all that came with it. He fiddled absently with a crystal he had conjured in his hands, trying to calm himself down.
"It was a mistake to have invited you here, and for that I must apologize. I do admit that I had some trouble surviving right after she left, but that was no excuse for me to become involved with the likes of you," Jareth's voice was borderline menacing.
"It was a mistake?" the Fae's arm tightened and her nails grew sharper. "You're telling me it was a mistake to have me here?" she practically screamed and pulled her arm back.
"You told me you loved me, you told me nothing but lies! You are nothing but a coward and liar!" she screamed and lashed out at Jareth's face.
Please tell me what you think! I usually put a bit more detail into argument scenes, so this is shortened for my writing. :D
Who wants to see more other Fae characters in the story?