CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Eternal Dance of Love and Death

"A simple young girl is all you ought to be,

Yet all of me is crumbling.

Just an ordinary human girl,

Yet you make me shiver.

Now I can't take this life,

I want the life of living love.

I'm stepping forward to claim this forbidden love.

I will pursue you forever until I win your love.

Wherever you go, I will follow you,

The eternal dance of Love and Death."

-Translation of "Ai to Shi No Rondo-Watashi dake ni Reprise" (Dance of Love and Death-I Belong to Me Reprise) from the Takarazuka Revue's musical "Elisabeth: Ai to Shi no Rondo" by Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze

Jareth could not sleep, tired though he was. His mind ground steadily on, thoughts flashing rapidly through his head. They left him with no time to rest.

What on earth had he just done? What possessed him to go and help her? She would have failed had he not gone to help her, she would have been his! What madness drove him to such tasks?

Jealousy, said a knowing voice in his mind, you saw what was going on in her nightmare, you saw how she reacted to another, to one who was not you…you could not stand to see her in the arms of another man, to see her willingly give herself…

How could it be that he had fallen into this trap once more? How was it that he had fallen in love with a mortal once again? It was strange, but this love seemed to be different from the blind infatuation that had struck him so many years ago, the infatuation that had lead to the Guillemin family being cursed.

This time, it was different.

This time, he was prepared, he was forewarned.

It had not spared him from falling for Sarah all the same.

Jareth had not expected to feel such emotions for the girl. When he had decided on taking Sarah, he had merely wished to remind the Guillemin family who it was they should respect and fear. It had been so long since he had been able to take a child, and he feared that he was falling into the realm of myth and legend, which would just not do. He needed to give them a fresh reminder of his power and his control over the humans' lives. Jareth had not planned on the headstrong and stubborn young woman that he had found in Sarah. He was rather hoping for a wilting flower, a girl who would have been an easy capture, who would have never dreamt of rebellion or running away, of defying him so vehemently. In retrospect, it was better that it had been Sarah whom he had taken. It was quite a bit more fun to constantly rile Sarah up and awake her passions than to have a woman who was constantly terrified of him and trembled in his presence, though he had perversely enjoyed reducing Sarah to such a state when they first met. The Goblin King realized that he had come to be quite fond of Sarah's spunk.

He loved her.

They were quite suited to one another, the Goblin King and Sarah. It was almost as if she possessed the same spark, the same fiery passions and stubborn convictions that made Jareth so well suited to being king of the goblins.

It was almost as if Sarah was meant to be the queen of the goblins in some sort of preordained fate.

Jareth crossed over to the open window and lounged lazily on the windowsill, staring out into the darkness. He thought back suddenly on his rash actions earlier in the night. Jareth groaned and passed a hand over his face, rubbing his aching temples, in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain that had settled there. Why had he gone to her?

Jareth had naturally been keenly interested in the affairs going on in the Labyrinth earlier that night, and his interest had turned to annoyance when Queen Mab had revealed his name. This did not, however, entice him to go flying off to the Labyrinth. The Fairy Queen held little love for Jareth, and he did not want to have to deal with her while he was in the middle of his quest to keep Sarah. Queen Mab was a prickly creature at best, and she did not like his habit of collecting humans in the way that he did. She was more of a traditionalist than Jareth, and she liked seeing things done in the right way. She had never quite approved of Jareth's taste for the flamboyant and his desire for drama. That was most likely why she had interfered with his game and given Sarah the compass and the feather. Just as Jareth liked riling up Sarah, the Fairy Queen's keenest pleasure was achieved whenever she could inconvenience the Goblin King or throw off his plans in any way. It was just his luck that she would suddenly take an interest in his affairs when so much was at stake.

For all the Fairy Queen's gifts, however, they could not save Sarah from her greatest disadvantage whilst traveling in the Labyrinth: being human. If it were not for that, she would have never fallen for the incubus's spell. The creature must have gone mad with excitement when it had discovered the presence of a human so near after going so long without human prey. Sarah never had the slightest chance of escape.

If he was so keen on making Sarah his, however, why did he go and save her from the clutches of the incubus? She would have lost and would have been unable to fulfill her end of the bargain, and therefore be his for all time. Why give her yet another chance to escape?

It could not have been simply the jealousy of seeing her bend willingly to the will of the incubus, not, there had to be some other mitigating factor at work here, something that had niggled at his mind and sent him on his rescue mission.

Was it that he had become so fond of Sarah that he cared for her wants and wishes more than he desired her? Did Jareth think, somewhere in his mind, that it would be better to have Sarah at home and happy than to keep her here and have her miserable and hating him for the rest of her life? Jareth was not quite sure which was the case.

The old Jareth would have never thought of a human's desires before his own. He took what was rightfully his and never had such moral qualms over doing so. Jareth was losing his nerve. He was the Goblin King. He was cruel and unyielding. Had he not taken Sarah to remind the humans of this?

He must not save Sarah again. He must not allow himself to be so weak. He was the Goblin King, and it was not in his nature to bend his knee so readily to a pretty face. He was the master of the land, and therefore, the will of the land and its peoples bent to him. Sarah would be his, no matter what dangers she found herself in next, he would not be the one to save her if it meant that she would escape him once more. She was tearing her way through his Labyrinth quite easily enough without any of his help.

In taking Sarah, Jareth had unwittingly found his equal. They complimented one another so perfectly, and yet butted heads all the same. She did not shrink from him nor did she wilt like a helpless princess in a fairy tale. She stood her ground against him and threw his words back at him, defying him at every turn. She was strong, confident and clever. She was passionate, proud, and rebellious. In short, she was everything that a Goblin Queen should be, and everything that Jareth had wanted in a partner.

How had that happened? Why had fate given him the one thing that he wanted and yet plagued him with the moral quandary of whether or not to keep her? What cruel trick was this?

He loved her, against his better judgment and against his own will, and yet, if he kept her, she would be keenly unhappy, and he knew that he could never live with himself if he let her go. Could he do the right thing? Could he let her win? Jareth was not so sure that he could be so generous as to let Sarah win without a fight.

Jareth furrowed his brow, and he unconsciously clenched his fist. No, she was his. He had been fooled once before by a passing infatuation, and he was quite sure that what he felt for Sarah was very much permanent. She would be his just as certainly as he was hers. Fate was at play here, and it could not be undermined.

Jareth shielded his eyes as rays of the rising sun struck his eyes. Morning. He surveyed his domain from his perch on the windowsill as the light brightened the colors of the landscape and brought them into sharper focus. His musings had gone on too long. He had sorely needed rest and now he had wasted the night away thinking of Sarah. It was the last day of this farce. There were mere hours left until either Sarah would be his or until she would win back her freedom. Today was the day. At sunset, they would decide their fates, come what may.

Perhaps it was time for him to stop trying to act like the hero and to truly become the villain that he was said to be. Perhaps it was time to level the playing field as it were, to behave as a goblin king should. He needed to have a back-up plan should Sarah actually make her way to the castle.

Jareth smiled wickedly to himself as the solution presented itself, and he set about preparing for his journey.

It was time to visit the Guillemin family once more.

AN: I just realized, dear readers, that I ended my last Goblin King POV chapter with almost the exact same line. Though this was quite unintentional, I love it none the less! Thank you for readad and as always, thanks for all of the reviews!

Disclaimer: Labyrinth and its characters do not belong to me. Quotes from the movie belong to Henson, Froud, and Lucas. Quotes from the book belong to A.C.H. Smith.