He stepped forth from the shadows, as lightning suddenly streaked across the sky. Thunder followed and then lashing rain, as a storm that had not been in the forecast began to beat upon the city. Crystal watched him with wary eyes. This stranger-and he was strange-before her watched her intently, his eyes darting to follow her every move as she slid farther from him on the bed.
His hair was white-blonde, left long; it whisped about his face and down his shoulders. His clothes reminded her of courtly garb from the Renaissance, tight-fitting dove grey breeches, a white flowy shirt, barely showing under a beautifully embroidered leather waistcoat. A long black overcoat, the bottom swirling around his calf-height black boots.
He was undeniably handsome- in an odd way- with his flashing eyes, eyes that held two different colors; and Crystal fough back a blush, remembering that she was in only a long cotton night gown. His neck was draped with a sickle-shaped gold pendant on a leather cord.
"What do you want?" Crystal asked, gasping as Jareth strode forward, placing a leather gloved hand under her chin. He stared into her eyes, widened in fright. She took in his eyes, discovering that instead of having two different colors as she'd thought, one was a pale blue, the other was the same, though the pupil was enlarged so that it looked like the eye was brown.
"I want to help you, Crystal," he said. He pulled Emma's charm bracelet from the box; it made little silvery clinking noises as he raised it. "I want to free you from all this grief. All this guilt. All this hatred that you hold," he continued.
"The only way to do that would be for me to die. Are you going to kill me, then?" she asked.
He looked astonished. "Die? No, I'm not going to kill you, beautiful Crystal. I'm going to help you to forget."
"That's the problem, Jareth. I can't forget. She was my sister, my twin. There was a bond there that can never be broken."
"Not here. Not in this world. But in my world, my world, fair Crystal, anything is possible. Will you come? Will you let me help you forget? Will you allow me to make you my queen, fair Crystal, so that you never have to return? So that you don't have to face the rest of your life alone, eating tasteless food, dreading the morning that comes ineviteably?" he asked, gazing into her eyes intently. Everything about him spoke of intensity, but she could also see that he was speaking the truth.
"Your queen?" she asked nervously.
"Yes. You are beautiful. You are graceful. You, my fair, fragile Crystal, are exquisite," he said, running his gloved finger down her bare arm from the wide strap of her nightdress. He brought his finger back up, gliding it along the inside of arm, against the side of her breast, along her throat, raising her chin up. "Exquisite," he whispered again, leaning forward and pressing his lips against hers. She closed her eyes, gasping and unable to open them as his arms snaked around her, pulling her from the bed and against his body as he deepened the kiss. The was a whoosh of sound and wind, and then suddenly the air was much dryer, much warmer. She pressed her hands against Jareth's shoulders, not sure for a moment whether she was pushing him away or holding him to her.
After a moment, though, he placed her feet on the ground and she was able to slowly blink her eyes open. He stroked her cheek once before stepping back and allowing Crystal to look around. His eyes turned hard as he looked at her, and he pointed to a large grandfather style clock. It was a strange clock, however, as it reached thirteen hours instead of the standard twelve. "You have thirteen hours. Thirteen hours to find thirteen charms. When you have them, they will appear on the bracelet. Each will be a memory, each will be one that you can keep or thrust away forever at the end of the thirteen hours. And then you will decide, beautiful Crystal. Shall I return you to the mortal realm, or will you stay here, beside me as my immortal queen?"
Jareth reached forward one final time, wrapping a large cloak around Crystal's bare shoulders. "None shall harm you in my realm, my lady, but do not think that there are no dangers. You have thirteen hours, starting now," he said, and the clock ticked loudly. "Fare thee well for now, my lady," Jareth said, taking Crystal's hand and kissing the knuckles before standing and with a flash of his magic, he'd disappeared.
Shaken, Crystal gazed upon the sight before her. A long stone labyrinth lay before her, for as far as the eye could see. Beyond the labyrinth stood a castle high in the distance. She knew that was where she had to reach. She took one last look at the ticking clock and hurried down the small path towards the labyrinth.