10 years had passed since Sarah had been in the labyrinth to free her brother Toby from the clutches of the goblin king Jareth. 10 years in which she could never completely forget what had happened. 10 years in which she dreamed about all of it. Every night. In which she dreamed about him.
She had been 16 at that time. Young, inexperienced and naive when it came to love. She hadn't really had any experience with the opposite sex and she had never been in love.
She hadn't understood what Jareth had wanted from her back then. Her relationship with him had always been a game of power and misunderstanding, a dance between enemy and ally. But the older she got, the more she realized what this man – this goblin king – really felt. And every time she dived into her dreams, she saw him again, saw the pain in his eyes. She knew she had broken his heart, and she felt a little sorry for him, because she knew the feeling all too well.
As time went on, Sarah grew older and more mature. Three years after her stay in the Labyrinth, she moved to another city to go to college with her best friend Debbie.
She quickly made new friends – and somehow a few of them reminded her of the old companions from the Labyrinth.
There was Tom, who got lost in every discussion about the Middle Ages and never missed a moment to act like Sir Didymus. A small but brave hero in his own world.
Emily, with her cuddly nature, often reminded Sarah of Ludo, who – despite his size – had a soft soul.
And Sam, who embodied the perfect mix of Hoggle and an edgy, grumpy character with his grumpy attitude and sharp humour, was always good for a sharp remark.
These friends filled the void in Sarah's life that she had felt after the Labyrinth, and slowly she began to leave the weight of the past behind her. Her dreams – of Jareth and the Labyrinth – became less and less frequent, until they almost disappeared.
Almost.
Because one day, as she and Debbie were walking to the common room of their dorm, it all came back. It started out as a normal afternoon. Debbie was talking excitedly about a couple on campus. Her voice was excited, but Sarah's mind was elsewhere.
"Don't you believe me?" Debbie asked Sarah, who had just bitten into a cookie. "I saw it with my own eyes. Mr. Todd and Mrs. Lighthouse were standing behind the gym, kissing. I always knew it." She tossed her hair back theatrically.
"Tht's rly swt," Sarah murmured with her mouth full.
Yes, that really is sweet," Debbie laughed as she translated Sarah's mumbled reply.
Suddenly the door to the common room opened and a man entered. Long, blond hair reminiscent of 80s hairstyles and a slim build. His face was of a cutting beauty and "very attractive," Debbie noted. He seemed almost too good for this world. And it didn't take long for Sarah to realize who he was.
She had just put a cookie in her mouth and suddenly had to cough so violently that Debbie had to pat her on the back.
"Are you okay, Sar?" she asked. Sarah just nodded and tried to regain her composure.
This man. He was the one who had chased her through the labyrinth and who had thrown cryptic things at her. Jareth.
Why was he here? What did he want? The shock was deep when she saw him. Her throat tightened and she couldn't move. Had he just arrived? How long had he been here? And why had she never noticed him before?
Their gazes met and Jareth had something in his eyes that she absolutely couldn't decipher.
Her questions were answered immediately when Amber, one of the popular girls at the college, jumped up to him and put her arms around his neck. With an ease that seemed almost unimaginable to Sarah, he lifted her into the air and laughed. Sarah's cookie got stuck in her throat again.
So he had been here for a while after all and had become friends with Amber. Friends? Sarah watched in horror as Jareth took Amber's face in his hands and kissed her passionately.
Sarah felt her heart clench for a moment. A tiny spark of pain shot through her, but she quickly tried to organize her thoughts. 'Why should I care?' she thought and looked away, trying to ignore the scene. But deep down she felt that this was more than she was willing to admit.
Jareth had noticed.
A slight, sadistic smile played around his lips when he noticed Sarah's fleeting glance. He seemed to like how Sarah reacted to it. But deep inside him, somewhere beneath the surface, there was something else. Deep inside him, it hurt him. But he didn't noticed it. Something that still bound him to her, despite the years of separation. He had never really gotten away from her.
After her victory over him and her rejection, Jareth had fallen into a deep, dark hole. His heart was broken, and it had taken him a long time to somehow put it back together. But even then he couldn't forget her and was never the same again. Deep inside he knew that a part of him was still with her. But what could he do? The only option for him was to lock his feelings in a box and bury it deep in his subconscious. That's how it had to be in order to move on.
He managed to do that, and over time he felt better again. Little by little he was returning to his old self. Or so he thought. Because since his defeat he had never been completely himself again. Because deep down he knew that something was missing.
"Do you know who that is?" asked Debbie, bringing Sarah back from her thoughts.
"No, and you?" asked Sarah, hoping to sound indifferent, although there was an imperceptible tremor in her voice.
"Of course!" answered Debbie with a small grin when she noticed Sarah's hesitant expression. "This man will work here. Well, not really. He moved into one of the empty apartments here. And for him to have something to do, they gave him a job. Let's put it this way, he will help us with all kinds of things. A kind of... companion for us, if you like. With problems, with activities or even with rearranging rooms when you have another bout of creativity. Really interesting, isn't it? He seems to have already found a little distraction. I think he's only been here for about two weeks."
Sarah could only hear her friend from a distance. Her thoughts were whirling in all directions. Jareth? Here? What had he been doing all this time? And why did it feel like she was losing the ground beneath her feet?
She noticed, even remotely, how he introduced himself to those who didn't know him yet. Every time he said his name, Sarah winced inside. Why did he have to give himself that name? Why not just "James"? Who called themselves Jareth?
The rest of the evening was hardly worth mentioning, except that Amber's giggling annoyed Sarah so much that she finally fled the room and went to bed. But in the darkness of her room she couldn't sleep. Her mind was filled with questions that had no answers. What did Jareth want here? And why did it feel like he was pulling her back into a world she had long since fled from?
