Another Stormy Night

Part III


Once again she stood on a hill in the dark staring at a castle shown by the flashes of lightning that lit the sky. This time though, Jareth wasn’t here blocking her passage. She knew what was at stake, he didn’t need to explain the rules to her this time.

She briefly closed her eyes, expecting the same dry earthed hill to appear, but this time when she opened her eyes once again, the darkness remained and the castle on the hill was no longer the delicately turreted creation of fairy tale. It was still as much a creation of nothing human as before, but this time, without her understanding how, it was obviously a fortress, somewhere that kept the world out and all of its inhabitants in.

She shivered in the chill breeze and noticed the clock, the same antique wooden clock as before was sitting behind her in a twisted looking tree, its big hand ticking away from the number thirteen at the top.

She could still hear his soft voice from so many years ago….

"Turn back, Sarah. Turn back,
before it is too late."

And once again she had to murmur the same reply, “I can't. Oh, I can't. Don't you understand that?" She shook her head slowly, gazing at the distant castle, and to herself, quietly, repeated, "I can't."

As she began walking into the dim valley, she didn’t hear the gentle response that replied that also seemed as if it was being echoed from the past, "What a pity."

Anyone who had heard it would have thought that the speaker had really meant it.


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Sarah wasn’t frightened like she had been before, she was frightened in a much different manner now. In a small niggling part of her mind this bothered her. She couldn’t take for granted that things would work the same as last time. The labyrinth had been as much a living entity as Jareth himself. And the stakes, this time, were so much higher than they had been before. This wasn’t to return Toby home, all she had left now were her freedom and her love.

She had often wondered in the intervening years between then and now how much Jareth ruled the labyrinth and how much the Labyrinth ruled Jareth. She had finally decided that they must influence each other in some way. In all the fairy tales she had ever read as a child and as an adult, one of the most important elements always presented was balance. Without balance, the world was off kilter and whatever evil influence involved was able to use it to its advantage and it was the hero or heroin that was able to restore that balance through defeating the evil and allowing the world to bring itself back into equality.

The labyrinth must need Jareth and Jareth must need the labyrinth in same way for any of it to exist.

She came once again to the great wall that held the labyrinth and the goblin city inside. This time there was no short grumpy little man spritzing fairies with poison to greet her.

She took a few more steps forward and realized that the crunching underfoot was no longer the dry earth and gravel of before. This crunching had an odd sort of brittleness to it, almost like when you stepped on a cockroach. She stopped and slowly forced herself to look down.

The dead fairies were still here. They were everywhere. Their tiny doll – like bodies were twisted and torn and where she had stepped she had left a trail of oddly glowing dust.

She nearly gagged and hurried towards where she remembered the gate being. The gates loomed in the strange dark night and she had to stop to get her breath back once again, wrapping her arms around herself, she entered the labyrinth once again, giving herself the same talk she had before,

“Well, here we go. Come on, feet.”

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This part of the labyrinth was nothing like she remembered. Unlike the last time, the darkness hadn’t lifted as she had climbed down into the valley. The dead fairies at the entryway were only the very beginning.

The first part of the labyrinth where she had originally met the little blue worm who had pointed out the doorway in the path, had not been exactly inviting the first time around. The wet slimy vines and lichen that were covered in things like eyes had not been the most wonderful place to start, but it hadn’t been as fearsome as it was now. Now it was darker then the night that covered the valley and strange shadows twisted and played with her eyes as she cautiously made her way down its passageways. She missed that she had no Hoggle to run into this time to hear good advice from.

It reminded her of when she had originally left her father and Karin’s house after her return the first time. She had lived on the streets for several months and this labyrinth was like those streets at night, streets that hid nightmares and groping hands. She had been terrified at first, never having had to deal with anything of that sort of thing ever before. This was the same. The dark eeriness closed upon her and she had to remind herself of all those same lessons that she had learned long ago. She was Sarah, she had defeated the Labyrinth and the Goblin King himself. What did she have to fear here? She straightened her back and opened her senses wide to alert her to anything she might come across.

It still gave her a bad feeling. This was not the labyrinth that she had left before. There was danger here that hadn’t existed before. The labyrinth had always been dangerous in a certain manner before, she had faced physical danger many times while in the labyrinth that first time, but not like this. This wasn’t a fairy tale in the happy sense of the word anymore, this was more in line with the original fairy tales, the ones where the monsters really did hide underneath the bed and came out to eat you at night, the ones where the fair maiden was raped and tormented before being able to get free, if she was able to get free at all.

Something was behind her. She froze in place. Whatever it was came closer. She could hear its faint footsteps. She didn’t know whether to run or stay where she was. And then the faint whiff of him stroked her nose. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Jareth, what are you doing?”

“Sarah…however did you know it was me?” He dragged a finger down her spine sending shivers throughout her body.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

This time his hand wandered around to her front to gently cup her breast, drawing her back against his chest. She let herself relax back into him.

“Oh Sarah, sweet naïve Sarah, this time you don’t have to just defeat the labyrinth, you have to defeat me as well.”

She couldn’t quite seem to understand what he was telling her.

By this time both his arms were around her and he had started nibbling gently on her neck. The shadows had receded slightly and the labyrinth almost seemed to have pulled back its sinister veneer.

Keeping Sarah pinned against his body, Jareth walked her into a clearing that had opened up out of nowhere. There was a pool in one corner surrounded by torches. Cattails and grasses whispered in what was suddenly a lovely summer’s night. Abed rose out of the rocks and grasses, creating a natural bedroom that would have been fit for Oberon himself. The air smelled sweet and the torches lit everything just enough in the night to illuminate everything just enough. Stars twinkled overhead.

“Sarah,” murmured Jareth, “Do you have any idea what you did to me? How you left me back then? What I tried to do for you?.... but how could you understand then, I suppose you couldn’t, you were too young, but now, now you can begin to realize.”

He turned her around, pulling her close, dropping his hand to cup her derriere, grinding her against that bulge in those eye pulling trousers. She could feel him pressing against her and her whole world narrowed to just him once more. He once again lowered his mouth to hers and devoured her lips in another soul stopping kiss.

Suddenly, a ticking noise intruded on her revelry. Pulling back from his kiss she glanced over his shoulder and saw that the clock had appeared in the enchanted glade. An hour had already passed. She was barely able to focus on what she was here to do and she was even barely past the gate yet. She gasped as his fingers slipped under her shirt and began swirling around her belly.

He pulled her back to him sharply and kissed her once more. It was easy, so easy to sink back into it, to let him lead her to the bed and start kissing his way down her throat to the laces of her shirt top, to let him draw his hands down her body. To pull his body against hers and drown herself in the sensation of him, it was everything she had longed for, for all those years.

But the ticking kept intruding on her bliss. She began struggling with him. What had been a seduction turned into a wrestling match. He pinned her hands to the bed and bent his mouth back to her breasts. Using one hand to hold her hands in place with his inhuman strength, he used his other one to tug her shirt up and to drag her bra down, exposing one dainty breast to the air. His sharp goblin teeth bit down on her exposed nipple. Crying out, she fought against the sensations he delicate bite wrought on her body. She continued to fight, writhing against him, only managing to press more of her breast into his mouth, which he really didn’t seem to mind at all. He continued to press his hard body into hers and used his hand to expose her other breast to his tugging fingers.

Pulling his mouth back, he asked, “But what’s wrong Sarah? Don’t you want me?” He pressed his face between her breasts and gently nuzzled at her heaving chest.

Gasping, she managed to say, “I have to go Jareth, I won’t lose to you this easily!” She jerked her knee up and pressed it against the bulge that had been pressed into her own softness, driving her crazy. He stilled completely in a manner that no human could manage.

“Im sorry Jareth, I can’t do this right now. Later, later when I win, we’ll finish this, but right now, if you don’t get off me, I’m going to hurt you.” He let go of her hands and slowly pulled himself off her, moving away from her knee wearily.

As she began retreating out of the clearing, she rearranged her clothing, “Its certainly been pleasurable Goblin King, but I don’t have time just now….”

As she turned the corner back into the darkness, she didn’t hear his hissed promise, “This isn’t the last time you will deal with me Sarah, you aren’t going to win so easily this time…..”

A/N;
Sorry this took me longer everyone, Im still not really happy with it even though Ive been going over it and over it. Any suggestions would be helpful!
Thanks again for the reviews, they really make my day!