Fae Council

That night Sarah fell back on her bed exhausted. Throughout the day she had decided to explore where the various doors leading from her room led to, but had quickly become distracted with the amazing studio Jareth had set up. It was something out of one of her dreams, her more recent dreams, the ones that made sense and might possibly be possible. It wasn’t as much a studio as a large light filled chamber, with arched windows stretching from the floor to the ceiling, providing beautiful views of the labyrinth from every angle. Each window, though right next to each other seemed to display a different section. One was an amazing garden, one the hedge maze, there was even one of the Bog of Eternal Stench. There seemed to be a centralized light source, a light that was as good as clear sunlight, but that didn’t fade as the day went on. All of her existing paintings, mainly recognizable scenes from the Labyrinth, were hung around the room, making it more familiar. Sarah felt at home here. But then she ad always felt at home here.

She had stayed there all day, playing with the paint, unable to resist attempting to paint the garden. She hadn’t seen it the first time she was here, but then, she thought, there must be a lot I didn’t see.

When she finally exhausted her artistic drive she went looking through the other rooms. Quickly discovering that her bathroom held a huge bath, it was only a matter of time, just long enough to run the water in fact, until she was submerged up to her chin. Relaxing the comforting heat of the strangely peach-scented water.

How long Sarah stayed in the bath is indeterminable, but by the time she emerged she was ready to sleep. She fumbled her way into the wardrobe, which was almost larger then her previous apartment, and struggled into her favourite old flannelette pajamas.

But now she was on the bed, Sarah found that sleep eluded her. So many of her questions had gone avoided, and unanswered. Why was she here? Her mind boggled at the circumstances, and how her life had changed in less the 24 hours. She wondered if anybody even noticed her absence back aboveground.

For some reason the thought saddened her, and unexpected tears sprang into her eyes. No, she thought, nobody would miss me. I had no friends, no family. Sarah tucked herself under the thick comforter and tried to go to sleep. There would be plenty of time for answers later in her ‘extended holiday’.

***********************************************************

Jareth watched the crystal and felt his heart twist when he saw the tears in her eyes. He thought that she would be happier here, but first night and already he found her crying. He had watched her closely since Toby’s death. It had saddened him too, as he had grown quite attached to the boy during the short time he had spent in the Labyrinth. He had even considered adopting him, making him his heir. But Sarah had won.
As he had watched he had seen the girl once so stubborn and full of life withdraw from society. Become invisible. Sarah had essentially stopped living, and it killed him to watch her live out a meaningless existence day after day, rarely leaving her apartment. She deserved better.

The night he had gone to her, Jareth had felt a familiar disturbance in the air. It had occurred twice before, but differently, and he had worked it out in due time. But for some reason it had convinced him he needed to go to Sarah. Now.

The first time he had experienced the tingle was when the Labyrinth was passed to him by the Fae council.
The rules had been explained to him, he must ‘possess’ mortal babies for the Fae, who could rarely have children of their own. Startled by the unfairness of this, he had petitioned them to adjust the rules. Only slightly, but it allowed him to only take unwelcome children, or the ones from bad situations, and it allowed him to give the person who wished away the child a chance to get it back.
The adjustment was accepted after a compromise. He must never allow himself to be beaten by a mortal. If that happened consequences would be enforced, and the rules would change.

But he had been beaten by a mortal.

The second time he had felt it, about four years ago, it was connected to Sarah in an inexplicable way. He had traveled to the Aboveground to reassure himself, nothing was wrong, just to check. It was the night Sarah’s father and Toby had died. A particularly aggressive disease gripped them both simultaneously, and was diagnosed as ‘cancer’ after the autopsy. He had watched helplessly as the Fae, unseen by the puzzled human healers, had mercilessly tortured and finally killed the boy and his father. To interfere would have been pointless, it probably would have prolonged the torture if they knew they had an audience.

He had heard about her stepmother, but the death didn’t surprise him. Jareth had been fairly sure it wasn’t suicide as police reports had claimed.

Then, last night he had felt the tingles again. Unsure of what would happen, he had desperately gone to Sarah, to protect her from what they might do. It had to have been Sarah next, she no longer interacted with or cared about anyone else. The Fae’s revenge was nearly complete. But Jareth had a plan, it would protect her from anything they could do. He needed her permission for it to work, but he couldn’t leave her unprotected any longer.

Sarah had to become Fae.

***Authors Note: Did you like it? I hope you did. Golly. I did like writing it though. REVIEWS ARE WELCOME!!!! please? I need to know what people think. And I love reviews. And I love the people who give them to me. They make me happy. And if I am happy, the characters stay happy. Not that I am threatening the characters….*****