At the edge of time and space

“You mean those people that wear funny hats and juggle?” Sarah said in disgust.

“Clearly your world has a slightly different definition of jester,” Jareth said, leaning back. “No, lovely
girl, I will not make you juggle or wear funny hats.....well juggling maybe........well alright, there will be
juggling. But it is only right that you are made this for life. I’d say it is quite a fair punishment.
Humiliation for you and triumph for me.”

“But I don’t know how to juggle!” cried Sarah. “And are you really going to keep me here forever?
Humans grow old you know!”

“You won’t grow old,” said Jareth, “I have already taken care of that. And you will learn how to juggle.
You have no other choice.”

“What?!” Sarah exclaimed. “What the hell? That is NOT fair at all!”

“Hell only exists in your mind,” Jareth smiled. “Or if I wish to be cruel, then you will know true hell. I’d
say I’ve been much like a newborn kitten to you.”

“Yea sure,” Sarah rolled her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair. How the fuck was she getting
herself out of this one?She sighed and slumped back on the bed.

“Who said you could rest?” Jareth angrily inquired. “Get up. Your first jester lesson is in five minutes.”

She sat up and glared daggers at him as she got off the bed. Thinking her feet would hit the floor, she
was horribly mistaken as she fell through it and landed on her rear on a hard stone surface. Rubbing her
backside and cursing Jareth, she got up and looked around. It looked like a dungeon, but it was not as
cold as one.

A man wearing a suit that left nothing to the imagination strode into the room and looked her up and
down, hands on his hips. He had short stark white hair and green eyes.

“Dang girl, looks like youze in deep troubles,”he said, in a very feminine voice, moving his head side to
side as he talked.

“What?” Sarah looked away. That outfit was more revealing than Jareth’s.

“Well I means that youze look like youze don’t know nothin,” he said.

“I guess I don’t.....,” Sarah mumbled.

“Aight now girl, I’ma show you all youze needs to know, aight?” the man said jumping up. Sarah had to
look away. Stuff....swung.....

“Um...o-okay,” Sarah said weakly.

“Aight, first things first, I’m Balvidananmnabsjdishiaboodafitsa,” the man said, “But you can call me
Balls.” Sarah choked slightly.

“Can I call you something else?” she asked, trying not to laugh. “Please.”

“Aight, you know I was tryin to be friendly, but now it’s MISTER Balls to you, ho!” Mr. Balls swung
his head around and then picked something off the floor and threw it at her.

“This here is yo costume,” Balls said, “Wear it right or don’t wear it at all.” Sarah nodded and looked
at the thin rag in her hands. She hoped it wouldn’t be as revealing as his. “Well what yoo lookin at, put
it on! Thas youze clothing from now on!”

“Could you turn around please?” Sarah asked meekly.

“Psht, I’m not turnin around for nobody!” Balls waved his head around.

“Fine,” Sarah said, annoyed and walked behind him. “Keep your back turned at all times please.”

“Psht, I don’t wanna look at yo skanky human ass anyway,” Balls said, crossing his arms over his
chest.

“My ass is not skanky!” cried Sarah but he ignored her. She took off her clothes and put on her new
ones. It was a dark green velvet cat suit. ‘Funny,’ thought Sarah, ‘It didn’t look like this when I was
holding it in my hands. Looking in a mirror nearby, she saw that it was (thankfully) not as revealing as
Balls...er....Mr.Ball’s suit and framed her figure quite nicely. Yet her heart seemed to stop as she
remembered who she was going to be performing for. Jareth couldn’t see her like this!

“Aight, you done?” asked Mr. Balls.

“Yes,” said Sarah,” But can I wear my t-shirt over it?” Suddenly Sarah’s old clothing burst into flames
and disintegrated.

“Ha!” laughed Mr. Balls, “Guess not!” Sarah cursed under her breath and then turned back to her
instructor.

“Aight girl,” said Mr.Balls, “Now the first thing we going to do is to get you to learn how to not feel
pain.” Sarah paled.

“What?” she asked in a nervous voice,” There’s pain?”

“Bitch please!” laughed Mr. Balls, “Youze gots to be kiddin me. Don’t they have em jester shows in yo
world?”

“We do but they’re nothing like they are here and the performers are usually humiliated, but not hurt,”
Sarah said fearfully.

“That is soooo dull,” he waved his head around and rolled his eyes, “How is anyone supposed to get
entertainment from that?”

“We’re not exactly big on watching innocent people suffer,” she sighed.

“Well, it’s the main attraction here and your first performance is in two hours so lets get started shall
we?” he smiled. He was actually starting to sound nice until he suddenly said, “Damn girl, youze is
lookin so damn innocent, its annoying. The crowd is gonna loooovvveee you. Hooweee, oh yea, they
is!” Sarah’s heart seemed to be going a million beats a second. She started to breath in and out slowly
and finally and told herself that she would be alright and that everything would be ok.

“Aight now I want you to stand still and close yo eyes,” Mr. Balls said softly.

Sarah closed her eyes and straightened her back. And then cried out as she was hit with a bag of ice.
The man burst out laughing.

“Oh that was good,” he giggled, “They like it when you scream. People in this kingdom sure do love
emotion.”

“People in this kingdom are sadistic bastards!” Sarah screamed, rubbing her bruised arm. “I don’t
think I can take anymore of this.” Her eyes were tearing up from the pain.

“Aww girl,” Mr. Balls put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You’ll get used to it. Was hard fo’ me too, ya
know. But ya learn to deal wid it. Jareth told me you was a performer as well.”

“I was in drama club, theater, you know, acting,” Sarah smiled weakly.

“Well this is like theater,” said Mr. Balls gently and then added, “Except it’s real.” Sarah groaned
miserably. ‘If only I hadn’t read that stupid book, none of this would be happening,’ she thought
bitterly, ‘Screw all the teachers who told me I should read more. Well I did and look where it got me!’

Balls kept telling her to relax as he pelted strange, hard objects at her while she was blind-folded.

“Just remember, the pain is only in yo’ head!” Mr. Balls repeated himself over and over.

Finally, the last object was thrown at her and she fell to the floor.

“I want to go home!” she cried.

“But then you would disappoint all the people in my kingdom!” a cold voice crooned.

“Fuck you and fuck your kingdom!” she yelled, getting up, but was suddenly knocked down again as
Jareth pounced on top of her.

“That can be arranged,” he said softly, his fingers playing on her exposed neck.

“You’re trying to kill me,” Sarah whispered, fear and realization in her eyes.

“Sarah, if I had wanted to kill you, I would not have to try,” Jareth smirked, rising off of her. She stood
up as well.

“I am so tired and bruised,” she gave him her best sad face, “Can’t I just go to bed......or go home?”

“Nice try,” he smiled, “But your fans are waiting. You wouldn’t want to disappoint them.” Sarah sighed
and just as she was about to leave, Jareth called her back.

“Oh and Sarah,” he added. “I do love the outfit.” Sarah glared at him and followed Mr. Balls down a
long corridor. There was a large wooden door and he swung it open to reveal an enormous stadium.
Sarah gaped. She remembered going to a major league baseball game with her father, but this was
nothing compared to that stadium. This was twice as large.

Goblins and other such creatures sat in one section, and Faes and Jareth sat in another. He sat closer to
the bottom and their eyes met briefly before she broke their eye contact and turned to Mr. Balls.

“Now, listen and listen good cuz I’ma only tell you dis once,” he turned to her, “You might not get hurt
tonight and you might. It may be very bad or it might not even happen. But all youze needs to know is
that you never know what’s gonna happen but just prepare yourself and keep yo body tense cuz it
helps minimize da pain, aight?”

“W-what?” cried Sarah over the booming crowd. “So I don’t even know what’s going to happen?”

But Mr.Balls could not answer her question because she was now falling and falling and falling until she
landed on a dirt path with hedges to each side. She was in a hedge maze. Well, Jareth sure did love his
puzzles. She stood up and looked around. She was no longer in the stadium and all was quiet. It was
the middle of the day and the hedges were an unusual green color, much bluer than green.

“You couldn’t at least make the hedges NORMAL?!” she cried in frustration, yet only silence
answered.

She took a careful step forward and then another and then another until she was walking cautiously
barefoot on the dirt path. She stopped suddenly and knelt down to take a breath. Her heart was
pounding so fast and she felt like she was going to cry any second. Most of all, she was afraid. Afraid
of what she might find in the maze, or what might find her.

She took another step and then screamed as a huge blade sliced in front of her, only inches from her
face.

“Nice, Jareth, real nice,” she muttered as she turned and started walking in the other direction, but it
was only a dead end. She got to her hands and knees and crawled under the blade, which worked and
then stood up when she met a fork in the maze.

‘Hmm...which impending doom should I choose?’she thought sarcastically.

She looked from right to left, but the paths looked the same. Going left (because right looked ‘so
cliche’), she walked steadily on and then stopped suddenly as she blood dripping steadily in front of
her. Looking up, she saw that a huge spider was busy eating a Jack rabbit and its blood was going
everywhere. She slowly turned around and prepared to walk away slowly when she heard a low growl
and turned her head to see a large dog snarling at her. It broke into a run and so did she, running the
opposite direction and going to the right instead. She seemed to be running forever and the dog did not
seem to be getting tired when suddenly a hand grabbed her and held her and the dog sunk its teeth into
her leg.

Sarah cried out in pain and bit the hand as it tore the sleeve of her outfit off. She desperately kicked at
the dog until finally she got a good kick to its snout with her other leg and it tore away and ran in the
other direction. She grabbed her other sleeve and tore it off as well, tying it tightly around the wound.
Then she tried getting up, but it was no use and she slumped back to the ground in pain. Sighing, she
decided she would crawl and drag her leg and so she did until she reached another fork in the road. To
one side was a dark ravine and to the other was a woody green forest.

“I can’t do this,” she said out loud, and fainted.

Waking up for what seemed like hours later, she was in the same spot as she was before. They had not
taken her out. Wiping the tears of frustration that rolled down her cheeks she crawled slowly to the
ravine.

‘The forest is a trap,’she thought to herself. Yet she was horribly mistaken and as she went down the
ravine, she was met by a very hungry looking snake.

“Ssssalutationssss,” it said, “You mussst be Ssssarah.” Sarah nodded. “Sssolve my riddle or faccce the
consssequencccesss.” Sarah nodded again, growing paler.

“Fire dancccesssss, water ssssingsssss, beauty shines, and death ringssss,”the snake hissed, “But fire
burns, and water drowns, and beauty fades and death is proud. Yet there is one thing that survives
them. If you can tell me, I will let you pass. You have three tries.”

“ You suck! That last part didn’t rhyme!” said Sarah.

“Yea, well that’s all I could come up with in 10 minutes, ok?” the snake broke out of its accent. “And
my lunch break is in 15 minutes, so...ehh...you know....hurry up!”

Sarah’s mind swam. She was always good at riddles, but she had never heard one like that before.
Especially since it was made up by something not totally human.

“Ummm,” she pondered, “Is it........time?”

“You have two more triesss,” the snake hissed. “Choossse wissssely.......and hurry up dammit!”

“Is it......love?” Sarah took a wild guess.

“You have ssssolved the riddle,” the snake said. “You may pass the ravine without any trouble.”

“Thanks,” said Sarah and the snake slithered past her.

Smiling and feeling triumphant, Sarah stood up, but fell back down. Her legs could not support her and
she was getting a bit dizzy from the bleeding. It was slow bleeding, but bleeding nevertheless. She
continued to crawl until she finally reached a bridge that had a sign that said “Exit.” She smiled and
prepared to go when suddenly a pale man stood in front of her. He was handsome and young, about
her age, yet his head was shaved and he wore all black leather, from his shirt to his pants to his boots.

‘He looks like someone out of an S&M catalog,’ she thought to herself and resisted the urge to make
fun of him for trying to be goth.

“Let me through,” she said, a bit annoyed and then added, “Please? I’ll buy you a gift certificate to Hot
Topic!”

“First you must pass my test,” the man said softly, “ and then knelt down and slowly moved towards
her, pushing her onto her back. “Lay still and if you scream, or kick, you will never get out of the
maze.”

“Come on!” Sarah started to panic, “Who cares if its owned by the Gap, come on! Give into trend!”

The man stopped and looked to be considering her offer. “Nah, I bought leather pants there a year ago
and they ripped apart at the crotch, so never again.”

Sarah nodded and then resisted the urge to scream as he took out an extremely sharp looking knife.

“I’m going to write something on your stomach,” he smiled and just as he was about the plunge the
knife into her stomach, Sarah noticed his eyes, his mismatched eyes, and pushed him off, kicking him
hard in the groin. Dragging herself as fast as she could across the bridge, she made it to the exit and
opened it. She was engulfed by white light and the image of the stadium loomed over her.

Suddenly, she was grabbed by many hands and quickly carried down a long corridor. At the end, a
door opened to reveal a red room and then Sarah blacked out.

When she came to, she was alone in a red bed with red sheets and pillow shams. Even her pajamas
were red. Slowly, the events played out in her head and she removed the blanket and pulled up her
pants to look at her leg. There was no mark there. It was as if nothing had happened. Sighing, she
leaned back and relaxed.

“So glad you’re awake,” an arrogant voice sounded throughout the room,” How did you enjoy your
first performance?”

“That was you at the end, wasn’t it?” she glared.

“I may have added one or two tricks,” Jareth smiled. “Leaving my mark, so to speak.” There was
silence and then Sarah sighed.

“Please don’t make me ever have to do anything like that again,” she pleaded softly. “Please.”

“No,” he said. “This is your punishment.”

“Any other punishment than this,” Sarah said weakly. “Please. I don’t think I can take this for an
eternity.”

“But then I’d have to think of something new and this was just so ingenious,” he sighed. “No, too
tedious. Your punishment stays.”

“Anything else!” she cried and jumped off the bed. She went on her knees in front of him and he
couldn’t help but stare at her exposed shoulder as the pajamas were slightly large on her. “Please
Jareth.”

“Anything else, pet?” he smiled cruelly and brought her chin up, making her eyes stare into his. “Are
you truly willing to say ‘anything else’? I could think of many things.” She flushed slightly and turned to
get away, but he grabbed her wrist tightly.

Sarah then realized she had made a terrible mistake.

“Alright Sarah, I will change your punishment,” he said, bringing her to his lap. “You will be my new
mistress.”

A/N: Feedback? What did you like? What didn’t you like? “Write more” does not help me, neither
does “this sucks you should die”. Thank you all for reading!!!!! :-)