Labyrinth Dancer

Chapter Seven: Revenge & Vengeance

By the time the bell rang dismissing classes for the day, Jareth had counted at least a dozen smiles lighting Inara's face. More than he had seen in quite sometime; it made him feel, well, good that he had been the one to cause that joy. 

They were both heading to the Auditorium when suddenly yells sounded and wham! Both of them were suddenly drenched by hundreds of water balloons that had been dumped from above the roof!

Inara froze, like a cat that's been drenched unwittingly and Jareth glanced at her from under his soaked bangs sticking to his face. 

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked cautiously, noting that her eyes were wide and she was shaking; beyond that she was expressionless. 

"Hey witch-girl! Looks like you don't melt when water touches you after all!!" A couple of cheerleaders crackled from nearby, their jock boyfriends hooting and hollering from the roof above at their success. 

At that point they were no longer paying attention to Jareth who stood watching Inara as her expression suddenly began to slowly come to life, from the expressionless to an expression that slowly made everyone in the courtyard freeze and the cheerleaders stammer to a stop in their taunts. 

As the jock king made his way to the suddenly frozen and silent group he glanced around then looked at her pausing for only a moment and then taunted away. 

"You're lucky we didn't decide to burn you instead Witch-Girl!" 

He was obviously trying not to let her expression shake him up as he continued with his taunts.

However, when she just ever so slightly turned her hand, moving her hand slightly; all of the students involved ran for it.

When they vanished into the parking lot Jared turned to her and saw just how much her expression had changed now that the goons were gone.

She wanted to cry, to yell and curse but it was obvious she was resigned to simply not comment on it. Just like with everything else.

"You better go dry off before rehearsal starts... Sarah hates it when we're late..."

Her voice sounded so sorrowful despite the forced smile she gave him as she picked up her bag and headed inside.

He didn't move for a moment, and a couple minutes later he was still standing there when Sarah was heading for the auditorium.

"Jareth? How the heck did you get wet, it's sunny today?"

He didn't answer her question right away and when he did her heart dropped.

"I can't make her go through the labyrinth... I can't do that to her..."

****

As rehearsal was going through as planned Sarah would on occasion glance up at the catwalk where Jareth and Inara were working.

It was obvious he was taking any time he had at her side that he could. With his earlier decision ringing in her mind it was hard for her to watch him keep trying to get Inara to smile.

As they came to a short break Sarah noticed Inara jump slightly and pick her phone out of her back pocket.

Still up on the catwalk with her phone to her ear Sarah couldn't tell who she was talking to. Inara usually never got phone calls.

She hung up, her lips set in a thin grimacing line as she descended from the catwalk.

"Miss Sarah, I'm afraid I need to go get my siblings from school. My stepmom never showed up to get them. I'll be right back if that's alright?"