Once upon a cursed king

Chapter 8: Uncontrollable Magic

It's saturday, a week has past agonisingly slow, a week of walking aimlessly around the town, a week of complete silence from August, a week of Jareth avoiding her. When he did see her he either looked at her with a vague and confused look of recognition or with an urge to hurt her. Sarah walked mindlessly down the street by the hospital barely taking in her surroundings, Sarah had to quickly jump out of the way as an old yellow car sped up onto the curb. Two woman rushed out of the car, one was blonde and the other had black hair. Sarah watched them as they rushed towards the hospital catching a small part of what they were saying.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted Gold! Just wait until I get my hands on him." The dark haired woman snarled.

"We wouldn't have needed to go to Gold if it wasn't for you trying to poison me. Now Henry is going to die and it's all your fault." The blonde woman screamed back as she raced towards the doors. The dark haired woman followed closely behind her, silenced by the mention of Henry.

"What on earth is going on?" Sarah muttered to herself shaking her head.

She lost the will to carry on her walk and decided to turn around and head back to Granny's. Just as she came to the library a bright light flashed through the street stopping everyone in their tracks leaving them gasping in shock. Sarah stood watching the look of confusion that came over everyone's faces. She walked over to a woman with short dark brown hair to see if she could find out what had happened.

"Excuse me. Can you tell me what just happened?" Sarah asked.

"I'm Snow, Snow White..." the woman trailed off as she looked around confused.

"I'm sorry but did you say you're Snow White?" Sarah was shocked.

"The curse, the curse is broken. Emma she did it! She's broken the curse. I'm sorry; I have to go." Snow walked off leaving Sarah bewildered as people starting shouting out names as loved ones were reunited.

"Jareth! Jareth could have been under the curse, and that's why he couldn't remember anything." Sarah's head was spinning with the possibility that Jareth was now remembering who he was. She started running in a random direction shouting Jareth's name, moving as fast as she could in the crowd that had gathered in the street.

Jareth walked mindlessly down the beach recalling the week from hell that he was having. Every night he was plagued by confusing images that teased his mind and left him reeling. Images of that woman, Sarah, but a younger version of her staring up at him, her eyes piercing through to his soul. He knew something wasn't right within himself, but the rational side of him was fighting against it tooth and nail. He could no longer deny that he had some sort of magic, whether he could control it was a different matter entirely. Although he had learned the hard way that heightened emotions triggered the unstable magic and he was now down to his last coffee mug after shattering them when he woke from a rather disturbing dream.

Completely oblivious to his surroundings, Jareth didn't notice the sudden pulse of light that was speeding towards him before it was too late. As the light hit him Jareth crumpled to the ground, legs sprawled awkwardly, with one arm stretched out before him. His appearance slowly changed; his hair lengthened to its old gravity defying style, his eyebrows arched elegantly as a slight silver spread underneath. His clothes were the last to change reverting back to his owl cloak with a grey poet shirt and grey leggings.

Sarah was just about ready to give up when she spotted a figure laying on the beach.

"Jareth!" She screamed as she rushed over to him crashing to her knees beside him.

Upon her scream Jareth began to stir, his whole life flashing before his eyes, centuries upon centuries of memories rushed through his mind, too much to pick out anything recognizable. Until he came upon his memories of Sarah, years watching her through crystals and owl eyes until that fateful night where everything went wrong. He began reliving the pain he felt from her rejection as it spread throughout his whole body, the pain too much for him to bare caused his mind to once again go blank.

Jareth opened his to find Sarah leaning over him, a mixed look of fear and hope sat in her emerald green eyes. Her eyes...

"Your eyes can be so cruel," Jareth spoke softly.

"Jareth! You're alright, please, please tell me you're back," Sarah asked not wanting to make a fool of herself by jumping on him again.

"No, I still have no idea who you are. I thought I told you to stay away from me." Jareth replied, though what he said was harsh it lacked its usual animosity.

"Oh." Sarah's whole body deflated as her hope fled from her.

Jareth began to get up before noticing his change of appearance. So concerned with his memory Sarah also failed to notice how he looked, but she soon took notice as he began to stand up.

"Jareth if you have no idea who I am or who you are, why are you dressed like that? Are you trying to mess with me or something?" Sarah questioned sardonically.

Jareth looked down at himself taking in as much of his appearance as he could. "What on earth is going on?" He thought to himself.

"Jareth please I just want to help you," Sarah pleaded as she watched his expression turn from emotionless to distressed.

"You," he scoffed. "What could you possibly do?" His fear of the unknown caused him to lash out at Sarah, for which he immediately regretted as he watched the hurt flash across her face.

"Just as I can be so cruel," Sarah muttered under her breath with a sigh as she turned away from him.

"What was that?" He asked softly.

Sarah continued to watch the sea "You said that to me once, your eyes can be so cruel, just as I can be so cruel." She turned back to face him as a slight recognition lot his eyes. Sarah waited with bated breath.

"Though I do believe in you, yes I do. Live without your sunlight, love without your heartbeat. I can't live within you," Jareth finished quietly.

"That was a dream, it had to be, that room of stairs going in impossible directions, can't possibly be real," He spoke aloud but it seemed he was talking to himself.

"Nothing is what it seems; you taught me that. Let me help you remember, there must be some way we can get your memory back." Sarah moved to place her hand on Jareth's arm.

Jareth gripped her suddenly by the shoulders "Why do you plague my dreams every night? This past week has been a living nightmare that I can't wake up from, and yet at the same time I don't want to wake up from it. I may not remember you, but you have this... this... power over me, that draws me to you." Sarah stood hypnotized by his piercing eyes as they bore into her, as if he expected to find the answers to all his problems hidden in the depths of her eyes.

"Ha, a week! Is that all? Try the past seven years!" Sarah laughed. "Come on, let's go see what's going on in town." She hooked her arm through a bewildered Jareth's and forced him to follow her.