Labyrinth Pt. II

2. Problems

My mystified expression must fuel him because he invades my space even more. His sweet, intoxicating aroma overwhelms me. The scent of bonfire and pears radiate off of him. I stepped away from him only to bump myself in to the door. The feeling of entrapment sinks in to my stomach. How can he be here? He is a character in a book. Those "dreams" weren't supposed to actually be real. More importantly, why is he here now? Questions were swimming in my head, threatening to bubble out of my mouth, but I didn't dare speak. His demeanor becomes more confident now that I can't move anywhere. I seemed to have dropped the scissors out of shock when I first saw him, so I have nothing to settle this feeling of being the fly to his spider. I have nothing to protect me from the dangerous gleam in his eyes.

"Sweet Sarah. Goblin got your tongue?" He chuckles deeply and rests on his forearm above my head. "You have grown quite a bit since we last met." I shudder under his contemplative stare. His face is so intense. Goose bumps crawl up my arms. "You are quite a young lady now. I wonder, though, have you really grown up?" He runs his index finger along my jaw. I gulp down the surge of emotions and dare to step up to him, trying to stand my ground.

"Why are you here, Jareth?"

"You never were one to play my game with me," he clicks his tongue reading my demeanor. "Fine then, your choice. You have something I want."

"What could I possibly have that you would want?" Fear starts to subside and is replaced with nervousness. I step around him when I notice that almost all traces of mischievousness are gone and he carries a semi-serious tone through out his whole body, and that stops me in my tracks.

"I want your heart, Sarah." He runs a finger along my jaw line and turns his body towards me.

I cannot tell if he is joking or if he is serious.

"H-huh?"

Oh I'm so eloquent, I mentally berate myself.

Before I could salvage some of my dignity, he cracked a smirk.

"I jest. I am merely playing with you." He slowly walks away towards the dresser and I stare at his reflection's his arrogant smile. He quickly pivots on his heels, now facing me.

"I wasn't, however, kidding about you having something I want. You see... I seem to have a slight, tiny, non-existent problem and it so happens that you know how to solve it." He is beating around the bush and avoiding my eyes. "I have been conducting business with the Fae Seelie King about some territory issues and it seemed to be going rather well-"

"How does this sound like a problem?" I step farther in to the room. Mentally I'm trying to come to terms with what I'm seeing.

"Hush!" I see he still has his sense of entitlement. "Everything SEEMED to be going well. Just when we were about to end negotiations, a slight, not-really, mini-mutiny happened in my Goblin Court. You see, ehem, I possibly might have, ehem, lost my, uh, my immortality." Jareth finished his sentence coughing in to his fisted hand.

"How can you lose your immortality? That's not a little problem! Jareth you can die! Death is not to be brushed off and treated so lightly!" I'm now freaking out for a different reason, and I don't know why.

"If I didn't know better I would say you were worried, Sarah," he scoffed. "No need, though. It is only temporary. Well it can be. I have to now make it through my Labyrinth to my castle. That's where you come in. You know how to get through my Labyrinth without using magic. I have never done that. I need your experience."

"Let's say I accept all this. That this isn't some hallucination caused by exhaustion and everything you have said so far is the truth. Your telling me that you have lost your whole life because you what? Made a bad deal? Had poor business etiquette? Why?"

"He is not a kind creature. He didn't take it well when finding he was being given the short end of the stick. Like I said, the deal was going well. FOR ME." Jareth just stood there and shrugged. He was acting very nonchalant about loosing everything. Then his brow creased in confusion, "Sarah, why would you think this wasn't real?"

"Let's focus on you right now." I shook my head, not wanting to touch that subject. If he is real, best keep him talking about himself. Then like a flipped switch, his cocky swagger came back, like I figured. He made across the room, behind me. He leaned down to my ear.

"I like the sound of that." His deep, gravelly voice caused my whole body to shiver. He seemed to like my reaction to his voice and continued to tease me. "I want you to focus on just me." His fingers slowly ran themselves down my arms, then gripped my hips. I couldn't move. It's not that his grip made it so I couldn't but my body just refused to. Slightly distracted by my inner conflict, Jareth's hand began to make their way up my torso. He showed no concern for my tank top and simply moved his hand under it. I gasped at his ice cold fingers. The mixture of his cold touch and the soft chuckle in my ear caused a new set of goose bumps to cover my body. My breath began to turn shallow when I started to feel his lips making their way down my neck. An alarm went off in my head but I couldn't move my body. My eyes fluttered closed and my head tilted. I could feel him smile against my neck but didn't stop his roving. Part of my mind couldn't believe what I was allowing him to do and wanted to stop him but then the other part shut that half up fast. His hands regripped my hips and spun me around. Slight disappointment clouded my face. When he saw that, that he got to me, he smiled and held an intense stare. He leaned towards me, seeming like he was going to kiss me, and that's when I finally reacted normally. I shoved him away and horror seems to sink in on what I had just allowed.

"Oh- oh goodness." I backed up away from him and didn't know what to say. I looked at his face and saw a flash of surprise then his normal smirk appeared.

"Why don't we continue where we left off tomorrow." His eyes raked me up and down. 

My cheeks burned under his stare and implication. I cleared my throat, trying to regain my composure.

He turned to walk out my bedroom, in to my living room. "Where are you going?"

"I need a place to sleep. Surely, you don't expect me to sleep outside. Goodnight dear Sarah," he called over his shoulder. Without leaving me much say, he shut my door and left me alone with my thoughts. My knees buckled and I fell down near my dresser. My mind began racing with questions. I don't think I will be getting much sleep tonight.