It's Only Forever

Preparation

 Sarah lay lazily on her bed in her room, wondering if she should have finally agreed to the ball. What if that was exactly what Jareth wanted her to do? Even if she hadn't said yes to it, let alone asking for it to be a masquerade, would she have won or lost that round?... Now her head hurt.

"Stop thinking about it," she grumbled to herself, placing her hand on her forehead. As if that would put an end to the pain and her doubting thoughts.

She just had to tread lightly. If this ball was going to be anything like that dream he put her through, there were about to be mind boobytraps everywhere around her. Jareth's unpredictability skyrocketed through the roof with everything he did in relation to her. With making her go through the Labyrinth in order to save Toby, and ordering time to work around her journey, he'd thought he was being generous. Hah!

Sitting up, she looked around her room. She'd grown up since the Labyrinth. No more toys, no more memoirs of her mother, just everything that she used and that was age-appropriate for her. Except for that music box.

It still bothered her how Ambrosias had run out of her room, and as a result her music box was no longer covered in three year old dust. She had thought he might have been frightened off by a spider, but with all of this on her mind again, she thought back on it. What if Jareth had appeared in her room, and only Ambrosias had seen him?

She shivered, 'Jareth better not have come into my room. It's bad enough he appeared in dad and Irene's room three years ago.'

Sarah looked over at the alarm clock on her bedside table. The two of them had gone out an hour ago to get the venue ready for the ball the very next day.... So where were her friends?

She'd wanted to run through what was about to happen with the ball — as much as she knew, anyway. Sure, they'd try to talk her out of it, but she wanted to let them know. And perhaps they could help her outwit Jareth again.

"Hoggle? Ludo? Sir Didymus? Where are you guys?" she asked softly. "I need you..."

Nothing. What was keeping them?

A soft, slow tune began playing. Sounding slightly far off as though the neighbors were playing it:

"It's only forever

Not long at all.

Lost and lonely

No one can blame you

For walking away,

But too much rejection, uh huh

No love injection, no

Life can be easy

It's not always swell

Don't tell me truth hurts, little girl

'Cause it hurts like hell

But down in the underground

You'll find someone true,

Down in the underground..."

Sarah found herself closing her eyes contentedly until she realized she recognized whose voice was singing. She quickly sat up and looked around. The song ended, but she could feel a pair of eyes staring at her.

A quick look out the window showed Sarah that familiar blonde owl.

"What, you couldn't wait until the ball?" she asked, glad that her window was closed... then again, that never stopped him before.

The owl continued to sit and stare.

It suddenly dawned on her that he was there instead of her friends. "Wait... Jareth, what did you do to my friends?"

She could hear the light hooting through the window as if he were laughing.

Sarah glared, clenching her teeth. "When I see you at the ball, I hope you'll be ready for a deal." Then she proceeded to stand up and make her way across the room to close the curtains with a sharp whoosh.

Standing there alone once again, she sighed. 'What was I thinking, offering a deal? What can I possibly give in return to free my friends? He's not getting Toby again.'

'Hold on there, Sarah,' that little voice at the back of her mind said. 'Jareth didn't say that he had them.'

'Of course he didn't explicitly state that! He was an owl!... Why is my brain talking to itself?'

She rubbed her forehead with her index fingers. 'What can I do?'

𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓𓅓

The next day, Sarah was startled awake by Irene opening up the curtains to let the midday sun seep through the room and settle on her face. She scrunched up her nose and turned around to bury her face into a pillow.

"Sarah," the woman admonished, throwing back the covers. "It's time to get you ready for the ball."

She lifted her head to glance at her clock. "Noon? It's at five o'clock! I can sleep for at least two more hours!"

Her stepmother placed her hands on her hips, "It takes a few hours for hair and makeup. Not only that, but you need to take your time fitting into the dress —"

"Next you'll be telling me I need to get used to my shoes," Sarah grumbled.

"Exactly!"

"I was being sarcastic! What kind of shoes am I wearing, anyways?... They're not heels are they?" She thought back to the dream, but she hadn't had any problems walking around nor did she have pain in her feet.

"No, they're flats. Now get out of bed, I've got to get started on your hair."

Sarah groaned audibly. She did have a rather intricate hairstyle at the dream ball... 'I should have thought this through more...'