As The World Falls Down

"He will believe me." I asserted, remembering the almost smug look on his face during our second attempt at the gallery evening. "He must."

The chime of the clock rang eight times below stairs and I wondered how long I had been staring into space as Aster dressed me in a gown the colour of the purest snow that now covered the land of my heart. Silky white feathers adorned the neckline, teasing the skin beneath until all I could think of was shivering beneath Jareth's gentle touch.

"Focus Sarah." I told myself sternly. Slipping on the shoes Aster had placed at my feet, I regarded myself in the mirror by the door and with a smile forced to my face, I departed.

~~~

It was snowing...

Light and chilled, the flakes floated down from an obsidian sky to land on my cheek and paint the monotone street in a brilliant white wash. The dirt and decay covered over and pure for the moment, I watched Shade's driver for the evening step out of the flashy Bentley and like a true gentleman, take my hand and settle me into the warmth of the interior.

"Good evening Sarah."

The smooth – and unexpected voice – startled me as the driver closed the door and left me alone with Shade.

"Good evening Mr Valarais, I'm sorry for my start, I wasn't expecting you to pick me up personally." I was silently proud of myself for remembering his fake name and not spitting out his real moniker.

"That is quite alright my dear." I watched him motion to the driver to continue to the vehicle behind us. Aster helping the hulking silent man with the carefully covered canvas. "I wanted to pick this up as well as my beautiful company for this evening. I find I was most impatient and desperate for a peak."

I smiled. It was all I could do not to cringe back from him. This close, I could see the madness lurking in his black eyes, in a face so achingly familiar. The driver re-entered the car and I huddled tighter in my cloak away from the draft of the door.

"Ah, the shivers! I have just the thing!" Shade pulled a flask from the compartment between our seats and unscrewed the top. Handing me a small lid cup, he carefully poured the warm liquid before retrieving a brandy glass for himself. The warmth of the lid was a salve to my chilly fingers and the scent that filled the car was tempting to my taste buds. I was so very cold. Taking a tentative sip, I moaned as the taste exploded on my tongue, dancing off my palate and sparking a long buried memory.

Fleeting as it was, I took another sip and smiled at the warmth that spread through my belly. The memory was closer now...still so elusive...like trying to remember the spices your grandmother would put in her warm apple pie to make it so uniquely hers that you would be experimenting for eons before you could ever crack it. This was so familiar, so... so...

So wrong...so very wrong.

"What have you done?" I whispered, my lips suddenly numb, my head spinning.

The cup was taken from me, its remnants thrown through the open window so he could re-lid the flask.

"Did you think I would fall for your ploy little Sarah?" Shade had thrown away all pretence. He loomed over my uncooperative body and seized my hair in his hand, tugging my face closer to his, lined with fury. He leant closer still, his lips grazing my bared neck and inhaling deeply. "Did you think I would not know you had been with him? I can smell him!"

I cried out as he bit my neck in warning before he kissed the spot he had abused. "Did you think I would be oblivious to the fact you would know the differences between us?" He nibbled his way up my jaw, his other hand roaming a body I was glad could feel little at the moment. Just the thought of him touching me was enough to make my stomach churn, the realisation he held me still to kiss me just made me angry.

"Vile bastard!" I screamed, putting all my forward strength into head butting him, knocking him onto his backside. "He took you in, gave you a home and you betray him!"

My breath left me when his weight closed the space between us fully and pinned me to the soft leather. My arms next to useless, he didn't even bother to restrain me...just held my body still with his.

"I should have been King...look at him!! He used to be a King of Kings, he ruled all with a reputation to be proud of!" Shade growled; the violent rumble hard against my chest. "And then came along one little girl, one lonely, spoilt little madam that made him wish for something more. Something soft...and my dear, you are wonderfully soft..."

I wanted to cry. His expression had turned from pure malevolence into lust and back again so swiftly, it made me dizzy with fear. Shade was a madman. "Suddenly he wasn't the man he used to be. You weakened him Sarah...weakened him enough to lose his Labyrinth – rightly so, and he will lose it – to me."

"I won't help you. I can ascend alone." Even I thought my words sounded weak. Evidently Shade shared my opinion.

"Ah yes, but a loving Queen without her King." Shade smirked, "Whatever will you do?"

I was glad I wasn't given a chance to answer, for as we pulled up at our destination, I could admit to myself that I didn't really know. Ascending alone...was not an option for me. I needed Jareth.

Cruel hands tangled in my hair as his strong arm encircled my waist and pulled me disgustingly flush to him.

"Maybe I will give you the option of being my Queen dearest Sarah, would you like that?" Shade's lips closed warm and determined over the join between my neck and shoulder, drawing the skin hard as he suckled the burning pain bringing tears to my eyes. Jareth had tormented my flesh in the hours of our dream, the same action causing me great pleasure under his barely restrained cruelty...this just made bile rise in my throat until I feared I may choke on it.

"You would look delicious sprawled at my feet..."

"Bastard!" My leg found strength within me and I nailed him between the legs in a move that made him go satisfyingly pale.

"You will regret your refusal Sarah." As his grip tightened on my hair and he dragged me from the car, I almost agreed with him. Ahead of us, his hireling moved with the covered canvas into the mansion, his long stride eating up the snow laden distance with an ease and grace my captor did not possess. Stumbling down the path, he was ungainly in his anger, and I drew a small sense of satisfaction that I gave him that limp.

We reached the foyer, and his grip released me so swiftly I went spilling across the polished marble floor in a flurry of white silk and feathers, my hair a halo of mahogany around my head. Tears pricked my eyes when the furious vibrations of the mirrors beside me began to rattle in earnest. My love was here. My limbs heavy, I could not obey the growled commands of Shade to get up, my body now too numb to care when a booted foot met my ribs and toppled me over onto my back.

"It would be such a shame to end your life here Miss Williams, right where your beloved can see your heart cease to beat." Shade growled above me a moment before the floor left me in a rush that sent my head spinning and I was deposited over his shoulder. "Don't worry my brother; she will be well enough to ascend. And maybe for a little bit longer after that!" His hand stole between my legs and the subsequent rattle of glass let me know that the action had been witnessed. There would be no containing his rage once he was free.

Oh god...I failed him!

What the hell was I to do now?

~~~

"I knew something was wrong with this...but Oh no, not a one of you listens to Hoggle!" The indignant whisper was met with rolled eyes from his companions, but he couldn't take offence. Their Queen had been taken, her naïve plan failed before she could even put it into practice, and now she lay like a broken rag doll over the enemy's shoulder.

"Can you hear that?" Aster asked softly, her fairy eyes closed as she listened into the silent night. "There...listen...like the vibrations of the Goblin gates..."

"I can't hear anything."

"Shhhhhhhh!" Langton closed his lips and had the grace to look sheepish. His appearance through the thick hedge had been the least stealthy thing they had ever witnessed, and he flushed with embarrassment that even the little fairy who had attached herself to him constantly over the past few hours even looked fairly exasperated with him.

"Sorry Liana." He whispered back.

"There..there it is again." Aster said softly, and Hoggle nodded his agreement. "He is behind the mirrors."

A moment stretched into eternity as realisation came to the Labyrinth born, Aster and the fairies groaned, Sir Didymus gaped and Hoggle knocked his head against the wall in disbelief.

"You mean she could have just..."

"Uh huh." Aster nodded and cursed a distinctly human curse.

"He is going to hang us upside down in the..." Hoggle couldn't finish, just the thought made his throat close and his eyes water.

"I am not sure he realised it himself Hoggle." Aster whispered. "After all, it was never his realm."

"But the Goblins should have...could have said something!" Hoggle grumbled, kicking a small pebble aside, knocking one of the said-goblins on his backside.

"You know what the Labyrinth is like...it likes to teach people lessons." Aster said, standing on tiptoes to look through the foyer window at the vibrating glass and found it eerily silent. The tall hireling of Shade's came back down the stairs and stopped, stock still he barely moved but to breathe, and Aster cursed anew in recognition. Shade had enthralled one of her own kind to do his bidding.

"So how are we going to inform M'lady what we know?" Sir Didymus implored, mounted on Ambrocious, he was ready for battle and itching for action.

That was something Aster and Hoggle had no idea how to answer.

"We need to bring him down first." Hoggle decided and the goblins gathered in the darkness agreed quietly.

"Do not harm him. He cannot speak, none of the males of our kind can, just bring him down swiftly and we will try and find the Queen."

Closing her eyes, Aster resorted to her fairy-size, her wings glistening under the foyer lights as she and Liana took to the skies and began to circle the house.

~~~

If I could just close my eyes...God, maybe I could escape the pain.

The madman's hand encircled my throat in an immovable grip as he pinned me to the barren bedchamber's floor. Shade's eyes no longer contained any hint of colour, they were now an all encompassing black as he turned my gaze to the mirror and spoke to the spectator beyond.

"Such power you gave her brother!" Shade snarled at the vibrating glass as he pulled me to my feet and I drew in a much needed breath. "But in such a weak body...already her blood flows...why would you throw away your Kingdom, your power over an unimportant little mortal?"

I shuddered as I felt more of my blood pool at my now bare feet. Shade had been inventive in his coercion to get me to take him to the Labyrinth, his beating I had succeeded in enduring mainly because of the numbness of his drug – a drug he had used to keep me pliant, easy to use beneath his brother's trapped gaze. Shame he couldn't get it up. My smirk at that moment sent a spike of pain through my split lip and reminded me what my ill advised taunt had brought me.

I would not change a moment of it. Beside my calm bloodied body in the reflection was a man in the throes of madness, his breath ragged, his eyes wild and his demeanour desperate, it would not do me well to push him further. But when his taunts turned from me to my King, rage infused my weak human body with enough adrenaline to wash away the lingering effects of his potion.

When his torn and bruised hand came around my throat once more, I ducked. My body smaller, lighter, I span around his frame and rammed him from behind. The sickening smash of a portion of the mirror against his face echoed around the room before he staggered to his feet and came at me. Bloodied and gored, one side of his features no longer resembled the attractive brother of my King, glass shone in the wound, and as he ploughed me to the rough hewn carpet, I swore a million sparkling shards winked in the moonshine at me.

My head swam as his blows rained down on me; his blood fell warm to my skin as I clawed back, my fists landing in movements that jarred my battered body. Beneath the cacophony of his shouts, his rage, there was a vibration, of pounding fists...and of hurrying feet. Whispered voices, rage filled squeaks, and as my vision blurred as my captor squeezed hard against my neck, I saw the golden clock once more in my mind's eye, its seconds slowing...its time running out. The vibrancy fading into the pitch of the void as its essence was lost forever. My King was dying, his soul was leaving!

Small faces appeared over the shoulders of Shade, hands battering and grabbing as they joined in the fight. A flash of gold and silver in the window revealed Aster and her fae-sister Liana, garbed in the shimmering cloth of the fairies, their sharp fangs bared.

"She will die!" Shade screamed his hands slick with our combined blood as my companions fought to drag him away. "She will not have that which is mine!" When a white sheet – twisted tight – between Langton's hands slipped around his throat, my foe was drawn back and his hold on me was gone.

"Sarah!" Hoggle shouted, as Goblins of all sizes pulled me with their little hands towards the only remaining mirror in the room. Broken shards scored my bloodied skin as they urged me forward.

"What do I do...I cannot get there in time!" I cried. My sorrow blurring my vision as the Goblin's wiped my tears.

"SAY YOUR RIGHT WORDS!!" Hoggle shouted as Shade screamed, the fairy's teeth buried deeply in his throat.

I touched the mirror in wonder...and felt my heart break. "There are no Goblins in there Hoggle." I whispered, in my heart knew the Goblins of the labyrinth were frozen in the city...No...

I struggled to my feet, my soles slipping as I willed strength into weak limbs to move me. The Goblins in the Labyrinth itself were frozen, dying in the Goblin city...but those who I had painted in...

I found the canvas by the door and dragged it forward.

Hiding beneath his throne were the Goblins I needed. With the help of many little hands, I manoeuvred the painting towards the mirror until it could be seen in full. My captive creatures moved forward, pressing themselves up against the canvas until they were clear as day in the reflection.

Say your right words...

"Goblin King, Goblin King..." Sarah laughed quietly, settling on the floor beside the glass and pressing her palm to it. "I wish...you to set free my King, I wish him at my side in his realm..."

Nothing happened, and Sarah despaired as the seconds began to run out.

I love you...

Sarah whispered quietly as she rested her head against the cool glass and let her tears fall when finally, the golden clock struck the hour and one heartbeat...and her beautiful King was lost to her.

Silence reigned in the broken room. The blood thirsty fairies devoured their prey, swallowing his magic with every mouthful. My wonderful Langton fearless as he held the swine now by his hair for the fae to do their worst. Sir Didymus parried and clawed at their captive while Ambrocious hid whimpering beside the door. Goblins crawled into my lap and held me as my sobs broke through the night and cracked the glass in front of me. Sparks of brilliant light escaped the bulbs as the electricity shorted out under the wave of my power, glowing almost as bright as the white lightening that lit up the blood stained room.

A gale, strong and chilled whipped along my spine as the clock ceased its clamouring with a loud final retort inside my head and vanished, leaving only darkness in its wake. The sharp wind making my long hair take flight as leaves and rain battered my weary body and a shadow loomed.

Long and lean, the darkness and cold his very friend; his nature was vibrant within the shadow which fell over me. Goblins scrambled from my grasp, scurrying from my lap as though the hounds of hell were chasing them, and I turned reluctantly and gazed in muted wonder at the man before me.

One eye of green and another of blue, he stood, garbed in purest white and held out a single feather.

Look what I'm offering you...

I smiled as joy filled my heart and I laughed at his wicked self.

"Last time we met, you offered me the world in a crystal ball my King." I whispered as my exhausted frame sank to lie wearily on the floor. "What is the meaning of this...?" I motioned the gleaming feather, and trembled as my cruel and beautiful Jareth sank to his knees beside me. His face a mere inches from my own, his lips barely a breath away, he trailed a single feather down my exposed skin.

"I've brought you a gift..." He smiled, his hand pressing the feather over my heart a moment before he caressed my lips with his. "Fear me..."

"I do fear you..." I whispered, moving under his gentle touch as he lifted me from the floor and into his arms.

"Love me..."

The air changed, the scent of blood drifting away through the thickness of the night as he sheltered me in his embrace.

"I do love you." My head found the hollow of his throat and I kissed the skin there, nuzzling against him as I felt the pain begin to leave my body, and the heated need for all that was Jareth rose in a wicked wave. "I won't always do as you say though."

He chuckled...deep and rich as I felt myself lowered amongst bedding softer than feathers.

"You wouldn't be you if you did." Jareth followed me down and I finally opened my eyes, daring my wounded heart to believe I had freed him. That is was no cruel trick. His smug smile warmed my soul, the wicked curve of his lips begged to be kissed and I could no longer deny it. Or him. Crushing my lips to his, my hunger was fierce as I begged him to be mine, chanted his name under my breath as he disrobed and pulled my shredded gown from my healing body, kissing every cut and scratch as it faded from sight.

He would be the end of me, powerful and all that I could desire...all I had desired, laid claim to my body and soul in a tangle of limbs and soaring cries that echoed around the frozen Labyrinth.

As we watched the sun rise, glorious and red in the distance for the first time in years, I fell asleep in the arms of my beloved King, his whispered vow of love ringing sweeter than any poetry in my slumbering mind.

I will be your slave...

In my innocent mind I had denied him, refused his love. But no longer. I could no more leave this cruel enigma than I could live without my heart.

He had all the power over me.

"Nay, my precious Queen." He whispered, "It has always been the other way around."

~~~

Epilogue

The autumn breeze blew the leaves around her feet and she spread her arms wide and danced with the magic surrounding her. The sun was setting, a brilliant burnt orange glow across the wonder of the Labyrinth as she spun until her head grew dizzy and she fell to the cushion of leaves to gaze up at the sky.

Little voices sounded under her head and she giggled as she heard the little men grumble and moan as they moved beneath the stone tiles in their own little world. The wise man was snoring; she could see him resting his ever weary frame on the stone bench in the corner, his Bird hat rolling his eyes in exasperation.

Rustling to her left drew her wandering attention, her gaze rising till she could see her company just above the leafy hedges of the maze.

"Hey, doesn't she look familiar?" One orange head whispered to the other and she stood once more and eyed them with a perfected cool glare, her hands on her hips as they continued to discuss her as though she couldn't hear them.