Chapter 3: Endling

"She knows now. You ought'n'ta strung it out," his faithful, if otherwise lacking, retainer paused, outwardly bracing himself for his king's ire. "She's gonna run, Jareth."

"I am aware, Hogswallop," came the disinterested reply.

The dwarf was wrong on both counts. The girl was already running, and she knew nothing. Understood nothing.

"Don't ya think-"

"Hoggle," the warning note was not lost on the dwarf, "You know what to do."

"Aye, your majesty."

The girl ran, but it was no matter. The thrill lie in the chase.

He lay draped across a throne- the centerpiece of an otherwise dilapidated room.

The king eyed her lazily, affecting an air of nonchalance while he resumed tapping his boots with-

"Is that a riding crop?" Sarah asked, incredulous. She was dreaming. That was the only explanation she had for being in the same room as E.J. and not trying to escape like a bat out of hell. But in her dreams there was no fear, they simply just were.

"It keeps the insufferable little cretins in line," the kingly version of E.J. said, nodding to the other creatures- Trolls? Gargoyles? Goblins?- she had not noticed occupying the room.

This was different. There had never been beings other than herself and E.J. in her dreams, except, perhaps the owl.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her traitorous ex-roommate slash coffee barista.

"Why do you insist on forgetting each and every one of your dreams? How long must we continue this farce, my Sarah?"

"E.J.-"

"Jareth," he corrected.

Sarah woke with a name on her lips and bile rising in her throat.

Sarah's first day back home, her real home, was great. Dad and Karen were worried about her turning up out of the blue, but a half-lie about being homesick allayed their fears.

It even took a couple of days for them to notice that she was drinking practically half her body weight in coffee in order to avoid sleep. That, she was able to attribute to the stress of her post-graduate program. And Sarah knew that if she did not go back in a few days, she would have to check in with her advisor, even though she never wanted to set foot in that city, much less that house, ever again.

She crashed on the third day though, and thus her most memorable dream to date. She took to the library, hoping to find something about E.J. or Jareth, but she did not know where to even begin, much less what to look for.

It was during one of her episodes of staring out the large library window, wracking her brain for some clue for her search, that she noticed it.

Sarah had never been big on birds, but she knew for certain that owls were nocturnal. She had seen this creature before, in her dreams, and on random nights when she had returned home after dark. And yet this owl was not only out during the day, but alert. And focused on her.

The first inklings of unease had her briskly back in the stacks, but now, thanks to that stupid, creepy bird, she had a starting point in the form of a comprehensive ornithology index, and a nice chair and table, away from view of the windows.

She didn't know what kind of owl it was, but for some reason, she knew that figuring it out was the key she needed. Her search was not too terribly onerous. It only took her to the b's to find the section dedicated to barn owls- from the glimpses she'd seen of it, that was the most likely candidate.

The barn owl has long been maligned as an omen portending certain death.

Sarah stopped there and let her head plop onto her arms in exasperation.

"Great."

The woman pulled herself back up and continued reading.

This is in part due to its startling, keening calls. The common Barn owl is known by many names around the world including the Ghost Owl, Stone Owl, Monkey-faced owl, Hobgoblin owl-

Sarah's breath caught. She slammed the book shut in irrational panic.

She had fairly fled from the library, but not before checking out every book the library had to offer on owls, goblins, and fairy folklore. And if an unborrowable reference book or two had made it into her bag in addition to the rest, well, they'd be returned in a few days, and Sarah sincerely doubted that anyone else was being stalked by weird mythological creatures. She clearly needed the books more.

She almost snorted- there was no way a maniacal fairy was after her. Though it would go a long way in explaining how her memories had been altered to include a relative that had never even existed. And even the house and the lawyer, probably, too. As well as the disappearing act E.J. had pulled more than once.

Not that she was entertaining the idea that her problems were brought on by fairies and magic because magic did not exist.

The phone rang and rang and rang.

She turned it off.

It rang.

She took out the battery.

It rang.

When she threw it out, the house phone rang.

She was just lucky that her parents both had jobs and Toby was at day camp. She had been home for nearly a week, and every day since her trip home from the library, the phone rang non-stop while she was alone. She took to her favorite lounging spots outside to peruse the books that she half believed and half derided for their fanciful irrationality. She must have fallen asleep at some point in the sultry heat under the shade of the big oak because the next thing she knew, her stepmother was shaking her awake, and trying to hand her the cordless phone.

"Sarah, it's for you. Something about your aunt's estate," her stepmother said before leaving the young woman to her call.

Apparently, whoever it was must have realized that she was never going to answer of her own will. Sarah eyed the device distrustfully before bringing it to her ear.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this to me? How are you doing this?"

The person at the other end of the line responded as if she had only said, 'hello' rather than opening an interrogation.

"Hello, Sarah, it's Leo Hogg, there are a few more papers I need you to sign in regard to your inheritance."

"I don't want it."

"Sarah, please!" E.J.'s or Jareth's or whoever he was's co-conspirator masquerading as a lawyer changed tactics. "We need you! You're-"

She clicked a button to end the call.

Sarah kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the man did not call back, her creepy doom owl kept hidden from her sight, and for two days, her sleep was dreamless.

"What's that, Toby?"

"I found it with your library books. The ones about goblins."

He held it out to her, so she could see it.

It was red and leather bound and old looking, but it lacked the laminated Dewey Decimal stickers all the other library books had. She didn't remember picking this one up, but it must have been misplaced with the others. Perhaps one of the reference books she filched.

She plucked the volume from the protesting boy, placating him by letting him run off with several of the other books.

The title proudly stated that it was called Labyrinth, and if that wasn't the perfect metaphor for her life at the moment, she didn't know what was- spiraling wildly down a single, ineffable path that she had little option but to follow and figure out where it went.

It turned out to be a tale about a girl and a king. Gratingly, the heroine was also named Sarah. That set off warning bells in her mind, though it was silly. Her name was ridiculously common and there were at least two Sarahs in every class she had had through college. She pushed the niggling voice aside and read the book through, thinking it only slightly odd that while the heroine's name was liberally peppered throughout the text, her antagonist king remained nameless.

"Finally."

Sarah dropped the book in her panic at the voice.

"I was beginning to think you'd never find it."

Sarah stared slack jawed at the man. Inanely she wondered how he grew his hair out so fast.

"But you're..."

"Jareth, please. Though you will remember that from your most recent dreams, of course. Regardless, the human name is starting to rankle and I would have you know me as myself at this point. No more lies, precious. "

"What the hell did you do to me?" She screeched, unmindful of the fact that her family members were sleeping mere doors away.

"Now, Sarah," Jareth chided.

"Oh, no! Don't you dare, 'now, Sarah' me! You said, 'no more lies,' now get talking."

"Very well," he inclined. "Shall we travel somewhere more comfortable?"

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

His grin was rueful. "Worth a shot." He shrugged and fashioned himself a chair before her eyes. Sarah took the old wing-back chair that had served as her reading nook in the past.

She missed the regular nighttime sounds as soon as they ceased.

"I've merely silenced the area of your room. Your screech could raise the dead, my dear, and waking your family would not be prudent during our discussion."

The warning was there underneath, the words left unsaid, don't put your family in danger, Sarah. If they knew I were here, something would have to be done about them, and you would not like the result.

Sarah swallowed past the new lump in her throat, trying to quell the prey instinct to get away as quickly as possible.

"I assure you that you are quite safe with me, Sarah."

Yeah, that sounded totally reassuring.

Her thoughts must have shown on her face because the man sighed and suddenly looked much older than the spritely persona he had affected in her presence up until this point. He seemed tired.

"Ask your questions, girl, and I will tell you what I must. The truth, and nothing more." When she made no move to start, he filled the silence again.

"The fact that you have withheld yourself thus far is admirable. I know how determined you are to make sense of everything," He said, with a mocking nod to her new book collection.

He waved a hand for her to get on with it.

Sarah ignored his jab and decided to plunge in.

"Why the house? And the false memories? And how did-"

"Precious thing, those are not the right questions."

"But you said-" He reached over and placed a gloved finger over her lips. Sarah felt like a recalcitrant child, and were she a bit less disturbed, she might have shouted at him.

"I will answer the right questions, Sarah."

The pair sat in silence as Sarah thought for a moment.

"Why me?"

He smiled at her, and Sarah tried to ignore the misplaced fluttery feeling it gave her. Apparently her body had not caught up with the fact that her ex-roommate was a creepy insinuate-himself-into-your-life type stalker of the make-believe variety.

"You are The Endling. The last of your kind, and the only hope left to me."

Well, that was completely unhelpful.

"Why now?" She tried again. Apparently that question was also acceptable, as he replied immediately.

"For the simple reason that now is when I found you. We ought to have met much sooner, my dear, had fate not strayed off course."

That seemed to be the extent of his sharing streak. Which totally wasn't fair. He hadn't told her anything useful.

"If this," she gestured vaguely in his general direction, "is my fate, I don't want it. I never asked for it!"

He rose then, anger sparkling in his eyes.

"I have been patient thus far, my Sarah" he intoned lowly, dangerously.

Patient? The very idea rankled. Her own ire overrode her fear.

"Patient? Patiently ruining my life, maybe! Making me think I'm crazy. And I am not your anything!"

He was seething now, practically vibrating on the spot.

"You drank my offering. Accepted my token. I assure you, we are quite bound."

She should be the only one allowed to be angry, in this situation.

"I did no such thing! When did this supposedly happen?"

"Our first meeting, my dear."

Sarah's mind flitted back to an inauspicious morning now several months in the past.

"Coffee? Seriously? You're trying to trap me with coffee?"

"The offering and my token. If you're going to slander my intentions, at least do so properly, precious."

"Are you talking about that glass ball that exploded everywhere? I knew that was you! I could have needed stitches!"

He took her hand then, turning it this way and that.

"But you did not require medical attention of any sort. In fact, I find you quite un-perforated and with no evidence of scarring. Your skin was never cut. The magic would not-"

"You're not real, and there's no such thing as magic."

He simply tutted when she yanked out of his grasp.

"Maintain this willful denial, and soon, my Sarah, you will be right."

Every night, her sleep was like drowning. The words were muddled and rounded and incomprehensible. The scenes were flashes of chaos and death. And then, when everything around her faded into ash, one path remained leading to a throne and the King she had denied the existence of.

"I can no longer shield you from your visions. This is what will come to pass in both your world and mine."

"No," she denied, huddling in on herself.

The dream would break, but she would not forget it in her waking hours. The spectre of an owl dogged her every step.

The days grew shorter and darker, and for the first time in weeks, the nightmare changed.

"I am sorry for it to be this way." The king soothed his gloved hand through her hair. She hated that his touch could comfort her, just as much as she longed for it after her nightly visions.

"I intended to ease you into this; however, we no longer have the occasion for dallying. Time is short."

With a feather-light caress to the face, Sarah ignited from within. Thoughts and memories and dreams flooded through her, and she knew everything, remembered new things. There was so much that it hurt.

Vaguely, she was aware of Jareth speaking to her of the role to which she had unwittingly consigned herself.

"-there is no other to substitute; all you have seen can be avoided if you perform one simple task."

He was telling the truth and in her new-found reservoir of knowledge, she realized that of all possible outcomes there was but one she could accept.

The woman nodded blearily, resigned.

"What do I have to do?"

"Make a wish, Sarah."

Sarah Williams stepped out of the shop into the brisk winter morning, sipping at her warm beverage. She grimaced when she tasted the sugar.

"I thought we agreed that you weren't going to change my coffee order any more, birdbrain."

"Such disrespect!" The man materialized beside her as though he had been there all along, which probably wasn't far off the mark.

"I agreed to no such thing. I merely gave you what you truly wanted."

Finding an empty bench and taking a seat, Sarah ran a finger around the rim of her coffee.

"This isn't what I wished for, you know." She was no longer referring to the warm liquid. Things were in no way back to normal, as she had intended with her wish. 'Normal' now included incessant pestering from an otherworldly fiancé and a whole new host of responsibilities.

"I know," he agreed, somberly. She met his gaze, and the moment passed.

Then, Jareth grinned.

"Though normal is a frightfully relative term, don't you agree? In time you will learn to grow careful of your words, my sweet."

He sat himself, and patted at her hand, simultaneously patronizing and soothing. "Though, privately, I hope that day never comes."

Sarah elbowed her companion in the ribs. In turn, he tugged her to himself, ticking at her side as they both shimmered away from the world Sarah once called home.

Her new normal was bizarre, terrifying, and inexplicably wonderful.

A/N: So, this has been sitting 80% finished on my laptop for, oh, the past year and two months. Sorry, for that; I just couldn't bring myself to work on it. I've simplified it a little bit from what I was originally going for because otherwise it would have never been finished. Hopefully, it doesn't disappoint too terribly.