He would wait forever

By Lady Geek Chic

Summary: When Jareth first offered Sarah his heart she was too young to truly appreciate such a precious gift, ten years later she's ready to love him but can she break down the walls built after his defeat?

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise does not belong to me. If you don't recognise it from film, music video or novel then you can make the assumption I've created it from my own imagination but I don't claim to own that either.

Part One

Sarah Williams seemingly had the perfect life, a well-paid job, a gorgeous boyfriend and a beautiful apartment. It was just a shame that Sarah was mind numbingly bored with it all. As a graduate Sarah had not expected to walk into the "perfect" job but within a month of leaving university she had been offered a junior position in a banking company in New York. Packing up and leaving home she first shared an apartment with a vegetarian chiropractor who was obsessively tidy. This had its good points but after a year of finding her sock drawer mysteriously organised she said enough was enough and using the money from a recent bonus moved into her own place.

Four bonuses later her apartment looked like something from an Ikea catalogue as befitted a woman of her career situation. In fact she was shopping for a new hall rug when she met Brad.

Brad was a stock broker, tall, dark, and handsome with a gleaming smile he was seemingly a perfect match, a yang to her yin and Sarah was happy to find herself in a serious relationship with him. Of course if anybody were to ask how their relationship started she wouldn't be able to give too much detail, it seemed that one day she was single and then she was contemplating whether to give up the lease on her perfect apartment and move in with him. There was no doubt that Brad was deeply in love with her, he told her every day and would spend hours planning their perfect future together. It just seemed that Sarah had very little input into their future including the three perfect children she would give him, not that she objected to children just the fact he assumed she wanted them.

It was on a warm spring day that Sarah came to the horrific realisation that she was bored.

The morning started well, she had a day off to wait for a delivery and had eaten a leisurely breakfast at the trendy glass dining table whilst reading the New York Times. Brushing the crumbs into the trash can by the large almost space age fridge Sarah found herself staring at the fridge with a feeling something akin to confusion. She didn't recall buying it. Well that was a lie she did, she picked a fridge that would match the décor of the kitchen but she didn't recall whether she actually liked it, she hadn't spent hours considering other fridges and costs and other things that should have been important but seemed to have been disregarded. Opening the fridge she saw it was filled with food from her latest fad diet. Not that she needed to lose weight it just seemed that every woman in New York was on some sort of fad diet and somewhere along the line Sarah had booked herself an appointment with a dietician and now she was eating rabbit food twice a day and allowing herself a steak once a month.

It was quite horrifying that she didn't remember what she had just eaten less than five minutes before. A detailed chart stuck to the fridge with a magnet that told her to keep calm and carry on announced that her breakfast had been Greek yoghurt with half a cup of blueberries and a slice of whole wheat toast with low fat butter. She wasn't entirely sure she liked Greek yoghurt or whole wheat toast. It seemed she just ate the food mechanically gaining no pleasure from the process.

The whole situation was very disconcerting and Sarah found herself stumbling into her tastefully decorated living room to slump onto a sofa that she didn't like but matched the coffee table which matched the bookcases that held books she didn't enjoy reading. To find out her life was a lie was certainly not something she had expected to happen and Sarah was determined to do something about it.

Finding a stack of notepads she grabbed one and a pen and settled herself onto the sofa cross legged, flipping it open to the first page she chewed on the lid of the pen for a moment before writing in large letters:

APARTMENT

JOB

BOYFRIEND

LIFE

Apartment seemed easiest to do and Sarah glanced around, she wasn't sure how much money she had in her bank account but she was betting there was more than enough to buy some throw pillows and a plant or two, enough to at least brighten up the place. Apparently in her apartment decorating stupor she had decided that black, white and grey were the only colours that were allowed through the door. The kitchen needed new plates and cups, some brightly coloured dish cloths and maybe a bright red kettle, anything to stop her small world from feeling like a black and white film. For the bedroom she was going to buy blankets and pillows and maybe some fairy lights and artwork, monochrome was fine but it just didn't feel like her, at least not the real Sarah Williams who believed in fairies and romance and loved the theatre. The theatre had been her greatest dream once; she was going to be a great actress like her mother, but then somewhere along the way she stopped dreaming.

"But if you turn it this way and look into it, it will show you your dreams."

Sat on the sofa Sarah scrubbed at her eyes determined not to cry, it had been a long time since she had thought of that night, convinced as she was that it had been just a wonderful, fantastic dream. It had been a long time that she had been able to think about him, the man who had offered her a crystal full of dreams in exchange for her baby brother. Deep down she knew that the night had happened, she had run a gauntlet for Toby and proven her worth against the King of the Goblins, a Fae by the name of Jareth. She still had the old, worn, red book locked securely in a box of keepsakes along with a music box and a few other things she hadn't been able to bring herself to throw away.

Turning back to the notebook she wondered if she should address the issue of Brad now or leave it until she could see him through her old eyes, the eyes of a dreamer who wanted romance. The problem was she just didn't know if Brad could be the man she wanted, maybe a day earlier he had been but now it felt as though she had woken from a very long sleep and in her heart she knew she was going to have to hurt Brad very deeply.

"I've made such a mess of things." The silence of her apartment was her only reply and groaning Sarah stared at the walls with the black and white prints on them. Somehow she wasn't surprised that Brad wasn't for her, everything had happened so quickly that it seemed as if she hadn't ever truly loved him, not as he deserved. She wasn't sure how she was going to break up with him, she'd never hurt someone intentionally and hated the very thought of it, but it was either this or find herself married with children to a man she didn't love. The thought brought tears to her eyes and Sarah brushed them away.

"I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave."

Oh. For ten years she had done everything in her power to ignore what he had said determined as she was that he was the villain and she the heroine. After all, what sort of a man offers a child such a gift and it truly was a remarkable gift, but she was a child and had no idea that he meant what he said and her rejection had been final and cruel.

"Everything I've done, I've done for you. I move the stars for no one."

He had meant it though, every terrifying and beautiful word. In his own way the Goblin King had loved her though this was perhaps because the story was told this way, the girl with the powers of the Fae, gifted by the King of the Goblins who was so desperately in love with her.

"I'm sure he said that to all the girls."

Even to her own ears she knew the words were wrong and standing she let the notepad and pen fall to the floor not caring if they made a mess or were damaged. Striding across the room she knelt by a book case and pulled a small wooden box out from the bottom shelf, the lid was firmly padlocked but she knew the key was in her jewellery box underneath several items she didn't wear because they no longer fit her corporate image.

Once the box was unlocked she sat for several minutes daring herself to open it, afraid of what she would find much like Pandora's own doubts upon opening the box that would unleash a plague on mankind.

"Get a grip Sarah, just open the box and find the book."

So she did.

The inside of the box was lined with silk, a scrap given to her by her mother who she claimed was given it by Coco Chanel, she wasn't sure if this was true but the peach silk was pretty and protected the items inside its protective cocoon. Somehow the book was on the very top, the red cover as worn as she remembered. Picking it up she felt the leather beneath her finger tips and she took a moment to sniff the book savouring the smell of old paper. The cover had the name of the novel a gold stamped symbol but no author and inside there was no information concerning a publishing company or even the year it had been published. Frowning Sarah stared at the item for a moment before moving to where her computer was sat, booting it up she waited for it to load tapping her nails on the table impatiently.

It seemed like forever but finally Internet Explorer was loaded and she typed The Labyrinth into a search engine, the first few pages seemed to be research archives of information for medieval studies which she bookmarked for later reading the rest of the pages were even less useful. Narrowing her parameters to The Labyrinth Novel she waited but found no information about the book, it was almost as if the book did not exist.

Puzzled Sarah began to examine the novel searching for something, anything that would give her a clue about the author or even when it had been published. She didn't remember when she was first given the novel only that it seemed she had always owned it and knew the story by heart. Staring down at the novel she traced the triangular symbol on the front cover with her finger, her mind was screaming at her that something important was happening but it didn't want to give her any further information and Sarah was too confused to pay attention.

"How did I get this book?" Standing Sarah grabbed her mobile phone which was sat on the windowsill charging, pushing a few buttons she held the phone to her ear and tapped her foot nervously against the wall as she waited for the call to connect.

Hello?

"Mom, hi…it's Sarah."

Darling hello, how are you my sweet?

"I'm fine, I can't talk long I just wanted to ask you a question."

Fire away Darling.

Sarah paused unsure of how to phrase her question, aware that the answer was incredibly important but suddenly afraid of what she might hear. "Mom, do you remember that novel I used to love; The Labyrinth?"

Of course Darling, you used to read it over and over and play pretend you were running the labyrinth.

"Mom, where did I get that book?"

Funny you should ask that Darling, I asked you the same thing when you were six years old. You came running indoors soaked to the bone after being caught in a downpour, you had the book hidden beneath your dress to keep it dry and you said that an owl gave it to you.

"An owl?"

Yes Darling, an owl. We tried all ways to get you to admit where you found it but you maintained that an owl had flown down and given you the novel. In the end we decided that you must have found it on the street and invented the story to avoid us taking it away from you.

Taking a deep breath to keep from stumbling over her next words Sarah used her spare hand to rub the back of her neck nervously, "Mom, did I say what type of owl it was?"

Yes you did, you said it was a barn owl.

End of Part One

Authors Note: I will try to get part two up ASAP, I don't know how long this story will be I just hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Also please excuse any English spellings or terms, I've tried to keep Sarah as American as possible but I'm aware that my own culture may rear its very English head.