| Chapter 1 – Past Returns Sarah woke with a noise. She looked down to see that the book had fallen out of her hands. But that was not all she seen. On the floor beside the book, laid a man, the same man from her dream. He even looked the same as in her dream. She gave a gasp of surprise that her dream turned out to be real. “Jareth!” she gasped. She quickly dropped to the floor to search for a pulse. When she found one, she sighed in relief. That’s also when she noticed that he was conscious, he tried to lift himself up but didn’t have the strength. Sarah moved the coffee table out of the way so she could turn the man. When he was on his back, he looked out of his good to see his rescuer though he knew who rescued him. His other eye was almost closed shut from a bruise. “Sarah,” he faintly said as a whisper. “Thank you.” “What happened to you?” she asked still in shock. She lifted his head into her lap on reflex. She wasn’t really thinking of what she was doing, just wanted to help him. “My sister Leetris,” he whispered, losing consciousness. Sarah took a real good look at his appearance and was quite surprised that he could even speak. His left eye was bruised almost shut, with scratches all over his arms. What was left of his shirt, she could see lashes of a whip or something all over his chest and knew there was more on his back. She also noticed that his medallion was gone. He had no boots on or gloves covering his hands. His pants were able to conceal his legs. There was no evidence that showed he was tortured from the waist down. Just as in her dream, he hadn’t shaved in awhile and his hair was dirty and flat. There was no shine to the man, just a lost broken person who needed help. For the time being she forgot that he was ever her enemy who made her go through the Labyrinth. Sarah moved her hand to brush his hair out of his face. She didn’t want to believe that this was happening to her. She leaned her head against the sofa and fell back to sleep. A little while later, Jareth woke. He was still on Sarah’s lap and she was still asleep. He stared at her sleeping face when he realized that he could see perfectly through both eyes. He had been wondering why she would have been so tired. He knew that his sister would have taken care of her when she was dreaming. “I’m healing,” he whispered to himself. His voice was sounding a lot better then it was when he first arrived but the sound woke Sarah. For several minutes they stared at each other, until Sarah broke the silence. “You seem better,” she said noticing that his bruise was gone. “I couldn’t use my magic until you freed me,” Jareth explained sitting up with difficulty. Sarah stood and when into the kitchen and came back with a glass a water for Jareth. She sat back down and turned her head, she asked. “How did you lose your powers?” “If you mean, did you take them away from me? No, you didn’t.” Sarah looked back at him. “When you said those words,” he tried to sound intimidating with no luck, “I dropped my guard. Leetris, my sister, took the opportunity to invade the Labyrinth right under my nose. “She ambushed me by enslaving all the inhabitants of the Labyrinth before reaching the Goblin city, including your new friends. They are under hypnosis and have no memory of you or anything else. She tried to do the same for me but that proved to be useless. As powerful as I am, there is no way that I can be corrupted. It didn’t take her long to overthrow me. I’ve been held captive in my own castle, in the dungeon, being tortured until I die. She chained me up using manicals that sucks my power away so I’d be useless. Once I die, my power will be passed on to the person on the throne, my sister Leetris. “Since you defeated my Labyrinth, you hold a power of it as well. Normally one would have to free me the old fashion way but not you. I need your help as you need mine.” “Why? I don’t understand.” “Since you are the only person to ever solve my Labyrinth, you are the only one to help get the Labyrinth back. And I’m the only one who can protect you.” “What if I don’t want to help?” she asked. “I do have a life to live.” “Then the Labyrinth will die and so will you.” Sarah gasped in fright. “You are connected to the Underground. It will grow with you.” “I…better go check on Toby.” Sarah stood and walked up the stairs to her parents room. When she opened the bedroom door, she seen he was sound asleep. “One thing, I’ve learned,” Jareth whispered coming up behind her. She jumped at the sound of his voice. Jareth ignored her jump, “is children don’t easily wake up.” “Don’t scare me like that!” she whispered back. “Don’t want to bring back old memories,” he mocked giving an evil smirk. Sarah looked away from Jareth to look at Toby again but somehow her eyes drifted to her parents balcony, bringing back memories when she first met Jareth. She turned away from the room closing the door again. The two silently went down stairs. “Living old memories can be exhausting,” Jareth said. “Toby will be in danger if you don’t help me. We must put are differences aside for now and help each other. What happened in your dream will happen to you.” “How do you know about my dream?” she turned to him. “My other sister has been transferring your dream to reality. When you would see me chained to the wall that was real. When you knelt to me and I looked at you, they were real. What was not real was the way I asked you to help me.” Sarah stopped and looked at Jareth. Jareth clasped her hands to bring them to his face. “This unshaved face is the same face you seen in your dream. The dream you’ve been having has been a nightmare for me. Please help me to get my throne back. Return with me to the Labyrinth.” Still covered in shock, she removed her hands from his face and nodded silently to agreeing that she would help. She couldn’t believe that the Goblin King was practically begging her to help him. Suddenly she remembered about the community’s 100th birthday. “Damn,” she cursed. “Tomorrow there is a parade and I’m on the committee. I have to be there.” She was trying to come up with a diversion so she didn’t have to return to the Labyrinth too soon. “That’s alright. We can’t return to the Underground yet anyway. First of all I have to wait until I hear from my sister and secondly I’m not going to the Underground until my powers are fully restored and that will take a few days at least.” “Ok,” she said slowly figuring out that he caught on to her excuse. “That’s answers about going back that but what about my parents. They’ll be home in an hour or so.” “Either say I’m a friend who’s staying or I hide out in your room,” Jareth said with a smirk. Sarah caught his hidden joke and shivered at the thought of hiding him in her room. “You’re a friend,” she said quickly without thinking. Jareth chuckled at her quick comment. “Well I have to straighten up before Dad and Karen get home then go to bed.” Sarah walked back into the living room to move the coffee table back to where it was. Jareth stopped and leaned against the entrance to the living room thinking of how to get the Labyrinth back. One thing he would need to do was to contact his good sister and get her help. As he leaned against the wall, he used a little of his power, to make himself a little more presentable. He couldn’t do anything for his clothes or foot ware but he was able to give himself a shave. While he was deep in thought, Sarah was in her own little world. She never even realized that Jareth now looked more respectable. She was cursing at herself for agreeing to help Jareth before giving it a lot of thought. Now she had another problem, how to explain to her parents about Jareth. When the living room was back to normal, Sarah walked past Jareth, still not noticing his appearance, and into the kitchen so she could write a note for her parents about Jareth being there. At the bottom of the note she added that she would explain everything in the morning. When the note was complete, she placed it in a spot where she knew her parents would find it and then proceeded up stairs. Jareth was not far behind her. Before entering her room, she turned to Jareth. “Well I have to…your face!” “I was wondering when you were going to notice. Some of my powers have returned so I can at least look like I haven’t been chain to a wall for months.” Jareth smiled. “Yeah…well…anyway. I have to head to bed, I have a long day tomorrow. The spare room is beside my room. You may sleep in it and in the morning we’ll come up with some way to explain why you are here to my parents.” Sarah turned and entered her room leaving Jareth in the hallway. He stood at her door until he knew her light was off and then proceeded to the spare room. When he entered, he noticed it was a simple room with a dresser, bed and nightstand with a small closet. He wasted no time in going to sleep, since he hadn’t really slept much in close to four months. _______________________________ The second installment of the new revised version of “Revisiting the Enchanted Land” is now complete. Stand tuned to the next installment. |