For some strange reason the combination of listening to the soundtrack from Dracula: Entre l'amour et la mort, and then going to see Verdi's Aida conjured the muses to create this story. I'm still not sure how that happened.
As Jareth walked down the empty hall of his castle beyond the Goblin City, a ghost ran by him. Though there was no haunting spirit ill at ease in the afterlife, the loss of one most dear to him left echoes among the chaos of the castle. The halls where she would run laughing, the gardens where she sat singing, the room where she spent living, all were silent.
Jareth stepped into his study and sat down to the importantly boring paperwork. While he was going over oubliette maintenance a loud crack sounded through the room. Unfazed by the sudden disturbance, Jareth slowly looked up to face the intruder.
A tall woman with black hair and blacker eyes stood in the middle of the room. As usual she was wearing a tight navy blue and gold dress that left nothing to the imagination.
"Jareth," she purred. "You are so hard and stubborn. When will you forget your pride and end this torment?"
"If to end it means giving into you, never!"
"Then you have doomed her."
"I was not the one who cursed her. That was you, Amneris!"
She laughed, a dry and hacking cackle. "Perhaps I did. But the curse still stands. The one you cherish most will live as a mortal until you marry a woman as cruel as yourself. And time is running short. Mortals only live so long, and when she dies she will be gone forever. The poor things are so fragile; anything might kill her at any moment."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Please, Jareth. I am not so foolish as to harm her. She is more use to me alive. But I am only reminding you how perilous the Aboveground is. You are running out of time, Goblin King. Just give in. You know that I am the only woman as cruel as you. Do you think you will find such a woman among the Fae Court? All those pure and gentle creatures that have worked for a millennia to purge the evil from their queens? No Jareth, I, the Queen of Nightmares, am the only you can take to end the curse."
"Never!" he repeated.
She just cackled again. "You know where to find me." She then disappeared with another deafening crack.
Jareth sagged against his chair. It had been too many years. Time was getting short. And Amneris was right about the Fae Court. A woman as cruel as himself? Then he started laughing. The curse said nothing about the woman being a Fae. Time was running out, but there was still time enough to wait for more than one love's return to his life.
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO
Sarah Williams hurried down the steps to the platform. She cursed when she saw that the next train would not be arriving for another ten minutes. She walked down the platform and found a patch of wall to lean against while waiting. It was only a few minutes later that another girl joined her.
"Finally you make it," Sarah grumbled.
"Don't get mad at me. It's not my fault the Circle Line always is delayed," Jenny replied. "And you're the one that left me stuck on the other side of the road while you ran off."
"Sorry, I'm just worried about getting there on time."
"Yeah, at my expense. Don't worry. I've lived here longer than you, and I've left plenty of time for us to get there. So just leave things to me."
"All right."
Though Sarah still sounded cranky, she was glad that she knew Jenny. The dark blonde haired girl was not only the talented supporting female to Sarah's lead female in the play they were performing, but she was a terrific flatmate. Sarah had only just moved to London for the musical, but Jenny had lived in London all her life. She was easy to live with, and never seemed fazed by Sarah's tempers.
After Sarah's time in the Labyrinth she had stopped calling things unfair, but that didn't mean she stopped being angry about them. She had tried to improve things with her stepmother, but their personalities were doomed to clash. After high school, Sarah left home and went to a small acting college. It was there that a talent scout spotted her and decided she was perfect to play Elhemina in the newly translated musical Dracula: Entre L'Amour et la Mort, or this version Dracula: Between Love and Death. So she moved to London where the musical would start on the West End. Jenny was playing Lucy, and had offered Sarah a room in her flat. The two got on really well. They both had a love of fantasy, both to the point of actually believing in it.
Sarah had reason to believe in it; she had defeated the Labyrinth after all. During high school her contact with her friends in the Underground had dwindled, and now had stopped completely. But she still knew that it all existed.
Jenny was different. As far as Sarah knew, Jenny had never been to the Underground. But there was something strange about her. She would occasionally just say something without realising it. Just that morning when Sarah had lost a sock after doing laundry, Jenny had blamed goblins, and then said that they often got into such mischief Aboveground when their king wasn't keeping an eye on them. She had spoken jokingly, but the words disturbed Sarah. When she questioned Jenny about that, Jenny had been honestly confused and said she had just made it up on the spot.
A similar thing had happened when they went to the ballet and saw Swan Lake. Jenny had been disturbed by the whole plot.
"But it isn't like that! The Owl King is in love with the Swan. And he doesn't have a daughter! It's… it's something else. The Swan can't see the Owl's love because he's a natural predator, but swans aren't exactly the nicest birds either. I can't remember it all, but he is NOT the enemy!"
"Uh, Jenny…" Sarah began, "that's not how the story goes."
"Well, I'm sure I've read a version like that somewhere," Jenny had insisted.
And now they were on their way to the first dress rehearsal of Dracula.
"Sarah, I was thinking," Jenny said. "You really are like Mina."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Elhemina's first song, Cruel and Tender; it summarizes you perfectly."
"I'm not cruel!" Sarah protested.
Your eyes can be so cruel…
The memory came flooding back as the train finally pulled up to the platform. While pushing past the debarking passengers, she tried to push away the memory of mismatched eyes and wild blonde hair.
My other story Written in the Stars is just on hold until its muse returns. I have every intention of continuing it, but for now this story is my focus. I have a whole bunch already written, so updates will be consistent and dependent on reviews.