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Sarah adjusted the speed on her windshield wipers, though it hardly mattered. The rain was pouring down, and the dark, winding road was no easier to see. She didn't particularly hate driving in the rain, but this storm was especially heavy. Sarah sighed. She wanted to be home already.
As the highway wrapped around a hill, another set of headlights appeared farther up on the curve. It suddenly registered that they were closer than they should have been. Sarah realized that the car was swerving into her lane. Automatically she jerked the wheel to the side, pulling her car into the other lane, some part of her mind conscious that while it was a bad idea, it was the only place to go. But almost the instant she did so, the other car realized its mistake, and corrected itself back into its own lane.
Sarah swerved back again, realizing that there wasn't enough room or enough time. Every muscle in her body tightened, as she instinctively braced herself for what would happen next.
But nothing did.
Literally nothing.
There was no impact, no screeching, no pain. Nothing.
All there was was a brightness that nearly blinded her. She suddenly saw the other car only inches away from the front of hers, headlights staring straight at her, stopped in its path. Stopped unnaturally. She then noticed that everything was unnatural. There was no noise, no rain, no anything. Far away over the horizon, half the sky was lit purple, a flash of lightning frozen. It was as if the world had been completely stopped on its axis.
It was then that Sarah realized that she couldn't move. Her body was frozen as well. Suddenly she began to panic. What the hell was going on?
Out of her peripheral vision, she suddenly noticed a figure standing at her window. Then her window began to roll down of its own accord. A hand moved in and touched her face, a hand enclosed by gloves. She felt it, but she couldn't react to it. Then she felt the hand take hers, and she was pulled out of the car, though she couldn't remember the door opening.
Turning to see who was there, a part of Sarah deep down already knew who she would find. He stood beside her, and looked exactly as he had the first time that she had seen him. Completely dressed in black, with a high cape behind him.
She was now standing on the deserted highway a few feet away from her car, holding the hand of the Goblin King.
"What's going on?" Sarah asked, finding her voice. "What have you done?"
"I've stopped time for you, Sarah."
The scene before her attested to this very fact, but it was still dumbfounding. It was happening; it was impossible. She looked back at him. "Why?"
"I came to offer you a choice."
"A choice?"
"Yes, of the same offer I made to you some time ago."
"But...I turned you down."
"Yes," he said, "you did. But what's past is past. You turned me down once; I'm asking again. And," he said, gesturing to the frozen cars, "I don't believe you'll be getting a third chance."
"So the choice is to stay here or come with you?"
He nodded. A gesture from his other hand opened the door to her car. "Yes, here or there."
Suddenly something snapped. "I haven't seen you since I was fifteen! And you just show up now?!"
"Would you have even considered my offer if you still had your life and dreams here to pursue?"
"I still do!"
"No, Sarah, you don't!" His voice became harsh, and he pulled her back to the very edge of her car, and pointed toward the opposing car. "You honestly think you have any chance of surviving this?"
Sarah absently reached out to touch the car door, and gasped when her hand went right through it. It was then that she noticed that she was hitting none of the frozen raindrops either. She went right through them, as Jareth did. Sarah suddenly tried to wrench her hand from his grip, but he didn't relent.
"What do you want, Sarah?"
A part of her brain registered that the two cars were frozen now, but when time started again... The absolute last thing she wanted was to get back in that car. She quickly backed up, moving as far away from the cars as she could without getting out of his hold. "You're not putting me back in there!" she almost screamed.
"It would not be my first option, no," he said, moving to allow her further distance from the cars. "But if you refuse me, I have no choice."
Sarah stared at him, aghast. "You would kill me!"
"You are about to die, Sarah--through none of my doings. I am merely here to offer you an alternative."
"B-but--what you've already done! Can't you just start time again, and leave me here on the roadside?"
He shook his head. "Directly interfering without being called is a tricky business, and even I can't do anything. No matter your choice, you must be dead to this world at the end of it. I'm pushing it as it is, Sarah. I would rather simply take you, but I can't. It must be your choice. If you refuse, I must leave you as I found you." With his other hand, Jareth suddenly caught her chin, forcing her to look at him. A foreign expression briefly passed over his face. "It would perhaps kill me as well. But I have to, if you choose that." He paused, before asking somewhat spitefully, "Surely being with me is preferable to death?"
"Of course it is!" Sarah shouted. "Of course I want to be with you!" Hardly realizing it was her own voice, she continued, "I wanted it from the beginning! How could I not want it, still want it all these years? But to give up everything--! Don't you understand that I can't?"
"I know that. Why do you think I haven't bothered you? I knew what I would be asking you to give up. But our waiting has been cut short. It's time to choose now."
"I can't just give up my life for you!" she cried.
"Will you not give up your death for me?" he whispered harshly. Putting his other hand on her shoulder, Jareth suddenly spun her around in front of him, forcing her to look at the cars. "Look, Sarah, look," he said imploringly. "Your life is about to be taken. That you wish to continue it matters not."
She looked at the cars almost touching. Her little car suddenly looked lost against the face of the tall truck. Yes, she saw now that it was a truck. They would hit, there was no path to pull back on. She saw her speedometer still frozen at 52mph. She thought she hit her brakes sometime, but it was still going fast. Sarah suddenly shuddered. The reality of it all hit her. What was that they said about people not accepting extreme situations? Denial?
It was all suddenly gone. The situation before her truly sank in. "I was driving back from a movie," she heard herself saying. "Maybe I never should have gone. I'm only twenty-three. I shouldn't be dying. It's...it's not fair," she finished blankly.
"No, it's not."
There was a silence. Then she looked thoughtful. "But it's not fair that I get an offer."
"No, it's not."
"How would you know if I'm choosing you or life?"
"I make the offer regardless. I will give you whatever you want from me, whether it be simply life, or more than that. Though by your own previous admission--"
"If I go, would they find no one in my car?"
"They would find an illusion. As I said, there can be no ending for you in this world except death. But in other worlds..." Both his hands now on her shoulders, Sarah leaned back against him, her mind reeling. "Think of it Sarah," she heard him whisper in her ear persuasively and... somewhat pleadingly?
After a moment of long silence, Sarah placed her hands over his on her shoulders. "Sarah Williams will die here," she said. "But I will live--with you."
"An excellent choice, my Sarah."
He pulled her backward several large steps. Then making a gesture, the door to her car closed.
Suddenly the brush of rain on her face and faint noise of crunching metal made Sarah realize that time had started again. But she experienced that for less than a second, as the scene around her instantly faded. Gone were the midnight highway and the drenched woods. Before her were winding gardens, a castle in the distance, and a figure beside her.
The Labyrinth. Jareth.
Home.