♪ ♫ ~ How unfortunate… or fortunate depending on your perspective. For the first time in actual ages he’d attempted to do his job and he’d run into her. The bane of his existence. One of the very few that defeated his Labyrinth. The only one that mattered as far as he was concerned… He offered her what many would die to have and she rejected him.
He couldn’t for the life of him understand the feelings that he had. Nor could he explain them. But she’d absolutely ruined him. The Labyrinth crumbled piece by piece since the day she left. His powers faded bit by bit… The sky that he could change at will and when he liked within his underground utopia remained grey and lifeless. Rain, so much of it, flooded through some areas of the Labyrinth. The Swamp of Eternal Stench grew fouler and fouler…
And he lacked the will to do anything about it. Or perhaps the power. Who really knew, he certainly didn’t.
So here he had come to make some kind of effort to save something and there she stood once more. Denying him once more. Well.. she hadn’t done any actual denying just yet. But she was nothing but a struggle. From the first time they met… Why would now be any different? She seemed just as unpleasant as ever. Just as whiny and pathetic…
And yet.. despite all her many flaws there was a part of him that was so very glad to see her. Not as well as one might hope but alive which was always a good thing when it came to mortals. Their light flickered away ever so quickly.
And he should further note that being near her brought back the warm and familiar aura of his magic that seemed to keep seeping away. How curious…
"I’m collecting. It’s not all about you Sarah… Despite your age you haven’t changed a bit. Still believing the sun forever revolves around that pretty little head of yours. Well, I suppose there is some comfort in knowing that some things never change. Even in the mortal realm.”
Not everything is all about you, Sarah.
The words shot through her, certainly, coiled deep and dark somewhere hateful in her gut. Of course he wouldn't be here to see her. Nobody actually ever came to see her in New York nowadays except for the postman, the pizza delivery guy (when she ordered, of course, not on his own merit, though at this point she might have appreciated it) and occasionally her sobriety counselor.
Who, Sarah thought, might be giving up on her. Not because she was a lost cause, but because Sarah had apparently always been good at sobriety and didn't need much counseling in that department.
Indeed, her descent into chemical madness had been a rather well calculated endeavor.
"I didn't say you were," she retorted, voice coming rather more sharp than she would like. Largely because she'd already antagonized Jareth enough. Further invoking the enmity of one of the High Fae - as she imagined he was - was probably pretty high on the list of Classic Blunders, right under "Going in against a Sicilian when death is on the line."
She took a deep breath, attempted a more neutral tone. "I just asked why you were here. You're -- collecting? What are you collecting?" What an odd thing for the man to say.
She wasn't even going to touch the other comment. She had changed. She'd changed a lot. And she supposed it was one part nostalgia and two parts underestimation of her self-destructive capabilities that kept him from seeing that.
All in all, Sarah had to admit, that was probably good. She wasn't sure she wanted Jareth to know how far she'd fallen when she'd only just started to pick herself up again.
He could find out later. If at all.
