Bring Me to Life

NC-17

Written by Cormak

Jan, 2003

Disclaimers: I don’t own any of the Labyrinth characters or places. They belong to Jim Henson Productions. Nor do I own the song or lyrics to “Bring me to life’ they belong to Evanescence.

Special thanks to my beta, Scattered Logic for her editing skills.

Sarah glanced at the clock in the library and realizing that she was going to be late, quickly gathered her things and checked her books out. Kelly was going to kill her if she was late.

She took a taxi to the small pub just a few strides from the corner of 67^th and Madison. She paid the driver and then rushed inside, past the hostess, telling her that her friends already had a table.

She spotted Kelly and Miranda sitting at the moon shaped booth toward the back of the smoky room and she quickly slid in beside them.

Sarah frowned when she saw that the appetizers had already been ordered and eaten. “I’m sorry that I’m so late. I just got…involved.”

“With what?” Kelly demanded.

“Reading.” Sarah shrugged and she snatched a carrot off the veggie platter.

Kelly shook her head and sat back against the cushioned booth. “Reading, “ she repeated. “Ya know, that is so like you! Here I am hoping, and I don’t know why that I was, but hoping that “involved“ meant with a cute guy. But no, you spent the first half of your Friday night at the library, reading! What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Nothing is wrong with me,” Sarah told her, brows lowering. “I like to read. That shouldn’t be anything new to you.”

“What the hell are you reading about?”

“That’s none of your business. What I do in my own time is mine to decide,” Sarah said defensively, but inside she was shaking.

“We’ve been sitting here for over an hour waiting for you. Somehow I think you’re a little confused about what’s your time and our time. When you tell someone that you’re going to meet them at 8 and you don’t end up showing up until well after 9, I think there is a problem.” Kelly glanced at Miranda and the two both snatched Sarah’s bag that was sitting on the floor beneath the table.

Sarah’s eyes widened. “Give that back!”

“Let’s see what it is that you’re reading, hmm?” Kelly grinned and reached into the bag pulling out a few large hardcover books. She held the first one up, speaking the title loudly. “The Encyclopedia of Faeries.”

Miranda chuckled.

“Faeries, Elves and Goblins, Myth or Reality?” Kelly read the next title aloud.

“Oh, this one is just precious,” Kelly snickered. She pulled the final book out of the bag. “How to search for Faeries, Elves and Goblins in the everyday world.”

Miranda doubled over in laughter. “Heh, there are plenty of goblins around. Mainly my last boyfriend!”

“Sarah, what the fuck is the matter with you? What are you? Back in middle school? Reading about this Faerie and Elf shit again?” Kelly nearly yelled.

Sarah lowered her head.

“You really disgust me. I thought that maybe after your step-mom passed away that you’d grow up.” Kelly threw the books on the table in revulsion. “But I see that you’re never going to change. You’re never going to act like an adult. You graduated fucking Magna Cum Laude from college in English and History. Why don’t you make something of yourself instead of hoping that maybe some make believe creatures really exist out there?”

Kelly stood up. “You’re heading in the same direction as your mother. Where is she now, Sarah? Sleeping with any and every producer she can find so she can get a role. She’s a nothing and you’re just like her. A nothing.”

Kelly grabbed her purse and threw some money on the table for the appetizers that they had ordered. “We’re going clubbing and you’re not invited. Don’t bother calling me or trying to talk to me. I’m through with you.”

Sarah suddenly felt as if everyone was staring at her. As if the entire pub had stopped their conversations to turn and stare. A few had, but most had been too busy laughing, drinking and smoking to their heart’s content to notice the embarrassed and heartbroken 24 year old.

After a few moments, Sarah grabbed her bag and staggered away from the table like some drunk in the pub. She rushed outside into the cold night air. It had started to rain lightly but she hardly noticed as she, blinded by her tears, rushed toward a nearby side street. She almost got killed as she crossed the road to get to it. The driver of the car swerving and beeping as he thrust a hand out the window and showed her a finger.

She kept running and ignored his yells and the sound of his car speeding away into the night. She ran down the side street and realized that she’d run into a dead end.

Her tears streamed endlessly down her face and angrily she punched a nearby brick wall. “Why don’t you ever come when I call you!? Why don’t you answer me?! Why don’t you let me know that you’re real and that I haven’t spent the last 9 years believing in a fairytale?!” She sobbed.

“This is all your fault!” she cried as she glanced up at the sky. “It’s all your fault…” she said quietly. The rain began to pour down harder and suddenly feeling weary, she collapsed onto the scarred and worn pavement, directly in front of a blue dumpster.

* * *

She didn’t know where she was, she only knew that she was in a lot of pain.

“What did you think that you were doing?” came a voice.

“Who’s there?” she asked. Her voice cracked as she spoke and her body protested the movement involved.

“What did you think you were doing?” the voice asked again.

Weakly, Sarah turned her head and gazed into the darkness. Other than a small flame that burned low on a white candle beside her, where ever she lay was bathed in darkness. Squinting, she could barely make out a figure shrouded in shadow. She looked away when she couldn’t make out who it was that spoke or where she was. It hurt too much to think.

She licked her dry lips and tasted her own blood on them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…” she whispered.

“Don’t you though? You had an argument with friends and decided to kill yourself over it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she repeated.

“You ran in front of a moving transport vehicle and it struck you. You should be dead.”

“I wish that I was…” she said, barely audible.

“Why did you try to kill yourself?”

She laughed and the sound wasn’t pleasant. It was hoarse and cruel. “I wasn’t trying to kill myself. I don’t know how I even got hit…” Her brows furrowed as she tried to remember what had happened. “I remember the car swerving and missing me and the driver cussing at me as he sped away. I remember…” she looked down at her bloodied hand. “Punching a wall, because I was so upset that my friends can’t understand me. Because I can’t understand myself.”

“What do you mean?” the voice demanded.

A tear spilled down Sarah’s cheek. “Nothing…never mind,” she whispered.

She heard the sound of heels clicking on stone as the figure stepped closer to her. It was still bathed in darkness and Sarah could barely make out a hooded cloak that the figure wore.

“If you did not try to kill yourself and were not struck by the vehicle, then how do you explain your current condition?”

“I don’t-, “she started, but suddenly she remembered her last thoughts before she had passed out. She had wished that the car had stuck her and that she could die.

“So you did wish to die, to kill yourself.”

“I guess I did,” she said softly. She coughed then and grabbed her side at the pain the movement caused.

“You’re dying, but I can help you.”

“I don’t want any help from you…” she choked out. “I don’t even know who you are. Just leave me to die in peace.”

“I can’t do that. I’ve already broken all the rules by bringing you here. I will not see my efforts wasted in vain.”

“Well, too damn bad. Who are you to play God? Who the hell are you to try and save me, if I don’t want saving?”

“I have every right to try…” the voice persisted.

“Yes, I do,” the figure claimed firmly. “You gave me that right…” Heels on stone echoed as the figure stepped closer. Sarah coughed as she watched a dark cloaked figure step into the light, their face hidden by the hood of the cloak. The figure reached for the hood and let it fall back slowly.

Sarah gasped and began to cough again.

“You gave it to me long ago, when you wished that I could save you from the hardship in your life. And you’ve wished for it every day though you’ve never said it aloud.”

Sarah stopped coughing and her eyes widened and then narrowed as she tried to blink back tears. That familiar blond hair, that handsome well sculpted face and those mismatched eyes that she knew so well from her dreams. A mask of indifference struggled to remain. The tall lithe shape of his body. The customary dark gray breeches, black knee-high boots and in one black leather gloved hand, a riding crop. All that was missing was a crystal.

“Jareth….” She let out in a heaving breath. “I have to be dreaming…or I have to be dead.”

Jareth frowned. “Why do you say that?”

“Because the only time I see you is when I dream…you never come when I call.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’ve tried to call. I’ve done all the research I could to get a hold of you…”

“I could not come. The rules forbid it. You shouldn’t be here now…”

“Then why am I here and where is here?”

“You’re in an oubliette…in the Labyrinth and you are here because I will it, rules be damned.”

Sarah coughed again, this time bringing up blood.

“Let me heal you. Wish it of me and it shall be done, “ Jareth told her.

“It’s too late…I’m going to die,” she said softly.

“No, it’s not too late. Wish it of me and I will save you.” He stepped closer and was directly beside the makeshift wooden bed she lay on.

Sarah coughed and when it finally subsided she spoke. “I wish for you to save me.”

“Say my name, Sarah. Say it when you wish.”

“I wish the Goblin King would save me.” Tears filled her eyes…It didn’t hurt to try. “I wish… Jareth would save me.”

Jareth drew a crystal and let it hover over her body.

She watched wearily as his gloved hands drifted over her body. The pain from her injuries was too great for her and moments later, she blacked out.

* * *

All of this sight
I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark
but you were there in front of me

I've been sleeping a 1000 years it seems.
I've got to open my eyes to everything.

Something warm brushed her hair away from her face and slowly Sarah’s eyes fluttered open.

“How do you feel?”

The voice startled her until she remembered what had happened and she looked up into Jareth’s concerned face.

Sarah rolled onto her back. “I…I feel fine. What did you do?”

Jareth gently stroked her cheek with his gloved fingers. “I healed you, as you wished.”

She sat up and pivoted her legs to dangle over the edge of the beaten feather mattress. She looked into Jareth‘s eyes. “Why didn’t you answer me? I called you so many times.”

“I couldn’t come. The location, the words were never correct. You used the right words many times but never in front of a mirror.”

“They weren’t right this time and there was no mirror yet you came,” Sarah told him. She lifted her left hand and as her fingers grazed the smooth skin of his face she realized that her hand was missing the blood and blemishes that had been there earlier. She turned her hand and stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers.

“Your life was in danger…” He reached for her hand and bringing it away from his cheek, he turned it and placed a kiss on her palm.

She shivered at the gentleness of his touch. She dropped to her feet and stood. “Why am I here?” she asked. “Why the oubliette? Why bring me to a dungeon?”

“I couldn’t let anyone know that you’re here. This was the only safe place I could hide you.” Jareth leaned closer to her. “You have only to wish to stay here and everything will be all right.”

“Nothing will ever be all right. I’m starting to learn that. Nothing is ever perfect. I can‘t stay here,” she told him sadly.

Sarah blinked. “What did you just say?”

Jareth leaned closer and brushed a delicate kiss against her forehead. “You heard me…You are not the only one with dreams…” He looked into her eyes and then closing his eyes pressed his lips against hers.

The kiss was short but sweet and as Jareth pulled back, Sarah fought bitterly with herself. Part of her wanted to kiss him senseless while the other part believed this was a game, a deception and she shouldn‘t trust him. “Are you trying to trick me?”

Jareth placed an open-mouthed kiss on her neck. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you want something… I just don’t know what.” She tried to ignore the feeling that was growing within her as he placed another kiss against her skin, this time on her collarbone.

“I would have thought that it was obvious…what I want,” Jareth told her. He brushed against her as he kissed her neck again.

Sarah shuddered as she felt something warm and solid nestle itself against her stomach.

For a moment she did nothing, but then she pushed him away angrily. “I’m not here so that you can have your way with me.”

Jareth stumbled back. “That’s not why I’ve brought you here.”

“Well, just showing me that I arouse you seems to support my theory.”

“What?”

“Oh, so the truth comes out. You’re mad with me so now you think you can just show up 9 years later, save my life and then use me. How charming.”

‘No.” He reached for her and she pulled away. “I’m trying to show you what you do to me…how I feel…I…Do you think this is any easier for me than it is for you?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded.

“I know that you love me…” Jareth whispered.

Sarah laughed. “You know that, do you?”

“Yes. I know you’ve tried to contact me. I’ve seen you cry and have heard your pleas for me to come.” He stepped toward her and she backed away.

“Just because I’ve done those things, doesn’t mean that I love you.”

“Then what have your dreams meant?” He stepped closer and Sarah had nowhere to go. Her back was pressed against the wall. “Why do you dream about us dancing or talking beneath the stars? Why do you dream that I’m making love to you? Boredom? Or are you trying to torture me?”

“It was not my intention to see them, but we are linked, Sarah. We have been since you defeated me. Whenever you think of me, I hear it. Whenever you dream, I see it. And I am powerless to intervene without your command.”

“If that’s true then how were you able to save me?” she asked, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

“You were throwing your life away. Near death or death is the only time I can intervene without a summons. It’s still against the rules to bring you back, but I could not watch you die on that street.”

Sarah sighed. “What are you trying to tell me, yet trying so hard not to say?”

Jareth took a deep shuddering breath. He moved closer to her and looked into her eyes.

“I…I’m in love with you.”

Sarah’s eyes widened. This was a trick, it had to be. Yet his expression was serious. And what did he have to gain? There was no baby wished away. There was nothing but the two of them, standing face to face in this old dark oubliette.

He nodded, his mismatched eyes searching hers. “Quite serious.”

“But how, Jareth? You don’t even know me.” She searched his eyes and tried not to show him how frightened she was by his revelation.

“I do know you…“ He brushed her dark hair behind her shoulders. “Through your dreams…I know your hopes, your fears, your joys and pains…”

“So you thought seducing me was the way to tell me of your love? I thought you would have learned that lesson.”

“I…” His brows furrowed as he had no idea what to say.

“If you loved me, all you had to do was tell me.” She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss against his lips. Breaking away, she continued. “And if you wanted to make love to me as you saw us do in my dreams, you had only but to ask…with words.”

Jareth swallowed. “What are you saying, Sarah?”

She saw him trembling. She took a deep breath. “That what you claim is true. I do love you.”

She had little time to realize what she had finally admitted to herself and now to him, as Jareth’s lips pressed hungrily against her own. She reciprocated the same hunger as she returned his kisses eagerly. Their kisses were raw and passionate. Teasing and then intense.

As he kissed her, she felt his hands blindly undoing the buttons of the black, long sleeve blouse that she wore. He tore his mouth away as he reached the last button and he impatiently pulled the shirt over her shoulders and off her arms.

One of his hands slid to her back and he undid the clasp of the bra. He pulled the straps down her shoulders and let the bra fall to the floor. He attempted to touch her, but Sarah was being uncooperative.

She was reaching for his shirt. She pulled it free of his pants and not even bothering to unbutton it, pulled it over his head. She slid her hands over the muscles of his pale chest. She leaned forward, and starting at his collarbone began pressing soft kisses down his skin. She paused for a moment to roll her tongue around each of his small nipples before she sank lower to press kisses down his stomach to the waistline of his pants.

Jareth thought she would rise up again and kiss his mouth or his chest but he groaned and shook as she brushed kisses along his erection through the fabric of his breeches.

He pulled her up, his hands catching her by the elbows. He kissed her mouth hungrily and drove his hips into her as he pulled her closer. He trailed kisses down her chest, stopping to take each of her breasts into his mouth before he pulled his mouth away and reached to unbutton her jeans. Lowering himself to his knees, he didn’t waste anytime pulling her shoes from her feet or tugging her pants down her hips and legs before tossing them on the floor.

She chuckled softly as she gazed at his erection.

“What is it?” he asked, kissing her neck. He suddenly felt insecure.

She smiled as her eyes met his. “You don’t wear any underwear.”

He grinned. “Of course not. It would be too uncomfortable with the breeches I wear. But you on the other hand…are still wearing yours,” he teased. Gently, he pulled her silk underwear down her legs and the last piece of clothing was added to the pile.

For a moment they both stared at each other in the dim candlelight.

“You’re so beautiful…” Jareth whispered to her.

He took her hand into his and led her toward the bed. He waved his hand over it and it changed into a larger bed with soft looking linens and pillows. Slowly, he sank on it and pulled Sarah with him. He pulled her down beside him and carefully positioned himself over her.

He kissed her forehead, her nose and then her lips. “I love you,” he whispered

Sarah smiled and reached up to brush some of his light blond hair back behind his shoulder. “I love you too.”

Jareth lowered himself to her and Sarah gasped as she felt his erection press against her belly. “Is this what you want, Sarah? Do you really want me?”

She nodded to him and reached down between them to stroke him gently. She heard him groan at her touch. “Yes, this what I want…you…”

She removed her hand and Jareth shifted. He looked deep into her eyes before he drove himself into her.

He steadied himself with one hand on the bed as he thrust in and out of her, slowly at first. He could feel Sarah shaking beneath him, trying to match the growing speed of his movements. His other hand smoothed down her stomach and then lowered to caress her tenderly. His fingers repeatedly stroked the sensitive spot that he knew would bring her spiraling to glory. Moments later she came with a sobbing cry, her muscles tightening around him. After one last thrust that buried him deeply inside her, Jareth cried out as he found his own release and spilled himself within her.

Trembling, he collapsed into her arms and together as they held each other, they rode the waves of their release.

Several moments later when both of their breathing had slowed, Jareth rolled over, still buried deep within her and pulled Sarah to his chest. His fingers caressed her shoulders as she rested against him.

“Why did you want to contact me?” he asked softly.

“Hmmm?” She murmured.

“You said you were trying to contact me, I’ve heard you try, I‘ve seen your dreams. But I don’t understand why. I’m you’re enemy. Why do you feel what you do?” He stroked her sweat dampened hair lightly.

She shifted but made no move to get up. “I don’t understand how I came to feel the way I do, but it happened and I stopped trying to figure it out how long ago. I wanted to make things right between us…but I was scared. Maybe that’s why I never figured out the correct words. My fear prevented me.” She raised her head and looked into his eyes. “Can you explain why you feel the way you do?”

He shook his head and caressed her cheek with his fingers.

“Then the only explanation is that it was meant to be…and we shouldn‘t question that.”

She lowered her head onto his chest and traced lazy patterns on his skin. “I wish that I never had to leave…that I could stay here with you forever…,” she whispered against him.

He heard her breathing slow as she drifted off to sleep with a contented smile on her face. Jareth wrapped his arms around her and then gathering a blanket, covered them both.

Tomorrow… would be the start of forever.