Sarah kept her head tucked down and her footsteps quick as a group of young women piled out into the street before her. They were emerging from a movie complex, and she found it almost impossible to ignore their shrill, giddy conversations.
"Oh, that last shot was amazing!"
"Tell me about it! I melted all over myself!"
Sarah grimaced as the speaker's high-pitched laughter hurt her ears and irritated her even further. With women like the gaggle before her, it was little wonder that so many men had recently come to think of women as they were -- or at least that's what she constantly overheard from her male coworkers gossiping in the office. She kept to herself, and none of her colleagues seemed to care for that idea. She'd shot down every one of the few advances she'd gotten, as well as the offers to go to the movies or other outings with "girlfriends" as the women before her had clearly done.
"Oh, he was magnificent standing on the bow of that ship!"
"I can't wait until the next one!"
"He can definitely take me away any time!"
Take me away any time. Those words echoed in Sarah's mind long after the women left the sidewalk, getting into various taxies and other vehicles. She found herself alone once again, but those words still buzzed in her mind. Take me away any time.
She could understand how those girls felt, although there certainly wasn't any Pirate or actor for whom she felt such an inclination. There was only one man, only one man for whom she had ever sought in her teenaged daydreams, only one man who had ever really moved the world for her.
And he had moved the world. He had turned the world upside down, and he had done it all for her. Why could she have simply not opened her foolish, juvenile mouth and told him how she'd really felt?! Why couldn't she have just confessed to him her burning desire to stay in the Labyrinth, to stay with him and the actual friends she'd made in her adventure there?! Why couldn't she have admitted to him that she'd give him anything, everything, except her baby brother?! Surely there could have been some way they could have returned Toby and she could have stayed with Jareth, in the Labyrinth, where she had always belonged!
She paused as she thought she heard laughter in an alley, and then again when she could swear she could hear something slithering in the next. She turned round fast when her ears caught a hooting sound. But there was nothing to be seen in any alley, or behind, ahead, or above her. There was never anything to be seen.
Sarah sighed, paused, and took a small, brown canister out of her pocket. She downed the pill and continued on her walk home, even if it wasn't where she wanted to be. The night was going to be long.
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ninetydegrees
Another Long Night
2025-02-04 02:10 (UTC)Sarah kept her head tucked down and her footsteps quick as a group of young women piled out into the street before her. They were emerging from a movie complex, and she found it almost impossible to ignore their shrill, giddy conversations.
"Oh, that last shot was amazing!"
"Tell me about it! I melted all over myself!"
Sarah grimaced as the speaker's high-pitched laughter hurt her ears and irritated her even further. With women like the gaggle before her, it was little wonder that so many men had recently come to think of women as they were -- or at least that's what she constantly overheard from her male coworkers gossiping in the office. She kept to herself, and none of her colleagues seemed to care for that idea. She'd shot down every one of the few advances she'd gotten, as well as the offers to go to the movies or other outings with "girlfriends" as the women before her had clearly done.
"Oh, he was magnificent standing on the bow of that ship!"
"I can't wait until the next one!"
"He can definitely take me away any time!"
Take me away any time. Those words echoed in Sarah's mind long after the women left the sidewalk, getting into various taxies and other vehicles. She found herself alone once again, but those words still buzzed in her mind. Take me away any time.
She could understand how those girls felt, although there certainly wasn't any Pirate or actor for whom she felt such an inclination. There was only one man, only one man for whom she had ever sought in her teenaged daydreams, only one man who had ever really moved the world for her.
And he had moved the world. He had turned the world upside down, and he had done it all for her. Why could she have simply not opened her foolish, juvenile mouth and told him how she'd really felt?! Why couldn't she have just confessed to him her burning desire to stay in the Labyrinth, to stay with him and the actual friends she'd made in her adventure there?! Why couldn't she have admitted to him that she'd give him anything, everything, except her baby brother?! Surely there could have been some way they could have returned Toby and she could have stayed with Jareth, in the Labyrinth, where she had always belonged!
She paused as she thought she heard laughter in an alley, and then again when she could swear she could hear something slithering in the next. She turned round fast when her ears caught a hooting sound. But there was nothing to be seen in any alley, or behind, ahead, or above her. There was never anything to be seen.
Sarah sighed, paused, and took a small, brown canister out of her pocket. She downed the pill and continued on her walk home, even if it wasn't where she wanted to be. The night was going to be long.
The End