[Calann]: 135.Short stories.The Hypocrite

He had never claimed to be a good man. Had never lied. Had he?

Just did what was told, went through every single change promised. It didn't matter if some people needed to be sacrificed-- it was for the greater good. Merely one life in a sea of thousands held no meaning.

At night, Jareth's conscience whispered. Silky words, gentle, smooth tones. Poisonous as snakes. Clouded his mind.
"My reign is a way to prosperity! I have done nothing wrong!" Screamed exclamation on his lips upon awakening in the morning. Time after time after time. No self-deceit. He was too wise for that.

He had done nothing to regret.

The civil war raging outside the castle walls wasn't his fault. Never his fault.

He had told Joanna, his ignorant, immoral, corrupted sister that this land was going to waste. Hadn't believed him, that idiot bitch.

Blind. Blind to everything except her own little happy little world revolving around those brats of hers. And her lover.

Always, always, he'd despised her lover who had taken her away from him. She should have belonged to Jareth. Jareth alone. No one else.

Let them rot. Let the body of that traitor rot in its grave, and let her rot too, sealed in the deepest dungeons. Starve to death. See her brats go first.

Sometimes, he would visit her. Ask her the same questions over and over again, present the same accusations. Ignore her tears, the shrinking frame, the torturing cough. The pleas to release her children. He wondered if she didn't see they were already gone, if she was denying it and the sorrow making her insane. Felt a momentary twinge of something akin to ruefulness, and then his mind went blank again.

"I'm not insane, sister. Why can't you see things the way I do-- you never could, why?"

Jareth had done no wrong. Doing his very best to save this land, tearing itself apart from the inside. Obeying the advice of his wise fool, he tried to deliver these people who had never known their own good.

Never spare a thought to the vow of loyalty made years back, as a child, when everything had still been so pure. Forget all promises, all secret smiles between siblings, between twins. Must leave behind the ghost of her.

Only thing that mattered was the truth.

His truth.