"You haven't forgotten me, right?" The voice chuckled.
How could he forget? The voice belongs to him but from Earth.
"You think getting to a new world wipes the slate clean?" The voice chuckled again.
Then the voice roared as it began rambling, "Noooo! It doesn't! It would never! You were the cause of her death. I told you that you consciously caused it but you always denied it. What about now? You never believed in mysticism?! You never believed memory can be wiped?! Those people and you, killed her and wiped your memory, or else why would they release you?
"You think your release was because of bullshit evidence? Why was there no evidence before? She loved you but what did you repay her with? Death! Murder! Assassination! That is your appreciation! That is 'thank you'!"
Jareth's heart was stabbed with each roar.
The voice continued, "Even if you have no conscience, do you think your life will be the same even if you change worlds?! The map merely changed; your life is the same!"
Followed by a soft and comforting whisper, "Like I told you, even death can't wipe away your sin. There's no solace in death for you. You will always be a murderer who erased his memory to evade guilt."
Jareth's eyes snapped open in his bedroom, as he jerked forward and sat up, sweating profusely.
He looked around the unfamiliar room. It took a few seconds before he remembered where he was.
Lowering his gaze, he looked at his trembling fingers with unfocused eyes, before running them through his hair, planning to sleep back. But he still felt woozy.
'I need alcohol and a cigarette, or one of them.'
He wobbled out of the bed, staggered towards the door, barely seeing anything as his vision was spinning like he was drunk.
Like that, he opened the door, staggered through the hallway, but unluckily tripped and tumbled down when he got to the second-half of the stairs, rolling until he hit the floor.
Groaning, Jareth sat up and was stunned when he found himself in a foreign place. His head was clear now.
He slowly recalled what happened and his face fell.
Standing up, he quietly went to the fridge to get a cold bottle of water as there was no alcohol in it. Fortunately, the light was on.
He swiftly went back to his room and went to the balcony behind his room, plopped down on the chair placed there before he gulped down the cold water.
Then he reclined into the chair, watching the tranquil city illuminated by street lights and the moon hanging in the sky.
"Just like Earth…" he mumbled as he recalled his past.
***
Jareth was a guy who grew up with loving parents, but they died in an accident when he was fifteen. He couldn't enter college due to no money, so he began his acting career. He blew up at 18, and starred in four mega hit movies between then and 24. He was a rising star in the industry until...
At the absolute peak of his career, everything quickly came crumbling like a sandcastle that was poked at the base.
At a prestigious Global Media & Arts Foundation (GMAF) gala, Diana Rothman, a young lady who was the Chairwoman of GMAF but happened to have a crush on him, made a very public point of seeking Jareth out, speaking about funding one of his upcoming movies. They shook hands. The moment was photographed by a hundred cameras. That was the beginning of his downfall.
She died hours later. The poison was a rare, odorless and colorless toxin that induces a heart attack, and was traced back to his handshake.
The press dubbed it 'The Handshake Murder.' The photos of them shaking hands were everywhere. The narrative of the 'ungrateful, psychotic star' killing his powerful benefactor was a feast for the press.
The government was under immense pressure to solve the case quickly due to Diana's position and her family's power, making Jareth the perfect and easy target. Her father was a key player in the European Union. Besides, every evidence pointed at him.
Worse was when they found a huge sum of his money that had been transferred through a hidden channel to a biotech firm, a picture of Diana holding the hands of another boy in his email, an escape ship ticket, and a new identity. That was how he got jailed.
He sat in jail for a year as the case dragged on before he was released with reasonable doubt for an acquittal due to a tiny flaw from digital footprints during the purchase. Jareth felt everything was wrong about the case but what could he do? He had no evidence!
He was found 'Not Guilty,' but the world interpreted it as, 'he got away with murder due to his influence and vast network.'
But what influence could he have over Diana? Talk more of her father. Then go deeper to her family's power.
While he was in there, his 'trusted' business manager was legally able to liquidate his remaining assets to pay for 'ongoing business expenses' and massive legal fees, draining him completely, before mysteriously vanishing.
When he came out, he was wrecked and his career was done.
His bleak life became filled with darkness and despair, with thoughts of suicide filling his head every day and a nightmarish voice in his dream. To escape reality, he began reading books, playing games, and watching movies.
Until he found an interesting, dark novel with every bit of darkness—Death Snare.
He finished everything—the original novel, the manga adaptation, the acclaimed anime, every level of the challenging video game, and finally, the notoriously awful live-action movie.
One rainy night, in his dimly lit apartment, he did it. He finished the Death Snare game on the hardest difficulty, then queued up the hated live-action adaptation, all just to keep some noise in the background, to stave off the chilly quietness. Lighting his cigarette paired with a bottle of alcohol in the other hand, he ruminated on his past, forgetting about the bleak present. At the end of the movie, as the credits rolled, he read aloud the roles of the cast in a flat monotone, his thoughts still brooding.
His vision suddenly darkened. The sound of the rain and the theme music vanished.
Then came a velvety whisper, "Death Snare…"
That was the last thing he remembered before he woke up to the sight of those cloaked people.
***
"What a rollercoaster," he mumbled absentmindedly, without taking his eyes off the hanging moon.
He sat still for about ten minutes when his lips suddenly quirked in a smirk.
He whispered to himself, "You said the slate isn't wiped yet? Who are you deceiving? No. The correct phrasing is… who am 'I' deceiving? Huh… I see… I've been buried and submerged in the darkness, drowned in the darkness, and blinded by the darkness for so long that I couldn't recognize the light when I saw it. I subconsciously want to remain buried in the darkness. Even after I've physically escaped it, my subconscious was still buried in the darkness."
He stood up and smiled brightly at the moon, spreading his hands as wide as if he was about to embrace it.
"For your information, the slate is clean and I'm new. A new me. A new Jareth Idren in the world of Arkados," he murmured.
He regained himself after a few moments and sat down.
'I think it's time to choose my future. Should I take her offer, or go to the Arcanist Court?'