Disclaimer: I own everything except Jareth and the Labyrinth (The two best parts!!! sheesh).
I hope you enjoy!
Prologue:
There is Magic in the air.
Who's there?
Can you feel it?
What?
The Magic.
Who are you?
What you sense
I see only Darkness.
Is that all?
No
What else?
I feel the Nothingness.
Can you feel IT?
What?
The Magic
No
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'Why does everything wrong happen to me?' A tall brunette slammed her phone receiver down with a sour face.
"You've got cliché written all over you, Cathryn."
Cryn softly snorted. "Thanks Jack, you really know how to grind salt in a wound." But instead of looking up, she kept her slightly frosty composure and briefly smoothed out her black pantsuit in the process of sitting down.
The older man could only hesitate at her slightly extreme response.
"Hey, there was some humor to that statement, if not only to crack a smile on that marble face of yours." Jack hated to see her slip into such a mood. It was a mood she would slump into for awhile. So as not to see that again, he expend the effort to steer her towards happier thoughts. He tried a more sincere approach.
"In all honesty, I am sorry about the account." Jack added. "You need…"
"A new life, and nothing short of it." Cryn sincerely interrupted. But it really wasn't just the lost account that was bothering her. That was just another feather, another piece of straw. It was the annoying coincidence that every little thing in the world just had to work against her. And the recent insomnia wasn't helping either. But of course one must realize that things could be worse. She swiveled about in her office chair with a slight annoyance to face the filing cabinet behind her desk. She absently brushed a brown lock away from her face, which had somehow escaped its elastic bondage, with one hand while retrieving the lost account's file from the drawer with the other. 'Sometimes I wish I really had something to complain about.'
She sighed and continued aloud. "I just can't stand people. Sometimes I wonder how I have gotten along these whole two decades of my life, and wonder constantly about the next seven that modern science has promised me."
Jack gave a stiff smile as she swiveled back to meet his gaze. "A kindred cynic till the end. I knew I hired you for some reason."
Cryn discarded the useless paperwork into the trash before responding dryly, "I think it was actually pity." She looked up at him, her hands now folded just under her face, with her elbows resting on the wooden desk. Her eyes betrayed the front of coldness to an underlying hurt.
'Let's not continue along that logic...' Jack mentally sighed. 'This girl is in borderline need of Prozac.'
"Why not go back to school? You had a good thing going for you." He gestured with his whole body as he continued, "A strong, smart head. Dreams of Space and a voracious interest in the Unknown that soaked up all that science mumbo jumbo." He closed the distance between them and ended with a soft, parental punch to Cryn's shoulder.
She gave a slight gruff in physical response, but still briefly pondered the idea. To tell the truth, Cryn had thought about going back to school and finishing up a B.S. or something. Nothing except the proud title of underachiever stood in her way. But it all just seemed so pointless.
'All I need is motivation,' she thought.
"You've got that look again." Jack softly poked.
Cryn finally gave into a small smile. "Cliché is my middle name."
"Go home, its already four and there is really nothing more to do today." Jack shrugged at the clock. He turned back to her with another statement at the tip of his tongue, but stopped at her new demeanor.
Cryn had already gotten up, but her face had fallen a little, and she seemed rather uncomfortable.
'Here it comes,' Jack mentally groaned. 'I hope she has some sort of plan.'
"Listen, I don't know how to tell you this…" She started with a hand movement.
"You need to figure some things out and I probably won't see you tomorrow or even next year?" he questioned.
Cryn visibly relaxed and smiled, genuinely. "How'd you know?"
Jack shrugged. She continued to smile at his appearance. He wasn't the kind of person she typically thought of being successful at interior design. He seemed more of a rustic, hunting, cabin man. 'But I guess that's the kind of look people want in Northern Michigan. Well...' she corrected after sourly remembering the most recent account, 'most people anyway.'
"Listen, I really appreciate you giving me this job. I especially don't want to seem ungrateful... it's just…"
"That you know that Interior Design is not what you want to do for a living, and maybe, just maybe, you don't really know what you want to do because you are only 20?" Jack interrupted. "Here, I kind of foresaw this day and thought that you might need some road money." He handed her a very pregnant envelope in exchange for a hug.
She really didn't really need the money, her parents' life insurance was more than adequate to sustain her for a while, but the act of giving the money probably helped Jack with the good-bye. He hated good byes.
"I will visit your parents and tell them how you're doing," Jack stated softly.
Cryn hesitated again but smiled politely. "Thank you. Make sure their roses are watered."
"I will."
Cryn then gathered what little she had actually installed in her cubicle and left for her apartment. Jack watched her leave with the concerned look of a parent. 'She'll be okay.' He smirked inwardly at the self assuring thought. But he did know... she'd be okay.