AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is super, super short. Like, really really really short. Sorry! More's coming soon; at least I got this out so quickly. All standard disclaimers apply.
Read it, review it, and most importantly, enjoy it! Thanks for reading!
~Teller
Poisoned Crystals: Chapter Two
"Seventeen Hours"
Taking a deep, steadying breath, Sarah turned and faced Jareth, blinking remaining tears out of her eyes and pulling stray strands of her long hair out of her face.
"You've made your desicion, then?" Jareth wanted to know. Sarah paused.
"I have a better idea," she said. Jareth raised his eyebrows and brought his hands together, putting his fingers together tip-to-tip. He feigned a look of interest.
"I have goosebumps," he drawled, but did not say anything else, which Sarah took as an encouragement.
"You enjoy making deals," Sarah said, her breath becoming calmer as she spoke. "So, how 'bout this: you scatter the crystals which emprison Ludo, Hoggle, and Sir Didymus throughout the Labyrinth, and I have to find them in twenty-four hours. If I do find them, you have to return me to Aboveground and release my friends, and swear to never harm them."
"And if you don't find them within the alloted twenty-four hours?" Jareth asked, leaning forward. Sarah took another deep breath.
"Then . . . you can keep me here, forever." She closed her eyes and bit her lip as she waited for Jareth to speak.
"What about your brother?" He inquired. Sarah's eyes flew open.
"He is not involved. I cannot bargain his future as well as my own." She said firmly. There weas a pause, and then,
"Done!" He said, striding over to her.
"Wait!" Sarah said, holding up a hand. "There's one more thing." Jareth frowned.
"What is it?" He asked.
"You must release your hold on me for the next twenty-four hours, otherwise it . . . ." she hesitated over the words 'isn't fair,' and said instead: "would be too easy for you. Also, no decoys -- you can only hide the three true crystals, no false imitations. Fair?" She asked. A slight frown crossed Jareth's face, but a wolfish smile covered it and he extended his hand.
"If that is the case, it must be thirteen hours, not twenty-four." Sarah hesitated. Would thirteen hours be enough?
"Seventeen," she bargained, thinking that another prime number would suit Jareth's nature just fine.
"Very well," he said. Sarah took his hand and shook it, and in a flash of white light both of them disappeared.
They reappeared, an instant later, at the gates to the Labyrinth. Sarah blinked white stars from her eyes, and a flood of power rushed through her veins, along with the knowledge that the Goblin King had released her. When her eyes focused, she saw Jareth standing before the open doors. He pointed to a clock with the numbers one to seventeen inscribed along it's face in no particular order, and the seven feet all pointed at the golden 'one.' He snapped his fingers, and the clock tolled one.
"Starting now, you have seventeen hours to find the three crystals, which I have already hidden." He laughed, and stepped aside. "Go on then, Sarah," Sarah nodded and stepped over the threshold, the slam of the heavy iron doors and Jareth's mocking laughter echoing in her ears.
More coming soon!! (review!)