Disclaimer: I do not own the labyrinth nor any of it's chrarcters. I do however own Ann Jessica Wright.
I'm glad so many have reviewed this story so far. I thank you for all your kind compliments. Your all the reason I can keep going. Thanks. :D
Please let me know what you think of it. I know the chapters gets longer and longer, but it gets so exiting to write that it catches me. ;)
"Look Jareth, I'm getting pretty tired of this 'tuck of war'. We could probably go about trowing silly and stupid comments at each other all day long. Maybe longer. I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot, so I'll start over by properly introducing myself: My name is Ann Jessica Wright and I have...had two brothers named Ben and Malcolm." She moved in front of Jareth and stretched out her hand.
"Well, you started this whole thing, but I can be a good sport and make amends. I'm Jareth, the Goblin King. I don't have any siblings. I don't know much about my parents. My age is of no concern to you and I like pea...peas." He took her stretched out hand and shook it. Though he held on to it a few seconds longer than necessary before letting go.
In the mean time far away from the goblin kingdom a woman was looking at her emails on her work computer.
Abby
We did as you asked us to do in regards to the ann girl. We kidnapped her as instructed and took her to the place you told about.
But we have a slight problem. She's no longer there. And even when we checked right after tossing her into the room we didn't hear her land on the floor.
I don't know how she got away so fast, but she did.
XXXX
Abigail got more and more furious as she read down the few written lines of the email. She couldn't have gotten away even if she wanted to. I wonder if somehow all those years of wishing her to disappear has finally payed off, but where to? Of course! The Goblin kingdom! Did one of those incompetent morons wish her away?
She picked up her cell phone and dialed a number. The phone only rang twice at the other end before a man picked up the phone.
"You're not supposed to call this number during the day." "YOU INCOMPETENT FOOL! Didn't I tell you idiots to not wish for her to go away? You screwed up two times too many. I'm not gonna give you the rest of the promised payment."
"WHAT! You little b****! How dare you double-cross me like that!"
"Don't blame me! I gave you 5 grand in advance payment and you would've gotten the other 10 grand if you and your men had done the job properly! To think you can't do anything right. You didn't even succeed with accident in which her family died, but she survived!"
"How on earth were we to know that the weather had planed to give up some rain an hour before! You know as well as I that not all things go as planed, but then again you never think things through, do ya? I will be in contact within the next few weeks, so don't bother calling or writing in the mean time." *Click*
The phone went dead in the other line and she starred at in fury before tossing it into the wall. She had the utmost urge to kill someone, but that wouldn't look good on her resume' so she took out her anger on the first poor soul that spoke to her.
Back in the Goblin castle Ann was looking at Jareth as if she were about to burst into laughter, but managed to keep it somewhat under control.
"I would never, in my wildest dreams, have been able to figure out that you like peas. That is quite unusual, but I like it. I like them too. They add a special something to a salad, don't you think?"
"Ehm, yeah they do." He look a bit sheepish before returning to his more confident self.
"So are you some sort of princess where you're from?" Ann looked down herself and started laughing loudly. What a lovely sound her laughing has. It sounds like small chime bells ringing.
"No, I was heading home from a gala dinner. I just got into an...argument with my ex-best friend. She had done something...horrible towards me, twice.
Can you hold out your hand?" She looked away while she paused, as if she were weighing each word before speaking.
Jareth held out his hand and wondered what she would do next. He could never quite figure her out and just as he thought he had then she went and did something unexpectedly.
She took out the tiara from her hairdo put it in his hand. The next thing she took out was the hair pins that held her hair in place and that too she put in his hand. He looked at the things in his hand and then at her and then back to his hand again with a puzzled look. He honestly didn't know what to do with this stuff.
When she took out the last hair pin her hair fell down her shoulders and back in beautiful cascades of blonde/brown snake curls with a bit of red dancing in it when the light fell upon it.
Jareth dropped, not only the things in his hands, but also his jaw. If it could have fallen to the floor it would have.
She really looked like a princess with her hair loose and in that gorgeous dress which didn't stick to her figure, but more like followed the curves. Sarah were in no way a comparison to this woman. Sarah had been slim and not one ounce of excess fat on her body, but this woman had curves the right places without being overly slim or overly fat.
Now that he thought about it he had never seen her with her hair down before. It had always been in some sort of hairdo.
"What are you looking at? You never seen a woman with her hair down before?" Jareth realized that he had been starring at her with an open mouth. He quickly gathered his wits.
"No, I have seen loads of women with their hair down...though never in the shades and colors as yours. Have you done anything to make it look like this?" She giggled.
"No, I have never done anything to it other than cutting it from time to time. I inherited the colors from my mothers side of the family. The texture I have from my fathers side. It's all natural. But with that said, do you have somewhere I can get out of this dress? I getting tired of wearing it. Kinda heavy you know." She smiled, blushing a bit.
She found it embarrassing to talk to a man about something like this, but the dress was starting to annoy her. She couldn't move as freely as she would normally do. Jeans and shirts were her kind of clothes. Speaking of clothes his are quite tight from the waist and down. He certainly doesn't leave anything to the imagination in that area. I wish some men would show off their credentials like that. But it does go surprisingly well with his loose shirt-thingy. I wonder how the skin is on his hands. But I can still not place those eyes. They keep reminding me of that owl!
Jareth caught her thought about his eyes and the owl. He looked worried at her while she walked around the room looking at stuff and trying to sit on his throne. He just couldn't tell her that he was that owl. He had almost spilled the beans when told her what he liked. To think he almost had told he liked peaches, not peas. He actually hated peas, not the taste nor the texture.
At this stage it would've given him away...well almost half way. But still it would've been bad enough.
"Anything in particular you'd like to change into? I presume underwear would be out of the question. Not that I would mind either way." Shut up you stupid mouth. I'm not such a sex-fixated idiot as she would now think about me. Wait since when did it matter to me what a woman thought of me? I'm not going to go through that again! Not after what happened with Sarah!
Ann sat down in what seemed to be the throne. She looked at Jareth to see if he would stop her, but he didn't do more than look at her.
"Jeans and a shirt would do fine." "Anything else? You're just going to walk around barefooted? I promise you that you would get your feet hurt that way. Or can you live without them?" She raised a brow at his remarks. Why were he suddenly so angry? He looked so hurt and angry that she felt the urge to hug him and stroke his hair gently.
She got up and walked over to him, but when she were about to touch his face she stopped in mid motion, looked away and bit her lip. No, I can't do such a thing like that. I don't trust him! How could I ever trust anyone ever again after what Abby did to me? How could she just betray my trust so easily? And why did Howard leave me? Didn't he love me anymore? *Sigh*
"I'll show you to a room." He spoke in a semi angry tone and grabbed her left arm. He may be holding on to her arm a bit harder than it was necessary, but he was angry right now and couldn't really control his strength.
"Woul...d...you...mi..nd...slo...wing...do..wn? It's...not...lik...e...it's...eas...y...to...walk...fast...in...hi..gh...heel..s." She was panting heavily and made him stop in his track (and train of thought). He turned half around and looked at her while she caught her breath.
"My, goodness, who short a fire cracker off next to you? You walk like you got the devil himself tailing you. How many more turns, nicks and crunnys do we have to take before I can see my room?" She had gotten some of her breath back, but still it wasn't quite there.
"We're here now. That door right next to that ugly statue."
"I sure hope it's more fun company than yours. Oh, and before I forget. If you ever see a white owl with mismatched eyes please send it my way. I kinda miss his company. Too bad I don't have any peaches with me. He sure loves them." She smiled and walked into her room. Then she stopped in the door way and stared with big eyes at the room. She didn't notice Jareth coming up next to her.
"My, it's big enough to hold my entire apartment!" She mumbled in awe.
"Do you like it?" He said in her ear. She got so surprised that she nearly jumped into the door.
"EARGH! Oh, it's just you. Are you seriously trying to give me a heart attack? Please don't sneak up on people like that! You scared me half to death." She leaned against the door way obviously he had scared her. He gave her a quizzically look. "I sure hope not. I plan on keeping you here for a while. You're no use dead. And one other thing kings don't sneak they do what ever the heck they want."
She gave him pouted look and turned her head so she faced him. In that minute she wish she hadn't.
As she opened her mouth to give him a rude comment, he kissed her!
It caught her so much off guard that she didn't do anything at first, but then she got her wits together and bit his lip.
"AUW! How dare you...!" Before he could do more she glared angry at him and slammed the door as hard as she could in his face.
"AND IF YOU EVER SHOW YOU FACE ON THIS SIDE OF THE DOOR I'LL SKIN YOU ALIVE! IS THAT CLEAR?" After that silent sobbing were all he could hear on the other side of the door.
"Great Jareth now you've gone and done it" He sighed and walked away from the door feeling awful about what he had done.
The next day Jareth were in an even fouler mood than the day before. He worked hard with the paper work and for hours no one dared to even approach him, let alone talk to him. And those who dared got sent to the bog hanging head down over it, chained.
"WHERE'S GIBBLE? I NEEDED THOSE NUMBERS TWO HOURS AGO!" He glared over the shacking crowd of goblins.
"H-h-h-h-he's i-i-i-in-n t-the b-bog, your m-majesty. You s-s-sent h-h-him there this m-m-morning." A very brave goblin spoke up.
"WELL, THEN WHAT ARE YOU ALL STANDING HERE FOR? GO GET HIM! Incompetent morons." Jareth rubbed his templates and felt like he was surrounded by mundane chickens.
He conjured a crystal ball to see how Ann was doing. She was still sleeping though her cheeks looked as if she had been crying herself to sleep and he thought of the kiss he had given her the night before. The wound was still there, he had left it there as a reminder of what not to do again for a long, long time.
