Chapter Four: Socks and Christmas Lists
Sarah pulled off the wrapping paper on the present, ignoring how her hands trembled slightly. She wondered if she should put the gift on the ground and get ready to jump back, just in case Jareth had put something nasty inside. She felt a little guilty after that thought—she didn't like thinking the worst of people—but then again, this was the man who had thrown a snake at her.
Underneath the wrapping paper was a simple, white box and she opened this to peer inside. Nestled amongst a bed of feathers—was that chicken feathers?—was a cushion and embedded in it was a familiar ring. Sarah plucked the ring out, looking at the little ruby in the gold band. It was a simple ring, but at one time she had loved it and would never have parted with it, but she had, for a bit of advice, and to save her brother.
She put the box near the trash can and slowly slipped the ring onto her finger. It fit her finger still, too, and she stared at the ring thoughtfully. How was she supposed to feel about this gesture? There was no note besides the Christmas wishes, but she suddenly longed the Goblin King was in front of her so she could ask him why he'd given the ring back to her—and maybe how he'd gotten it from the Wiseman to begin with.
"Well, on the other hand," Sarah murmured to herself, "since I only gave away the ring to get Toby back, who he stole to begin with, maybe this is a fitting present."
Maybe he's saying "let bygones be bygones"? Sarah suddenly thought. She hoped that was it, but she wasn't going to hold her breath.
The shower shut off and Sarah stretched. Well, no use thinking about it now, when she wouldn't get any answers. If she saw the Goblin King again, she'd ask him.
# # # #
There was a weight on her chest and it was waking her up. Sarah wondered, half-asleep, if she'd somehow managed to bunch the blankets on herself again. She rolled over with a sigh, and then stiffened when she heard a yelp of indignity. Her eyes popped open and all she could see was a pointy-nosed goblin leaning towards her, sitting on the edge of the bed. Sarah gasped, the sound squeaky and high-pitched with surprise, and jumped back away from the goblin—only to fall off the narrow sofa bed.
She fell hard on her butt, wincing from the pain, and looked up to see the goblin had scooted forward to peer over the edge of the bed at her. Anger licked the inside of her stomach and she had to clamp her mouth tight to keep from yelling at the goblin. Instead, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking away.
There were goblins all over the apartment. She spotted a cluster of them around the Christmas tree, looking at the lights with wide, shiny eyes and tapping the ornaments, watching the globes swing on the branches. One of the goblins broke off some pine needles and ate it.
"Hey! Don't do that!" Sarah said. The cluster of goblins looked at her, surprised and guilty expressions on their face. "What is going on here?"
"We here on errand," the goblin that was looking at her from over the edge of the bed replied. He had a sock on his head, which he wore like a hat. It was hot pink with a black skull pattern sprinkled along it.
Sarah frowned, squinting at the sock. "Hey! That's my sock!" She pointed, but since the goblin looked like he had no intention of giving the sock back, she leaped up trying to grab the item off his head. He merely skipped back, giggling. Sarah climbed back onto the bed and jumped for the goblin, but he ran away and she ran after him, chasing him around the kitchen.
She saw a few goblins on the kitchen counter, having sword fights with the butter knives from the cutlery cabinet. Another goblin with large, puppy dog eyes was going through the fridge. Sarah paused in her chase long enough to pull the goblin back and close the fridge, then she took off again. The goblin led her to Jennifer's bedroom door, which was open, and then ran past it towards the bathroom. As Sarah passed the door, she glanced inside—and stopped with her mouth agape with horror.
The goblins had gone through Jennifer's dresser and were pulling on various articles of clothing. One goblin was wearing a pair of black lace panties as a hat. Another was quickly grabbing all the socks and stuffing them into a burlap sack. One goblin was trying to eat Jennifer's panty-hose and, if the expression on his face was any indication, wasn't finding them very tasty.
But that wasn't the worst thing. The worst thing was that the goblins had found the highlighters Jennifer kept on her desk and were using them to draw on her face. Jennifer, who could probably sleep through an earthquake, was still fast asleep with her mouth slightly open as the goblins gleefully drew fluorescent yellow suns, hot pink flowers, and lime green smiley faces on her cheeks, forehead, chin, and neck. Sarah leaned against the doorway, about to yell at them when she realized she didn't want to wake her friend. How would she explain the goblins? And, worse, the drawings on her face?
Sarah groaned, putting a hand to her forehead in horror. She felt a hand on her shin. Looking down, she saw that the goblin with the pointy-nose was there, looking into the room with curiosity. She grabbed him and yanked the sock off his head before he could get away, and he yelped with indignity.
Sarah clamped a hand on his mouth and whispered, "Sssh! Now, you're going to talk and you're going to talk fast and tell me why all the goblins are here. Is this Jareth's doing? Did he send you?"
Sarah couldn't believe that just earlier she had been wishing her life wasn't so mundane, that something magical had happened. Well, she had learned her lesson. Having a bunch of rowdy goblins causing chaos in her friend's apartment was not something she needed.
The goblin squirmed in her grasp and said, "Gotta get stuff for Kingy, and we thought 'Lady nice, she help!' but when we come, Lady asleep. She just sleep and sleep and sleep—we got bored." He said it like it was a personal affront and Sarah found herself wondering if the goblins needed to sleep.
It would be horrible if they didn't. Goblins, with the attention spans and mischievous natures of little kids, awake 24-7, Sarah thought, shuddering.
Sarah glanced at the alarm clock in Jennifer's room, which had bright red numbers that were easy to read in the dark. She raised her eyebrows and said, "I've only been asleep for three hours."
"We got bored," the goblin said, again.
Sarah sighed. "Well, first things first: I won't help you until you tell your friends to stop drawing on my friend and wipe away all the highlighter marks—gently! So as not to wake her!"
The goblin looked disappointed, but he nodded. He trotted into the room, his large nose wobbled slightly with each step he took, and talked briefly with the goblins in a hushed whisper. They looked extremely disappointed, but eventually they capped the highlighters and dropped them onto the floor. Then, they licked the palms of their hands and wiped away the marks. Jennifer made a few wheezing, snorting noises, moved slightly, but settled back to sleep.
Sarah winced, watching the goblins lick their hands to clean off Jennifer's face. Deep down inside, she was glad the goblins hadn't written anything on her face.
Or had they? Suddenly worried, Sarah nearly ran to the bathroom to check her reflection. There was a goblin in the tub, even though it wasn't filled with water. He was meticulously unscrewing the shampoo lids and sniffing the contents before sipping it. Sarah took back the Head & Shoulders he was currently sampling and said, "That's not for eating, unless you want your tongue to be dandruff free."
"Tastes good, though."
Sarah shook her head and glanced at the mirror. She looked tired, but her face was free of any highlighter or pen or anything. She sighed with relief. She made the little goblin leave the bathroom and when she passed Jennifer's room, she found it empty. With a sigh of relief, she closed the door and hoped Jennifer wouldn't have anymore nighttime visitors. In the kitchen, the long-nosed goblin waited impatiently, sitting on Sarah's sofa bed and idly scratching his forehead. He was staring at a piece of paper, squinting his eyes with concentration. Behind him, the goblins were rifling through the cabinets. One took out a small skillet and wore it as a hat. Sarah groaned and sat at the dining table, pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to keep calm.
"Explain again—why are you all here?"
"Need help from Lady to find things for Christmas feast."
"Roast beast! Roast beast!" some of the goblins cried out from the kitchen, as if some trigger had been flipped.
"Ssssh!" Sarah hissed. She sighed, looking longingly at her bed for a moment, but the idea of leaving the goblins alone scared her. It was probably a better idea to quickly see what they needed and send them back to the Underground. "What's your name, then? I can't keep calling you 'goblin,' especially when there's a bunch of you here—don't do that!" The last comment was directed at a goblin that was about to hit another with a frying pan.
"Jeebo," the goblin said, puffing his chest up with pride. "You met Jeebo once."
"Did I?" Sarah tried to remember, but there were a lot of goblins when she'd first visited the Underground and she finally shook her head apologetically.
Jeebo shrugged. "I was chased by rocks and pecked by a chicken."
"Oh…sorry about that."
"It was fun!" Jeebo grinned, showing off crooked teeth.
"So, what does your list say?" Sarah asked, curious despite herself. What would the Goblin King think was worth buying for a Christmas feast?
Jeebo carefully smoothed the much wrinkled piece of paper in his hand. Sarah noticed there were a few grease stains, too, but when Jeebo passed the paper to her, she obligingly took it and read the list:
Gsekja
Eladn
etkaLcen
swaldfik
openarale
Sarah frowned. The list went on like that for another few items. She put it down and said, "Jeebo, this doesn't make sense." When Jeebo gave her a confused look, she added, "It's just gobbily-gook, it's not words."
"It is words."
"Okay, then read it to me."
"I don't remember what Kingy said! That why I have list!"
"But if you have the list, you don't have to remember because you can just read…you know what? Never mind." Sarah passed the list back to Jeebo, who grudgingly took it. "It's nearly four o'clock in the morning, I'm tired, so I'm afraid I can't help you right now Jeebo, I'm sorry. If you could just tell all your friends to leave, that would be great."
"But, the party!" Jeebo said. "Kingy never throws parties!"
"But I can't read this, Jeebo," Sarah said, gently, "and it's not even four o'clock, nothing's open right now."
Jeebo sighed dramatically and said, "Fine." He turned to look over his shoulder. "We going back to castle, everyone!"
The goblins stopped what they were doing, looking up in surprise. Sarah's gaze skipped from one set of wide eyes to another and she couldn't help but think that goblins looked a lot like children sometimes. Her gaze stopped on a tiny goblin with large, puppy dog eyes and she sighed, defeated. How was anyone supposed to stay firm? She'd never been able to say "no" to Toby when he was young, as well.
"Alright," Sarah said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "If I can't read it and you can't read it, then we'll just ask the Goblin King, he gave you the list to begin with, right?"
After watching the fireworks with Jareth, Sarah was nervous seeing him again. It could get awkward fast, however she also couldn't resist the way the goblins looked at her. They really wanted a party, and a "roast beast."
"You wanna talk to Kingy?" one of the goblins said with a hushed whisper.
"Um, I guess," Sarah said.
"You wanna talk to Kingy?" another goblin said.
Sarah didn't like how this conversation was going. The more she thought about this the more hesitant she felt. She was probably getting cold feet. Why would she want to talk to the Goblin King anyway? Hadn't he taken her baby brother, sent her on a journey with dangers untold and hardships unnumbered? Wait, or had it been dangers unnumbered and hardships untold?
What am I doing? I'm not even fifteen anymore, Sarah thought.
Yeah, you're not fifteen anymore, the devious part of her pointed out, and she was reminded of how good Jareth had looked as he watched the fireworks. She blushed at the memory.
"I'm…I'm not wishing myself away or anything," she said.
Jeebo snorted and took Sarah's hand. "No need, Lady. We'll take ya to Kingy."
Sarah took a few steps towards the pantry door in the kitchen, letting Jeebo tug at her hand, then stopped and said, "Wait! I just realized—what if he's asleep? I don't want to wake him." She took a step back, half-dragging Jeebo with her.
Yeah, she definitely was getting cold feet.
Jeebo tugged at her arm. "Hurry," was all Jeebo said and after a moment, other goblins began tugging at Sarah's clothes until she finally walked forward, heading towards the pantry.
Sarah had enough presence of mind not to be surprised when she opened the pantry and saw only a dark cavernous space. She couldn't see the usual cabinets filled with food; she couldn't even see any walls or floor. She looked down into the dark abyss of the pantry and felt her legs go rubbery.
"On second thought…" she began, and then one of the goblins behind her gave a push.
With a yelp, Sarah fell forward, her arms flailing comically. However, there was no ground to meet her and Sarah continued falling, screaming into the dark.
Author's Notes: So...I got a nasty head cold and fell behind on all my plans, including writing the fanfic. *cries* I got better in time for New Year's Eve, though. So it won't be done in time, because there's 2-3 chapters left (oh well, it will be done by the end of the week). In fact, this chapter was going to be double the length, but I wanted to post SOMETHING today, so I posted the half I had finished. Don't worry, folks, Jareth will be back and going strong in the next chapter, with plenty of holiday festivities and some adult-type touching. (OOOOH! XD)
Trixie09, you get a cookie for guessing what's inside of the gift! *presents cookie* Thank you everyone for playing along with my silliness, and all the suggestions were wonderful and encouraging and some of them were really tempting. For all those who guessed crystals, don't worry, I'm sure Jareth has a few crystals up his sleeves. :D
OK, I'm off to party. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I hope you enjoy it with loved ones and have plenty of fun. :)
Cybernatic Mango: OMG, I totally didn't think about that but he IS acting a bit like Jack. (*Imagines Jareth singing "What's This?"* Eh, I prefer Magic Dance :P)
Aysuh, Janeitesarah, Lumissne, notwritten: Thanks so much! Your comments make me all fuzzy inside. And I hope you enjoyed the reveal of what's in the gift.
FaeriesMidwife: Sorry this chapter doesn't have Jareth/Sarah, it was in my original outline, I swear! But next chapter, I promise! :)