The Song in this chapter is Sarah Bareilles: Gravity. Hope you enjoy. Another update should be up by the end of the week. Happy New Year!!


Absolute Lies

Chapter 9: Your Gravity

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Jareth remained silent, staring at a piece of straw on the floor of the deserted throne room. His daughter stood, staring at the man who sat on the throne, with her arms crossed and her eyes hurt and accusing. He could feel her heartbreak from there, but he wasn't sure what had caused it. Him or the boy.

"Father!"

"I didn't want you to hurt like I did."

"So you hid it from me? You had to know that eventually I would find out."

Jareth's glare deepened and he set his jaw.

"How could you do this to me, Father?"

"It would have been no easier telling you from the beginning."

"I could have braced myself for it, instead of having it thrust upon me in front of all the nobles in the land. Father, I don't even know his name."

Jareth closed his eyes before looking at his daughter, his heart lurching when he saw the tears in her eyes.

"I'm taking the Escher room."

"Mina."

"You owe me that!" she snapped, glaring daggers at him before she walked up the stairs and disappearing around the corner.

Jareth, who had stood to go after her, collapsed back into his seat running a hand over his eyes.

"She has a point, you should have told her. You should have told all of us."

"I didn't want her to feel that pain."

"That pain, Jareth, is what brought us together. It's why she's even here." Sarah sat on the arm of the throne and rubbed her husband's back, "He has to tell her no. He has to reject her."

"Why?"

"Because that's how it's suppose to be. I'm going to bed, my love. Don't stay up too late."

Jareth nodded bitterly and rubbed his eyes again.

----

She was sitting, he realized, in the same place he had stood the first time Sarah ran the Labyrinth. She held the same grief in her eyes, and knew she was going to be forced to let go. She was holding her knees to her chest, resting her head against them. He also realized she was still wearing the gown she had worn to the ball, and that he hadn't really danced with her like he promised. He closed his eyes and looked towards the door.

The handsome young man ran through the door and spotted his little brother sitting next to the hole in the floor in the center of the room. He called out his little brothers', Michael, name and the toddler looked up. This also caught Mina's attention and she looked towards him, before looking away.

"Something always brings me back to you." She sang, making him pause on a step and look up to the corner where she sat, he shook his head. Believing, either, that she had helped trick him or trying to block her out.

"It never takes too long.

No matter what I say or do,

I'll still feel you here 'til the moment I've gone.

You hold me without touch.

You keep me without chains.

I've never wanted anything so much,

Than to drown in your love and not feel your rain. "

Mina lifted her head and pulled herself into a standing position, her head held high, "Set me free, leave me be. I don't wanna fall another moment into your gravity. Here I am and I stand so tall just the way I'm supposed to be. But you're onto me, and all over me. You loved me cause I'm fragile, when I thought that I was strong. But you touch me for a little while and all my fragile strength is gone."

The boy paused, looking up at her with pain in his eyes buried beneath his determination. Their eyes met and she glared.

"Set me free, leave me be. I don't wanna fall another moment into your gravity. Here I am and here I stand, so tall, just the way I'm supposed to be. But you're onto me and all over me."

Mina's eyes began to drip with tears as she stalked him from above, watching his movements as he tried to make his way to his little brother.

"I live here on my knees as I

Try to make you see that you're

Everything I think I need here on the ground.

But your neither friend or foe though

I can't seem to let you go.

The one thing that I still know is that you're keeping me

Down." He looked up, and again let their teary eyes meet.

"You're keeping me down.

You're onto me, onto me and all over…"

Mina leaned back against the wall as he made the leap for his brother, "Something always brings me back to you, it never takes too long."

Jareth took a deep breath and closed his fist around his crystal, he didn't need to see what came next.


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