Chapter 8:

Early spring: Bad ideas, are better than no ideas or coincidental meetings are not always as coincidental as we would like them to be or long titles are annoying, right?

"... And seriously, I feel like I'm being stalked! She just sits there in her corner and keeps staring at me. It's annoying. And what's even worse, recently she's started gathering strange junk. Like books, movies, comic books and so on. Then she's been giving me weird advice! I'd like to tell her to shut up, but believe me, one glance at her and all my courage goes for a walk."

Annie was eating dinner and trying her best to ignore Jareth, who was sitting on a couch and rambling like she was his consultant on Chroniclers and their weird behavior. She couldn't understand him. They never were on good terms, so why was he…

"Jareth, I don't know if you realize that I'm charging a hundred bucks per hour, and you've been here for like, four hours? I hope you can pay." she said to him as coldly as she could. He snorted.

"You wouldn't take money from your family, would you?"

The woman looked at the knife in her hand. "Believe me, I would… And we're not close family, remember? My father is just a chevalier, so go and find closer relatives to annoy."

"You're the only one I trust." Jareth said with emphasis.

"Like I care…" Annie returned to her dinner.

"So what's Sarah doing?"

The question caused her to choke. "Why do you ask?" Then she thought of something. "Hey, you're not going to do anything funny to her, are you?"

Jareth looked at her with face which said: "Who? Me? No way!" But she knew better.

"Listen, why don't you two talk to each other? I mean, you're going to die anyway. So why not explain few things before. Like: Hey, we had quite a history together, I mean, I kidnapped your brother, you kicked my ass, and we had a nice dance in the ballroom, so we can call it even. You'll go back to your life, forget about me, grow old have kids, do all the things mortals do and die, and I'll go back to the Underground, do the magic dance, kick goblins, and be the same stupid jerk I always was. How does that sound to you?"

"Were you drinking the same herbs granny Matilde did? If you remember well, she ended up running through fields naked and singing 'Sound of Music'." Jareth looked at her with some kind of worry in his eyes.

"Oh, shut up! I just gave you absolutely free advice, but if you don't like it, then pay me my five hundred fifty dollars pal."

"All right, all right, you're so hot headed sometimes. I wonder from where you get it from."

"It's a family thing Jareth…"

Through the past months, Sarah had observed the strange reader. From Jake she knew that the girl always appeared when Sarah was at work. Just like now. The only difference was that this time she wasn't sitting alone. There was another person, and to Sarah's surprise she knew that person. Her name was… Merry? Mindy? Morgana? Mabel? Marla? Mar… Margot! Yes, Annie's ex-student. The girls seemed to be deep in their conversation. At some point Sarah manage to sneak near them and overheard scraps of their talk.

"I don't see this as a good idea…" Margot said.

"I don't understand why." The plain girl responded.

"Because that's cheating."

"I don't cheat, I'm incapable of cheating"

"You know, Audrey and Marigold have already guessed what we're doing. What you are trying to do…"

"I know." the black-haired girl interrupted her friend, which went unnoticed for few seconds.

"… won't go… Wait. What?"

"I know that the Empress knows. I have already spoken with her. She's on my side."

"WHAT?" Margot shouted, and then noticed Sarah. She smiled apologetically and waved to her. "Sorry, got a bit carried away."

Sarah shook her head a bit. "Don't mention it, but try to be quieter, ok?"

"Sure."

She thought that the girls would continue, but they waited for her to leave. Sighing she walked back to her post and tried to figure out who the hell "the Empress" was. As far as she knew there were no Empires whatsoever in this century. She also got a hunch that Annie might know what was going on around here lately.

She took books from her counter and went to put them back at their shelves. When she got back, she froze at the sight of certain Goblin King standing near her counter. Sarah looked around trying to find Jacob, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally she braced herself, muttering: "Remember Sarah, he has no power over you."

Jareth was looking around trying to find Eve. The bloody Chronicler was suppose to keep an eye on his house while he was away. "So this is where she's getting all of those ridiculous ideas. Public library." He snorted on the "public" part. Didn't the rulers of this country know that it was easier to rule over uneducated pests than intelligent people? The Goblin King scanned the area. He could feel the presence of the demon somewhere near, but she was hiding. He couldn't understand it. First she left a note to come here, and now? What was going on, for Stars sake? Then he saw her. Sarah Williams. The anger boiled in him as he saw her approaching but he quickly regained his composure and almost chuckled at her determined face. Ah, yes. She had changed, here and there, a full mortal woman, thanks to whom he was ridiculed in front of other king and queens of Faerie…

"Sarah, how nice to see you. Who am I to thank for this lovely moment?"

"What are you doing here, Goblin King?" Sarah hissed.

"My, you're beautiful when you're angry. But you should be careful, sweetheart, you wouldn't want to get wrinkles Besides, isn't this place, well, public?" He leaned on his forearm, on the counter.

"And what makes you, a king, come to the place which is public, I mean, open for peasants?"

"Good question, my dear. It seems there are some of my…" he originally wanted to say "servants" but then he spotted the Chronicler and the Channel a few meters behind Sarah. Both were observing them. Too far away to interrupt his little talk, but too close for him to address them like that. Instead he said a bit nervously, "... friends here." He cursed himself mentally for it, and begged the stars for her not to notice. "Have you seen them?" He added, back with his smooth talk.

Sarah tried to look behind her, to see what had caught Jareth's eye, but the king took her hand and said softly. "My poor little Sarah, your hands are those of a person who works too hard for her own good. You could have saved yourself from this, if you only had chosen me over your little brother. Oh, by the way, how is he?"

Sarah wrested her hand out of Jareth's grip.

"You, Goblin King, have no right to be here. And for your information my brother is fine. Now just in case you need to be reminded, Jareth. You. Have. No. Power. Over. Me!"

The Fae looked like she had just slapped him with an encyclopedia. Then he became tense, his face become green, and he sprinted out of the library like a hellhound was after him.

Margot watched at the whole scene with a smile. "It seems I'm winning."

Eve took a book from the shelf and flipped few pages. "For now."

Later that day, Annie was sitting in the living room building a card castle. She had already made the towers. Now she was going to build the battlements, when Sarah stormed into the apartment like a furious valkyrie and the whole thing collapsed.

"Great." she snorted and looked at her very angry friend. "What happened? Invasion of bookworms? Or just an annoying client?"

"Both would be much better than the reality." Sarah almost knocked down Annie's favorite vase when she took off her jacket.

"Let me guess, my overconfident cousin?" The look on the girl's face confirmed it. "Listen don't give him much thought. He's childish and, as I said, an overconfident, egotistical jerk. Nothing will change that. If you're going to take everything he says seriously, you're going to need a shrink and a lot of sedatives soon." The woman turned back to her cards. "Go take a hot bath with scented oils or something, and forget about him. If that doesn't help, I'll organize a psychodrama for both of you." She heard a quiet click when her flatmate went into her room. 'Hm, maybe I should have told her about what the goblins did to her chest of drawers...'

"JARETH!"

'Oh, well I think she found out anyway…"

AB: ok folks. Disclaimers in previous chapters, but it's pretty obvious I don't own anything about the Labyrinth... And, if any of you wonder what "psychodrama" is, then just type it at Wikipedia for some info. That's all, I think. Oh, and please Review. I'm really pleased by your fav's and adding my story to your alerts but I'd like to know what do you think about my story. Thanks ;]