Umm... Chapter 21 everyone
Jareth just sat there. Boring a hole into the sheets of Sarah's bedside as a lab coat wearing Aisling examined her.
"How could I have been so blind?" Jareth mumbled for the fifth time, "She could have died if I hadn't been there."
Aisling sighed "Sire, I believe at times like this most people go with the phrase 'I told you so' but…" She finished looking at Sarah's eyes and moved to check her blood pressure "I also believe that that's not what you want to hear."
Jareth said nothing. Didn't even acknowledge that Aisling had said a word; All he did was run his fingers through his mane and continued on with his guilt trip, "Why would she just… jump? She acted like she was pushed… or something but, there was no one there…" His head dropped into is hands, "What am I going to do?"
Aisling hopped off of Sarah's bed with a sigh and went over to Jareth's side "The good news is, she'll live. The bad news is, she's in a coma. It's a good thing you were able to catch her, I strongly suggest not to glitter poof for a while though," She grabbed a clipboard and flipped through a few paper before saying "your magic panic level jumped to twenty percent above normal causing your overall magic to drop to fifty percent below average." She set the clipboard back down, "Also, if you decide to go after her, the magic level will drop to just enough to get you and her back only once so…"
Jareth ignored Aisling once again, wallowing in his own self pity as he was. "What can I do?" he repeated, like the answer would fall into his lap.
"Well," Aisling reached up to grab his face so she wouldn't be ignored again "I can't tell you what to do Sire, but I can tell you what you should do." She reached into one of her pockets, and pressed the contents into his hand. It was a small glass bottle, no more than an ounce or two, it held a green, syrupy type of liquid in it. On it was a poorly scrawled 'Drink Me' label, "Go after her, Sire. Bring her back and show Zalenakus who's boss."
Jareth stared blankly at the little goblin at his side, a stare that turned into a sad glance, "How can I beat him, Aisling? He's taken everything from me, and left me with nothing. I have no power over him."
"But giving up like this gives him all power over Sarah." Aisling said "How could the mighty Goblin King let his Goblin Queen be ruled over by him?" to this, Jareth simply hung his head and sighed.
Aisling was fed up. With a swift moved, she slapped the Goblin King and roughly dragged his head down to her eye level by his hair, "Now you listen to me Jareth and you listen good. This girl is in love with you and you're in love with her. You have the power to get her back and make her yours and you're going to just sit here and let her get raped?" Jareth stared at Aisling with slightly scared eyes, "Yeah, I said it. We both know that the moment that he gets her broken and alone he's going to fuck her brains out and start a mini army of hell raisers. So get off your damn sparkly ass and save the best God damn thing that ever happened to this hell of an Underground!" slapping him one more time for go measure, Aisling stormed out, slamming the door be hind her with more force than was needed.
Jareth sat there for a moment, suppressing the urge to Bog that twit for stepping beyond her station.
He knew she was right. Just looking down at Sarah's unconscious form was proof enough she was right. He wondered what was going on in that head of hers. Where was she? What was she doing? Was she thinking of him?
Jareth stood and grabbed Sarah's hand, the one with the ring he had given her. It let her spy on him, and him on her, but it did no good when it came to the private intimacy that was the mind.
Jareth's gaze shifted to the bottle Aisling had given him. It looked like it would taste gross and vile but, if it was for Sarah…
Opening up the little bottle, he took a quick sniff, and imminently regretted it. It smelled vile and reeked of something that could rival the Bog. "Maybe if I drink quickly, it won't taste as bad." He thought aloud to himself.
Steadying himself and taking a deep breath, he brought the bottle to his lips and—
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Losing focus, Jareth let go of his breath—and almost his lunch when the smell invaded his nose. Turning to the source, swearing that he Bog who ever it was, he nearly dropped the bottle."
"Faylinn?!"
"Hello Jareth." She was leaning against the frame of the closet door, hair redder than ever and in a tight fitting blue dress that brought new meaning the phrase 'they forgot to say stop'. "Long time… no see." She twirled a lock of curled hair as she said this.
"W-w-what are you doing here?"
"They more appropriate question would be why I'm here." She corrected as she picked at her nails.
"Okay, why are you here?"
"Funny thing, really." She looked at him "You were about to go after her, weren't you?"
Jareth rolled his eyes and turned his back to Faylinn. Ruin a moment you over glorified whore.
"I'll take that as a yes." She glided over to Jareth "You see, that poses a problem for my employer." She sat her self on the edge of Sarah's bed, placing her in Jareth's direct line of site, "He doesn't want to give her up, he's grown rather…" One of her fingers traced a line across Sarah's cheek, leaving a bright red blood line in its wake "fond of her."
"Witch!" Jareth brutally grabbed Faylinn's wrist and yanked her up, "What the hell are you and Zalenakus plotting?"
Faylinn stared at him for a second, then threw her head back and laughed. Jareth's grip on her wrist tighten like the coils of a snake the more she laughed until, "Ow! Okay," she let out a sigh "Jareth, do you really think that Zale is the one who doesn't want you to come and find your Precious? That's exact opposite! In fact…" with her free hand, she reached into her bra and pulled out a little bottle, nearly identical to the one that Aisling gave him. Its contents were a sparklingly purple though, very strange. "Zale instructed me to give you this. It will take you straight to him and Sarah." She looked up at him through the corner of her eye with an evil glint in them. "But my employer wants you to stay put and wait for her to die."
Jareth yank up on Faylinn's wrist hard, making her wince "Who's your employer?" he growled threw his teeth. When she didn't answer, he yanked even harder. "Answer me!"
Faylinn only grinned wickedly, "I don't see why you're up in arms about this, Jareth. It's not like she's your lover. She's only a little girl you picked up to fill the void I left."
At this, Jareth violently tossed Faylinn against the wall. As she tried to gather herself, he nonchalantly picked up the bottle she had dropped and examined it closer. It looked the same as the other but the liquid was purple, was there a reason the color was different? Faylinn said it would take him directly to Zalenakus and Sarah, Aisling said hers would help him find Sarah.
What was the difference?
"The difference is that one tastes better." Faylinn chimed from her spot on the floor, as if reading Jareth's thoughts. "The one that taste better is the better one out of the two to drink."
"Why should I trust you?"
"Normally, you shouldn't trust people that try to injure you or your loved ones," She stood up and brushed herself off, fixing her slightly mused hair as well, "but, in this case, it's better to trust the third party advocate."
"You're a third party advocate?"
"Surprisingly yes. This time." She began to walk towards the door, "Though most times I'm on Zale's side but, I was made an offer I couldn't refuse." She shrugged and went to leave.
"Wait."
She stopped and turned.
"How do I know which taste better?"
"Oh, I thought it would be obvious to the King of the Labyrinth. Just like the Knaves' riddle." With that, she disappeared without another word.
Jareth sat down on the edge of the chair he was on earlier. Obvious she said, just like the Knaves' she said. The only thing she didn't say was the answer.
"Knaves…" He thought aloud to himself while looking down at Sarah, "What do the Knaves have to do with anything?" Pinching the bridge of his nose, he thought…and thought… and thought until he thought a hole through the chair. And then—
"One of them always tells the truth, and one of them always lies!" Jareth jumped up with his sudden epiphany, "That's it! That's what she meant." He looked at the two bottles in his hands, "Faylinn might be a dirty liar most of the time, but she was on to something today." He casted the bottle that Faylinn gave him aside, "Aisling would never lie to me. Not after the hell we both went through getting rid of that son of a bitch." Opening the bottle with the green syrup, he downed the fowl concoction with not another thought.
It tasted sweet. Almost sickly sweet, surprising after the horrid smell. Not long after downing it though, a sharp pain stabbed Jareth in side, followed by a similar one in the shoulder knocking the man to his knees by Sarah's bed side. God, the pain was blinding as he screamed when more pain shock his pulse line.
The world around him started to go dark, and blurry around the edges as the pain grew more intense. Before his mind completely disappeared he managed to grip onto Sarah's hand with a squeeze, as if a promise to her silent form that he was coming for her.
Jareth's eyes opened. He was on his back, his whole body numb with a horrible pain. All he could see from where he laid was a vas sky of swirling nothingness that seemed to blur in and out of focus the more he looked at it.
In his confused paralyzed state, he heard the sound of someone approaching. He tried to call upon the person, put his lips refused to move, too numb in pain as they were.
Though, it seemed that there was no need to speak, for the person stop to stand above him. Much to his surprise, he knew this person.
"Took you long enough, Highness." Aisling said in a huff.
umm... chapter 21... PLEASE DON'T COME AFTER ME WITH POINTY STICKS!
i'm so sorry, um, excuses can't make up for how long it's been. I'll try, I'll try to finish.
in my defence, i tryed to post this chapter 7 months ago, but after typing all the random babbles, i pressed a wrong button and all the babbles went away and then the wifi went down and i never got back around to posting it. I'm sorry, i understand if you guys don't want to read anymore... the cast says they refuse to come back unless i make an effort...