A/N: And finally, that moment you've all been waiting for... (Drumroll, please...) Well, almost that moment.
*Also I added something small but significant to chapter five, so you may need to go and reread it.
AliceXxX: I actually don't know anyone who is blind; but I worry about it sometimes because of the health condition I have (Intracranial Hypertension). I could lose my eyesight if my situation deteriorates-and that's a fear I hope never comes true. Part of that fear is what got me thinking of the 'what if's' of if I ever went blind, and the scenarios and struggles I'd have to experience. I've had to imagine how different my life would be; and in writing this story, I've kind of answered my own questions as to what I would do if I lost my sight. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I just read about Conversion Disorder, and that sounds so scary! Are you doing any better now? I know sometimes these things can have good and bad days. (Mine definitely does...) I hope you're doing better! I'm also glad to hear that you liked the chapter! Seven is nearly done! Woohoo! I'll see if I can't get it up tomorrow. :D
LabyrinthLover30: I can't even begin to express how happy it made me to read your review-that you felt that much emotion for what I've written makes me so happy! It has been my goal as a writer to elicit emotions from readers, for the characters. I'm always striving to improve, and reading your and others reviews helps me in that immensely! I'm glad you got a kick out of that 'sappy teen novels' bit-I laughed pretty hard when I thought of it. My friend gave me the funniest look until she later read what I wrote, and she had a similar reaction. XD Thank you so much for the compliment! :D Lol! Yes, best keep those notes under lock and key, Lady! ;D Thank you again!
Blind
Chapter Six: A Careless Wish
Sarah returned the following wednesday with nothing but Aaron on her mind. Karen had offered to walk Sarah there after hearing about her last private reading the previous week. The stepmother who had become more of an actual mother to Sarah-particularly after Linda's impertinent, insensitive appearance-was all a tizzy, to no doubt try and push Sarah and Aaron together in an attempt at matchmaking. Sarah had declined the offer, and Karen had disappointedly relented, only to practically shove Sarah out the door with a friendly warning not to come back until she at least had a date set to go out to dinner with him.
A mortified, furiously blushing Sarah Williams half-ran up the road to avoid her neighbor's attention. They'd been washing their car with the garden hose when Karen's loud voice caused them to lower it in curiosity. She only knew this, because the water splashing off of the car soon quieted as it hit the grass, and the couple's conversation fell silent on their side of the fence. Sarah moved faster in an attempt to avoid speaking to them, and narrowly avoided replying to a nosy, "Hello Sarah! Where are you off to, today?" The husband questioned overly casually-it was obvious he was interested.
'Wouldn't you like to know!' She thought angrily. 'What a nosy parker!'
The dark haired woman reached the library early, and Aaron had yet to arrive. She sat anxiously in her usual spot in the back, away from everyone else. Her fingernails tapped her walking stick in a senseless beat and she tried to stay calm. What was wrong with her? Her heart thudded when she heard familiar footsteps, which paused-probably surprised to see her there so early-then continued at the same pace to come to her side, humming his usual tune to alert her to his approach. "Well, hello there Sarah!" He said. "May I sit by you?" She nodded nervously, and because of those nerves, she lifted one hand toward him a second later than normal. He didn't seem to notice as he took it carefully and sat beside her. "You're here a bit early-trying to get ahead of the crowd?" He joked, and Sarah smiled a little before looking concerned.
"I'm not in the way, am I? I wasn't sure if there was another reading before yours or not today.."
He replied seriously, "You're perfect the way you are, Sarah." She blushed and he continued in a more jovial tone. "No, I'm afraid it's just me today. We've a new book that you might like. It's short-more of a children's book, really."
Sarah's eyebrows rose in interest. "Oh? What's it called?" She asked, but Aaron chuckled.
"You'll have to wait and see." She pouted, and he laughed again, patting her hand.
Aaron then looked around, his voice lowering and rising at intervals as he turned his head one way and then the other. "It looks like you're not the only one early today." He said in surprise. Before Sarah could ask what he meant, Aaron added, "I'll go and fetch the book, and we'll begin. I'll come back here right after so we can talk. Is that alright?" Sarah agreed, and he smiled.
"Excellent!" Delicately, he lifted her hand to his lips to place a chaste kiss on the back of it, then stood and slipped away, leaving a pink faced Sarah in his wake.
There must've been teenagers in this week's group, because the room became terribly noisy with their arrival. The teachers or parents with them shushed the children, and once everyone was seated and relatively quiet, Aaron took his place at the front of the crowd. "The book is titled: "The Labyrinth" It's a little short-but definitely worth the read." He said, and the crowd brought their attention more fully to him-but no one paid him as much attention, as Sarah did in that moment.
'Maybe it's a different book with the same title...'
She hoped, but almost as soon as Aaron started reading, she knew it was the very same book she had obsessed over as a teenager.
He read it so well with his lilting voice, that he calmed her while simultaneously frightening her with each word. Part of her kept hoping it wasn't the same book. 'Please, please don't let it be the same book!' She pleaded in her mind. She listened with rapt attention to every word in hopes that there would be something-anything-different from the book she had memorized. One added or missing word was all she needed. Just one.
But she was hampered in this anxious study of the story by the teenage boy in front of her, who kept mocking Aaron and the book, speaking in low tones to avoid being rebuked by his teachers.
The boys on either side of him were snickering quietly, barely holding back their laughter. It was to the point that Sarah was only catching half of what Aaron was saying. Finally she couldn't stand it any longer and leaned forward a little, hissing just so they could hear her. "For heaven's sake! Will you please keep it down?"
They fell silent, and she leaned back in relief. But then the boy causing all the mischief muttered just loud enough, to where he knew she would hear him. "Jeeze. I really wish the goblins would come and take her away; right now!" He spat, and the boys laughed. Sarah gaped in horror, and without a sound, she vanished from the world she knew.
The boy glanced over his shoulder at her with a smirk-until he realized she was gone. He spun around to look behind him, bewildered and a little frightened. A look around the room showed she was not there-and he sputtered in alarm when he realized the entire room of people were fast asleep. He shook both his friends beside him and hollered at them, but they didn't stir in the slightest. Behind him near the front of the seated group, pages ruffled and a book shut with a snap. He looked around, but the man reading the story, was gone, and in his place sat another.
The boy's eyes grew impressively large in fear. It was the Goblin King, as described in the book! From his wild white blond hair and flinty mismatched blue and brown eyes, respectively, to his upswept eyebrows and black as night armor. He was half perched on the stool Aaron had been occupying not seconds ago, arms folded. He held the book 'The Labyrinth' closed and tapped the top of its spine against his his lower lip thoughtfully; his shrewd eyes drilling into the young man's with great disdain.
At length he straightened, lowering the book and looking down his nose at the boy, and drawled. "A careless wish you've made, my boy. And now you have a choice to make."
The young man's face drained of color. "Wait, you're-you're the Goblin King!?"
Jareth replied dryly. "Obviously. I changed to suit my purposes. Aaron was a necessity for someone very dear to me. Someone you just wished away."
What once seemed impossible was achieved when Seth went, seemingly impossibly, paler. "I didn't mean it! I was just-!"
"-just what? Kidding?" Jareth interrupted him with a cold sneer. "But you weren't really, were you?" He leaned away from the stool, and with a flick of his wrist, the book vanished. "Even words not touched by magic have their consequences, Seth. What you've done goes far beyond that." His icy tone matched his eyes, and a sharp twist of the king's wrist made a crystal appear on the ends of his fingers. He tossed it to the boy, saying. "You have two choices now, boy."
Seth gasped and hurried to catch the crystal. He did, and when he looked up, the king was gone. "The first:" Seth yelped and spun around to see the Goblin King perched on the back of the blind woman's chair, his legs crossed and arms resting on his knee. The boy watched him warily, and Jareth tapped the air rhythmically with one finger, his eyes narrowing. "You can save the poor blind woman you so foolishly wished away," Jareth gestured behind him, and the library's supply closet door burst open to show a massive place that certainly couldn't be in the building's blueprints.
"Or," Seth looked back to the man, but he was gone again. He gasped when Jareth's voice sounded to his right, and he turned to see the man lounging in Aaron's preferred armchair. "The second: You can forget about her, and get your dreams instead." One of the Goblin King's swooped eyebrows lifted up his pale forehead as he looked pointedly at the crystal in Seth's hands.
"What will you decide?"
Seth looked down at the crystal in his hands, then to the swaying door leading to the mysterious land claiming to hold the Labyrinth. Could he really forget her and get his dreams? He looked back at the crystal guiltily. He could-but what would happen to her? The book had said something about the princess's baby brother becoming a goblin forever. Was that what would happen to her? She'd be turned into a goblin forever?
"Tick-tock, Seth. Your time is nearly up for choosing." The king stood up from the chair and his eyes darkened. "What will you decide?"
The very air seemed to still around them, and the books-had they been inclined to be spectators to the fantastical event occurring in their halls-would have been craning to see what the boy would choose.
At last Seth stared in determination at the king, and tossed the crystal to him. Jareth caught it easily in his hand, and his eyebrow rose higher.
"I choose to save her."
A/N: I almost-almost, left you hanging on that first "What will you decide?" bit. But I wanted to be nice and add a bit more. ^_~
Disclaimer: I own everything. Er-I mean nothing. Nothing. Just ask Jareth, he'll tell you gladly.
Jareth lifts an eyebrow and drawls in terrible boredom. "Clearly, she owns none of us." I nod my head.
"Thank you!"
Jareth glares up from the digital pages at my fingertips. "Now will you let me go and meet Sarah?" Humming thoughtfully, I pretend to consider it, and ignore his considerable glower.
"Oh, alright. I'm sure everyone else is looking forward to it, too..." I sigh dramatically.
Jareth grumbles. "About blasted time!"
Chuckling, I wave him off. "Right, stay tuned fellow readers! More to come!"