AN: OK OK I know I deserve all the SCORN and flying peaches hurled towards me for talking so long to write this. I late updated in July L *sniffles* I guess high school kept me a little more busier then I thought it would, although I do have some good inspiration. So, I'll say this one more time, but I mean it this time, I really do, I'll GET THE NEXT CHAPTER OUT A.S.A.P! I promise!
Grim Tales: Chapter 3: "What are you doing here?"~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The goblin king sat idly on his throne twirling a small shimmering crystal. His subjects has been dismissed on assignments and the ones who weren't, or had the maximum of 4 brain cells, would think that lounging around all day would be boring, but Jareth thought differently. He had his crystal spheres to keep him busy. Of course he would have found lolling about all day starring at his crystal spheres rather dull before she came along.
Sarah, the only one able to conquer his labyrinth, the one he considered to be his equal. He certainly had no power over her, but she also had none over him.
Since she left, he spent hours gazing at her through his sphere; each moment would entice him more. Everything she did mesmerized him, and he always ended up thirsty to learn more about her.
He never wanted to see her get hurt, and he knew she had been in the past; not physically, but mentally. He even saw the brutal argument Sarah and her step mom had the previous night, and now her step mom trying to make up, even though it was obvious Sarah was still emotionally hurt.
Jareth let out a small smile as he saw Sarah's eye light up with Karen's mention of "Sugar Apples" and watched as Sarah dug around the basket for just the right one, but something caught his eye. What looked like a sharp edged metal ran along the inside of the basket lid, and Sarah leaning just below it. He wondered for a moment what its purpose for being there was, but he soon figured it out; seeing Sarah's position and Karen's grasp on it. Immediately he made himself appear, to somehow prevent his beloved from coming in contact with any harm.
(A/N: You all understand Karen's trying to decapitate Sarah, right? Good.)
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Karen seized the moment when Sarah was occupied, and immediately grabbed hold of the lid and applied all her strength into slamming the lid down on her stepdaughter's neck. Once it made contact with skin, she released her hold of the lid and jumped backwards, trying to avoid any spilling blood.
"What!?" She screamed angrily and confusedly as she saw a black-gloved hand on top of Sarah's neck, the razor pushed into the glove. Karen's eyes followed up the gloves, wrist, strong looking arms, neck, and finally reached a face; a pale complexion, incompatible eyes; one the color of the sun rays hitting a sea in the morning, the other, the color of grass when a soft dew is settling on it; and hair the color of yellow sand touched with moonlight.
"Who the heck are you!?" Karen furiously shrieked at the strange man in her kitchen.
Sarah, feeling a cold material coved hand on her collar, and a trickle of cool liquid fall onto her neckline, she pushed upwards, trying to get her head away from the basket, so she could see what the commotion was about. The hand on her neck moved away as she pushed up, and once she was standing, facing the room, she saw Karen looking wrathfully at her and at something to her right. Sarah cocked her head to the right and froze from shock.
"What are you doing here!?" Sarah questioned swiftly. "Oh no! Toby!"
Sarah turned quickly, starting to leave the room to check on her stepbrother.
"Sarah." Jareth said coolly, making Sarah stop in her tracks. She turned around slowly, facing him, and found him looking towards the basket. Sarah turned her gaze from him to the basket, and her eye's caught a light shine coming from the lid.
'What?' She thought, and then remembered the hand on her neck. She looked back to Jareth, noticing his gloved hands. His right glove had a thin tear down the palm side of it. She nervously placed a hand on her neck, rubbing it, then bringing it back into her view.
There were red smudges on her hand. 'The cool drop…' She glanced back to Jareth's hand, observing the several red drops falling from it to the white kitchen floor.
Then something clicked inside her mind as she looked towards Karen who was backing up slowly towards a kitchen drawer.
"Karen?" Sarah questioned Karen by just saying her name. "How could you?" Sarah had never thought Karen would go to such measures as this; she never thought that Karen would try such a thing. She was so close to death; only Jareth had been quick enough to stop the blade from hitting her. 'Why would he come back to stop me from getting killed? Why would he care?' She thought confused, and then brought her thinking back to Jareth's hand.
"Your hand." She said as she stepped closer to him, her back to Karen. "Let me help." She grabbed a washcloth that had been sitting on the table and reached for his hand. He smiled as she grasped his hand and tried to pull of his glove.
Jareth had so much anger built up inside him, wanting to do every harmful thing he could thing of to Sarah's stepmother, but when she had come over to him, everything he had been thinking about disappeared.
Sarah starred intently upon her hand trying to pull of his glove, not noticing his gaze on her face, and realized that her hand was shaking feverously. Her body must be more of a shock then her self-conscience was, but she knew soon her mind would realize what had happened and she would break down. Finally, steadying herself, she got the glove off, no help from the silent Jareth, and dabbed the clothe on his long but thin body puncture, collecting red drops on the material.
Sarah finally turned her head up and looked at Jareth's face. "Why did you save me?" She asked, the both of them somehow forgetting Karen was still in the room.
