(Wicked grin) I'M BACK!!! (put hands on hips and threw head behind)
HA!HA!HA !HA !HA !HA ! (mad laugh)
Standards disclaimers apply.
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Chapter 8. Desperation.
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Sarah was wandering helplessly in the streets: she was supposed to head towards the bus station, which would take her back to the heart of the city, to where she lived. Rolling her left shoulder softly to put in place the sport bag, she let the familiar surrounding engulf her, letting her mind wander while her feet led her. Karen had said she was scared of love. But who in his right mind could be scared of love? That was stupid. Love was supposed to be the top, the blossoming, the magnificence of one's life, wasn't it?
Then, why did Jareth keep on talking about her and dying altogether? Why that feeling of surrender, of walking against the stream that seemed to linger around him? Why he was fighting it? Why was he so reluctant to let go in the first place? Why tricking her into staying in the Labyrinth rather than ask her? There were too much games and riddles going on for her.
As she walked down the street, a song suddenly soared from the windows of a house nearby, from an old and forgotten radio as the inhabitants of the house happily laughed with each other. They were standing on another world.
Happiness is just a word to me
And it might have meant a thing or two
If I'd known the difference
Emptiness, a lonely parody
And my life, another smokin' gun
A sign of my indifference
Sarah watched them from the street, through their living-room's windows, the wind blew her bangs away from her eyes gently, pushing her gently to resume her walk. But this time, her feet turned left instead of right. Left to the park, where she used to go and rehearse. Rehearse the Labyrinth, telling the lines to the birds, spinning on herself, playing, acting.
Always keepin' safe inside
Where no one ever had a chance
To penetrate a break in
Let me tell you some have tried
But I would slam the door so tight
That they could never get in
Kept my cool under lock and key
And I never shed a tear
Another sign of my condition
She absent-mindedly strode down the familiar path to the familiar old bench. She looked around her: the day was bright and warm so people were lazily stretched on the ground, their kids running wild around, asleep or reading while she stood alone. Families or sweethearts talking quietly, laughing, kissing while she was alone. Better that way. She thought. Better be the one who leave than the one left behind.
Fear of love or bitter vanity
That kept me on the run
The main events at my confession
I kept a chain upon my door
That would shake the shame of Cain
Into a blind submission
The burning ghost without a name
Was calling all the same
But I wouldn't listen
She just needed to convince her heart she needn't him in her life to go on, as always. It was only an infatuation, because she was lonely and that he offered something she had been craving for. But, it was only a matter of time before he grew tired of her.
The longer I'd stall
The further I'd crawl
The further I'd crawl
The harder I'd fall
I was crawlin' into the fire
The more that I saw
The further I'd fall
The further I'd fall
The lower I'd crawl
I kept fallin' into the fire
Into the fire
Into the fire
Time, how ironic for an immortal being. That was the way it was with her. People always ended up leaving her alone. Either because she was her daughter. Linda Williams' daughter, the great actress' daughter.
But then, after a little time, people started to leave her because she was only her daughter, not the mother. That was part of the reason she had abruptly stopped acting. She had told people it was because she was too much of a dreamer to be an actress, anyway. That she preferred to write her stories rather than playing someone else's.
True, her heart always jumped happily whenever one of her 'babies' was chosen to be the play of the year or when her books attracted so many people. She sat on the bench, next to her bag. Her bench was quite secluded from the other people, as the trees made it look like a hollow, an eerie place that only certain people could see, a perfect sanctuary: visible and invisible.
She should end the strange thing between them as soon as possible, to make it less painful for him. He may have tried to trick her to stay a year in the Underground, it wasn't really like that, it felt more like an visit. Better end it, the sooner the better, now right?
A single name fell from her lips, attracting his attention almost immediately.
.....................
For once, he hadn't been watching her; he was busy with his brother, trying to sort out things. They had decided that he should clear that stupid deal between them and Galion had managed to coax the reason out of him for that deal: because suddenly, it had felt like the cleverest thing to do to keep her. Keep her by him. That was all that had mattered. That still mattered.
.....................
His name rang like a bell in his mind and with an hopeful smile he left his brother who gave him an encouragement tap on the shoulder as they were standing together in the kids' playroom, watching Nathan carefully release an healing spell on his father.
.....................
To say that he was surprised of founding himself in the park in the Aboveground was an understatement. He had thought she would be at the castle, waiting for him. A look at her impassive face made him shudder and fear for the worse.
"Sarah?" his voice hoarse with worry, Jareth stepped closer to the young woman. Quickly glancing around, he ordered silently to the people in the park not to notice either him or Sarah. As the spell left his fingers, Sarah's voice called his attention back to her.
"I'm giving you this back." She said, unclasping from her neck the chain he had given her. The crystal hanging on it was starting to glow faintly, a reminder of the time that was supposed to be left for her in the Aboveground.
Shocked, Jareth watched her take his hand and putting his gift between his trembling fingers. "What?"
She looked up at him and sighed quietly. "I'm not coming back with you."
"Sarah?" He repeated her name again, not understanding what she was saying. It was like she was suddenly speaking in a foreign language.
Sarah smiled as she stood up, feeling incredibly cold and relieved in the meantime. "I decided it was the best for me not to let someone hurt me again."
Fury and fear lit up in his mismatched eyes and he reached out for her hands, almost yelling. "Sarah! I would never ever."
She pulled her hands away from his and stated. "That's what they all say in the beginning." He could have died right here, he wouldn't have noticed the difference.
He bent his head to try to breathe again. Then, as he felt his heart shatter like a crystal hurled against a wall, pain shooting in his chest, he asked her, almost begging her. "Sarah, I don't understand, I thought you were happy with me!" He raised his face to look in her eyes, to read nothing but cold in them, while his flashed with pain.
"I was." That was all she say. He didn't want to notice the past tense in which she was speaking If it happened once, it can happened again!
Again he reached for her hands. "Then why? Please, give us a chance! Give me a chance." He advanced on her, kneeled at her feet and with trembling fingers, he touched her knees like she was made of glass, about to break under his touch. He wasn't afraid to beg her. He was no longer a King. He was truly her slave.
Again, she pulled away. "No."
"Sarah!" He thought tears would have started to fall from his eyes and was coldly surprised to find none of them. Maybe because he felt like the whole world and his own emotions were all dull, maybe there was a point in pain where tears couldn't even fall.
"It's not fair for you." That sent him over the edge. And he backed away from her, as if she had suddenly turned in a statue made of iron.
And he lost his last bit of control. "You have no right, I saved your life, therefore, you're mine! You are to come back with me in the Underground!" He tightened his hold on the necklace in his hand, the necklace he had given her, as a token of generosity, to make her feel almost free while staying with him in the Underground. An act of kindness.
She didn't pay attention to him, her eyes focused on the necklace. "Seems like I called you just in time."
"What?" He noticed her fixed gaze and quickly followed it. The crystal was shining like a small sun and would take whoever or whatever was attached to it to the Underground. "Sarah!" Was this only thing she heard when the light swallowed up the Goblin King and his shattered heart.
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Galion was teaching his son the easiest healing spells while Calandra, who had been punished from sneaking away, had to copy down, and without magic, the first ten paragraph of 'The Underground. An History.'
To say these paragraphs, and the whole book actually, were boring was an offending understatement. But Calandra wasn't suffering in silence and her long and repetitive sighs were growing heavier with time, but her father didn't pay attention and her traitorous brother was too absorbed in the lesson to really care.
"Well done, Nathan, now, feel the muscle and the bone of my jaw." Galion was commenting, as Nathan ran his fingers on his father's jaw. "Do you feel where it's bruised?" He asked. When a cry, like a dying bird, rang in the darker corners of his mind. "Huh!" Surprised, Galion straightened up and blinked, when he finally discovered what that cry really was and as if Death herself had ran her fingers down his spine, he shivered and yelled for a servant. "Somebody!"
A young guard opened the door and stayed in its frame, waiting. "Yes, my lord?"
Galion, in few pace, had put a surprised Nathan on one of his shoulders and was reaching for a squealing Calandra to jerk her on his other shoulders, yelled to the young man. "We're going over the Goblin Castle. Calandra, Nathan, brace yourselves!"
"Daddy?" The twins both asked as they disappeared from they playroom.
.....................
Galion had chosen to appear in the kitchen, he wanted to gather some information before facing the tornado. "Nanny!" He yelled, looking around for her, as he lowered himself to put his children down but Calandra immediately attached herself to one of his legs, frightened looking frantically around her. The kitchen was a wreck. And for cause, the castle was literally trembling.
Again, a cry rose in the darker corners of his mind, but this time, it was repeated and amplified and the whole castle and its inhabitants heard the pathetic cry. Nathan tried to block the eerie sound and Calandra jumped on his neck, hanging on him as if her life depended of it. Nathan, as scared closed his own arms around her. But Galion didn't notice. He didn't notice either when something seemed to call out the twins, attracting their attentions and soothing their frightened hearts.
The kitchen staff, made of elf, humans, goblins and faeries were all running like chicken to the next issue, probably fearing than the castle would crumble on their heads. A small and round, sobbing high elf, pushed her way to where Galion and his children were. "Galion!"
Galion made his way to meet Celia half-way and took her by the shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. "What's wrong?" He demanded, his voice as harsh as his grip.
"It's . It's Jareth and the lady." That was all he needed to know.
He whirled around to spot his children, in arms of each others, and told them, before disappearing again. "You two stay here!"
"Daddy!" Calandra cried out for him.
.....................
Galion burst in Jareth's private chambers to find his younger brother's form crumpled against the wall, one of his elbow resting on a drawn knee, his head bent down, curtains had been closed therefore, darkness was covering of her shady form the real Goblin King's pitiful state, despite the few candles lit here and there. A bloody knife next to his opened hand, on which a neckalce with a little crystal, now tainted with blood, was curled around his fingers. His shirt was torn and tattered, blood marks all over it and his shoulders were shaking silently.
"Jareth!" Galion ran to kneel on Jareth's side, but the barking and bitter laugh that had been building in Jareth stopped him from taking another step closer.
Jareth threw his head behind him, laughing, a laugh that froze Galion's blood in his veins. "It's Galion! My brother!" He laughed once more as tears were welling in his eyes.
Heart beating rapidly, Galion took a step closer as he took noticed of the knife turned in Jareth's direction. "Jareth! What.?"
But Jareth cut him as he grabbed the knife again. "She wouldn't let me die, look." He plunged it in his chest but quickly, before Galion could even react, an invisible hand jerked Jareth's closed fist away and pulled the knife away, making it fall again.
"Jareth! Don't do that!" With a cry, Galion threw himself on Jareth and tore his shirt opened, calling on his magic to heal Jareth but apart from the blood running on his pale chest, no wound was visible. Holding bits of the once Jareth's white shirt, kneeling before him, Galion stared at his brother's chest, shock and incomprehension ragging inside of him.
When Jareth talked, Galion could only stared at him. "She says I need to give her a heir first." That was when Galion saw the odd flame in Jareth's eyes. It was the same glint that he had fought when Sarah had rejected him the first time. But at that time, Jareth had exteriorized his emotions by breaking everything under hand, reporting his anger all around him. But now, here, he had stabbed himself.
Emotions, as raw as love and hate, when uncontrolled, were dangerous for Fae as they could lose control on their heart and magic and therefore, turn insane.
"Her?" Galion awkwardly asked. Who was Jareth talking about, nobody was there, he was all alone before Galion had come in the room.
"The Labyrinth." Jareth looked up at Galion oddly. He blinked then asked him, unbelieving. "You didn't know? The Labyrinth has a conscience but she refuses to let me die." Jareth smiled again, a bitter smile, another odd smile, one that crept Galion's skin.
Jareth was going insane. Talking about the Labyrinth like a living creature. The Labyrinth was a magical being that Jareth's grandfather had tamed and turned into a labyrinth. But by the way Jareth was talking about it, it was like there was a truce, an understanding between them. Galion knew he was about to light up a bomb but it was a material thing, something he could understand right now. Wondering about the real nature of the Labyrinth right now, wouldn't be of any help for Jareth. He'll try to figure out things, but later. So he asked, carefully, backing a little from Jareth. "Jareth, where's Sarah?"
As if he had received a punch in the stomach, Jareth stumbled forwards, as if he was doubling in pain, moaning. "Sarah. Sarah. My Sarah. So proud and strong. So sweet and cruel." His face was now laying on the cold floor and his body was curled in a ball, his shoulders shaking again.
Uncertainly, Galion reached out to put a hand on Jareth's shoulder, which stiffened under his touch, before relaxing again, the trembling gone. "Jareth?"
"She turned me down. She rejected me. Again. Seems to me she has some really bad habits." His muffled voice sounded amused.
Knowing what it truly meant for Jareth to be rejected again by that mortal female bought a pang of compassion and sadness to Galion's heart. "Oh, Jareth." Jareth raised his head and glared.
He yelled, trying to push on his arms to stand up but failed miserably. "Don't look at me like that! What would you know of what I feel! I don't want your pity!"
Helping him up, Galion tried to soothe him, talking with soft words. "Jareth, enough, come on, on your feet, I'm putting you in bed." Like a calming father and his ripped son.
Clinging on him, Jareth frowned. "Bed? What for?"
"Cause you really need some rest." Galion pulled Jareth closer to his bed, his mind racing like a madman to find a way to calm Jareth down. Last time the Goblin King had gone ballistic, the seven minor Warlords and the three other major Warlords, like Galion was, had to come to contain the suddenly unleashed Labyrinth from destroying the whole Underground.
"I'm trying to kill myself." Jareth said, as if talking about the weather of the incoming week.
Galion let a shuddering breath leave him, thanking any Gods that Jareth had turned this thought in a wish. In the Underground, words had power. That was one of the main differences between the above world and theirs. What Sarah couldn't understand. That once said, it was bound to happen or it already had. Jareth had confessed but for her it was only words but for Jareth it was everything. "No, you aren't." Galion denied.
"Let me go." Jareth begged and it broke Galion's heart. Oh, Jareth, he thought, I would if it'd truly help you, but it won't. "Please, tell her to stop holding me back. I don't want to stay." Galion gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Jareth, I don't know who you're talking about." He said, denying again whoever Jareth was talking about. Whatever Jareth was thinking was talking to him.
"The Labyrinth!" Jareth yelled in frustration as Galion dumped him unceremoniously on his bed and pushed the Goblin King legs on the mat. "Goodness, are you listening?" Jareth asked, he hadn't taken noticed of the change of his location.
Galion put a hand over Jareth's eyes and whispered. "Jareth, sleep."
Tears ran on the Goblin King's cheeks, surprising Galion who let his hand over his younger brother's eyes and retained in the last minutes the sleeping spell. "She said she was happy! Then why, why?" He asked to no one in particular. "What have I done wrong? Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, I would never hurt you. Never, not me." Jareth's trembling hand suddenly grabbed Galion's one over his eyes, surprising him again by his rapidity. "Galion!" Jareth sat up quickly in the bed, his eyes glinting with a strange flame. An insane glint.
"What?" Galion backed away from Jareth but the latter didn't let go of his hand.
The frantic look and scared expression, haggard face and yelling made Jareth frightening. "I need to go back! I need to make her see!"
Galion pulled his hand from Jareth's grip and put them on his shoulders to hold him still on the bed. "No, you're not!" He declared firmly. "You're going to calm down first! Bursting half crazy at her side won't help her to see that you'll never hurt her!" Jareth was fighting with both his raw magic and strength to force Galion to let him go. But magic was better controlled when one's mind was at ease so Galion easily overpowered him in that area and he kept Jareth firmly on the bed, trying to tire him with his magic. "Jareth, calm down, you're letting your emotions rule you."
But, Jareth wasn't someone that one could overpower. "Damn you! Get out of my way!" He yelled and something, something primal and barbaric woke up inside of him. An instinct stronger than anything else, something that had to remain untamed for a reason he couldn't remember, something that had always to stay in check but he couldn't remember why. Nor did he remember who the man holding him down with both his hands and magic was.
Jareth finally knocked Galion's hands and magical hold on him away. "Jareth!" Galion staggered backwards, because of the strength Jareth had unleashed to push him away and Jareth quickly stood up, his eyes blazing with anger and hate.
Jareth didn't recognize that man. Who the hell did he think he was to try to overpower the Goblin King! "I'm warning you! Get the hell out of my way or I'll crush you!" Who the hell did he think he was!
"Jareth, stop this, this instant!" Galion snapped at Jareth, realizing that he was quickly losing control over things.
Jareth let his anger explode and a wave of magic hit Galion unexpectedly. "How dare you? I'm the Goblin King! Master of the Labyrinth!" Galion slammed painfully the opposite wall and fell on his knees, as Jareth quickly approached, ready to tell him his mind and his fingers were already moving to call upon a crystal to release another spell on Galion.
"UNCLE JAR! NO!" Two voices shouted from the doors, and in a blur of honey- like hair and piercing green eyes, the twins were standing up in front of their father, protecting him from Jareth's ire.
Galion couldn't stop himself from calling his children's names. "Calandra! Nathan!" Maybe that was what saved him, because Jareth suddenly felt like he was breaking free from a fog. He knew these names. They had a meaning, a strong meaning to him, a sense of love and protection, devotion and happiness. Something dear to him.
The amount of power suddenly fell down and Jareth blinked several times, as if waking up from a bad dream. "Little ones." He said, trying to understand what exactly was going on. His head was throbbing with pain, an annoying murmur, like some running water, was rapidly getting on his nerves.
Calandra clear voice ripped the annoying murmur like a clear blade. "Uncle Jar! Mother."
".asked you to take." Nathan added. Somewhere deep in Jareth's mind, he noted clinically that the twins were deeply shocked and frightened by his behavior. A concern that felt like a blow for Galion: Jareth was one the twins' pillars in life. What if they lost trust in him? They would turn even more closed to the outside world than they already were.
".care of us!" The strange talk at two voices went on very smoothly, it was like only one person was speaking. It was just that the person's voice was just shifting from a girly to a boyish voice.
"Mother made." No lull, the discourse was taken exactly where the first one had left it.
". you promise to."
".watch over Daddy!" Galion watched, powerless, the twins. He feared their words would anger Jareth even more, at this point he wasn't sure Jareth wouldn't hurt them. But he didn't dare to interrupt them either: Jareth's attention was all focused on the twins as if their words had hit a soft spot.
Jareth remembered. "Stop.." One of the twins was saying as he remembered Emerald tired and beautiful face, tainted with blood, strained with pain and her long, so long blond hair, spilled on the white pillow.
".hurting him!"
He remembered her last smile, her last words and her last wishes. For her children she would never see grow up, for her husband she would never age with, for the brother she had tried to make him feel as.
Galion noticed a change in Jareth's eyes. His eyes would always give him away. The mad glint was gone, replaced by something Galion would have never thought to see there: uncertainty. "Kids." Jareth said, extending a hand slowly towards Calandra.
But Calandra was scared. She was holding tightly on her brother's arms, almost hiding behind him. So when the familiar gloved hand was extended to her, she backed away, putting her brother before her again. And Nathan put his free arm before her, in a protective manner and said, almost yelled to Jareth. "Auntie Sarah."
". is broken here." Calandra said, putting one of her little hand over her heart.
Jareth's hand fell as he listened closely to the kids. "We both."
".felt it. But, we." Jareth remembered a remark Galion had made about the children sensing something off in Sarah. He should have looked more closely to this, as he knew how sensible the twins were.
". decided not to tell."
". because we thought." Jareth's breathing was ragged and he stepped backwards, till his legs met the bed and sat heavily on it. He drew his legs under his chin and encircled them of his arms, head bent, listening closely.
". it was the best this way." Calandra and Nathan stepped closer to Jareth, but not close enough for their Uncle to reach out for them. Galion also stood up and walked behind the twins. They were coming to the worse part, he needed to be close if Jareth lost control again.
"Auntie Sarah fears."
". someone will come."
". and leave her."
". unwanted." Jareth groaned on the bed and Galion could see Jareth's muscles tightened in anger. Or fear.
"Because her own mother."
". didn't want Auntie Sarah with her." Jareth snapped his head up and stared at the twins, eyes wide, unblinking. Just like an owl. Galion mused, suddenly.
"We're not."
". even sure Auntie."
". Sarah knows about."
". this. Auntie Sarah feels ."
".Uncle Jar is dangerous." Jareth let go of the breath he had been retaining.
". because he may."
". make her see what."
". she prefers to remain."
". left alone." Jareth closed his eyes, trying to shut away the pain, make it dull again, to forget it. But it didn't work.
He had to ask, he had to know. "How long do you know that?" Jareth asked, his voice hoarse and pained, his jaw tight, his eyes still closed and his fingers digging painfully in his flesh.
"We've just."
". realized it clearly."
"But we knew."
".something was wrong." Jareth opened his eyes and he slowly opened his fingers. He then straightened his back and crossed his legs Indian-style.
Calandra tilted her head on the side, looking carefully at her uncle. "Uncle Jar..."
". do you hear the."
". Labyrinth?"
" She says."
". she's okay with it."
". she's giving you."
". her blessing."
". to share your."
". piece of Hell."
". with Auntie Sarah." Nathan ended.
"My piece of Hell?" Jareth stared at the twins. Calandra was still holding tightly on Nathan's arm and she was looking at him wearily. Jareth felt his heart tighten but he couldn't do anything about it.
When Sarah had left him the first time, the twins had to be send over their grandfather, so they didn't witness the destroying way the Labyrinth and himself had behaved. Thinking of the Labyrinth woke in Jareth's soul the part and flame that was the Labyrinth.
Oh, he knew, there were rumors going wild saying that he had shared his soul with the Labyrinth, which wasn't completely untrue that was why he had never denied them. It was just a part of the truth.
The little flame twinkled gently at his reaching mind and whispered to him a little secret he hadn't been willing to hear before, too caught up in his own pain. "Yes, I can hear her now." Jareth smiled sadly. The Labyrinth had changed so much from before, before Sarah's first visit. He winked at Nathan who only blinked in return. "She has developed a wicked sense of humor, don't you think, little ones?"
Nathan swallowed and blinked again. That was the Uncle Jar they knew and loved. Not the scaring one just minutes before. If it hadn't been for the persistent whispering at their ears, the twins knew they wouldn't have come any closer to Jareth's private rooms that any other servants in the castle. "We don't understand."
". what she means." Calandra finally released Nathan's arm from her grip and tilted her head on the side, once more, curiosity was pushing her fear away.
".by piece of Hell, Uncle Jar." Nathan ended, looking quizzically at Jareth.
But Jareth smiled and looked up at the ceiling, as if his gaze could pierce through it and reaching Sarah. "But I do." He whispered, dropping his gaze back to the children, then with a last smile, he transformed into a barn owl while the closest window burst open. Jareth flapped his wings a little near Galion, bringing a sad smile to the older man's face, then flew away, towards the Aboveground and Sarah.
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AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! (insert insane laugh here) I'm back and ready for you guys!! A little Bit of Hell is coming to its conclusion! For those who want to bash me in outer space right now, please, don't. But, try to, instead to guess what piece of Hell the Labyrinth and Jareth are talking about!
Anyway. Review time! Reviews are in the order that I read them. (going from Shannon to Solar) I'll try to do the others too!
Hey, Shannon, thanks a lot for your enthusiastic review! (author ego flares up. Hell 009 pokes its head out of the fanfiction folder and glares. Author ego gets deflated as Hell 009 shows its only 5 lines.)
Lythandae: I don't mind either (for Karen to be portrayed as completely evil) but you may say it's in my nature but I refused to believe a person is "all bad". So, here's my version of Karen.
Chook: I almost threw my computer by my window. I was so frustrated! But, thanks god, I've invested too much money in it to completely lose my mind.
Bunnie Babe: You're right. I should have included Hoggle more. But, I couldn't grab his character and his "role" was filled up by Calandra so I decided not to risk being OOC with him and kinda left him outside. BUT in my next story, I'll try to involve him more. I'm getting ideas!! (hin! Hin! What? Again that insane laugh?)
Hope it was worth the wait, Sophie!
Earth Goddess: Do like me! Save money to buy your own! (okay, it means no new clothes for half a year (if you're lucky and your birthday's close if not, a year and a half.) no cinema, no. well fun at all. But it's damn worth it! Now, my sister is always bugging my computer! Even my dad sometimes.)
Redaura: THANKS FOR THE BRAIDED FINGERS AND TOES! (glomp on Redaura!)
Zephyr: Man, you suffered the loss of your computer several times? I'll go mad.
Megan: I'm sorry, I've never watched the movie and I don't think I will because I developed an idea of Jareth and Sarah that may be crushed down when watching the movie. I got hooked on Labyrinth by reading one of Cormack3032 stories (the debt, I believe) and one things leading to another I started writing my owns. Sorry, sorry.
Serenity * blush * thanks, you don't know how much these kinds of review light up my day. I mean, it's so great to know that somebody else, someone you don't know actually loved and cared enough for something you created to post a review! * blush * it's a wonderful feeling!
Ivy: hope you liked the new chapter. Did you have enough? (grin) Don't worry, it won't take me as long as it took me to write chapter 8 to get the 9th! Promise!
Thanks a lot, Natalie. I spend a great deal of time looking around for these songs but most of them are French, I hope that the translations I made are accurate.
Draedgon-fire: What do you think about this little bit? The next fix will come out soon, promise! (not tomorrow, of course but before the end of the next month)
Solar: * HUGE BLUSH * thank you * HUGE BLUSH * (needs to fan her face. Is steam actually raising from her cheeks?)
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Chapter 8. Desperation.
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Sarah was wandering helplessly in the streets: she was supposed to head towards the bus station, which would take her back to the heart of the city, to where she lived. Rolling her left shoulder softly to put in place the sport bag, she let the familiar surrounding engulf her, letting her mind wander while her feet led her. Karen had said she was scared of love. But who in his right mind could be scared of love? That was stupid. Love was supposed to be the top, the blossoming, the magnificence of one's life, wasn't it?
Then, why did Jareth keep on talking about her and dying altogether? Why that feeling of surrender, of walking against the stream that seemed to linger around him? Why he was fighting it? Why was he so reluctant to let go in the first place? Why tricking her into staying in the Labyrinth rather than ask her? There were too much games and riddles going on for her.
As she walked down the street, a song suddenly soared from the windows of a house nearby, from an old and forgotten radio as the inhabitants of the house happily laughed with each other. They were standing on another world.
Happiness is just a word to me
And it might have meant a thing or two
If I'd known the difference
Emptiness, a lonely parody
And my life, another smokin' gun
A sign of my indifference
Sarah watched them from the street, through their living-room's windows, the wind blew her bangs away from her eyes gently, pushing her gently to resume her walk. But this time, her feet turned left instead of right. Left to the park, where she used to go and rehearse. Rehearse the Labyrinth, telling the lines to the birds, spinning on herself, playing, acting.
Always keepin' safe inside
Where no one ever had a chance
To penetrate a break in
Let me tell you some have tried
But I would slam the door so tight
That they could never get in
Kept my cool under lock and key
And I never shed a tear
Another sign of my condition
She absent-mindedly strode down the familiar path to the familiar old bench. She looked around her: the day was bright and warm so people were lazily stretched on the ground, their kids running wild around, asleep or reading while she stood alone. Families or sweethearts talking quietly, laughing, kissing while she was alone. Better that way. She thought. Better be the one who leave than the one left behind.
Fear of love or bitter vanity
That kept me on the run
The main events at my confession
I kept a chain upon my door
That would shake the shame of Cain
Into a blind submission
The burning ghost without a name
Was calling all the same
But I wouldn't listen
She just needed to convince her heart she needn't him in her life to go on, as always. It was only an infatuation, because she was lonely and that he offered something she had been craving for. But, it was only a matter of time before he grew tired of her.
The longer I'd stall
The further I'd crawl
The further I'd crawl
The harder I'd fall
I was crawlin' into the fire
The more that I saw
The further I'd fall
The further I'd fall
The lower I'd crawl
I kept fallin' into the fire
Into the fire
Into the fire
Time, how ironic for an immortal being. That was the way it was with her. People always ended up leaving her alone. Either because she was her daughter. Linda Williams' daughter, the great actress' daughter.
But then, after a little time, people started to leave her because she was only her daughter, not the mother. That was part of the reason she had abruptly stopped acting. She had told people it was because she was too much of a dreamer to be an actress, anyway. That she preferred to write her stories rather than playing someone else's.
True, her heart always jumped happily whenever one of her 'babies' was chosen to be the play of the year or when her books attracted so many people. She sat on the bench, next to her bag. Her bench was quite secluded from the other people, as the trees made it look like a hollow, an eerie place that only certain people could see, a perfect sanctuary: visible and invisible.
She should end the strange thing between them as soon as possible, to make it less painful for him. He may have tried to trick her to stay a year in the Underground, it wasn't really like that, it felt more like an visit. Better end it, the sooner the better, now right?
A single name fell from her lips, attracting his attention almost immediately.
.....................
For once, he hadn't been watching her; he was busy with his brother, trying to sort out things. They had decided that he should clear that stupid deal between them and Galion had managed to coax the reason out of him for that deal: because suddenly, it had felt like the cleverest thing to do to keep her. Keep her by him. That was all that had mattered. That still mattered.
.....................
His name rang like a bell in his mind and with an hopeful smile he left his brother who gave him an encouragement tap on the shoulder as they were standing together in the kids' playroom, watching Nathan carefully release an healing spell on his father.
.....................
To say that he was surprised of founding himself in the park in the Aboveground was an understatement. He had thought she would be at the castle, waiting for him. A look at her impassive face made him shudder and fear for the worse.
"Sarah?" his voice hoarse with worry, Jareth stepped closer to the young woman. Quickly glancing around, he ordered silently to the people in the park not to notice either him or Sarah. As the spell left his fingers, Sarah's voice called his attention back to her.
"I'm giving you this back." She said, unclasping from her neck the chain he had given her. The crystal hanging on it was starting to glow faintly, a reminder of the time that was supposed to be left for her in the Aboveground.
Shocked, Jareth watched her take his hand and putting his gift between his trembling fingers. "What?"
She looked up at him and sighed quietly. "I'm not coming back with you."
"Sarah?" He repeated her name again, not understanding what she was saying. It was like she was suddenly speaking in a foreign language.
Sarah smiled as she stood up, feeling incredibly cold and relieved in the meantime. "I decided it was the best for me not to let someone hurt me again."
Fury and fear lit up in his mismatched eyes and he reached out for her hands, almost yelling. "Sarah! I would never ever."
She pulled her hands away from his and stated. "That's what they all say in the beginning." He could have died right here, he wouldn't have noticed the difference.
He bent his head to try to breathe again. Then, as he felt his heart shatter like a crystal hurled against a wall, pain shooting in his chest, he asked her, almost begging her. "Sarah, I don't understand, I thought you were happy with me!" He raised his face to look in her eyes, to read nothing but cold in them, while his flashed with pain.
"I was." That was all she say. He didn't want to notice the past tense in which she was speaking If it happened once, it can happened again!
Again he reached for her hands. "Then why? Please, give us a chance! Give me a chance." He advanced on her, kneeled at her feet and with trembling fingers, he touched her knees like she was made of glass, about to break under his touch. He wasn't afraid to beg her. He was no longer a King. He was truly her slave.
Again, she pulled away. "No."
"Sarah!" He thought tears would have started to fall from his eyes and was coldly surprised to find none of them. Maybe because he felt like the whole world and his own emotions were all dull, maybe there was a point in pain where tears couldn't even fall.
"It's not fair for you." That sent him over the edge. And he backed away from her, as if she had suddenly turned in a statue made of iron.
And he lost his last bit of control. "You have no right, I saved your life, therefore, you're mine! You are to come back with me in the Underground!" He tightened his hold on the necklace in his hand, the necklace he had given her, as a token of generosity, to make her feel almost free while staying with him in the Underground. An act of kindness.
She didn't pay attention to him, her eyes focused on the necklace. "Seems like I called you just in time."
"What?" He noticed her fixed gaze and quickly followed it. The crystal was shining like a small sun and would take whoever or whatever was attached to it to the Underground. "Sarah!" Was this only thing she heard when the light swallowed up the Goblin King and his shattered heart.
.....................
Galion was teaching his son the easiest healing spells while Calandra, who had been punished from sneaking away, had to copy down, and without magic, the first ten paragraph of 'The Underground. An History.'
To say these paragraphs, and the whole book actually, were boring was an offending understatement. But Calandra wasn't suffering in silence and her long and repetitive sighs were growing heavier with time, but her father didn't pay attention and her traitorous brother was too absorbed in the lesson to really care.
"Well done, Nathan, now, feel the muscle and the bone of my jaw." Galion was commenting, as Nathan ran his fingers on his father's jaw. "Do you feel where it's bruised?" He asked. When a cry, like a dying bird, rang in the darker corners of his mind. "Huh!" Surprised, Galion straightened up and blinked, when he finally discovered what that cry really was and as if Death herself had ran her fingers down his spine, he shivered and yelled for a servant. "Somebody!"
A young guard opened the door and stayed in its frame, waiting. "Yes, my lord?"
Galion, in few pace, had put a surprised Nathan on one of his shoulders and was reaching for a squealing Calandra to jerk her on his other shoulders, yelled to the young man. "We're going over the Goblin Castle. Calandra, Nathan, brace yourselves!"
"Daddy?" The twins both asked as they disappeared from they playroom.
.....................
Galion had chosen to appear in the kitchen, he wanted to gather some information before facing the tornado. "Nanny!" He yelled, looking around for her, as he lowered himself to put his children down but Calandra immediately attached herself to one of his legs, frightened looking frantically around her. The kitchen was a wreck. And for cause, the castle was literally trembling.
Again, a cry rose in the darker corners of his mind, but this time, it was repeated and amplified and the whole castle and its inhabitants heard the pathetic cry. Nathan tried to block the eerie sound and Calandra jumped on his neck, hanging on him as if her life depended of it. Nathan, as scared closed his own arms around her. But Galion didn't notice. He didn't notice either when something seemed to call out the twins, attracting their attentions and soothing their frightened hearts.
The kitchen staff, made of elf, humans, goblins and faeries were all running like chicken to the next issue, probably fearing than the castle would crumble on their heads. A small and round, sobbing high elf, pushed her way to where Galion and his children were. "Galion!"
Galion made his way to meet Celia half-way and took her by the shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. "What's wrong?" He demanded, his voice as harsh as his grip.
"It's . It's Jareth and the lady." That was all he needed to know.
He whirled around to spot his children, in arms of each others, and told them, before disappearing again. "You two stay here!"
"Daddy!" Calandra cried out for him.
.....................
Galion burst in Jareth's private chambers to find his younger brother's form crumpled against the wall, one of his elbow resting on a drawn knee, his head bent down, curtains had been closed therefore, darkness was covering of her shady form the real Goblin King's pitiful state, despite the few candles lit here and there. A bloody knife next to his opened hand, on which a neckalce with a little crystal, now tainted with blood, was curled around his fingers. His shirt was torn and tattered, blood marks all over it and his shoulders were shaking silently.
"Jareth!" Galion ran to kneel on Jareth's side, but the barking and bitter laugh that had been building in Jareth stopped him from taking another step closer.
Jareth threw his head behind him, laughing, a laugh that froze Galion's blood in his veins. "It's Galion! My brother!" He laughed once more as tears were welling in his eyes.
Heart beating rapidly, Galion took a step closer as he took noticed of the knife turned in Jareth's direction. "Jareth! What.?"
But Jareth cut him as he grabbed the knife again. "She wouldn't let me die, look." He plunged it in his chest but quickly, before Galion could even react, an invisible hand jerked Jareth's closed fist away and pulled the knife away, making it fall again.
"Jareth! Don't do that!" With a cry, Galion threw himself on Jareth and tore his shirt opened, calling on his magic to heal Jareth but apart from the blood running on his pale chest, no wound was visible. Holding bits of the once Jareth's white shirt, kneeling before him, Galion stared at his brother's chest, shock and incomprehension ragging inside of him.
When Jareth talked, Galion could only stared at him. "She says I need to give her a heir first." That was when Galion saw the odd flame in Jareth's eyes. It was the same glint that he had fought when Sarah had rejected him the first time. But at that time, Jareth had exteriorized his emotions by breaking everything under hand, reporting his anger all around him. But now, here, he had stabbed himself.
Emotions, as raw as love and hate, when uncontrolled, were dangerous for Fae as they could lose control on their heart and magic and therefore, turn insane.
"Her?" Galion awkwardly asked. Who was Jareth talking about, nobody was there, he was all alone before Galion had come in the room.
"The Labyrinth." Jareth looked up at Galion oddly. He blinked then asked him, unbelieving. "You didn't know? The Labyrinth has a conscience but she refuses to let me die." Jareth smiled again, a bitter smile, another odd smile, one that crept Galion's skin.
Jareth was going insane. Talking about the Labyrinth like a living creature. The Labyrinth was a magical being that Jareth's grandfather had tamed and turned into a labyrinth. But by the way Jareth was talking about it, it was like there was a truce, an understanding between them. Galion knew he was about to light up a bomb but it was a material thing, something he could understand right now. Wondering about the real nature of the Labyrinth right now, wouldn't be of any help for Jareth. He'll try to figure out things, but later. So he asked, carefully, backing a little from Jareth. "Jareth, where's Sarah?"
As if he had received a punch in the stomach, Jareth stumbled forwards, as if he was doubling in pain, moaning. "Sarah. Sarah. My Sarah. So proud and strong. So sweet and cruel." His face was now laying on the cold floor and his body was curled in a ball, his shoulders shaking again.
Uncertainly, Galion reached out to put a hand on Jareth's shoulder, which stiffened under his touch, before relaxing again, the trembling gone. "Jareth?"
"She turned me down. She rejected me. Again. Seems to me she has some really bad habits." His muffled voice sounded amused.
Knowing what it truly meant for Jareth to be rejected again by that mortal female bought a pang of compassion and sadness to Galion's heart. "Oh, Jareth." Jareth raised his head and glared.
He yelled, trying to push on his arms to stand up but failed miserably. "Don't look at me like that! What would you know of what I feel! I don't want your pity!"
Helping him up, Galion tried to soothe him, talking with soft words. "Jareth, enough, come on, on your feet, I'm putting you in bed." Like a calming father and his ripped son.
Clinging on him, Jareth frowned. "Bed? What for?"
"Cause you really need some rest." Galion pulled Jareth closer to his bed, his mind racing like a madman to find a way to calm Jareth down. Last time the Goblin King had gone ballistic, the seven minor Warlords and the three other major Warlords, like Galion was, had to come to contain the suddenly unleashed Labyrinth from destroying the whole Underground.
"I'm trying to kill myself." Jareth said, as if talking about the weather of the incoming week.
Galion let a shuddering breath leave him, thanking any Gods that Jareth had turned this thought in a wish. In the Underground, words had power. That was one of the main differences between the above world and theirs. What Sarah couldn't understand. That once said, it was bound to happen or it already had. Jareth had confessed but for her it was only words but for Jareth it was everything. "No, you aren't." Galion denied.
"Let me go." Jareth begged and it broke Galion's heart. Oh, Jareth, he thought, I would if it'd truly help you, but it won't. "Please, tell her to stop holding me back. I don't want to stay." Galion gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Jareth, I don't know who you're talking about." He said, denying again whoever Jareth was talking about. Whatever Jareth was thinking was talking to him.
"The Labyrinth!" Jareth yelled in frustration as Galion dumped him unceremoniously on his bed and pushed the Goblin King legs on the mat. "Goodness, are you listening?" Jareth asked, he hadn't taken noticed of the change of his location.
Galion put a hand over Jareth's eyes and whispered. "Jareth, sleep."
Tears ran on the Goblin King's cheeks, surprising Galion who let his hand over his younger brother's eyes and retained in the last minutes the sleeping spell. "She said she was happy! Then why, why?" He asked to no one in particular. "What have I done wrong? Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, I would never hurt you. Never, not me." Jareth's trembling hand suddenly grabbed Galion's one over his eyes, surprising him again by his rapidity. "Galion!" Jareth sat up quickly in the bed, his eyes glinting with a strange flame. An insane glint.
"What?" Galion backed away from Jareth but the latter didn't let go of his hand.
The frantic look and scared expression, haggard face and yelling made Jareth frightening. "I need to go back! I need to make her see!"
Galion pulled his hand from Jareth's grip and put them on his shoulders to hold him still on the bed. "No, you're not!" He declared firmly. "You're going to calm down first! Bursting half crazy at her side won't help her to see that you'll never hurt her!" Jareth was fighting with both his raw magic and strength to force Galion to let him go. But magic was better controlled when one's mind was at ease so Galion easily overpowered him in that area and he kept Jareth firmly on the bed, trying to tire him with his magic. "Jareth, calm down, you're letting your emotions rule you."
But, Jareth wasn't someone that one could overpower. "Damn you! Get out of my way!" He yelled and something, something primal and barbaric woke up inside of him. An instinct stronger than anything else, something that had to remain untamed for a reason he couldn't remember, something that had always to stay in check but he couldn't remember why. Nor did he remember who the man holding him down with both his hands and magic was.
Jareth finally knocked Galion's hands and magical hold on him away. "Jareth!" Galion staggered backwards, because of the strength Jareth had unleashed to push him away and Jareth quickly stood up, his eyes blazing with anger and hate.
Jareth didn't recognize that man. Who the hell did he think he was to try to overpower the Goblin King! "I'm warning you! Get the hell out of my way or I'll crush you!" Who the hell did he think he was!
"Jareth, stop this, this instant!" Galion snapped at Jareth, realizing that he was quickly losing control over things.
Jareth let his anger explode and a wave of magic hit Galion unexpectedly. "How dare you? I'm the Goblin King! Master of the Labyrinth!" Galion slammed painfully the opposite wall and fell on his knees, as Jareth quickly approached, ready to tell him his mind and his fingers were already moving to call upon a crystal to release another spell on Galion.
"UNCLE JAR! NO!" Two voices shouted from the doors, and in a blur of honey- like hair and piercing green eyes, the twins were standing up in front of their father, protecting him from Jareth's ire.
Galion couldn't stop himself from calling his children's names. "Calandra! Nathan!" Maybe that was what saved him, because Jareth suddenly felt like he was breaking free from a fog. He knew these names. They had a meaning, a strong meaning to him, a sense of love and protection, devotion and happiness. Something dear to him.
The amount of power suddenly fell down and Jareth blinked several times, as if waking up from a bad dream. "Little ones." He said, trying to understand what exactly was going on. His head was throbbing with pain, an annoying murmur, like some running water, was rapidly getting on his nerves.
Calandra clear voice ripped the annoying murmur like a clear blade. "Uncle Jar! Mother."
".asked you to take." Nathan added. Somewhere deep in Jareth's mind, he noted clinically that the twins were deeply shocked and frightened by his behavior. A concern that felt like a blow for Galion: Jareth was one the twins' pillars in life. What if they lost trust in him? They would turn even more closed to the outside world than they already were.
".care of us!" The strange talk at two voices went on very smoothly, it was like only one person was speaking. It was just that the person's voice was just shifting from a girly to a boyish voice.
"Mother made." No lull, the discourse was taken exactly where the first one had left it.
". you promise to."
".watch over Daddy!" Galion watched, powerless, the twins. He feared their words would anger Jareth even more, at this point he wasn't sure Jareth wouldn't hurt them. But he didn't dare to interrupt them either: Jareth's attention was all focused on the twins as if their words had hit a soft spot.
Jareth remembered. "Stop.." One of the twins was saying as he remembered Emerald tired and beautiful face, tainted with blood, strained with pain and her long, so long blond hair, spilled on the white pillow.
".hurting him!"
He remembered her last smile, her last words and her last wishes. For her children she would never see grow up, for her husband she would never age with, for the brother she had tried to make him feel as.
Galion noticed a change in Jareth's eyes. His eyes would always give him away. The mad glint was gone, replaced by something Galion would have never thought to see there: uncertainty. "Kids." Jareth said, extending a hand slowly towards Calandra.
But Calandra was scared. She was holding tightly on her brother's arms, almost hiding behind him. So when the familiar gloved hand was extended to her, she backed away, putting her brother before her again. And Nathan put his free arm before her, in a protective manner and said, almost yelled to Jareth. "Auntie Sarah."
". is broken here." Calandra said, putting one of her little hand over her heart.
Jareth's hand fell as he listened closely to the kids. "We both."
".felt it. But, we." Jareth remembered a remark Galion had made about the children sensing something off in Sarah. He should have looked more closely to this, as he knew how sensible the twins were.
". decided not to tell."
". because we thought." Jareth's breathing was ragged and he stepped backwards, till his legs met the bed and sat heavily on it. He drew his legs under his chin and encircled them of his arms, head bent, listening closely.
". it was the best this way." Calandra and Nathan stepped closer to Jareth, but not close enough for their Uncle to reach out for them. Galion also stood up and walked behind the twins. They were coming to the worse part, he needed to be close if Jareth lost control again.
"Auntie Sarah fears."
". someone will come."
". and leave her."
". unwanted." Jareth groaned on the bed and Galion could see Jareth's muscles tightened in anger. Or fear.
"Because her own mother."
". didn't want Auntie Sarah with her." Jareth snapped his head up and stared at the twins, eyes wide, unblinking. Just like an owl. Galion mused, suddenly.
"We're not."
". even sure Auntie."
". Sarah knows about."
". this. Auntie Sarah feels ."
".Uncle Jar is dangerous." Jareth let go of the breath he had been retaining.
". because he may."
". make her see what."
". she prefers to remain."
". left alone." Jareth closed his eyes, trying to shut away the pain, make it dull again, to forget it. But it didn't work.
He had to ask, he had to know. "How long do you know that?" Jareth asked, his voice hoarse and pained, his jaw tight, his eyes still closed and his fingers digging painfully in his flesh.
"We've just."
". realized it clearly."
"But we knew."
".something was wrong." Jareth opened his eyes and he slowly opened his fingers. He then straightened his back and crossed his legs Indian-style.
Calandra tilted her head on the side, looking carefully at her uncle. "Uncle Jar..."
". do you hear the."
". Labyrinth?"
" She says."
". she's okay with it."
". she's giving you."
". her blessing."
". to share your."
". piece of Hell."
". with Auntie Sarah." Nathan ended.
"My piece of Hell?" Jareth stared at the twins. Calandra was still holding tightly on Nathan's arm and she was looking at him wearily. Jareth felt his heart tighten but he couldn't do anything about it.
When Sarah had left him the first time, the twins had to be send over their grandfather, so they didn't witness the destroying way the Labyrinth and himself had behaved. Thinking of the Labyrinth woke in Jareth's soul the part and flame that was the Labyrinth.
Oh, he knew, there were rumors going wild saying that he had shared his soul with the Labyrinth, which wasn't completely untrue that was why he had never denied them. It was just a part of the truth.
The little flame twinkled gently at his reaching mind and whispered to him a little secret he hadn't been willing to hear before, too caught up in his own pain. "Yes, I can hear her now." Jareth smiled sadly. The Labyrinth had changed so much from before, before Sarah's first visit. He winked at Nathan who only blinked in return. "She has developed a wicked sense of humor, don't you think, little ones?"
Nathan swallowed and blinked again. That was the Uncle Jar they knew and loved. Not the scaring one just minutes before. If it hadn't been for the persistent whispering at their ears, the twins knew they wouldn't have come any closer to Jareth's private rooms that any other servants in the castle. "We don't understand."
". what she means." Calandra finally released Nathan's arm from her grip and tilted her head on the side, once more, curiosity was pushing her fear away.
".by piece of Hell, Uncle Jar." Nathan ended, looking quizzically at Jareth.
But Jareth smiled and looked up at the ceiling, as if his gaze could pierce through it and reaching Sarah. "But I do." He whispered, dropping his gaze back to the children, then with a last smile, he transformed into a barn owl while the closest window burst open. Jareth flapped his wings a little near Galion, bringing a sad smile to the older man's face, then flew away, towards the Aboveground and Sarah.
..................
AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! (insert insane laugh here) I'm back and ready for you guys!! A little Bit of Hell is coming to its conclusion! For those who want to bash me in outer space right now, please, don't. But, try to, instead to guess what piece of Hell the Labyrinth and Jareth are talking about!
Anyway. Review time! Reviews are in the order that I read them. (going from Shannon to Solar) I'll try to do the others too!
Hey, Shannon, thanks a lot for your enthusiastic review! (author ego flares up. Hell 009 pokes its head out of the fanfiction folder and glares. Author ego gets deflated as Hell 009 shows its only 5 lines.)
Lythandae: I don't mind either (for Karen to be portrayed as completely evil) but you may say it's in my nature but I refused to believe a person is "all bad". So, here's my version of Karen.
Chook: I almost threw my computer by my window. I was so frustrated! But, thanks god, I've invested too much money in it to completely lose my mind.
Bunnie Babe: You're right. I should have included Hoggle more. But, I couldn't grab his character and his "role" was filled up by Calandra so I decided not to risk being OOC with him and kinda left him outside. BUT in my next story, I'll try to involve him more. I'm getting ideas!! (hin! Hin! What? Again that insane laugh?)
Hope it was worth the wait, Sophie!
Earth Goddess: Do like me! Save money to buy your own! (okay, it means no new clothes for half a year (if you're lucky and your birthday's close if not, a year and a half.) no cinema, no. well fun at all. But it's damn worth it! Now, my sister is always bugging my computer! Even my dad sometimes.)
Redaura: THANKS FOR THE BRAIDED FINGERS AND TOES! (glomp on Redaura!)
Zephyr: Man, you suffered the loss of your computer several times? I'll go mad.
Megan: I'm sorry, I've never watched the movie and I don't think I will because I developed an idea of Jareth and Sarah that may be crushed down when watching the movie. I got hooked on Labyrinth by reading one of Cormack3032 stories (the debt, I believe) and one things leading to another I started writing my owns. Sorry, sorry.
Serenity * blush * thanks, you don't know how much these kinds of review light up my day. I mean, it's so great to know that somebody else, someone you don't know actually loved and cared enough for something you created to post a review! * blush * it's a wonderful feeling!
Ivy: hope you liked the new chapter. Did you have enough? (grin) Don't worry, it won't take me as long as it took me to write chapter 8 to get the 9th! Promise!
Thanks a lot, Natalie. I spend a great deal of time looking around for these songs but most of them are French, I hope that the translations I made are accurate.
Draedgon-fire: What do you think about this little bit? The next fix will come out soon, promise! (not tomorrow, of course but before the end of the next month)
Solar: * HUGE BLUSH * thank you * HUGE BLUSH * (needs to fan her face. Is steam actually raising from her cheeks?)