***

Jareth

"Alright." I said swirling around, my cape dusting the floor as I paced back and forth in front of my throne. "If need to find a way..." I said to myself, trailing off at the end of my sentence as I materialized another crystal and continued pacing. I watched as Christina continued her journey through my Labyrinth. All the goblins became quiet and stopped what they were doing to also peer into my crystal, but a few of them lost intrest quickly and went back to what they were doing. "I can't think of anything!" I exclaimed as I kicked the nearest, unfortunate goblin across the room.

"We should be alone, that'd be best. Then I can talk to her..." I said trailing off again.

"Um, Excuse me, your Majesty," I heard a tiny little voice say. I quickly put my crystal away and turned to see my handmaiden Soryu, a petite female goblin, standing at my feet.

"What is it?" I asked her, frustrated from being drawn my away from my thoughts.

"Well, you could always have a ball. That way you can invite a bunch of people and sneak away with your Lady." I stared down at her and she seemed to shrink under my gaze. "Sorry, your Majesty, it was just a suggestion." and she scurried away. 'A ball...' I thought as I began pacing again. Could I do that? I thought back to the ball I had thrown for...her, for Sarah, when she was whisked away to my Labyrinth. 'No I can't do it.' All different memories of Sarah came flooding back, I was so close... then she just turned and left me like that. 'Should I? I don't have much other choice. I obviously can't think of anything.' I kicked another tiny goblin across the room in my frustration. Too many thoughts and feelings were swirling around my head and I couldn't take it. I threw myself down into my throne and rested my hand in my hands as I tried to sort everything out. I could already feel a headache coming on and quickly rose out of my throne again and rushed to my chambers. I slammed the door behind me and sat on the edge of my bed. The sky outside turned gray and I all that kept going around in my head was her name Sarah...Sarah...and all different memories I had of her. I got up again and tore across the room. I'd have to decide what to do about a ball for Christina some other time. I picked one of the flasks up off my table and quickly downed some of the liquid. I bent over in agony and held my head as a burning pain burst in it. Then, slowly, the pain diminished and I stood upright again.
"God that hurts." At least the headache was gone now, but everything else still swirling in my mind. 'Damn it. I guess I'll have to drink more next time.' I thought sarcastically. I had to have a ball, it was the only thing left for me to do, but I couldn't think about all the details. Not now with my head spinning like this. I quickly transformed into an owl and soared out of my window and over the Labyrinth to try and clear my head. I spotted Christina and silently swooped down to a ledge to watch. She continued on and didn't even notice my presence. Once she was out of sight I took off again to think about what I was going to do.

***

Stina


"Alright, for the thousandth time, which way did you and Sarah go to reach the door knocker?"
"What about door knockers?"
"Agh! I'm going to kill you!" I said, totally fed up with Hoggle, my hands making a beeline for his neck. His eyes grew wide, but I was suddenly stopped from my mission to kill when I heard someone call out my name.
"Stina?" I looked down at Hoggle,
"Listen!" I said excitedly, "It's Jen!"
"Stina? Where are you?"
"I'm over here!" I called out.
"Oh, that's a big help." she replied.
"Hoghead come here." He folded his arms and looked at me like, 'you've got to be kidding.' "No, I'm not gonna do anything, Just come here."
"Uh-uh, I learned my lesson the first time."
"I just want to lift you up to see if you can spot Jen so she can get over here." he looked at me, still skeptical, but then made his way over. "Thank You. Geez." I put my hands together in the same fashion Jen had showed me earlier. "Here, Step up." I boosted Hoggle up so he could be seen above the hedges. "Call her name." I told him.
"Jen! Over here!"
"Ah, There you are." After a few wrong twists and turns, and Hoggle trying to tell her how to get to us while constantly confusing left and right, she made her way over to us.
"Jen!" I exclaimed, forgetting about Hoggle and throwing my arms around Jen.
"Huh! Stina...can't...breathe..."
"Oh, sorry." I said loosening my bear-like grip on her. "I was getting so worried, I had no idea where you were!"
"Um, I think you forgot abut someone." She said pointing over my shoulder. I turned to see Hoggle sprawled on the ground. I tried my best to hold in a laugh.
"Oops, Sorry Hogsby."
"Yeah, sure. Just help me up." I walked over to him and held his hands to pull him up off the ground. It took a lot more effort on my part however, because Hoggle was acting like a deadweight. With a sudden burst of energy I finally got him up and we almost went flying into the hedge behind us. I walked over to Jen so we could start out again to find the door knockers.
"Hogface and I have not been getting along well at all." I informed Jen, while glaring back at Hoggle. "He has been nothing but a royal pain in the arse this entire time. And I'm pretty sure that is not what Jareth told him to be."
"Yeah, well she almost smashed my legs into a million pieces." He interjected.
"Oh, I did not, get over it. And you had that stupid limp anyway. Who knows? Maybe I fixed it? Hmph, I should call you Gimpy from now on." I looked over at Jen,
"Are you ok? You're being irregularly quiet. You kinda seem out of it."
"Yeah, I'm fine." she answered. "Just kind of uh, tired. And a bit damp."
"Where did you go?"
"I ended up in some enchanted forest. First I had to get across these stepping stones where some fell and some did not so I had to check each one out before jumping to the next one so I wouldn't fall into oblivion. I almost didn't make but, I'm here. Then, in order to get out of the forest I had to answer three riddles."
"Oo, I hate riddles."
"The first two were easy but the last one was hard. Kir- uh, kinda got me annoyed. But I got it." she quickly finished.
"Yeah you know what happened to me? First I almost died because I had to talk to Jareth without you there to help me."
"Yeah," Hoggle cut in, "Talk about seducing someone. She was all over him." I blushed slightly and Jen looked at me with an expression of partial disbelief and partial disapproval.
"What? It worked...because what happened next is...you know that scene in the movie with the Cleaners? Well, we were stuck there because the gate was locked and a brick wall was built behind the one Sarah had knocked over. So I was stuck with him - and was getting quite upset so I called out to Jareth to help me and he sent me one of his crystals that turned into a key to open the gate. It was insane."
"Wow." Jen said, apparently astounded. "He would never do that for anyone else."
"Yeah, Hoghead still doesn't believe me." I stuck my tongue out at him for the twentieth time that day.
"You just better watch out." Jen warned me, "I definitely think Jareth has taken more than a casual interest in you." I looked down and smiled to myself,
"You really think so?"
"Yeah, he hasn't come to visit me once, and here you are, with him practically dragging you back to his 'royal chambers'."
"Haha! That's the next step."
"Oh, that's disgusting! Ew! Mental image!" I whirled around, teeth clenched and glared at Hoggle. 'Uh-oh' I heard Jen say in the background.
"Just because no one would ever like a repulsive little scab like you doesn't mean you need to act like that about other people's success in relationships. Thank You. Have a nice day."
"Uh...I...uh...um...just..."
"What? What?" He continued to gape at me, "Yeah. That's what I thought."
"You two are worse then my younger siblings." Jen cut in.
"Yeah, but I love arguing. Thinking of nasty comebacks on the spur of the moment. I've gotten quite good at it."
"Sometimes, I wonder about you..."
"Hey look!" I exclaimed "The Door Knockers! Ha! I told you I'd find them." I stuck my tongue out at Hoggle again. Jen walked up and began examining each of the stone creatures nailed to the doors.
"Boy," she said under her breath, "Those are really nice knockers."
"Oh, vell sank you." I said in a Swedish accent. Jen spun around and just looked at me. "Sorry I couldn't help it. It was the perfect opportunity." {AN: We don't own anything from Young Frankenstein either. Oh well.}  She let out a small laugh, shook her head and turned back around.
"It's very rude to stare!" The creature on the left spoke out.
"I know, I know." Jen sighed
"What? Speak up! Can't hear you!"
"It's no use. He can't hear for beans." A muffled voice said from behind us. 'hehe' I thought 'lets see' I walked over to the door knocker with the ring in his ears.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME?" I shouted into his ear.
"Ah, Finally, Someone that doesn't mumble." Jen laughed at this since I usually speak very quiet and mumble...a lot.
"WOULD YOU MIND IF I KNOCKED ON THIS DOOR?"
"Of course not. That's what I'm here for."
"Why do you want to pick that door? We won't know where we are again."
"Because, if I have to go into those woods, and the Fire Gang jumps out and starts singing and trying to rip my head off someone will get hurt. Badly."
"Right..." Jen said, remembering my quick temper, and my skills in karate. "This door it is then." I grabbed the ring knocked on the door three times. It slowly opened and the three of us made our way through. It shut behind us with a loud BAM! That caused Jen to jump. We looked around to try and figure out where we were. We appeared to be in the middle of a marketplace, everywhere tents were set up with little stalls being run by all different types of fairy tale creatures. Elves, Goblins, Faes, Faeries, Trolls, Gnomes and any other creature imaginable. A little goblin ran up in front of us with a tray with four different fruits on it. A nectarine, a peach, a plum, and a banana. I looked over at Jen,
"Where did the banana come from? Hehe...one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong..." I started singing. She just shook her head.
"Here, try one of my delicious fresh fruits. You two lovely ladies may each try something for free, then you can decide if you want to purchase any more."
"Well, knowing the history of peaches around here, I'll stick with the plum. It seems safe enough." Jen said as she reached over to grab it. She then looked over at me, while I was hungrily eyeing the peach. "Stina don't even." I quickly reached out and snatched the peach from the tray. "Oh, it's useless." I heard Jen say as I took a bite out of it. Everything began to spin and I looked over to get one last look at Jen, who had just taken a bite out of her plum, before I felt the ground lurch from beneath my feet and everything faded away.


* * *