TOBY:

Chapter 2: Will Karen take Jareth´s offer? At least she is her daughter . . . or not





Karen stayed in that position for some more minutes, her eyes now filled with true terror and for the first time noticing the white owl perched on the tree, with its claws hooked in one of the branches and its gaze fixed on her. The wind wailed, making the branch oscillate, heavy black clouds covering the afternoon sky. And the owl kept staring, with his rounded, dark eyes.

And then, it happened.

Karen raised her arms in front of her face and screamed. The flapping had ceased, the light of the landing slipping though the threshold created unknown shadows over the walls and though the rug. The prolonged cracking of the lightning formed a huge shadow in the wall in front of the window. The shadow of a human silhouette.

Karen wanted to run to her baby, but the presence of that man of dark beauty kept her frozen in her spot. However he didn't go to her, that man of aristocratic features, wrapped in elegant black clothes, walked towards her son, and then she heard his voice, a deep, sensual voice, a mere whisper but full of sheer arrogance.

"Tsk, tsk, you must be a very naughty boy for people to want to be rid of you TWICE, little Jareth" he smiled though clenched teeth "but be calm, there is not going to be a third time. . . I'll make sure of it" his smile widened, making him adopt a perverse air.

Jareth, King of the Goblins, approached the aghast mother "What do we have here? You don't know what you have just done, do you?" he smiled even more, if that was possible "Poor Karen, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen and hear me well because I am not going to repeat this" the poor woman could only nod with her head "In different circumstances I would offer you your dreams, but little Tobias isn't unknown to me, no, now while you keep standing there I will take him away, and you'll never see him, again" after saying this he laughed and was about to carry out his threat when Karen spoke, he didn't know how but the woman had managed to recover the speech. "No, please" she begged

"Oh, yes! You have asked for your child to be taken, and that is what I am going to do, don't make me waste any more time, woman" he pushed her out of the way rather roughly "However" he stopped, and Karen looked at him, hopeful "No, you wouldn't do that" he looked mockingly at her, and Karen threw herself at his feet "Please, I'll do anything . . . Ask anything"

"Alright, give me another child of yours, I have to take one child, it is the same for me if I took one or the other" Karen remained silent, frowning. Another child? She didn't have any more children, except for.

"Give me Sarah, and you'll be able to keep Tobias"

A bolt of lightning pierced the wide window the moment he said those words, illuminating the room for a couple of seconds. Karen took a step back, terrified. That wasn't a man; that was the very Devil! Jareth laughed cruelly upon sensing the woman's thoughts. Oh, the mortals . . . How much they amused him.

"I . . . no . . . Sarah . . . but" she mumbled. "Come, come, I am surprised you would choose your stepdaughter over your own son" Karen's mind functioned at vertiginous speed. Could she do that? After all, she was her daughter, she could always count on her, the family affairs were well "Always, Karen?" he provoked her, he dropped his voice till he turned it into a mere whisper "If Sarah had been here now this would never have happened, little Tobias would be safe and you having fun like you deserve, after all it was Sarah who started all this, if she hadn't said the very same words a year ago, your son would be safe"

What was he saying? That Sarah had risked her baby; that she had left him in the hands of that monster? She couldn't believe that, the ungrateful little girl. Now she understood that sudden change in demeanor, she was guilty, if not she would have kept being mean to her, she had been using them to protect herself, it was all Sarah's fault, yes, that brat, how had she dared.?

"Take her"

Another bolt of lightning pierced the threshold, widening the shadow of two joined hands. The pact was sealed.



AN: Thanks to all of you who reviewed it means very much to me, and especially thanks to Saby for the translation of this chapter. Yours commentaries have been answered in the part of Spanish like I said, thank you again.

I'll post 2 chapters every week. Review, please? :)