Disclaimer: I own nothing! Hear me? NOTHING! Well, unless they/it weren't in the movie.
A/N: ahhh, the long awaited chapter two. Well, actually I don't know if it was all that waited for but anyways, here it is…
A/N2: sorry about the first posting of this chapter. I realize that it was really wacked so I retyped it. Hope this is better!
Chapter Two: Once More Into the Void
A horrible wail went up from the tiny blue bundle in the distraught young woman's arms. Whispering soothing sounds into the child's ear Alex Williams drew a hand across her brow; droplets of sweat came off of her hot forehead and smeared her lightly tanned skin. With a sigh she shifted the bawling baby to her other arm and began to rock him, desperately trying to get him to settle down for the night. Unfortunately the weather was not in the mood to help her, heating the temperature up to a blistering 84' F.
"Oh, please! Can't you just go to sleep?" Alex asked the baby, her voice strained. The only response was for the child to wail louder then before, if that was possible! At her wits end, Alex set the bundle back into the crib and began to sing the child a soft little lullaby as she quietly picked up a worn red leather bound book that was resting on a nearby nightstand.
"Its only forever,
It's not long at all,
Lost and lonely
That's Underground, Underground."
Alex paused in her song as she flipped to a dog-eared page of the little red book in her hands. She read a few lines as she hummed a new refrain of the song which seemed to constantly plague her mind…
"Daddy, daddy, get me out of here,
(heard about a place today)
I, I'm Underground
(nothing never hurts again)
Heard about a place today
(daddy, get me out of here)
Where nothing never hurts again
(wanna go Underground)"
But despite her best attempts, the young child continued to wail at the top of his lungs. Alex glanced up from her reading, "That's it! Davey, either you shut up now or I, I…" she glanced down at the book in her lap, looking for inspiration. And suddenly, it came to her, "Or I'll call for the goblins to come and take you away! Hear me? SHUT UP!" regardless of her dire warnings the little blue bundle in the crib did anything but cease his noise.
With a strangled cry Alex stood and began to recite the lines from a book she knew by heart, "I wish the goblins would come and take you away… right now!" Alex turned away from the crib and once again buried her nose in the little red book, trying to ignore the insistent wails of the baby.
Suddenly the baby's screaming stopped with an unnatural suddenness. Alex slowly placed her book in her lap and turned around towards the crib. At that instant the lights in the nursery went off and double doors leading out onto the balcony were blown open by a terrible wind.
Alex tried to shield herself from the wind as it viciously whipped her long brown hair around her face. And then as suddenly as it has started the wind calmed until it was nothing but a gentle breeze.
Alex turned to face the balcony doors, only to have her breath catch in her throat at the sight of a tall dark mysterious shape standing there at the entrance of the nursery. Gulping she asked, "Who are you?"
The man sighed softly and stepped forward into a pale shaft of moonlight, "You may call me Tarren."
Alex gave him a puzzled look.
"Don't you mortals ever learn? Oh, no matter. You do know what you are expected to do now, correct?" Tarren held up a leather encased hand. In the twinkling of the eye, a perfect crystal sphere materialized on his fingertips, "Your dreams or thirteen hours of hardship and struggle for a child you obviously care little for."
A sick feeling permeated Alex's stomach, "You're him aren't you?"
"Him?"
"The Goblin King."
A dark shadow briefly passed across Tarren's face before it was gone, "You would say that. Now please mortal, do not waste my time. What is it going to be?"
Alex gazed stupidly at the proffered crystal. Suddenly realization dawned on her face, "You took Davey. Omygosh, I wished Davey away to the," she eyed Tarren. "To the goblins!" Alex looked back at the crib, now starkly empty. She shuddered slightly before turning back to Tarren, "I want Davey back."
Tarren gazed at her coldly, "Very well." The crystal in his right hand slid gracefully onto his left. Regally he offered Alex his now empty right hand. She hesitated momentarily before grasping the cold leather. Tarren's face remained emotionless as he tossed to crystal orb into the air and, in a shower of glitter, spirited Alex and himself away to the Underground.
As the glitter settled onto the pale cream carpet, the lights snapped back on; leaving the common enough room perfectly untouched.
---------------------
A/N: if anyone is wondering this is sort of a J/S story, but that wont come up for awhile. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out soon. -WINTER