Kerist: Before you start throwing things at me, I do have a good reason for taking so long to get this out! My AP teacher gave me a HUGE project to work on, and then just when I was finishing it my Language Arts teacher gave us a group project, which took up an entire weekend, and then I had to study for finals, and then I had to TAKE finals, and then I really needed to sleep. But we had two weeks for vacation, so I finally had time to work on it.
Although it took a while, cause I got caught up in an I Love the 80's and I Love the 80's Strikes Back! marathon.
Okay. You can throw things now. ::hides behind a chair::
Disclaimer: The only legal dealings going on here are that I sold my soul to the Labyrinth, and it got lost. So much for visitation rights.
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"I want to go home," Karleigh moaned, tears spilling down her face. "I just want to go home!"
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Rachelle stirred from the light slumber she had slipped into. Scowling, she rubbed at her eyes. "That must have been a nightmare," she muttered to herself, slowly standing up. The fire was still burning in the fireplace, but Lady Rachelle wasn't expert enough to tell from the size of it how much time had passed. She guessed at least an hour, although it had been about one minute.
She shivered a little. Sighing, she decided to use the rest of her magic to change into something warmer than the thin frock she was wearing. Karleigh was most likely home by now, so there wasn't any more cause for Rachelle to use her magic. She could recover while she talked to a lawyer about Seth's custody hearing. With a wave of her hand, the thin gown transformed into a v-necked, ankle-length green dress. Rachelle pulled the hairpins out of her long black hair and let it fall down onto her shoulders. It was time she go and have Jareth call for one of her carriages. Her lawyer would never come into the Goblin Kingdom. Yawning, she turned around.
She screamed.
"Get out of here! I'm not the one you want!" she shrieked, stumbling backwards. Her eyes were wide with terror, fixed on the dominating figure that filled the doorway. The very basic Fae instincts within her told her what that thing was. Why, oh why, had she used up the rest of her magic to do something as stupid as changing her clothes? "Get out of here!" she screamed again, looking around for anything she could defend herself with.
The creature took a step forward, its movements making a metallic echo. Rachelle shuddered. The legs of the thing were metal. Iron, to be exact. So were its hands. The rest of it was very much flesh and blood, but Rachelle knew she wouldn't have the strength to try and harm it once those iron hands were wrapped around her. Iron, she thought, why did it have to be iron?
She cowered in front of the fire and whimpered as it approached. She couldn't look at it: the thing's face was twisted and contorted into something horrific. It walked slowly and with a lot of difficulty. Rachelle tried to clear her throat and call out for Jareth, but she was paralyzed. The thing was only a step away from her when she got the idea to grab one of the logs from the fire.
Without a second thought, Lady Rachelle plunged her hand into the flames. The heat licked at her delicate fingers, making her gasp in pain. But magic could always heal the bruises, if the fire could help her stop this thing long enough for her to get out of the room. It took a moment before her hand connected with the logs, but when it did, she smiled, wrapped her fingers around the wood, and pulled as hard as she could. She planned the throw the burning thing at the creature and run for her life.
It would've worked if they hadn't been gas logs.
The piece of wood she had latched onto wasn't really wood. "No!" she whispered, tugging on it again. But it was fused with the other pseudo-logs and would not budge. Letting out a heart-wrenching moan, she pulled her hand out of the fire and the pain kicked in. Ow ow ow ow ow shit! The pain was definitely bad, but not enough to make her scream. She bit her lip and took deep, gasping breaths.
The creature bent down and effortlessly picked up Rachelle. Its iron fingers practically crushed her in their grip as it turned around and slowly plodded towards the door. The pain from the burn was nothing compared to the sting of that iron on Rachelle's bare arms. "Oh dear God!" Rachelle screeched, just before passing out from the aching in her bones. They felt like they were melting.
The creature laughed. It walked through the door, still holding Rachelle. On the way out the woman's head banged against the doorframe, hard. The creature disregarded this and walked down the hallway in the direction it had come, dragging Rachelle along the floor. Her clipped head left a tiny trail of smeared blood to mark their path.
The thing rounded the corner and proceeded to walk down a flight of stairs. It didn't bother lifting Rachelle as it did this, so her head bounced on every hard stone step. When she woke up she was going to have one hell of a headache. And that would be before she met the creature's master.
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Seth clamped a hand over Karleigh's mouth. "Do not say that," he hissed. Karleigh batted uselessly at his arm. He pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. "You don't mean that," he told her, quietly. "You have over twelve days left... you don't need to go home yet," he murmured. He wanted to get everything sorted out with the High Court before he was whisked back to Aboveground with Karleigh. It would be extremely difficult to get anything done from Aboveground, even with Jareth as his go-between. Communicating between the two worlds was a huge pain in the ass, and Seth wanted to get it done with while he was still Underground.
Jareth cleared his throat. It wasn't exactly how he'd been looking forward to announcing his presence. "Ahem," he said. Seth, his hand still muffling Karleigh's protests, looked up at him. "Hello, Jareth," he said, smiling. "You didn't just hear that, did you?" he asked, sweetly.
Jareth looked sadly at his friend. "Stand her up, Seth," he said. The blood drained out of Seth's face. He stared at Jareth for a moment, in the hopes that the Goblin King would change his mind. Jareth remained impassive. Seth was forced to stand, although he kept his arms around Karleigh.
Her mouth finally freed, she started yelling. "I beat your stupid Labyrinth, Jareth!" she yelled, fuming. "You gave me way too much time, Goblin King," she said, narrowing her eyes. "If you had just given me thirteen hours I would've lost, but no, you had to be cocky," she murmured, calming down a little bit. "I beat the Labyrinth," she said again, leaning up against Seth, "So let me go home."
Jareth bowed to her. "I must admit, I underestimated you," he said. Karleigh looked at him suspiciously, not ready to accept that he would be so cordial in the face of defeat. "However," he said, standing back up. Karleigh bit her lip nervously. Jareth smiled at her, and glanced over her shoulder at Seth, who was very confused. "You have not beat my Labyrinth… yet."
Karleigh froze, her eyes wide. Seth let out a sigh of relief. Jareth mentally applauded himself for his remarkable sense of showmanship. He let a suitable pause pass, time enough for Karleigh to fully digest this news, before continuing. He motioned for Seth to step away, and the Muse reluctantly complied, backing up until he hit a wall. Jareth began slowly circling Karleigh, his black boots making hard clicks against the floor. "Karleigh," he said in a threatening tone, "you may have reached the castle beyond the goblin city, but you have not even come close to defeating the Labyrinth."
Karleigh's knees began to shake. "What're you talking about?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Seth, staring at the floor, had a tiny but very smug smirk on his face. He was getting his wish. Jareth would give Karleigh some task that would take at least two days to finish, and then the king would have sufficient time to get Seth's powers back and have the Muse's citizenship issues worked out.
"I am talking about the cowardly way you teamed up with that charlatan," Jareth hissed, increasing his pace. His black cloak billowed out behind him, and he clasped his hands behind his back. "Karleigh you should be ashamed of yourself," he spat, "you couldn't even get halfway through my Labyrinth without the aid of magic." Jareth was definitely having a drama queen moment. Karleigh was trembling, she was so frightened, and Jareth was soaking it up. "I will not stand for anyone who has the impudence to think that I can be fooled by such means."
"I didn't know," Karleigh whispered, shrinking.
Jareth laughed grimly. "You didn't know," he mocked, sneering at her. "You just thought that this nice woman who had grown up in the Labyrinth and knew every twist of the place was running around just looking for you," he went on, rolling his eyes. "Why," he asked, stopping in front of Karleigh, "did you think I would let someone like that out while you were running? Did you honestly believe that it was all right for this woman to just give you all this knowledge?" His voice was critical and had an undercurrent of insults running through it.
Seth had stopped smiling. He was happy that he was getting what he'd wished for, but he could tell from Karleigh's body language that she was about to have an episode. Seth had a year of experience with teenage girls. He knew how they behaved from watching Karleigh and her friends, and he knew how they responded to the kind of talk Jareth was giving. He looked at his old friend and offered up a silent prayer to protect him. Jareth had entered into dangerous territory, without any knowledge of his opponent.
When Karleigh looked up, her eyes were brimming with tears. This was somewhat of a misleading sign, as the teardrops belied the deeper and far more dangerous anger that was boiling just below the surface. Jareth was a little disarmed, though he didn't show it. After all, he was Fae. How dangerous could a weepy human teenage girl be?
Jareth puffed himself up. "What do your human teachers do when someone cheats on a test, Karleigh?" he asked.
Karleigh took a deep breath to steady herself. "They give us a zero and we get suspended," she mumbled.
Jareth chuckled. "Well, by comparison I think that I am being generous," he said, resuming his pacing. Karleigh followed his progress out of the corner of her eye. She was trying to hold back until Jareth had doled out whatever punishment he saw fit. "You have cheated, Karleigh," Jareth said, "and that means this run of the Labyrinth is void. This means - "
"I know what void means," Karleigh growled.
Jareth glared at her. "This means," he continued, "that in order to get your precious Muse back, you will have to take another run at the Labyrinth. And this one," he said, coming to rest in front of Karleigh again, as he met her eyes and gave her a cold stare, "will be ten times harder than the last." He smiled sadistically. "You'll be sent to an oubliette, and Hogbrain won't be there to help you. If by some miracle you manage to get out, you'll have to work your way through the worst section of the Labyrinth to get back here."
"If you thought that Firey Forest was bad, Karleigh dear, you have no idea. That movie was only rated PG, and the Labyrinth is very much rated R," Jareth said. Karleigh tried very hard not to burst out laughing. In fact, so did Seth, and he had a little more trouble holding it in than Karleigh. The movie had left out a lot. It had just been too painful for the writers to put in the parts where Jareth thought he was being funny and clever. Many of Jareth's lines had been dreamed up solely by the writers. "Being ruler of a kingdom as large as this calls for special rooms, Karleigh. There is a place in this Labyrinth to bring out every fear ever imagined."
"Even yours?" Karleigh asked, blinking away her tears. She would not show any more weakness by raising her hands to wipe the water out of her eyes. She glanced at Seth over Jareth's shoulder. Her Muse was watching the display intently. He was still slumped against the wall, though, and the huge wine stain on his shirt detracted from his appearance somewhat. Karleigh found herself looking at her eyes. She still couldn't believe that they weren't both blue.
Jareth glared at her. "I believe I have more important things to do than listen to an impertinent little brat like you disrespect me," he hissed. He drew himself up to his full height and raised his hand in the air. He was preparing to open up a hole in the floor and have Karleigh drop down to a particularly horrible oubliette. This he was ready for, explaining to Seth afterwards that it was necessary to do this was another matter entirely.
"Hold on for just a second," Karleigh said acidly, cocking her head to the side. She'd just remembered something she was supposed to do. Jareth spread his arms in an expectant gesture, for the moment putting off her departure. "What if I don't want my precious Muse back?"
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You don't want to take Seth back home with you.
"What if I don't want my precious Muse back?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I still couldn't believe that thing he'd said about me being a coward. How was I supposed to know that it was cheating when that woman told me how to solve the Labyrinth? Hoggle helped Sarah. Shouldn't Jareth have been able to keep people like that out of the Labyrinth, if he considered getting help from them cheating? "What if I don't want my precious Muse back, Jareth?" I asked again. It wasn't exactly how the voice inside my head was phrasing it, but it worked. I guess I didn't need to write it down after all.
Seth stepped away from the wall. I stiffened. He'd hit me, and I didn't trust him anymore. But, I thought, and I was thinking it because the mental voice sounded like my own, Seth should be happy. The Labyrinth is a couple of steps up from my neighborhood. And he'd be with his good friend, Jareth. The look on Seth's face wasn't as disbelieving as Jareth's though. The Goblin King frowned, and I thought I heard him mutter something like, "The spell was supposed to be broken."
Ignore him. He's not in his right mind, the other voice said. I scratched my head absentmindedly. I wasn't sure that I was in my right mind, but I didn't have the strength of will to argue with the voice. Jareth took a deep breath and regained his composure. "Karleigh," he said, "you have twelve days and twenty-one hours left."
The floor dropped out from underneath me.
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Malferz tapped her riding crop against the arm of her throne. It was her favorite one, real leather, and she'd finally had time to sneak it back from Jareth. She blew a strand of her long honey-colored hair out of her face. Her hair reached down to her waist, and softened the appearance of the leather armor she wore over her maroon dress, which stopped at her knees. Sighing, she leaned forward in her chair and stared at the floor.
"This. Is. Taking. Forever." she moaned, rolling her eyes. At first glance, her eyes were both the same color. But upon further inspection, one could see that her left eye was fiery red while the other was more of a scarlet. Malferz's father was Fae, but her mother was a fire demon. Among the things she'd inherited from her mother were fire magic, a slight pyromania, a face that could make even men like Jareth drool, and immunity to iron. That last one was very useful.
She stood up and walked into the middle of the room. The architecture was Gothic. The best adjective to describe the room was cavernous. At one end was the throne, at the other a set of double wooden doors that nearly reached the ceiling. On all the walls hung torture devices taken from every era of history. Most were made of iron. Malferz liked iron. It scared the hell out of those high and mighty full blooded Fae that populated the nicer neighborhoods of Underground. Whenever Malferz had to go into Fae court, which was often, she made a point to carry one of her iron weapons with her.
She smiled as she looked around the room. Watching Fae squirm is so much fun, she thought. Her pleasure quickly faded, though, as she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Where is that stupid Nor," she muttered, anxiously tapping her foot on the hard stone floor. Nor was her assistant. He had bones of iron, helpful, but a brain the size of a peanut. He was slow, physically as well as mentally, and Malferz had a short fuse when it came to waiting. Unfortunately for her, with Nor, there was a lot of waiting to be done.
"I'm just waiting," she sang, rocking back and forth on her heels. "Waiting… for a million years," her voice rang out deeply to no recognizable tune, "when Nor shows up I'll hit him till I see tears!" She rocked a little too far backwards and fell flat on her behind. "Crap," she muttered, rubbing her backside. Across the room, the door opened, and Nor walked in, carrying Rachelle over his shoulder. Malferz jumped up, her tanned face flushing with embarrassment. "Nor, you bumbling idiot!" she hissed, clenching her fists at her sides. Good, terrifying first impressions were difficult to make when you were laying down on the floor in pain. "You had to walk in on me at the worst possible moment!" She stormed over to Nor, who was scratching his head, confused. "Didn't anyone ever teach you to knock?" she demanded, holding out her arms. She'd just noticed Rachelle's eyes were closed, and she felt stupid for yelling at Nor.
Nor shrank a little under his mistress's harsh stare. "Sorry, Mally," he mumbled in a booming voice. He pulled Rachelle off his shoulders and handed the unconscious woman to Malferz.
Malferz rolled her eyes. "I cannot believe Jareth stuck me with somebody who calls me Mally," she muttered, turning towards her throne. She looked around the room, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "What should we do with this piece of work, Nor?" she asked, eyes scanning the various empty places on the walls reserved for her special guests.
Nor looked around too. "How about… the death bed?" he asked.
There was a table near her throne with a bunch of little holes in it, which Nor called 'Mally's death bed.' Malferz had stolen it from a morgue the last time she'd been Aboveground. "That will do nicely," she said, smiling. Nor laughed, a deep rumbling chortle that made Malferz shake her head. "You can go guard the doors now, Nor," she said, walking towards the table.
As Nor shut the doors behind him, Malferz dropped Rachelle down on the autopsy table. It wasn't made of iron, but it was still one of Malferz's favorites. She had always been fond of dissecting things, ever since that biology course she had taken in school. Humming to herself, she clamped Rachelle's ankles and wrists down in the iron bands she had welded on after getting the table. "There," she said, wiping her hands on her skirt, "that'll hold the little bitch down."
Running her hands through her honey-colored hair, she looked critically at Rachelle, comparing the full blooded Fae's beauty to her own. "Mmm…" she said, taking a lock of Rachelle's black hair in her hand. She stared at the stands for a minute, before finally taking a pair of scissors out of her pocket. She twirled them around her fingers and neatly cut the lock of hair at the scalp. Humming again, she threw the hair to the floor, along with the scissors.
"Black hair makes women look pale," she said to herself. She looked at Rachelle's makeup, carefully applied and expensively bought. "She looks like a clown," Malferz said, shaking her head. She skipped over to a wall that had a tiny hole in it. She picked up a sponge off the floor and held it beneath the hole, and then she pressed a brick on the wall. Water shot out of the hole and the sponge soaked it up.
She skipped back over to Rachelle. Water dripped off the sponge onto the full-blooded Fae's delicate face. Malferz smiled to herself and filled a busy minute wiping off the other woman's makeup. She was a little deterred when Rachelle turned out to look much the same without makeup as she did with. Frowning, she bit her tongue and tilted her head to the side.
"Well, she's boring," Malferz muttered. "But look at that dress. That must've cost an arm and a leg," she said, feeling the soft silk. She tapped her fingers against the cold table. "Green isn't really my color, but…" she sighed and pulled a hair band out of a corner of her armor. She tied up her long hair. "Oh well. By the time I'm done," she said, fingering the point of the dagger hanging at her waist, "it'll be too messy to wear, anyway."
Rachelle moaned and opened her eyes. One blue, one purple. Malferz threw her hands up in the air. "A Fae, of course," she said. "Only a Fae would knowingly break the rules of the Labyrinth."
Lady Rachelle tugged at her restraints. "Who are you?" she asked, weakly. "What are you doing to me? Let me go!" she cried, trying to sit up. Her wrists and ankles hurt like hell. "Where's that hideous thing that had the gall to kidnap me?" she asked. She wasn't even giving Malferz a chance to answer her. Malferz crossed her arms over her chest. One, two, three, she thought. Rachelle glared at her. "What, are you deaf? Why aren't you saying anything?" Four, five, six, Malferz went on. Rachelle moaned again. "Get these stupid things off me, quick, before that horrible creature comes back!" she yelled. Seven, eight, nine, ten.
"You're Lady Rachelle, aren't you?" Malferz asked, putting her hand on Rachelle's forehead. She pushed the woman back down on the table and walked over to the wall. "I've heard Jareth talk about you," she said, taking a mace off its hook. Rachelle whimpered. Malferz swung the mace around in an easy, practiced circle. "He said you were an overbearing, egotistical bitch who just can't leave him alone," she said, looking over her shoulder at Rachelle. "Do you have a crush on him or something?" she asked, still twirling the mace.
Rachelle couldn't help herself. She laughed. "Me and Jareth?" she asked, snorting. The iron made her joints ache but the notion that Malferz had proposed was just too funny. "No! My man is Seth," she said, and her eyes unfocused as she slipped into another day dream. Malferz rolled her eyes. She took the dagger out of her pocket and flicked her wrist in Rachelle's direction. The dagger landed in Rachelle's hair, just an inch from her face.
"I know Seth," Malferz said, hanging the mace back on the wall. She turned around and put her hands on her hips, and smiled at Rachelle. "I've met Seth before," she said, walking over to the table. She sat down on the corner and crossed her legs. Rachelle growled at her. "He talked about you too," Malferz said, leaning back on her hands. She smirked at Rachelle. "He said you were a good fuck."
"Seth would never say that about me!" Rachelle screamed. Malferz laughed. Rachelle's eyes filled up with water, and she sobbed a little. "Seth loves me!" Rachelle protested. She really believed it, too, which was the pathetic thing.
Malferz doubled over. "Love?" she asked between snorts. "Seth? Love? You?" She pressed her hands over her face while she tried to catch her breath. "You tried to have him put on death row! He hates you!" Malferz said. She was laughing so hard now she fell off the table. She rolled around on the floor, hugging herself. Her ribs ached, she was laughing so hard. It infuriated Rachelle.
The Lady tried to slip her wrists out of her bonds. "Oh, I bet I know who you are!" she hissed, her eyes blazing. She wanted nothing more than to rip the honey-colored hair out of the woman's scalp. She'd seen strands of hair that color before, and she'd just remembered when and where.
After a moment Malferz managed to regain control of herself. She thought about what Rachelle had said and closed her eyes. "Yes," she said, standing back up. This was going to be fun. She walked around the table and stood next to Rachelle's head. She twisted her ponytail around her hand. "I think it is about time we were introduced," she said, taking Rachelle's hand in her free one. She shook it politely. "I am Malferz. Seth and I were lovers during the trial."
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Seth dashed over to the hole that Karleigh had just dropped through. He and Jareth stood at its edge, staring down into the black depths, for a few minutes. Seth was thinking that it was amazing he didn't hear Karleigh's fading scream of terror. Finally Jareth cleared his throat, and the hole closed up. "Well," Jareth said, running his tongue over his pointed canines, "we have some work to do."
Seth glared at him. "You did not have to do that," he said coldly.
"Yes I did and you know it," Jareth said. He clapped Seth on the shoulder and shook his head. At a loss for anything else to say, he walked down the hallway, feeling a little dazed. "We need to write that letter to the High Court before Karleigh gets it into her head to call me down there. I think Judge Raphael would be the best one to appeal to, since he's newly appointed, and a liberal, so he won't be a fan of the punishment you've gotten," he said. He kept walking for a moment, before he realized he didn't hear Seth's footsteps next to him. He turned around to see the Muse staring at the spot in the floor that had swallowed Karleigh up. "You can't open it," he called.
Seth kicked the tile. "I don't know," he said, eyes narrowed. "But how do you know she won't call for me?" he asked.
Jareth sighed quietly and walked back to Seth. He kicked the tile too. "Doesn't work like that," he said softly. Seth took a deep breath and clenched his fists at his sides. Jareth put his hand on the Muse's shoulder. "She's still under Rachelle's spell, you know that, don't you?" Jareth asked. Seth shrugged and kicked the tile again. It dropped, revealing the hole. Jareth looked at Seth with wide eyes.
Seth flexed his fingers. "The things I can do with Karleigh…" he said, smiling a little. "I can do here." He looked up at Jareth and reached out his hand. "I know this isn't your fault. But I have to do something. I'll be back as soon as possible," he said. Jareth reached out and shook his hand. Seth smiled. "You know I don't need to jump," he said.
And he vanished.
Jareth snapped his fingers and the hole closed up. He rolled his eyes and started walking in the direction of his library again. "Show off," he muttered.
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I opened my eyes and sat up. I was laying on a cold stone floor, in complete darkness. My head ached. I reached up and put my hand in my hair, and felt slick hot blood. I moaned and drew my knees up to my chest. Jareth warned me that this was going to be harder than the first time around, but I hadn't really been taking him seriously. Blood, more than had come out of all the cuts on my legs, was now coming out of my head. I never read anything about medicine, and I didn't know what to do about it.
"Oh, Kar, what the hell happened to you?" Seth whispered in my ear. His hands moved mine away from my head, and he quickly applied pressure to the cut. I tried to make out his figure in the dark, but I couldn't see anything. I reached out and my hand found Seth's shoulder. I pulled myself up and he cradled me against his chest. "Hold still now," he murmured. My face was buried in his shirt, but I could tell when the room lit up.
"How did you get here?" I asked, my voice muffled.
Seth put his hands on my waist and I could sit back. "Magic," he said, running his thumb over my lips. His skin was covered in my blood. I reached up and patted my scalp. No cut. I looked at Seth, startled. He smiled. "Magic again," he said, rubbing my shoulder. "Are you angry about me touching you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Why did you come here?" I asked, softly.
He bent forward and pressed his forehead to mine. This was becoming a habit of his. "Are you angry at me?" he asked. I stared at him for a second, noticing again his one blue eye and one green one. "Yes," I murmured. Seth stroked my back and closed his eyes. "You lied to me," I said. "You lied to me for a whole year. You let me think that you were a figment of my imagination. You let me think that I was going insane. I wanted to go to a therapist, Seth. I wanted to start taking pills. I was scared that you'd tell me to hurt my family and that I'd listen."
Seth kissed my forehead. "I'd never tell you that," he said, pressing my hand to his chest. "I'm real. I think you've known that for a while," he murmured, keeping my hand pressed against him to confirm that he was indeed solid.
"But if you're real…then…." Wasn't he solid, though? He'd always seemed solid. There had never been any trouble when it came to him touching things. And he'd broken a glass once, knocked it off the counter by accident, while I was halfway cross the room. I know I couldn't have broken it and then fooled myself into thinking Seth did it because my brother was standing right there, and he went on for an hour about how the glass had just jumped off the counter. If Seth wasn't real, if he wasn't solid, he couldn't have broken that glass.
I glared at him, suddenly angry again. "You've watched me undress, you pervert!" I said, pushing myself off his lap.
He leaned back and propped himself up on his elbows. "What are you going to do about it, Karleigh?" he asked, smirking.
"Nothing," I said, furiously. "I can't do anything. I'm not… I'm not a Fae. I can't just make you forget what I look like naked," I said, my face flushed. It was bad enough when I was undressing and turned around to see that Seth had popped into the room without announcing himself, but… Oh, God, he's real!
No, he's not, the little voice in my head whispered. This is all a dream. And all you have to do to wake up is say that you quit. I pressed my hands over my ears, but it didn't go away. This is all a dream. All you have to do to wake up and end it is say that you quit. And then you can go to a therapist and get some pills and make all these delusions go away, and you can be normal again.
Seth pulled my hands away from my ears. "Don't listen to it, Kar," he whispered. "It's a spell. It's lying to you, don't listen to it," he said, putting his arms around me.
I sobbed into his shirt. "But it's so loud," I protested. He smoothed back my hair and gently whispered, "No, no," in my ear for a few seconds. "I'm the only voice you need to be listening to, Kar. Tell that other one to go away."
Go away, I screamed mentally. Go away, get out of my head! You don't belong here!
It hissed and yelled. It scratched at my eyes. You don't belong in Seth's arms! Get away from him! Quit, give up!
No, I thought, pressing up against Seth for support. He was murmuring something in a language I didn't understand, and I hoped that it was more magic, because I felt like I needed help. The scratching went on, but the pain started to fade. The claws of the voice lost their sharpness as Seth kept speaking. I closed my eyes and whispered in my head, I do belong in his arms! I love him! You go away!
When the voice spoke again it was louder than ever. You do not love him! I love him!
No, my own voice shrieked. I do love him! And he loves me! It's you he hates! I had no idea if that was true, but I was taking it and running. It felt like that would work, and there wasn't any harm in trying.
I will have to show you, it said, before fading completely.
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Kerist: Ah, well, that only took forever to write. I'm getting close to the ending, and I've always had trouble with endings. I'm worried that they'll be, especially this one, too sappy or something. Suggestions are welcome!
The Dragon Sorceress: Thanks for reviewing.. and sorry that it took so long to come out with 13!
BlueyChan: I wish I had two colored eyes too... that'd be cool! Thanks for the review.
sych77: Ah... hehe... I did update! After over a month... I will try to make it faster this time. (I always say that though, sigh) Hopefully Rachelle can be punished next chapter, I have a tendency to surprise myself. Thanks for reviewing!
Lady Moofin: ::giggles:: That was fun. Hope the role didn't offend you or anything... I looked at your profile after your request and I really liked that name, so I decided to use it. Thanks for the review!
Moonjava: Yes, turns are good. But endings are bad. I hope I can write a good one. Thanks for reviewing!
Fou Fou: Ah well I just have the timing to come out with chapters just as projects get assigned. I guess since I took so long I get a rusty spork and the Bog of Stench. Uh hopefully the next one won't take a month ... hopefully. Thanks for your review!
Princess-RainbowRose: Well, I hope you liked this chapter's ending! If you have any suggestions for the story's end, they are very welcome! Sorry again that it took so long. Thanks for reviewing!