Note to the reader:3 Go me. I lasted 2 whole days before growing irritated at what I wrote, and felt the need to put another chapter up, and a better chapter up. If I didn't just write as a go (a nice way of saying I pull it out of my ass ) then I might go back and change the chapter… has no intention of changing anything XD
Also, I hate how cliché this beginning is, but I swear it's going to take a swift change soon. .. I'm usually more clever at thinking up ideas for fan-fiction stories. Darnish.
Goodness knows this next chapter is somewhat more amiable than the first. :D
Enjoy :3
"Now, now, Toby. Don't you think you have anything better to give?" Jareth supported all his weight on one hip in a display of annoyance.
" It's not like I can just give you a pat on the back and expect to get what I want back." Toby bit his lip and turned his face to the earth, red and caked from many days under the sun.
"No, but I would think you should be more selfish. With the options you've given to me, it's a lose-lose situation for you." Jareth formed a bubble between his fingers and began to spin it about. "Some people just give up their virginity or something like that. How does that sound?"
Anger flashed over the boys features. "I'll do what I can to save my sister, and if it means that…then…" Toby's hands clutched at the sides of his pant legs. His sister. He'd do what he could to save her. "Jareth… in my offer… I gave you a choice for everything. A choice to torture me, starve me, even send me into your bog. I can't see someone like you turning that down." He swiftly changed the subject back to the pressing matter, aware of the reaction he should expect.
Jareth's eyes glinted. This was true. It was an offer he didn't plan to miss a chance like this one. Jareth was also precautions with this in mind as well, for this family had a history of messing up plans and confusing his subjects. That and risking another mortal, especially this mortal, beating his Labyrinth… the reason this was all happening… he did not want to tempt such a thing. "You really can't think of anything more clever?"
"Is that what I'll have to do to get Sarah back?"
"I'll take you up on your previous offer then, boy. And you will stick to your word, or the Labyrinth will crush you ."
Somewhere far away, Sarah struggled against thin, but powerful bonds. Her little brother was risking everything for her… All because of her petty decision making.
Several hours before though, Sarah was not a prisoner of Jareth, and Toby was unaware his life was soon to be nothing like he had ever dreamed it to become. Sarah's decision to take a shower before helping her brother with a late dinner gave Toby time to think about things he generally had no time for. Being it was a Friday in late spring, Toby was still participating in school (to an extent, for Toby's level of activity did not come out of thin air, but from frequent naps during 3rd 4th and 5th periods), and drama is not rare at a high school.
"Toby! I don't want your relationship advice. I mean it too. You always give people bad news! And the last time you gave someone good news, she got pregnant and ran away with her boyfriend to god knows where!" A bleach blonde bit her lip to keep anymore tears from dripping down her face.
"All I said was I thought the relationship wasn't going to last, okay? I didn't know you'd go all out on me for saying something like that, Megan." Toby pulled a hand through the bangs of his chin-length hair and adjusted his reading glasses.
"You're so stupid, Toby. Whatever you say about relationships is always so painfully true in the future! I wish you would just keep it to yourself next time! I'm happy with him! Now, I'm going to feel uncomfortable around Jeremy!" Megan used the back of her arm to wipe the tears from her face.
"Don't talk to me again Toby!"
Toby sighed and turned back to his lit book. Girls were so confusing to him. He'd gone out with a few and had never been able to figure them out. So moody, and they always read between the lines. Toby yanked off his glasses and turned up to apologize once again to Megan after being unable to begin reading a second time, when he noticed she was no longer standing stiffly by his desk, but trembling in the doorway. As he moved to sit up, he heard her let out a choke, and then a small groan before turning around and heading back to Toby's seat, which she promptly dropped into.
"I'm… I'm sorry Toby. That was Jeremy and that cunt Lacy in the hallway. They were kissing, tongue and all." The tears fell unattended now onto the desk making small clear puddles. A few girls came up to her and tried to comfort her, but she shrugged them off.
"It's my fault. I shouldn't act like this. It's not like anyone you meet at this age is going to stay with you the rest of your life, isn't that right Toby?" Her words stung his chest and he lifted his book bag up off the ground.
"I don't know, Megan. The bell's going to be ringing soon, so you should get your stuff." Of course he was aware that most people don't end up lasting. One of his unexplainable gifts was the strange instinct to tell if a relationship was true. He had been so excited when he had seen that one girl, the one who was really in love. He had promptly told her so, and by then it was already a rumor of Toby's insight. Now, she was gone with her boyfriend, and Toby knew where. They had moved to the city, and he had started a business, being somewhat older than her. Her secret had been given to Toby alone, and he hadn't spoken to her since.
The more and more he grew older, the more people he saw in doomed relationships. Maturity was painfully honing this ability, and Toby was now beginning to understand why each couple was going to go astray. He knew what was going on, even if he didn't know the person. Though this seemed unnatural to him, he kept this as much as he could to himself and tried to ignore the rumors and the stares.
"Are you okay, Toby?" Sarah's voice was distant, though welcoming as she slowly opened the door to his dark room.
"Yeah, I'm okay. You all done dolling yourself up for nobody?" Toby lifted his head off the soft pillow on his bed, and smirked at his step-sister. Sarah rolled her eyes and flipped up the light switch.
"Toby, it always creeps me out when I have to walk into a dark room. Let's go down to the kitchen, where the lights are all on."
By the time Toby had made it down the stairs into the kitchen, Sarah had already opened up different food parcels she had brought with her. "Will you go wash these," Sarah asked before continuing with, "Oh, where does Mom put her pots and things now, Toby?"
Toby shrugged and took the apples from her. "What are you planning on making?"
"Why, caramel apples of course. You don't think living on my own has taught me a thing about cooking anything worthwhile, hmm?" Toby gave out a short laugh before turning to the sink with his task.
"Oh Toby, I'll go upstairs for a moment and get some things. I got this great spoon…"
"I can hear the middle age catching up on you, Sarah."
"… Shut up and wash that fruit."
The evening passed without conflict other than a call from their parents telling them they would be spending the night out at their aunts. Sarah had insisted once more to go and check on her, but her parents quickly brought that down once again with the "Toby needs supervision."
"Well, kid, thanks to you I can't go check up on Auntie." Sarah sighed and worked her way up the stairs. Toby called up to her retreating back.
"Sarah! I'm sorry! I can go with you, and then they won't complain!" Toby was 17 now, this was getting a little out of hand in his humble opinion.
"Don't worry about it. I'm going to bed…" Toby frowned, but shrugged it off.
"'Kay… I'll just be watching TV…"
Toby sat abruptly up from his nest of blankets on the couch. The thump had come from above, in his bedroom. After sitting for a moment, blinking away sleep, he decided it was just Sarah getting something or another from his room. With a moan, he fell back into the mess and waited for sleep to return.
But it didn't. The sound of a painful ripping leaked out from under the door of his bedroom, and Toby was up and running for the stairs moments later. Another door slammed from upstairs, and Toby recognized it as the room Sarah was staying in. With a final burst of speed, he threw open his own door to a dark room, and on the middle of the floor lay Lancelot. The stuffed bear he had received as a child was torn in half, it's insides spilling onto the wood. He bent down and reached tenderly for the bear, ignorant of the shuffling and the small giggle from under his bed.
"Sarah! Why would you do something like this?" Toby fumed, and Sarah sat up in bed to accept the image of her brother holding a small stuffed animal in the doorway. The bear was thrown expertly at her face and it took a quick move on her part to dodge it. "What are you TALKING about Toby? I would never do this to Lancelot!" Sarah lifted the bear with the care of a mother, and held it to her chest.
"Who did it then, hmm? Merlin? The dog's been dead for a few quite a few years now, Sarah, we're the only ones in the house!" Toby grabbed the door handle with all his might and thrust the door shut, allowing the walls and ground around to shake from the impact. Sarah stared meekly at the door, and felt the chill from the dark room settling on her. She had never done well with dark rooms.
Toby threw himself onto his bed and gripped his pillow to his face. Lancelot was important to him, and he thought the old bear was important to Sarah as well. "Obviously she doesn't care that much if she gave him to me though. Damn… all over a stupid trip to Auntie's." Toby's eyes carried him to the clock which wrote 2:45. It was late, and he should sleep. He would think about it in the morning.
Only moments later he became aware that the windows in his bedroom were wide open, and a warm breeze was streaming through. A shuffle of papers was enough to lift his head, and from the light outside he was able to read a page from an older script.
"I… I wish the goblins would come take you away…" His mind focused on Sarah, on her smiling face, on her long hair… The next line was blurred by a shape in the window. Toby looked up, to see the snow-white owl staring unblinkingly at him. A chill ran down his spine, and Toby stood up to close the windows. After doing so, he turned back to the bed and read the last line.
"Right… now."
Sarah's hand had barely tapped the light switch when a shuffle of something on the floor distracted her. The snicker from the other side of the room caught her attention moments later, and then the swish of long fabric filled her ears. Her hand once again went for the light, and as she flipped it up, the bulbs did not catch. Shock wore off, and terror filled her. She now grabbed blindly for the door. Her hand landed upon another's, this one gloved and she knocked it out of the way to open the door.
In this small amount of light that was able to escape in, the thing that she saw first and last was the glint of eyes. One brown and one blue. Consciousness left her.
"Sarah?…" The first question timid "Sarah? Where are you?" Toby, unafraid usually dark rooms turned to flip on the lights… and found the switch already pointing up. Across the room was a lamp, and he gulped before walking across to get to it. The lights came on when he was about to grab the string, and he became aware of a shape in the bed. His movements were slow, but he reached out a thin arm and pulled back the covers to find nothing but a small glass bubble. His fingers ghosted over it, and when he did, it popped loudly. The noise made Toby jump back and fall over onto his rump. As he sat up again, Lancelot lay in the bubble's place body sewn in place as if he had never been through any trauma.
"Lance-"
"Is perfectly safe, I reassure you."
Toby turned his head to view the speaker. He took in a tall pale man with hair so light It was almost white. The man was quite beautiful, and though physically did not look too much older than Toby, he gave off an air of having lived many years longer. "Who…"
"I'm the one who came to help you with your little problem." The man ended with a sarcastic drawl, and his grinned maliciously.
"Problem?… I have no problems to think of. Where is my sister?" The fact he had a strange man in his house did not phase him. Something about this foreboding figure was attractive in a way, and he found himself enjoying the man almost instantly by his consuming charm.
"You wished her away to the goblins, did you not?" Mock innocence now controlled his voice.
"When?… What? I didn't even know what I was reading…" Toby looked down at his knees, and tried to sit up. The sudden breath of air warned him of continuing. The man now sat, propped on his feet, hands on his thighs in front of Toby.
"Slower than your sister, aren't you?" His face was now entirely visible. The eyes glimmered in the fluorescent light pouring from the fan above. One brown, and one blue. Once this information digested, Toby jerked back involuntarily.
"You are… Jareth. King of the Goblin Kingdom and the Labyrinth."
"Half right mortal. The Labyrinth has not listened to a word I have said since your darling sister beat me at my game. But, that is a story for another time. And, I'm afraid it's no bedtime story, which is where you should be at this hour. In bed." Jareth took Toby's limp arms and lifted the boy up, directing him out of Sarah's room. Toby froze in his step before Jareth could take him past the doorway into the quiet and dark of his own room.
"What do you think you are doing?" Toby's voice was low and deadly. " Do you think I am unaware of your game? I'm not going to just go to bed when my sister is in your disgusting castle with your piss-ant goblins." Jareth raised an eyebrow at this comment and then his eyes darkened.
"Strange you should insult the goblins, when you yourself are quite close to what they are, little Toby." The man moved away from the teen and formed a bubble in his hand, enjoying it immensely for the short amount of time it was in his grasp. Toby snatched at the bubble and tossed it onto his bed in one motion.
"You're sneaky like them too. I had no idea it took Sarah so long to get you back the first time. Pity for you I am still much faster" Jareth lifted Toby by one arm, and flung him into the room onto the bed with the bubble and script book, knocking them all onto the floor. Toby sat up and nursed a bumped head before leaping up to attack Jareth. Jareth was already gone from the door way, and when the younger took a step back, he collided with something firm and covered in smooth fabric. He felt himself melting into the fabric before being pushed foreword back onto the tousled bed.
Tears fell down his face with realization. It all made so much sense. Everything that Sarah had said, all the stories of the Labyrinth.. They were all true. If he were to venture into the Labyrinth, he should hope to find the same friends Sarah had found in her venture or he would be hopeless. A sob escaped him, and for the first time in many years he cried. He had been horrible to his sister, and then sent her away. Battling the Labyrinth and saving her was the only thing he could think of to make it up, added to the fact he would save her unconditionally anyway.
"Are you ready then, runt?" Jareth did not face Toby, but looked to the window and the streetlight sending a faint light into the room.
Toby scowled at this term and faced Jareth. "I was ready as a babe, and I can face you again." Jareth shrugged and turned around, possibly oblivious that Toby had pocketed the bubble and the script.
Jareth's cloak fell to the ground behind him, and when the older turned to face the boy, the grin on Toby's face was priceless. "I did it while you were busy throwing me about, your highness." Jareth's cheek twitched slightly and he left the fabric on the ground as he walked back to Sarah's room.
The man was standing by Sarah's window, looking strangely fitting in a room full of odd little theatre books and posters. In an instant, the windows were open, and Jareth had climbed stealthily through. On the other side, it was no long a dark street, but an orange toned world, a clear day. Toby crawled out the window and surveyed the shriveled world around him. The Labyrinth was not the same as Sarah had described. Many patches of green and blue now filled the quite place, and it grew dark around the middle of the labyrinth.
"So, I am to face your Labyrinth, and when I get out, you will return Sarah to me? Toby brushed at his legs and thanked himself for not pulling off his shoes before watching TV the night before.
"I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. You aren't Sarah, and you're going to have to give something up if you can even try to make it through the Labyrinth. Something important as well.
"If I fail, then you keep Sarah, but then you get to keep me as well. Sound like a plan?" Toby seemed cheerful considering the situation. Also, he knew that if Sarah and him were together, they could think of an escape plan. It was simple.
"Not as simple as that Toby. You'll have to give something up to get her back." Okay, maybe it wasn't as simple as he had hoped.
Toby's lips parted and then closed again. His throat became dry, and his voice was a croak when he was able to speak. "The best I have to give is my life. I do not have anything very important. I will remain as a slave whether or not I can save Sarah."
This is how they came to their argument. With Toby's wining notion Jareth sighed and a clock was suddenly made aware behind him. "You have 26 hours to reach the castle, and then we'll complete our deal. I would suggest you not complain about time, because you'll need every moment to make it through."
With that, he was gone. Toby blinked, and then turned to the task in front of him. "The princess thought it was a piece of cake. I hope it can be just as easy for me…"
