Responses to reviewers:
Meow: This takes place before Broken. That means that Jareth controlled Jason before Daisy, and it's assumed that he was Jareth's host directly before Daisy. Based on what happens to Jason is how Jareth deals with Daisy. As a result, it would make sense that Jareth would use caution with Daisy and not tell her his name, while with Jason he was a little more unguarded. I hope the story continues to make some sense…the point of the story is to enlighten the readers about Daisy's experience, not confuse the readers. And yes, Jareth is just a total jerk like that. He's also very egotistical.
Genesisdragon: Shh, don't tell that to Jareth. He gets cranky easily, as you can imagine. ;)
AllOrNone: You'll find that out, though it probably won't be explicit. Like I said, Jason came before Daisy, so Jareth deals with Daisy based on his experience with Jason.
Kelptic183: Thanks!
Scarab Dynasty: It's not over yet. :) Glad you enjoyed, though.
Myitt: I think "egotistical jerk" is about the nicest thing that you can say about Jareth without inserting curse words into the description.
My usual "rule", so to speak, applies here: I will try to update once a week, but I will definitely start the next chapter as soon as I get five reviews. This means you can except a chapter a day or so after the fifth review comes in. This is subject to change based on my schedule and my inspiration, but I also think that this piece will be significantly shorter than Broken. I'm guessing less than seven chapters, maybe around five.
Okay, onto the next chapter…
The next few days were not pretty. Apparently, Jareth seemed to hold the notion that leaving me to my own thoughts was just as bad as letting me have control. He kept my mind very occupied with images. Usually bad ones, sometimes fantasies of power.
Also fantasies of torture that he would use on my family.
The last one made me the angriest, but if I even started to so much as snap, Jareth would make what he put me through on a regular basis seem pleasant. I did not know what kind of tortures existed until I had Jareth in my mind. I did not know half of the punishments that he used on me even existed before I experienced them.
I won't go into details. I remember them pretty well, and now I can look back on them and just cringe, instead of screaming and running in the opposite direction.
I would say another way that I'm able to remember what happened and actually laugh, but then there would be no point in my telling the rest of the story.
By the end of the first day, I was emotionally exhausted. I was beaten, drained. Jareth managed to put me through what felt like hell in a matter of hours. I had no idea how I would be able to survive weeks of this. Months of this. Death would be pleasant compared to this.
Of course, I believe in an afterlife, but even if there was nothing, it would seem pleasant compared to what I was enduring.
According to most involuntary Controllers, there's nothing worse than having an alien living inside of your head, controlling your every move, and having access to all of your memories.
They have no idea how lucky they are.
By the time the third day came around, it felt like a small miracle. I knew that Jareth would need to feed because they had mentioned that to me at the Sharing meeting when they made me a full member. I would have a couple of hours of mental freedom before Jareth came back.
I would need that time to recuperate. The last three days had been torturous. Jareth wouldn't even let me sleep. Not for long periods of time, anyway. He never tried to control my dreams, so I guessed that he couldn't, but he enjoyed screaming at me while my mind was trying to rest.
I wondered if this was how Yeerks felt when their involuntary host just wouldn't shut up.
Jareth waited as long as possible before going to feed. As a result, the levels of torture grew, because he was starting to feel hungry and was taking it out on me. At the same time, every second he delayed was a second longer that I was in mental pain. He didn't want to give that up.
At last, we made it to the Yeerk pool. At last, that filthy slug crawled out of my head.
I didn't scream, and I didn't run. I knew that if I gave myself a sore throat from screaming, Jareth would make me pay for that. And if the Hork-Bajir guards needed to stun me or use physical force, Jareth would also make me pay for that.
The only thing to do was walk silently to the cages, keep my mouth shut, and wait for the next few hours while enjoy being able to move by myself and think for myself.
I paid attention to the reinfestation line. I noticed that it usually took about two minutes between the person's head being shoved in the water and the person's body becoming calm enough for the Hork-Bajir guards to let them go.
It occurred to me that if I acted quickly, I could pretend to be infested and leave the Yeerk pool without a Yeerk.
I knew that this was my only shot, because once Jareth came back, he would know what I had done and would take measures to prevent it in the future.
If my plan failed and Jareth returned, I did not want to imagine his reaction.
But if my plan worked…it was definitely worth the risk.
I waited in the cage, completely still and silent, until the Hork-Bajir guards came and dragged me to the line for the reinfestation pier.