Chapter Eleven

The roads were long, and dangers were everywhere, but Tara and Xanthe survived well enough. Although they were surrounded by those who would do them harm, they seemed to be repelled. Tara thought nothing of it, although where the pendent she'd gotten in the Labyrinth rested on her chest was getting awfully hot.

They seemed to walk in silence forever, until the sun began to set. With the darkness approaching, they started to turn their attention instead to finding some place to stay.

Walking up to random houses was, of course, out of the question, and Tara would be damned if her beloved was sleeping out in the cold. So she walked them to the door of a rather cheap, and trashy looking motel. Rooms here were thirty four dollars a night. She could handle it.

She paid the thirty four dollars to the greasy looking man behind the counter, and ushered Xanthe out of the office and into one of the rooms.

The room was worth less than what she paid. The wall paper was peeling off of the walls, and the picture between the filth infested was crooked. The lightbulb in two of the lamps had popped, leaving only the sludge smeered one under the picture to illuminate the room. The TV simply didn't work, and there were dots of white all over the room.

She didn't dare check the bathroom to see what she would find.

She sighed, and turned to Xanthe after her silent synopsis of the room. The poor little girls eyes were wide, and filled with tears. The sight made her aunt want to cry, and so she pulled the little girl into her arms, holding her tight and refusing to look at her again.

"It's okay, angel." She whispered soothingly, rubbing the girls back. "We're going to be okay."

The next morning, Xanthe shook her aunt awake around six in the morning. "Tara," She whispered, "Tara! I have a bad feeling!"

"Hmm?" Tara groaned, and opened her eyes to stare into those of her beloved. She sighed heavily, and rolled onto her back before nodding, and climbing out of the bed. She pulled on a pair of black pants from her bag, but let her pajama top act as a shirt. She doubted that she had time to change completely.

She took the younger girl by the hand, and peered out the peep hole cautiously. The parking lot was empty but for two identical red cars, parked next to each other. The outside seemed to be dead. The sun had yet to rise. There was no better time to leave.

The instant she swung the door open, a sense of dread over came her. She had made a very big mistake-- but it was too late to turn back now. Holding Xanthe's hand tight, she took off running across the parking lot, acutely aware of two more sets of footsteps joining behind them. She stopped dead as an elf appeared in front of her, and turned, only to find herself trapped. She whirled around and ran the other way, pushing past the elf this time, and continuing to run, Xanthe's hand still clutched in hers.

She slammed against one of the red cars, yanked the door open, and shoved Xanthe inside. She didn't know how she did it, but she leapt over the car, and leapt into the passengers seat. She glanced in the back seat to make sure there were no elves waiting for her to take off with them in the car, and then started searching frantically for the keys.

"Shit.." She whimpered as elves swarmed around the car. "Where are they!"

"Tara?" Xanthe asked innocently, and she looked up to look at her niece. Relief filled her eyes at the sight of the keys in the little girls small hands, and she snatched them away, and slammed one into the slot. She twisted it, and suddenly remembered that she hadn't gone into drivers ed classes yet.

"NO!" She cried out in pure aggrivation, locking all the doors with the push of a button, and decided to play it by ear. She shifted gears to the R, and hit one of the pedals. They didn't move.

Oops. That must be the breaks. Good to know.

She switched pedals, and they sped backwards, tires screaching against the tar, and car bouncing as she ran over elves. She slammed on the breaks, remembered to put her seatbelt on, and switch gears. In an instant, they were plowing through elves, and then through the motel. Xanthe screamed in protest as they crashed through the wall, and kept on going.

After a while of driving down this abandoned street after the other at speeds that far exceeded the speed limit, Tara adjusted to actually driving rather than sitting in the passenger seat of a car.

She slowed down, and turned onto the highway. They were going somewhere. Where...? She didn't know. They just had to move. After time, when Tara glanced over, her little angel was fast asleep. A sigh escaped her lips, and she looked forward again, fingers tightening on the steering wheel. Things were calm for now, but no one knew how long that would last. Not even the elves. She would have to figure out a plan of escape for the next time the they came. She'd been able to wing it so far, but how long would her luck last? She wasn't willing to leave this to chance any more. They'd have to go into hiding. A secure hiding.

The young woman the pair had dreampt about pushed out of the crowd highschool teenagers, making her way to her school bus and muttering about how thankful she'd be when she earned her permit this year.

"Ouh!" She cried out as a boy knocked into her, sending the binder in her arms flying. She glared after the boy as he just ran off the way they always did, but made no attempt to chase him down. She sighed, and bent over to pick up the papers that had flown everywhere. She grunted now and then as her careless classmates kicked her in their passing, but growled out loud when a booted foot came straight down on the paper she had just reached for, and wasn't moving.

She looked up, and stared into cobalt blue eyes, framed by hair more golden then any she'd ever seen.

She didn't know what came over her, but the papers she'd collected fell out of her arms, forgotten. Time seemed to stand still as they matched wills through eyes. She pushed firey red hair out of her face, and suddenly, she was running. She had reached the end of the bus loop before she even realized she was moving, and had crossed the street before she realized that she didn't know why she was running.

Somewhere in her mind, she confirmed that it didn't matter. Her instincts had never done her wrong before.

She glanced back, and laughed out loud to find that the strange person had tried to follow her, but that the cars of the street had adaquately cut him off. She shook her head lightly, grin not fading as she retook her run down the street. She pulled the rubber band doing a poor job of keeping her hair out of her face, out of her hair, and let the wind comb through it. She felt like she was flying. The wind whipped through the bright red strands of her hair, and tears of laughter were building in her vivid green eyes.

"I'm free!" She boasted, throwing her arms out and shedding her book bag in the street, caught up in the moment. Air whipped the fabric of her sleeves about her arms, and she let her head fall back, stopping in the middle of the street to dance about in circles, laughing.

She wasn't known for her carefree nature. She had let something go, and she could feel it deep in her heart. It was an advancement she felt the urge to celebrate, and let ANYONE hear!

"In lighter news," the man of the radio station went on in his deep voice, and Tara glanced down at the black radio boredly. "People really are dancing in the streets, here in Pittsburg today. A teenaged girl was found dancing around in circles on Lemonton avenue as if she had gone insane. Witnesses report that she suddenly broke free of her restraints, and ran out of her Pittsburg High and straight across the street with no apparent reason. The young girl who's name is not yet to be released is currently in the police station, although she has not formerly been arrested. Jane, what do you think?"

"Well, Tom, I think..."

Tara turned off the radio with a flick of her wrist. Something seemed off about this 'street dancer', but she couldn't quite figure out what it was...

"I'm not insane!" Yelled the beautiful redhead as she glared at one of the officers over thin sun glasses. "And if that's not what you're trying to get at, just what is it you -are- trying to get at!"

The whole police station had turned out to hear the girls story. It wasn't often that you found a teenage girl running the streets, particularly one as rich as miss Cryssandra Belli. Everyone knew her parents before they died in that questionable car wreck-- it was hard not to. They owned half the city. She lived with her grandparents now-- the only people in the city that were richer than her. She had a reputation to keep up, and so her name was not released to the press.

In time she'd be put away in some secret mansion behind some secret hill. Until then she was in their custody.

"We're not trying to 'get at' anything, Miss Belli," sighed the third officer that had tried to adress her. "We just want to figure out what is happening. You say there was a man on the school grounds? Could you describe him for us again."

Cryssandra rolled her eyes back in her head. "I already told you," She snarled, voice low in her throat, and gutteral, "I didn't get a good look at the guy." She was an excellant liar.

"Miss Belli, are you aware that this is your fifth trip to the police station, this month alone?" Intervened one of the observing officers, leaving his place against the wall to lean against the table at which the teenager sat.

"No," She retorted sarcastically, "I suddenly took on a terrible case of amnesia. Who was I again?"

"We're not going to get anything more out of her than we got the past four times." Cried the first officer, throwing his hands into the air, "She's just too stubborn!"

"Can I go home now?" Cryssandra sighed, lifting an eyebrow at the people around her as she leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest. "My bail, if I'm actually arrested for once, will most assuredly be paid."

"Someone call her grandmother." The officer before her ordered, giving up on the quest for information.

"At last the dancing queen of the streets has been given a name," Stated the man from the radio, causing Tara to stomp on her breaks and stare at the device in shock and horror. She was sure she had turned it off! "She may not be seventeen but everyone knows this gorgeous dancing queen! That's right, Cryssandra Belli has just been released from custody and will be returning home after such an exhausting day."

Xanthe looked over at her aunt groggily, "Tara? Why are you so pale?"

Tara glanced around her at the trafic, and resumed driving, and breathing as she snapped the radio off again, and shook her head. "Nothing, sweet pea, go back to sleep."

She glanced over as the child shrugged, and watched her out of the corner of her eye until the little girl fell asleep before turning off of the highway, eyes narrowed as they locked on the road. She intended to find this police station, and thus the teenager who turned her radio back on to hear some kind of information.


Authors Notes:NO reviews? Wow... that's kinda sad.

Oh, and insert the obvious stuff here. I don't own the Labyrinth, blah, blah, blah.

However, I actually do own everything in this chapter. Wow. Scary.

Y'know, if you don't like the way this story is heading you can review and yell at me for it! I prolly won't pay attention, because I actually have a PLAN for this story now, but you can still yell at me, and I'll take your issues into consideration!