Chapter Six: Return of the Goblin King
Hiatus. It's an innocent enough word. It means "a brief pause between events". My fellow Whovians know that Doctor Who's hiatus lasted a considerable number of years. Hiatuses, when it came to my stories, seemed all-too-frequent. I was lucky to finish one story per couple of months. I'd only just finished "Stay With Me", an Early Edition story, in February of '06. Since then, I hadn't really written anything. I'd been busy, what with getting married in March and moving from New Jersey to North Carolina in May.
So, here it was September and I was busy traversing the realm of Eonar as a Warlock, Druid or Hunter. I'm talking, of course, about the online game known as World of Warcraft. I play that game frequently when my husband, Ed, isn't home because he doesn't let me touch the computer, as he's the one playing the game then.
Ed had just left for work twenty minutes ago and I was lying in bed, trying to fall back to sleep. It wasn't an easy feat, and what made it even more difficult was that I'd suddenly felt a presence in the room with me.
"This place is a mess, Lisa," purred an accented voice.
I yelped and jumped. "Yikes!" I looked and there was a blurry Jareth, the Goblin King, standing in the doorway of the bedroom. "Jareth!" I screeched, scrambling to cover myself with the blankets and pillows. "Jareth, I'm not dressed!" This was truer than the other occasions he'd walked in on me at bedtime. I've only slept in my underwear since meeting Ed.
Jareth raised his eyebrows, angling his body to see my bare shoulders. "Really…?"
I thrust my left arm out from underneath the covers. "Come any closer and I'll kill you off in my next story."
"Empty threat, Lisa," he said, stepping around the computer parts and couch cushions lying on the floor. "You haven't written a story about my Labyrinth in years."
"Well, I've been busy, you know."
"Oh, I heard. Congratulations on your marriage, Lisa." He came closer, taking my left hand and examining the pair of rings on my finger. "Hm, he couldn't have sprung for a diamond?"
I snatched my hand out from his grasp. Instead of the traditional diamond engagement ring, Ed had given me, at my request, an Irish wedding band, or claddagh ring. My actual wedding band had belonged to my great-grandmother.
"I didn't want a diamond," I said. "I was still at the stables and I didn't want to take it off, so I didn't want it broken."
"Yes, of course."
"Hey, at least you have your own story page on my website. I made that, didn't I?"
"Lisa," said Jareth, sitting on the edge of the air mattress I was lying on, "will you ever write another story about my Labyrinth?"
"Eventually…heck, I brought the movie back from Jersey so I could watch it."
"I suggest you watch it several times."
"Right…"
Jareth watched me with those mismatched eyes of his. "All right, Lisa. I'll leave you alone."
"Good," I said, burying myself underneath the covers. "Don't leave any glitter on the way out."
I heard him chuckle, then he bent low and pecked my cheek. "That," he said, "is your incentive to write again. Goodbye, Lisa."
There was a gust of air, and he was gone. I grumbled into the pillow, and fell back to sleep.
End chapter six.