Okay, I'm really, really, really sorry about having taken almost a year to write more of this, but I've had so many other stories to write and so many things going on that I couldn't come up with anything else for a long time. But I just read this whole thing, starting from chapter one again and now I know what I want to write down. So, with my deepest apologies, here is the hopefully long-awaited chapter of this story.

Chapter 5

Ebony rushed quickly through her house, suddenly realizing that she couldn't remember the layout of it for some reason. It took her quite a while to find the nearest of the two bathrooms and then a while to find the light switch when inside. Once she did, however, she immediately turned the water in the sink on, and, looking into the mirror, splashed cool water on her chest. It had burned, it had burned so much... By this time, she realized that the whole time she had franticly run through the house, ever since right after she awoke from that nightmare, her necklace had been glowing. She didn't know why it wasn't anymore, but the stinging from it was still present, and she was in too much pain to think of anything but that, and just threw the amulet hanging from the chain over her shoulder and continued to splash cool water over the spot that had burned... Panting, she finally felt the pain leave, and studied the wound it had left in the mirror, a dark brown spot against chestnut skin. The confusion set in then. It was the exact same shape as the amulet on her necklace.

She reached for it, staring still, and then, nervously and carefully, she placed the charm back where it had been. She was right. The exact shape of it had been burned into her flesh. Now was the point in time when the fact that it had been glowing fully struck her, and now was the time she wondered... Why? It wasn't supposed to glow, it was just metal, it didn't even have any kind of glow-in-the-dark or fluorescent paint on it, all the colors were natural for whatever metal it was.

The shape of the amulet was the outline of a triangle, and in the middle of it was a bird flying over a kind of angled cross. It had intrigued her, and she had bought it from the creepy old lady behind the stand in the market at King Richard's Faire because of that. The woman had said it was some kind of ancient mark, and that it was part of a small set, but no one had found the other amulets. How she knew it was part of a set, Ebony didn't know, but she hadn't bothered to ask. She had proceeded to look it up in books and online every chance she got, because a few of her friends had said it might be some kind of special symbol or a family crest or something, and she'd wanted to find out if they were right. She had found nothing about it. There was something else she had found out, though. Apparently, a very long time ago, a family of peasants in medieval times had had a family crest that was worn on the shield of a son when he became a knight. The only reason she thought of looking at it was because there had been something about an amulet having been made of that crest, one and only one, which was given to that knight's son. It was lost somehow, or something like that, and hadn't been seen since, and neither had that boy. The only reason why so many people had gone looking for it afterward was because it was believed to have some sort of magical powers that did something very important. But no one had seen it. She had wondered if this necklace was in fact that one, but she guessed correctly that it was wrong.

After a very long time of considering what on earth had happened, she decided to handle it tomorrow, because she felt suddenly very sleepy again, as though she hadn't slept in days and days, and thus trudged off to bed.

-

About thirty to forty miles away, another young woman was staring at a burn mark on her own chest, shaped as a rearing bear standing in front of a pentagram, claws and teeth bared. She was also looking with increased confusion upon the amulet that hung around her own neck, of the exact same shape. She hadn't bothered to find out what it was. She had bought it from one of those stores that sells macabre items, magic candles and such, which she went to often. It had been the only one there, and she had felt drawn to it. Apparently, according to the man behind the counter, this was some type of ancient family crest.

"Megan?" said a sleepy female's voice from the bed behind the first girl, "Are you okay?"

"It stopped now, babe, I'm fine. Go back to sleep."

But instead of doing that, Jasmine got out of bed and came up behind Megan, tousling her short brown hair and kissing her neck before wrapping her arms around her from behind. She rested her chin on Megan's shoulder. "Are you sure? You woke up so fast..."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Like I said, it stopped..."

"But look..." Jasmine made Megan turn and face her, and gently touched the dark brown mark. "You're burned... What happened?"

"I... Don't know." Megan looked into the mirror again, sideways, still rubbing the spot.

"Oh, you shouldn't rub it like that, Meggie, it'll make it hurt a little more... I'm gonna go get some cream to put on it."

"Jazzy, I'm fine, it doesn't hurt..."

"I know, but I want to get some on it anyways, just in case it scabs over or flakes or something, okay?" She left the room, and wouldn't hear Megan's half-hearted protest. Megan sighed and looked again at the burn in the mirror. She rubbed at it a little more, while her girlfriend wasn't in the room, and looked in confusion once more at the fact that her necklace had somehow burned it's silhouette into her chest. What had happened, she didn't know, but she was still shaken up by that dream... She had never dreamt anything like that before...

"Okay, I got some Neosporin from the medicine cabinet, lemme see..."

Reluctantly, Megan turned back to her and allowed the cream to be rubbed onto the burn. "Okay... there. All done. Oh, you might wanna sleep with that necklace off or at least hanging behind you so it doesn't do that again or mess up that burn, okay?"

"Yeah, all right..." Obediently, she tossed the amulet over her shoulder so it hung down her back.

Come on. Back to bed, you have work tomorrow..." Megan was led by Jasmine's hand back to bed, and then they crept in together. Jasmine snapped off the light, and then she and Megan kissed briefly before she settled down with her head on Megan's shoulder. She fell asleep quickly, but Megan, having still not gotten over the confusion of what had happened, lay awake and stared at the ceiling, gently stroking Jasmine's arm. She didn't sleep again for some time.

-

Six year old Rosie ran into her parent's bedroom, bawling her eyes out and screaming about both a nightmare and the fact that something had burned her. Once they calmed her down, her father went quickly to the bathroom to wet a cloth after he and his wife saw that the part about something having burned her had been correct. A dark spot in the area of her chest stood out from her pale skin. She was still crying a bit when he returned, but she had stopped her yelling, and her mother was gently rocking her back and forth, stroking her hair.

"Here we go, sweetie, let daddy see..." said her mother, and slowly, Rosie moved into a better position so he could carefully wipe at the burn. Once he had successfully cooled it, they took a better look at it. It was shaped exactly as the necklace around Rosie's neck was shaped. The crest was a very intricate Celtic knot, tied tightly together and with a greenish gold tint. The way it was done made it look as though it consisted of three ropes braided together to create the knot. They hadn't felt very comfortable at first with allowing Rosie to wear it, but she had insisted she'd take good care of it, and she had. It was still in one piece and didn't have a scratch on it. And she always kept it tucked under her shirt, hanging in front of her heart. And now the image of it was burned into her chest. They knew what this meant, and they looked up at each other, shock on their faces. One thing was stuck in their minds. Grandpa had been right.

About two hours later, Rosie lay asleep again in the middle of her parent's bed, and they were talking in whispers to each other. "This can't be right, it's too soon, she's much too young for that..."

"I know, but it must be. It's burned itself onto her skin, she can't back out of it now when she finds out..."

"Honey, face it, she needs to."

"But Grandpa said the necklace was meant for me not her! He told me the story!"

"We don't even know if this is real, it might just be a coincidence."

"A coincidence? A coincidence, Ben, she had the nightmare! She had the nightmare and it burned itself into her chest! Someone is going to come looking for her now!"

"But it might not happen! It might just be something that serves as a warning, or... or something like that, we don't know—"

"You don't know, Benjamin! I know! It was passed down for generations through my family for this sole purpose! She needs to go now, and either the people she needs to go with are going to find her, or she'll find them, and then were will we be? We have no choice, she... she has to do it, she's been marked for it. And it's my fault..."

"Honey, don't cry... Don't cry, come here... come here..." And she did, and cried into her husband's shoulder. "If she has to, she has to. But she'll be all right, if she goes with good people. People who'll take care of her, keep her outta harm's way. Then when this is all over, she'll come back, and even if the mark is still there, we can stay the same as we always were, okay? I promise, she'll be just fine. It runs in the family." His wife smiled, and then she quietly brushed some hair out of Rosie's face, studying the necklace for a brief while. When she couldn't bear to look at it any longer, she just crept over to one side of her daughter, her husband on the other, and they held her and each other and went back to sleep.

-

Jareth sat and rubbed at the spot where his necklace had burned him. He hadn't yelled in pain. He hadn't even flinched, really. He did it so she wouldn't be worried. Knowing that at the exact same time that she was burned by her necklace the exact same thing had happened to him would only make her worry. He hadn't needed to see the mark on her to know it had happened. And now that she had fallen asleep again in his arms he had time to think. He felt there was something in this world that he was missing. But that wasn't what worried him. It was what this occurrence hailed. This meant something was happening at home that should not have been happening. Gardein hadn't explained it to him fully, choosing to tell him later when he was ready, but he had been killed before that time ever came, poisoned by a rival. And so Jareth had been left with the throne. Much to the disappointment of said rival, who was bound to come back and claim it himself, but as San was here now, he very much doubted that that man was even alive any longer. He would have killed him already.

Jareth knew who San was. He was not, in fact, the man who had poisoned Gardein, but he was another who wanted power. He had come looking for something, that Jareth knew, and his amulet, and apparently Paul's as well, had something to do with that, whatever it was. He wished the old man had told him. He would have been more capable of preventing something he knew of then he was with preventing something he did not. It made his head hurt, thinking of such things, and his head hardly ever hurt from thinking, which made him aware that he was thinking too much. That is possible, and he knew it was, but he didn't expect it now.

Still, it was unnerving to know that something was even more wrong now then had been when he left the Underground. He had been told little things, and some things he should never have been told at all, but nothing that had to do with this. He was only told that he was to keep Gardein's family crest safe from harm at all costs, and that it was now his own family crest, as he had lost his birth family to the Stone Warriors when he was very small. When Gardein had found him and taken him in. Thinking of the old man now, he felt his eyes begin to sting a bit, and he refused to cry now at his age, at such a time as this. So he thought of what to do until the effort made him sleepy, and, leaning against a nearby tree, he allowed Paul to remain in his arms for now, as he couldn't comfortably put her down at any rate, and went to sleep.

Somewhere in the Underground, Hoggle screamed.

A/N: So there you have it. I don't know how interesting that was, and I don't have much of an interest in making sure everything makes sense right now, it's 2:28 in the morning... Thanks to all those of you who do find this interesting and have read thus far. Hope to write again soon, I should have more ideas coming up... Bye! .