Thank you for the reviews!
I'm sorry for the short chapters, i truly am, but if i don't break it up into short chapters, i just go on about details and forget all the action. So, i'll brave the displeasure at the length of the chapters, and hope the content makes up for it!
Enjoy!
Tari
10
Jake had been reading late into the night, unable to sleep. Watching Adam haul Sarah around the dance floor was worse than a nightmare, and now insomnia had hit for good. In fact, he had the odd feeling that he was being watched. And it was steadily increasing as the night drew on.
Soon, he was jumping at every little noise.
Wishing his roommate were home for once instead of out getting wasted somewhere, Jake got up to fix himself some tea.
He turned sharply at the sound outside his window. Was he imagining things, or did a shadow just swoop past there?
Shaking his head, he pulled the teabag out and plopped it in again, hoping that the sound would chase away any unnecessary sounds, real or imaginary.
Not that there were any…right? Owls had never frightened him before.
"Get her out of your mind!" he told himself again.
But he just couldn't shake the feeling that Sarah wasn't like everyone else. That she did not belong among ordinary mortals. And that she would not be here for much longer, either.
Outside his window, Jareth smirked. This boy was onto something here.
Oh, getting her out of one's mind isn't easy…and no, she won't be here for much longer…
Soon, she would be in the Underground.
If all goes well, of course.
Which it will.
Jake jumped once more, hearing a knock. He thought it came from the front door, but for some odd reason he looked towards the window instead.
There was nothing there.
"It must be Sam," he muttered half-audibly, hoping that it actually was. "Back from another party, probably drunk off his ass again…"
He hesitated… the knocking sounded again, a bit louder this time. Sam had his own key – Jake suddenly remembered. Was he so wasted that he lost it?
Jake sat down on the floor, waiting. If it was Sam, he'd whine. He'd start begging Jake to let him in. That, or he'd find his key and open the door.
Jareth grimaced.
The little fool was trying to be smart, was he…
Well, the Goblin King would certainly not stoop to impersonating drunk college boys, nor to forcing locks.
He pulled a crystal from out of…thin air, apparently, and toyed with it, thinking.
I've brought you…a gift…
Something light came whizzing out from under the door, sliding to a stop right in front of the cross-legged Jake.
He picked up the folded piece of paper.
The few lines inside made him shake his already aching head even harder.
"Boy –
If you do not open this door, I shall have to walk through it.
Why deny Magic entrance when it is knocking at your door?"
He glanced at the signature
" – G.K."
More than a little confused, Jake re-read the letter.
Another loud knock sounded, and this time, he felt that it would be the last.
Come what may, he wasn't opening. If this G.K. was magical, then let him prove it. Walk through the door indeed!
"Well then… I warned you" sighed Jareth.
He didn't like pulling stunts like this for mere effect, but if he had to, he had to.
Actually he rather did enjoy it.
Quite suddenly, a cloak-enfolded figure with feathery blond hair entered Jake's apartment.
Open-mouthed, Jake leaned forward, expecting a masquerade dress to go with the black leather boots, but was quite mistaken.
Before him stood a man.
"G.K.?" he asked, from lack of anything else intelligent to say.