Falling --COMPLETED | By : jinx1764 Category: G through L > Labyrinth Views: 10231 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth, don't make any money, this is a work of fanfiction. |
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.Chapter 27
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. Hot. Everything was too hot and too bright and far, far too dry. Where ever she was lying, she refused to open her eyes and confirm her fears. A few more minute of denial wouldn't hurt. She squinted harder to hold off the intense light filtering through her lids. I must be in hell. Figures. I know I wasn't the nicest person, but I don't think I was that bad! I mean, you'd think I'd earned a break after everything that's happened. But noooo, I still end up on the negative side of the Afterlife! That damn Goblin King had better be in Hell too, or else I'll hunt his skinny ass down and drag him here! Then she remembered her brother and her lids snapped open without her permission. "Toby!" Blinded by the light, Sarah felt hands hold her shoulders down. Her struggles were brief as her strength quickly waned, but her adrenaline continued to fuel her anxiety and she thrashed and strained. "Where's Toby? My brother!" "He's safe," someone said, a woman. Someone her brain wanted to remember but dredged up nothing. "You sure?" "Yes," the woman said calmly and patted her arm. Sarah blinked rapidly, her eyes stinging and watering. She couldn't focus on the blur of black haloed by the light and tried to sit up despite the dizziness making her nauseated. "Is this Hell?" The woman laughed. "I wonder sometimes, but no." The hands pushed her back down, gently this time. "Rest, you'll need it." Then the rim of a metal canteen was placed at her lips and Sarah eagerly grabbed it and drank the tepid water, chugging until the hands pulled it away. "Not too much, you'll be sick." "Thirsty!" Sarah said, reaching out blindly for the canteen, her eyes still overcome. "I know, but it's too soon to have so much. I'll bring you more water in a bit." Realizing she fought without cause, Sarah dropped her arms and slumped back to the peddle-laden ground. "Alright. But Toby?" A heavy sigh. "If you promise to rest, I'll see if I can have him moved closer." Sarah's heart squeezed in joy and pain. He was alive! Where ever this was, whoever was helping them, he was alive! But what about… "J-jareth?" "Who?" With renewed vigor, Sarah's hand flashed out and grasped the woman's shadowy arm. She was real enough, just like her voice and her canteen of water. "Jareth, my … my friend." The shadow shook her head. "I'm sorry, we found only you." "Found?" The concept seemed foreign to Sarah's mind. How had anyone found them? No one had been looking. Had they? A cool hand covered Sarah's forehead. Chills flooded over her skin and Sarah shivered at the change in temperature. "You'll have so many questions, and you're in no condition to understand the answers. Please, Fixer, just rest for now and I'll get Len to talk to you later." "Wh-who are you?" Squinting, Sarah tried to focus, but the woman was still only smears of light and dark. "You wouldn't remember me, but we met once when my camp traded with your compound." Sarah strained her memory. There were a few small camps and outposts they traded with. "Wait. Len?" "He's busy right now, but I'll tell him you're awake. I know he wants to talk to you." Sarah finally released her grip and allowed her body to fall back to the ground. "Oh god, Sam…" "Yeah, that's one of the things Len wants to talk about." "Tell him…" Sarah gulped and shut her eyes, wanting to escape back into her unreality. "Tell him I'm ready to talk when he is." Another pat to her arm. "Okay. Think you can eat?" Sarah shrugged and covered her eyes with her arms, blocking the harsh sunlight. Her brain screamed for food, but her stomach roiled. "Well, I'll bring you something simple. Not like we have that much anyhow." "Fine." Crunching footsteps faded as the woman left, and Sarah wallowed. Fine, sure, whatever. How can I eat when I have no idea if he's alive or die, where we are or what's happening? God, I just wish this had never happened. But as soon as she thought that, she understood it to be a lie. Most parts were unpleasant to horrible, but some were surprisingly pleasant. Like kissing Jareth. Would she want that to have never happened? She groaned, rolled to her side and tucked into the fetal position. What the hell is happening? What did I do? .jsjsjsjsjsj
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Jareth stumbled downhill, his footing unsure and arms pinwheeling for balance. Trees had once stood on the top of this mountain, but their freshly blackened carcasses littered his way and the ground, now smooth and slick, made traversing the haphazard trunks more dangerous as his boots had little traction. Having woken alone, bruised, bloodied and without any supplies, he'd quickly began searching for Sarah and Toby. That was one sunset and one sunrise ago. In order to conserve what little strength he possessed (already he felt the pervading weakness spreading from his limbs to his core like a poisonous vine strangling him), Jareth refrained from calling out randomly. Instead, he timed his shouts to maximize the mountain's angle into the valley below. Not that it mattered. No one ever answered, and he trudged on, hoping to find either one soon. Assuming they're alive. Jareth shivered despite the overwhelming heat and sunlight, mourning the loss of his sunglasses again as he peered into the angry sky. Of course they're alive! Don't think so negatively! If you survived, then surely Sarah and Toby have, you just have to find them on this godsforsaken, destroyed mountain. And that didn't bare thinking about. Whatever Sarah had done with her magic had burned through him and apparently through the Vultures and the very foundations of the land to eject them somewhere outside the caverns. Magic, at least the type he was familiar with over eons of study, didn't function in such a fashion. Yet here he was, lost and miraculously alive. Hers was a sort of wild magic, untamed and feral and obviously extremely powerful as evidenced by the landscape he navigated. He squinted into the bright atmosphere again; one hand shading his eyes, and attempted to comprehend the vast amount of power needed to cause the splintered destruction of every tree for miles and the transformation of the earth into a glass-like surface. Yet still leave them—at least him for a surety—not only alive but no longer below ground. By Danu, Sarah, what sort of magic do you wield? .jsjsjsjsjsj
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Sarah awoke abruptly. She didn't remember falling asleep. A hand grasped her shoulder and was gently shaking her. The bright light had faded into dusk, and she could more easily discern the details of the person leaning over her. This time a man crouched next to her, young and obviously worried by the furrow in his brow. "Fixer?" "Len?" Sitting up, she grabbed his upper arms. "Len! It is you!" He grinned and hung onto her body as her grip faltered and she started to fall back. "Yep!" "How'd you find us?" "Got lucky with that explosion a few days ago. Followed it until we just about tripped over you and your brother." Len nodded to his left, and Sarah glanced to her right to see Toby sleeping nearby. "'Course it didn't hurt that we weren't too far away, otherwise you'da been done for." "What?" Sarah half-heartedly asked, unable to stop staring at her little brother resting fitfully. His skin looked to be a darker pattern of the mottled red. How much worse was he? "I know Dad said to stay at the Compound, but I just couldn't." "You couldn't?" Sarah pulled away from Toby and faced Len. "Don't be mad, Fixer," he ducked his head and seemed to shrink into himself, "but after a day or so I got a group together and followed." "You followed…" she said dully, her hands dropping from his arms as she absorbed the ramifications and tried not to think of Toby's suffering. "I know I wasn't supposed to." "Uh-huh." "But I left responsible people in charge of the Compound," Len said, quickly running over Sarah's response. "I see." "You're mad, aren't you?" Crestfallen wasn't a description Sarah often thought of, but Len's entire demeanor defined it—his slumped shoulders, over-sagging frown and air of self-defeat. "Len," she reached out for him. "Dad'll be so disappointed. I can't do anything right." She laid a hand on his shoulder. His rough spun cotton shirt scraped her palm. "Len, it's okay." He looked up, his eyes swirling with shock and hope. "It is?" Putting Jareth and Toby out of her mind for the moment, she smiled. "Absolutely, I'm really glad you disobeyed orders. We'd be dead otherwise." "So I did good, then?" "Oh yeah." With a heavy sigh, she nodded and lowered her eyes. He sounded so happy that Sarah's stomach curdled knowing she'd be the one to destroy him. "But there's a lot I need to tell you." Len's smile faded. He might not be the sharpest nail in the box, but even he could hear her reluctance as she added, "About your dad." Pulling back, he straightened his back and dropped his hands to his lap and—in a very mature and highly usual tone for him—asked, "What happened?" Taking a deep breath, Sarah commenced her explanation of Sam's betrayal—Chet's death and their capture. She did her best to not be cruel or dishonest as Len deserved to know the truth but didn't need to be unnecessarily hurt. Yet, as she watched his eyes first mist then harden, Sarah took pity on the young man and added a small bit where Sam had been a hero to his daughter, Len's sister. After all, he'd only wanted to save Sally not sacrifice them. They were unfortunate, collateral victims. If she kept thinking that, maybe she'd believe it someday. His mouth a hard line framed by deep groves in his sunken cheeks, Len seemed to have aged ten years in the past ten minutes. "I'm glad you told me," he said, standing. "Len." Sarah started to stand with him, but he waved her off. She settled back to the ground. "It's okay, I'm going to…" his jaw muscles bunched and clenched as he turned, his profile facing her, "you hungry?" Stomach again churning badly at the mention of food, nevertheless, she 'uh-huhed' and smiled a thank you. By her count, she hadn't eaten for at least at two days, maybe longer, and knew she should try to get down something solid. Hopefully it would stay down. "Grace's is finishing the stew," Len said in a monotone, one hand flipping arbitrarily away from her. In the grayish-yellow dusk, Sarah finally saw normal details of perhaps a dozen people or more working a small camp. Most she recognized from the Compound, but a few she didn't. "Grace? She helped me earlier?" "Mmm." He nodded, his head barely moving. "She seems nice." "She is. She's been…" Len's chest expanded. "She's a friend?" "Yeah." "That's good, Len." A few moments of silence stretched between them, and Sarah decided to brooch the other subject before he left. Fingers randomly playing with nearby pebbles, even she heard the desperate whine in her voice as she asked, "Speaking of friends, have you found Jareth?" Len flinched bodily at his name, then he bowed his head. "I thought you hated him?" "I-" Knees drawing to her chest, Sarah wrapped her arms around her legs. "I thought I did." Lips pursed, Len closed his eyes and nodded slowly. "Grace said she used to think the same way about me." "Things have a funny way of working out, huh?" "Yeah. I'll get you some stew and… ugh … you're brother…" Sarah lifted her head from her knees. "What about him?" "Grace said he looks really sick, and," Len ran a hand over his chest, scratching at his exposed skin as he avoided her eyes. "And?" "Oh hell, Fixer, she's not sure what to think. She's never seen anything like it. The fever and his acting weird." He finally met her gaze, and Sarah could see his new maturity lurking. It was painful to witness. It reminded her a little bit of how she got hers. Shaking her head, she held back tears. "It's fine, Len. I know that Toby…" She hid her face with her hands and tucked her head between her knees. Soft sobs racked her body, and Len's hand awkwardly patted her back a few times before she heard him walk away, the dirt and sand crunching beneath his boots. Jareth! Where are you? 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