Easy Come, Hard to Go

AN: WOW!!! You guys make me feel SO LOVED!!! *tears up* I don’t know what to
say! Thanks to all of you who reviewed from the beginning up to now. I can’t even believe
you guys love me that much. It just makes my day. People like you make me wanna write
24-7. *grins* But unfortunately I cant do that. And I am sorry that I have no idea
medically what I am talking about... *cough*Shadow Cat*cough*. I apologize for any
wrong-ness I do in this story. I just write what I think sounds cool. *smiles* Typical
woman.

Chapter 17

Toby’s dreams had been getting darker and darker. Every time he seemed to be
able to open his eyes, he would just fall back into unconsciousness even farther than the
last time. Throughout the time that he had faced in this world, he had never remembered
being so tired, hurt, and never remembered having such horrific dreams. He tried to keep
the dreams at bay. But they just keep creeping in, unwanted and seemed they would never
stop.

The last real thing he remembered was jumping behind the beautiful woman Sarah
had been fighting, stabbing her through the stomach with his sword, and then he felt the
worst pain in his life. *What was I thinking?* He reminisced about looking down at his
arm, or where it should have been. When he saw the blood projecting from his shoulder he
couldn’t help but pass out. The last thing he saw was his arm on the ground, convulsing
from the nerves trying to reach the brain again, and seeing Crystal come around the corner
with Jareth hot on her heels. After that, slumber, welcomed or not, rocked the young
boy’s body.

He opened his eyes, and darkness eluded him. Myrthy waves of fog swept around
him and he stared at the nothingness as it swirled over, under, and in-between him. He
gazed at a foggy object in front of him. As it materialized, he saw his father and his
mother. While his dad looked happy, his mother looked afraid. Toby had never really
gotten the chance to meet his mom. She died when he was very young, but that didn’t
stop him from dreaming about her. And he did. But none of them showed her in so much
distraut. He watched as the dad he loved and knew would never hurt a fly, opened his
hand and slapped the woman, which he never got the chance to know, across the face. He
watched in sheer terror as the beating continued and wondered where Sarah was. He
covered his ears to block the non-existent screams as he saw the tears roll down his
mother’s cheeks.

He began to feel sick and didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He
tried and tried to call out to his dad. Yelling at the top of his lungs, though no sound
coming out, he told his dad to back off. Soon, the beating of his mother fizzled out of
sight, not a moment too soon and Toby began to cry. He begged and pleaded with the
darkness to let him go and soon his eyes fluttered open. He saw Crystal’s face and sighed
in relief. He lifted his head a little and saw Sarah watching Jareth dance with another
Sarah. He tried to shift his weight, but when he moved, the ping of pain made his head
spin and darkness once again over took the young boy’s mind. This time, when he finally
got to open his eyes, he saw again that the dream state was trying to show something, yet
again.

Toby sat on the ground, not knowing if he could stand to watch another episode
like he just saw. The image began to slowly take form and Toby saw his sister in a room
with stairs going every way imaginable. She was walking towards Jareth and soon a clock
chimed loudly in the image. “You have no power over me.” Sarah called out and instantly,
she disappeared. All that was left was a tired and defeated king. He watched as Jareth’s
face turned from sheer sorrow, to disbelief, and then to ground splitting anger. He began
throwing things left and right. Punching walls as he walked past, the walls crumbling at the
force behind the heartbroken Goblin King. “That’s was your first and last mistake, my
lovely Sarah.” Jareth said looking into a crystal. “Soon, you will be mine. And then, you
wont be able to get out. Do you know why?” Jareth laughed as the crystal fell to the
ground and shattered. “Because you will be mine, forever. Whether you like it or not. You
will not escape me again.” Toby watched as the fuzzy picture faded. *That wasn’t so bad.
I knew Jareth loved Sarah, maybe I didn’t know he loved her that much.*

He watched as the picture came to life again, this time Jareth looked much happier.
“My sweet, sweet Sarah.” Jareth walked over to a large mirror and smiled as Sarah’s
image came into view. She was walking down the stairs of their new house, in her prom
dress. He saw her date pose at the bottom for their picture and his stomach suddenly
tightened with understanding. *The accident.* Toby gazed at the picture as the car his
sister was in sped across the highway heading towards the prom. He watched as a white
owl swooped in front of the car, colliding with the windshield. Broken glass scattered all
over the road as the car swerved off the road and slammed into a tree. He watched as the
owl slowly transformed itself and Jareth walked to the car. He opened the door on Sarah’s
side first and pulled her from the twisted metal. He marveled at how Sarah didn’t have a
scratch on her. Yet, when he went to the other side and pulled Sarah’s boy from the
ruckus, it wasn’t so nice. Jareth violently pulled the boy’s body from the car and threw
him to the ground. “Hear me well, you pitiful human. You will keep your hands off my
Sarah. Warn the others, for their fate will be worse than yours.” Toby saw the boy nod his
head and Jareth turned to Sarah. He blew her a kiss and vanished in a cloud of dust and
glitter.

*That prick* Toby shook his head and threw the judgment aside. *He did it
because he loved her. At least he didn’t kill him.*

Next thing Toby knew, he was being rushed into surgery.

“I need an IV for this kid NOW!”

Toby squinted his eyes as the operating room came into focus.

“Sarah?”

“No honey, my name is Claire. Just breath baby, and it will all be over soon.” The
nurse smiled her best fake smile as she put a mask over his face.

“No, I need to see my sister.”

“Just breathe baby, breathe.”

The nurse became fuzzy and again Toby found himself succumbed to darkness. He
looked around and saw a girl floating towards him. “Toby...” The voice called to him,
caring, but bone chilling all the same. He tried to walk towards it, but, it seemed as soon
as he attempted to call out to the fae looking woman, he was being shooken awake.

“Toby? Toby, can you hear me?”

“Who are you?” Toby opened his eyes and moved his left arm in front of his eyes.

“Claire, honey, your nurse.” She smiled a real smile this time.

“Where am I?” Toby lifted himself up on his elbows and cringed in pain. “Man, my
arm sure hurts.” He rubbed his head first and winced as the pain shot through his arm.
“Geeze, what did you guys do to my... wait a second.” Toby jerked his head to the right
side of his body and gasped. A new arm was hooked to his shoulder. “Holy moly!” Toby
lifted his arm up, and besides the pain, it worked like new. “How did you guys do this?”

The nurse smiled and turned to point at a man standing a couple feet from the bed,
checking Toby’s stats. “We didn’t do anything. He did it all.” She smiled again at Toby,
making him blush a little. “I’ll leave you two to get aquatinted.” She patted his bed and
left the room. The man checking Toby’s stats turned around and Toby smiled.

“Your fae.”

The man grinned and nodded his head. “We make the best doctors.”

Toby instantly relaxed and the wrenching pain in his arm seemed to die down. He
looked the man over. He was a tall, slim man. Broad shoulders and a kind smile. His teeth
weren’t as pointed as Jareth’s, but some of them gave off a vampicular feel. His red hair,
very much longer than Jareth’s, was pulled into a low ponytail. His mismatched eyes
beamed down at Toby as he reached for his new arm.

“It’s metal.”

“What is?” Toby asked.

“Your arm. It’s a new, well new in the Aboveground anyway, a new procedure
under testing. It’s metal, combined with your own flesh, to make you a brand new arm.”

Toby stared at this new arm and marveled at how light it was. “It doesn’t feel like
metal.”

“It’s not supposed to. And people aren’t supposed to know it is.”

“Wait a second. This isn’t like a government conspiracy thing, where they put a
chip in my head and are going to make me a mindless robot, is it?”

“Would I tell you if it was?” The doctor smiled as Toby’s eyes shot open in fear.
“No. It’s not anything like that. It’s just with fewer things going on in the Underground, a
lot of us have moved Aboveground. Job opportunities are better here. Not that being
princes and kings is boring,” the doc rolled his eyes, “but, lets just say, things are easier
here.”

Toby wiggled his fingers and grinned. He was really worried he would either be
stuck without an arm all his life, or he would have one of those stupid plastic ones.* Now
he didn’t have to worry, because everything seemed to be going awesomely. At least
where he was it seemed to be.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


“Dad, what the fuck are you doing?” Sarah screamed at the top of her lungs as
tears began to pour down her face.

“You belong to me, Katelyn.”

“Katelyn? Dad, I’m not mom. It’s me Sarah.”

Jareth watched in fascination as the man he once held in high regard, threw all his
strands of sanity away. “Max, she is not your dead wife. And she certainly is not yours to
claim.”

“The fuck she isn’t.” Max shouted at Jareth, but never took the gun nor his eyes
off Sarah. “She is mine.”

Sarah looked at her dad who she loved and trusted all her life. “Dad, what’s
wrong? Why are you doing this?”

Smiling an evil smile, Max shifted his weight and the gun to Jareth. “That bastard
will not take away anything more than he already has.”

“But he hasn’t done anything to you dad, hasn’t done anything wrong to me or
Toby.” Sarah pleaded as Max cocked the gun still pointed at Jareth.

“Your wrong again, my dear.” Max began to laugh and shook his head. “He did
everything. The man you say you love took your brother when he was younger. Made you
travel along in the deadly Underground.”

“Watch your mouth, Max. That’s my home you speak of.” Jareth warned.

“Don’t tell me what to do, you little fairie.”

Jareth’s temper began to rise. “What did you just call me?”

“Fair-ie. Ya know... a faggot. Isn’t that what you are? A Fairie?”

“Dad, stop it.”

“Well, is he afraid to admit what he really is?”

“So you will openly admit that your an asshole?” Jareth shot back.

“Jareth!” Sarah gasped. “Stop it! Both of you. You are acting like children.”

“Oh, that’s right Jareth likes little kids, dont he? A little petifile are we?” Max
smiled. “Like em’ when they are young do ya?”

“Max, I am warning you.” Jareth began.

“You aint doing nothing. Unless you wanna die.”

“You speak hollow words, old man.” Jareth glanced at Sarah and found her
awestruck by the actions of the two. “Sarah are you ok?”

Sarah’s hands were shaking and she was beginning to get very pissed. “What the
fuck do you think?” Sarah stepped in between the two fighting men and looked at both of
them out of the corners of her eyes. “You two have nothing to be complaining about.” She
turned her back on her father and pointed an accusatory finger at her beloved king.
“YOU,” she said in a stern voice, “you have the nerve to even talk to my father that way?
I dont care if he’s being the asshole of the century, he still is MY father. You are the one
that came into MY room and began to grope me. What do you expect my father to do
when he walks in on his only daughter almost fucking in front of him?”

Sarah turned on her father and narrowed her eyes. “And you.” Sarah began to
walk towards her now fear stricken father. “You are being an asshole. You did that
enough to my mother, and now you have the nerve to barge into my room and start
barking out orders? I AM NOT MOM! You will not walk all over me. I will love who
ever I want to and if I wanna fuck his brains out until morning then I WILL! I will not lay
around and take your bullshit like Katelyn did. You may think that I belong to you, but
you are wrong. VERY WRONG!”

Sarah held a hand out towards her father and smiled. “Put the damn gun down.”

“You think you can order me around, young lady?” Max gripped the trigger and
laughed. “Your no better than that wench of a mother of yours.”

Sarah was done hearing bullshit. She flicked her wrist and as Max shot the gun, the
barrel twisted and faced him.

“And your as much of a asshole now as you ever were.”

Max looked at the gun and let it hit the floor. “You bitch.”

“Get to know me dad, because this bitch aint going nowhere.” Sarah flick her
other wrist and smiled as Max was lifted off the floor. “You wanna be an ass? Then I think
its time for you to have a taste of your own medicine.”

Sarah closed her eyes and a tear fell down her cheek, but it was wiped up quickly
by the hand of her love.

“Let him have it.” Jareth whispered in her ears.

Sarah nodded her head and unlocked the dark memories she had stashed away in
her vault. All the years she lived with the screams of her crestfallen mother. All the
episodes she heard between the two and watching her mother say it was ok. Her hands
began to shake as she let all the anger flow through her system she had kept away. All the
sessions she had with the numerous doctors, telling her she was crazy. And now this. Her
father, she had tried to forgive and forget, came after her like he did her mother. Bullshit.
Not today. Not any day. Enough was enough.

“Kill me Sarah. Do it.” Max whispered out.

“No. You don’t deserve death. You, my fallen father, deserve to live out your
pathetic life in the hell you created.”

Sarah opened her eyes and held out her hands. “May this be a lesson you never
forget.” Sarah breathed in deep and held her hands, palm up, in front of her mouth. Like a
blown kiss of death, she exhaled all the anger, all the frustration, all the pain, and let him
have what was coming to him. The mist that escaped her mouth enclosed the lost man and
stared to seep into his skin.

“Sarah, what the hell did you do to me?” Max began to feel a thousand hands
slapping at his face, just like the numerous time he slapped Katelyn. “For the love of god!”
He felt his manhood being pulled on, more like ripped off his body again and again, raping
him of his feel good ideas of the action. “Sarah, why?” He felt his hands burning as he saw
the times he pulled his wives hands on the hot burners of the stove flash in front of his
eyes. And though the pain racked his body and the pictures never stopped, his body
showed no sign of abuse or anguish.

“My gift to you, my daddy dearest, before I leave,” Sarah circled the man as the
episodes continued, “is for you to feel the pain you put us all through. The numerous years
you stole from my life as well as my mother’s. Toby’s coming with me and you will never
see us again.”

“But, Sarah, I love,”

“NEVER!” Sarah screamed at the top of her lungs. She turned and looked at
Jareth and just as she was about to say, “let’s get the hell out of here,” her world was
darkened by blackness. Jareth ran and caught the exhausted girl and picked her up to carry
her over her fallen father.

“You, you prick, are lucky she passed out. I would have not had the same
compassion to let you live. Consider yourself blessed.”

Jareth walked away from the room he watched for so many years and down the
stairs he had only came up a few hours before. He saw Crystal waiting on the couch and
nodded to her as she stood.

“Our business here is done.”

“Let’s go get Toby.” She added as they walked from the house where a demon
once lived. Now that demon was just a man, a man that had things to deal with for the rest
of his life, all thanks to the angel that rocked his body with her jubilated magic.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Alright. First things first. My little * was to the plastic
arm comment. I do not hate people with plastic arms, nor
do I think they are stupid. I only put that comment in there so
it would create an effect. Anyone who thinks I was being mean can
use the door because I wasn’t. And, now that Toby has his arm back,
what do you think the Underground has in store for our new little one? And
how about the all powerful Sarah? *Grins* I love you guys... and I hope
you love me too. But I am going to have a busy weekend. I have to deal
at a couple casino nights on Friday and Saturday... But, I promise I will
try to get something for you guys. I am just warning you now...so
you dont send me anthrax in the mail or anything. Not that any
of you know where I live... Right? *looks over her shoulder*
At least I hope. *smiles*