Triple Trouble

Chapter 5 : The Plot Thickens

Meanwhile, back in the castle, Jareth sat comfortably in his throne, one leg over the arm and the other on the floor, staring at his practically naked companion, as if lost in thought. How he would love to simply pull on the towel to let his eyes rest on the beautiful woman that was placed before him, he couldn’t, not if his goal was to be achieved. He had to practice being patient because this situation was very delicate and he didn’t want to blow his last chance.

Sarah was well aware that Jareth was staring at her. On a regular day this would’ve bothered her and she would’ve attacked him with all the fight in her. Today was different though. Her mind was troubled with what her best friends did and what they were doing and the consequences that would more than likely ensue.

Sarah not only hated the situation she was now forced to endure but also the person she was obliged to be with, for the moment. After a short while, his ogling became quite irritating and she was beginning to feel the chill from the room. No matter how she fought, she was hell bent on refraining from asking Jareth for anything. If she showed any vulnerability, he would view it as a weakness and if her friends failed, she would be dealing with the repercussions of her actions for the rest of her life. Her body began to argue with her logic and eventually won.

“Jareth are you going to sit here all day or will you act like the generous person you claim to be and offer me some clothing.” She spat. He tilted his head to the side, thinking about the answer to her question. He could let her freeze there, she would hate him but he could enjoy this for a bit longer. On the other hand, he could prove to her that he could be generous on the odd occasion and that could slowly help to reaching his ultimate goal. Jareth snapped his fingers and a little goblin came running into the room. Upon arrival, she fell to her knees, bowing to her king.

“Zana, show Sarah to the room at the top of the North Tower.” The Goblin King commanded. Zana raised out of her praising position, bowed and then grabbed Sarah by her hand and began to drag her from the throne room.

“WAIT A MINUTE!!!” she yelled, yanking her hand out of the little goblin’s grasp. “I need clothing unless you plan on having me walk around naked for the next ten hours.”

“That does sound enticing, maybe I should have you walking around in nothing but your towel for the rest of your stay here.” He answered with a sly grin. “Unfortunately,” he added cutting Sarah in her attempted reply, “having goblins running around in their disgraceful way already puts a strain on this kingdoms reputation. I can’t have other kingdoms believe that we are complete animals so clothing shall be brought to your room within the next little bit. Now leave me in peace, I have tasks to tend to.” That being said, Zana forcefully and, by surprise, pulled Sarah out of the room and up the stair leading to her temporary room.
Jareth snapped his fingers yet again and this was followed by the entry of three goblins.

“Have female clothes made quickly and brought to me. You have one hour otherwise,” the subjects began to shudder, knowing what was coming “I will toss you straight into the Bog Eternal Stench.” The threat was enough to have the goblins running towards the exit. For the next hour that is where the King sat, awaiting his faithful subjects and pondering many aspects that had happened that day and how the near future would play out.

The clumsy subjects returned in a shuffle to the throne where they, on their knees, handed the clothing to their sovereign. He forcefully snatched the offerings from their hands. As soon as he did so, they stood up, made a short bow and ran for the door.
When they left him on his own, he left his seat for the first time in an hour and a half and marched purposefully towards the spiral staircase leading to Sarah’s room.

While the Goblin King waited for Sarah’s clothing to be made and brought to him, Zana showed her to her room. When they arrived, Zana pushed open the door to a half-circle room. It had a double bed, an in ground bath tub, a small dresser, a bed side table and a long mirror. The stubby goblin shoved Sarah into the room and slammed the door on her way out. She turned towards the door and attempted to open it but it was no use, it was locked. Apparently, he didn’t want his hostage to run away. Noticing the gothic shaped window across from the door, she slowly walked towards it. She got lost in her thoughts as she stared at the labyrinth. “Where are they now? How are they doing? Had they given up?” these questions and more plagued the one woman’s mind. Time passed quickly as she blankly stared out the window.

After staring at her past and present through the window for a while, Jareth teleported directly behind Sarah.
“Remembering how much fun you had in my labyrinth?” he whispered over her shoulder, into her ear. Sarah was startled from her reverie.

“Oh yeah we aaaaaaaaaaaall want to walk through an ever changing maze, in a short period of time, risking another human life while having a spiteful, egotistical and proud king as an adversary, cheating the entire time.” She sarcastically responded to his remark, regaining her composure after he caught her off guard.

“I enjoy your flattery!” he proudly stated, “At least you know how to treat your king every once in a while…still it is something we will have to work on. Fear not, you will get used to being at my beck and call very quickly.” he added with his smug look. “For the moment, I have your clothing here.” And he handed the pile to its new owner. There were several outfits which made Sarah feel the need to make something perfectly clear.

“Okay, one thing Jareth, I don’t know how many outfits I need for the next ten hours but I doubt highly that I need all these. So in case you assume that Kerri and Keaira will just give up or fail miserably, I would get that out of my head right now. Besides, I would kill myself before I stay here for the rest of my life.” She walked to the bed and placed the pile there and began to flip through the outfits. There was a long red skirt as well as a green one, a shoulder less white blouse, a dark purple tank top that attached around the neck and had criss-crosses down the back, a low cut red tee shirt, a black skirt that was cut diagonally from the right knee to the left foot, black boots with a heel of two inches high, a thin white night gown and some undergarments.

“Believe what you will…Soon enough you will be mine.” He stated as he left through the door. She rolled her eyes and chose to wear the black skirt and the purple shirt. She tossed the rest of the clothes along with her towel onto the floor and she lay down on the bed exhausted from all the events that had taken place that night.

Jareth entered into an empty throne room, summoned two more crescent moon thrones, one to each side of his and sat down in the middle. He pointed his palms upwards, in which appeared two crystals. He watched as Keaira kept running into dead ends and sat in desperation through one. Kerri on the other hand was walking around in the same general area so he was very proud of the relatively slow progress they were making. “If they are having trouble now, I doubt that the rest of the labyrinth will be a piece of cake.” He mused, proud of his scheme and of his creation, the labyrinth. He tossed the crystals into the air as they disappeared from sight. He then waved his hands back and forth a few times to clear the messy room from the previous goblin bashes that had taken place. There were many empty barrels of ale, goblin puke, feathers and a few passed out goblins and that was just to name a few of the problems of his throne room. “Why do I allow these parties to continue?” he pondered, resolute about putting an abrupt end to this within the next little while.

Once he was satisfied with the look of the throne room, he bellowed into the empty room: “Brothers!” At this moment, two tall men, of normal build, materialized each in their respective thrones. The man to his left had black-blue hair down to his shoulders and steel blue eyes. He was wearing a dark blue wide long sleeve shirt open at the top, allowing a pendant of a wolf sitting on a crescent moon protrude; around his neck, hung a black cape. His pants were made of black leather, which laced up along the side of each leg. Finally, he wore black, ankle height boots. The man to his right had golden brown hair tied in a ponytail with tendrils of bangs falling over his sun like eyes. His hair was held in place by a clasp made of gold. His attire consisted of a white poet shirt, opened at the top as well. This time, the pendant that was shown was that of a crescent moon with bird wings at both ends. He also wore multiple items made of black leather. Those items were a vest, gloves, knee-high boots and pants. Besides being family, they also had something else in common, they all ruled over their own lands.

“Brothers, I have found the answer to your quarry.” Jareth told his brothers. Looking towards the man on his right, he says, “Griffith, this is the one I have chosen for you.” As he said this, one of the crystals he had been holding fell from the ceiling, into Griffith’s upturned hand and lit up with the picture of Kerri. “And as for you dear Gareth” he said now turning to the darker brother “I present to you, Keaira.” With this, the remaining crystal fell into Gareth’s hand, letting the image of Keaira appear. Both brothers stared in astonishment at the marvelous girls Jareth had managed to find them.

“So what are your plans for the other mortal?” Gareth inquired.

“Sarah? I’ve got a few tricks and surprises up my sleeve for her. She thought she left me behind, I’ll show her that she never left and I’ll make her wish that she had chosen to remain here instead of saving her pesky little brat of a brother.” Jareth said while his mouth curled into an evil smile.

Inside the crystals, the pictures had now been replaced by videos of the progression of each of their soon-to-be loved ones. The men watched intensely as the woman ran into obstacle after obstacle. No matter how bad they felt for the girls, they knew that it had to be this way. While they watched their videos they sat and conversed about their recent accomplishment in their lives and kingdoms.

“Now, Gareth and Griffith, I shall show you to your rooms.” Jareth said, changing the conversation and raising out of his seat. His brothers followed suit, while making their precious little crystals disappear in mid air.

First was Griffith’s room; fit for a king it was. Gold was the dominant color scheme of the chamber. There were silky gold sheets on a king sized four-poster bed with gold veils hanging all around. There was a massive window, a bath that also served as a hot tub, a huge oak dresser with a big mirror over top. On the wall opposite the bed there was a fireplace with a warm fire burning. In another place in the room was a massive walk-in closet made of wood. By the color of the room, the first brother knew it was his and walked towards the bed. He lay down, conjured up his crystal and asked the others politely to leave.

The other two did so and walked down a short path of gray stone to find Gareth’s room waiting. There wasn’t much light. The red shades were pulled over on his window, hiding the room from the warming rays of sun. All around the room, on the walls, lanterns were hung. His room, although dark had a very roomy sense to it. It had all the same fixings as Griffith’s room but with shades of dark blue and blood red. He, in the same manner as Griffith, lay down on his bed, pulled the crystal from beneath his cape and asked Jareth to leave.
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