The Labyrinth Sequel

Chapter 19

After finishing my homework I get some food for Jareth and I. But when I bring the food upstairs Jareth is still asleep, and I don't feel like waking him up when he looks to tired. By time it is time for me to go to bed later on Jareth is still fast asleep and showing no sign of getting up any time soon.

This leaves me with little other option but to climb into bed with him and hope that he doesn't wake up in the night with any funny ideas. Despite this, I don't feel as though I have any other choice.

I slide into the bed and try to keep as much space between out bodies as possible. But in my small single bed I am still too close to him as I hang over the side of the bed. His skin is cold and his breathing is shallow. There is certainly something wrong with him that resting isn't helping.

I touch his face gently trying to see what is wrong with him. He shivers in his sleep, but doesn't wake.

My first thought is that I need to get him to someone who can help him, like a hospital or a doctor. But there is no way I can take someone like him, who isn't even fully human, to a human doctor. He would become an experiment to them if they noticed anything... magic about him.

I stay awake for hours, watching him to see if he is going to get any worse as the night goes on. Waking him up seems like the best thing to do, but I am worried about him becoming worse.

Just after midnight I can wait no longer as his condition gets worse.

"Jareth," I shake him trying to wake him, "Wake up. Come on, get up!"

Slowly he opens his eyes, looking very tired despite how long he has been sleeping. When he realizes how close I am he smiles wearily.

"Is it morning already, love?" He chuckles.

"What is wrong with you? You're burning up!" I say, shaking him.

"I'm fine, I just need to sleep a little more, that's all..." He mumbles.

"No, it's more than that," I try to force him to sit up, "You are getting worse than you were before. You need to go back to the Labyrinth."

He shoots up quickly, grabbing onto my shoulders. "No, I can't go back yet! You are only here for one more day! Just let me stay another day, I promise I will be fine."

"You will not be fine you can barely sit up on your own let alone get up and move around. You have to go back and get better before something happens to you. The kingdom is only just getting back to normal now after so long and you yourself are not completely healed." I tell him.

His eyes scrunch in pain and he hides his face in a pillow.

"Please, Sarah," he begs in a muffled voice, "Don't send me back just yet. Once I go back I will have to rest, and you will go off to school where I will never see you again. Why cannot I have this last day to spend by your side?"

When he looks up at me I can see the tears in his eyes. A part of me wants him to stay, to be with him for this last day, but I know that he will most likely not last a whole day here, and if he gets any worse it may be too late to send him back.

"You have to. I'm sorry." I tell him.

His face breaks and he hides himself once again under the covers. Feeling sorry for him I reach out to him under the covers and pull him closer to me. His skin is getting warmer and slowly I start to peel the blankets back away from him, causing him to shiver.

"I'm not giving you a choice this time, Jareth. You need to get back home soon or else." I warn him, unsure really what else I could do to him at this point.