The Labyrinth on Bourbon Street 2

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Allie and Sebastian, somehow, ended up on completely different ends of the oubliette, despite having been thrown from the same door. 

Allie landed on top of her bag, which, thankfully the elusive goblin king himself didn't think to check. Luckily, it was soft enough to protect her face when she landed on the rotting, slimy concrete that floored the oubliette. But the brine stung her cut and startled her up. 

She gnawed at the somewhat frail ropes that bonded her hands. Her sense of panic made her desperate enough to snap the ropes with her teeth. 

"Sebastian!" She called out, rummaging through her bag for the flashlight. "Sebastian, where are you?!"

She found her flashlight and clicked it on. She looked around to examine the dimensions of the room and it was exactly as she feared. Tight, dark and narrow, with the high ceilings being the only saving grace. The oubliette wasn't much of a dungeon; it was closer to a catacomb, but laced with the tear-jerking odor of a sewer. There was enough methane to set the whole room on fire if Allie were to light a match. 

"Go back while you still can..." Boomed a voice that seemed to be coming from the wall. Allie shined the flashlight on the wall. A shadowy Easter Island head stared back at her, completely motionless. She knew that she heard something. 

She knew that if she let every little thing bother her, it would be impossible to make any progress. Shit was going sideways all at once, in the most colossal way imaginable. All she knew was that she was stuck underground, in the dark, and needed to find a way out. No. She needed to find Sebastian and get him to safety.

Allie had to force each individual step; one foot in front of the other, and every so often, feel around with her foot to make sure she wasn't stepping into a bottomless pit.

After a few minutes of walking, and getting nowhere, Allie's flashlight started to flicker. 

"Oh no..." Allie muttered. "No. No, no no..."

The flashlight flickered out entirely and she chucked it at the ground. "Shitfuck!" She yelled. She knew that nobody could hear her, so she may as well scream whatever she wanted.

"Mind your language, little lass." came a familiar voice. It was comforting, but she couldn't put her finger on who it belonged to. "I think I liked you better without that dirty voice of yours."

There was the kicker. The translator that helped them to cheat the year prior. She remembered her face.

"Mique?" Allie squinted as her eyes started to adjust to the darkness. 

"Yes?" Mique raised her head and looked at Allie. "That's me."

Allie fell to her knees, trying to get into Mique's line of sight. "You remember me?"

"Not because I wanted to." Mique snarked. "You're one I wish to forget. You're the reason that I'm still on bottomless pit cleanup duty. And bottomless pits are much worse in the Underground than in your little town."

Allie sighed. There went her only hope for any help. "Look, you don't have to help me if you don't want to, but I just need help finding someone."

"That makes two of us." Mique scoffed. "My boys have been missing ever since they realized the kingdom had a new Queen, and they ran off to join the royal rankings." 

"Wait a second..." Allie thought back. "They aren't... Phelous and Eidus, are they?"

"As a matter of fact, they are." Mique dropped her mop and crossed her arms. "How would you know that?"

"We ran in to them on the way in." Allie reminisced. 

Mique was beside herself to hear the news. "How are they? Are they healthy? getting to bed on time?"

"Yes, yes!" Allie exclaimed. "My friend and I babysat them for the night, we made sure that they went to bed on time and everything!" 

Mique was very quick to hear anything good about her children. "Oh, I hated to hear your voice again, but when it spoke of my babies' good health, it spoke music to my ears!" She threw her arms around Allie and smothered her in her hug.

"No problem at all." Allie said flatly, confused by the sudden switch in moods. 

"Thank you for taking care of my children." Mique concluded. "Please, allow me to make it up to you. Who was it you needed to find, lovey?" 

"His name is Sebastian Hearst..." Allie explained, as if she was actually going to recognize him by name.

"Another human?" Mique asked.

"Yes." Allie stood up again. "He has dark brown hair that he sometimes grows out, grey blue eyes, he's got these strong arms but really gentle and agile hands..."

Allie didn't know that she was rambling, but Mique figured it out fast. "You've got it bad, lovey." She concluded. 

Allie wasn't about to deny it. "Irregardless," she stopped herself. "He's probably in trouble. I need to help him."

Mique thought to herself for a minute, almost making Allie think that she had given up.

"I don't think I can help you, but I can give you this." She reached into her drawstring bag and pulled out a lantern. "You shouldn't light a fire in here, but this light shouldn't die on you."

Allie smiled in gratitude. Her thanks were soon dashed when she heard a scream. 

"Could that be him?" Mique asked nonchalantly, pointing a thumb over her shoulder, as screams were something that she heard daily. 

Allie waited for a second before she heard it again. She recognized it. Maybe it was Sebastian, or maybe it was Jareth playing a trick on her. 

"I recognize it." Allie said, her feet taking control as she ran towards where she heard the sound.

She stuck the lantern out in front of her face to light her way. She felt like the ground was moving against her underneath her feet, like the belt of a treadmill. She was getting nowhere, but she was getting closer to the source of the sound. 

She finally came to a corridor where she saw a shadowy figure, fettered to the concrete wall. There was a light, but it illuminated the little room a velvety red. The shadowy figure moaned, and she recognized it right away. It was the same noise Sebastian made to catch his breath after a long, tiring song. Allie dropped everything and rushed to his side.

She held the light to his face. He was gagged with a black leather muzzle and was gasping for air through the little slits. He appeared to be wearing a domino mask made of bruising skin and he was letting tears stream down his face, but he was flinching, almost as if it hurt to cry. Allie soon saw why, because he had multiple lashes on both cheeks, and the salinity from his tears were cauterizing the open wounds. His shirt was nowhere to be seen and the fly of his jeans was busted open. 

"Sebastian?" Allie whispered, paranoid that Jareth could walk back in at any point. He nodded, whining pitifully in his pain.

"Did he do this to you?" She asked, starting to instinctively dab away the tears from his cheeks with her sleeve to stop him from stinging. Sebastian nodded his head frantically. Allie found the clasp of the muzzle and unhooked it, then ripped it from his face and tossed it across the floor. She saw that his hands were bound in nothing but makeshift metal twist-ties and used all her strength to free him. His strong arms dropped to the ground and he rubbed his wrists. 

"Alexandria..." he muttered under his breath, trying to regain feeling in his arms. Allie stripped herself of her red leather jacket and put it under Sebastian's head. 

"You'll be okay, everything's going to be okay." Allie assured him, gently cradling his cheek. He flinched away in pain, but kept his eyes on hers to the best of his ability. Allie couldn't stay hopeful when she looked at Sebastian's demolished face again. 

"We're going to die here..." Allie choked to him, letting her head fall into his chest. Sebastian hoisted himself up and held her close. "...we're going to rot in this dungeon and it's all my fault."