The Labyrinth on Bourbon Street 2

Another Chapter in the History of Wrong Runners

Allie, Sebastian and Lapis reached the edge of the labyrinth just as the sun started to rise. True to his word, Jareth left Sebastian's balcony door there for them to make their exit back in to the above-ground. It was hovering a few feet off of the sandy desert floor, but that wasn't anything a little boost from Sebastian couldn't fix. The three of them had to be as stealthy and as quick as cat burglars. Jareth didn't know what Lapis harnessed in her suitcase, nor that she was leaving at all. 

Allie was the last to get through the door. Lapis gave her her hand to pull her up, but something dragged her down. 

"Not so fast!" came the taunting voice.

Allie screamed bloody murder and started to flail in Jareth's arms. Sebastian kicked the door open for a wider window of attack. Jareth held Allie by the neck, his palm wrapped around her throat and slowly tightening his grip. There was no angle to attack him from afar that wouldn't hit Allie. 

He started to creep towards the door, shoving Allie in front of him to use as a human shield. Sebastian scrambled through his pockets for the match he never struck. He waited to strike it as Jareth grew nearer to them.

"What are you waiting for??" Lapis yelled, doing her best to block the majority of the opening to keep him from entering.

"A closer target, I can't hit Allie!" 

Jareth tried to force his way into the door as Allie's lips started to turn blue. Sebastian let Jareth come dangerously close to him before he struck his match. He slashed it over the back of his hand, freeing Allie from his grip when he retracted in pain. Allie scrambled to get through the door and Lapis kicked his face away while he was distracted. 

Sebastian pulled Allie into the apartment and three pairs of hands tried to force the sliding glass door closed. The door suddenly slammed shut effortlessly, and the three of them were safe in the apartment. Lapis, Allie and Sebastian were a little suspicious that Jareth had given up that easily but were grateful that they weren't in danger anymore.

Sebastian's watch chimed to mark the hour. It was seven AM, New Year's Eve. The three of them just lied down on the ground, desperately seeking their breath and heartbeats. 

"Seb..." Allie finally gasped when she found her breath again. "Did your not-communist mother teach you how to suture?"

"Yeah." Sebastian answered, somehow cracking a smile. "I have a first aid kit under the sink."

So the remainder of the morning was spent tending to each others wounds and explaining to each other what had happened. 

"Your turn in the shower, Sebby." Lapis emerged from the little bathroom, wearing some clean clothes that Sebastian was generous enough to loan her (with a bra and a pair of panties that she gave him way back when they were friends with benefits that he kept). Sebastian, who was responsible for swabbing out everyone's (including his own) wounds and stitching up what needed to be. He was thankful for a hot shower.

Allie and Lapis were left alone together, for the first time in what seemed like years.

"So why was it that you came back for me?" Lapis asked, raising an eyebrow. She looked up and down her arms and legs at the various bandages and bruises that she and Allie had collected over just a period of a couple days. "It's not like I'm worth this much."

"Lapis." Allie said, reverting to her worried black mother bear mode. "You are my best friend. I saw your missing persons ad and I knew you relapsed back into that goddamn fantasy world of yours."

"You do know me too well." Lapis said, her sentence sounding in good nature but her tone sounding guilty and regretful.

"Lapis, don't beat yourself up." Allie ordered, smelling her guilt from a mile away. "I chose to go after you, and I chose to put myself in danger. You had nothing to do with it."

Lapis smiled, Allie's remark helping her put her conscious to rest. She looked around the apartment, wondering how long it had been since she was last there. She spotted something that looked familiar on top of the kitchen table.

"Are those my wallet and keys?" Lapis walked over to them and picked them up. 

"Yeah, I saw them tossed on your bed when I --" Allie stopped herself in the middle of the sentence. 

"When you broke in to my house to look for me?" Lapis raised her eyebrows and smirked knowingly.

Allie bit her lip. "Yeah." She admitted with a smile.

"I see..." She answered, putting her wallet and keys into her pockets. "I'm going out to get Sebastian some concealer for his eyes."

"Wait up, Lappy." Allie said, not wanting to leave her friend alone for a second. Just then, Sebastian emerged from his small bathroom in a cloud of steam, fully dressed and running a towel gently over his hair.

Allie pressed her thumb and forefinger to her teeth and let out a whistle. Sebastian smirked at her and approached Lapis and Allie sitting near the breakfast table. 

"Hey guys, check this out." Lapis said, opening the red book flat on the table. "It's Tia Sarah."

"Oooh..." Allie hummed, looking at the elaborate portrait of Lapis's aunt in a big poofy white cotillion gown with crystals woven into her hair. 

"Runner thirteen; Sarah Williams." Lapis read out loud, crossing her legs. "The first runner to best his royal highness without succumbing to his elusive charm."

"Is that so?" Sebastian asked, looking over Allie's shoulder. Lapis flipped the page and saw a familiar picture -- it was of herself, but it was a painting that she had seen once before. At the end of the hall of the runners, perhaps.

"Holy shit." Sebastian exclaimed. "When did you get a ballgown like that? It's beautiful."

"It was from last year." Lapis answered, her eyes scanning the page for the information about herself. "Creating a legacy, runner fourteen was the niece of Sarah Williams. Lapis Lazarus Williams was the first Queen of the Underground. For her short term, she was benevolent and loving towards her subjects. I guess that whole three days really made a difference."

Lapis buried her hand in her hear and flipped the page again, now seeing a full two-page illustration of Sebastian and Allie running through the darkened corridors. 

"Sebastian Hearst and Alexandria Majorie, runners fifteen and sixteen." Sebastian read out loud. "Hearst, better known as the piano-man -- oh shit, we get epitaphs?"

"Oh, sick." Allie looked down at her picture. "Mine's the Black Stray. Could that be any more emo?"

"It doesn't matter anymore." Lapis laughed, shutting the book and putting it back down on the table. "Come on guys, let's get some fresh air."