Labyrinth Pt. II

11. Truth Comes Out

"Sarah!" The sounds of my name reaches me and I awaken with a gasp. My vision takes a moment to clear and settle on the goblin's face in front of me.

 
"What happened? Are you okay?" His face changes from concerned to anger. "I knew you shouldn't have come. You can't handle this. I need to get you somewhere safe before I continue. I can make the journey on my own."

My brain takes its time processing what he said and when I can finally answer his questions he interrupts me again. The damn fae trick gave me a headache!

 
"I hid us behind some trees. You fell wrong and may have hurt your ankle. We will stay here for the night and at first light we can make our way to someone who can house you."

"Jareth. Stop. I'm okay. I fainted, not because I can't handle myself or any of this, but because of a certain someone. You can't do this alone. Not when you are becoming more human and unsure of how to take care of yourself." He just stares at me. I am a bit concerned about my ankle but I brought stuff to take care of possible injuries, so I should be okay. I can move it so it's not broken.

 
"What certain someone?" His question stops me from untying my boot.

 
"What?"

 
"You said a certain someone caused you to faint. Who?" I mentally kick myself.

 
"Did I?" My voice squeaks.

 
"What certain someone?" He enunciates each word like individual sentences.

 
"Um-"

"Do not lie to me." I sigh and commit to tell the truth.

 
"I- Fine. I was visited by Nyx. He caused me to faint before."

"The fae king? You've spoken to him?" His voice says he's shocked by my answer but his face is angry.

 
"Yes. More than once."

 
"More than the once?" He is angry but hasn't raised his voice.

 
"I've spoken to him twice." My eyes are closed, to nervous to open them to see his face. I don't owe Jareth anything. I should not feel guilty for something I couldn't control.

"H-how? How have you spoken to him twice when you just got here and I've been with you this whole time? How has he caused you to faint?" His questions are firm.

 
"I'm not sure how he caused me to faint but he took credit for it. We speak in a dream, I guess. It's an open field covered in a blanket of white. It's otherworldly. I assumed it was here, so when I saw the bright beautiful colors I was confused." I can feel myself starting to ramble. "The first time was back at home. The night before we came here. I fell asleep and had a similar dream. Same place, different conversation." I'm not sure if I should tell him about the key. I'm also unclear as to why I am hesitant.

 
"In a dream.... he can access your subconscious, but how? Why?"

"I- I don't know." My eyes drift towards him then away. I feel guilty even though none of this was my fault.
I still should've told him.

"What else are you not telling me, Sarah?" The key. I need to tell him about the key, but I can't. "Is it about that necklace you are wearing?"

 
My eyes shoot to his.
"I noticed it when I picked you up after you fainted. If fell out from your shirt and I touched it but it burned me, it was so cold. I couldn't think of where you got it from, but now I can fathom an educated guess."

 
"Yes. Nyx gave it to me the first time he visited me."

"Let me guess, it's what opened the door that brought us here."

 
"Yes," I mumbled my reply. When I looked back at his face, he was hurt and so very angry. I lied to him. 

 
"I see." He got up and walked to stand between to trees that blocked us from plain sight. That's when I noticed we were in a circle of trees, somewhat safe. He didn't say anything else to me, so I figured the conversation was finished. I felt horrible about lying to him. I boosted his ego for nothing. I've met with the one who is trying to kill him. Even though they weren't, it seems as though they were consented visits. Why? Because I listened to Nyx and didn't tell Jareth.

 
This is what he wanted. He wanted Jareth to find out like this, so that we would fight.

Well Nyx got what he planned for. I started to tear up at that thought.

 
I'm proving to be more of a weakness than a help.

I quickly wipe my tears and work on my ankle it's bruised but not broken. I took some bandage wrapping from my pack and wrapped my ankle loose enough to move but firm enough to help with supporting my weight.

If I elevate it while I rest, it should be usable in the morning. Here's hoping I'm right about this.

I lean against the tree trying to find a comfortable spot. I know I need to sleep but so does Jareth.

 
"Uh... hey, you need to rest too, Jareth. If you want, I'll rest first for a couple hours then you can." He didn't respond verbally but just nodded his head. I fixed my pack so it was under my ankle. It wasn't high enough so I tried to collect leaves and failed. Jareth moves closer and collected some leaves, wrapped them in his jacket, and put them under my pack. It made my ankle rest at the best height to reduce swelling. I was still surprised he helped me, when I knew he was still angry.

 
"Thank you." I whispered. He was close enough to hear me.

 
"Sarah... I'm not angry at you. I'm mad at him. I'm mad that even when you sleep I cannot protect you. I'm mad that when he did what he did he hurt your ankle in the process. However I am hurt that you didn't tell me when he visited you. You know you can trust me, right?"

"Yes." Tears we're slowly rolling down my cheeks.

 
"Then you need to trust me. Keeping secrets from me is not trusting me. I am disappointed that you lied. I have never lied to you. I would like the same courtesy."

"I'm so sorry, Jareth. I didn't mean it like that."

I pulled him in to a hug and it took him a second to return it. He cut it short by telling me to rest while he kept watch. So I did just that. I slept and had no dreams.

 
A soft voice in my head was the last thing I heard before falling to sleep. "It's not polite to lie to people."

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