Not Long At All

Chapter Nineteen

Sarah's POV:

      "Sarah. We have to cut him loose."

      David's words had been spoken with a hopeless common sense, acknowledging what I already knew. It had taken some definite control on my part not to let the box cutter slip through something other than tape. There was something off with Ziggy and he sensed my feelings, leaning from the blade every time it approached. I would be lying if I said I didn't have some fun with that. 

      Standing back to let him gingerly peel the tape from his arm, I shoved the box cutter into my pocket, "Now what?"

      Ziggy cringed, slowly pulling back the tape, "I should have worn my jacket, love. This is just..."

      He trailed off as he hit a particularly stuck spot, sucking in his breath before pressing his lips together. David  scratched an eyebrow, "Do you want Sarah to-"

      "No!" Ziggy pulled his arm towards him, smiling sweetly at us, "I'm fine."

      I smiled back, lips tight. David looked between us, "So what's our plan to get to this... " I could see him weighing the absurdity of his words, "Middle ground."

      Giving up on the tape, Ziggy lightly brushed a hand through his hair, "Well I think the best way would be to go through the Underground. I mean, you're from there so it'd just be a bit easier."

      He looked to me, "No offence love, but non-magical worlds tend to be a little..." His words ended with pursed lips, eyes looking me up and down. He smiled, "They can just be difficult."

      I narrowed my eyes at him, David stepping in, "Alright, how do we do that?"

      Ziggy shook his head, "Aren't you supposed to be able to do that?"

      Before David could respond, I cut in, "Jareth could, yeah. But um..."

      We both looked to David who suddenly frowned, looking defensively from one to the other, "What?"

      Ziggy turned to me, his voice patronizing, "Ah."

      I nodded, "Yeah."

      David's defense turned to offense, "What?"

      Ziggy ignored him, "Well we need another plan then love."

       I bit my lip, thinking. With David still looking to us for answers, I shrugged, "I mean, I've gone before."

      Ziggy leaned into an arm of the chair, "Yes, and a brilliant plan that turned out to be."

      Exasperated, I raised my eyebrows, "Do you have a better idea?"

      He pursed his lips, mulling something over. Finally he raised an eyebrow, "I guess not."

      I nodded, "Okay then. I only know one way to get there, and to do that, we need a plane."

      David suddenly chimed in, "We're flying to the Underground?"

      Ziggy's eyes squinted at him, his mouth left open at the question, "No hun."

      Embarrassed, David nodded, "Oh, okay."

      His obvious discomfort pulled me and I turned to him, "The way I got to the Underground last time was using black magic. Normally Jareth can go from place to place with his own magic, but... we don't think you can do that. So we need to do it how I did it."

      David nodded at my words, "Isn't that a bad idea? Like, you needed to pay for that."

      Nerves boiled in my stomach and I shrugged, "I mean, if we're going to take them down anyway."