The Heart of the Labyrinth Part 2

Chapter 1 Valentine's Day

                Moon light flooded the long, high ceiling hall way; glowing off the newly cleaned stone floors. At the middle of the night the, all those that lived in the foreboding castle were asleep, save the young woman that walked silently through the silver lit passage ways. The air that surrounded her smelled of soap and of goblins, it was almost similar to a wet dog and bleach odor.

            Turning into a side hall, the girl then pulled back a tapestry to enter a hidden passage way she had discovered some few weeks back. A wooden door creaked open as she slowly opened it. The sound echoed through the hall causing her to freeze where she stood. She stayed there, intently listening for any reaction from the breaking in the silence. Nothing, not a squeak or a snuff. When she was curtain that no one was coming she quietly slipped through the gap in the door way and followed the long staircase that spiraled up.

            With nothing to light the flights of steps, it made for difficult walking; every once in a while a step would be shorter or taller than the previous ones, causing her to trip in the dark. Step after step, flight after flight of stairs, they at last came to an abrupt end with another wooden door. It was framed in golden light illuminating the last few footsteps. A beautifully crafted brass goblin head was fastened onto the door at head height.

            From inside she could hear someone give an exasperated sigh and the shuffling of papers.  A shadow pasted by inside the room which made her jump a little. For a moment, the girl contemplated whether or not to enter now that she knew for sure that he was inside. After standing in silent thought, the part of her that wanted to get it all over with and go to sleep finally won over that cowardly side. Taking in a breath she gently knocked three times and opened the door enough to peek in.

            “Hey, should I come back later?”  Inside, at the piano on the far side of the room, sat the king with his jagged light blonde hair all a stray. His eyes brightened a little when he saw her, with a motion he sighed.

            “No, you might as well now.” As the girl walked in to clear the tray of half eaten food she watched him out of the side of her eyes. He played a few keys of a song and tried another few and shook his head, then tried another pair and added them to the sheet music that sat in front of him.

            “You didn’t eat much.” she remarked in attempt to make conversation.

            “I’m not very hungry right now. I’ve been stuck on this ridiculous song for the past-” at that point he looked to the mantel over the fireplace to check the time. “Juliet Nolan, it’s two in the morning. You should have been in bed hours ago.” Shrugging Juliet picked up the silver tray and turned around saying.

            “This is the last thing I have for tonight. I finally got through scrubbing that paint off the south corridor. Why in Labyrinth’s name would you introduce the goblins to spray paint? That’s like giving a child a marker and expecting them not to collar everything in sight.” Jareth grinned.

            “What’s the fun in not letting their creativity to show? Besides, you do realize I don’t care if you do anything around here. You could sit around doing nothing for all I care.” Standing in front of him, the young woman smiled at him teasing.

            “If I’m going to live here I might as well contribute something. Because we all know no one else is going to clean anything so I might as well.” The king chuckled as he shook his head.

            “Yes, yes.” Juliet paused to look at music sheets that were laid out on top of the piano.

            “Which song are you stuck on?”