Castles In The Sky:

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Jareth reclined on his throne, his legs outstretched over one of the arms. He had his eyes shut tightly and his face hidden. It had been four years now since that blasted Sarah defied him and solved his labyrinth. Never had he been as humiliated or as downhearted as he had when she refused to him. He took in a deep breath and tried to block out the sound of the noisy goblins in the room. He smiled weakly to himself believing that he had finally been able to block them out fully. He shot open his eyes as he realized he had not only just blocked out the noise, but that the noise was gone all together. He looked around, the room was empty.

"Glib, dorn……." He called out the names of the goblins he could remember. Only there was no reply. He stood up and looked under a few things. He wasn't really upset they were gone, but why were they gone?

"Ah it seems you have lost something….." Jareth turned around to find a willowy woman sitting in his throne. Her long green hair trailing down her back and off the dais landing at Jareth's feet. He crossed his arms and flashed an annoyed smirk her way.

"Aithne. I should have known it was you. And where pray tell is your delightful sister?" Jareth kicked the mass of green hair away from his feet. It coiled up and swept away from him resting in Aithne's lap.

"Oh my! My dear sister, it seems that we have vexed him. What have we done our beloved Jareth to vex you so?" Ailis smiled as she walked up to her sister on the throne. She wrapped her arms around Aithne and looked over to Jareth. He breathed in making a sort of annoyed moan.

Aithne and Ailis were the enigmatic Sidhe twins of Annwyn, a realm just north of the Goblin city and the Labyrinth. The two were known throughout the Underground, though not in a rather good way. The twins were in a matter of speaking, crazy. Jareth had unfortunately had dealings with them in the past, dealings he would rather forget. That was another thing about the twins, they were beautiful beyond the point of enchanting. Men whether Goblin, Sidhe, Elf, Dwarf or Human would get captivated by their cream skin, their bright emerald eyes and their sea green hair that seemed to go on for miles. Jareth loathed his memories of the two of them, even if they were tantalizing memories.

"Oh you are dreadfully right I am afraid my sister? What could it be that has our beguiling King so displeased?" Jareth just stood there, arms crossed and eyebrows lifted. That was another thing about the twins, they loved to play games.

"Maybe it is the two bizarre elf women standing in my castle." Aithne shot up from the throne, her long hair twisting itself behind her.

"Sidhe! Elves are prudes!" Jareth laughed and waved his hand in the air.

"Elf, Sidhe, all the same. Now if you would be so kind as to vacate my castle, though preferably my Kingdom all together." The twins grinned, something that would seem somewhat hard to do in perfect unison as they had done. Ailis left her sister's side and walked over to Jareth. She ran her hand over his shoulder and then down his back as she circled around him. Aithne laughed lowly in such a way that said she found his comment to be not at all funny. She followed her sister to stand in front of Jareth. She ran her hand on his chest and played with the large necklace hanging low over his shirt. She lifted her face, her emerald eyes catching Jareth's and holding them.

"No, no I don't think it is us that has you so irritated, now is it? No I do believe that is it is something or rather someone else. Is this right?" Aithne ran her finger up to his face and ran her hand along his jaw line. Ailis slid around to his side and set her chin on his shoulder.

"Yes, a pretty someone I would suspect. With long brown hair and peach skin." Jareth pushed past them and slammed down in his throne. The twins smirked and started walking over to him.

"I think sister that you are exceedingly correct in this matter. But why? What has this young girl done to our Jareth?" Ailis sat at Jareth's feet and flung her arms over his legs, her eyes shimmering like two burned emeralds. One thing Jareth remembered about the smaller of the Sidhe twins was she was in fact the most beautiful. Her hair was slightly darker with more of a silk look then her sister's. Her eyes were so much darker then Aithne that they were almost black. He turned his head to look at the clock just across from him, he scanned it over as though it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. He was of course just trying to keep from looking into Ailis' eyes, doing such a thing was dangerous for any man even one who was a king.

"I do believe my dearest sister that our charming king is heartbroken. Oh how adorable! Oh this is stimulating, my thighs are tingling." Jareth grimaced as he looked at the clock. Didn't they have Sidhe men they could seduce instead of trying him again? He was not going through that again, the twins were evil. And not just evil, but pure and unadulterated evil.

"I'm glad, now maybe you can go and do something useful with those tingling thighs of your's. Or not, just anything away from me. I'm not giving into you two again. You are like Vampires, suck all the life out of men!" The twins laughed and Aithne wrapped her arms around his shoulders and rested her lips to his ear.

"Now my handsome Jareth, don't be vexed with us. We are not here for such things." Jareth closed his eyes coming close to being taken in by her scent.

"No no my dear, we are here for something much more to your liking." He opened his eyes and looked down at Ailis. She held out her hand, in her palm was a swirling blue water drop. She set her other hand down on it and used her hands to stretch it till it was as large as she was. Jareth tried to get from the two of them, but they held him strong.

"Get away from me you wicked Sidhe!" Aithne laughed and turned his head so he could see the wall of water in front of them.

"No Jareth, do not fear. This is no trickery. We have come to make you an offer. And I would suggest you think about accepting it." Jareth looked inside the illusion, his eyes resting on the form of a young woman. He looked closely at her, she was a very beautiful woman. But it was not her appearance which caught his eye. No it was the stream of tears down her cheeks and the desperate words she uttered.

"Who is she?……."

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Small white clouds drifted past the silver moon. Elena looked up out of her window at the scene laid out before her in the night sky. She could feel the tears as they ran down her cheeks. Life for Elena had never been all that wonderful, not now that she looked back on it. She had loving parents this was true, they tried the best they could to give her all she wanted. But her family never had that much money, her father went from job to job always searching for something that would pay enough to raise his family. In the end her mother had to end up taking a job, making it where Elena rarely saw her parents. Though she never realized just how poor her life was then. No she was a young and naive child, her thoughts were not of money or that her parents chose to sacrifice their time with her for an income so she could eat. Young Elena's thoughts were on Kings and Queens, fairies and elves, and goblins and dwarves. She was a fanciful child, always with her nose stuck in some fairytale book.

Now though it was different, she was grown and living on her own. She had moved to the big city the summer before after she finished high school. She had gotten a scholarship from her school because of her talent in writing. It was just the bit of magic that she had hoped for when she was younger. She had always believed she would grow up to live in those fairytales she read. But not now, not after the past year.

She had moved to the city in high hopes of her life taking a magnificent turn, though it went the other way. Her scholarship it turned out was limited, and ran out before the school year had even really started. She had to get a job just to keep her apartment. And it was this that was bothering her at the moment. Her boss Mr. Jacks was the evil sort off boss. Not really wicked like killer maniac evil, but he was unpleasant. And for some reason he chose Elena to pick on.

Most of the time it did not bother her so much, but that day it did. She had run her self ragged trying to juggle work and school and still try and keep a social life. It had been though for the past two months been failing. Her grades were dropping, she had been cut hours at work, and she had no friends. And now she found herself missing being that carefree child.

As she looked up into the sky she sighed. It was like black velvet and crystals, a fantasy, all of it! The tears fell harder as she remembered her favorite poem as a child.

"In the velvet sky I have seen my love,

And there she held two crystals,

One was filled with dreams and visions,

But the other nightmares.

I reached out for the fairest of the two,

But when my hands grasped the delicate orb it shattered to dust,

My love placed that dust within my heart,

And in my hand set the gloomy sphere,

I felt my body fill with fear,

And felt it reach my core,

In my eyes she disappeared,

And became lost in dreams,

Only to become an idea.

And now with my visions mislaid,

And my fantasies destroyed,

I find myself lead astray,

Forlorn in this empty space,

And every moment of this pointless life I can feel that shattered dream,

And how my love betrayed me,

If only I had been strong,

If only I knew how to wish these nightmares away,

But as I live this day,

Such words deny me,

So I shall remain,

Dejected and forsaken,

Lost within her dream,

My nightmare." She recited the poem with ease as though she had been reading it out of a book. She had first read the poem when she was thirteen. She had yet to understand it, though she did now.

"I wish I knew how to wish these nightmares away, I wish I could just fade away." Elena wiped away a tear as she climbed into her bed. She did at that moment wish that she would just fade away, just leave this world forever. But she thought to herself, all these dreams of her's all these wishes were just castles in the sky. She closed her eyes and fell asleep to the sound of her own crying.

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Ailis smiled at Jareth as she returned the wall of water to her hand.

"So what do you say my dear? Does this not interest you?" Jareth produced a crystal in his hand and gazing into it saw the now sleeping Elena.

"It does indeed."

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Author's Note: Ok, well first off I want to say thank you so much to Nerds who with such loving words ropped me into writing this, yes my sweet and oh so wonderful friend here decided that it was a must I write a Lab story, in fact she decided taht it was such a must she started yelling "DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!" at me on AIM, I wish I had that convo saved to show you. Really I do...

Nah hehe she did rope me into that is correct, and Tari sure did help, but I am loving writing this story, just thought I would be a pain there.

Ok now for those who may not know, Sidhe is said either "She" or "See" and if you couldn't tell, yeah I'm really big into my Irish blood, so expect lots of that sort of stuff/

One last thing, and a very important thing here... Because of the fact it was my sissy Tari who got me into Labyrinth and she started writing a Lab story before me, I decided if I was going to write one I was going to have the main girl be her. So Elena is Tari, on here known as July '91. So go and check out her story, she really is a wonderful writer, and you all have her to thank/blame for me getting into Labyrinth, House, X-Men, and many many other things!

Also look on my author page for the standard disclaimer, and the poem, Crystal Nightmares, is copyrighted to me. Please don't use it without my permission. The title of this story comes from a poem of mine of the same title.