No magic. There was simply no magic left in him. It was spent. He had been exhausted this past few days, he knew, and he knew that if he was exhausted, his magic was wearing thin as well…but he had never expected this. Since his kingship had begun all those hundreds of years before, the crystals had never failed to appear when he wished for them. But his magic was at its limits. It was stretched over the city of Los Angeles, keeping goblins human. It was poured over the building, making the dilapidated warehouse a large music company—oh yes, Underground Music was almost entirely illusion.

Jareth pushed back from his desk, not entirely used to the rolling chair, and almost fell back. He caught himself, startled by his unusual lack of grace, and managed to stand in time as the chair went over. He walked to the door, put his hand on the knob, and hesitated, suddenly daunted by what he might find outside. He threw open the door.

It was fine. Everything was fine. The goblins-as-humans glanced up at him curiously, but paid little mind. He shut the door and leaned against it, his head pounding. So he was tapped, but things were still working…

Wait…he smelled it. The smell of the warehouse had been the first thing his magic had eliminated. That musty, dusty, ancient odor. And it was back.

Jareth was running out of time. And he knew it. In two days, everything would be as it was. "So this is how it was to be Cinderella when the coach turned back into a pumpkin…"

*****

"The deal is sealed, what do you mean you don’t want to go through with it?" Eric Ramyond asked Stormer as she and the other Misfits stood in front of his desk the next morning, his voice very slow and calm, as one speaking to an idiot.

"I just don’t is all," she said, looking down at the floor.

"We’ve got this gig wrapped up! All you have to do is keep your mouth shut!" Pizzazz told her.

"Yeah!" Jetta added. "Unless you want to see half of everyone in this room in jail!"

Roxy narrowed her eyes. "Stormer, you’d better go along with this one. This is serious."

"I don’t want to do it!"

"This is not the time for guilt," Eric told her flatly. "You pay your money and take the ride. Now I suggest you fall in line like a good little Misfit, or they’ll do the show without you. In fact, they’ll do all the shows without you from now on."

She glanced up at him. "But I don’t want to quit!"

Pizzazz whispered out of the corner of her mouth to Roxy. "*Can* we do a show without her?"

"No," Roxy whispered back. "We’d be screwed."

"Then get it together," he replied to Stormer.

Her lower lip trembled. Then she tilted her head up and turned around and marched out, leaving them all in stunned silence.

"What were you thinking?" Pizzazz screeched. "Are you crazy? Look what you just made her do!"

Eric actually blinked in surprise. "It always worked before…"

"I can’t believe she’s gonna send us all to jail!" wailed Jetta.

"She’s not," snorted Roxy. "She’ll be back."

"And even if she’s not," Eric added, "she’d never turn you in."

"But how are we going to do this show without her?" demanded Pizzazz.

"Then I suppose you won’t. The Stingers will handle it themselves."

Pizzazz laughed. "Yeah, right…"

He let her and Roxy and Jetta leave, and then got on the phone.

"Yeah, Mike, baby, how are you? Listen, I need to talk to you, seems like the Misfits have got to back out, some kind of scheduling conflict…Yes, I know they’re a big act, but this is, after all, Stinger Sound now…But they’re the hottest new band…yes, I understand, of course, totally…Yeah, I’ll get back to you…"

He slammed the phone down.

Back to the Main Page/Truly Outrageous/Next Chapter/Previous Chapter/Email the Author