Such A Sad Love, Deep in Your Eyes Ch 17

Chapter 17: No One Can Blame You, For Walking Away

Underground

Kat stayed calm as she and Jefferson landed on a familiar hilltop.

“What?” Jefferson muttered as he looked around in shock, seeing no sign of the mirror they had just gone through, “There was a portal in your room?”

“I didn’t know it until I saw the goblins go through it.” Kat stated, though Jefferson noted an underlying annoyance in her words. She looked around the hilltop with a small frown, expecting someone to show up, but when they did not, she sighed and mentally readied herself. “C’mon, we gotta go.” She began to walk down the hill, towards the labyrinth, not looking back to see if Jefferson was behind her.

“Hey, wait up, Kat.” Jefferson called out once he snapped out of shock. No… he was still in shock, though not about the portal jumping. His wife was walking right in front of him, alive and healthy, but… she didn’t remember him, she didn’t remember their daughter. Even so, he needed to know what was going on currently, what happened exactly to Grace. Once the portal jumper got close enough, he grabbed the woman by the shoulder, effectively stopping her and making her turn around to face him at the same time, “Kat, I need to know, what happened to Grace. Please, tell me.”

Kat frowned as she watched the man’s actions. His desperation was true, so he didn’t intend for this to happen, but Kat silently reminded herself, that didn’t mean he wasn’t working with Jareth. Even so… Grace seemed to care deeply for her father, so she might as well be somewhat decent towards him, “Henry read a line from a book I got from my mother. It was a wish to have goblins take someone away.”

“Henry caused this!” Jefferson snapped.

“Not intentionally.” Kat defended the poor boy, “No one but me and my family knew about that. I didn’t expect Henry to start looking at that book, nor to read that line out loud. Either way, we have thirteen hours.” She held up the watch, “To get to the castle beyond the city to save Grace before she is to stay here forever. Now c’mon.”

The fencing instructor began to pull Jefferson in the direction she was walking, ignoring the feeling she suddenly got in her stomach when he grabbed her hand.

~~~

Storybrooke, Maine

Kyle hummed a random tune as he walked back to the inn he and his sister were staying at. He was helping the dwarves with the mining just a few minutes ago, but eventually they told him to head home and take a shower as he was covered in dust. In a way, he hoped that Kat wasn’t there, as she would tease him about getting so dirty.

Soon enough, the teen made it to the inn. When he got to his room, however, he was confused. The door was open somewhat. Cautiously, the teen opened the door all the way.

“What the?” Kyle muttered at the sight before him, “Henry, what are you doing here?”

~~~

Underground

Soon enough, Kat was standing before a familiar looking gate. Glancing around, she noticed that Hoggle was not there, and the fairies were just flying around. She watched as one of the fairies flew closer to her. It was just a inch or so away from her body.

SMACK

“What’d you do that for?!” Jefferson said, appalled, as he stared at the barely alive fairy that fell to the ground.

“They’re pests.” Kat shrugs, it was a norm for her. She watched in confusion as Jefferson let go of her hand and kneeled down, picking up the fairy in his hands.

“You almost killed her.” Jefferson reprimanded, he knew how important fairies were in most worlds. As he glanced at the mother of his child, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hands. “OW!” He shouted before looking down to see the fairy had bit him. He quickly shook his hand, making the fairy fall onto the ground once more.

“Told you.” Kat said before stepping on the fairy, “Now, c’mon.” She then proceeded to walk over to the gate, once she was close enough, the gate opened, allowing her and Jefferson into the Labyrinth.

~~~

Storybrooke, Maine

“Henry, what are you doing here?” Kyle repeated his question when the boy did not respond. He then looked around the room, not seeing any one else in the room, “Where’s Kat? She in the bathroom or something.”

“Uh…” Henry muttered before suddenly looking panicked, “No… she… Grace… I didn’t mean to!”

“Didn’t mean to do what?” The teen questioned, it was then that he noticed the book on the ground. “… You read the wish out loud didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to! I didn’t know!” Henry cried out.

“Hey, don’t worry.” Kyle said before kneeling down and placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder, “I know you didn’t mean to. Now who did you send away, was it Kat?”

“No,” Henry shook his head, though he was relieved that the teen was not angry, “My friend, Grace, Kat and Jefferson went after her. They went through the mirror.” Henry pointed over to the vanity mirror that innocently stood in its spot.

Kyle blinked, before turning his head to look at the mirror, “Oh, sis is gonna throw a fit.”

“Huh?”

Kyle didn’t seem to notice the boy’s questioning gaze as he continued to talk out loud to himself, “Jareth knows how angry she gets when he spies on her.”

“Who’s Jareth?” Henry asked, causing Kyle to finally turn to look at the boy.

“Someone who is gonna be in big trouble when sis finally sees him.” Kyle stated.

“Are they going to be alright?” Henry asked worriedly. It was then that Kyle remembered that the boy’s mother and grandmother were currently trapped in another world.

“Yeah,” Kyle nodded, “Don’t worry, sis will get Grace back.”

~~~

Underground

The two were jogging through the stone maze, Kat’s eyes gazing at the walls for little hints to other entrances. Jefferson’s gaze, however was on the woman in front of him. It hurt so badly to be able to see her and yet have her look at him like he was a complete stranger. No… not like a complete stranger, it was worse than that. The moment he called her ‘Katrin’ he saw the suspicion, the mistrust, in her eyes.

Jefferson was wrong when he thought the pain of watching Grace being raised by someone else without remembering him was the worst pain imaginable. Having his Alice look at him so coldly and without even the hint of trust made him want to just die.

As Jefferson continued to think his sullen thoughts, he noticed Kat had suddenly slowed down considerably. Soon enough she stopped and turned to look at a random patch of the wall. She glanced over her shoulder to look at the man before saying, “This way.”

Blinking, the man looked at the wall in confusion, “What way? Its just a wall.”

He swore his breath was taken from him when he saw the hard look in his love’s eyes suddenly get replaced by amusement, “Things aren’t always what they seem. Especially here.” He watched as she walked forward, and realized that the patch of wall right there was an optical illusion, “Now the question is… go left or right?”

He walked over to her and looked down the paths. “How about left?”

“You sure?” Kat asked skeptically, “It might lead us all the way back to the beginning.”

“Yeah,” Jefferson nodded, feeling hurt when he noticed the cold look returning to her eyes.

“Let’s go then.”

She then turned and started the trek down the left path. Jefferson sighed before following her. It truly hurt him, as she wasn’t even this cold towards him when they first met.

~~~

Enchanted Forest

Falling and falling, that’s all she’s felt in the last few hours. Kat had fallen down a hole while she was exploring the land that was ruled by the
Goblin King. Instead of falling into an Oubliette like she expected, or even seeing the Helping Hands, she just fell and fell and fell. There seemed to be no end to darkness that engulfed her vision. If not for the way her hair moved around her, the girl would not know which way was up and which way was down.

Eventually though, the young woman landed, none too gently though more gentle then what her high school physics class taught her it should have been.

“Oof!” She gasped as her back hit the grass, followed soon by her limbs. Opening her eyes, as she had closed them the moment she made impact, Kat realized she was in a forest. It was not the forest that she had often encountered the Fireys in, nor was it any forest in the land she spent the majority of her life in. This place, the magically inclined girl noticed straight away, was filled with magic. She could feel the magic pulsating in the air. Wherever she was, she knew that there had to be quite a few magic users, be they witches and warlocks or fae or fairy, in this land.

~~~

Underground

“Kat,” Jefferson called out the woman’s name, needing her attention. He needed, desperately, to know why she didn’t trust him. It was bad enough that she seemed to no longer remember him or Grace, but he had to try and, at the very least, win her trust back. “Why are you treating me so harshly? I know you are not like that with everyone.”

“And how do you know that?” Kat snapped back venomously. She knew how Jareth was, he would be low enough to tell someone all he knew about her so that they could gain her trust while they spy on her. He had done it before, and Kat knew that he would probably do it again.

“Kat, I know you.” Jefferson said, he needed her to know that, “We were together for five years. I barely was able to keep going on when I lost you, I feared you were dead.”

Kat watched his actions closely as he spoke; as far as he was concerned all he said was true. Kat knew that it was difficult to fake the subconscious postures he was making. But even so, she couldn’t recall ever meeting him before today. Perhaps Jareth placed a spell on him to make it seem real.

“You are one of Jareth’s spies, aren’t you?” Kat stated simply.

“Who?” Jefferson asked, the confusion clear in his tone, expression and body language. He truly had no idea who Jareth was. But if that was the case…

“If what you said is true,” Kat started to say, the race against the clock momentarily forgotten, “Then how old was I when we met?”

“You were twenty,” Jefferson responded, “I remember because we celebrated your twenty-first birthday together. You had told me then that ‘girls back home would be getting drunk or gambling, not running around a forest on their twenty-first birthday.’ Yet you were still happy, you were only upset that you were unable to see your brother or do any of the birthday traditions your family had such as the cake fight.”

“…” Kat was silent at his comment. There was no way Jareth would have been able to tell him about her family having cake fights on birthdays, Kat had made a wish that banned Jareth and any of his ‘spies’ from her, or her family’s, birthdays. She then thought about something that she had not truly thought about in quite some time.

She would have been able to sense a curse that strong. How did she not realize it sooner.

…

She was going to kill Jareth when she next saw him.

~~~

Enchanted Forest

“Mighty fine hole you fell down, Alice.” Kat muttered to herself, thinking of the last time she had ended up in a world she had never been to before.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Startled, Kat moved to sit up as she looked around for the source of the voice. Sadly, the sudden and rapid movement only made her head hurt and the world seem to gyrate before her eyes. “Guh,” She groaned out as she clutched her head and closed her eyes.

“I guess that answers that.” She heard the voice mutter, sounding much closer. A few moments later, the brunette felt a presence near her, though she had yet to open her eyes back up. “Here, eat this, it should help.” She heard as she felt something press lightly against her lips. Not really caring at the moment if it was poisonous or not, just wanting the world to stop spinning before her, Kat opened her mouth and allowed the food into her mouth. A few moments, the throbbing dulled down to being almost unnoticeable and the world stilled in her mind.

~~~

Underground

Jefferson had no idea what he said that did it. But something he said must have triggered something in his wife. He clearly saw the rage that suddenly came to life on her face before she whipped around and continued to walk, or rather storm, down the corridor they were in. He watched, stunned as she moved farther and farther away.

“You coming or what?” He heard her call out as she was about to turn the corner, snapping the portal jumper out of his stupor.

Jefferson nodded, not that she saw, before running over to follow her.

~~~

Enchanted Forest

Opening her eyes, Kat glanced towards the direction of the voice to thank them. The owner of the voice was a man. He had short brown hair and green eyes. His clothing was very Victorian era to Kat, though they were not really the typical colors for clothes from then.

“Thank you, really.” Kat said to the man. Oddly enough, Kat was actually feeling her face flush with embarrassment, something she normally never felt around strangers.

“No problem, I take it that was your first time portal jumping, Alice.” The man said, causing Kat to look at him in confusion, “I had overheard you talking to yourself.”

“I’m not Alice, that was just a saying.” Kat said, “And what do you mean portal jumping?”

“How odd to call yourself Alice when that’s not your name.” He muttered before explaining, “You know, going from one world to another, though I am curious as to what you use as I don’t see anything you could have used.”

“I didn’t portal jump, I fell down a hole and ended up here.”

“So is calling yourself Alice a saying?”

“No, that sentence was based off of a book, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. I just happened to literally fall down a hole.”

“Wonderland? Why would someone write a book on Wonderland?” The man said with
disdain.

“I don’t know why, they just did.” Kat said, not at all surprised to find out Wonderland was real, “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Isn’t it rude to ask for one’s name before introducing one’s self.” The man teased, causing Kat to blush. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, she normally didn’t act like this.

“I’m Kat.”

“Cat? Sorry, but don’t see your resemblance to a cat, unless you have a Cheshire grin.” The man joked.

“No, Kat, k-a-t. It’s a shortening of my name.”

“Then what is your name?”

“Sorry, I prefer being called Kat, I don’t like my full name very much.”

“Well, its nice to meet you, Kat, I’m Jefferson.” He introduces himself, putting a hand in front of him. Kat accepts his hand and allows him to pull her up before shaking his hand.

“And its nice to meet you, Jefferson.”