1.

The fighting again, how it annoyed the brunette to no ends when they stood on the treaty line that separated La Push from Forks. Isabella Swan had heard it all when it came to the nearly endless arguing of Edward Cullen and Jacob Black, she supposed the only thing that could make it worse was if Mike Newton was there to add in his two cents, the thought alone made her shudder in distaste. She sighed, there was a very large amount of words being exchanged this time, Edward was very irate about whatever Jacob was thinking and it was obvious on the young man's face that he was enjoying the torment he put the vampire through. She didn't get it, she and Jacob had had a very good afternoon, it was almost as if nothing had changed between them as they had sat on the beach talking...well minus his blatant flirting towards her but even that she could ignore, but the moment he had brought her to the treaty line for Edward to pick her up, well here was where they were now.

She loved Edward, after all she had gone all the way to Volterra just the previous month to save him from being destroyed by the Volturi when he had thought her dead, that alone proved that she loved him endlessly and that she would do anything for him. She knew that Jacob was irate that she had done so, she remembered the pleading look in his eyes when he had damn near begged her to stay with him there in Washington, but she didn't expect him to understand. How could anyone explain that the vampire who had gone to end his life merely because he thought she was dead was the one that had won her heart in the first place, and that she desperately and irrevocably, by her own admission, needed to be with because to live without him wasn't a life at all? Couldn't he remember the way Charlie had worried about her when Edward had first left, what his leaving had done to her and the state it had left her in? No, that was the obvious answer, he only remembered how hurt she had been that Edward had left in the first place, and that was all he would ever remember.

Bella pushed off the Volvo, she'd had enough this time as she turned and started walking down the road, it wasn't that far to town and she could always stop at the precinct and wait for her father to get off work to bum a ride home with him, though that thought wasn't too chipper in her mind either. He would ask her why she needed a ride home, then he would try to pry to get more information out of her than she was willing to give, then he would look down on Edward again and she wasn't in the mood to hear about that again...yeah walking home was a better option. She could hear both of them calling her name, Edward calling to her to come back and get in the car, Jake calling to her to come back to La Push and he would drive her home herself and she finally had had enough as she turned to face them. "Don't either one of you get it? I'm tired of hearing the two of you argue constantly over me while there's a deranged vampire out there that wants to kill me because I got her mate killed! No, all the two of you do is argue about who is the better choice for me but guess what, neither one of you gets to make that choice, I do! And right now, I wouldn't choose either of you even if my life depended on it," she said angrily.

The hurt look on Edward's face was almost too much for her to bear, but she had to stand firm in what she had just said, biting her lower lip as she did so. "I'm not breaking up with you Edward, I'm just asking for some time to myself, away from the bickering because its giving me a headache...just...I don't know," she said as she looked down at the ground. She could hear Jacob start blame Edward for the way she was feeling and her hands balled into fists, he just couldn't leave well enough alone and she had had it. "Jacob shut up! Just shut up!" she said angrily as she walked forward, opening the passenger door to the Volvo parked on the side of the road and watching Edward as he got in beside her. Wordlessly he started the car, turning around to head back into Forks so that he could drop her off at home, he didn't need to hear her thoughts to know that she had nothing to say to him and just wanted to be left alone, he didn't want to press his luck.

It wasn't long before he pulled up in front of her house and before he could say anything, Bella exited the car and started to head up to the front door, hearing the car turn off and stopping as she got to the porch. "No Edward...I want to be left alone," she said, her tone somewhat icy as she unlocked the door and walked in, slamming it shut behind her. She flopped down on the couch, she knew he hadn't left yet, as the sound of his car had not started up, and she found herself holding her breath until she heard his sigh, then shortly after that his car starting. Groaning, she buried her face in the pillow and reached for the remote, turning her head to watch the television as she flipped channels. She stopped when she found the movie Labyrinth, getting lost in the fantasy of Sarah trying to find her baby brother within the labyrinth while the goblin king tried to stop her.

It was dark when the movie was over, and Charlie called to let her know that he would be working late that night so she was on her own, which was not so unusual in the grand scheme of things she supposed. She made herself a sandwich for dinner, not feeling very hungry that evening since she still couldn't get the entire ordeal between Edward and Jacob out of her head. She loved Edward, that much was obvious to anyone that saw them together but Jacob was her friend and she cared about him, she didn't want to lose him either, and it seemed that she was being put on the spot considering they both wanted her attention equally. She was going to have to make a choice one day and that was a day that she never wanted to have come, she didn't think that she could hurt either one of them. She finished her sandwich and washed her dishes before heading up the stairs to her room, jumping when she opened the door to find Edward standing there. "I thought I said I needed time alone," she said as she closed the door behind her and walked around him to sit on her bed.

"You did...but I needed to see you, to apologize. I am very sorry Bella, I shouldn't let him get to me the way I do even though he deliberately thinks things that make me irate. I promise to try harder, he is your friend after all," Edward said as he stood motionless, that was the problem with vampires. Bella sighed, she knew he really meant it, otherwise he would not be here, just like she knew Jacob purposefully antagonized him and he rised to it, he was after all a man and reading his thoughts was just an added bonus for Jake to make him angry. She reached out for him, taking his cold hand in her own and watching as he raised his eyes to meet hers, the look in them making her breathing a bit heavier and he noticed her lips part ever so slightly, a gesture most would never have noticed.

She was going to say something when she heard noises outside and she groaned, she didn't need to get up and look out the window to know that it was Jacob, more than likely coming to give the same speech about Edward that Edward had given about Jake. She was going to get to her feet to ask if he could come back another time when she heard him make the short distance from the ground to her room, his eyes meeting Edward's and she noticed that Edward looked rather angry, his jaw set and his lips a thin line. She could hear the soft growl emitting from Jacob's throat and she groaned as she got to her feet to stand between them as they stared one another down. "You two are not going to fight here in my room, especially when your pack has no territory here," she said though it seemed neither one of them heard a word she said as she threw her hands up in the air.

"I wish that movie I watched today were real, and that there were magic words to say to make the goblins take someone away," she said, hearing a crash of thunder outside just as rain started to fall. She shook her head, it was going to be another bad storm and yet it seemed worse with the two in this house getting ready to go hog wild at each other. "I wish the goblins would come and take me away...right now," she muttered, and no more than a few moments after the words left her lips, the lights in the house went out. There were sounds of little feet shuffling within the room and a surprised yelp before the lights came back on, Jacob and Edward there looking at one another, bewilderment on both their faces as they looked around for Bella.

"Where is she?" they asked at the same time, a snowy owl flying into the room as they searched frantically, their backs turned to the bird at the same time. It was when they turned around that they had a major shock...because there was now a man standing right where Bella had been, an odd smile on his face as they looked at one another then back to him. "And who the Hell are you?" Jacob asked the man, looking to Edward for answers but Edward was unable to read the man's mind, something that had only happened with Bella. "Where is she?" Edward asked, he wanted answers and he wanted them now.

"I took her, she is in my palace in the Kingdom within the goblin city that lays beyond the labyrinth...just as she wished. My name is Jareth, and you can both forget about Isabella, I have granted her wish and she will never be returning to you again," he said, his lips spreading into a wry smile as a wicked laugh escaped him, leaving Edward and Jacob to stand and watch in disbelief, wondering what kind of cruel joke this was supposed to be.