Sarah Williams stood on the doorstep of her old childhood home and watched the rain fall in loud splats on the porch ledge and concrete pathway leading towards the road. Her old sheep-dog stood patiently by her side and waited for his closest companion to return back inside. It had been two days in which Sarah returned to this home after finishing her schooling at the university. It was her only opportunity to truly relax and consider her options before returning to the real world and begin her job search.
Her father and Irene had been out for the evening on Sarah's insistence. Ironic wasn't it. She still remembered that night. The night she had personally considered when her life had begun to change. From that night on she wasn't as agitated by her step mother, Toby formed almost an inseparable bond towards her, and she started losing interest in all her childlike possessions and dreams. It was over the course of a few months that Toby began to have nightmares and climb into Sarah's bed. He would never tell her what the nightmares were about but she was somehow the only person that could comfort him.
For the past seven years, not a single day has gone by that she didn't remember her time in the Underground. She knew her friends could visit her but she wanted so desperately to forget what had happened. The songs that were sung to her by him haunted her every dream. His eyes watched her daily and whenever she attempted to connect with another boy it was always him she compared them to. He always had more compelling features, their jaws were never as strong as his, their eyes never had the same passion and life as his mismatched ones, and they never had the same energy as him. She dismissed all of this. He wasn't real to her, it was just an odd dream she had in her teenage years.
"Sarah!" Toby called from inside the home. The now seven-year-old boy ran down the stairs and watched Sarah turnaround from the doorway.
"what's up kiddo? Don't wanna go to bed?" She asked.
"Can I have a snack and hang out with you?"
Sarah prepared a small bowl of popcorn and allowed Toby to curl up to her on the couch. The tv blasted with old game shows that just caused Toby to nod off slowly before drifting off into a quiet sleep. She pulled the slim blonde boy into her arms and laid him down on his blue bed, taking special care to tuck him in gently.
She turned to exit the small bedroom and right in front of the door laid a red leather-bound book.
"how did this get here?" she whispered to herself. Turning the book around and reading the golden letters. 'Labyrinth'
Her heart dropped to her chest. It was real. Sarah took the book into the living room and flipped on the table lamp. She could feel her hand start to slowly tremble when the cover creaked open and revealed the same old sketch of the entrance of the labyrinth. The same one she stood at all those years ago. The same stone walls she ran through and convinced herself that it was all a strange nightmare.
For years and years, Sarah convinced herself it was all a dream. That this book was nothing but a bad nightmare. But here was living proof that it was real. Small moments of her old friends flashed through her mind. Forcefully slamming the book shut and took it upstairs to hide away on the bookshelf in her bedroom.
It took her well past midnight to fall asleep but the memory of the mismatched eye Goblin King haunted her. Sarah remembered the peach dream and how they danced to his hypnotizing song. She remembered how he stared at her during their encounters. But she was still only a teenager and almost everything seems overly intense at that age. Moments before passing she mumbled to herself "I wish I could figure this out. Figure out if this is all real. If he is real."
Slowly the little goblins that make their presence known before a wish to the goblin king are made. She was too tired to notice any noises coming from her room and continued her silent confessions.
"It can't be real. That's impossible…. but it seems so real sometimes. Ugh! I wish that damn Goblin King would just take me away. Just let me figure out why I'm so damn hung up over a fake person"
That was enough for the little goblins to inform their king of the wish. By the time he arrived, Sarah was sound asleep in her fluffy white sheets and he dares not to wake her up. He had only seen Sarah through the crystals he produced but none of them compared to her in person. She looked almost angelic from the last time he had seen her in person. Her face glowed gently in the moonlight and her dark brown hair fell around her hair and strands fell across her face.
Jareth quietly crouched down to her eye level and brushed a few strands away from her ear.
"I am very much real, my Sarah" he whispered as his hand lingered on the side of her cheek.
Sarah wakes up in a slight haze and thought she dreamed of his face. She could have sworn that his hand stroked her cheek and rose a hand to where is laid. Closing her eyes and allowing this pleasant dream to continue.
Jareth smiled and decided it was time to grant her wish.