"How happy your people must be! How happy your officials who stand before you and hear your wisdom!"
2 Chronicles - 9:7
Sarah thundered up the stairs two at a time. It had started off small and at first she hadn't noticed. Her heart fluttering anxiously against her chest. Hoggle came to her one day and said the blue worm, who had been called Tittitum and sometimes had tea with Sarah, had been squashed. A horrible accident.
She flung open Toby's door, immediately assaulted by the soft pastel blue of his walls.
Then, her grandfather unexpectedly passed away. A stroke the doctor's said. Yet as Sarah laid a white rose on her grandfather's coffin, through her grief she had seen a blonde shock of hair and a familiar smirk that disappeared as soon as she went to look again.
Her heart thundered harder. A wisp of hair drifted across her face.
Sarah hadn't truly connected things until all-American, beloved student Lochie Moors went missing. The night before Lochie disappeared, he had taken her out to the movies... and given her a kiss.
Toby was in his room, just as Karen had promised.
However someone else was there too.
"Hello Sarah," said the Goblin King.
In the two years since she'd last seen him, and two years had given her too much time to delude herself. That he wasn't real. That he wasn't as bad as he seemed.
Her mouth felt bitter and her throat was tight and dry.
She'd been lying to herself.
The Goblin Monarch had changed little.
He was perhaps a touch thinner. His cheekbones seemingly more pronounced. More aggressive.
And his hair may have been a little longer. Framing his face with dark red, almost purple streaks, with the delicate bones of mice woven through it.
His makeup had also changed. A long, streak of red glistening horizontal over his eyes like a poisonous snake.
Sarah couldn't think of a time when she had seen eyes anymore captivating or anymore damning.
The blonde two and a half year old in his arms giggled.
"Put. Him. Down. Goblin King," Sarah snarled, her hands clenched at her side, prickled with sweat.
"You know Sarah," the Goblin King's eyes sparkled, his head tilted to the side like an art critic attempting to work out an unusual painting, "I've been studying some mortal phrases recently. Truly fascinating stuff," he drawled slowly, "Do you want to know my favourite?"
Sarah stood stock still, not daring to move an inch.
"My favourite," he smiled his Cheshire cat smile, "is bouncing, baby boy."
"Goblin King..." her voice wavered for a second, cracked, unsure. Like prodding a dangerous animal and knowing that it would either move on or attack. The Goblin King was a dangerous animal.
"Sarah, Sarah," he sang, the curl of his smile revealing pointed teeth, "why do mortals say bouncing baby boy?"
Sarah stayed quiet, her throat choked with angry tears. Slowly, with the grace of a trained dancer, the Goblin King moved towards the window, Tobey balanced on the sharp angle of his hip.
"Do you really want me to put your brother down Sarah?" Asked the Goblin King, his voice and smile sickly saccharine.
Sarah watched his path, mutely nodding.
The Goblin King smirked, "The funny thing is, and you know all about this Sarah, that mortals often say things they don't really mean," Jareth put on a whiny falsetto, "I didn't actually want him dead. I didn't think the wish would come true. I didn't mean to wish him away," Jareth unlocked the latch of the window, slowly extending his upper body over the ledge.
"Baby boys don't really bounce."
Sarah thought she was going to vomit as she watched the plump, cream of Tobey's legs kick over open air as he clapped and squealed with innocent rapture.
"Do you want me to put him down now Sarah?" The Goblin King asked softly, his eyes fixed on Tobey's golden, round face.
"Why don't you leave us alone? What do you want?" Sarah croaked.
"What do I want? Oh, it's all to simple really," The Goblin King smiled over his shoulder at her, cruel and unforgiving, "What I want, it you."
"But you have no power-"
Sarah stifled a scream as she watched Tobey slip an inch.
The Goblin King tutted disappointedly, "Careful now Sarah. I might not have any power over you but everyone else, your family, your friends..."
Tobey clapped his pudgy hands again, "Sar, Sar, Sar! Fly, fly, fly!"
Jareth smiled indulgently, "Well, let's just say you shouldn't make me angry."
Sarah swallowed heavily, flushing uncomfortably as she watched the Goblin King's eyes follow the bob of her throat.
"Goblin King, bring my brother back inside and we can discuss what you want."
The Goblin King pulled himself and Tobey back through the window, sliding the sill down behind him and drawing the curtains and throwing the room into semi-darkness.
Sarah blinked, her eyes trying to focus in the now sinister room. The Goblin King was silhouetted by the faint sunlight forcing it's way through the curtains, "Make me a deal Sarah Williams."
"You want me?" Sarah asked.
"Yes," his voice was masked, trying to not come off too eager.
"If you leave everyone alone, my family, my friends, everyone in anyway associated to me, then I will give myself to you."
"Now?" He didn't bother hiding the eagerness this time.
"No," said Sarah firmly, "I have loose ends here. Give me time."
She sensed, rather than saw his lips curl into a smirk, "Ah but Sarah, time is short."
"No. I've promised myself to you. You will leave everyone alone and you will give me my time."
There was an angry silence.
"You can't make me wait forever."
"Just give me five more years. Five years and I'm all yours."
The Goblin King made a purr noise, "Yes, five years."
And just like that he was gone.
Hours later, Sarah sat at her vanity, her eyes reddened and her throat scratchy, "Hoggle I need you."
The dwarf appeared in the mirror, his eyes milky and sad, "What do you need?"
"To forget."