*SMASH*
For the fourth time, Sarah asked the movers to be more careful with her furniture, although unlike the first, second and third occasions, her voice now held a particular strained note bordering on a whine.
"C'mon guys, don't make me say it again, please?!" the movers didn't really so much as hesitate in their path of destruction to the front door, Sarah's mattress awkwardly grasped between their meaty paws. Fortunately, all of her treasured books and knick-knacks were already safely packed away and loaded into her beat-up car, if anyone was moving those it was going to be her!
After coaxing a knocked-about side table out of their way and setting the fallen floor lamp upright, Sarah took in one last look at her home before she left.
While she loved her home, Sarah's adventurous spirit had gotten the better of her as it always did. Her studies complete and her feet itching to wander, Sarah had found herself a quaint little apartment close to the city where she worked. Sculpting wasn't the best paying work but she had received enough commissions lately to buy her some independence from her family home and to set her on the path to self sufficiency.
Everyone in her small town already new her and had grown up with 'Strange Sarah' always daydreaming or muttering about goblins stealing her favorite pens. No, it was time for new people, fresh blood. Perhaps she would make some friends in her new neighborhood, perhaps she could take a class or something, maybe she would take up yoga, although the unpleasant mental image of her trying to perform downward-facing dog while squeezed into tight fitting elasticated leggings rapidly knocked her off. It was probably the leggings, even the thought of them triggered a sordid inner montage of firm muscled male legs, black leather and wild hair. A wicked laugh echoed from somewhere in her memories. Sarah squeezed her hands into tight fists and shook her head swiftly to dislodge the image. "Don't go there, never there." she whispered quietly to herself.
Maybe she would finally meet a guy, one who would live up to her expectations and want more than a stable job and a dinner on the table when he got home? Her expression grew wistful as she pictured herself colliding gracefully with some tall, rakishly sexy stranger in an artsy coffee shop. His shirt would be slightly open at the front and his jeans would fit him sinfully, he would smile and her stomach would melt like butter...
"Sarah..?"
She was nudged from her daydreams by the return of the hapless moving squad.
"Yes, sorry. I'm almost done, I think there's just the dresser, table and lamp left to load." Sarah explained while walking to check her closet for anything left behind.
At first it looked empty, almost forlorn without her clothes occupying it but there was something in there, if she jumped she could see it, right at the back of a top shelf. Reaching on her tip-toes her fingers scraping the edge of something dusty until she could grasp the corner and pull it down.
"Oh...thats where I put you." She muttered while running a hand over the dust covered worn, red leather of her once favourite book. 'The Labyrinth' was still visible glinting gold from beneath seven years of accumulated dust. Sarah remembered a younger version of herself stuffing it to the back of the closet upon her return from her adventures in the labyrinth.
While she still kept contact with the friends she made there, calling on them whenever she needed a brave knight, a loyal dwarf and a soft-hearted beast, even just to join her for tea. Sarah still carried the lessons she learned in the Underground, particularly ones pertaining to wishes, goblins and cruel kings. This book, she felt, had done enough damage, and scared of the power it held, she threw it onto the highest shelf she could find and forgot about it.
Sarah considered packing her relic with the rest of her possesions, destined for their new home, but changed her mind deciding that she had been right the first time. No good would come of this book lying around her new place, cluttering her new adventure with its ominous presence. Sarah pictured for a moment herself throwing some kind of cultured soiree in her new apartment, the rooms packed with hipster folk laughing and drinking cocktails,she would be wearing something suitably elegant and flattering, playing the gracious host. Until someone finds a little red book and begins to read, "I wish...".
"Nope! Absolutely not happening!" Sarah stated a little to loud to no one in particular. Although the thought of a cocktail party full of hipster types suddenly manifesting into the Goblin Kings throne room did cause a wry smirk, that was until she thought of Him anyway.
Him.
Recling indolently on his throne, one leather clad leg thrown carelessly over the side, a playful yet cruel smirk teasing his lips while he holds out a crystal poised on the tips of his long, gloved fingers. "A crystal, nothing more", a ghost of a voice whispers through her mind.
Sarah was aware of her palms getting warmer and her heart fluttering for a moment before, for the second time today...
*SMASH*
"Oh, come ON!" she exclaimed angrily, jarred from her thoughts Sarah whipped around to see her mirror in pieces on the bedroom floor and one of the moving guys blushing a particularly mottled shade of pink. Pulling his face into an apologetic expression "I'm really sorry, the company is insured so it shouldn't be a problem to.."
"NO! Nonononono" Sarah dashed to the mirror, trying unsuccessfully to match pieces of the cracked frame back together. Sure, she could get another but this was her mothers, Sarah had started using it after she left. It had been with her since childhood. Then there was the matter of her friends in the Underworld. Would they still be able to contact her?
The Goblin King hadn't been in the best of moods that day to begin with, but he had found some small modicum of happiness by bogging a number of goblins who had been found making snow angels in a pile of spilt flour in the castle kitchens, flour angels, if you will.
After further populating the Bog of Eternal Stench, his majesty had changed outfit, the previous one had been tainted by the bad morning. Now strutting through his castle in a red wine and black ensemble (with just a touch of glitter) looking for other miscreants to punish, Jareth was considering a stroll down to the Goblin City, or perhaps throwing himself into a jaunty song and dance number about his terrible day when he momentarily stumbled. The Goblin King never stumbles.
The reason for the stumbling was a cold feeling passing over his heart lasting only a second, it felt like an icy vacuum sucking at his chest before it passed as quickly as it had struck. His face glittered as two heavily eye shadowed eyebrows drew together in shock. "Odd" was all he muttered as his feet abruptly changed direction and turned him down the corridor which led to his throne room.
Still a little disturbed by the moment even after throwing himself into his throne with a flourish and bogging three more goblins and a chicken for good measure. Determined to forget about the whole embarrassing incident, the Goblin King smirked and turned to his favorite past time, although some would call it an obsessive habit, and produced a crystal with a flick of his wrist. The smirk fell.
Frowning, the king threw the crystal out of a nearby window to smash some three floors down on the head of an inadvertent goblin rendering him temporarily unconscious much to the amusement of his companions. The Goblin King closed his eyes with a short calming breath before flicking his wrist and once more producing a crystal. Peering closer to it his features rearranged them-self into something sinister and sharp. The noise he then made sort of began as a growl before evolving into a penetrating roar.
"WHERE ARE YOU!" he demanded of the crystal.
Feeling the ominous mood change most of the goblins were beginning to back away from the throne to find better things to do away from the kings notoriously volatile temper.
Except for Twitch and a handful of chickens, he didn't know any better (having recently been launched out of a window and suffering something close to the goblin equivalent of temporary memory loss) and having been sat somewhat close to the throne when all this was happening he felt a sort of dumb curiosity at the kings sudden change in demeanor. Getting up and peering into the crystal depths he stated, much to the kings rapidly increasing aggravation "There's nothin' in there".
"I know that, you cretin!" The king exploded, tapping the crystal with one long finger, "what I need to know is why"
"Why what?" asked a confused Twitch
"Why I can't see her anymore" then more to himself "where are you Sarah? You can't hide from me"
"Who's her again?" enquired the ignorant goblin
"The babe with the power" asserted the goblin King as he abruptly stood, by the time he has risen to his full height his outfit had switched to a formidable, glittering, black ensemble complete with armor and a touch of malevolence.
"Oh..er, right then" said Twitch, craning his neck back while wondering why all the other goblins seemed to have vanished from the room.
"I think I'm going to have to pay dear Sarah a visit" stated the Goblin King, lingering over the dear Sarah part as if he particularly enjoyed the taste of the words, with one final smirk the king twinkled out of existence leaving behind a startled goblin dusting glitter off of his nose.