Disclaimer, Author's note, and All the Necessary Warnings That Must Be Heeded: Sarah, Jareth, Ludo and all the other fantastic characters from the 1986 film belong to the Jim Henson company. Not mine, I'm just borrowing them and I promise to give them back clean and in good shape after I'm done with them. (Just kidding, I'm so going to elope with Jareth...) Please don't sue or anything, the American ligitation system scares me.

I'm a total nebwie in the world of labfiction. I watched the movie a week ago because I had nothing else to do on a rainy night and it had David Bowie in it. Then I watched it again and then I made my little sisters watch it (according to them, it scarred them for life) and then I made my friends watch it so that I would have an excuse for watching it one more time before returning it to the library. After I was done with the movie, I read every piece of fanfiction that I could find about it and decided that there are some amazing writers out there. Actually, most of the labfics that I have read over the last week have managed to amaze me. Some of them were amazingly good, some of them were amazingly bad. Most of them were bad. It occurred to me that the labfiction universe was in a severe state of imbalance. So, out of the sheer goodness of my heart and out of respect towards Jareth's impossibly tight pants, I decided had to do something to help. So I started writing my own attempt at the genre. In English, which is not my native language. And without an editor/ a beta. You see where I'm going here?

So, while I'm not actually ashamed of what I've written so far, I have to warn you: there are going to be some huge, ugly, stinky, grammatical slips! And also clichés, tropes and general cheesiness. Which is ok if you like cheese, I suppose. I do. Enjoy!

PROLOGUE

As the third unlucky light bulb ended its life with a joyful little pop that made the tips of her fingers tingle, Sarah had to admit that this was no coincidence. She almost cursed aloud. Almost. Oh, he would so love that, now wouldn't he... She never cursed these days.

She left her now darkened bedroom and made her way to the bathroom. It was best to have this thing done and over with.

She touched another switch and another little light bulb burned out, merrily popping, and illuminated the small room briefly. The flash of light made the surrounding shadows seem even taller and darker. He was slowly getting to her, there was no denying it. It made her angry just to think about him and then the fact that she had let him make her angry made her even angrier.

Sly bastard.

As she left the bathroom, she hit her toe on the the threshold and the sudden stab of pain made her eyes swell with tears.

This isn't fair!

She let herself fall on the floor and sat there for a while, back resting to the wall, tears of fatigue and anger running down her cheeks. She felt that tingle on her hands again and managed only barely to make it go away. It felt like holding back a sneeze of molten iron.

She would have to confront him soon and put an end to this, before all hell would break loose because of her faltering self discipline. She had the power. She knew she had it and she knew that he knew it too. She had defeated him in his own kingdom, he was no match for her here.

What game was he playing at this time?

And why is he playing it with me?

Sarah sighed wearily.

No use wallowing in self-pity, she decided and stood up. Four down and nine to go. These things always happened in thirteens.

As Sarah moved around the small apartment touching a switch here and there, shadows that weren't cast by her followed. And in the middle of the darkest shadows, someone with hair spun of starlight let out a little laugh that sounded like the chirping of crickets.