Hundreds of distorted faces, hidden behind hideous goblin masks swirled around Sarah as she stood in the middle of the crowded ball room. The anxiety in her heart quickly evolved into fear that twisted and warped her stomach into a tightly bound knot. Where was he? She could hear him. His voice floated on a breeze emitting from some unknown source, but Sarah couldn't see him anywhere. She closed her eyes to the disturbing crowd and focused all her concentration on the sound of his voice.
There's such a sad love
deep in your eyes, a kind of pale
jewel
Open and closed within your eyes
I'll place the sky
within your eyes
There's such a fooled heart
Beating so fast in search of new
dreams
a love that will last within your heart
I'll place the
moon within your heart
Sarah felt a strange warmth behind her; a soft hand, with long, elegant fingers closed around her upper arm. A slender arm snaked itself around her waist and another hand settled itself upon her corseted stomach. Shivers ran the length of her spine as she felt his warm breath on her neck, and the knot in her stomach dissolved into nothingness. Sarah's body relaxed into the strangely familiar body behind her, her eyelids fluttering gently in bliss. Her mind focused on his singing again, but before she could completely understand the words, a sudden wind swept the room. Her eyes flicked open to an empty room. Her head started to spin, and she stumbled away from the Goblin Kings embrace. When she stabilized, Sarah glanced at her companion. Jareth was standing before her, tall and proud, his mismatched eyes enhanced by the colour of his tunic. Their eyes locked momentarily, and all sound failed to penetrate their connection. It wasn't until the crystal floor beneath them began to tremble that they broke apart. Jareth closed the gap between them in a single stride and caught Sarah in a passionate, almost violent kiss. Before Sarah could react, it was over. Jareth stooped so his lips were next to her ear, and breathed one simple sentence.
"I can't say no to you."
Sarah awoke with a start and drenched in sweat. For a moment, she didn't know where she was. Was she still at the ball? Where was Jareth? Slowly her eyes adjusted to her dark environment, and she recognized her own bedroom. She sighed a mixture of disappointment and relief and pushed back the bed covers. She quietly opened the door and padded down the hallway to the bathroom, being careful to avoid waking Karen and her father. The door quietly clicked shut behind her, but as the moment it did, Sarah was at the bathroom sink, filling it with cold water and splashing it on her face. She stared at her reflection in the mirror above the sink, but hardly saw it. Her mind was still at the ball, with Jareth. She couldn't help but think of him. She had been having the exact same dream for weeks on end, and every single time she woke up with the same racing pulse and ache in her heart and an irritating yet familiar dampness between her legs. Sarah shook her head to clear her mind of thoughts of dancing with Jareth and flicked the tap in the shower. She quickly pealed off her nightshirt and panties and stepped into the cold shower, splashing the water on her face and neck as she did so. The water relaxed her, calmed the butterflies in her stomach, but did nothing to rid her of the memories that haunted her. Jareth's begging voice lingered in her mind, causing tears to run down her cheeks.
"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."
Sarah shuddered and looked down, seeing goose bumps all over her skin. Clearing Jareth from her mind she washed herself quickly and slipped out of the shower. It took sheer willpower to stop her from screaming when she saw him in the mirror as she stepped out of the shower. It was only for a moment, but Sarah would swear on her little brother's life that she saw Jareth's mismatched eyes in the mirror opposite her. It took a moment to shake the feeling of shock, but it was quickly replaced by two conflicting emotions; fear, was she losing her mind, obsessing about the man who stole her baby brother and put her through a 13 hour long ordeal to save him from being turned into a Muppet-like goblin? And anger; what the hell was he doing in her bathroom, watching her take a shower?
Sarah quickly dried herself and slipped back into her bedroom, where she sat in her towel and dried her hair. Was Jareth really there, toying with what he knew she felt and confusing her once again? Or was it just her mind playing tricks on her? The question played on her mind for the rest of the day, making her fail her mathematics tests and get a detention for ignoring a teacher, and ate into most of the next night. When sleep finally did take her that night, it was a fitful one. She dreamt again of the ballroom, of being trapped in the oubliette with various disturbing variations of the goblin mask Jareth wore, of Jareth pressing her against the wall whispering "I can't say no to you."
As Sarah slept her fitful slumber, plagued by dreams of the singing Goblin King, the King himself was having similar difficulties. Jareth, surrounded by his minions, was having trouble staving off thoughts of the young girl. Though he tried relentlessly to convince himself that there was nothing special about Sarah, he and every servant, goblin and troll around him knew that there was.
Jareth had played this game with many girls during his time as King of the Underground. It was a regular hobby, almost a sport for the King, to take a sibling or even a son or daughter and use them to barter with the various teens that crossed his affections. That's not to say that Jareth didn't have his fair share of more mature women, young girls were just so much easier to torment. But Sarah … Sarah was something special. Jareth knew how he affected women. He knew how to move to accentuate his more attractive traits. He knew how to put a certain glint in his eyes that emphasised their mismatched nature, making him more alluring. He knew how charismatic his smooth British accent was, and he knew there wasn't a girl or woman alike in the world who couldn't be wooed by his serenades.
Except Sarah.
He couldn't understand how she had resisted his charm. Was he losing his touch? No, not possible. Elves, faeries, even goblin girls flocked from far and wide to see him, to spend a night in his bed. Even the odd human girl couldn't live past the fantasy of his Labyrinth. It must have been her.
And so, after a single night of toying with the girl, the King of all the Underground, the King of the Goblins was smitten. None of his subjects had ever seen him like this. Though he still led many a courtesan to his room at night, but they left looking dejected and annoyed, not rosy-cheeked and satisfied. Jareth refused to let them sleep in the same bed as him; he kicked them out after their transaction was complete and Jareth spent the rest of the night brooding, watching Sarah sleep in one of his many crystal bubbles. Jareth saw Sarah's dreams; the improved his moods somewhat. He even tried to appear in her room a few times and more than once while she was in the shower, but he couldn't cross the boarder. He couldn't move between his world and hers without an invitation. Though he employed wise-men, philosophers, scientists, powerful sorcerers, none could find the key to crossing the membrane between worlds. So Jareth was condemned to watch in silence until Sarah saw fit to wish him there again. But … was he good enough?