Every man gets his wish
Every man gets his wish
You told me this
Where is mine?
-Every Man Gets His Wish, Lana Del Rey
The Goblin King had a special kind of patience for Sarah, the kind of patience he did not display often. Or maybe, maybe it was not patience at all that kept him from checking after her through his crystal ball, maybe it was to protect himself from seeing her face again, seeing her happy, seeing her without him. So he waited, he waited until his patience wore thin and the goblins could no longer take the cruelty and anger directed towards them from their trusted ruler.
And, four years after he had last seen her, Jareth took a look at what had become of the champion of his labyrinth.
...
Sarah's life was not glamorous, was not becoming of a girl like her, and was definitely not something she would wish upon her worst enemy-but she was proud of it, all the same.
Nobody wanted to be living paycheck to paycheck, raising a child in hand-me-down clothes and waitressing tips. Nobody wanted to come home to an empty bed, or a small apartment where the heat had been cut because you didn't have enough money to afford it. But Sarah had faced hardships and survived them; defeating the Goblin King's labyrinth had only been the beginning of the many things she had overcome.
...
"Toby!" Sarah said, dropping her purse in one of the chairs at the kitchen table before opening a can of soup, and preparing dinner for her and her brother. "Toby, honey, dinner's coming up."
A five year old Toby came wandering into the room, just waking up from a nap.
"How was your day?" Sarah said, looking at her baby brother. To the Goblin King's surprise, the once talkative, cooing baby boy did not utter a word. He merely smiled at her, nodding. "That good, huh? From Ms. Ellie's note, it looks like you were good today. Maybe, later on, we can walk down to the corner store and get you a treat, if you eat all your dinner, okay?" The boy nodded again excitedly.
The conversation between the two stopped, and Jareth made himself appear, in owl form, at the window.
He looked around her apartment, at it's small, faded space. It was a quaint kind of messy that let you know young kids-or goblins, in Jareth's case-lived here, and the lighting was dim enough that you couldn't see the true depressing state of the apartment. Everything in the apartment looked as if it was terribly sad; even baby Toby's smiles didn't quite reach his eyes. There was one thing, one person, shining through all the dirt and grime-Sarah.
The girl's face hadn't aged a day since she'd ran his labyrinth. Sure, she'd added make up and highlights in her hair, but it wasn't anything major. She had grown up, however, he could tell. The body of a woman that he knew was always underneath her boyish tunics and jeans, was coming out. She was wearing a short, pleated skirt and a button-up blouse that looked to be 1950s themed, which led him to believe she was probably a waitress somewhere.
In all his curiosity about her apartment, he had forgotten to will himself into his owl form.
Baby Toby-who wasn't much baby at all anymore-made a gurgling noise, then turned and pointed at the window.
"Jareth?" Sarah said, picking up Toby and placing him on her hip. She didn't look particuarly surprised to see him.
"I wanted to check up on my reigning champion. But I wasn't expecting you to be in such...broken...conditions." He said, making Sarah groan.
"It's a long story."
"I've got all night, Sarah." he ran a long finger down her face, making Toby look at them with a bright smile.
"Come on, it's a nice afternoon. I promised Toby a treat; I'll tell you on the walk." The girl pulled on a thin sweat jacket, helping Toby into his jacket as well, before they walked out the door.
...
"Not long after I left the labyrinth, my father passed away. It was sudden, of a heart attack, but I always suspect that old bitch poisoned him."
"Poisoning someone doesn't cause a heart attack, Sarah." Jareth interjected.
"Anyways, Karen, my stepmother, wasn't a nice woman to begin with, but after Dad died she only got worse. She left Toby alone all the time, whether I was there or not, saying she had to go out and find herself another husband, that we needed the money. She made it seem like it was the three of us against the world, for a little while, but all along I suspected it was only about her. One day, when I had just left for school, she up and left Toby and me. Toby was only two years old, and he was trapped in his crib all day. I didn't suspect anything was wrong until she didn't come to pick me up after school, and I had to walk home. Nine hours, Jareth. He was trapped alone in that crib-hell, in that house-for nine hours. I got him out, fed him and changed his diaper, and he wouldn't cry. I let it go, thinking maybe he had been crying all day, and he was out of tears, but it only got worse. I don't know what happened to him, in that nine hours I was gone, but he won't talk, he hasn't talked for three years." Sarah bit her lip, tears stinging at her eyes. But she wouldn't cry in him, not in front of a king...especially not in front of the Goblin King. "I'm so lost, so confused. I don't know how to help him."
"Sarah," he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you wish for it?"
"What?"
"Wish for it, wish for Toby to have his voice back." Jareth said, his face and voice calming, comforting, but a strange look in his eye.
"Will it even work, Jareth?" She said, looking at him promisingly.
"Excuse me, but the Goblin King, granter of wishes, and of lost things, is right here-ears wide open."
"I wish..." She looked at Toby as he ate his ice cream cone, thinking of the last time she made a wish. She kissed his forehead, continuing the stare at the oblivious little boy. "I wish Toby could have his voice back, could forget what happened the day Karen left him...I wish that I could have protected him, and that everything would be alright now."
Toby suddenly looked up at her, holding up his ice cream cone. "Sarah, I want more."
And she started to cry, in front of the Goblin King, no less.
Jareth saw, this, and he started to feel bad as she gave Toby a dollar to get another scoop of mint chocolate chip.
"Now Sarah," Jareth said as Toby walked away. "What do I get in return? There is always a trade."
"Anything," she said quickly, as tears ran down her face. Still, she was beautiful. "Anything you want."
"I shall take a lost thing then, a forgot then. Sarah, I will take you."
And the world around her grew dark once more, as he willed the three of them into the Underground.
Finally, the Goblin King had a Goblin Queen, and a Goblin Prince too.