Chapter 1: Kidnapped
"Irene, it's not that I want to break up with him, I just can't do this right now," Sarah argued with her step-mother over who had been Irene's beloved boyfriend of Sarah's for nearly two years.
"But, why Sarah?" She pleaded with her to go talk with him, "He didn't do anything wrong, he's just being a guy. Anyway, where are you going to find someone better? He's handsome, polite, thoughtful…," Irene trailed off, lost in her dreams of Sarah finally marrying someone perfect, and leaving the house for a day or two.
Sarah snapped back at her, "Then you marry him!" She breathed out a light sigh, stirring the noodles she was making as part of the dinner while Irene checked on the chicken parmesan. "I'm not saying anything's going to happen, Irene. I just mean that, he's been so different there's none of that romance anymore, or those sparks when we touch or," she stopped, musing over her thoughts. "It's just not like love anymore."
Irene clucked her tongue at her, "I know what you're looking for, you want someone where it's always exciting and new, but Sarah honey, you can't have a first kiss forever."
"It's my seventh birthday, you can tell me now!" Toby whined, hoping for Sarah to tell him the story he had waited for the longest time to hear. 'It's about a labyrinth,' she would say, 'and magic, and friendship and love, and even goblins!' The last part she would add almost as a promise because she knew he loved goblin stories more than anything. 'And you know what the most amazing part is?' she would lean very close to answer her own question while he waited with wide-eyed wonder. 'It was all true.'
"Now he laid down in his bed, ready for sleep and demanding the story she so often told him about. "Oh, all right," she agreed smiling, sitting on his bed to tell him.
The excitement grew in her eyes as she started the story. "Well, there was this magnificent labyrinth that stretched as far as the eye could see, maybe forever if you looked at it a certain way, and it protected the castle of the great Goblin King. As I was pacing outside of it—"
"Wait!" Toby ordered. Accusingly he narrowed his eyes at her. "You skipped a part."
Sarah drew herself up with dignity, her shoulders thrust back and her hands on her hips as she pretended to be offended. "I most certainly did not."
"You have to tell me how you got there!"
"Do not!" She argued.
Toby glared at her, "It won't make sense if I don't know!" He sat back against his pillows again, "Anyway, you'll be lying if you don't tell me and I'll have to tell mom."
Sarah rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, fine," Sarah glanced about as if the room was suddenly unsafe. "I was baby-sitting for you one night, six years ago, and you were being a particularly nasty brat," she laughed, tickling his stomach so that he squealed with giggles. "And I wished the Goblin King would take you away."
"How?" Toby asked, and Sarah tried to ignore the cold shivers that ran down her back as he demanded the line from her.
"Alright," she moaned, knowing he would pull it out of her anyway, "God, you're pushy. I said," she felt the power of her words only after they escaped her lips, "I wish the Goblin King would come and take you away. Right now." She poked his nose playfully as she said it, but as she finished she regretted ever promising to tell Toby the story because the windows began to shake before they burst open and a violent breeze whipped through the room as she threw herself over Toby.
When the wind finally stopped, Jareth stood before her in all of his condescending glory. "My, my," he made a tut-tut noise with his tongue, "one would have assumed you learned your lesson last time."
"No!" Sarah shouted as Jareth stepped closer to Toby.
"Sarah," he reached for Toby and she swatted his hands away. "You wished for it, I have to take—"
"Would you like to go through this again, Sarah?" He held up the crystal, "What's said is said, you can never reverse that. Take the crystal, by tomorrow you'll never worry over Toby again."
"No." She stepped forward, directly in front of Jareth so as to block his way to Toby as she knocked the crystal from his hand. "You can't take him-I won't let you." She glanced back guiltily at Toby for not resisting his please, knowing Jareth had to take someone back as he tried to step around her, "Take me," she offered.
"What?" Jareth stared in shock, glancing only a second at Toby before accepting so she couldn't back out. "Let's go, Sarah."
She looked regretfully at him and leaned back over Toby, kissing his forehead. "I'm sorry Toby," she whispered, "Mom and Dad are downstairs—don't let them know any of this."
Toby, still partially in shock from the ordeal nodded slowly as Sarah walked away, before scrambling out of the bed and throwing his short body around her, his arms wrapped around her waist as he pressed his face into her hip. In surprise, she lifted her arms and pushed his hair back lovingly as she pulled him up into her arms, his grip tightening on her regular too-big white shirt, her favorite vest thrown over it. She pulled him tight to her in a hug and brought him back to his bed, kissing his forehead. "Good-night, Toby," she whispered and then Jareth grabbed her shoulders and she was gone.
