Chapter Two: I Wish….

The day that ruined all started out as any other, with the owl Jareth soaring to his usual tree stump to hear Sarah's fairy tale of the day. Her words were distorted from this height, but he could swear that he had heard the words "Goblin King" issue from her enchanting lips. He nearly fell out of the sky in his haste to hear the rest of a story that may well involve him! Could this mean he would finally be able to appear to her?

"Give me the child," she was saying, as Jareth nearly fell out of the sky in his eagerness to hear more. Today, she wore flowers in her hair and a green dress that brought out the color of her exquisite eyes quite magnificently— like pale jewels, he thought. "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great."

She faltered, but he hardly noticed. The Goblin King's mind was in a frenzy over how there was far too much coincidence in this story for it to be about anyone but him. He took away children who were unwanted by their parents or siblings, which could be called stealing by one who regretted the wish, and his palace was known far and wide as the creatively named "castle beyond the Goblin City."

"For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great…." Sarah repeated, though with less passion than before. "D*amn. Oh, I can never remember that line…." She slipped a small, faded red book from her pocket, and with the owl's enhanced vision, Jareth could make out a title that sealed his conviction that she truly believed in him. The Labyrinth. "You have no power over me."

The sheepdog Merlin barked once as Jareth prepared his magic for a transformation, ready to sweep her into his arms and whisk her away to the Underground at last. "Oh, Merlin," sighed Sarah, before looking above Jareth. "Oh, no, Merlin!" she cried, gathering her skirts and snapping the owl out of the conentration necessary to complete the metamorphosis from bird to Fae. "I don't believe it! It's seven o' clock!" With that, she dashed away from the park, the white bird following closely behind her despite the pouring rain soaking his feathers through.

"Oh, it's not fair!" wailed Sarah as she approached her house, flowers askew and gown ruined by the downpour.

"Oh, really?" sneered a woman who could only be Sarah's stepmother. Jareth, shielded from the torrent by the leaves above the tree branch he was perched in, ruffled his feathers menacingly. He had only heard about this woman, but that was more than enough of a reason for him to have developed intense dislike for her. How could anyone treat the most precious thing in the world so shamefully? "Well, don't stand there in the rain, come on!"

"All right," sighed Sarah. "Come on, Merlin."

"Not the dog!" ordered the stepmother.

"But it's pouring!" protested Sarah.

The stepmother was indifferent to the poor girl's objections. "Go on, into the garage," she demanded of the dog.

Sarah groaned in defeat and frustration. "Go on, Merlin, go into the garage." With that, both women vanished into the house, and Jareth was forced to relocate to a branch overlooking what could only have been Sarah's room.

Jareth's large, round eyes grew wider as he gazed through the window at his beloved's bedchamber. Everything in here resembled something in his own realm, from the wooden Labyrinth to the bookend shaped like the dwarf who did his bidding— Hogwash, his name was, or Hedgewart. Something like that, at any rate. There was a stuffed toy of Sir Didymus, Bridgekeeper in the Land of Stench, and another of a Fiery, playful creatures who often took their games a bit too far. Jareth even noted a figurine of himself perched on Sarah's vanity!

Suddenly Sarah stormed in, and as she calmed her anger by sitting in front of her mirror, gazing around at the various trinkets as she combed out her long, silky hair. He couldn't make out the words she spoke through the window, but by the look of her lips, they were the very same ones she had been saying by the river. Jareth flew to the window, preparing to open it by magic and, once again, to change into his true form and offer her her dreams. Unfortunately, once again, Fate defied his efforts to give her his love, and she stormed off because of something her wicked stepmother or oddly ineffectual father had said.

Suddenly, he heard her voice in his mind, a desperate plea as close as "I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now" as he could have hoped for— "Someone save me, someone take me away from this awful place!" The sounds of a wailing baby could be heard behind the cries, and Jareth soared off to a branch outside Sarah's parents window, finding her furious with her baby brother, lying in the crib beside her. The Goblin King quivered with anticipation, as the fact that he could hear her words now meant that there was absolutely no chance that she wouldn't say the words now.

"What do you want?" she was demanding of the child. "Do you want a story? Okay. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was a spoiled child who wanted everything for himself, and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl and he had given her certain powers."

Wait. How in the worlds had she known that? He hadn't heard anything about it in the story she had told, so how could she possibly know how he felt about her?

"So one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her, she called on the goblins for help."

Scratchy little voices interfered with Jareth's ability to concentrate on the story and the strange new developments in it. The goblins, too, could hear, and it was this that caused a crushing wave of disappointment to rush over him. They only heard mortals when they were about to wish a child away, not themselves. Such a pity… but Jareth could work with this. He would still be able to appear to her, to tell her everything….

Wouldn't he?

"'Say your right words,' the goblins said, 'and we'll take the baby to the Goblin City, and you will be free," Sarah continued viciously, making the babe cry ever harder and the goblins quiver with excitement. "But the girl knew the King of the Goblins would keep the baby in his castle forever and ever and turn it into a goblin, so she suffered in silence until one night when she was tired from doing housework and hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother and she could no longer stand it."

Lies! thought Jareth angrily. He would never turn a child into a goblin— he had enough of the repulsive little things already, and besides, mortal children were such precious little things. It was so rewarding to see the unwanted babes when he brought them to a good home in the Underground, where they could live happily in the care of a Fae or Sidhe who did want them. However, clearly Sarah didn't know that, and nor did Toby, who just kept crying.

"Oh, all right!" she cried in frustration. "Knock it off. Come on, stop it, stop it! I'll say the words!" she warned. "No, I mustn't, I mustn't say…." Say the words, Sarah! Jareth wanted to scream. "I wish… I wish…!"

"She's going to say it!" a goblin gasped, stating the obvious as goblins were so fond of doing.

"Say what?

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"Will you all shut up?!" demanded the Goblin King to his subjects. "If she is going to say the words, I need to hear this!"

"Listen!" hissed another goblin, too stupid to heed his king's words. "She's going to say the words!"

"I can bear it no longer!" screamed Sarah. "Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be! Take this child of mine far away from me!" If he could have, Jareth would have buried his face in the palm of his hand. Really, Sarah, do you honestly think that could have summoned me?

The goblins concurred. "Where did she learn that rubbish? It doesn't even start with 'I wish!'"

"Oh, Toby, stop it!" cried Sarah, but Toby didn't pay her any mind. "I wish I did know what to say to make the goblins take you away…."

"'I wish the goblins would come take you away right now!'" snapped a goblin impatiently, reflecting Jareth's own feelings exactly. "That's not hard, is it?!"

"I wish…" Sarah began, realization filling her lovely green eyes. "I wish…." Jareth braced himself and his magic, prepared for the change at last, before his concentration was broken by yet another outburst from his goblins.

"Did she say it?" a particularly slow one inquired. He was answered with a loud round of "Shut up!" s, the loudest roared by his king.

Sarah turned from the room, giving up on getting the boy to stop crying. Finally, finally, she snapped, "I wish the goblins would come take you away…." She paused to flip the light switch off, and as she disappeared, she finished with the fateful words, "Right now."

Goblins raced to their work, trying to stay quiet but unable to contain their squeaks and giggles of excitement as they snatched the baby from his crib to bear him away to the Goblin City. Jareth struggled with the window latch as Sarah returned, frantically searching for her brother and the source of the strange noises. Finally, he simply threw the windows open by magic, fluttering inside.

At last, at long last, he transformed into his Fae form before Sarah's eyes. A cloud of glitter swirled around his slender body as he greedily drank in every inch of the mortal girl's beauty with his mismatched eyes, one brown, one blue. His long, wild hair fell to one side with the tilt of his head, tumbling unevenly over his shoulder and chest.

He was pleased to know that she knew exactly who he was. "You're him, aren't you?" she asked, a quiver of fear in her voice. "You're the Goblin King!" Jareth only smirked in response. So she expected to fear him, did she? "I want my brother back, please, if it's all the same."

"What's said is said," Jareth replied haughtily. She wanted to be the heroine of her story, of that much he was sure. Unfortunately, he knew that would require him to play the villain, but if it would make her happy….

"But I didn't mean it!" she protested tearfully.

"Oh, you didn't?" sneered Jareth knowingly. Had she not meant it to some degree, he wouldn't have been able to come. Children always meant it when they wished away a sibling. Always.

"Please, where is he?"

One would think she hadn't read that Labyrinth book hundreds of times…. "You know very well where he is."

"Please bring him back," begged Sarah. "Please."

But that would be disappointing you, wouldn't it, my dear? Jareth thought. "Sarah," he replied coolly, her name delicious on his tongue, like an exotic fruit. Say-rah…. "Go back to your room. Play with your toys and your costumes. Forget about the baby."

"I can't," Sarah replied, sounding close to tears.

Undeterred, Jareth pulled a crystal from thin air. "I've brought you a gift."

She gazed at the orb, intrigued in spite of herself. "What is it?"

"It's a crystal," replied Jareth, twisting it around his hand, "nothing more, but if you turn it this way and look into it… it will show you your dreams." He demonstrated and revealed an image of her dreams— his own reflection, shown at an odd angle that couldn't possibly be natural. And yet she still feared him…. "But this is not a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby." He smirked, knowing that his Sarah, as he had come to think of her, was far from ordinary. "Do you want it?" She hesitated, and he pulled the crystal away from her. "Then forget the baby!" Staying with him wasn't such a terrible fate. After all, Jareth never turned innocent human children into repulsive, abhorrent goblins.

"I can't," repeated Sarah. "It's not that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do for me, but I want my brother back! He must be so scared!"

Her dedication to her brother was admirable, certainly not what the Goblin King was used to seeing from those who wished away children. He came dangerously close to breaking the charade of villainy to tell her that Toby was in no immediate danger… but decided against it at the last minute. If she wanted to be the heroine of her own fairy tale, so be it. "Sarah," Jareth warned, turning the crystal into a snake, which wove around his gloved fingers. "Don't defy me." He let the serpent leap from his hands to Sarah, who screamed before it turned into a harmless scarf. A goblin scooped it up, cackling along with its fellows. "You're no match for me, Sarah."

"But I need to have my brother back!" pleaded Sarah yet again. With a sigh and a small roll of his mismatched eyes, Jareth translocated himself and Sarah to the Underground, overlooking the Labyrinth and the Goblin City.

"He's there, in my castle," he replied, pointing it out for her as she gaped at the sudden change of scenery. "Do you still want to look for him?" So few said yes to running his Labyrinth, and no one had ever succeeded in winning. He had a feeling Sarah was different, and he longed to find out.

"Is that the castle beyond the Goblin City?" she asked timidly, looking up at him.

"Turn back, Sarah," Jareth called mockingly, though behind the arrogance was a real desire to keep her out of the "dangers untold" she was setting herself up for. "Turn back before it's too late."

"I can't," she replied for the third time. "Don't you understand that I can't?"

"What a pity," sighed Jareth, vowing to protect her from his Labyrinth at all costs, with or without her knowledge.

"It doesn't look that far," Sarah said bravely, sentiments that were ruined when she jumped— Jareth had glided closer to her so that his long blonde hair tickled her cheek and the back of her neck as it fluttered in the wind.

"It's further than you think," he replied softly, letting his breath drift softly over her skin. "Time is short." He stepped away, letting a clock appear behind him, an Underground clock numbered to thirteen instead of twelve. "You have thirteen hours in which to solve the Labyrinth before your baby brother becomes one of us… forever." It sounded threatening, as he knew she wanted, but he omitted one very important detail— one of us would imply his inclusion, and he was absolutely not a goblin. He was a Fae, just like young Toby would become should Sarah fail to defeat the Labyrinth. Jareth's feelings on the necessity of keeping up the appearance of a villain were reflected in his final words to his beloved Sarah as he vanished back to his castle.

"Such a pity…."