CHAPTER ONE:
CHAPTER ONE:
AN OLD FEELING
A drunken goblin laughed heartily. His voice rising from some dark corner, whooping and hollering some intoxicated gibberish. He raised another toast and celebrated early for the arrival of the Full Moon. One face peered down at it all from the castle's highest and largest window: the face sighed deeply at his ruined city. He had been ruling the pitiful place with its even more pitiful inhabitants for centuries, and now it disgusted him to think how quickly it had down fallen. Ruling had become less of a pleasure over the past couple of days. It was more than the downfall that bothered him at the moment though: something from his past was pulling at his mind. He could feel it in his chest. Perhaps it is the time of the prophecy, he thought uneasily.
He turned away from the window with another long sigh. He picked up a crystal ball from a silk cushion and peered into it. A slight rainbow played around its smooth edge. He could see his reflection. "What is happening?" But nothing stirred in reply. Discontented with it he threw it across the room. Despite the force the sphere landed lightly on the room's floor. This was his room where for years he had gone to think; he had always felt secure and comfortable in this room, but now, for unexplainable reasons, he felt restless there. Frustrated he threw open a set of large doors. Walking into a bedchamber, he threw himself onto his bed. What is going through my mind? He asked himself rolling over onto his back. The sound of the rolling crystal entered his ears. What feeling is this? She has been gone for years now, but why have all of these memories returned? I did not summon them. He thought back and remembered the young, teenage girl who had defied him no matter what he had done to her. No power of his had shaken her strong will. "You have no power over me," she had said. Sarah: dear to his being Sarah. You're a fool Jareth for thinking so. She was nothing more then something that suited your momentary fancy. But then he thought back even further to the wish she had asked of him to take her baby brother away. She was so stubborn; so intense; she never showed any fear. She was so beautiful- Jareth cut short with a gasp of pain. He winced, and rolled over onto his side rapping his arms around his middle. An invisible hand inside him tugged at his emotions, as if it were trying to pull them physically out.
Jareth winced again as he supported himself on an elbow. The feeling was still in his chest, but the thoughts of Sarah and what had happened all those years ago were gone. The spasm contorted him with a fierce blow, flooding his brain with pain. "Stop!" he exclaimed out loud. "Stop! The thoughts are gone! Stop!" He begged and begged for the power to release him, but it just grew tighter. He fell back onto the bed, and beat the pillows with his fist until he had no more strength and had passed out.
Out in the courtroom the goblin guards were gathered in a pit. The pit had been made for no particular purpose; the goblins were ignorant, and so they threw their bits of unwanted food in it. Yet they felt the need for whispering so, they gathered together closely in this pit. Each one knew something was happening, and each one had their own thoughts about it. Most of them were wide and dramatized because a goblin's mind is too simple to think straight. They knew that usually their king was sitting in his courtroom at this time of night when the Moon was supposed to rise. Their king was usually very punctual about it especially on a Full Moon, and tonight was such a night. They waited for their ruler to come down dressed in his traditional costume. 'Yes,' they thought. 'He will come down with the banging of his staff on the stairs, and his cape flowing behind him. He will welcome the Moon.' Jareth still lay on his bed though with a look of pain in his features.
