Me: Hello again faithful viewers! I'd just like to thank anyone who reviewed the story, and also just to thank people for continuing to read this!
Jareth: How could they not want to read? It has me in it, doesn't it?
Sarah rolls her eyes: You are SO self-centered, Jareth.
Jareth: Yes, but you love me anyway.
Sarah's face contorts in disgust and she gags dramatically. Jareth pouts. I roll my eyes.
Me: Now, now children, can't we all just play nice while I do the intro? Honestly.
Sarah: Oh, speaking of the story, is this the part where I get to tell Jareth off?
Me, looking back through what I've written: In my exact words, you're "going to give his goblin king butt a piece of your mind."
Sarah: Sweet!
Me: Once again, thank you to all the people who've read the story and liked it enough to actually continue reading it. And to the reviewers, thank you thank you thank you! A thousand times, thank you! Feedback is the whole reason I started posting the stuff I was writing.
Okay, now that you've been properly thanked, commencing chapter. Hope you like!
Jareth's grip on her should was the only thing keeping Sarah anchored as she suddenly found herself in the throne room she had happened upon when searching for him and Toby for that final confrontation, and felt a slight sensation of vertigo. Odd, she hadn't felt anything when Jareth had brought her to the hillside when she'd insisted on running the labyrinth. Nothing but the sudden feeling of being outdoors and a soft breeze blowing through her hair, that is.
She stood stock still as Jareth placed his free hand on her other shoulder, and pulled her so that her back was pressed flush against his front.
"Now this is a change, isn't it precious thing?" his voice was like a velvet wrapped dagger—soft, but with a definite edge.
"What's a change, goblin king?" Sarah asked, her tone betraying none of her nervous emotions but conveying all of her impudence and anger. He chuckled and placed his lips directly above her ear, the strands of his hair that stuck out near the top of his head tickling her face.
"Having power over you." He murmured. "Damned if it doesn't feel good." A bitter streak ran strongly through that statement, and Sarah repressed a sigh. So, here it comes, whatever hardship and torture he's got waiting for me.
Well you're in for a shock, goblin king, because I'm not about to whimper and beg for mercy.
Sarah brushed him off roughly and moved to stand away from him, turning sharply on her heel to face him as she crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her chin out, the perfect picture of defiance.
"You didn't win any power; Toby wished it on you." Sarah sharply retorted, "Why don't you just throw me down whatever oubliette you have lined up or drown me in the Bog of Eternal Stench already and get this over with? Since you apparently don't plan on turning me into a goblin, that is."
Jareth, now in the heavy jacket and black breeches he'd worn in the Escher room (how on earth was he always finding time to change his outfits?), stood watching Sarah with his arms folded elegantly across his chest, completely mirroring her own stance. A smirk lifted one side of his mouth, and she tried to ignore how attratractive he looked, focusing on appearing fearless. Then again, the last time she hadn't shown her fear, she'd wound up being chased by the cleaners and losing a few hours time.
"Now Sarah, why would I ever want to throw you into an oubliette or drown you in the bog?" his tone was a playful one Sarah often heard adults use with children who had just said something that was impossible but was still amusing to hear. She glared.
"Maybe because the last time I was here we didn't exactly part on the best of terms?" she said acerbically.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Sarah, Sarah, surely you don't blame me for taking Toby, do you? I was only acting on someone's wish, you know." He shook his head, mockingly sad. "One would think you would have learned to take responsibility for your actions by now."
A strong wave of anger welled up in her, but she beat it down. "No, goblin king, I don't blame you for taking Toby." She bit out from behind her clenched teeth, narrowing her eyes. "And you know why that's not why we left on such bad terms."
Jareth made a noise of agreement. "True, precious thing, true. As I recall, some little chit refused my most generous offer of servitude in exchange for her wished away brother, and proceeded to try and defeat me with a monologue from a child's book."
Well when he put it like that…
"I didn't want Toby to be taken away, not deep down." She snapped at him, "And I wasn't selfish enough to let Toby suffer for my mistake by accepting your "generous offer."" She only just refrained from making little air quotes with her fingers. He probably wouldn't have understood it anyway. She smirked.
"Besides; it worked, didn't it? I got Toby back in the end."
"And just wound up being wished away by the babe months later." He shook his head again, a fond smile on his lips. "How did that happen, by the by? Toby can barely pronounce certain words from what I heard, and he seemed to be ironically sweet on you. So how ever did he manage to wish you away?"
A heat suffused her cheeks, turning them a pretty pink, as she thought of the "story" she'd been telling Toby. "I was telling him a story, and he said the words because he thought it was a line that one of the characters said."
An eyebrow winged up. "And said line just happened to be the right words?"
She blushed harder, this time with annoyance. "In his mind, yes. The right words were the line."
Jareth's trademark sharp smile emerged. "Interesting." He moved towards her a hand reaching out towards her hair, and she batted it away before it could reach her long locks.
"Goblin king, why don't you just get on with your big evil plan already? I'm sure it's a doozy."
Laughter bubbled from his thin lips, and it was both cackling and seductive at the same time, so much so that it made her skin crawl. And not that she wanted to admit it, but the feeling of gooseflesh breaking out on her body wasn't entirely caused by non-pleasurable feelings.
"Precious thing, when I said my plans for you had nothing to do with you becoming a goblin, I see I failed to mention that it also had nothing to do with tossing you in an oubliette or into the bog. Or anything else unpleasant for that matter."
"Then what do they have to do with?" she asked suspiciously, eyeing the space between them. Personally, she would have liked another foot or two between her and Jareth.
"Your eyes can be so cruel," Jareth sang at her, a grin on his face. Sarah wanted to slap it off.
"Yes, yes, yes, just as you can be so cruel and all that." She said, her green/gray eyes flashing. "Just tell me already, goblin king. What are you planning on doing with me?"
There was a dulling in the edge to his smile, although it didn't make it look any less dangerous. No, it made it almost look…flirtatious? What was that about?
"If I had to be honest, Sarah, I would have to say that I plan on doing many things with you," he quickly stepped closer until he was all that was in her line of vision, reminding her of how he'd stalked towards her in the Escher room right before he walked through her. He put his gloved hands on her waist, which had shrunk into a more womanly curve during the seven months since her last visit to the labyrinth, and dragged her closer so forcefully she almost tripped. Without thinking she put her hands out to break her fall, and she wound up clutching the cloth covering Jareth's chest as she stared up at him. "But that a large part of those things include this." He said, and swooped down to press his lips to hers.
She made a noise of shock that was muffled by his mouth over hers, and clung to him even more when she realized that she would risk falling over if she let go, being bowed against his body as she was.
Well this isn't what I expected.
Jareth's lips were surprisingly soft in texture despite looking so harsh, but having never been kissed in her life besides the pecks on the cheek or forehead her father gave her, she found the way they surged against hers overwhelming and too much to take in. She thought about trying to knee him in his crystals or shove her fist into his gut, but she didn't have enough room between their bodies to maneuver her arm or leg into position. She started to wiggle and twist her head from side to side, trying to dislodge his mouth so she could breathe. With a chuckle he pulled back, but his hands stayed tightly on her waist, his fingers flexing on her flesh in a not-too-gentle squeeze.
"What was that!?" Sarah spluttered, shoving at his chest with all the strength in her arm muscles.
His fingers didn't budge a bit.
"Precious, surely you're not so innocent as to not know what that was?" Throaty laughter sounded from his cruel lips. Sarah's face burned with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. Damn Jareth, what was he really up to?
"I know what that was," she almost snarled as she glowered at him, the ache in her lips hard to deny. "What I meant—"
Jareth interrupted her.
"Unlike everything else in the Labyrinth, Sarah, words are spoken as they are meant." For a second his strange pupils bored into hers, and Sarah forgot to breathe. "You might take care to remember that, considering that your about to have a very extended stay here."
He leaned in closer, his cool breath gently hitting her face. "And you might also like to hear that my plans for you involve doing you no harm whatsoever…unless of course you ask for it."
Sarah slightly shook her head, her thoughts becoming one big jumbled mess. Between being wished away, being kissed by Jareth, and trying to process what he was saying to her now, she was having some trouble thinking past her emotions to clearly process all that was happening.
"But what are you saying? I don't…" she shook her head. "Why the hell aren't you gloating over all of this and dangling me above the bog to watch me squirm?" she was trying to not look directly at him, and that was sort of easy considering their height differences, but she felt stupid conversing with his chest, which was thankfully completed covered to the neck unlike how it was when he wore his poets shirts.
He pursed his lips in thought. "Well I suppose I could do that, but it would grow tiring after a while, I think. Besides, that's a sight I've already seen. It wasn't that interesting the first time around."
So he had seen her when she'd been trying to walk on the bridge in the bog and it had crumbled underneath her, leaving her to grasp onto a vine for dear life or risk smelling bad for all eternity. Still seeing her confusion, Jareth released her and sighed.
"Sarah, did you not listen when I said that words are taken at their meaning here?"
She frowned. "Of course I listened."
"So it hasn't occurred to you that my generous offer wasn't meant as simply a means to win Toby?"
She blinked a few times. "Umm…" His mouth twitched.
"That's what I thought."
Sarah's patience snapped at his patronizing statement. She might not have been completely the same girl she'd been seven months ago, but she still had all the spirit she'd possessed when she'd run the labyrinth.
"Look, goblin king, just tell me what you're going to do to me already! I've been wished and you now do have some power over me, so stop toying with me and take your revenge already!"
That was most definitely the wrong thing to say, if the frost that suddenly overcame Jareth was any indication. His eyes seemed to darken, the strands of hair that fell near his eyes suddenly made him look menacing, and the look on his face could have frozen fire. She questioned how wise it had been to antagonize him, but figured that it was too late to take it back.
"Sarah," Jareth's voice was icier than she'd ever heard it, "I was not lying when I said I could be cruel…don't defy me."
"Or what, goblin king?" Sarah said, suddenly feeling very, very tired. She was never going to see her family again, and had just had to kiss everything in her life goodbye so she could be dragged to…what had Hoggle called it one of their numerous conversations? The Underground?
Not knowing how this had happened, Sarah suddenly found herself being held in the air by a single gloved hand on her throat, which was oddly enough not choking the daylights out of her. Jareth lifted her up to his eyelevel, so close that she could see in detail every fine line on his face, although it actually did nothing to diminish what Sarah thought were attractive features. She knew from Sir D. and Hoggle that Jareth actually looked pretty damn good for his age, considering that he was older than human history could probably remember.
"Sarah," he almost spat the words from behind his barely moving lips, "Do not test me, child. One would think you would have learned when to hold your tongue by now."
Sarah stared steadily back at him, hoping that she wasn't showing how badly her skin was feeling from being grasped in a leather glove; she was probably going to have bruises for sure.
"One would think." She replied, steady as a rock.
Jareth still looked furious, but he gave her a grudging smile. "Always stubborn. Would it really be so hard for you to cower once in a while?"
"Yes, it would."
Jareth rolled his eyes and sighed, lowering Sarah to her feet. She wondered where his anger had gone because he looked weary more than anything now. Then again, she had been trying his patience; maybe he was tired.
"Jareth," she said, and after closing her eyes for a brief second, opened them and continued. "Will you please tell me what's going to happen to me?"
He stared for a second, and she thought maybe her quiet question and current situation had earned her some pity points.
"You will not be mistreated, Sarah, but do not think that I will tolerate having my generosity thrown back in my face for a second time."
She wanted to ask what he'd been generous about, but didn't. He had technically been doing as she'd asked…taking Toby, being the villain in her own little adventure, but she'd never actually understood how reordering time had been something she'd asked him to do; he'd been the one benefiting from stealing time off her clock. And fine, so maybe not turning her into a goblin or throwing her down the darkest oubliette he could find was sort of generous, but she'd have liked him better had he just let her stay home, with her family…
Holy crap, what was her family going to think when they found her missing? What would Toby tell them? Her poor father, how would he feel, losing his daughter? He might have been a little oblivious, but he still cared about her deeply, and she had always loved him.
"But what do you plan to do with me?" Sarah persisted, wondering why he wouldn't just spit it out. He raised an eyebrow at her, his patience reaching its end as he gave her a look that called her an idiot.
"Sarah, I made that offer in the Escher room…I'm not going to abuse you…I just bloody well kissed you. What do you think I want?" she shook her head, rubbing a hand on her brow.
"I don't have the foggiest, goblin king. I guessed vengeance, but that wasn't it, so now I've got nothing."
He put a finger under her chin and looked at her, making her just a tad uncomfortable with his closeness.
"Sarah, precious," the hand not grasping her chin stroked her cheek with the pad of its thumb. "Don't you think I was serious with my offer? 'Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave?'" he raised his eyebrows at her. She shook her head.
"If I'd accepted you'd have kept Toby."
He made a noise of frustration deep in his throat. "Not if he hadn't wanted me to! I'd have returned the babe home had you 'won' or had you accepted my offer, if that is what you asked of me." He took a deep breath, "Sarah, I—"
The sound of a door opening interrupted Jareth, and they both turned towards the main entrance to the throne room. Odd; Sarah hadn't remembered there being doors…Oh, wait, yes there had been. They'd just been wide open for her already and she hadn't paid them any mind.
The familiar lumpy visage of Hoggle the dwarf poked his head in, making Sarah smile, but it dimmed after a few seconds. What had Jareth been about to say? Do I really want to know right now? Maybe it's best we just continue this conversation later, when I don't feel so tired and can actually process what he's saying. If he's saying what I think he might be saying, that is…
"Your majesty, I—" Hoggle's gravelly voice cut off as he caught sight of Sarah, standing with the goblin king's hands still on her. "Sarah? What the…" Hoggle turned to Jareth, his ugly face surprisingly furious. "Jareth! You rat! What've you done—"
Sarah stopped him from damning himself any further. Jareth had followed through on his threat to send him to the Bog of Eternal Stench if Sarah kissed him, and lo and behold, as soon as she'd pecked his bumpy cheek, they'd fallen through a trap door and landed right in the bog. Sarah had blushed and apologized when Hoggle had grumpily told her this as they sat in her room one day, and Sarah had questioned why they'd been sent to the bog.
"I'm fine, Hoggle." She grimaced at her words; fine wasn't exactly the adjective she'd like to use right now, but it was the only one she could say in front of both Hoggle and Jareth. "Toby accidentally wished me away. Jareth didn't do anything." She added the last bit reluctantly, but knew that it was the way to stop Hoggle from doing something rash. He'd gained some courage over the seven months since their meeting, and considered Sarah a good friend.
Jareth smirked at Sarah. "Thank you, precious, for so valiantly defending me." He turned to Hoggle, who was still staring dumbstruck, expression darkening. "And as for you, Hogwart; what do you want?"
"What'd ya mean Toby wished ya 'way, Sarah? Tot can't even say your name right; how'd he manage to spit out the right words?"
Sarah blushed. "I'll explain later." She said, trying to force a smile. All she wanted to do was flop onto the nearest bed and sob her heart out, not stand here and argue with Jareth and Hoggle.
Jareth's black voice cut in. "Higgle." He growled. "Get on with it."
Hoggle glared at Jareth, but it was clear his courage was fading fast. Seven, even four months ago, Hoggle would have been visibly quaking at the king's tone.
"I's told there'd been another wished away and were's coming to see if you wanted me go to man the entrance or not." If Hoggle could have paled he would have, and suddenly stared at the two in horror. "Toby ain't running is he?"
Sarah quickly shook her head, frowning. "No, of course not. Do you think I'd let that happen?" Jareth frowned at her.
"Dearest, had I wanted Toby to run, there would have been little you could have done to stop me." He glanced back at Hoggle, his tone scathing. "Of course I wouldn't have let the babe run, you little scab. As is, I gave him a crystal and erased his memories."
Her head snapped in his direction so she could gape at him in shock. "What?"
Jareth spared her a glance. "When it comes to wishes, the only one who is allowed to remember how life was before it was altered is the wisher. Everyone else forgets and thinks the tampered life is the one they have always lived. However, being so young and clearly missing you, I decided it would be best if he didn't recall you or the wish at all."
Sarah stared, her mind have trouble wrapping around the concept. They would all forget her? Toby, Dad, Karen, Merlin…her mother? She felt the prickle of tears in her eyes, but blinked them away before either Hoggle or Jareth noticed.
"I've no need of you, Hobble. Go about your usual business."
Hoggle shook his head and stubbornly crossed his arms. "Not while you've got Sarah I won't!" Jareth sighed dramatically.
"Hubble," Jareth began, sounding like he had when he'd surprised them after Hoggle had helped her from the oubliette, and had questioned the bracelet Hoggle had been wearing on his wrist.
"Hoggle!" Jareth rolled his eyes at the correction.
"Yes," he continued, "I would very much like to remind you that I am your king, and as such any orders I give you I expect you to follow." He raised an eyebrow. "Unless of course you would like another trip to the stench? Because if you keep going as you are, I can personally guarantee that is where you'll end up."
Hoggle wanted to back down, Sarah could see that, and knew that it was only his affection for her that was keeping him going.
"Hoggle," she said, earning his attention. "I'm fine. Jareth isn't going to do anything."
He gaped at her. "You honestly believe the rat? He—"
She cut him off, glaring. "Hoggle, do you want to go back to the Bog of Eternal Stench?" It was the thing she knew he was afraid of most.
Hoggle regarded her uncertainly. "No…but I still don't like you's here with him Sarah."
"Then what a good thing it is that I don't give a damn about what you like." Jareth retorted. "Begone, Hoghead. I'll let you visit Sarah later."
Ducking his head, Hoggle toddled off, closing the door to the throne room behind him. Sarah blinked in shock, not caring when Jareth grabbed her arm and began to lead her to a corridor of stairs. And yet, she noticed that it wasn't the same stairwell that had taken her to the Escher room, but a different one.
Did he even notice that he said Hoggle could come see me? Why would he allow Hoggle to visit me? Then again, why did he allow me to continue to call on Hoggle and Sir Didymus and Ludo? Hoggle told me that Jareth knew I continued to call on them after the victory party; why didn't he put the fear of Jareth into Hoggle and put a stop to it?
The stairwell grew wider as they walked, and noticed that everything began to look nicer…cleaner. No black feathers everywhere, no mysterious puddles, no garbage or junk littered everywhere. There was even a pretty purple tapestry hung every few feet or so. She didn't know how Jareth managed to keep this area clean, what with the goblins around, and then she recalled another conversation she'd had with her friends, only this one with Sir Didymus.
"Sir Didymus, how does Jareth live down there?" Sarah asked thoughtfully one day, during a game of one-on-one Scrabble with the tiny fox-knight. Ambrosious was lying down with Merlin on Sarah's bedroom floor.
"What dost thou mean, my lady? The king lives in the castle beyond the goblin city." He said, little whiskers twitching.
"I know, but I mean, all I really saw was a filthy throne room and that room of staircases." She wrinkled her nose. "And surely he doesn't live with the goblins, does he? Between what Hoggle told me about them and what I saw on my run, I'd think he'd want to get as far from them as possible."
The little knight sighed. "My lady, the king doth not really enjoy his position, if you must know. I doth not know how he came unto his throne and title, only that Jareth be the goblin king and that he shall always be the goblin king. A price of immortality, you know; one doth not die and allow another to take over."
"So he's going to live in that castle forever, surrounded by those goblins?" she wrinkled her nose. "They're not really bad, not the few I've met, but they're…a handful, to say the least."
"They be rapscallions, my lady, with no code of honor and no chance of earning any sort of title. But having been their ruler for so long, Jareth hath become inured to their antics."
"But doesn't he ever want peace and quiet?" Sarah asked, considering her letters. She had a crap hand, with her best word being "hat" for four points, if she placed a letter on the double letter score square.
"But of course, my lady. I hath been told that the king doth not allow any goblin in his rooms for any reason, nor are they allowed in his library, and he doth have no qualms with expelling the goblins from his throne room when he grows of them."
Sarah nodded, placing her letters on the board with a sigh and adding her four measly points onto her score. Sir Didymus contemplated his letters and with a cry of victory placed a good portion of them on the board.
Sarah swore when she counted out how many points that word had been worth, and with a grumble added them to his score.
As Sarah followed the goblin king up the winding flight of stairs, she figured that he was leading her to where the rooms were, and judging from the immaculate condition of everything, she figured that he took the added precaution of banning the goblins from the stairwell entirely.
It wasn't until they neared what she thought was the top of the stairs that the came upon an ornately carved door, and she thought that finally they would stop their trek, but they didn't and Sarah didn't ask what was behind the passed-up door. She could find out later.
Another few feet of stairs and they came upon another door, this one carved just as ornately but it possessed an almost unused air about, like Jareth didn't spend much time in there. Maybe this was a guest bedroom? She looked down the last steps to the top, and saw another door. Only the last two doors were placed much closer to each other, the first door much farther back down the stairs.
"This will be your room. It has everything you'll need." Jareth said crisply, opening the door. Sarah walked into the murky room, expecting at any moment for Jareth to slam the door shut and laugh maniacally, having locked her in some dungeon in a tower or something like that.
"I shall bring you dinner. We'll talk then." She looked back at him, seeing him smirk. He moved forward, and swiftly kissed the corner of her mouth. She flinched at the contact from the shock of it, but also from the fact that it was a kiss from the goblin king.
"Till then precious," he murmured, lips just a hairsbreadth away from her mouth, his eyes closed.
What does he want with me? She thought a little desperately as he left, closing the door behind him. She didn't listen for the click of a lock tumbling into place, didn't even bother to take in her surroundings, which were barely visible in the muted sunlight filtering through the dark, heavy drapes. She saw a large shape with four posters that could only be a bed, and running to it, she flung herself down onto it to land on her stomach. Burying her face in the slightly musty coverlet, she finally did what she'd wanted to do since Jareth had come to claim her; she cried her everlasting heart out.
Me: Okay, I'm not sure I like this chapter too much, despite all the S/J interaction and how long it is…It feels weird to me somehow, maybe a little off? Thoughts?
Sarah: Aw, I'm crying! Nice going Jareth, you made me cry!
Jareth looks at me: I thought you said I was to be somewhat mean in this story? Looks to me that I was being nice.
Me, frowning at Jareth: Yeah, well, give it some time. You might just become a bastard yet!
Anyway, hope you liked the chapter, but feel free to tell me if you hated it! I'm kind of looking for some criticism.
