hazlgrnLizy: Thank you

Brown eyed Girl 75: I'm so glad. I am dedicating this chapter to you, because the ideas just seem to flow when we chat.

A/N: This chapter was very difficult to write, so please, if it sucks, tell me constructively. Or if it's good, tell me that too!

ooOoo

I am covered in skin. No one gets to come in. Pull me out from inside. I am folding, and unfolding, and unfolding. I am… colourblind. Coffee black and egg white. Pull me out from inside. I am ready, I am ready, I am ready, I am… fine.

Colourblind- Counting Crows

ooOoo

"Mommy, read!" she could hear his voice vibrating through her mind. That was one of the last things Michael had asked her to do. He'd held out her old copy of the Labyrinth and smiled at her.

She'd packed that book away years ago.

"How did you get your hands on that?" she'd asked him, bending down to kiss him goodnight.

"Daddy find!" Michael had answered.

"Oh, Daddy found it," she'd nodded and took the book from him. "Did Daddy say you could look at it?"

"Oblin!" he'd insisted.

"Pardon?"

"Oblin!" he repeated. "Oblin 'ing!"

"Goblin King?" she opened the front cover to see a sketch of Jareth sitting on his throne haphazardly.

Slamming the book shut, she struggled to compose herself.

'We'll read this book another time, Michael," she placed it on the dresser near his bed and pulled another book out of the bookshelf. Sitting at the end of the bed, she read until his eyes began to close.

"Mommy?" he yawned, rubbing his eye.

"Yes, darling?"

"Oblin 'ing?"

"Another time, sweetheart, I promise," she'd tucked him into bed, whispering 'Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.'

"No bedbugs!"

"That's right. No bedbugs," Sarah had smiled. "It's only a song, love. Good night."

It had been the last time Michael had asked her for anything. She'd never gotten the chance to fulfill her promise of reading about the Goblin King to her son. She would've avoided wishing her son away to him, because he didn't distinguish between an actual wish and a wish read as part of a storybook.

She had asked Patrick what had possessed him to go through her things and give Michael that wretched thing. He'd turned over, looking at her strangely.

"I didn't even know you had a copy, Sarah," he ran a hand over her cheek, kissing her nose.

"Then how did Michael get his hands on it?"

"I have no idea, maybe he crawled into the closet and found it."

"It was in a padlocked box, there's no way he could have gotten…" Suddenly a vision of the Goblin King crossed her inner eye. "Nah…" she told herself.

"What?"

"Nothing, good night dear," she kissed him and rolled over, attempting to sleep.

Sarah shook her head, attempting to rid herself of the memories. But really, that's all she had left of them. Once out of the oubliette she had wondered through twists and turns and never once ran into any other creatures. The last time she'd been here the place had been full of creatures.

But Didymus had mentioned Ambrocious dying, one of the first…

It didn't make sense. Even if she did have the knowledge of how to stop the Labyrinth's deterioration, she couldn't be its saving grace. And Jareth… uh… the Goblin King… was no help at all.

There was no way that any of what was happening could not be his doing. To tell her that the Labyrinth had cannibalized itself and that she was not here of his violation, she found it nearly impossible to believe.

Jareth did not do anything without an ulterior motive. He'd taken Toby at her request, and had made every possible attempt to thwart her. The Bog, threatening Hoggle, that huge mechanical monster at the gate to the Goblin City… and then he'd offered her everything she could have wanted, but for what?

ooOoo

Jareth watched her as she wandered aimlessly. The Labyrinth had certainly changed, and was not at all how she would have remembered it. In fact, it was one of the many things she had not understood seven years ago. The magic of the Labyrinth tapped into your mind and showed you what you felt. At fifteen, as many young people were, she was confused, trying to find her way, but not sure where to start, hence the maze.

That had been the reason he'd sent Hoggle to her, to get her started. Hoggle had done his bidding, under threat, but then he had befriended the girl. She'd solved the Labyrinth, getting to the castle and reclaiming her brother, and later gone on to make a life for herself.

And at the same time nearly destroyed him.

The girl who would be Queen…

ooOoo

"Your Majesty?" he heard behind him. Turning, he saw the dwarf holding a spray can.

"What is it, Hoghead?"

"Hoggle," the attempt to correct him was futile. The King could never remember Hoggle's proper name. Indeed, he'd been called Higgle, Hogbrain, Hedgewort… Hedgewart! How do you get Hedgewart out of Hoggle? "Um, I was just kinda wonderin'… who's in there now?"

He smiled. "Another runner."

"You're lyin'"

"You dare try my patience, Hogbrain?"

Hoggle stopped, remembering Jareth's favourite threat. The Bog of Eternal Stench was bad even if you hadn't been dunked head -first. At that point, he decided, it would not be such a good idea to correct him.

"You lie, but you do it well," Hoggle covered.

"It is not a lie if I omit a point of truth," he muttered to himself.

"Yeah yeah, always with the omittin'" Hoggle waved a hand and dismissed himself. She hadn't called him in nearly seven Aboveground years. Yeah, he missed her. She'd really wanted to be his friend, and she had said she'd call if she needed him.

Maybe she didn't need him anymore.

Hoggle made his way down the stairs and back outside. Those damn fairies were eating at the plants again. Well, what was left of them anyway. With a lot of the trees dead the fairies were biting more than usual, and them fairy bites hurt!

Hoggle followed a fairy making its way through a nasty part of the Labyrinth. The damn thing had changed again! Always changing now that things were dying. Jareth couldn't do a damn thing about it. Wouldn't do anything about it, seemed like.

"Oh no you don't, come back here!" he muttered before bumping into someone's legs and falling backward into the dirt.

Looking up, he saw them bend down.

"Sarah?" he squinted. She seemed different. Older, obviously, but also sad. There wasn't that big grin he'd seen the last time. She seemed like she'd lost something. "What are you doing back here?"

"I don't know, it seems the Labyrinth wants me," Sarah helped him back on his feet.

"Why would it want you? Its dying…"

"That's all I've been hearing," Sarah told him. "The King told me it had cannibalized itself, Didymus said they were running out of food. I don't understand why any of this is happening."

"Maybe that's why it wants ya." Hoggle stepped in front of her. "That or Jareth wants ya for hisself," he mumbled under his breath. Looking back, he saw her standing still. "You coming?"

Sarah shook her head, making her feet move one in front of the other.

That or Jareth wants you for himself.

That was never going to happen, she'd make sure of it.