The moment she shut her eyes, Alysa fell fast asleep. For a while, she was falling in darkness, with a warm wind blowing around her, but beyond that was silence. Then she saw a light far off. Something told her to follow it. Well, who was she to argue? She found herself running in midair toward it. Upon reaching it, she saw that she had arrived in Miss Sarah's room.

Miss Sarah was reading a book, tattered and worn from years of use. She was seated in her rocking chair, facing the vanity.

"Miss Sarah?" Alysa called out. The elder woman gave no reply, or any indication that she heard her. Alysa was not surprised; she had not really thought it would work.

"Sarah."

Now she looked up. On her bed, in the mirror, was a certain cranky dwarf.

"Oh, Hoggle," she said, placing the book down. "I'm so glad you came back. I'm sorry I had to make you leave so soon last time."

"Ah, don't worry about it," Hoggle waved off the apology. "How are you? Did you hear anything last night?"

"Last night?" Sarah asked. "No, no, I didn't. Why?"

"Oh, no reason."

"Hoggle," Sarah said sternly. "You're a terrible liar. Now tell me, did something happen last night that I should know?"

"That you should know? Probably not."

"Hoggle."

"It's your friend Alysa!" Hoggle blurted out. "She got wished away."

"What?" Sarah cried. "Oh, no! What will happen to her? Who did it? Oh, dear, this is horrible!"

"Sarah, calm down!" Hoggle said. "She's fine!"

"Fine? How can she be fine?"

"Well, she's not a goblin, and she's giving Jareth quite a time. She told me to tell you that she's kicking butt."

"Kicking butt?"

"Yes."

Sarah paused a moment. "She's safe, then? The Goblin King isn't being too hard on her?"

"No, she's got him doing things the way she wants. Do you know that they've got a bet going on?"

"A bet?" she repeated. "What on-? How- How can she be so calm? And why is he so lenient?"

"Calm?" Alysa scoffed. "You think I'm calm throughout all this? I'm terrified! Talking that way to the Goblin King? I'm surprised I'm not dead right now! I'm just a great actress."

Alysa noticed that as she spoke, the room was fading into shadow, and Miss Sarah's voice was getting softer. Soon, she found herself in a black void once again. She breathed deeply, waiting patiently for the change in scenery she was sure would come.

And after a while, a room materialized around her. Alysa immediately recognized it as her own bedroom.

"Oh no," she whimpered. She did not want to see this. This would definitely make her homesick.

"No, Mom, no luck yet," a voice came from outside the room. Alysa sighed softly, and walked out. Her baby brother of eighteen years, Ermanno, was talking on the phone while sitting in front of the muted television in their front room.

If he stood up, he would be towering over his older sister by a good five inches, thanks to his long bowed legs. His face was as smooth as the day he came into the world, much to his chagrin, but he made up for it by growing his dark brown hair out so the layered tips barely brushed his shoulders. His lids were closed, but when opened, they showcased a pair of light blue eyes which always seemed to know what you were thinking. Alysa often said that for her to ever want to date someone, the candidate had better look better than Manny, or she would not even consider.

"Don't you worry, I'll find- Yes, Mom, I know. No, Ma- Mom. Mom. Mother." Alysa giggled at the impatient face he was making. Their mother had a habit of talking over her children. "No, Mom, don't bring Dad into this. I can manage just fine. I have been for nearly two years, right?"

Alysa frowned. What were they talking about? Two years ago… That was when they first moved out. Managed what for that long, exactly? He was talking about finding her, right?

"Mom. Just… Mom, let me talk to Dad, please?" Manny waited a few seconds, before he said, "Hey, Dad, could you do me favor? Please, don't let Mom near the phone till I can find a roommate?"

Alysa's eyes widened. A roommate? What about her? Was he just going to replace her? Just like that?

"No, Dad, it's just that I haven't had any problems managing the rent myself, so I haven't really been in a hurry to find one. It kinda doesn't feel right."

"Well of course, it doesn't!" Alysa yelled at him, eyes filling up. "After all, I'm the one who picked this place out! How can you just forget me, Manny? Did Mom and Dad, too? Jareth, did you do this?" she screamed, tears pouring down her face.

The room was fading away to black again. But this time, Alysa had the feeling of floating down, as if gravity was weakened. She brought her legs up and sobbed piteously in her hands. Family meant everything to her, and seeing how hers were forced to forget her existence killed her.

She felt her knees hit something, and looking up she found herself on a stone island. There seemed to be a light source, like a spotlight directly above her, but she could see none, nor could she see beyond the black abyss surrounding the white stone arches around her. She stood up and turned around. Jareth was behind her, standing in the shadow of an arch.

"Do you do that?" she whispered. The Goblin King slowly walked toward her, the light reflecting off all the white in his outfit blindingly. "Did you make my family forget me?"

Jareth said nothing. He only looked at her silently. Alysa looked at him suspiciously. This seemed familiar…

The Goblin King stepped toward her again, and Alysa found herself rooted to the spot. He did not say anything; he just stared at her, sizing her up. He looked so… aged.

"Say something," she whispered.

Jareth raised his right hand to her face. She closed her eyes and flinched back a bit, not knowing what to expect. But he simply brushed a tear track off her cheek, before pushing her hair behind her ear.

"I'm exhausted."

Alysa opened her eyes.

"I've exhausted myself living up to all their expectations. Isn't that generous?"

Alysa was wary. She had convinced herself that this was another dream, but this was the first time he actually interacted with her. All their expectations? Whose? And if he's exhausted, well in that case...

"Then why do it?" she whispered back. "Why not just stop?"

Jareth smirked, but it seemed half-hearted. "You clearly don't see how this works. But, I suppose you will."

Suddenly, she found herself being pulled away from him. She looked down; there was water up to her waist! How did that happen? She struggled against the current, reached for him as he stared at her, but all efforts were futile. The water swept her off the floating land mass and into the dark abyss. It felt so cold.

Wait.

She felt cold.

And wet.

Alysa woke with a start. She found herself sitting in a little rectangle pond, the water going up to her waist.

"What the-? I thought we agreed we'd start when I woke!" she yelled furiously in the air. She was not sure if Jareth could actually hear her, but it felt good to yell out; and if he did end up hearing, well then, bonus points.

"Aah," she groaned as she scooted out of the water. "Good thing I'm not wearing jeans. That would've sucked." Still, the cotton fabric stuck to her legs, and the water made it very heavy, feeling like they would slip off at any moment. "Never mind, this still sucks."

She looked around. No one was near; she was in a large clearing with a wall to her left. Looking down the way, she whispered, "It never ends!" She turned her head, and saw the same was true for this side as well. "It never ends that way, too!" she quoted with a grin. "Okay, no one is around, so… oh, this is gonna feel so weird." She undid the tie at her waist, and proceeded to peel the soggy apparel off her legs. Soon, she was kneeling in the dirt with her bare legs, wringing out her pants back into the pond.

"Please don't come now, please don't come now, please don't come now," she prayed fervently. Once her pants were free of excess water, she hurriedly put them back on. They were still somewhat damp and clammy, and irritated her skin to no end, but at least she was no longer dripping. "Man, I'm gonna get hives now," Alysa complained as she wrung out the sides of her tank. That, she absolutely refused to remove. Running around in a tank, fine, but in just her bra? Forget it.

"Wait a sec," she muttered, looking around confusingly. Something was missing. "Holy crap! Where's my shirt?" Leaning toward the pool, she desperately searched for her shirt and shoes, to no avail. "Are you kidding me right now?! Did you just leave it in the tree?!" In a huff, she sat back on her heels. Then a thought occurred to her. She probably just wasted three minutes sitting here, which means in two minutes, Jareth could just pop in and catch her. No way. There was just no way she was going to lose this bet.

She scrambled back to her feet and raced to the stone wall. "Okay," she breathed. "Well, I'm going to assume that he's expecting me to in there, but I'm also going to assume that there's probably a lot more cover in there than out here. So, first thing to do, find a way in. How did Miss Sarah do it…? Ask the right questions," she remembered. She closed her eyes, and silently started to quickly recite Miss Sarah's story.

"I asked him if he knew where the door to the Labyrinth was. 'Maybe,' he answered, evasively. I was excited, and I thought that maybe this would be much easier than I had hoped.

"'Where is it?' I asked.

"'Where's what?'

"'The door.'

"'What door?'

"And let me tell you, dear, I was ready to kick him to the moon then! I felt it was hopeless asking him anything! And when I told him so, he just riddled, 'Not if you ask the right questions!' So I asked him, 'How do I get into the Labyrinth?'

"And those were the magic words! Hoggle turned around and pointed out the doors that appeared out of nowhere."

"How do I get into the Labyrinth?" Alysa asked aloud. And when she opened her eyes, two large, vine-covered wooden doors were front of her, swinging open noisily. "Alright," she celebrated. "Thank you, Miss Sarah!"

She walked into the doorway, and was greeted by a lichen plant, with eyes attached to the ends.

"Okay, so, Miss Sarah went to the right, so is that what I should do? I suppose I'll be more aware of what's coming up… Gah! I've got no time for this! He might pop up at any moment!" Making a split-second decision, she turned right and ran as fast as her bare feet would allow. As she ran, she fiddled with her MyPhone, which was thankfully water-proof.

"Play running track," she commanded her gadget. Instantly, she smiled at hearing the familiar notes and chords. "Of course this is first," she laughed. She soon found herself singing along.

"Rising up, back in the street, took my time, took my chances!

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet, just a man and his will to survive!"

What could she say? She really liked classics from the 1970s all the way to 2020s. They all sounded better than the garbage everyone listened to today.

"It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight. Risin' up to the challenge of our rivals! And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night, and he's watching us all with the Eye!… of the Tiger!"

"'Allo!" a voice called out.

Alysa screeched to a stop, and hurriedly turned off her music as she frantically searched for the origin of the voice. Jareth could appear at any minute, but he would not go so far as to change his voice and greet her, would he? Yeah, he totally would.

But the caller was definitely too small to be the Goblin King in disguise. It was a little worm, sitting on a protruding rock on the wall. He was blue, with crazy hair sticking out from all sides, and he wore a little red scarf.

"Hello?" Alysa replied cautiously. "Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm just a worm," he modestly answered, in a Cockney accent. "Won't you come inside, and meet the missus?" He nodded toward a tiny hole.

Alysa thought fast. Jareth would be here at any moment, but would he expect her to veer off Miss Sarah's story? Maybe, she could hide in there for a while. Except for one thing…

"I'd love to, sir, but I don't think I'd be able to fit through your doorway. Otherwise, I'd be honored. But I've got to hide, before the Goblin King finds me."

"Oh, is he looking for you? Oh, that's never good, dear," the little worm shook his head fearfully. "Then you'd best come inside, you can hide in here for a bit."

"But, I can't fit through your door," Alysa repeated.

"Oh, well, then I can fix that!" he said brightly. "Come closer, closer!"

Alysa scooted a bit closer to the worm, leaning on the wall with her hands. The worm inched his way to her hand, and bit hard on her index finger!

"Ow!" she cried, snatching her hand back and sucking on her wound. "Why the fudge would you… you… you got bigger." She stared at the blue worm, who blinked back at her with his large red eyes sparkling in fun. Somehow, he ended up reaching her chin.

"No, I din't," he corrected her. "You got smaller."

Alysa spun around, and saw the giant lichen staring at her. "Of course I did," she said weakly. "Well, then, I suppose that'll work, huh?"

"Terribly sorry for the bite, love, but if you come inside, the missus can you right up. And we can have a cuppa while you're hiding."

"Well, thank you, sir," Alysa said, still breathily.

"Oh, call me Tim, dear, no need for formalities. And the missus hates them, so you'd best call her Karen." The worm, Tim, scooted into the little hole, Alysa following.

"Um, Tim? Are you sure that the King won't find me in here?"

"Now, don't you worry," he called back. "He doesn't pop into our place. Quite frankly, I don't think he even knows about us. Like I said before, we're just worms," he added cheerfully.

"I hope you're right," she whispered.

A/N: Alright, so, here's your Christmas gift! :D A new chappie with 2534 words! And I wanted to say, the names of the worms, I'm sure other people have done those names before, but I'm not stealing or anything! The worm's voice was done by Timothy Bateson, and the puppet was controlled by Karen Prell. So, there's my inspiration! (:

Just a warning, it might be a while before I can update. There's a slight possibility that I'll be travelling to Europe...