A King's Curse


A/N: Reviews are a frustrating thing. I started this story getting seven or eight reviews a chapter, then when the last version of this chapter came out, it got ten reviews. I was inspired, but shortly after writing and posting two chapters after it I realized the story required a re-write, so the whole thing beginning to end was re-done. And as I posted, I got next to no reviews, of course some of you couldn't post reviews having posted reviews before, which isn't the case with this chapter so I hope you all review it, I expect I'll get a proper look at how many people actually read and review with this chapter. It was disheartening that the only review I got was that of my IRL best friend.

Honestly I bear my soul in the author's notes, let alone the story. It felt like an plain old rejection. I even have a copy of the guilt inducing rant about how I would never post another author note. However, you are spared from that bit of unpleasantness by the three people who reviewed chapter seven, they know who they are, and the pair who decided to PM their thoughts to me. It really helps me guys.

I may be a whore for reviews but I don't want to write bloody sob stories and over dramatic poppycock to catch up to those FaeMail sellouts.


Chapter Eight - Miserable Fool

Jareth loathed the boy. Two weeks of trailing Sarah around school. Twenty six hours of following around Matt. The boy really shouldn't have been worth this much effort. Sarah was. Jareth wasn't sure when Sarah had gone from a distraction to worth half a month of effort directed to finding a boy she crushed on. Sarah had managed it. Despite all probability, despite all logic. Sarah was worth the effort.

And now Matt was tooling around in the Labyrinth.

Jareth hadn't even bothered searching the boy's dreams. All he'd done was dangle something pretty and the boy's eyes had lit up with greed. Jareth had proposed a challenge, become a knight in shining armour within thirteen hours and he would have all the riches and fame he desired.

"What a stupid thing to do," Jareth tapped his riding crop against his boot as he lounged sideways in his throne watching the crystal.

Matt's image was displayed in it. His jeans were tattered his shirt seemed to be covered in dirt and he had a piercing in his left ear. Overall he looked like he'd been through quite the ordeal with the exception that he had looked like that since before he ever entered the Labyrinth.

Overall the boy gave the exact opposite impression of prince charming. "He doesn't even get the concept of 'knight in shining armour'."

The goblins around him were throwing another of their wild parties; they practically threw themselves around the room, or against each other. Jareth moaned, these parties were really quite stupid, but he could still remember when he was the instigator instead of just sitting around. However today they were celebrating a new victim, they always seemed to have so much fun watching someone else be miserable.

Jareth was relieved that the lot had gotten over the tiff he'd had earlier. His anger was now directed at a much more deserving source, and that was saying something. "He's not good enough for Sarah," Jareth growled at his crystal angrily.

"Sarah?" the goblins stirred

"That's the girl whose house was toured."

"Ooo, are you going to pair them up?" this goblin was kicked.

"I'm going to take that as a no."

The goblins knew their King, knew of his fascination with human bonding. However they were still clueless about Sarah, for which he was glad. It was probably due to the fact that they had the attention spans of goldfish. However even with the fact that he'd sent goblins to monitor her they had yet to see past their own bulbous noses.

Jareth himself wasn't sure why she fascinated him so. He didn't understand the concept of love, not after a shelf of ten crystals, because after all it didn't seem like he loved them, in the end. He wasn't ready for her, wasn't ready for another crystal upon his shelf.

"Quiet!" he yelled at his goblins, and the room hushed for a minute. "Is the little knight's armour ready yet?"

The goblins looked up at him confused, he picked up a goblin that looked like a trash can and held him up. "Here, a fine new breastplate," Jareth laughed, it took the goblins a moment to get the joke and laugh along. "Oh dear, it's filled with some sort of mould." He tickled the goblin playfully and let his subject fall on its head. The goblins laughed and pointed, "Silence!" Jareth was sick of their partying. "Go to the trash heap, and find the boy a nice set of armour, I bet he'll be needing it." Assigning them jobs would keep them out of his hair. The horde chuckled and scampered off, Jareth smiled wryly after them before heading for his tower.

Matt didn't understand the reason he was here. Why not have a little fun with the boy? Mind games were ever so much fun.

He looked at his cabinet for only a moment, at the crystal top right. All the crystals glittered but this one. He had always intended to give the girl a crystal, but he didn't get the chance and now only a blank crystal to mark its place. "Never again," he muttered softly. Tawny wings took off out the window; his owl form circled the sky like a vulture as he searched for the boy.

Matt clamoured around the Fiery's forest. There was a low drum-beat from the direction of their fire-pit. He breathed heavily; sweat beading down his face from the ordeal. "Well you certainly look like a brave knight," Jareth said mockingly. "You'll be running in circles at this rate."

"You enjoy this don't you?" came the boy's frustrated reply. "Taunting people, generally acting like a jerk."

"I'd probably be lying if I said I didn't," Jareth shrugged. He summoned up one of his crystal balls to fool around with. "You're here to become a knight aren't you, I'm just here to facilitate."

"I need a sword."

Jareth stopped letting his crystal dance around and instead gripped it tightly, "What?"

"Knights have swords don't they, I can't become a knight if I don't have a sword."

A glimmering silver sword like something out of a video game took the place of Jareth's crystal ball. He tossed it towards Matt but the boy panicked and dodged, as it hit the ground it turned into a snake and hissed menacingly. "Shit!" Matt scampered away, bashing himself against a tree.

Laughter echoed among the trees before Jareth stopped to glare at Matt. "Don't be so vulgar little knight." He vanished from sight, watching in his owl form from the top of the tree Matt was backed against.

The little knight turned his attention to the snake that crept towards him, its silver scales shimmering in the muted light. Matt gasped and wiggled away from the snake slowly before turning his back on it and running.

Walls, corners, Matt gasped for air, in his panic he'd gone further into the labyrinth instead of where his goal lay in getting out. He could faintly whiff the nauseating bog from the edge of the trash heap. "Where am I now?" Matt asked with a groan. His eyes widened as a hag with a cart full of stuff came pushing past.

"Hello dear, what are you doing here?" she puttered over, and looked at his clothes almost hungrily.

"I have no idea," Matt inched away from her disgusted.

"You're looking for something, yes?"

"I guess."

"Thought so, everyone who comes here is looking for something."

There was a cool slithering hiss from the dirt, as the silver snake followed Matt. "Augh! That snake again," he moved away from the snake, and consequently towards the woman.

"Is that snake what you're looking for?"

"No way!"

"Then maybe I can help you find what you are looking for, I'm good at that." Before he had a chance to protest the hag had taken him by the hand and was dragging him further into the trash pile. She continuously offered him things, broken mirrors, moth eaten clothes or toys and a copy of 'Beauty and the Beast'.

"It's all garbage," Matt said exasperated.

The hag gasped insulted, "Well, we'll just see about that." She toddled off to find something better.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure little knight," Jareth glared down at him, "Be careful what you are about to throw away isn't what you are looking for."

"Quit being a jerk, and don't call me little knight, my name is Matt!"

"And if you dare speak it to me again, you'll regret it little knight. I shouldn't bother helping a scab like you."

"Helping, how, bringing me here in the first place or throwing that snake in my face?"

"Last chance, boy. The one thing you want here is in that direction," he pointed his white gloves out into the garbage pit. Matt's eyes came to rest on the buffed up armour, and the little old hag drifting greedily towards it.

Matt scrambled over the piles of garbage and lifted the armour away from her hungry fingers. "Hey wait a minute, I saw that first," the hag cried fiercely.

"Tough, it's what I was looking for; you said you wanted to help me."

"But it's so shiny and pretty, I'll trade you, anything."

"Not interested, I have to become a knight in order to get out of here."

"A trade," the old hag pulled out a plunger and waved it to tempt him. She dug around again, and pulled out a copy of 'Labyrinth'.

"I don't need your trash, get out of my face."

"How about this then?" the hag held up a silver key on a long chain with hopeful eyes, "It's shiny too, so the trade is fair."

"I need this!" Matt said and batted the woman away and began putting on the armour.

The illusion spell worked well, Matt had no idea he was wearing garbage armour. That old hag had offered him the key three times, and even when the illusion had been dropped he'd still ignored it. Stupid.

Jareth huffed, the boy was completely stubborn, greedy, and had not a considerate bone in his body. There was nothing good about him, so how Sarah liked him eluded Jareth's reasoning, and that fact made him angrier. "He's not good enough for her, he'll never be."

Matt was running low on time.

"Alright, so I've got armour," Matt triumphantly declared as he walked out of the garbage pit. "What else does a knight need, a sword," he looked back at the snake that still chased him, and shuddered with disgust. "Could probably use a shield, and then of course there's the damsel in distress."

Jareth ears perked, perhaps Matt could...

"And mustn't forget the noble steed," Matt snickered, "the damsel in distress can do that to."

Jareth twitched, horrified.

That was it, complete and utter loathing. The boy was a greedy, show off, with no etiquette and a foul mind. Jareth couldn't think of a worse match for Sarah. He could never understand her. He could never be her prince or knight or goblin king. He would never understand her dreams, let alone fulfil them. Any attachment she grew to him would only end in pain when it was inevitable severed.

Jareth couldn't let that happen. He knew he had to protect Sarah, against her will, against her wishes. Protect her, without her knowledge, and ensure she wouldn't get hurt. Part of her beauty was in her dreams and Jareth wouldn't let that be tainted.

Matt was inspecting a glass wall as his time ran out. He watched shocked as the world broke apart around him. The illusion spell on the trash he was wearing faded and he disgustedly tore it off and threw it off and over the small ledge where it drifted away.

"You failed," Jareth said flatly.

"This place is stupid," Matt yelled.

"I hand you hints all the way, and even when I make it look more important you still ignore it." Jareth glowered at Matt very menacingly.

"Who are you anyway?!" Matt demanded.

"I am what lies at the end of her dreams, and I am what lies at the end of your nightmares."

"That not a real answer."

"I would tell you my name, but you stole it away," Jareth moaned dramatically. "There's no way out now, and I really didn't want to have to make you a goblin, little knight."

"Stop calling me that, I'm Matt!"

Jareth twitched and a long thin rapier materialized in his hand. "Draw your sword."

"I don't have one," Matt said and froze as he heard a familiar hiss behind him.

"Have you learned nothing stupid boy? PICK IT UP!"

Slowly Matt reached out and grabbed the snake which turned back into a sword as he did.

Jareth now had access to the youth's dreams and desires. He scanned them hurriedly; he wasn't sure what he was looking for. Something, anything, to redeem the lad and allow himself a bit of honour in losing the duel. Matt's dreams were exactly what Jareth expected, wealth, fame, women, he paused and looked through them again in his mind. Only a second would go by for Matt anyway. There was no Sarah, not a single dream of her. Except for- it was appalling, it broke Jareth focus with its- it was too vulgar to think about.

Matt stared curiously at Jareth, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

This boy whom Sarah liked so much and dreamed of so fondly had little more than a passing perverted fantasy about her. Jareth was outraged, Sarah, beautiful innocent Sarah, would let that boy rip her heart in two.

Jareth's sword cracked against Matt's and he stared directly into the boy's eyes for the second before the force of the impact sent Matt flying. "You greedy little -" Jareth couldn't come up with a word good enough, as he blocked the boy's careless attacks. "You are a useless, deplorable -" he barely had to move, barely could with the rage bubbling up inside of him. "You have no sense of true value, you are blind to her!"

"Sarah would give herself willingly to your greedy, lying heart! You would take her everything! I'll never let it happen! Never again!" Jareth knocked the sword away from him and pinned him to the ground. "This sword has tasted the blood of your kind before, and it will do so again, to protect Sarah."

"You love her," Matt realized, staring up into Jareth's intense eyes.

Jareth froze for a moment; the boy had spoken words he'd not yet been willing to admit to yet. They were true however, Jareth knew as Matt spoke those words. He'd done himself in again, another crystal to sit on his shelf, another set of walls to expand his great maze.

"You think you know everything," Jareth spat with rage. "You will live, but not in my castle or city, you will live to guard my gate as the pathetic lowly worm that you are. You will forget that old life that tainted dream, and her."

Matt changed, his body shrunk and withered. The two stood before the gate of the labyrinth, under the tree where Jareth had been thrown to when Sarah had spoken this little fool's name. "Listen carefully, I will say your new name once and then I will forget it and you. I am Jareth the Goblin King. And you are a miserable little scab, named Hoggle."