Chapter 8

Goliath, drinking heavily from a golden goblet the third bottle of wine he had taken from Jareth's stores, sat lazily on Jareth's throne, his black cape strewn beneath him, his feet and free hand being pampered and fawned over by Fae maids-turned-mindless love-sick Fae concubines he had acquired during his overtaking of the Kingdom. He laughed mercilessly at the weary Goblins who stood about mindlessly cleaning the uncharacteristically clean chamber of the throne room. The room, once gray and brown stone with structural ledges all around the walls for the Goblins to sit and hang off of, the large brown 13 hour grandfather clock in one corner, and a large pit in the center, was now even all the way around, square (quite literally), white washed (to match EVERYTHING else), and clean. It had barely ever been cleaned under Jareth's rule—save for the few times he received invited guests—but once Goliath had taken over, his sadistic mind caused him to have his new slaves clean it endlessly, along with the rest of the Goblin City. The 13 hour clock still sat in its place in the corner, the only thing (other than the Bog of Eternal Stench) that Goliath had left alone; it now pointed to the ninth hour of the 13 hours.

"Ahh, it is to be a good day now, ladies. I will soon have the medallion in my grasp, and Jareth's kingdom will be mine, as it always should have been." he grinned through his drunken happiness. 'Centuries of banishment to the darkness, centuries of honing my dark powers, centuries of waiting for the prophecy to be fulfilled, and I'm finally going to see the fruition of my exile. I will soon rule this kingdom, and all the Underground, and with a little luck I will rule so much more. You will finally see, Jareth, you and those Fae fools who dared to banish me away. As the old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold, and mine is several centuries in the ice box. Though, I regret to have lost the beautiful heroine in this. She would've made a glorious concubine on my arm. Maybe even a Queen...' he thought to himself. His thoughts were broken into by one of the women, the one on his free arm, who tugged at his sleeve and smiled seductively up at him with glazed eyes. He pulled her to him, roughly kissing her soft lips, sliding his greedy, tipsy hands over the slender body he had so triumphantly "celebrated" with over an hour ago. The other two women, who had been at his feet, joined their friend in pleasing "His Majesty". But before he could remedy the situation that was growing in his pants, a voice sounded from a nearby mirror he had situated on the wall opposite the throne when he had arrived.

"Sire, a word Sire." the olden voice called to its master.

"What the hell is it, Gaston? I'm busy." he snidely asked the talking mirror, attention still focused on his concubines.

"Sire, not all is as it seems. An image has come, you must see Sire!" the voice called Gaston begged urgently.

Goliath sighed heavily, annoyance peaking, but acquiesced and stood from the throne, walking to the mirror. An image he couldn't make out at first shimmered into the mirror's reflection. Rubbing his hazed, alcohol inhibited eyes, Goliath looked again. In the image stood Sarah, outside of the Hedge Maze and completely unharmed.

"The girl! She lives Sire!"

Goliath's eyes turned an angry bloodshot red. "WHAT!!??" he bellowed. Throwing down his goblet and smashing it with his foot, he screamed at the concubines to leave, which they did quickly at the tone in his voice. He was enraged, utterly, and to stay near him in that state was to ask for death. Goliath stared angrily at Sarah's image, debating with himself whether or not to smash the ancient mirror in his rage. "It cannot be! How, HOW could she have escaped the oubliette?? There is no..." He stopped as the image shifted slightly to her side, showing a glint of gold and silver against her chest. "The medallion...." he whispered audibly.

Briskly, he left the throne room, his dark black cloak billowing roughly behind him. Nearly running, he went up the spiral stairs that would have normally led to the Escher room, but under new management now led to a long hall of white-doored rooms, each one holding different symbols on the fronts. Goliath made his way to the third door down, one with a symbol of black lightning on the front. Opening it, he entered his chambers. The room he had made for himself was dark, the way he truly liked it, candles reflecting off the surfaces of dozens of mirrors the only light, surrounding a low but comfortably large bed with red sheets and black comforters. There were no chairs in the room, no tables, no desks. Only a small fireplace behind the bed, with a small crystal sitting on it, glowing a brilliantly dark purple. It was to the mantle and the crystal Goliath made a beeline. Picking up the crystal, he shook it violently. "Jareth! You in there, you fool of a Fae? I know you had something to do with this! Tell me!" he yelled at the orb, shaking it harder with every word. Once he was done, he let the dark purple dust settle inside the orb. A calm postured Jareth stared up at him with a warning glint of menace in his eyes, steadily unfettered by all the shaking in his sturdy chair.

"Well well. If it isn't you. I'm guessing Sarah made it out alright, from the look on your face. But what's this? I see another look behind that one. One of fear, and one of drunkenness. Oh old friend, you should know better than to count your chickens before they hatch." he replied haughtily, mocking him.

Goliath ground his teeth in anger, slamming the crystal down onto the floor with all his might. To his utter disdain and annoyance, the crystal did not shatter. He stepped on it several times over, slamming on it with the steel heel of his blackened boots. But no matter what he did, the crystal would not break.

"Curse you, Jareth!" he barked, picking up the unscathed prison. "Do not entertain hope yet, old friend. She may have escaped the oubliette, but she has 9 hours left in which to reach this place, and she isn't even halfway yet. Not to mention the many other traps I have laid out for her inside your precious Labyrinth! To think, the very thing that chose her for you will be the very thing that destroys her!" he cackled darkly "And once it does, and I have that medallion..."he stopped, smiling coolly, in a way that unnerved even Jareth "...I will kill you. Old friend." And with that, he replaced the crystal on the top of the fireplace mantel and exited the room.

In the darkness of the room, Jareth scowled, glaring at the door Goliath had disappeared through. "Not if I can help it." he murmured crossly before going to work on his next plan to help Sarah.

Author's Note: It's a short Chapter, I know, but it was necessary to get an idea of what's in Goliath's greasy head and add a little more suspense. Plus, I'm working on Chapter 9, which I plan to make a long Chapter, so it will make up for this one. Updating is easier though when I have some constructive criticism to go on, so REVIEW PEOPLE! Please? Pretty please? I'll get the next Chapter up faster if you doooo *smiles sweetly* Oh come on, humor me and review. At LEAST tell me if it's good or not, or if there's anything I missed that I might need to change! WORK WITH ME PEOPLE!

Jareth: How can anyone work with you when you talk so damned much? Bloody Hell, woman.

*Glares* I'm sorry, did you have something you wanted to share with the class? *hovers finger over backspace button*

Jareth: REVIEW DAMN IT! Carry on...*slinks away*

Yea, I thought so. ANYWAY, I'm out. LATER!