Here's another chapter for you.

Chapter 9: Letters of Hope, Love, and Pain

Sarah laid there in the soft bed. Her major bruises and cuts were gone. The queen saw them and was furious that the servants didn't get the healer. Sarah tried to explain that she told them not to bother but the Queen wouldn't hear it. The healer gave her medicine to calm her, so she wouldn't dream about her experience.

She just finished writing the letter. It was her first task as princess. The queen didn't say anything about her escape. She introduced her as Princess Victoria and that she was her adopted daughter. The queen was really nice and made Sarah feel like she had a home.

Sarah looked at the letter making sure it was written the way she wanted it to be:

My dearest King Jareth,

I cannot lie to tell you that I was deeply shocked by your letter. The queen and I are deeply sorry about your lost.

We are extremely deeply grateful of your actions. Taking on that man alone was deep bravery and showed deep love for your fair maiden.

Sadly we cannot repay our debt to you, no one that I have spoken to knows anything about Sarah. Guards have been looking for her.

I am telling you DO NOT give up hope. I have reread your letter over and over again. There is a phrase that deeply confuses me 'Believe me the pain that I go through everyday knowing that someone I loved is gone by his hand and by mine will stay with me forever.'

I hope it is not to forward of me in asking what 'gone by his hand and my mind' means. I can't help but feeling that you and your maiden got into a fight and you caused her to leave in which caused her capture. Sorry again for my forwardness.

Yours truly,

~Princess Victoria of the Forest

xoxoxo

Jareth read the letter over and over again. He couldn't believe that the Queen's other daughter respond to it. He couldn't help but smile when he read over and over again. 'DO NOT give up hope' those words from the princess made him feel better. He normally wouldn't have written back but he did.

My Princess Victoria,

I have not given up hope. You have no idea how your words made me feel closer to Sarah. And as for your confusion I'm sorry. I forgot that I had written that.

Yes, Sarah and I had gotten into a fight. We both are terribly stubborn and our pride is quite intense. I told her that she meant nothing to me. And that I wished she would leave. She did. In my anger I wished to send her in a place where no friends could be found and where she would feel pain. I gotten completely drunk off of the elfin wine Cristal the night she left.

I didn't realize that that meant sending her to Darkness. I guess I had to learn a lesson on how you have to be careful for what you wish for. A funny thing because that usually the lesson I give the people who wished away their love ones to my kingdom.

Sarah is the only champion of my Labyrinth, the only champion of my heart. I lost everything the moment she left but didn't realize it until too late.

I know she will forever blame me for it. It has wounded by pride. I will give her some time but I will stop looking eventually because I believe Sarah doesn't wish to be found by me. I can't use my magic to find her anymore or get hints that she is alive. Sometimes I feel her and most of the time it is hatred. Her image is somehow being blocked by my crystals.

It's a sad thing for me. That is how I watched her grow up. I have known her for many years. When her mother left, it was the first time I caught a glimpse of her in the Aboveground. She was playing in the park. I was in my owl form. I thought she was a funny thing.

A few years later when her father remarried I found her again in the same park; she wanted to be taken away to a happier place. I came to her in a mortal form and gave her a book that would take her to a happier place.

When she turned fifteen I saw her yet again in the same park, acting out a part of the book I gave her those few years ago. I couldn't believe that she was getting so beautiful. I was already in love with her at the time.

She then that night called on me to take her half-brother away. I did. I wanted to actually meet her in my own form for some time. I never would have hurt the boy. He would have returned either way.

I asked her to marry me in the Fae fashion but I realized a bit later that I should have said it in a way that she would have understood. When she said 'You have no power over me' it broke my heart. I never knew what it felt like and I didn't like it. I told myself she was too young.

I would look in at her from time to time, when she thought of me. It's the only time I can see her. Some of the power she has over me is gone then. I saw her first kiss and it made my blood boil. I saw her first love and it made me jealous. I saw her cry and wanted to comfort her. I appeared to her only in owl form. I saw her draw pictures of the Labyrinth and her friends here. I wanted her happiness. I saw her leave for college. I couldn't have been prouder of her on how well she had done.

I saw her new boyfriend. I thought him better than some. But one night I saw him grabbed some other girl. A girl not even as beautiful as Sarah, to be honest she looked like a goblin babe than human. It made me upset. I came up to him in my mortal form and told him that he shouldn't be hurting Sarah like that. I told him he needed to break up with her. That he didn't understand that she was wonderful.

I went to Sarah in my mortal form to tell her but only got her roommate. She told me that Sarah had gone home. I wished that her parents would go out, so I would be able see her and they did.

I saw her at a bookstore. I wanted to give her a new book, a book of her coming back to me, a book to remind her that I cared for her.

I couldn't believe how beautiful she had gotten. I followed her home that night. I watched her from the windows of her room. She had drawn a picture of me. It gave me hope that she may have had feelings for me. I recognized the outfit I was wearing. It was from when we danced the closest we ever gotten in the Labyrinth.

Later that night her boyfriend had called her, finally breaking up with her! I hoped that I would be wished in soon. Then I was by her brother. He too had gotten older. I guess it has always been surprising on how humans age.

I appeared in her room a few hours later. I couldn't believe it possible for her to get even more beautiful. I wanted to take her back with me. She yelled at me. I couldn't bear it. I started to leave but she grabbed me. I still don't know why she did.

When I realized it I was even more upset. She just stood there taking it all. Then the events of my wishing her to be punished came.

So you see, she will never forgive me for all that I have done.

Yours truly,

~Jareth, King of the Goblins

Jareth looked at the letter, amazed he had written all of that to the princess. He didn't know her but it made him feel better. Someone else knew his pain.

"You are writing that to Princess Victoria?"

Jareth looked up and realized that Madam Rene was standing there above him looking at the long letter he had just finished.

"Yes. I am and I don't care. If it will help get Sarah back." He sealed it and sent it away to her.

"I'm really impressed on how much you have grown in these last few days. If I didn't see it for myself I wouldn't have believed it." She walked out of the room, "I think we need to have a ball in honor of the Princess."

Jareth walked to the balcony looking out into the starry night sky. He couldn't help himself but he started singing and sending his crystal bubbles out into the night, hopefully sending them to out to Sarah.

I hope you enjoyed it!