This is definitely it until the weekend! I hope :/ or I will fail my essay...

Thank you so much for reviewing everyone! Fantasymyownworldofhearts I'm sure I'm going to have to go into hiding when I finish this! If you spot any plotholes please let me know so I can try to fix them, I may miss something unintentionally! I'll always compile a massive list to ping you of things I might not add in there!

Thank you guys! x

Chapter Eleven

"Jareth please don't go." Sarah grabbed his arm as he climbed from the bed with a sigh. "It's early – she doesn't mean it –"

"Be quiet Sarah!" He roared turning back to face her. "This is what the Labyrinth is about. What's said is said." The curtains around his bed whipped closed trapping Sarah inside them. She tried to prise them apart, to try and stop him but it was as if they were welded together.

"Jareth!" She fought against the curtains, but when she finally yanked them open she found she was in her own bedroom. She let out a frustrated cry and snatched her crystal up roughly. "Show him!" She shouted at it as she fought to focus on picturing Jareth. Her mind was in a frenzy, was this the life she would lead? At the drop of a hat he would disappear to kidnap a child? After what felt like an eternity Jareth's image filled the crystal.

A woman lay sobbing on the floor, an empty cot in the middle of a pale pink room covered in frills, lace and teddies. "Bring her back! BRING HER BACK!" The woman shouted, she appeared to be in her late twenties and was dressed in an expensive charcoal skirt suit.

"What's said is said," Sarah recognised the cold mocking tone he had had used with her. "The child is mine by rights."

"She is MINE!" The woman screamed.

"If you want her," Jareth swept his arm aside and the woman followed the gesture. "Then feel free to come and find her." As Jareth walked into the Labyrinth the woman followed him as if in a daze. "Have you heard the fairytale of the Goblin King and his Labyrinth?"

"When I was little," the woman stared at the walls of the Labyrinth and the small castle that was no bigger than her thumbnail from a distance.

"Then let me tell you; what you heard was false. I am neither kind nor forgiving. You can simper and swoon but I will not bend. To get your daughter back you must get to my castle within thirteen hours."

"That's impossible!" The woman gasped staring at him in horror.

"No, far from it. A maiden once did it – much faster than thirteen hours."

"She beat you?"

"I never said that, did I?" Jareth's smile was predatory, his voice hard and cold. "Thirteen hours Melissa, or your daughter joins my court forever."

Sarah dropped the ball onto the bed and fell to her knees, her stomach felt heavy yet empty at the same time and she was overcome with dizziness. Was he really that cruel? She jumped to her feet and ran into her dressing room, she could help the woman. If she could just get out into the Labyrinth...

"You will not be helping her Sarah," Jareth's fingers were at her back gently lacing up the strings of her dress. He pulled them slightly tighter than necessary and she felt her breath constrict in her chest. "You will not leave this room, for thirteen hours if necessary." As he finished lacing up her dress one of his hands snaked around her waist and he pulled her close resting his chin on her head. "This is the way of the Labyrinth," he whispered gently, "this is the life you agreed to when you gave yourself to me."

"No. It's not," Sarah whispered moving to push him away but his hands tightened in response and held her closer. "I was agreeing to become a goblin, to lead a life of servitude alongside them..."

"You will lead a life of servitude I promise you that." Jareth mocked trailing kisses down to the base of her neck. A baby's wailing pierced the air and Sarah flinched, "it is about time we had a new goblin, especially as we have yet to replace Feo...perhaps this could be the next Feo." Sarah shuddered and Jareth released her, taking her hand in his he led her out into the main area of her rooms. He picked the crystal from her bed and held it up to her face, the woman had at least made better progress than Sarah had when she'd first entered the Labyrinth – she had not been fooled by the walls which hid the turnings. "She will not get much further," Jareth laughed as she tripped on her heels and tore them off in frustration. The baby continued to wail and Sarah covered her ears in frustration. "She will stop within time," Jareth pulled her hands away from her ears, "you should grow accustomed to the sounds of the Labyrinth, after all this will become familiar over eternity." He stepped back and tossed the crystal at her, "watch her all you like, but you will not leave this tower until she is gone. One way or another." Stepping back he faded into the darkness, leaving Sarah alone with the crystal. She gazed down at it and watched as the woman sat on one of the cobbled steps and began to sob. She walked over to the window and sat on the ledge, she felt a pang for the woman as snow began to drift lazily from the sky.

"Don't do this Jareth," she whispered, "please..." Her only reply was the sudden silence as a child ceased wailing and a woman's heart rendering scream. She closed her eyes and drew her knees to her chest, she held the crystal limply in her hand unable to bear watching the woman. Each hour was counted down by a loud chiming throughout the castle, Sarah couldn't remember hearing a time when she had been in the Labyrinth but when she looked into the crystal she could see the woman heard it as if she stood beside the clock that chimed. The snow was growing deeper, it settled on the woman's blazer and in her hair. She must be freezing, Sarah thought horrified that the woman was just sitting in the snow staring into space. Had she really given up? The clock chimed the fifth hour and the woman stood up.

"Goblin King!" She called rising to her feet carefully, she leant against the wall for support. "Please..." Her shoulders heaved with sobs and she rested her head against the wall fighting to stand. Jareth appeared in front of her, his arms crossed over his chest.

"My...you have gotten far haven't you?" His voice dripped with mocking sarcasm and the woman flinched. "Do you not want your daughter back? Is that it?"

"Yes! Please, there must be some other way."

In that instant Sarah knew what Jareth was planning, that he knew she would be watching. She felt her heart twist in jealousy as Jareth stepped up to the woman and put his arms around her comfortingly.

"There is one other way," he whispered in her ear turning her so that her back was pressed against the wall and she was sandwiched between it and him. Sarah watched as the woman seemed to transform from the defeated shell into a confident business woman. She arched an eyebrow and tossed her hair over her shoulder, her gaze matching Jareth's in coolness.

"And what way would that be?" She asked arching an eyebrow and running a hand along Jareth's flowing collar.

"Please me." The woman needed no other encouragement; she wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his mouth closer to hers.

Sarah tore her eyes away and threw the crystal at the bed, why would he do that? He knew she would be watching! She jumped up pacing back and forth unable to clear the image of the woman embracing Jareth. "Why do you care?" She asked herself, "you do not love him." She knew deep down the emotions she felt for Jareth were not love, she wondered if she would ever grow to love him. Forever was a long time, Jareth may argue it wasn't, but what was longer then forever? A scroll lay on a small vanity table and she picked it up, it was a history on the Labyrinth that Jareth had given her and she tried to read it but it was futile. She looked at the crystal on her bed, she could just make out the image of two figures writing between black silk sheets, blushing she turned away.

Would Jareth had surrendered Toby that easily to her? If she had offered herself to him in such a brazen way as that woman had? The clock continued its chiming. Six hours. Seven hours. Eight hours. Nine hours.

"This is ridiculous!" She hissed picking up the crystal and observing it once more, the two were still at it. The woman was clearly enjoying herself and Sarah blushed at the position she found the woman in. She straddled Jareth grinding back and forth with her back arched. "You've made your point Jareth." She hissed, but clearly he hadn't. She tried the door but found it locked, the baby began to wail once more and Sarah collapsed the door in exhaustion and frustration. She had not slept since her dream, exhaustion washed over her but she would not give in. She would wait for Jareth to come to her before she slept; she knew he would want to mock her. And she would not give him the satisfaction of finding her asleep first. She forced herself to retrieve the crystal and return to her perch on the window ledge, Jareth was sitting up with his back to the woman who was kneading his naked shoulders. The clock chimed the thirteenth hour and she moved forwards to kiss his shoulders.

"My daughter?" She asked in a cool voice.

"Your daughter?" Jareth slipped a robe on and looked down at the woman coldly, "I was under the impression you had no children." The woman's face paled beneath her make-up and she wrapped herself up in the duvet as she stood.

"We had a deal."

"We did. Please me. You did not." Jareth smiled coldly, the woman opened her mouth to plead but she vanished instantly leaving the duvet to crumple to the ground.

When Sarah looked up she found Jareth standing beside her. She looked at him in horror, that he could just use a woman like that...

"I told you, I will have almost every woman who comes into the Labyrinth."

"What about the men?" Sarah asked scathingly.

"There are none." He shrugged, "The Labyrinth was created in a time where men were above such things as childminding, and fairytale threats are the weakness of women," he scoffed. "How many times do your hear father's threatening their children with me? I do not take fair maidens and hold them captive; I take naughty children when I am summoned. I am sure one day a man will attempt the Labyrinth, it will be interesting to see how far he gets." Sarah shook her head and looked at the crystal; it merely showed her Jareth's face as he looked down at her.

"That woman..."

"Could have won had she used common sense." Sarah looked up at him shocked, "the rules of the Labyrinth are get to the castle. Say the words. Tell me I have no power over you and I shall release the babe and the summoner. The rules never state how to get to the castle; if I bring them here they are free to say the words." Sarah looked at him in horror, it was such a major loophole how had no one noticed it?

"Did you see her pause for a moment to think of her child while she was with me? I make sure they do not have pause for thought." Jareth smiled mockingly and pulled Sarah to her feet, he pressed himself close to her and she could feel his excitement beneath his robe. She looked at him startled, she had just witnessed him occupy a woman for eight hours how could he not be satisfied? "There is only one woman who has a hope of pleasing me," he growled stroking her cheek. His lips hovered inches above hers for a few seconds before he forced himself to move away.

"If I had offered myself like that..."

"I would not have taken you. You were a child when you came to the Labyrinth; you still are in some ways." His voice was soft for once and Sarah nodded, she was glad the thought had never come to her whilst she was in the Labyrinth.

"That poor woman..." She whispered as the baby began to wail once more, but when she looked up Jareth had disappeared. She looked down at the crystal to see him picking up the baby. She was no more than a few months old, no bigger than a doll. Unable to watch Sarah set the crystal down and threw herself onto the bed where she fell into a fitful sleep full of women writhing in ecstasy under black silk sheets while the howls of a baby wailed through the halls.