Chapter 13

A Halloween party and a winner

Sarah woke up with a splitting headache and a groan. What on earth happened last night? She remembered having a good time at the club, Jareth getting up on stage singing a few songs, and then he declared his love for her in public and made her come up on stage. After that he kissed her in front of all those people.

"Agh", Sarah groaned again. Things went kind of blurry after that. She couldn't even remember how they got home. Did they teleport, got a cab, did Marjorie drive them?

"Agh", Sarah buried her face into the pillow. She laid there for a few moments listening, but did not hear any noises. What time was it? Had Jareth gotten up yet? She rolled over with another groan holding her arm in front of her eyes and slowly squinted them open.

The light was bright but not blinding. It seemed to be overcast outside. She sighed deeply and then looked over to see whether Jareth had gotten up yet. Of course he had. He always got up early. How he got enough sleep she didn't understand.

"Maybe when I'm fae I won't need as much sleep either anymore", she thought. She rolled herself out of bed, put on her robe, and walked into the living room.

"Jareth?" she called but didn't get an answer. "Where is he?" Sarah thought, stumbling into the kitchen. Pouring herself some coffee she spotted a note on the fridge.

"Gone to pick up some breakfast. Be back soon. Love Jareth"

"Ah perfect", she whispered. After a few more sips of coffee she jumped into the shower and got herself ready before Jareth got back.

Sarah sat on the couch when he returned. He looked disappointed when he saw her flipping through the channels.

"Bummer, I thought I could make it back before you woke up." Sarah huffed a smile.

"Got to be faster than that then. What did you bring me?" she inquired, took the bag out of his hand and walked into the kitchen.

"Why do I feel like I'm getting a slam, bam, thank you Jareth kind of treatment?" He walked up behind her and put his arms around her. She turned around and kissed him gently.

"Thank you honey, for doing this. You're a lifesaver", she smiled sweetly.

"You're forgiven", he replied and kissed her back.

"Make sure we bring more coffee down to the kingdom before we leave. We're getting low and I'm really starting to like this stuff." He poured himself and Sarah another cup and sat down at the table.

Sarah moaned slightly as she sat down next to him and rubbed her fingers on her forehead.

"Headache?" Jareth inquired.

"More like a full grown migraine", she replied in agony.

"Here, let me fix that for you", he walked behind her and placed his hands on either side of her temples. Slowly he applied pressure with a circular movement.

"A massage?" Sarah whined, "I thought you were going to snap your fingers or make a crystal explode over my head. I think I need more than a massage. I need a magic cure".

Jareth smiled and removed his hands.

"How are you feeling now?" Sarah's eyes opened wide and then a big smile appeared across her face.

"It's gone. It's totally gone", she exclaimed looking happily at Jareth. "Thank you honey. You do have magic hands."

Jareth laughed. "You know you're tap is getting mighty long here", he said with a smirk.

"Huh?" she mumbled with a full mouth of cinnamon roll.

"Last night", he said, "do you have any clue what you did last night?"

Sarah dropped the rest of her cinnamon roll on her plate and stared at him in horror. She started to get this sunken feeling one gets when something really bad is about to happen.

"Oh my god, what did I do?" Jareth looked at her with a questioning look.

"You don't recall what you did last night?" he smirked.

"No, tell me", Sarah croaked in panic.

Jareth now had a huge grin on his face. "Oh where to begin?" He kept torturing her for another few seconds. Sarah was about to cry, or hit him, when he took pity on her.

"Well, after the open mic, you and Marjorie were having a 'who can do the most Jell-O shots contest'. I think she won but the jury is still out on that.

Then both of you started dancing on the table singing 'Play that funky music white boy', followed up by 'YMCA'. You really did well with the Funky Music, but you misspelled the YMCA. You spelled it CMYA. For unknown reasons the band was playing along with that one.

Then you started a conga line proclaiming to everyone that you were going to get married to the goblin king as you led them around the bar, twice, before you and Marjorie did another round of Jell-O shots.

Oh, you also puked all over the back alley after that and passed out on our way home."

Jareth looked up like he was trying to count ceiling tiles and then added amused: "Yep that about covers it."

He sat with his hands folded in front of his face, staring at her and enjoying every moment of it, as was evident by the big grin on his face. Oh how he enjoyed torturing her.

Sarah sat there silently in horror, and then her face turned ash white and she started to sob.

"That is horrible. Oh my god I can never show my face in public ever again. I can't go back there. Oh no, what am I going to do? Can't you put one of your memory erasing spells on everyone? I think I'm going to get sick. I can't even look at you anymore now either." She got up and walked back towards the bedroom.

"Where are you going?" Jareth called after her.

"I'm going to die in the bedroom now and hope the world forgets about all of this."

He quickly put his body in front of the door and hers. Sarah just put her head against his chest and cried as he held her tight while chuckling to himself.

"Hey, you wanna know something?" he quietly asked.

"What?" Sarah sniffed.

"I thought you were really cool and sexy last night. I love you more than ever. There is nothing wrong with really letting lose some time. We all have done that before."

Sarah lifted her face and looked him in the eyes and held his gaze.

"Your eyes, babe." Jareth had an excited look on his face.

"What about my eyes?" Sarah asked, still feeling horribly embarrassed.

"Look at them," he replied and took her to the bathroom mirror. Her eyes were glowing with an intense bright brownish green color that seemed to radiate in all directions. They looked incredible.

"It's starting, babe. You are turning fae", he whispered softly and smiled at her happily. Then he gave her the most passionate kiss Sarah had received in a long time. "It won't be long now", he breathed full of joy as he held her tight.

Sarah started to feel better about herself, and last night. It actually was the first time she had allowed herself to fully let lose, especially on those Jell-O shots. She would not be doing those tonight, this she was sure off.

She ate the left over cinnamon rolls for lunch. She didn't think her stomach was going to be able to hold too much food at the moment. It needed some time to settle.

Jareth spend most of the day watching sci-fi movies on cable. He kept laughing at the special effects on some of them, but he did agree that 'Star Wars: the Empire strikes back' was a pretty cool movie.

"I'm going to get us a movie theater at the castle", he proclaimed. "We can put it right in the back of the study. There is actually a small room off to the side that hasn't been used but for storage. We can easily turn it into our own private cinema. What you think, babe?"

Sarah was totally down on that one and nodded excitingly. "We'll need a soda fountain to go with it, and a popcorn maker", she replied.

"You got it, precious", he acknowledged and went back to watching the movie.

Marjorie called Sarah a little after four in the afternoon to make plans for dinner and the Halloween party at the Blue Rock Café.

The first thing out of Marjorie's mouth was: "How's your head?"

"How do you know I had a headache?" Sarah was taken by surprise.

"Girlfriend, if you woke up the way I woke up today, trust me, you had a headache the size of the Empire State building. I think I'll skip the Jell-O shots tonight", she moaned.

"How are you feeling now?' Sarah wondered.

"Oh I'm good as new. I had me a couple of bloody Mary's for breakfast. I can go all night now." Marjorie proudly responded. Sarah laughed. Good old Marjorie, cure a hangover with more alcohol.

"Hey listen", Marjorie continued, "why don't we come over, oh let's say sixish, pick you up, and we all go to Suave for dinner?"

Let me check with Jareth real quick Sarah replied. "Jareth?" she yelled through the closed bedroom door, "want to go to dinner with Mark and Marj at Suave around six?"

"Sure thing, babe", was all she heard. "He says sure", Sarah forwarded the message.

"Sweet deal. Oh, and be in costumes", Marjorie added before hanging up.

It took Jareth but a flick and a wave of his hands to change into his 'costume', but Sarah had a little more work to do on hers. She still hadn't received any of the magic to just be able to snap her fingers and wave her arms.

How she knew? She secretly had tried and nothing had come off it but looking like some crazed woman flinging her arms through the air. Her eyes changing though was actually perfect timing.

First she had been worried about it and tried to figure out how to hide them, but then she came up with her gloriuos story of new colored shiny contact lenses. "Perfect", she thought to herself. I'm getting pretty good at that.

Jareth looked especially handsome and irresistible tonight. His eyes had a special glow to them which made them even more mesmerizing. He wore a dark suit with cape today. It was the one she had seen him wear when she had met him for the first time outside the Labyrinth five years ago. It was impressive and made him look fierce and fearsome.

She was worried at first that his pants might be a bit too tight and revealing, but if needed they could be covered up some by his long cape, and it was a Halloween party for adults after all.

"Ah what the hell, let's just go with it", Sarah persuaded herself. He even pulled out a crystal ball and started juggling it in front of her.

"What are your deepest desires?" he asked her looking right into her eyes with his gaze.

Sarah closed her eyes before she got taken in by his magic and whispered annoyed: "For you to go away and let me get dressed, and get ready for the party."

Jareth gave her a sneer and shrugged his shoulders as he sat on the couch still playing around with the crystal ball.

"Other women would line up and die for a chance at these balls", he grumbled under his breath.

Sarah busted out laughing and bent herself in half. Her side hurt when she was done and had regained some of her posture.

"Jareth, do you realize what you just said?"

He decided to ignore her. Sarah had chosen to go as an elf. In the Underground they looked similar to faes, but with pointed ears and long straight gold looking hair that had a shimmer to it.

Sarah had purchased a beautiful long elven dress and some jewelry from the 'Elven Yourself' elf shop in Goblin City before they had left, to accentuate her outfit. Jareth absolutely loved it. He even helped her with the hair color by applying some of his magic. Combined with her new shining eyes, she looked perfect.

"Damn, I wanna make love to you right now and right here, you look so stunning", he had replied when she had asked him what he thinks of her outfit for the night.

Marjorie and Mark showed up right at six. Marjorie had told Sarah not to tell Jareth what their costumes were. She wanted to see his face when he saw Mark. It was hard for Sarah not to say anything, but she kept her promise.

Jareth had to sit down when Mark walked in and put his fist in front of his mouth to not totally lose it.

After a couple of moments he said with a squeaky voice:" You look quite lovely tonight Mark. I hardly recognized you in your evening gown."

They all busted out laughing at that point.

"Hey dude, it took me two freakin' weeks to learn to walk in this damn boots. Next year, I'll be the guy again." He gave Marjorie a resolute look.

"So, it's the boots you have an issue with, but not the dress, wig, or make-up?" Jareth laughed out loud.

Marjorie was absolutely stunned by his 'costume and make-up'. She could not get over how well his eyes were done and the hair.

"Damn, now that's a professional job right there", she kept mumbling, checking Jareth out from all sides as she circled him. "Who did it?" she finally asked Sarah.

Sarah just shrug her shoulders and mumbled something like "someone he knows from work who used to work at a movie studio." Marjorie nodded and then made a big fuss over Sarah's eyes.

"Shiny colored contacts from Switzerland", Sarah lied. Marjorie was totally impressed. "I got to get me some of those", she replied.

They all decided to take a cab for the night to be on the safe side.

"No need for anyone of us to drive after drinking and get a ticket, or worse, get taken to the bunker", Mark had declared.

They drew quite a bit of attention when they entered the restaurant even though it was Halloween and most people were in costumes themselves. Jareth, drew the most attention, probably due to his magic. He didn't have to pretend tonight and was totally himself. If everyone else thought he was in character, Sarah knew he was not. He was just being the goblin king.

As usual, dinner was great. Sarah really liked this place. It was on the rooftop and they could overlook the entire town. Most nights it had live bands playing blues, jazz, or classic rock'n roll. Tonight they were getting ready to set up for a party of their own with a DJ playing all the Halloween classics.

After they were finished with dinner they did not sit around as they usually did, but left to get to the Blue Rock Café. Mark had to be there by eight since it was going to be a really busy night.

Tonight's bands at the Blue Rock Café were the 'The Shakin' Skeletons' and 'Graveyard Shift'. They played all sorts of different music tonight, but most of it was themed towards Halloween, which was the whole point of the evening. Sarah forgot to count how many times she had heard the Monster Mash and the Purple People Eater.

Her and Jareth had danced most the night and had gotten a ton of compliments throughout the evening. Mark had finally taking his boots off under the protest of Marjorie.

"My feet hurt woman," he complained, "if you want me to keep dancing with you then let me wear my sneakers, damn it." Sneakers it was.

"Are you having a good time?" Sarah asked Jareth during a slow number as he seemed sort of lost in thoughts. He looked at her gently and nodded his head.

"Yes I am", he said and squeezed her tight as he moved his face right against hers with his eyes closed. Sarah thought about how much he had changed in these five years.

He was no longer the same person. He had grown from the rash, arrogant, demanding school yard tyrant to a sensible, kind, yet strict and fair ruler worthy of the Labyrinth Kingdom and Goblin City. She was honored to be chosen his queen and she would make it her life's mission to make him happy and never regret his choice of pursuing her all these years and bringing her back to his world.

Sarah stood up on her toes and kissed him.

"What was that for?" Jareth asked with pleasant surprise.

"Oh, just because", she answered and put her head against his chest.

The music stopped and Mark stood on stage trying to make an announcement as he fired up his mic with a high pitch screech. He definitely got everyone's attention.

"All right, all you goblins and ghouls out there, it is time for our costume contest. We'll have a category for individual male, individual female, and also for couples. So come on out to the dance floor, it's time for the ladies first. No separate entries necessary as everyone here today has already been entered. Our judging panel is right here up on stage, so let's begin."

Mark put down the mic and sat on a chair on stage along with four other people who apparently were the judges.

"I guess we're in it whether we want to or not", Sarah chuckled. She lined up with all the other girls and they started to walk around the parquet. One by one was getting eliminated until it was cut down to only three, with Sarah being one of them. Jareth smiled at her and clapped.

Marjorie didn't hold back her enthusiasm. Since employees and families of the club had been barred from competing, she was cheering Sarah on from the sideline along with Jareth.

The judges eliminated another girl who was dressed as Michael Jackson in Thriller. Now it was only up to Sarah and a zombie girl.

And the judges had voted. The best female costume price of the night went to Sarah. Marjorie screamed and jumped up and down and grabbed Jareth by the arm.

"Your lady won", she screamed. Jareth laughed in agreement. When Sarah came over he hugged her, but before he could give her a kiss the men were called to the floor.

"Go on Jareth", both Marjorie and Sarah pushed him onto the dance floor.

He was a bit hesitant and felt like he was cheating, which he kind of did. After all, it was not a costume he was wearing.

This contest was decided in less than five minutes as it had come down to Jareth and one other contestant in a Superman outfit. Jareth' face remained stoic and his eyes piercing as they introduced him. The crowd hushed and people started to discuss his outfit.

"Damn that dude looks real. I think he's real", Sarah heard several people whispering. She saw several girls swooning over him which made her a bit uneasy.

Jareth decided he was not going to lose this one and made his crystal ball appear, which he juggled expertly on his hand and then made it float into the air and burst. At first the crowd was silent and then erupted in a deafening cheer.

"Hail the Goblin King", some people started chanting and then the entire club joined in.

"Well, you just had to show off didn't you?" Sarah teased him as he came walking up to her with his trophy.

"You got to give your subjects a show to keep them entertained and happy. It prevents revolts", he laughed.

Mark had grabbed the mic again and shouted that the couple contest was now underway and it didn't matter if you were dancing or not. If you were a matching outfit couple you qualified.

"Do elf and goblin king go together?" Sarah asked Jareth jokingly. "They just might", Jareth replied with a chuckle. They took to the floor and danced anyway since it was a nice slow tune.

Apparently in this world the judges did not think the goblin king and elves go together and awarded the prize to Batman and Robin. Sarah couldn't help but laugh at that. Jareth had a big smile as he held her close and guided her around the dance floor.

It was long past two in the morning when they finally made it back to the apartment.

"I am beat", Sarah moaned taking off her shoes. I need a nice hot shower and get in bed.

"Great idea, I'm right behind you", Jareth replied eagerly, starting to take off his boots, gloves, and cape.

"Ah", Sarah moaned again, "I don't think I have the energy tonight." Jareth looked distraught.

"Come on, babe", he said in his most seductive voice he could muster, "don't you think you should make your king happy?"

He reached around her body and unzipped her dress with the help of a little magic.

Sarah sighed.

"I don't know if we should", Sarah tried to argue, but her hands were already opening his shirt and removing his pants as she kissed him intensely.

Sarah's dress fell to the floor and Jareth teleported them directly into the bedroom and closed the door.