The Hours Until Infinity, by A.B.V.
Disclaimer: See the prologue.

Author's Note: Thank you so much to all who have reviewed me! You made my my day: Melissa D., Dawn, Lady Jara, nbakia, Shi Sensou, Wigg and Kitty! Kudos to you! I corrected some major copying mistakes in the prologue, sorry everyone who noticed. Please continue to review! Thanks!

Chapter Three: "At last I've found you."

Moving more swiftly than was humanly possible, the Goblin King stepped behind Beth again and wrapped his arm over her face, covering her mouth with a gloved hand. "Now precious, is that any way to treat your poor neighbors when they're studying hard for a Chemistry exam?" He chuckled. "Let's go someplace a little less, shall we say, conspicuous, hmm?"

Blackness closed over Beth's eyes and she felt a strange tingling sensation. When the haze lifted, she was standing under a huge tree in Radcliffe Yard, a graduate cluster of houses and a park that was good ten-minute walk from her dorm. It was deathly quiet. The few lights of the surrounding houses seemed far away, dimmed by the fog she stood in. Beth turned around in circles, confused and in shock. Who was that? She could almost make out a shape in the shadows...

Beth was sure she had seen a person in the bushes, but just as quickly, the shape was gone, fading against the darkened leaves. What the hell was going on? She was dreaming, hallucinating, but surely that spirit, voice or man hadn't been real...

As if in response to her thoughts, the figure stepped out of nowhere. One minute it seemed a part of a tree, was the tree, and the next the cloaked spirit was as real and as tangible as anyone else, walking slowly and deliberately towards her with ease, as if it had all the time in the world. And for a moment the fog cleared a little, allowing the moonlight to illuminate the person in an ethereal aura of otherworldly splendor. As it threw back its hood with one gloved hand, allowing the air to sparkle with thousands of tiny flashes of light and filling the space between them with an infinite chorus of miniature bells, Beth finally had a decent glimpse of her pursuer.

Long strands of shimmering, gold tresses fell in protesting rivulets to the breadth of his shoulders, scattered and incandescent. His skin, tan only in comparison with his hair, was smooth, unmarred by age or time, and brushed with a youthful color that knew the secrets of tantric delights. His dress rested somewhere between the modern Neo-Gothic style and the extravagance of the Renaissance period; the loose silk shirt she had brushed up against complemented the pants and leather boots he wore. He was dressed entirely in black, with ornamentation.

Despite these curiosities, it was his eyes that captured Beth: immersed in depths none would know, the cool, shifting hues spoke of ice and wind meeting in a primitive dance, caging the smoldering fire that raged somewhere within. His stance gave him a regal countenance that demanded attention; every sinuous movement of his lithe body engaged his audience. But the luminous eyes alone promised rhapsody, the delights of never-ending dreams. He was perfection unrealized.

Beth blinked. He was the exact image of the man in her book, perhaps younger in real life, but no less intimidating.

"Well?" he asked, not a little amused at her bewildered state.

"Who-what are you?" Beth felt her throat constricting.

He smiled. "I would have thought you'd have had me all figured out by now, my dear." She blushed at his referral to her stares. "I, of course, am the Goblin King, Ruler of the Labyrinth and the Kingdom of the Underworld. But you may call me Jareth."

Beth regained some of her courage. "Very well, Jareth." She took a deep breath. "What the hell am I doing out here, speaking to someone who doesn't exist, ten blocks from my room at 11pm at night?"

Jareth laughed. "You know, I believe students used to recite Shakespeare in this garden." He slowly advanced on Beth, and she didn't even know she was retreating until she fell, quite startled, onto a stone bench in the shade of the grove. The Goblin King's words wove a magical spell as her enraptured her, if only for a moment, in the power of his speech, pacing with a smirk on his face:

"A speedier course than ling'ring languishment

Must we pursue, and I have found the path.

My lords, a solemn hunting is in hand;

There will the lovely Roman ladies troop.

The forest walks are wide and spacious,

And many unfrequented plots there are..."

"Stop." Beth shivered. "That play was always so vulgar." She turned away. "Especially the comparison of Lavinia and Lucrece. It turned my stomach."

"Lavinia was too proud of her victory," he cooed in her ear. "Some crimes cannot be avoided. But then," Jareth sighed, "time and Shakespeare make fools of us all."

He was obscenely close for a stranger. Beth shied away, but he grabbed her wrist forcefully. "Let me go!" Beth cried. "I don't know who you are, but you need some serious counseling. You're hurting me!"

"Not so fast, my ever-so pugnacious one," the Goblin King reprimanded. "You see, I believe you have something that belongs to me."

Beth blinked in confusion. What is he talking about?

"Something close to my heart, an artifact more dear to me than you will know," he continued, inspecting the fingers of her right hand. "Ah! Here it is." He lifted the green plastic trinket off her finger and held it up. "The very same."

"My birthday party favor?" Beth was astonished. She stood up. "Why is that so important to you?"

Jareth closed his fingers slowly around the glowing piece of jewelry, gave a mysterious smile, and turned to grasp her left hand in one instantaneous gesture. "Actually, I lied," he whispered into her hair. "I'm pretty sure it will be of greater concern to you."

Beth looked down as he dropped his hands and let out a small cry. Sitting on her ring finger was not the cheap imitation play jewelry she had known forever, but a beautiful emerald ring, set in pure gold and reflecting the moonlight as glass, its symmetrical depths untouched.

Startled and scared, Beth desperately attempted to wrench the present free from her hand in vain. It was no use; the ring seemed absolutely immobile, fitting as if it had always been there in the first place.

"What have you done!" she screamed, still yanking on the damnable object with her hands, jumping around in a panic, the futility of the gesture dawning on her as she hopped around in a dance of frustration, glaring at the Goblin King. "It won't come off!"

Jareth had the mantle of victory sitting firmly on his shoulders, and he was grinning triumphantly, enjoying every moment of it. "I wouldn't bother trying to remove it, if I were you. The laws of the Faeries, once invoked, are irreversible, I'm afraid."

Beth stood very still. "What do you mean?" A pause. "You're a Fairy?"

Jareth practically snorted. "I'm a Fey," he correcting her condescendingly. "What did you expect- a human?"

"Don't you remember, lovely Beth?" She watched, terrified, as he grew more impatient by the moment, his slightly British accent sounding in rich, lyrical tones, mocking her. "You wanted something you couldn't have. Many things. I satisfied you for a day, and promised you much, much more. Perhaps you will recall it with a little elucidation."

As Beth's features slowly acquired a new state of growing horror, Jareth withdrew juggling balls from his pocket. Sounds of laughing children, haunted voices, drifted across the garden, floating down to reach Beth's ears. She could smell summer, see the flowers and the house again, knowing that someone was watching her from beyond the edge of the forest...

She gulped and tried to say something, but the only sounds she could emit were little gasps of shock. The Goblin King continued with his show, performing tricks that she had seen only once before: he was animating puppets that appeared out of mid-air, transforming into a person she had barely met but knew nevertheless, lost somewhere deep inside of herself from so long ago...

"You-" she managed to whisper, shaking as he conjured for her, smirking at her distress, enjoying her fear. "You were the clown at Amy's birthday party! The one that gave me the ring..." Beth trailed off.

"Good girl," he replied, tossing the illusion away. "You're finally catching up. I've often wondered what you felt when you won your little game, the game that someone else should have beaten you at. I sincerely hope that you don't think you actually surpassed your peers one time in a million without help?" he grinned, satisfied at the indignant expression in her eyes. "Oh, dear."

"You sick, cruel-"

"Now, now, mortal one, I think the obscenities might wake the neighbors."

"Shut up."

He raised an eyebrow. "Feisty this evening, aren't we?" His tone changed abruptly. "And what happened next, Beth? What did I say to you when you won?" Jareth stepped quickly towards her, violently grabbing her arms in a vice-like grip, his eyes burning into hers, dark as hell. "Do you remember the exact, precise words I spoke? Shall I refresh your memory?"

"I don't know!" She screamed. "They meant nothing to me!" She was sobbing. "Please don't-"

He shook her, his words filled malice. "Nothing, eh? I bet they'll mean something to you now! I held up your precious ring and asked you whether you would give me something in return for it." He mocked her, spitting the words out. "And you, jumping up and down in that frilly white dress with your hair dangling down to your knees, said, "Oh, yes!" He imitated her in a high-pitched voice. "Then I gave my price."

They were inches away from each other, Beth turning her face away from his viciousness and the words she never wanted to hear uttered again. Jareth grabbed her chin, tilting up her sight and making her look at him. "I asked if I could keep you! And do you know what your reply was, dear, sweet Beth?" Jareth grinned malignantly, eyes triumphant and imperious as they gleamed at her in the darkness. "You said YES!"

Beth slumped down as he released her, sitting on the grass, her body convulsing in desperate sobs. Jareth just stood there, silently watching. After a while, the sobs turned into hiccups, and she finally looked up. "Please…" she implored, her face streaked with tears. But he was as cold as stone, his face remorseless and devoid of any pity.

"I didn't mean it."

"It doesn't matter. What's said is said."

"But I was just a little girl!"

"Ha!" He hauled her roughly to her feet. "Look at me." She obeyed. "I have known, witnessed horrible things beyond your scope of comprehension. I have seen the worst nightmares imaginable come true and nearly kill everything I have ever felt. And I have seen thousands of you, your kind, who are born, and grow, and live, and die." He studied her, the hard lines on his face set. "You are not innocent. Because I know you."

Beth shivered, trying to back away from him, her voice deadpan. "What do you plan on doing with me?"

The Goblin King brightened as he smiled at her again. "Why dearest, I thought you would have guessed. His eyes looked her over, pleased with what they saw. "You are to be my queen. My wife. Don't you like your engagement ring?"

Beth felt like she was going to be sick.

His eyes were limpid pools of desire, sweeping up to her face as she stood there, weeping. "I have searched for you, your dreams beyond ages, beyond time. And I would wait forever again to have you."

She did not reply, but instead looked frightened beyond words.

"Tell you what," Jareth grinned, reveling in the moment as the implications hit home. "I'll give you a sporting chance. You play a game, as part of a bargain. I'll give you thirteen days to solve the puzzle in the library. Each day you find a clue and answer the question. You get more than half right and answer them all, and I'll let you go. Forever."

Beth still wasn't moving. He leaned over to her, catching her waist and drawing her to him. "What's the matter?" Jareth whispered hungrily in her ear. "Don't want to win your freedom?"

Beth recoiled and jumped away. Something in her had changed, and she met his gaze levelly. "Of course I do."

"Good. It starts tomorrow. That token around your neck, the one from that meddling forest pixie of a fairy, Pan. No, don't look at me like that. It will help you. And Beth," he said, starting to fade again and mingle with the shadows, "one more thing."

"Yes?"

He smiled darkly. "It's a big library. Don't get lost and make me have to come and rescue you, or I'll lose my temper." She shuddered. "Each night you fail, you'll be seeing me again early..."

She was alone. Stumbling to the bench, Beth groped for air, for solid ground. She fell to the earth, heaving in dry fits until the nausea was gone. Somewhere in the mists, she knew he was still watching and heard the quiet words that echoed in the stillness of the night-

"At last I've found you..."