9:17 a.m., Long Island, NY

Katherine Williams stared into the trunk of her car, looking at the chaos inside. "But it was tidy when I packed…" she muttered. Her textbooks lay open in a big pile, and for some reason smelled faintly of bananas. The lock of the trunk had scratches around it… it looked almost as if someone had broken in. But nothing seemed to be missing… and she hadn't been away from the car for more than a few minutes since she'd left Chicago. And it was hardly likely someone would have broken in last night…

"Kathy?"

"Yeah, Eric?"

"You need any help?"

"Sure. Can you take the guitar inside? Drop it and die slowly, you understand."

"Yeah, yeah."

Well, if nothing was gone, then it wasn't a problem. She took up her suitcase, piled her books precariously on her free arm, and hauled them back into the house. Eric took a few of them out of her hands.

"I put the guitar up in your room. Did you need me to get anything else?"

"I find you suspiciously helpful, punklet. You must have an ulterior motive. What do you want?"

"Well, maybe if you're not doing anything, I thought we could go to Fun Zone," he replied, his voice taking on a wheedling tone.

"Is that that dump you like with the blinky lights and loud noises and screaming eleven-year-olds running all around the place? With the uneatable pizza and five buck prizes that you can win by playing fifty bucks worth of games?"

"They have air hockey now."

"Oh. Well then obviously we must go, if only so that I may kick your butt. Why didn't you say so before? Are they open this early?"

"Yeah! They open all day."

"Of course they do. All right. Go get some warm clothes. The weather guy said snow before noon."

"YEAH!" he shouted as he stampeded up the stairs. Katherine watched him fondly. This was probably the last year he'd want to go to Fun Zone, and almost certainly the last year he'd want to hang out with his sister. Better make the most of it. She ambled over to the kitchen and took a hundred bucks off the counter. The keys to her mother's Ford Explorer were in the butler's pantry with the plate and crystal; she took those too.

There was a navy-blue sweatshirt on top of her luggage. Kathy pulled it over her head and grabbed an oversized windbreaker out of the closet. When she had one arm in, Eric rumbled back down the stairs, fully parka'ed up, and obviously raring to go, "What's taking so long? Let's go let's go let's go!"

"All right all right all right, mister pushy. Go grab my bag out of the car… we're taking the Explorer."

She locked the door behind her. As they drove out of the driveway, the first flakes of snow fell from the sky.

~*~

The goblins in the woods were nearly an army by now. While they took children often, an actual wishing was an unusual event, and they were enjoying the novelty. Neither Kathy nor Eric saw a trace of them, because by now they were well hidden. A goblin is just a sort of B-movie elf, after all, and no one can see an elf that is trying not to be noticed. They knew, without knowing how they knew, that it was going to happen soon.

Pukey (this was a nickname: he was called Vomitous when he was born but thought the name too old-fashioned) led a small squadron of swiftly moving boggarts (all brothers, all named Crayola) in advance of the Explorer. He was breathing hard with the effort, but ignoring it… he could hear every word the two Williams children were saying.

"I liked that movie, Kathy."

"I thought you would. I like it too," she replied, which was a white lie. She didn't care for fantasy films, and had spent the evening reading U.S. News and World Report and trying to solve the crossword in the Times.

"I wish stuff like that happened in real life." And every goblin in the woods caught their breath. There was silence, a rarity anywhere the twilight people are.

"Really? The first time I saw that movie I thought it was scary."

"What?"

"I was only eight. I think it was those little guys with the mutant babies on sticks that freaked me out. Uncle Toby thought it was scary too."

"Well… those were kind of creepy. But it was still cool. I mean, adventures… and going on a quest… and having beasts be your friends… and magic. Nothing like that ever happens to me."

"You're a dreamer, kiddo. I'll have to rent you 'The Princess Bride.'"

"That sounds girly."

"It isn't."

"But there's all these cool stories… like I wish I could go to Hogwarts. Or the Xavier Institute. But none of that stuff is real."

"There's other cool stuff that's real, Eric. People in fairy tales don't get to play video games or ride their bikes. Besides, don't Harry Potter and his friends have to hide all their powers? And I know no one likes the X-men, even though they always go and save the world."

"Still. I wish the goblins would come and take me away."

Katherine was confused as to what happened next. She was sure that she heard a voice crying, "NOW, your highness!" And she recalled a horrible skidding feeling, as though the car had gone into a spin. She threw out her arm to protect Eric, and slammed on the brakes.

Which were no longer there. They had departed, evidently, along with the rest of the car.

~*~

Physics still applies in the lands beyond the fields we know. The Explorer had been moving at around fifteen miles an hour through the woods. Its passengers were therefore moving at the same rate. When the car disappeared from around them, they still had the momentum of the car, and flew through the air (Along with Kathy's bag, several coins which had been previously wedged in the seat cushions, and a tire iron) until gravity took over.

It wasn't what you could call comfortable. They flew for nearly fifteen feet and hit the dusty ground with a thud that knocked the wind out of Katherine and dazed Eric. Kathy, being heavier, kept rolling a good distance after impact, and when she rose, had to blink away blood from a cut above her eye.

There was a moment of confusion. Where were the woods? Where was the snow? She rose to her feet and half-walked, half-scrambled to where Eric lay on his back, looking like a discarded rag doll. Gently, she shook his shoulder, terrified that she would go mad if he didn't awaken, half-convinced that she had already gone around the bend. But Eric blinked, raised himself up on his elbows, and promptly rolled to one side and sicked up his breakfast into the parched earth. His brown eyes swam with tears, and he whispered, "My head hurts."

"It'll be okay, kid. Just lay still for a sec."

At the restrained tension in her voice, he lifted himself up again (more slowly this time) and stared around at the desolate landscape before him. "Where are we?"

"Not sure. Something… "

How to finish that sentence? "Something seriously f**ked up is happening."? "Something seems to have transported us to what looks like the Mojave, except for the huge stone wall over there"? Or perhaps "Something, no, make that everything, that I believe about how the world works, has just turned out to be 100% wrong."

"Something strange is going on here. Stay still… I'll figure out what's been happening, where we are."

"Simple enough questions… you are in the borderlands of the Underground, near the entrance to the Labyrinth," spoke a man's voice with a crisp British accent. Kathy jumped, and scrambled about to face its owner.

He was tall, with a slim build, and shoulder length white-blonde hair was gathered at the nape of his neck with a black ribbon. His clothes were simple: a black coat, somewhere between a frock coat and a trench, crisp white shirt, and black breeches tucked into dusty kneeboots. The face was handsome, of course, in a harsh way, and the eyes ("Oh, sweet Jesus help me," thought Kathy, "His eyes!") were as cold and silver as two mirrors. His lips were curved in a half-smile that touched nothing else on his face.

"And I believe that you two can deduce "What's been happening?" from my first answer."

~*~

Kathy slowly rose to her feet, placing her body between the man and her brother, wincing as a badly twisted ankle protested. She hesitated a moment, and bowed her head uncertainly.

"Um… I take it to mean that you are… Jareth?" She fumbled the name, and tacked on a hesitant, "Your majesty."

"Quite. And you are… Katherine and Eric," his voice mockingly imitating her confused intonation. "Now that the pleasantries are over, I shall require the boy."

"What? No, please, your highness, there's some sort of misunderstanding."

"I'm afraid not. The wish has been made. It always amazes me how you people never take your words seriously until it is too late… and I find it terribly remarkable in your case. One might have assumed your mother would have taught you more wisdom, considering her little adventures with her own brother."

Kathy scowled, "One might have assumed that, yes." Thank you very much, Mom, she thought to herself. "But I didn't wish him away… he did. And he didn't really mean it."

With an uninterested shrug, Jareth replied, "And what if he didn't? Very few people do… but I am in the business of granting wishes, not providing psychological analyses on the motivations behind them. Come along, Eric. It's time for you to go. Katherine, you may stay or depart, as you wish." He turned away, raised a black-gloved hand and made a come-hither gesture to the reclining boy. Eric, a look of fear on his freckled face, stood up, and walked towards him. His motions were unwilling, and jerky, like a badly handled marionette. It was horrible to watch.

"Kathy, I can't stop moving!"

The despairing tone of his voice shocked Kathy out of fear and into blind rage. She couldn't have done it in cold blood, but she darted forward, and grabbed the shoulder of the departing goblin king. His eyes were even colder than before as he turned to face her.

"Don't do that."

"Screw you. I'm… I'm… I'm an American citizen, damn it, and I do not have to put up with this crap."

"You are mistaken in thinking you have a choice."

"Bull. I saw the movie; I know how this works. I get to try and solve the Labyrinth, and if I do, you can't take him."

"You know, surprisingly, you're wrong. He wished himself away. Had you been the one to summon me, things would have been quite different."

"He's a kid. You can't just expect him to have that sort of responsibility, it's not fair."

"Now where have I heard that before?"

"Shut it. I'm going to run your precious maze. And I'm going to beat it." Her chin was stuck out, and her blue-gray eyes flashed in anger.

"No, no, and no. Good day." With that, Jareth and Eric began to fade.

He was snapped back into opacity by Kathy's voice, saying, in tones of apparent satisfaction, "I thought you were chicken."

~*~

An interlude, for just a bit of background information. Kathy was her mother's daughter, after all, and though she had never gone in for acting, she had a certain natural gift for theatrics. This gift manifested itself at rather odd times. For example, in the sixth grade, Kathy's voice had taken on a peculiar ring. That ring was… oh, well, it was insolence, contempt, and arrogance rolled up into one. She hadn't been aware of it at first, and it had taken two parent-teacher conferences and several spectacular kickings of her ass before she learned to stop doing it. That voice hadn't been used in nearly ten years. Like a fine wine, it had only improved with age.

Jareth wasn't any more immune to it than anyone else. "What did you say?"

"Oh, you're deaf as well as stupid? Terribly sorry, old chap. I said, "I THOUGHT YOU WERE CHICKEN!"" The voice sounded even better in a shout.

"How dare you?"

"Please. You think I'm scared of you?" The wonderful thing was, at that instant, she wasn't scared. There was no space for "scared" in the headful of "pissed off" she had going. "My mother took you to school, Jareth, I understand your hesitating to take on another Williams girl. Still… cluck cluck."

"Stop that."

"It must have been hard, being made into mom's bitc… that is, being defeated by a girl, and all. Must have just eaten you up inside. Oh well, probably best to cut your losses, anyway, and after all…"

"Be silent!" The last word was almost a shout, the King's cold glaze having shown a crack. A moment later, the half-smile was back on his face and he folded his arms across his chest. "Very well. You may try. A warning… the Labyrinth is not a game, nor a children's story. It is most likely that you will be wounded, or even killed." His voice suggested that he would rather enjoy the latter. "Still interested?"

Katherine folded her arms, and looked Jareth directly in the face. For a moment, they looked like two sides of a coin, or a matched set of statues. "Of course," she replied, serenely.

"Very well. Catch!"

Kathy grabbed the silver disc he had lobbed at her. It was a pocket watch, very old, and the size of the palm of her hand. She flipped it open and saw a face marked with thirteen hours. It was stopped. She looked up, but this time, not at Jareth.

"Eric, I'll save you. I promise."

Eric looked as though he would have replied, but Jareth raised a gloved finger in a gesture of warning, and the boy subsided. "You have thirteen hours to reach the heart of the Labyrinth. Typically I think it's a pity when one of you sets off on these pointless journeys. In your case, though, I think you deserve whatever you get."

And then the man and boy were gone, leaving only their footprints behind.

The watch began ticking softly. Kathy snapped it shut without looking, and stalked over to her bag, where she shoved the thing into a side pocket. She gathered the tire iron and the backpack up and looked along the wall, which had no visible opening in either direction.

"Boy, I am in it deep," she murmured to herself.

But she set off to the right.