Chapter 11 - Reverie and Catastrophe

******

Trin wasn't sure how to deal with the boy who had wished away his friend. He

decided that it would be best to just repeat what Jareth had said to him five years

previously when Hilarity was being held prisoner in his castle. He still felt a little

peeved at how his entire journey was completely unnecessary. He should have known

that his cousin would have been able to get out of that place. She had a rare talent for

seeing the good in people and sparked little friendships all over the place because she

could always find something to talk about. She had even impressed the notorious Dr

Diabolicous with her knowledge of heavy artillery. Heaven knows where she had got

that piece of useless information from. He had not expected her to carry on seeing the

Goblin King after the thirteen hours she had spent with him. Still, they would meet up

every Friday and stay out until the sun was close to rising (or if they were on Hilarity's

home planet it would sometimes bob lazily across the horizon then go back the way it

had came). Trin wasn't sure which one of them was the bad influence, in fact he

suspected that they were as bad as each other, a terrible twosome, partners in crime. If

partying in the student world was a crime of course. It was really the most unlikely

friendship he could think of, a supposedly fictional monarch and a trendy alien

urbanite. For a while he had been deeply concerned for Hilarity's safety as he wasn't

sure if the Goblin King's intentions were particularly honourable, but, as she had

reassured him, they were from different species, how would that work? Nevertheless,

they just seemed to click because they were intellectual equals and they were both

great fans of the planet Earth. Sarah's appearance onto the scene had seemed to settle

down Hilarity and Jareth's slightly impulsive relationship. By "settle down" he meant

that neither of them had been arrested or hospitalised in the last four years. In truth, he

liked Sarah a lot, and if there wasn't the risk of a very angry Goblin King to take into

account, he might have asked her out himself. Danny had also begun to join them

every Friday but Trin had a sneaky suspicion that he was only friends with them

because he wanted to please Hilarity and in any other situation he would have run a

mile...

He snapped out of this reverie and prepared himself for his grand entrance to the

human's room.

******

Hilarity awoke with a start. In her dream, she had fallen of a cliff while trying to save

Spiky Norman and she woke up as she hit the ground, sending a terrifying spasm

through her body which caused her to bite her tongue.

"OWWW! BUGGER!!" she shouted. She picked up her hand mirror to check if she

was bleeding. Blood soon became the least of her worries when she noticed what had

happened to her teeth. What had once been perfectly straight and slab-like were now

yellow and pointy and just a tad crooked. "Holy crap!" she cried "Trin was right, I am

turning into Jareth. Eww! Eighteen months of painful orthodontic work, all for

nothing!"

Just then, Trin walked into her room and handed the crystal back to her. He no longer

had the mysterious box full of leaflets that he she had seen him with before.

"What's up?" he said. Hilarity opened her mouth to show him her dental monstrosities

"Bloody hell!" he also noticed that Hilarity's hair was beginning to resemble Jareth's

unruly mop more and more and only showed a few traces of her original raven black.

"So I take it you're not feeling any better."

"Nope. The phrase : "pain in the arse" springs to mind as does "Oh God, I want to go

home.""

"Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?" said Trin nervously.

"Good news?"

"Well, the good news is that I have completely modified the Labyrinth so that's its

impossible to get killed, maimed or generally buggered within its walls."

"What? How?"

"It's amazing what you can do with twelve boy scouts and a bottle of cider. Anyway,

I've seen this place's potential so I've decided to open it up as a temporary theme park

and holiday resort."

"That explains the leaflets! As long as it's back the way it was in three weeks I have no

objections, just as long as you leave me out of it. I will not be held responsible if

anything goes wrong." she said diplomatically "What's the bad news?"

Trin took a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. Hilarity's eyes flashed

white with horror when she saw what it was. It was a movie poster...

"Frikin' eck!" she said "They've only made a bloody film about this place!"

"I think I've figured out why we've been getting so much business." said Trin trying to

lighten the mood.

"Oh Bugger! Why does everything have to happen to me? Just three weeks, nothing

was supposed to happen. I was supposed to research my book, get some info on the

surrounding kingdoms, but noooo, they have to release a stupid, pissing movie and

now thousands of children are going to get funny ideas and they're all going to wind

up here!" she angrily kicked her chest of drawers and several Goblins fell out and

scurried off.

"Well, that's life I suppose." she said after she had calmed down. "I always get the

impression that life's a bit like an incense stick. You light it, it stinks and then it burns

out."