Okay, so it's taken me longer than usual to update, but I've been swamped with homework and babysitting. Thanks to those of you who keep reviewing. I know my last chapter wasn't the best but, I'm going to try to make this one better. Let me know if I succeed. Oh, and if you have any story or chapter title ideas, you can e-mail me. I have a pretty good idea as to where this story's going, but any extra ideas are welcome. Anyway, my muse is getting impatient, so, here's chapter five...

Welcome to the Underground!

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Melissa asked, her voice slightly unstable. Her multicolored eyes were wide with terror as her heart beat increased rapidly. She was already sitting up in bed starring at the man who looked so much like her father that it scared her. He had Jareth's same face, his same eyes, and that same grin. But she'd never seen his hair piled and spiked up on his head like that. The rest of his hair rested on his back with a lock of hair resting on each shoulder as well. There were also blue highlights in his pale blond hair. The cloths he wore were different as well. Yes, she'd seen him in one of those white poet's shirts before, but not with a cape around it, nor those too-tight pants that completely clung to his legs. He also wore sleek, black riding boots that reached almost to her knees. No. This man couldn't be Jareth. Sure, he had long hair, but it was always tied into a ponytail. Yes, he would sometimes wear boots, but never ones that long. And a lot of times he did wear poet's shirts, but there was never before a midnight jacket that accompanied it beneath a swirling black cloak.

The intruder closed his eyes and shook his head. "Melissa, you know very well who I am," he told her quietly, and when she didn't respond, he chose to elaborate. "I am Jareth, your father, but I am also Jareth, the Goblin King. You wished me here." He told her simply.

Melissa looked down at her shaking hands. "No. This isn't right. I...I'm dreaming. I have to be," she said quietly. She reached over to her other arm and pinched herself. "Ouch. I have got to file these things." She said this mainly to herself, but Jareth overheard.

"No Melissa, you are not dreaming. You wished for me to come to take you away, and so I have come. Normally, you would not have any remaining time here once I reached you, but since you are my daughter, I will make an exception. Pack your things quickly; I can't be gone for too long."

She just stared up at him, eyes wide with confusion. "But...no...you're...I mean..." she stumbled over her words to find the right ones. "There's no such thing as the Goblin King, I mean...there's just not. It's just a story." Her voice held a confidence that masked her true feelings. "This can't be happening," she told herself firmly.

He spoke to her as he crossed her room to the now open window. "Oh, but it is happening, and I am quite real, I assure you. That story," he said to her as he pointed to a little red book lying on the desk next to her bed. "Is not all that untrue." He closed the window to block out the brisk wind and sighed. "You know, your mother was much quicker to believe than you are," he told her plainly. He turned around to face her. "Now hurry up. We haven't much time."

Melissa got out of bed and slowly walked to the other side of the room. "I'm not going anywhere with you," she told him bluntly. She didn't believe a word he was saying, and this was quite evident to Jareth, who merely shrugged. "Proof. I want proof that you are who you say you are." Her voice once again held a secure tone that masked her true feelings of sheer terror.

Jareth sighed before holding his hand up the same way he had when he had first presented Sarah with a crystal. He conjured a spherical, clear orb that rested at the tips of his fingers. "This is a crystal, just like the one you have. Now, if you look into it," he paused to toss her the crystal. She caught it with ease and stared into its depths. "You will see your mother and me at the beginning of the Labyrinth. In fact, she is standing in the exact place that you are now," he told her with a smirk.

She looked up from the orb and stared about her. She was standing at the peak of a dusty hill that looked over a monstrous maze. She had seen her mother standing right where she was. She looked over to Jareth, her mouth hanging open in shock. "Where are we?" she asked.

"We are in the Underground Melissa. Your mother came here to save her stepbrother once she wished him away," he paused to look over his vast kingdom. "You, however, wished yourself away. Now, I believe this is yours." He told her handing her a lime green duffle bag with sky blue straps. "I merely brought the items that you brought with to your grandparent's home. They should be enough until we can get some other clothing for you."

She stared out upon the surrounding area. To one side lay a Labyrinth, beautiful in all of its complexities. In the opposing direction lay a lush green valley that stretched almost as far as the eye could see. A few hills were scattered about the land, but ended at a large forest with trees that seemed magnanimous to her even at this distance. This forest surrounded a large city, in the center of which stood another castle, this one pale green with bits of blue around every window and door. To the other side was a desert with tall mountains in the distance, each one tipped with either ice or a volcanic opening. She wondered briefly how this could be, until Jareth brought her out of her gazing moments.

"Melissa, we really must be going now," he told her impatiently. "We do have other business to attend to."

She nodded once, finally believing him. He held out his hand for her, and when she took it, they were in a vast thrown room that reminded her of the home she and her mother had shared before Sarah's untimely death. Jareth noticed her staring around the room and smiled. "It seems familiar doesn't it?" she nodded and he continued. "Yes. I thought it would. Sarah had me turn my old thrown room into a goblins relaxing area. Said it was too dreary. But this one isn't bad; I'd never had a use for it anyway."

Melissa was hardly hearing him. All she could do was stare at the room around her. It was the size of her school gymnasium, maybe even larger. All around were portraits of Sarah, Melissa, and Jareth. Many of them looked to be of Sarah while she was solving the Labyrinth (she could only assume that her mother actually had, given the current circumstances). There were some of her with Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus, and others were of her and Jareth dancing in the ball room. But there were others of Sarah holding Melissa as a child, some of her playing with the little girl as she grew, and there was even one of Sarah, Jareth, and Melissa all together. They looked quite royal in the one family portrait directly above the thrown. In the portrait, Sarah wore a regal looking white gown with slight puffs at the shoulders. Melissa was wearing an aqua gown that looked to have vines twisting around it. Jareth wore something similar to what he wore now: a white poet shirt with clingy black pants and a dark blue jacket. Each one of them wore a crown – Jareth's was large with many jewels around the many points, Sarah's was more like a large tiara that was just as golden as Jareth, though with fewer gems. Upon the young Melissa's head rested a tiny silver tiara, with nothing but a sapphire just below the only point that was stationed in the centre of a ring of rubies.

Jareth noticed her staring at the one picture and his grin broadened. "Yes, that one is my favorite as well."

"When was it done?" she asked him, her eye's not leaving the picture.

He looked back up to his most prized portrait of this castle and replied, "When you were six. Sarah brought you here to have it done. I believe she also introduced you to some of her friends as well." Melissa nodded, realizing the event that she had once considered a dream to be absolute reality. He saw her nod from the corner of his eye. "Yes. As I remember, you were quite distressed to leave."

Jareth looked briefly back to the painting, then to Melissa and clapped his hands twice, a young girl no older than Melissa entered the room. "Yes, your Majesty?" she asked politely.

Jareth glanced over to where the serving girl stood in her green dress and white apron. "Kaylee, this is my daughter Melissa. Melissa, this is Kaylee." He gestured to each young woman as he introduced them. "Kaylee, kindly escort Melissa to her room," he said to Kaylee as she nodded once in comprehension. "Melissa, I will see you tomorrow morning at breakfast. Kaylee will assist you for the time being." Melissa just nodded, still in shock of what was happening. It really was a lot to deal with.

Just before Kaylee was able to lead Melissa from the room completely, they heard Jareth's voice and they stopped. "Oh, and Melissa? Goodnight."

Melissa smiled in remembrance of what her mother and she used to say before bed. "Goodnight, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bight." He looked confused once she had spoken this, but as comprehension slowly dawned, he smiled as the two girls left the room.

Once they had passed many rooms beyond the one they had just exited, Kaylee turned to Melissa and said, "Lady Melissa, we don't have any of these 'bed bugs' you speak of." She looked utterly confused and all Melissa could do was laugh.

"No Kaylee, I didn't mean real bed bugs. It's just an expression like sleep tight or pleasant dreams," Melissa told the serving girl.

Kaylee nodded and turned a corner. "Oh. Of course M'lady."

Melissa thought about what Kaylee had just called her. M'lady. It wasn't a name by which she wanted to be referred to for the rest of her life that was for sure. "Kaylee," she began, but before she could finish, the other girls head was already facing her, ready for a command.

"Yes M'lady?" she asked politely.

Melissa sighed. "Kaylee, you don't have to call me that. Just call me Mel. Okay?"

Kaylee nodded. "Yes M'la- I mean, Yes Mel," she quickly corrected herself.

Melissa just nodded, realizing that it was going to be tough making friends in a place were everyone treated you like a princess. But thinking about it now made her realize that that was exactly what she was: a princess. Well, my dad is the Goblin King, so I guess that makes me the Goblin Princess. Oh yippee for me. I'm Princess of the Goblins. It didn't seem to be a very fairy-tale-princess-like title. It sounded more like she was some troll.

Kaylee stopped at a door that was along a very long hallway and opened the door. "Lady Mel, this is your room. I hope you find it to your liking." But as she turned to look at the reaction upon her princess' face, she saw that something was troubling her. "What is troubling you?" She asked with genuine concern in her voice.

Melissa didn't want to ask the question, but she felt she had a right to know, not to mention the fact that it would be bugging her for the rest of the night if she didn't find out now. "Kaylee am I the Goblin Princess?" she asked quickly.

To Melissa's surprise, Kaylee merely laughed. "No Mel, your title is the Princess of the Labyrinth. There is only a Goblin King. His Majesty is also the King of the Labyrinth. The Goblin royalty is only for the King because...well...I guess I don't know. It's just always seemed natural to me. But trust me; you are not a Goblin Princess. You are the Princess of the Labyrinth. Now, if there is nothing else you need, then I shall see you in the morning," she told the other girl quickly before stepping out of the room.

Once Kaylee had left the room to Melissa, she turned to examine her new bed room. Her jaw dropped as she looked upon the massive room. It was about half the size of the thrown room, and it looked to have been based completely on her. Each wall had been painted a red wine-color, and although it seemed like it would make the room dark, it didn't. All it did was accentuate the wooden bookcase that took up a large portion of wall on both sides of the door from which she had just entered. From the ceiling hung an elegant chandelier with lights which emitted a sort of magical glow from them that seemed to open up the room even more than it already was. Her bed was placed against the middle of the wall to the right of the wall which held the door that lead to the rest of the castle. Just across from that door was another set of doors, these ones were made of glass and lead to a balcony. That same wall held many windows, letting in the moonlight and the vibrant glow of the many stars that scattered across the night sky. Only a few yards away from her bed, on the same wall, there was a door, which was open to reveal a large bathroom with a tub that looked more like a pool. Across from this wall, another was adorned with pictures and portraits of Melissa, her family, and her friends. There were some that went back as far as to her early childhood at Christmas time, and some that were very recent. There was even a portrait of her giving her speech at her graduation. She wondered how they had managed to paint that in so little time, but she expected that magic was involved somehow.

Melissa managed to snap out of her marveled state and walk over to a vanity similar to her mother's old one, but this one was centered around her. It was made of a soft tan-colored wood with a large circular mirror that was taller than she was just above the desk at its base. The top of the desk was a smooth, dark blue marble, but every other aspect of it – save the handles on the drawers – was made of wood. The drawer handles were the same blue marble with small diamonds encrusted along the edges.

Melissa reached out with a hesitant hand to open one of the drawers. The whole desk just looked too precious to touch. When she opened the top left drawer, she saw that in it was a tiara that looked to be a cross from the one her mother had worn and the one she had worn in the portrait above Jareth's thrown. It was silver and had a large, heart-shaped ruby in the centre. Surrounding it were emeralds. Diamonds stationed themselves around the emeralds with petite sapphires accenting the edge of the tiara. It rested on a beautiful, blue velvet pillow. Melissa slowly closed the desk's drawer and yawned heavily. It was still only about one in the morning. She walked over to her bed, which was about the size of her Sarah's entire room in her grandparent's house. She pulled the blankets of different shades of blue down from the pure white pillows and pulled the blankets close around her slender form. Snuggling up to the heavenly pillows, she tried to envision her new life here. But as she thought about the lifestyle a princess would lead in this magical world, she was unaware of the extra presence that stood on the balcony, watching her every move. As the young princess slowly drifted off to sleep, the tall presence smiled and said quietly, "Welcome to the Underground princess."

A/N: Okay, so, hope you like it! I had fun writing it, but I have a homecomming game to go to, so...

TTFN-Ta Ta For Now

Sapphire925