Author's Note: I'm not quite feeling the love here peoples. But that's okay because the story is not leaving me alone. You owe my muse a cookie. It's summer though, so I understand laziness though I cannot indulge in it myself.

Truth?

I couldn't breath. The dizziness passed, but my eyes were still shut. Hands reached instinctively for my throat and closed around a wrist. My eyes fluttered open and met the frozen glare of my enemy. In the background I could see my apartment, though I had no idea how he got me here. Did I faint? I never fainted.

The sudden awareness that he was cutting off my air made itself known with the pounding of my pulse in my head. I clawed at his gloved hand, but he didn't budge. Recalling a move I had seen in a movie, I raised my fist and slammed it down in the crook of his elbow and collapsed on the floor when the nerves of his hand were temporarily stunned and he released me. Gasping, I crawled back on the slippery hardwood of my apartment, trying to force my lungs to work double-time.

His voice was tight with anger. "You foolish mortal, no one has ever struck the Goblin King."

"The Goblin King?" I croaked. "You're no king."

He knelt in front of me. "Do not provoke me further, Mia. You're already walking a fine line, saved only by the fact that no one has wished you away."

"Get out of my home, freak!"

He flicked his fingers and an invisible force lifted me off of the floor and pinned me to the wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see dark shapes crawling beneath my bed, over the refrigerator, and peek out from the cabinets. A smash of china let me know exactly what they were doing in there. Creatures were swarming through my personal spaces and smashing whatever they could reach. Things I had worked hard to aquire. When one of them picked up my DVD player I couldn't help yelling for it to stop. The ugly thing only sneered and dropped it over the edge of my desk. Fuming I tried to break away from whatever had me immobile.

"Damn you! What are you trying to prove?"

"Prove? That I have power over you."

"You have power over my body, but not my mind and all you're proving is that you're a big baby!"

He only smirked at me with his hand still raised. "Ah, ah, now you are the one throwing a tantrum."

I cringed as one of what I could only assume was a goblin, began struggling to push my television off of the edge of the bookshelf I had put it on. My landlord would be complaining about all this noise. "Stop it! Just stop it!"

The man, Goblin King, drew a glass ball from the air and tossed it in the direction of my last piece of intact electronic equipment. It froze in midair. "Ready to admit my power over you?"

I hissed, "You have no power-"

Before I could finish, he pressed a leather covered finger over my mouth. "Don't finish that sentence."

The look in his eyes was a strange mix of sorrow, pain, and… guilt? Surprise made me comply with his quite request. Instead I asked a question of my own. "Is this how you treat her?"

Whatever held me against the wall vanished. I stumbled over to my bed and sat down. I didn't know why I felt almost obligated to help this unnatural person with his love life. There was some subconscious connection that I just could not drag to the surface. The hoard of goblins slowly emerged from their various hiding place and swarmed around their king, yellow eyes staring. I tried to ignore them, focusing solely on the crimson and midnight figure over them. On my island of sanity, I waited, knocking away any creature that dared to try and climb up on my bed with a pillow. Finally he spoke, thoughtfully and with slow deliberation.

"I have decided that love is a disease, an infection of the body. It makes an individual irrational - they do things they would never do – think things they would usually never consider – want things," He turned his fierce gaze on me. "Want things we would never want."

I didn't want to dwell on his implications and pushed on. "But you love her?"

"Yes, as much as it pains me to say."

"Then you have it all wrong. Love is something beautiful. It gives peace and security. It gives comfort. It is a cooperation between individuals. But if you've built everything on lust, then that will never work. Lust is selfish and that will drive things out of control."

He smiled crookedly at me. "You lust after me, don't you? I can feel it, see it. Why not act on it if it means nothing."

My face was most likely bright red, but I pushed my nerves aside. "Because with us 'humans' the meaning is not only in the act but in what emotions and thoughts go on behind it. If you 'cheat' then you break trust. Love is built on trust."

He took a slow step towards me and I hugged my pillow in defense. "No one is here, we're alone, and no one need know."

Raising an eyebrow, I pointed at the gathering at his feet. He sighed and ordered, "Move, you pathetic animals. Go back to the Underground."

They all scattered with screeches and chattering, giving me just enough time to recover from their king's proposal. I had to avoid looking at him as I answered, "I may find you attractive, but I won't act on it because I know that you are interested in someone else. I don't want to invest in a doomed relationship. There's too much hurt involved. Besides," I played with my rings. "You're just looking for something to hang over my head – like the story of that king who lived with a sword hanging over his head on a thread."

He kept advancing till he was right in front of me, hands pressed into the mattress on either side of me. "You've already given me the sword with you're little confession."

I turned my face away, knowing that retreating would only show more weakness. "But I won't let you use it for your sake and mine. You'll be betraying her."

"Look at me." He commanded.

I closed my eyes in silent defiance. He grabbed my chin and forced my head to tilt up. "Look at me, Mia."

I opened my eyes and glared up into those fascinatingly dual colored eyes. I remembered more now – this man who had made me play his game to rescue my sister. I had succeeded, I knew that had to have happened if he had let me go, but I didn't remember how. Going by his past behavior, he was a sore loser. But for some unfathomable reason, he had come to me for help. At this point, I didn't really care why, I just wanted it to be over and done with. If he was serious about being in love with this unknown girl, he would have to take what I said with an adult attitude and get over this petty lording. He started to smile in triumph before I voiced my second revelation about him.

"You know what your problem is? You take too much for granted."

That startled him. "What?"

"You take for granted that that woman will take you as you are – spoiled, selfish, and arrogant. You take for granted that everyone will simply bow to your command, or that you can force them to with your magic, like you pinned me to the wall. But that's not true." I pulled my chin out of his hand. "You say you love her, you could give her everything you want, anything she wants, but what if she wants nothing? What if she wants to be left alone after what you did. Are you powerful enough to just let her go?"

He jerked away from me and turned his back. "She would never want that."

"How do you know? By the record, she's been saying 'no.' Can't you take a hint?"

"I've seen it in her dreams. I've heard her voice, the longing that she hides."

He had taken her dreams too? Just as he had taken mine? She had won the game?

"Then why would she be refusing you?"

He frowned over his shoulder at me but I continued. "Perhaps it isn't enough that you're the Goblin King." I raised an eyebrow. "What is your name anyway?"

He looked rather peeved that I didn't know. "Jareth. And you're saying that I have to change for her whims? But I'm the Goblin King!"

I shrugged. "Love changes people, like you said. If there is love between you two, then you'll change, and she'll change to make your relationship work, or perhaps you'll find that it doesn't work. One way or another, it's a dangerous game – one that you have to be willing to lose if that is what your partner wants."

He stared at me for a long moment. I sighed internally. Really I had no emotional background in this field. Everything was based on observation and logic. The last time I had given him 'advice' it had led into this mess. Well, maybe this time it could lead me out of it. His face was carefully blank as he leaned over me and I mentally cursed the blush on my face.

"Mia, you are quite a fascinating individual. If there hadn't been Sarah, I think I might have been interested in you."

Sarah?

All the memories came back - the party, the storytelling, the Labyrinth that Sarah Williams had recited, the wishing, and the race. I had won, but barely. I had nearly lost my life in the process and I had sworn never to be spiteful towards Min again, and then she had been killed. After everything, I lost her again, and that time there would be no last words to bring her back.

"You have no power over me." I whispered.

Jareth only smiled sadly. "No, I do not. There are only a few who have beaten me, and how coincidental that two met by chance at a birthday gathering. It had been quite some time since I had felt such a pull of imagination." He gently kissed me on the forehead. "You made me truly feel like the Goblin King when you gave up your dreams for your sister."

He stepped away and twisted his wrist, rolling a crystal over his fingertips. I felt something wet on my face and realized I was crying. Jareth gracefully flipped the sphere in my direction and I held out my hand to catch it. Blissful darkness descended once again.

Author's Note: One more chapter, I do believe. I hope this chapter is satisfactory. I know it was a lot of talking, but there was a lot to be said. Please review!