Disclaimer: I still do not own the Labyrinth. Damn lawyers.


Rose's eyes grew wide. "The Goblin King? You…you want me to summon him?" She pictured the black clad figure from her visions, and worried that this small room wasn't large enough to contain him.

Sarah cocked her head to the side, taking Rose's hand in her own. "You're not afraid of him?" She asked, not waiting for the answer. "He's the last person you should ever be afraid of."

"Why not?" Rose demanded, annoyed that her irrational fears had been found out. "He's a scary guy. That's what he does. And if all you needed was for someone else to summon him, why didn't you just do that when you were still alive." She was a little put out when Sarah appeared to change the subject.

"Destiny is a lot like us, Rose. She's stubborn, and she likes to have her own way. When her plans are changed, when someone stumbles down the wrong path, it creates a domino effect that could continue on forever if destiny didn't step in to contain it. She moves things around, makes subtle changes here and there. Closes doors and opens new ones."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked, intrigued despite herself. If you're having a conversation with a ghost, she reasoned, you might as well go with the flow.

Sarah stood and began pacing in a way that reminded Rose of her Physics teacher trying to teach the basics of string theory to a bunch of sixteen year olds. "For instance, say two people were meant to find each other, but for some reason that destiny was changed. It would of course affect any children they were destined to have together. But those children must be born, or the effects continue to spread. Therefore, destiny will choose the next most logical place to bring those children into the world, somewhere that will bring the timeline closer to its original path, rather than push it farther away." Sarah looked pointedly at Rose, but her curt nod indicated that while the girl understood the words, the deeper meaning she was trying to convey still eluded her. So she continued.

"Sometimes a person that was meant to die in childhood will live a little longer if it will help to repair the timeline. It's all a means to bring things back to where they were meant to be, Rose. Nothing ever happens that doesn't happen for a reason, even if we can't see it at the time. Eventually, when things are close enough to where they were meant to be, destiny begins to open doors that were closed before."

While Rose may not have been able to grasp everything that Sarah was trying to tell her, she understood the last part clearly. "That's why you want to summon the Goblin King now. It was too soon before, not enough had been repaired. You think they have now, and you want to know what doors are open for you."

Sarah smiled, and closed her eyes as a sudden and unexpected rush of peace washed over her. "I can't be certain, but I have hope. Do you think you can put aside your fear and help me?"

Rose put her chin in the air defiantly. "Tell me what I need to do." She said bravely.

"You know the stories, Rose. All you have to do is wish me away." Sarah told her, gliding backwards and into the shadows.

Rose's brow furrowed in confusion. "That's it? You think that will work? I wish you away, he takes you, and we all live happily ever after?"

From the shadows Rose heard Sarah's ghostly laugh. "It's too late for me to live, happily or otherwise. And no, I don't think he can take me, but I also don't think he can resist a call from you. He'll come; his curiosity will bring him here."

"Oh. Okay then." She didn't really understand, but she thought she should get started before her nerve failed her. Her palms were sweaty, and she wiped them on her jeans before she spoke again. She stood nervously, gave a quick glance toward Sarah who nodded reassuringly, and began speaking clearly into the air. "Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be. Take this..er…aunt of mine far away from me."

She cringed a little as she finished, waiting for him to burst into the room, but the only sound was Sarah's laughter. "Leave it to Toby to tell you the book's version of the wish." She said, still laughing.

Rose threw her hands in the air in defeat. "So what was I supposed to say?" She asked, a little indignantly. Before Sarah could answer, a small voice came from under the bed.

"I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now, that's not so hard is it?"

Rose blinked nervously, looking around her. She was startled to see traces of movement in nearly every corner of the room. She looked back at Sarah, who only shrugged. Clearing her throat, her gaze directed at Sarah, she spoke once more, this time using the words that had been given to her from beneath the bed. "I wish the Goblins would come and take you away right now!"

Suddenly there was an eruption of movement all around the room. The goblins milled about, attempting fruitlessly to grant the wish. Rose jumped back on the bed and pulled her legs up to her chin, watching in horrified fascination as they met each other in the center of the room, at least two dozen of them, and looked around in confusion. Then in unison they all turned their attention to Rose, shrugged their little armored shoulders, and disappeared. Rose would have sworn she heard a faint "Bye bye pretty lady." as they vanished.

"What now?" she asked.

"Now we wait." Sarah answered.


It was dark, so dark even the crystal moon above could barely penetrate it. It was always dark in his keep these days, even when the sunlight poured through the windows, and the lone figure at the overlook rarely moved from it, for fear of stumbling in such intense blindness. In his gloved fingers a crystal spun, and though this crystal like all others before it burned brightly with dancing images of life beyond these walls, it was dark to him as well. The crystals never showed him what he wanted to see.

A heavy sigh escaped his thin lips, and he leaned his head back against the stone wall. His labyrinth lay out before him, shining like a gem in the moonlight. It had once been the seat of his pride, his most cherished possession. Now he despised it, as he despised all things that reminded him of her. And everything reminded him of her.

The dreams had awakened him again. He often dreamt of things that had passed, and of things that should have been. Tonight he had dreamt of the girl; a beautiful red haired girl with her mother's eyes, sitting on her father's throne. Beneath his breath he cursed in seven languages. It wasn't enough that he was denied the happiness that should have been his, but to constantly be reminded of it in his sleep was a torture he could not bear.

He knew he should stand, prepare himself, make himself ready to present the challenge. He had felt the familiar stirrings a few minutes ago, the tug of someone with enough energy to wish someone to him attempting to do just that. She had gotten the words to the spell wrong of course, nearly everyone did at first. But his goblins had hurried to her side to be sure she found the right ones. He could always count on them for that. They were very diligent in that particular duty, perhaps too diligent.

If only he could have stopped them that night, kept them from giving her the words. But it was no use blaming them, no use blaming her. Everything that had happened had been his own fault. Perhaps it was the price of being as powerful as he was, knowing his own destiny before it happened. He couldn't resist seeing the girl long before he should have. And once he had seen her, he couldn't resist giving her the dreams, subtly insinuating himself into her mind.

The book, that damned, cursed book. He had left it for her in the park. He had meant only to say hello, in his own way, to give her a way to get to know him a little before they actually met. He had no idea what his interference would do. It was all his own damned fault, and how he suffered for it.

He had been alone for centuries, millennia, but had never felt lonely. He had known that his heart was meant for someone, and that she would appear eventually, and that had been enough. Now he was still alone, nothing had changed, yet the loneliness and emptiness he felt was unbearable. There was nothing for him now, and no one. The weight of such loneliness was taking its toll on him. He had aged a little more each day since he had lost her. His eyes, which had shone for millennia with power and magic and majesty were now as dim as the crystals he spun.

The Goblin King was dying.

He began to feel the tug again, the call of a wisher. This time she would have the correct words, he was certain. Her voice rang clearly in his mind, and though there was nothing to distinguish it from the thousands that had come before her, something about it caught his attention. A slight tingle at the back of his neck, what was left of his intuition telling him that there was something different about this one.

He stood, changing his clothing with a wave of his hand as he climbed onto the ledge of the overlook, preparing to take his owl form. Before he could do so his goblins rushed in the door behind him, and he turned around to glare at them.

"Well?" he asked, hands on hips. "Where is the child?"

"There was no child, Sire." One of the larger goblins answered.

"What do you mean there was no child?" He sighed, over the years he had seen many things wished away, puppies, snakes, a couple of alligators, even a science fair project. They weren't taken, of course, and any subsequent wishes were ignored.

"She uh…she wished away a ghost." The goblin answered.

Jareth raised an eyebrow. This was new. "A ghost?" He asked, genuinely intrigued. "You mean as in an earthbound spirit?"

The goblins glanced around at each other, and when the general consensus was a mass of bobbing heads he answered "Yes, Sire."

Jareth stepped down from the overlook, his hand on his chin. "I see." He said, mainly to himself. Normally he would just ignore the wish. He took wished away children, living breathing children. But if this girl had wished away a ghost, she must be truly frightened, frightened enough to call on the Goblin King for aid. Perhaps for no other reason than this he would have felt compelled to answer the call.

But there had also been something about this wisher that seemed special, now even more so. He felt the tingle at the back of his neck again, and he had the sense that he was standing on the brink of something important. Without a word of explanation to the goblins behind him, he stepped back onto the overlook and jumped off, transforming instantly into a snow white owl and sailing off into the night.


With the departure of the goblins and eerie silence had crept over the room. Rose was suddenly very conscious of the fact that it had gotten dark and she had yet to turn on a light. And despite the camaraderie that had developed between them, the fact that she was sharing the room with the ghost of a girl who had killed herself over thirty years ago was suddenly very much on her mind. She spoke mindlessly, only to break the deafening quiet.

"Do you really think he'll come?" But Sarah paid no attention. The ethereal light that had at least brought some brightness to the room had faded to almost nothing, and Rose might have thought Sarah's presence gone, if not for the ghostly humming that had begun to fill the room. Rose shivered in spite of herself. The melody was haunting. Though she had never heard it before, some phantom familiarity made her heart ache. For no reason she could think of, she found herself fighting back tears. She shook herself to clear her head. "Sarah!" she whispered harshly.

The apparition began to glow once more, and Rose saw her ghostly eyes open. "Yes?" she asked, as though she had only just noticed that Rose was there. The humming, Rose noted, had stopped.

"I said, do you really think he'll come?"

Sarah smiled knowingly. "Don't you feel it?" she asked cryptically. "The door is opening."

Rose could not deny that she felt something. There was a kind of pull, like the current of an invisible river, flowing just beneath the surface of reality. She tried to understand it, tried to reach out and touch it with her mind, but her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of a sudden storm that had broken the peace of the night sky.

A flash of lighting followed by an ominous roll of thunder shook the house, and Rose could hear the wind bending the trees beyond the window. Suddenly terrified, she screamed at the unfamiliar sound of wings fluttering against glass. Sarah's ghostly eyes sparked in the glare of the storm outside, and her voice was thick with anticipation as she spoke.

"He's here."


AN: Okay, okay, I lied. One more chapter after this. Just one, and it will probably be short. I hope you are still enjoying this story. Thank you all for the lovely reviews, and please leave another. They make me smile, and lately I haven't had much to smile about.