Disclaimer: See Chapter One

How To Dispose of IT

Jareth stared at the girl-child in his arms as he sat upon his throne. She was sound asleep and as he watched her, he wondered, 'now what?' He looked out about his throne room as he thought.

Linda had solved the Labyrinth, so he could not turn the child over to the Goblins, he simply wasn't allowed to. Furthermore, he had no real fondness for children, being a bachelor, nor a patient enough temper to deal with a child of this age. In all truth, he was at a bit of a loss.

He glanced down at his little problem who was still sleeping very soundly. She such a pretty child, little over a year old, a bit of black hair on her soft skull, she'd look like her mother when she was older. Jareth smiled before the more frightening thought hit him –she might turn out to be exactly like her mother, in which case he did not want to be anywhere near her. He should have her killed... No, he looked at the child again, he could not do that to her, he wasn't some faerie... he shuddered at the thought of what would happen to her if she were in their claws. No, he was definitely not a Faerie.

The child's eyes opened and she watched him silently. She almost seemed to know that he was, at that very moment, deciding her fate. Her bright green-blue eyes stared up at him. Suddenly a strange chill shot up his spine, the room he was in vanished before his eyes. It took him a moment to realize where he was; the confrontational chamber, the very place he'd been with Linda only a few Moments ago.

"Give me the child!" A calm, soft voice spoke. Jareth glanced down to meet a pair of bright and determined green eyes. It took Jareth a moment to realize that the eyes were in a face, a pale face, with delicate features.

At first he thought the girl before him was a younger version of Linda. Then he realized that it could not be. Linda's eyes were a blue-ish grey-violet color, and her hair fell in soft waves, the girl before him had hair that was almost perfectly straight. Moreover, Linda had a hardness about her, a harshness that belied a horrible coldness within. The girl before him seemed to give off warmth, light, and innocence, so much so that she seemed intoxicating.

The vision faded. Jareth was once again sitting on his throne holding Linda's girl-child and wondering what had just happened. His mind had fallen into a state of anarchy as questions rose only to be swallowed by more questions. 'Who was she?', 'How was she able to infiltrate his mind?', 'Was there something wrong with the flow of time and space?', 'How old was she? She looked quite young and pretty.', 'Was he feeling lust for her… love?', 'How was he going to find her?', 'He needed to check the stacks for other similar instances, didn't he?', 'But there's no such thing as love, is there?'

Though the pieces had not all fallen into place it was clear to him that this was very important, possibly life threatening, and had something to do with his destiny. His fate as ruler of the Goblin Kingdom either was in danger or was about to be modified. Only one thing was painfully clear, he had to find her.

Sarah, meanwhile, had fully awoken from her mostly untroubled sleep. She did not have the slightest clue as to what was happening now; she had her own needs to worry about. Firstly, she was awake; therefore, she wanted attention and food. She looked up at the funny man and started trying to grab at his hair so that she could see if it was in any way edible. It proved not to be. She gurgled impatiently and whined a bit in a way that clearly threatened tears and tantrum.

After a short while, Sarah, under the very correct impression that it was being ignored, began to cry. She had no intention of stopping until she got food and lots of attention. She had become quite aware of the fact that the person who usually provided was not present. Naturally, she was a bit peeved about this, but supposed (If children of that age can suppose) that the Funny haired man would have to do.

Jareth was startled out of his trance by the sound of crying, on instinct, went into "Goblin King" mode. It wasn't long before his mind began to make a sort of to do list. The first thing that he had to do was get rid of the child. The second thing that he had to do was research. Something was going on that he wasn't in control of; he hated it when he wasn't in control of a situation. Then, once his resources had given him enough information, he had to find the girl.

He looked down at the girl child again. He could not keep her; there were far too many things that could go wrong with that scenario. The Goblins couldn't raise her; they could barely look after themselves. He felt the Labyrinth brush gently against his conscience. Jareth blinked in surprise, the Labyrinth rarely did anything to help him, he was its prisoner and its master and they were not fond of the other. What did it think it was doing?

It came to him very suddenly, the idea. He'd never been aware of the fact that the Labyrinth could enter his mind, but it looked like it wanted to be of help. There was a small village just outside the labyrinth; a couple who lived on the outskirts of the village who were childless; who, by pure coincidence had lost a child just last night. He could give her to them, and she would be their problem.

He sighed and looked down at the child and felt himself pause… why did he not want to do this? This was part of his plan, wasn't it? He didn't need to think on this any longer. In an instant he was standing before the cottage in his most imposing robes, child in one arm. He'd have to be tactful, after all the woman had just lost a child of her own flesh and blood. This one was only a replacement, and only until he found use for it. He approached the door and knocked. All the while the something within him was howling about what a stupid idiot he was being; desperately trying to tell Jareth to question how much power that the Labyrinth truly had over him. He, of course, wasn't listening.