"Where there is no imagination, there is no horror."

-Arthur Conan Doyle

Ben absolutely adored trick-or-treating. All the candy, the scary and funny decorations, and other cool kids dressing up would become one of his fondest memories.

He went with a group of friends with Mommy and Uncle Toby not too far behind. Halloween is the best holiday, full of so much fun. A few days ago, they had gone to a school party where they played games and made other cool decorations, telling scary stories. He told his friends the story of the Goblin King taking babies, but then added that it was just a story.

The real Goblin King was much nicer and granted wishes.

"Hey, Ben!"

Ben turned and saw Iglepus the goblin among the group of children. "Iglepus!" He waved.

"Can't stay long," he told Ben. "I has present for you."

He gave him a shiny rock. "I founds this in garden, Kingy says that I can keeps it!"

"Cool!" Ben said, taking the rock and plunking it in his jack-o'-lantern bucket. "Do you want some candy?"

"Yeah!" He started to reach into the bucket, but Ben pulled it back.

"Nuh uh, you get them yourself!" Ben wagged a finger at him the way his school teacher would. "Go to a house and say 'trick or treat' and they'll give you candy."

"If they don't give me candy, I can give them trick, right?" Iglepus snickered excitedly.

"No, you have to say thank you!" Ben said in horror. "If they don't answer, go to another house."

"That's no fun!" Iglepus pouted. "And I don't has lots of time!"

"Okay, one." Ben held out his bucket. "Are you allergic to peanut butter? Mommy says I need to ask before giving snacks."

Iglepus never heard of allergies before, so he said "Nope!"

"Okay." Ben gave him a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. "These are my favorite!"

"Yay, thank you, Ben!" Iglepus put the whole thing in his mouth, wrappers and all. He gagged. "Bleh, tastes like plastic."

"You're supposed to take the wrapper off," Ben said, facepalming. "Gross!"

"Well, you didn't tell me!" Iglepus stuck his whole hand in the bucket, grabbing a handful. "Bye now!"

"Hey!" Ben shouted, chasing after Iglepus. "That's mine!"

He zig-zagged among the other children with bright costumes, chasing the goblin until he found himself away from the brightly-lit houses and into a forest with dark trees. He had no idea how he got here, and it was way more spooky than it seemed in the movies.

"Woah!" He tripped on a branch, his hands breaking the fall and preserving his face. He felt something warm and wet, instantly knowing that there was blood on his hands.

He started to cry. He was so scared and it was so cold. The darkness closed in on him and he swore that he heard growls in the trees.

"Iglepus? Mommy? Uncle Toby?" He said quietly, hoping that somehow by just mentioning their names, they would come and rescue him. "Mommy?"

Sarah couldn't see Ben anymore. First, she saw him with a group of friends, talking to them, it seemed. She gave him some space. When she turned for one second to talk to look at Toby and when she turned back, he was gone.

"Ben?" She called. Then a little louder. "Ben!"

No answer. Among the children, she couldn't see her lightsaber-wielding son in his Jedi costume.

Panic settled in and she frantically tried to not bump into any of the tiny trick-or-treaters. "BEN!"

Toby was at her side, having just tried and fantastically failing at flirting with one very pretty Wonder Woman from one of his classes. "Sarah?"

"Where's Ben?" She looked around, feeling sick. "Oh god, where is he?"

"Calm down-"

"I will not!"

Toby put two of his hands up, hoping to placate her. "He's probably around here or at a house. It's okay, we'll find him. Deep breaths."

"I have to, I can't lose him," she pleaded with Toby, her voice breaking. "I can't lose him too. Please."

Ben shivered. His hands hurt so bad, and the trees seemed to make frightening faces at him. What if monsters came after him? Grampy had told him that monsters weren't real, but Ben wasn't exactly sure how true that was, considering that he also said that magic wasn't real.

Magic. There was someone who could help him after all.

"Goblin King?" He said out loud, a bit bolder than when he called out for his mother and uncle. "Help me!"

He bowed his head and cried, thinking that if he couldn't see the monsters, then they wouldn't see him.

He flinched when something touched his back, recoiling until he realized the motions were the slow from a gentle hand.

"Benjamin?" The Goblin King's low voice asked. "Why are you out here alone?"

He looked up, happy to see a familiar face full of concern and kindness. "I'm lost." He held up his hands. "I hurt my hands."

The king got down on his knees, closer to Ben's level and inspected his hands. "Oh my, that's a lot of bleeding." He made a crystal, transforming it into a piece of fabric. He picked off bits of leaves and dirt, cleaning it.

"Ow!" Ben cried, tears still falling from his face.

"Almost done," the king said, trying to soothe him. "You are very brave and doing a fantastic job at staying still. Now, what are you doing here all alone?"

"Iglepus stole my candy, so I chased him." He winced, feeling dizzy at the sight of blood. It looked so cool on costumes but so scary when it was real. He buried his face in the king's shirt, sobbing a little.

"Iglepus?" The king sighed, conjuring some water and pouring it over Ben's hands. He tied a new, clean cloth over his hands. "I will have a chat with him about stealing and make sure you are compensated. I am his king, after all."

Ben didn't really care about that at the moment. He was just scared. He crawled into the king's lap. "Are the monsters going to hurt me, Mister Jareth?"

The king smiled at the mention of his new name. "No monsters will hurt you. Not when I'm here. You, my dear Benjamin, are always entitled to my protection. Always and forever."

Ben snuggled into him even more, saying nothing. Just felt safe in the arms of this otherworldly man.

Sarah turned on her flashlight, hoping to see Ben's lightsaber glowing in the background.

"Sarah, he's not going to be out here," Toby panted.

"How do you know? Maybe someone kidnapped him!" She snapped at him. "Either help me or stay the fuck out of my way."

"Jeez, you don't need to say that!" Toby snapped back. "Of course I'll help, he's my nephew!"

"Good, then shut up and actually help me!"

Toby shined his flashlight in the direction opposite of Sarah's. Nothing so far. He was about to tell her to search somewhere else or ask more people when he saw a creature scurrying. One with a strange face and strange, leathery skin.

He couldn't believe it. "Oh my god, it's real!" he said in shock.

"What are you talking about?" Sarah demanded.

Toby didn't answer, just went off sprinting off after the creature.

"Toby? What is it?!" Sarah groaned, taking off after him. "God, my knees! I'm getting too old for this shit."

Toby halted abruptly when he saw the little creature zoom by and stand next to a man wearing a dark sort of armor and a long black cape, a lightsaber on the leaf floor and a tiny Jedi in his arms. The man could have been dressed for Halloween as some sort of magical creature, but something in his stern eyes told him that there was something else about him. He fought the urge to go down on one knee and declaring fealty.

"Kingy?" The little creature next to him asked.

The "Kingy" ignored the creature, turning towards Toby.

Right then, Sarah reached him. "Toby, why did you-"

She stopped, eyes wide.

Sarah had to be dreaming. Yes, this was a dream. A horrible nightmare. Maybe one that she should tell her new therapist about. That was the only explanation for seeing a man of her imagination holding her son. A man with feathery-blond hair and piercing blue eyes that followed her wherever she went.

But this didn't feel like a nightmare. "Put my son down, right now," she said with as much conviction and calm anger as possible. "You can't have him."

Ben moved his face from the Goblin King's shirt. "Mommy! Uncle Toby!" He ran into Sarah's outstretched arms. She sobbed, cradling him close to her.

"What is that thing?" Toby pointed at the small creature.

The Goblin King folded his arms, looking most displeased at them. "That thing is my subject, a goblin. Who helped you find us, might I add."

"Thanks Evie," Ben said to her.

"Yer welcome, Benny!" She waved, her mouth stretching into a large smile.

"And, I'm not here to take him," the king said with contempt. "At least the child has better manners than you two."

Sarah wasn't offended, just confused. The king didn't even look annoyed, more hurt. Why would he be hurt? "You won't take him? Why?"

He huffed. "Believe it or not, I don't make a habit of kidnapping random children. Don't forget, you were the one who made that wish."

She looked down the ground, still wrapping her head around the fact that there was a sliver of a chance that this man wasn't her imagination, but very real. She didn't really know what to say, so she said what she would say to someone who wasn't an-imaginary-king-who-actually-wasn't. "Thank you for bringing him to me."

His eyes softened at her, his features relaxing and no longer menacing. The energy around him calmed and he bowed his head. "You're welcome, Sarah."

He disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a shower of glitter.

After checking Ben's injuries (and finding that the Goblin King very good at administering first aid), Sarah put him to bed. Her mind was still whirling with the fact that she hadn't been making things up. That the Goblin King was real.

Shit. What was she going to say to her therapist now?

Toby settled himself on the couch, waiting for her. Sarah sat on the opposite side, looking up at the ceiling. "That was a rather… really intense night, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "That's putting it simply. So you knew that magic and all those creatures are real?"

She shrugged. "Yes and no. I thought they were figments of my imagination."

"And he knows you. You've met him?"

"Yes."

Clearly, Sarah wasn't going to elaborate on her own, so he pushed her farther. "What happened?"

She contemplated on what to do. Maybe she should just leave it be. Maybe she should shove it down to the recess of her mind, pretending that it didn't happen.

But, what good would that do? At least now, she could tell someone what she had experienced. Someone who loved her, cared for her, and wouldn't think she was crazy.

Perhaps, it was time to revisit her past. "It's a long story, you okay with that?"

Toby nodded. "Yeah, go for it."

"For context, know that while it's not an excuse, I was 16 and a brat during that time…"

By the time Sarah finished telling her story, Toby had gone from looking baffled to something of a relief. "I thought I was crazy because I would 'remember' something about these goblins but didn't know what. It's a relief to know that I'm not crazy, although I was really young. How did I remember? I couldn't have been older than two."

"Magic, maybe?" Sarah shrugged, glad that she could open to her brother about this. "I don't know why my friends never called back. I thought it was all a dream." She gave him a sheepish smile. "Sorry for wishing you away."

"You realize I'll never let you forget this, right?" Toby winked, then sobered up. "For real though, you've more than made up for it. You didn't give up when it got difficult and you did it for me."

Sarah put a hand on his arm. "And I'd do it all over again."

"God damn it, you're going to make me cry," Toby rubbed at his eye teasingly, though Sarah could see a little tear in it. "What do we do now though? I mean about the goblin king?"

Sarah bit the inside of her cheek. "I don't know. I mean, he's not exactly human and I don't know what the extent of his powers are."

"Do you think he's dangerous?"

She pondered on that question. She really should have said yes without hesitation, but something held her back.

Knowing now that he was real and that he saved Ben, did he have something to do with her dreams being nicer? Or was it a coincidence? And if he did, was it all for an ulterior motive?

"Yes," she settled at last. "I mean, I don't want to just assume he has bad intentions, but we don't know. I think he's fae and the faerie or anyone magic really abide by their own set of rules."

"Like what?"

"Like those stories of fairies having power over you if you give them your name. Or making bargains with them. There's stories that say the fae aren't allowed to lie so they twist their words somehow. Regardless of his intentions, he's very powerful and I'm afraid that he may retaliate somehow for me beating him at his own game. Who knows what he's really like or how proud he is?"

"You think this is revenge?"

"I don't know, I'm just saying I don't want to rule it out."

"So what are we supposed to do about this?"

"Research."

"Right." Toby slapped his hand across his forehead in mock epiphany. "Yes, let's just stroll into the library and tell them that we have a magical fairy king-"

"Goblin King."

"-and ask for how we can get protection. Sarah, are you even listening to yourself?"

"Do you have a better idea?" She folded her arms.

Toby shrugged. "No, I guess not. But what if we offend him? Won't that make it worse?"

"It could, yeah." Sarah didn't know what to do anymore, and she was close to completely losing her mind. "How about this? We'll just try to research on stuff. That's it. And we should be extra vigilant in where Ben is at all times, just in case. My mom's family knows a lot about faerie lore, I was practically raised on them but kind of disregarded them during my adventure, or whatever you want to call it."

With that, they both went to bed. Sarah went into Ben's room, giving him a kiss on the head and placed the baby monitor on his nightstand. Then, she changed her mind and laid on the floor next to him. An hour later, Toby came in, joining her. They said nothing to each other, just nodded in solidarity, knowing what the other was thinking:

Just in case.

Jareth is here! And you're going to see a lot more of him soon! I wrote this story with the idea that I would publish it during fall or something like that but life gets in the way lol, so I apologize for having a Halloween chapter here if reading this out of season is weird for you but oh well lol. Thanks for sticking around and reviews are appreciated as always!