Allowing Sarah to grow without him was proving to be one of the most difficult things Jareth had ever done.
Of course, she didn't miss his presence in her life at all. He had become nothing more to her than an imaginary friend she left behind when she grew out of childhood. She moved on without him, unaffected, simply believing that she had grown out of a phase of her life.
It was somehow worse than being forgotten. She did remember him to an extent, but only thought him to be a product of her imagination.
He had become nothing more to her than a fairy tale.
Jareth threw another crystal against the stone wall with a roar of rage. He had been watching her. Again.
"They're messing her up," he hissed. His eyes, simmering with rage, fixated on a single goblin who began to cower and shake before him.
"W-who? Sire?" the creature squeaked.
"Her parents," Jareth spat the word. If he didn't care for them before, he despised them now. They had gone through with the divorce and had dragged their daughter through the mud in the process. Her mother had been especially terrible.
Linda had at first tried gaining custody of Sarah. Purely for monetary gain in child support, Jareth was sure. To sway Sarah in choosing to live with her, Linda had showered her with gifts and, even more precious to the young girl, attention. Sarah's mother had started speaking to her daughter more, taking her out on "mother-daughter" outings, and acting genuinely interested in Sarah's happy ramblings.
Then, Linda got a boyfriend. The fact that she was still legally married wasn't what peeved Jareth, but it was her quick turnaround. Now that the vile woman had a rich and famous beau, she decided she no longer needed custody of young Sarah.
So Linda completely cut the young girl out of her life.
Jareth had just witnessed Sarah receive a letter from her mother. She had read its contents again and again, her mouth agape and disbelieving. Linda was leaving for Hollywood.
And she was not going to take Sarah with her.
If Jareth had thought the pull at the time Sarah learned about her parents' divorce had been especially strong, he was not prepared for what followed this betrayal.
His magic sizzled in his veins. The pull was so incredibly, impossibly strong Jareth nearly destroyed his body trying to resist it. His fingers dug into the armrests of his throne so tightly he cracked and splintered the wood. A cold sweat broke out over the King's brow as he struggled against his own magic.
The magic that was trying so desperately to reach out to answer Sarah's silent plea.
Finally, when the pull subsided (no doubt because young Sarah had cried herself to sleep) Jareth collapsed to the ground.
Unconscious.
When he finally came to, perhaps a few hours after he had collapsed, Jareth's eyes opened to view a rather unpleasant sight.
A goblin was peering into his face at such close proximity Jareth could distinguish the layers of dirt that covered its face. It was yelling something at him, too.
"Kingsy? Kingsy O-K? Why Kingsy fall down?"
"Get away from me," he groaned. He had hoped to sound a bit more demanding, but found simply speaking was painful to him.
Finding his way to his chamber had been an absolute nightmare. His magic was completely drained from his body, leaving him withered and weak. The trek to his bed proved to be more exhausting than a thirteen hour run through his labyrinth.
When the King did finally collapse into his impossibly soft bedding, his consciousness quickly escaped him once again.
He spent the next month recovering.
Though the only reason it took so long to recover from this massive expenditure of energy was because it was repeatedly tapped into over the course of this time.
Luckily for Jareth, he was passed out cold the next few times Sarah's pull called to him. These pulls were especially strong due to the freshness of Sarah's hurt. However, when he did wake, he once again had to use what was left of his strength to fight against the magic that longed to answer Sarah's unconscious pleas.
After that month, Sarah's pain had subsided a bit and Jareth was once again able to restore his magic and his strength. He was relieved.
That was, until he summoned a crystal to look upon his dear Sarah.
What he saw caused the breath to stall and his heart to cease its beating for a long, painful moment.
He saw it. In her eyes, always brimming with curiosity, wonder, and happiness, there was now pain.
Jareth watched it all. He watched every time she felt betrayed, looked-over, forgotten, and invisible. Jareth watched as the pain in her eyes grew and grew until it dominated her.
He watched and despaired.
Finally, on the day Sarah's father and stepmother began dressing the nursery, Jareth was granted permission to lead Sarah into the next phase of the test.
As Sarah stormed into her room slammed her door, it appeared on her bed. When she unknowingly threw herself upon it and discovered it, she would read its title aloud.
"Labyrinth."
Jareth inhaled slowly as he watched her within his crystal. Then, he turned his gaze to the window outside his throne room. He looked upon his labyrinth and knew that soon it would have its champion.
And he would have his princess.