His loud voice shocked and jolted Sarah. His hands yanked away the goblins one by one. She slowly felt more and more relieved as the goblins were deducted from her. Her vision was blurry but she could faintly see the Goblin King frantically pulling the goblins off oh her. She tried to stay awake so she could get a closer look him but the distress she was in took over and Sarah passed out.

The goblins started to realise who was tearing them away from Sarah. Once they found out their king had returned they quickly stopped attacking her. When the violence had stopped all of the goblins fearfully look up at their king. He gazed at them very sternly. He said nothing but his eyes were looking for a response. There was a atmosphere of silence for a few seconds until a high-pitched squeaky voice spoke.

"It was only a bit of fun" one of the more daring goblins said.

"Fun?!" Jareth said sharply as he paced up and down. "Fun?! You find this fun do you? You find it fun to practically beat a young girl to her deathbed. You find it fun to disobey your king just because he cannot confine you. You find it FUN?!"

Jareth was clearly very angry with the goblins. One of them let out a chuckle. Jareth looked at it. It trembled as he picked it up by it's throat. It gulped and shook it's head. Jareth raised his eyebrows and scornfully nodded at him. That nod meant one thing…the Bog Of Eternal Stench!

"Please master, not the Bog Of Eternal Stench!" it begged.

"Oh yes!" he shouted as he shook the goblin vigorously.

Suddenly, a small groan came out of Sarah's mouth who was still unconscious on the floor. Jareth could see that she was in poor health. He dropped the goblin and walked over to Sarah. His gloved hand stroked her hair from her face. She had bruises and scars all over her once immaculate complexion. He looked at her with a neutral stare. Whatever needed to be said between them could wait until tomorrow he thought. He raised her up into his arms while her head instinctively rested beneath his chin. He took her up to a room where should would spend the night to recover.

Sarah awakened in the early hours of the morning the next day. Her eyelids flickered as the sun echoed off of her pastel-painted walls. She lay flat on her back and looked up at the ceiling smiling as she noticed her favourite fairyland poster which she had placed directly above her bed so she could wake up to an enchanted dream every morning. Her butterfly white bed covers smothered her delicate frame.

After a moment of resting in her blanket of consolation she lifted up her body to face the new day. To her astonishment she had woken in the presence of unexpected company. A gigantic hairy ginger beast and a small noble fox with a shy dog fixed their eyes on Sarah's traumatized expression.

Sarah let out a lingering scream.

This startled the creatures so they screamed also.

Sarah screamed again. It was like a interchanging scream-a-thon.

Sarah finally calmed down as she breathed heavily.

"What are you doing here frightening me like that?" she asked. "How did you get in my room without permission.

"Oh, I do apologise my lady" said Sir Didymus.

"Sarah mad?" asked the Ludo.

"No I'm not mad, you just scared me for a second" she said. As much as Sarah adored her friends she felt a little uncomfortable waking up in her night clothes to see their ogling faces.

"Would you like us to leave my lady?" asked Didymus.

Sarah got out of her bed and gave her friends a hug. "Of course I don't want you to leave. Oh, I've missed you so much" she said as she squeezed them tightly. Ludo yelped.

"What's the matter Ludo?" she asked.

"Not anything matter Sarah?" said Ludo. But Sarah could tell he was hiding something.

"I'm sorry if I seemed a little scared back then but I had the strangest dream" she said. "I was in the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth and I was being attacked by thousands of goblins. It was horrible, they almost killed me" she cried.

"It wasn't a dream." Jareth declared as appeared out of nowhere. Sarah turned her head to face him and gazed in bewilderment.

"And don't over-exaggerate Sarah" he continued. "There aren't even a thousand goblins in my castle so there couldn't have possibly been that many assaulting you" he said smugly.

Sarah still stared at him, unable to say a word.

"Surprised to see me are you" Jareth said. "I can't think why? After all it was you who brought me back here, wasn't it?" he looked at her fiercely expecting her to answer.

Sarah looked down at her arms and legs. They were covered in cuts and bruises. The memories of that horrendous event came flooding back to her. She began to feel the pain creep in on her flesh. Her body had never suffered so much pain before. It wasn't a pretty sight. Her battered skin was exposed beneath her scanty nightdress. She cringed as she stroked her wounds. Jareth noticed that she was troubled by her injuries.

"You ought to think yourself lucky" he said. "It was much worse than that yesterday. Thanks to my magic it's helped you heal a lot quicker."

Sarah looked up at him, stunned that he would say something like that. Lucky? How could she possibly be lucky. If it wasn't for the Labyrinth she would have been at home right now without a scratch on her.

"You asked to come here" Jareth said, as if he knew what she was thinking.

She looked up at him. Although she was stark raving mad at him she still found his masculine beauty irresistible. He looked rather well to say he had been stuck as an owl for four years. His radiant complexion was grim yet compelling. His enigmatic eyes told a thousand truths and lies that Sarah could not yet understand. His razor-sharp teeth were enclosed in a long narrow mouth which twitched every now and then indicating that there was humour beyond his seriousness. His ash-blonde, untamed mane sparkled in the sunlight. He was the most captivating man that Sarah had ever seen, and she realised this now more than ever before. Perhaps Sarah's maturity had given her feelings that she never had when she was fifteen, because as much as she hated him she desired to taste his magnificence. As much as she feared him she craved his consolation.

Jareth noticed Sarah's friends who timidly stood in silence looking at them both.

"You, OUT!" he barked.

Sarah watched her animal friends stagger out of her room quickly shutting the door behind them. Something was different about the way Ludo had walked. He seemed like he was breathlessly limping. She wanted to protest against the kings orders but she knew there were much more important things they had to talk about.

"What are you doing here?" she coyly asked.

"I think it should be who is asking you, what are you doing here?"

Sarah was confused. Jareth stretch out his long lean right arm. His black gloved finger pointed to Sarah's bedroom door. The door opened, and Sarah walked up to it. She peeked her head out of the door. And that was when she noticed that the place she was standing in was not her room. It was just an illusion. She was really in Jareth's castle for she could see the murky hallways either side. The door slammed shut make Sarah leap back inside her 'bedroom.'

"I think you and I need to have a little chat don't we…Sarah?" he said grimly.

She looked at Jareth. His face gave away no sign as to how he was feeling and what he was thinking. He paced around her never once turning his eyes away. Sarah was shaking within her soul and as much as she tried to stay calm she was sure he could sense her fear.

"Jareth" she said quietly, not quite sure why she said his name, she had no idea what she should say to him. Jareth stopped pacing and looked at her curiously.

"I…I'm sorry" she said, but as soon as she did she regretted it. Why on earth was she apologising. What had she done wrong.

"For what?" he asked.

She hesitated.

"Look, if I'd have known that me defeating you would have turned you into an owl for eternity then…

"Then what?!" he snapped. "Would you have not said those words? Would you have given up? No! You wouldn't… You should have never wished your brother away in the first place. That's what you should be sorry for."

"In my defence, I didn't think you would actually come and take him!" she yelled.

"Oh you didn't?" he said. She had heard those words before.

"No!" Sarah said angrily. "Not every girl who wishes her brother away expects them to be actually taken by a Goblin King."

"Not every girl knows about the Goblin King."

He was right, Sarah was one of the few girls who knew the story of the Labyrinth. That little red book wasn't available in any ordinary book shop. Sarah was special. The book was almost like a curse to her. How many other girls get so engrossed in a book that they recite the words every day. Sarah spent many a day reading the tale, over and over again.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby . And the baby was a spoiled child, and he wanted everything for himself and the girl was practically a slave.

"But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl and he had given her certain powers…" she whispered.

Jareth glanced at Sarah. She glanced at him. They both shyly looked away. Sarah knew that story by heart but she never considered the fact that everything in the book was about her. The king was in love with her? Surely not. Not everything in that book was exactly right was it? Sarah remembered back to when she first got handed the book. She was twelve years old, just after her mother had abandoned her. She had found it in a jumble sale on a strange stall. The man who had sold it to her was odd looking, ugly, scruffy, almost goblin-like.

Three rascally goblins stumbled through the door and broke the silence as they chuckled away.

"What are you three repulsive scabs doing here?!" shouted Jareth.

"We've come to report back to you sir, the task you set us is complete" said a goblin who didn't seem to realise Sarah was there."

"Now get out of here!" Sarah wondered why he was so eager to get rid off them.

"Okay, okay" the goblin said "but we just wanted to let you know that we got that girl fired for you, now she's sure to be upset."

Jareth clenched his teeth out of Sarah's view. The one thing he didn't want the goblins to say and they had said it. He could sense that Sarah was looking at him furiously behind him, so he turned around to meet her outraged expression.

"You got me fired?!" she wailed. "I knew I was pushed. You insolent bastard." Sarah never usually swore but this time she felt it necessary. "How did you even tell them to do it I thought you was stuck as an owl?"

"Well I am their king. Even owls have their ways." he said. "NOW GET OUT ALL OF YOU!" he shouted at the three goblins as the regrettably scampered out of the door shutting it behind them.

Sarah looked at Jareth tearfully. She couldn't believe a man could be so horrible.

"Why?" she softly said.

"It was the only way I knew you would come to the Labyrinth. You would never have come here if you were happy with your life. I needed to make you feel sad and worthless so you would wish to come here of your own accord. Since you were the only girl who could set me free."

"But surely you didn't think that me losing my job would make me so distressed that I would hate my whole life. I mean, I wasn't even that upset because of my job, I was more upset about arguing with my boyfriend…"

Sarah stopped. She remembered about Devon's dream where he was at the bubble-shaped masquerade. He couldn't have dreamt that up all by himself. Jareth must have put that dream into his head. For when Devon told Sarah of his dream all of her repressed feelings had rushed back to her. Sarah looked up at Jareth whose eyes now were submerged in guilt. She knew that he had sent that dream so she would remember her feelings and reject Devon' proposal. It all seemed to fit.

"How could you" she said. "You vile monster!"

"Don't defy me!" he retorted.

"I should have never asked for your help. I demand you to take me home right now" she screamed.

"Oh do you! And why should I do that. Do think that I would concede to the demands of a girl whose eyes scowl at me so cruelly? Do think that after you insult me I would be more than happy to send you skipping back to your blissful little life. Don't you forget Sarah. I have the power over you now and I will not return you home until you apologise."

"I will never apologise to you!" she wailed.

"What a pity" he sneeringly remarked. "Then you shall be locked in here until you do."

Jareth strode out of the door leaving her forlorn and powerless.