Author's Note: Well, when people tell me they like a story, I do my best to continue with it. I really am enjoying writing this story – trying my hand at a darker path for the characters – and it makes me feel all warm and gushy inside that I have people who are interested in seeing this story grow. And I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and, of course, review it (and, don't worry, the story will get happier… eventually). Major kudos to InuLvr7 for knowing the introduction lyrics. I was waiting to see if anyone was going to tell me ;) And, just because I'm going to be on this kick for a bit... I finally finished college today. Either that means more time for updates or less (since school was a good place to write), who knows. But no more school for me. Woot.

Disclaimer: These are always mandatory when dabbling in fan fiction. If there is anything at all that is reminiscent of the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth, then it probably belongs to Jim Henson, et al., including (but not limited to) the characters of Sarah Williams & Jareth, the Goblin King. Any other characters are the property of this author.

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Fourteen

You may think you know about what happened after those 13 hours.
You don't.

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PART THREE
It's a sin with a name, no remorse and no shame, fire, fury and flame,
cause the devil's to blame and the angels proclaim…
It's a dangerous game!

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He transported the slumbering girl with him to his castle but kept her in suspension upon arrival. This was an unexpected visit, after all, and, what with the glamour that had been draped over the castle during her initial thirteen hours, Jareth was a bit perplexed as to where he should lay Sarah down. So, after he arrived in the reverted version of his throne room – almost an exact duplicate of the illusory room, but cleaner and without the goblins lounging about – he conjured another of his crystals.

Jareth sent the translucent orb spinning up and down his arms, more in thought than out of necessity. It had seemed so easy, just after being so ruthlessly rejected by the girl, to follow her Aboveground and steal her away. Goblin magick, so very unlike the Fae magick he had casually offered her, was the perfect way to ensnare her and catch her off guard. But what now?

He did not want to break Sarah in order to achieve her unquestioning affection, that much was obvious. It was her determination and naïvely wrought confidence – and, of course, the utter disdain with which she had regarded him – that intrigued him so; what good would she be to him if she dimmed from the spitfire he knew her to be. Yes, he would still be endeared towards the girl – her words or not, she still held significant power over him and, if he did not ache for her so, he would hate her – but it would not be the same. No, he needed to go about this in a different manner than which he would normally approach a dilemma.

There was really only one way he could do this, a way that was so inherent to his nature that he could be honest and just a bit cruel; he would play a game, a dangerous game, with Sarah. It would be, as the mortals said, a game of cat and mouse, and Jareth much preferred the role of predator. In a way, during her run of the labyrinth, he had been her prey, albeit powerful prey, what with waiting in the castle for her to come for him and retrieve the babe he had whisked away at her request. But now… now it was his turn to be in pursuit.

An untamed grin lifted the ends of his mouth. He had already started the game – even if Sarah had no idea that she was the player (and the prize). By accepting the power he had gifted to her, even if she did not accept the gifts he offered her later, and wishing away her brother, Sarah had given part of her will to him; the claim Jareth held only increased when she was able to take back the boy. Yes, she had recovered her brother but nowhere in the deal was her freedom. After all, the Goblin King never did anything without getting something in return. She wanted her brother returned Aboveground; the result was a forfeit of her own freedom. That the magick allowed Jareth to bring Sarah with him back to the castle only cemented his resolve. He had the labyrinth's blessing.

Jareth, a master game player himself, was very particular of the rules. An omission of intent – as in that the girl wanted her own freedom as well as that of Toby's – was just as bad as waiving all of her rights. Sarah, he mused, should have known better.

But where could he place Sarah – where could she be kept until she freely gave her will to him? He could take her by force, he was well aware of that, but where would the sport be if he just enchanted the girl? He had spent centuries looking for the perfect companion to rule beside him, he was not about to lose the one that had all but enchanted him just because she was too young to understand the extent of a Fae's dedication. Jareth knew that if he did not handle this situation just so then he would have an empty shell of a Queen and, as much as he appreciated Sarah's beauty, he appreciated her fire all the more.

The orb was traveling across his hands and up and down his arms at a dizzying speed. It had been a few minutes since he had set the nightmare on Sarah but he knew that the gossamer would not wrap around her psyche until he wished it to do so. And, before he did that, he wanted somewhere to lay Sarah down to rest. The nightmare would be unpleasant enough – he desired that she be at least comfortable as the game began.

He was torn between setting her in the labyrinth – he was sure the maze would settle at her presence; he could feel the apprehension of the structure almost as soon as she had uttered those blasted words – and placing her in the castle. The glamour had faded, shattered and destroyed with those same words and he was concerned that if Sarah woke up in the glamour-free castle, she might not know where she was.

Which might do me well, Jareth thought as he let the crystal slide down his arm and into his waiting palm. Gripping it loosely with glove-adorned fingers, the Goblin King looked into the clear depths and envisioned the room he was about to conjure. Once he had the small room in mind, he threw the ball across the room and watched it hit the wall with a minor explosion of glitter and glass.

And he laughed. As he laughed, he waved his hand and sent Sarah from her suspension into the newly created room. Using his inner eye, he lowered the sleeping beauty down onto the silk bed. As soon as her head made contact with the soft pillow, he released the goblin magick.

Let the game begin…

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It was so dark. For a moment, Sarah thought that she might have left her eyes closed tight but after fluttering her eyelids rapidly, she put aside that notion. Her eyes were definitely open and it was still pitch black around her. Her hands outstretched before her, she took a couple of steps. She could tell by the smack of her soles against the floor that she was not wearing socks nor the gold-colored slippers she normally wore around the house (if she was even still in the house). Understanding that, she walked with even more care so that she would not trip and stub her bare toes. She had never been a fan of walking about barefoot – she felt her feet were far too sensitive for that.

She did not know where she was or how, exactly, she had gotten to wherever she was but she knew one thing: she was not alone. Somewhere, hidden in the darkness, she could hear someone coming up behind her and her heart caught in her throat. Sarah paused, certain that her quickened breath could be heard from every corner of this area.

There came a snuffle, a familiar sound, before the soft feel of fur brushed up against her leg. She froze and, slowly, lowered her hand to touch the head of her companion. With a tentative sniff and a quick lick, the two of them recognized each other.

"Oh, Merlin," she murmured as she lowered herself down to be close to the sheepdog. Her eyes were growing slightly accustomed to the dark and she could make out the shiny eyes beneath the mess of long hair. She brought her second hand forward and rubbed both sides of his muzzle. Again, she had no idea how her faithful old dog had gotten there, but she was glad.

He snuffled in response and nuzzled against her hands. It was very cozy just then, the pair of them glad to have found the other, when Merlin lifted his head up and sniffed. And then he did something that he rarely did: he barked and began to stumble forward, heavy limbs plodding ahead.

Sarah did not want to be left alone. Though there was something inside of her – something she had never truly felt before; it was quite terrifying, actually – that told her that she should not follow Merlin, that she should not leave the darkness, Sarah hurried after him. "Wait, boy. Hang on there, Merlin." Her feet slapping against the hard, cement floor, she ran until the dark gave way to a sliver of light and, in the one beam of illumination, she could see a flight of stairs.

Merlin was sitting at the base of the steps, his forefront paws resting two stairs up. He had his head turned over the bulk of his body, almost as if he was waiting for Sarah to arrive there. Once he saw her approach, he barked again and started to climb the steps. It looked humorous to watch the great brute of a mutt navigate his way up but, as soon as he made it, Sarah decided she should follow suit. At least she knew it was safe; Merlin had to weigh at least a couple of pounds more than her thanks to nightly scraps at the kitchen table.

It was strange. As soon as she was only a few stairs shy of the top, she noticed that there was no door. The flight of stairs just ended. "That's weird," she muttered to herself, two steps behind Merlin. "Are you sure we should be up here, Merlin?"

The dog barked his answer and, amazingly, stood on his hind legs. He extended as far as he could, straight upwards, until his head touched the ceiling. The sheepdog could not hold the pose and fell back on all fours but not before he drew his mistress's attention to the spot just above her head.

The first thing that Sarah noticed was that there was a tiny gap, nearly two feet long and about a half inch across, that was letting the light in. She stood up on her tiptoes to get a better look. That was when she realized that it was not just a ceiling; it was the door that she had expected to be standing before her, rather than flat above her.

The pang of fear and terror returned triple fold as she climbed up another step in order to reach the door. For some strange reason, she was not supposed to touch it and, hesitantly, she pulled her hand back.

Merlin did not approve of her indecision and barked again, much louder and more ferocious than before. The sound startled Sarah even more than her inner nerves and quickly raised her hand again. There was obviously something wrong with Merlin and it would be best if she climbed out of whatever place she was in and got him home.

Sarah thought that it might be hard to lift the heavy-looking door that laid flat but it only took a quick push with both hands. Light flooded the stairway and she was blinded immediately. She lowered her hands to her eyes, eyes that were clamped closed against the offending brightness.

She waited a few moments and tried opening them up again so that they could get used to the light. It stung but it was nowhere near as bad as the first dose of light that had hit her. As soon as she could keep her eyes open without blinking away to discomfort, Sarah lifted her hands up again. The ceiling contraption was split into two halves of the door, folded inward, so, after opening the first half, she turned to the second.

Sarah paused, though, before she pushed up against the door. With the light – wherever this door led, it led outside – she could see her hands… hands that were heavily coated in dust and dirt, as if she had not showered or bathed in weeks. The sight frightened her and she pulled her hands up to her face to get a better look. "What the…" she murmured in disgust. She could not remember where she was or how she had gotten there and she could not remember how she had come to be so filthy either.

The fear in the pit of her stomach returned but she pushed it aside. She hated to be dirty and, besides looking out for Merlin, Sarah knew she had to get out of the darkness in order to wash up. Vaguely, as she opened the door and, climbing the remaining stairs so she could hoist herself up, she wondered whether or not that was why she felt so nervous, because she was so dirty. She could only imagine what Karen would say when she saw her.

Not surprisingly, the thought of her stepmother only increased her anxiety.

She helped Merlin out of the stairwell first before climbing out herself. The dog was barking happily, waiting for her besides the door; when she pulled herself up, she brushed her hands off and then reached over to pet her dog. However, as she leaned over, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye: her father's car.

Sarah lifted her head up and, momentarily leaving Merlin be, she spun around, taking in her surroundings. There was her house, and her street, and the great tree that had always stood outside. She turned to look at the hole she had just emerged from. It was about twenty feet from the house and she would swear that she had never seen it before. Quickly, she dropped to her bare knees – ignoring both the liberal amounts of dirt that coated her legs and feet and the rag of a nightgown that only extended just past her thighs – and shut the two doors. When they were closed, she saw that they were made of metal and had a place for a lock; the open lock, she saw, was lying just beside the closed grate.

She could not understand it. She knew perfectly well what it looked like but how do you reason being locked up in the ground, beside the house you lived in? And to be freed by her dog? Just what was going on? She had no idea...

"Sarah, what do you think you are doing?"

The icy cool voice was extremely familiar – reading her bedtime stories, telling her that she was his princess – but, of all the times she had heard it, she had never known it to take on such a tone, no matter how angry she made him. She spun around and saw her father, looking much older and more tired than she had known him to be. There were dark bags under his eyes and his mouth was a straight line.

"Dad?"

"You know that you're not allowed to leave your cell. Do we have to punish you again?"

Hazy memories of severe pain and empty hunger floated before her mind and she shivered. It was only then that she noticed the state of her clothes (or lack thereof) – it was her favorite nightgown but it was so worn that it had holes throughout it, is was much shorter than it used to be and it was missing her right sleeve. "Daddy? I don't understand…"

"Robert?" Karen poked her blonde head out of the front door, following her husband. She was tender when speaking to the man but, when she saw Sarah standing there, with Merlin, as her protector, sitting at her feet, her blue eyes went hard. "Robert. What is she doing out? I can't stand to see her out. Get rid of her."

Robert Williams nodded and took a step forward, towards his trembling daughter. "You know better, Sarah. This is what happens to naughty little girls who hurt their baby brothers."

Toby? Sarah matched his step with one of her own, backing away so as to increase the distance between her and this man. He was too menacing to be her father and she was alarmed. "What do you mean? What did I do to Toby?"

Karen laughed. It was a low, cruel laugh that seemed to be masking quite a deal of pain. She shook her head royally and pointed accusingly at Sarah. "Why, you made him vanish. And for that you will pay. You wicked little stepdaughter."

Now, if Sarah had not been so hurt and afraid and… confused… by the actions of her family, Sarah might have noticed the beautiful white barn owl that was perched above her, watching her intently. But she did not. And maybe that was for the best.

Instead, she just collapsed as the weight of her stepmother's words washed over her. When her father made his way over to her, she did not fight as he pulled her to her feet. With an iron grip on her sickly thin wrist, much tinier than the wrist she remembered, Robert held onto her as he opened the door back to the hole in the ground. With a quick wrench of her arm, he tossed her inside and slammed the grate back down.

And then… she only knew the dark.