Author's Note : Ok, so I'm updating my second chapter a little early, but I hope that won't be a problem since it just means moving through the story a lot faster, right? I'm still looking for beta reader connections, although, of course, since it's been such a short time since I've updated the first time, maybe that's obvious. Anyways, I just wanted to take the chance to thank this fanfiction's first three followers, cchimp123, HaruRyu, and ; and to hope that it'll get more follows/favourites/reviews soon. All stories could use a little love, don't you think?

Oh, and as for updating this quickly, I don't usually, although I do try to. Real life just gets in the same sometimes, agreed? Regardless, I'll try my best, and, as a hint, I absolutely love reviews, so they'll definitely be a keen motivator.~

Chapter 2 – The Goblin King's Labyrinth

There was no way, in the name of all that was good and pure and romantic, that Sarah was going down the drainpipe to the bathtub. Not only was it disgusting, stinky, and dirty, but how on earth was she supposed to fit down there in the first place?

"Uh…yeah, I don't think I can go that way," she said, as Hoggle continued pointing downwards, as though expecting her to "do the honours" and go first.

Hoggle raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

Sarah looked at him in surprise. "I'm too big?"

Hoggle sighed heavily, as though Sarah was willing something obvious. "Well, how do you think I got up here in the first place?"

"The window?" It had blown open before Sarah closed it, after all.

"No!" Hoggle moaned, pointing down again. "Through the drainpipe! It stretches; it's magical!"

"Well…alright, if you say so," Sarah said after a moment of consideration. After all, going down a drainpipe, disgusting as it may be, would certainly be better than cleaning her stepmother's wig for the afternoon and then attending a party she didn't want to attend in the evening.

Stepping into the bathtub, she peered down the drainpipe before looking at Hoggle. "You can't go ahead of me? To catch me once I fall?"

"What good would these arms do?" Hoggle asked, stretching them no wider than half a metre.

Sarah nodded. "I guess you're right. Alright then, here I go, Hogwart."

"It's Hoggle!" the dwarf yelled after her, but Sarah was already on her way down.

What had first felt like an extraordinary leap of faith turned out to be the right decision in the end, as Sarah fell down through the drainpipe, neither getting dirty nor smelling anything particularly awful. As she fell deeper and deeper though, she began going faster and faster, until she could feel the air whooshing through her ears.

"Hogwart, where are you?!" she called up, hearing some sliding sounds up above that she presumed to be the dwarf.

"Right behind you!" he called down.

"How long will we—?" But Sarah's question was answered directly the next minute as she shot horizontally out of the tube, as though it was a slide, and landed face up, skidding to a stop on a sandy surface.

"Hogwart!" she called, gazing in shock around her as she found herself in an entirely new landscape that should definitely not be under her house. The sky was grayish orange, there was no vegetation around like any back home, and the air felt thick and musky, almost as though there was mold growing nearby. "Hogwart!" she called again upon receiving no answer.

There came a muffled exclamation from somewhere nearby, and Sarah turned to find Hoggle's feet and bottom sticking out from beneath the sand. Sarah grabbed hold of each of the dwarf's stubby legs, and grunting, pulled him up out of the sand. Couching the gritty stuff out, Hoggle regarded Sarah with annoyance. "It's Hoggle! You'd think you'd have gotten it right by now."

"I'm sorry," Sarah said, sitting back while the dwarf brushed himself off.

"Well, sorry doesn't make me feel any better about it, now does it?"

Sarah bit her bottom lip. "Alright. I'm sorry, Hoggle."

The dwarf perked up, pausing as he brushed the sand from his left arm. "Well now, that's better," he remarked, standing up.

Sarah did likewise, again studying their surroundings. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Just outside the labyrinth," Hoggle replied, unconcerned. "That's where we'll find all our answers."

"The labyrinth?" Sarah clarified. "But what will we find in there?"

"Lots of things," Hoggle said, gesturing her to follow him as he headed towards the entrance. "The labyrinth's got lots of twists and turns and places and people. If we take the right turns and end up in the right places and find the right people, maybe we'll find a way to break this curse."

"If you know it so well, then why couldn't you break the curse yourself until now?" Sarah asked, skeptical, though not at all complaining that Hoggle had brought her to the labyrinth in the first place.

Hoggle sighed, pausing to sit down on a nearby rock while he explained. "Well, you see, no one really talks to me anymore. After what I did last time, w-with Jareth, not a lot of people like poor, traitorous Hoggle anymore. And t-the goblins, they're in charge around here, so they make sure that no one gets too close to me, either. I've been separated from my only real friends, and now I'm alone. Except for you, of course, but they won't be expecting that you've come back. That way, we've got the element of surprise, and we can find the right places and people to talk to if I have you along. I think…they'll talk to you and give you the answers faster than they would be."

Sarah glanced towards the labyrinth again. "What makes you so sure?"

Hoggle shut his eyes tightly. "Well, we're friends, aren't we?" he asked hopefully. Sarah smiled, nodding. "Then, that's all I really need. Friendship counts for a lot once we get in there, Sarah; you just wait and see."

"Are we going, then?"

"Yeah, I guess we can't hold it off any longer. Let's go." And so, Hoggle started to lead the way towards the labyrinth, stopping abruptly barely a second later, and almost knocking Sarah off her feet as she tried to avoid tripping over him. "Oh, and one more thing, before I forget! Whatever happens, there are two things you must remember: one, we've got to stay away from the goblin castle at all costs; and two, you're never to mention the Goblin King at all once we get in there."

Sarah nodded, understanding. "But why?"

"Because then we'll both be in serious trouble, and you don't want that," Hoggle said, remembering the last time. Sarah, however, not remembering at all, could only nod and trust in Hoggle's instinct. Little did she know how much she would come to depend on the dwarf's advice later on.

There were many things that Jareth, the Goblin King, did to occupy his time during the day. Actually, for that matter, there were many things that he also did to entertain himself during the night, for he rarely ever slept. After all, he was the Goblin King, and thus, all-powerful. He couldn't have his subjects looking down on him just because of a small detail like personal rest. It just wasn't acceptable.

From dawn to noon every day, he made plans and sometimes sought out his subjects' complaints. Really though, this was all for show, because Jareth couldn't care less about what his miniscule goblin subjects thought of him. No, on the contrary, instead the only thing he cared about was hearing about how generally great he was, which was really all that these hours consisted of. After breakfast and a planning season for the day's events—which would usually take a maximum of two hours, never more—Jareth would ascend to his throne room, take a seat on his throne, and listen as, one by one, his subjects would come forward, bow down, and give him either interesting news about his kingdom, plead for mercy, or just in general indulge him with compliments about what a great king he was. That was always the perfect beginning to a day.

Then, from noon to sunset, after a quick lunch, it was Jareth's "game" time. How he spent these hours was always to be determined based on what he felt like doing, and so every day it was different. On one day, he'd feel like touring the labyrinth, to see firsthand if what his subjects had informed him of previously was true, and making sure to punish any who lied. On another day, he could very well feel like playing croquet, and thus would host a tournament—which he would always win, naturally. Then, on one of his more "off" days, he might just stay inside all day, lock himself up in his library, and read for hours on end, refusing to come out even to attend dinner.

This latter possibility, however, occurred very rarely, because after dinner usually came Jareth's balls, and he loved those. Sometimes hundreds of his upper-class citizens would crowd his castle and his ballrooms, usually in lavish gowns and masks (because he loved masquerades most of all), and would dance as late as dawn. Recently though, Jareth had taken to dismissing his guests promptly at midnight, shutting the castle doors in their faces after a casual apology, and spending his last few hours before dawn, alone in contemplation. Because, you see, recently something had upset the Goblin King, and he was in a prolonged bad mood as a result.

About a week after the said something—his failure to transform a mere human baby into a goblin, or, even worse, failed to trap or capture the heart of the simple human girl who had come looking for him—Jareth could be found sitting in his throne room looking rather stoic, during a time which he would otherwise spend out in his kingdom or at least in his library, not sulking in his throne room. There was a prominent frown on the Goblin King's face, a sure sign of his displeasure that made the usual lounging goblins stay away. Only one goblin, his chancellor, Grizzald Badbreath III, dared to come near.

"Your Majesty?" he greeted with a bow, keeping his eyes on Jareth as he did so. He too was afraid of getting either kicked or cursed, but he knew that, for his fellow goblins, he had to be strong and finally confront their king.

"Yes, what is it?" Jareth addressed the goblin, not bothering to look at him, but instead continuing to look into one of the small crystal orbs that he always carried, as though it was the most interesting thing in the world. The Goblin King was doing that quite often these days, although no one dared to question him.

"T-there h-has been a n-new development in the labyrinth, r-recently, and I-I thought you should k-know about it," Grizzald managed to stammer, clearing his throat more than once throughout his short speech.

"What sort of development?" Jareth asked, not sounding even vaguely interested.

"A-a disturbance, Y-your Majesty."

Now, suddenly this had Jareth's attention. There were many differences between a 'development' and a 'disturbance', after all. A 'development' could mean a good thing, like the Fiereys had finally stopped trying to dismember each other, or that the Junk Creatures were finally going to clean up their city, or even that someone had finally managed to make a decent pie using the plants from the Bog of Eternal Stench. Really, it could mean a lot of things. A 'disturbance', however, usually only meant one thing: that someone was going to be causing trouble for him, and he just couldn't have that.

"What disturbance?"

Grizzald nodded again, this time rather clumsily, meaning that he was nervous. "S-sire, i-it's Hoggle. H-he's left the labyrinth."

"What?! I never banished that traitor out of the labyrinth!" Jareth snarled.

"Y-yes, I k-know, sire. B-but, it appears that he's e-escaped, regardless."

Jareth groaned in frustration. "I should have banished that traitor to the Bog of Eternal Stench! He got lucky the first time, but I doubt that he'll be so lucky a second time. Cursing him wasn't enough, now he'll pay dearly for leaving without my permission!"

Grizzald hesitated to mention that Hoggle's job actually involved him to be outside the labyrinth, spraying the Labyrinth Fairies, but he sensed that he wasn't the time. Instead, he cleared his throat and prepared to give Jareth the worst of the news. "There's something else, sire."

"What?" Jareth demanded, by now already standing up and preparing to head down to one of his libraries to research a new, more horrible curse to cast on Hoggle, whom he now considered deserved a worse punishment than before.

"H-he's gone up to the human world. T-to the girl from before: Sarah."

Jareth's eyes widened, shock, a weak emotion, showing on his face despite any of his will to stop it. Sarah. That girl, that mortal little girl who had foiled his plans last time. The very reason for his failure and recent bad mood, the only prize he'd ever truly coveted and yet lost. First, he'd gotten rid of her baby brother as per her personal request, only to have her challenge him and then defy him continuously as she made it through his labyrinth. Then, upon their final confrontation, as an added stab to his pride, after he had offered himself heart and soul to her, she had still refused him, thus freeing both herself and her brother from his world. It was more than any Goblin King should be made to bear.

And now she was back.

At first, Jareth contemplated going to meet both her and Hoggle and then, after he made sure that they knew that it was always he who would get the last laugh, he would submit them to a fate even worse than the Bog of Eternal Stench! Really, he would do what he should have done the first time, and that was to get rid of the girl and Hoggle, making sure that no one would ever defy him again! But then he paused, remembering one small detail about Sarah's return back into the human world, when he had made it so that the girl would feel as though it was all a dream, and thus would be less likely to remember it all. The only way that Hoggle could have made it to the human world on his own would have been through a wish and, if he had ended up where Sarah was, that meant that it was she who made the wish. Meaning, in other words, that she didn't remember anything about who he was and what he had almost done to her baby brother.

His eyes lighting up with another brilliant idea, Jareth clapped once. "Ha!"

"S-sire?" Grizzald fidgeted nervously.

Jareth glared down at him. "Grizzald, this is an order: make sure they get back into the labyrinth. And, once there, disguise yourself and see if you can't find out what they're up to. Then report back to me as soon as that's done."

Grizzald bowed. "As my king commands." He was just beginning to head out of the throne room to complete his assigned task, when suddenly Jareth stopped him again with one last instruction.

"Oh, and Grizzald? Make certain you do not fail me, for if you do, the consequences will be dire."

Grizzald gulped and gave another clumsy bow. "O-of course, sire."

Author's Note : Yay, I'm so glad I got another chapter in today! And now in this one, as you know, I've finally reintroduced our famous Goblin King! Yeah, at first I was considering waiting a few chapters before inserting him into the story, but then I thought that it might get too boring if we only focused on Sarah and Hoggle and not on…well, the best character in the entire original movie! So yeah, David Bowie's officially here again, and will be around in the chapters to come (as long as I keep thinking up fun ways to incorporate him).

Anyways, to conclude, as always, reviews/follows/favourites are appreciated. 3