A/N Sorry for the delay in updating. It has been a hectic week. Thank you for all of my readers. Please review! I really do take then feedback to heart.

Sarah stayed there on that sofa for hours. She could not get the image out of her mind.

She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. Tears flooded and threatened the decent down her cheeks. Who was she kidding? Sarah hadn't beat him and she honestly didn't know that she wanted to.

All Sarah knew was that she wanted to protect Toby. Perhaps if she called the Goblin King he would be honest with her? Perhaps he would give her some peace as to what was pulling her and Toby back.

If nothing else, the answers she needed were not in this world. She looked around the darkness of her small apartment and couldn't help but feel out of place just as she always did. Part of her always felt as though she didn't belong in the world she lived and breathed in and longed for more. She knew that she only felt at home once in her life and thought it had been the scariest time in her life it had also felt wonderful to run the labyrinth.

She stood feeling stiff and disoriented in the darkness of her apartment. She got some lights on and made her way to her closet.

She needed the Labyrinth. She needed her book, to look through the descriptions of the places that she could see with her mind every time she closed her eyes. She needed to feel the pages in her hands and smell the familiar odor of the paper and glue that took her to the one place she felt home.

It took several minutes, but she finally laid her hands on the familiar binding. She felt an electric current as she held it. She knew it once again made her sound crazy even to herself but she could feel something pulling her, calling her, missing her desperately. This was her story, written for her as if prophetic of what would come.

So how had she received it? It seemed this story had always been hers, a part of her. She opened the book and began to read, relishing the memories that flooded her mind.

Wait! The story is almost prophetic, but there is truth missing within its pages. There is nothing within her special book that would tell the reader that the goblin king was in love with the girl in the story. The heroine of the story could really be any other runner, other than she beats him.

How had she known? How was that important piece just known but unspoken for Sarah without ever appearing on the pages?

Screw this! She needed answers. "I wish the Goblin King would appear with me right now".

Sarah was not even surprised when the floor rumbled underneath her feat and the window panes began to shake. She walked casually to the window and opened it. Then the magnificent owl sailed into her open window and there he stood in a swirl of glitter.

Sarah's heart stopped and her lungs forgot how to process oxygen as to looked at him.

"Precious, to what do I owe this audience?" Jareth was smiling at her. Quite obviously aware of the dream he had sent only hours before.

"Well it is certainly not to live out your perversions." She lifted her eyebrows as she held up her book, their story.

"Perversions? Honestly Sarah, one should never assume another can read their minds. Even if I do like to try." He was smirking at her and it made her furious. She just kept staring at him with the book outstretched waiting for him to stop playing game. "Oh my queen has been reading our story. Why that's lovely precious, but I fail to see the reason for your displeasure."

"I suppose you are just denying that dream you intentionally tortured me with. Fine." Sarah's jaw tightened and her anger continued to fuel her courage. She sighed. "Jareth... I honestly do not want to argue with you. I just want some truth for once. Can't you just tell me some truth?" She was so mad. Why did she think he actually cared enough to be honest with her. She felt the tears threaten again and she tried but failed to keep them from falling.

Jareth was enjoying the game, they always bantered so well together and he had direly missed their exchanges. That was until he saw her lovely eyes swimming. The fire that he cherished so much was almost gone, only sadness remained as she looked at him.

He was to her in two long strides. Jareth wrapped his queen in his arms and carried her to her bed. He gently tucked her in, careful not to make her think his intentions were anything but gentleness. "I don't even know what's real anymore" She sobbed.

"Come now Sarah. Yes you do. I am real, this is real. I am here with you now precious because you called me. I always come when you call. The dream was not meant to upset you." Jareth was speaking in soothing tones and gently running his fingers through her long brown hair.

Jareth was crossing a very clear line just now and he knew it. Their destiny was always interlinked and it was only his own inner torture that he happened to love her as well. She was meant to be his – even if he did fight against it for so long, but his father – the High King, would be furious with him if he knew Jareth was showing her such tenderness.

He was to play the role she put him in and though he wished with all his heart that she saw the love in his eyes, she still saw him as the villain of the story. He should be acting as such, but the fates and his father be damned. He felt how vulnerable Sarah was and how much she needed him. "Sarah, look at me." He waited for her gorgeous eyes that he never could get enough of to meet his own. "Do you believe me to wish you harm?"

It was a long time before she spoke and he waited patiently as the silence passed between them. Never wavering his gaze. "No, I believe you love me."

Jareth couldn't help himself, he laughed lightly. "That's right precious. And these answers that you so desperately think I am withholding from you, you know those as well don't you." He watched her.

Sarah's closed her eyes and her forehead crinkled the way it always did when she was deep in thought. She reached for him and he took her hand as he sat on the edge of her bed. Then she seemed to be realizing some truths on her own.

"You gave me the book? When? How did I know how you felt and how did you feel that way long before we ever even met? Please Jareth? Please? What do you want with Toby? If you love me then tell me."

The longing in her beautiful eyes broke his heart. The Goblin King said the only thing that he was permitted to say. "Wish it my Sarah and I can take you home."

Toby was exhausted. He had been with Sarah talking through things for hours and for some reason he felt no better. Yea she had finally been honest with him. Wow.. had that really been that hard? Geez she drove him crazy sometimes.

So he had been to the Labyrinth. Well that explained a lot. But why was the Goblin King sending him dreams now? Especially dreams in the Throne Room with himself sitting in a throne?

Too weird? Oh who the hell was he kidding? Toby was no idiot. Jareth wanted him back and these dreams were to get Toby to wish himself back to the underground. The Goblin King was teasing him with the thought of ruling in the underground to appeal to Toby.

What if it was a trick? What if the Goblin King had just been brooding all this time that a runner had finally won his labyrinth and he wanted his prize back? What if Toby wished for the underground only to get sucked back and turned into a goblin in some sort of warped justice.

Yea- ok that would super suck!

But if he could actually trust Jareth, he could go home. Why hadn't Sarah just let them both stay? It sounded to him like when she finally made it to the castle that he wanted them both to stay.

In his heart he felt like he could trust Jareth too. He didn't really know why but he felt like Jareth never meant him any harm to start with – he was never a regular child and Sarah was no ordinary runner. She was meant to run the labyrinth and she and Toby were meant to stay.

But Sarah had done something unexpected- she had won.

Maybe he could just call Jareth? "Goblin King… come to me". He closed his eyes and waited for something to happened. Maybe I didn't say it loud enough he thought. One more time with feeling: "GOBLIN KING … COME TO ME NOW!" he shouted. Nothing. What the hell? Toby slammed his bedroom door and got ready for bed. Well maybe he could dream something important, he thought irritably.

Sarah looked up at Jareth wondering what he possibly meant by wishing and he could take her home when she saw him tense as if listening to something. Then Jareth chuckled – actually laughed out loud. "What's so funny?" Sarah asked bemused.

"Your very irritated teenage brother is attempting to call me, but he is not even getting close to the words 'I wish'. He thought he had to say it louder and was screaming and then stomped around his room in a fit like a toddler. It makes me laugh. I will have to send him a particularly confusing dream tonight". And then he laughed again.

Sarah was instantly pissed again. "Stop picking on Toby. I didn't tell him there were special words to get to you because I had no intention of teaching him how to accidently screw up like I did at his age!" She was boiling. How dare him! And to think she was actually falling for it again. For him again.

"I need to get back precious. Think of my offer."

And then he was gone.