Jareth's firm grip on the young woman stopped her from collapsing to the ground and he lifted her up and over his shoulder with little trouble. Toby had been released from the hold of the goblins and was trying to kick him all the while screaming at the King, demanding to know what he had done to his sister.
"I'm getting my rematch," He answered coldly, and suddenly they weren't in the living room anymore.
Sarah was the vision of fashion at its best, decked out in her purple fairy pajamas, lying limply over the upturned roots of an old tree. She was woken by the feeling of bark sticking into her back and she groaned, rolling over.
She promptly fell to the gravely ground with a pained grunt and rolled onto her back. She slapped a hand over her eyes to shield her from the light coming through her eyelids.
"When I open my eyes, I'm going to be at home," She said firmly to herself, "There will be no goblins, there will be no Jareth and Toby will be tucked safely in bed. Oh, and I'll have a fantastic acting career with millions and millions of dollars."
"Sounds reasonable enough to me," Came an amused, and definitely masculine, voice from above.
"Okay, that settles it. I'm going back to sleep."
Sarah promptly shifted to her side and curled up into a ball, hoping to protect herself from unwanted sights…such as a very haughty Goblin King who was currently standing over her, wanting to be the first she saw when she woke up. There was nothing like traumatizing young women in the morning.
When Jareth saw that Sarah wasn't going to be getting up any time soon, his shoulders fell in disappointment and his trademark smirk vanished. Well, this wouldn't do at all. He nudged her in the side with his boot and she grunted in reply, but made no move to get up.
"You are trying my patience, girl," He growled.
"Good."
"You won't think so, soon enough."
"I'm sure I will, Captain Glitter."
"Such a childish insult; but I'd be lying if I expected anything better from you."
"Wow, harsh."
"Get up.
"
"No."
Jareth reached down and snatched up Sarah's wrist, tugging her forcefully to her feet. She refused to give him an inch, though, and let her legs crumble from beneath her, where she gave him as much of her dead weight as possible. He snarled in frustration and threw her back onto the ground.
"I tried to be fair, Sarah—" he started, but was interrupted by Sarah's bitter laugh.
"You tricked a six year old," She finally opened her eyes and rolled over to face him, she was covered in dirt and her bare arms had scratches on them from the gravel, "I would hardly call that fair."
"I can be cruel, Sarah."
"I know. But don't forget to add sore loser to your list while you're at it."
He ignored her and pulled out his pocket watch, to decide how much time he would give her this time, especially with her less than welcoming attitude.
Sarah took this moment of quiet to take in her surroundings. It looked as though they were on the same barren hill that led towards the Labyrinth as last time. She recognized the tree that she'd been sleeping on, except now it was more dead and twisted as ever. She followed the path she had walked on five years ago and saw the labyrinth in the distance. It looked the same as last time, but she was sure that it would be very different.
She was shaken from her thoughts at the click of Jareth's watched as he replaced it in his coat. He moved to stand over her once more, intimidatingly tall from the angle she was sitting at. He held out his hand silently, this time, and she gulped before
reluctantly taking it. She was pulled easily to her feet and she waited to hear the damage.
"You have ten hours in which to complete the labyrinth, or your precious Toby will belong to me forever," He cocked his head to the side, his face a mask of seriousness, "Do you understand?"
"Ten hours?!" Sarah asked incredulously, "You horrible cheat! That's not fair."
"Oh Sarah, do you really want to start with all that again? If you'd like I'll make it really unfair for you. It'll give you something real to complain about."
She kicked some gravel at him spitefully with her bare foot, and grit her teeth in pain. Well that was stupid. What on earth compelled her to kick gravel with her bare foot. It's called skin, Sarah, you kinda need it to live.
Jareth grinned wickedly at her and she had to refrain from slapping it right off his face. She turned without another word and trudged down the path towards the labyrinth.
Sarah had barely made several steps before she was engulfed by an unseen hole from below. The Goblin King watched her fall mercilessly and then turned and walked in the opposite direction, soon fading into the distance.
Sarah hit the ground hard and her curses could be heard for miles. She found that she had temporarily lost the feeling of her backside due to it going on strike at its unfair treatment. She rubbed it, hoping to gain back some sense of friendship, but her bottom would have none of it!
She would have taken a look around, but considering that there was no light whatsoever, she thought it would be rather pointless. She wondered momentarily if she was in an oubliette again. Maybe she should pull out a mattress and set up a set of drawers; because honestly, if she was going to keep landing in these bloody things she might as well just move in.
"'Ey, you!" came a rough, heavily british voice from…her left? Well, she assumed it was her left. Sarah felt around, but there was a wall right next to her…so how was the voice coming from the left?
"Oi wrong side, mate!" The voice spoke from behind her this time. She looked over her shoulder and sighed in frustration when she reached out and felt that there was a wall behind her as well.
"What the hell is this place?!" she demanded.
"A boxy sort of box, wouldn't you say, old chap?!" came the new voice of an elderly man to her right.
"Nah, I'd call it a cube." Came the rough voice from the start.
"A cube is a box, dear boy!"
"No it's not."
"I do believe it is!"
"No."