I decided to go ahead and post this one today (two chapters in a day, you guys are spoiled!). The last one was kinda short. Thought I would show more of what Sarah goes through now that her dad is gone. Thanks again and don't forget the reviews!


"Why not?" Sarah demanded Irene.

"I told you, I will take care of buying any groceries. I don't trust you to spend it in case you would on anything wasteful and you know how frugal we need to be."

"SAYS YOU!" Sarah yelled. "You wasted money on frivolous things and now you're telling ME that I AM THE ONE who needs to be watched and not trusted over? What a joke!" She folded her arms and glared at Irene.

Irene stood up and walked to her. "You spend too much time with that BOY."

Sarah froze. "How do you know about him?"

"I have my ways." Irene said. "I forbid you to see him. He distracts you from what you need to do."

"Sure, while your daughters go and have fun every weekend, here I am cleaning up after their messes and cooking and cleaning from dawn until midnight." She was feeling more and more angry by the moment.

Irene wasn't liking how defiant Sarah was being. Time to pull out the last cards she had available. "They are daughters of a countess-"

"That doesn't make them any more important than anyone else. I have my own inherent worth that you cannot take away!" Sarah stomped her food down.

"Have you forgotten that you are here at MY mercy? I could kick you out right now. And where would you go? You have no family but us. You cannot even hope to fend for yourself. Who would take you in?"

Sarah blinked away the tears. Irene was right. She had nowhere to go. Irene would see to that and ruin her reputation due to her standing as a former wife of a wealthy count. Sarah clenched her fists.

"If you dare go to the market alone, I will make sure to kick you out." Irene glared at her. "Prove yourself useful, and you can stay as long as you need."

Sarah buried her head in her pillow and screamed when Irene left. Looking over, she saw Toby crawling. There was no way she'd leave her baby brother. He wasn't hated here but he would be neglected and she was determined that he would grow up with love.


It had been a good two months since Jareth had seen Sarah last. He wasn't sure what happened but he no longer saw her. He came every single week.

Just like that. No sign, no warnings.

Nothing.

He didn't even know her last name for heaven's sake (as last names in the Underground weren't as important for commoners and were rarely used except for official documents). And in order to get Estella's consensus records, he'd have to talk to some people higher up who would no doubt ask him more and more questions about why he wanted to know about Sarah. Was he ready to take that risk?

Actually, it wasn't even a risk for him but for her. To have her name to be known by these nobles could endanger her. If word got out that the king of goblins was interested in her, nobles could track her down and get rid of her due to foul play.

He couldn't hurt her that way.

Eloise could see Jareth being much more distracted and agitated. He would go over to Estella on different days of the week, hoping to catch her then but he never did.

"Jareth? What's going on?" Eloise approached him during breakfast.

"Something happened to her." He said. "I don't know what, but she hasn't seen me."

"Jareth, I'd hate to say but maybe she found another young man?" Eloise tried to console him. "Maybe she's just embarrassed to see you."

"Even so, that isn't something she'd do." He said. "We were friends. For her to go all of a sudden is just strange. I've known her for a year now, mother. Forgive me if I seem worried for someone that I care about."

Eloise shook her head. "It isn't that."

"It's because you want me to forget her and be with Celeste." He growled at her.

"Stop that!" Eloise barked at him. "Sit down!"

Jareth couldn't disobey her. He sat and grumbled.

"I'm trying to be practical." She sighed. "It happened to me too, before I met your father. He avoided me to find another woman. I'm not saying your lady has done the same, but I'm saying maybe. Maybe she found out who you really were. You know how your title could intimidate commoners and then attract others."

"I LOVE HER!" He put his head in his hands. "And I will stop at nothing to get her back! I will search Estella rock by rock manually until I find her since I cannot use magic!"

He stormed out of the dining hall, leaving Eloise worried about his temper.


Sarah held a cold rag to her face. Irene had seen it fit to slap her again, but was always careful to never leave marks. Sarah told Drizella that she was a spoiled brat and Irene didn't take that well. She had never been hit before two months ago, but she supposed that now her father was gone, Irene felt she could do whatever she wanted to her.

Sarah finished making some breads and snacks for Irene, Anastasia, and Drizella for their weekly trip to another stupid party. Because the girls were "future countesses" who needed to "get out there" and "be in society as is proper."

Whatever.

Sarah liked having the house to herself. No workers were here anymore, thanks to the loss of money. All her inheritance was bled dry but she didn't really care at the moment. If she could take Toby and run away, she would.

"Sarah dear, please stay with Toby and take care of him!" Irene called after her.

"Yes, maybe you could read one of your ridiculous fairy tales again!" Anastasia laughed at her as they went off in the carriage.

Sarah felt angry. Angry at everyone and everything. She had so much bad energy in her that she probably could burn the whole house down.

She heard Toby crying. "Irene wants me to tell a story? Fine!"

All thoughts of love left her head. All logic left her. All she felt now was the anger she had been holding inside of her ever since her father married that odious woman and took in her odious daughters. All the anger that stemmed from his death, from her lack of time to see Jareth, all of that accumulated. She took the crying babe in her arms, upset that he was crying even though he had been cleaned, fed, changed, and anything else a baby could have.

Maybe it was the storm, for Sarah herself had been yelled at for tracking mud in the house earlier (when in fact, she had been doing yard work at the command of Irene anyway). But there was a sense of foreboding in the air.

Toby was still crying when she spoke. She began to quote the Labyrinth. "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 wanted everything for himself, and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew is that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and he had given her certain powers. So one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her, she called on the goblins for help! 'Say your right words,' the goblins said, 'and we'll take the baby to the Goblin City. And you will be free.' But the girl knew that the king would keep the baby in his castle for ever and ever and ever, and turn it into a goblin."

Unknown to her, in the shadows, there were goblins waiting for the child to be taken. They waited eagerly to take the baby as was their nature. In the past, they DID turn a child into one of them until the fae offered to rule over them. When they did, they stopped turning children into goblins and let them be adopted but that small detail was still kept in stories to scare anyone from wishing the child away.

"I can bear it no longer! Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!" Sarah screamed. Anything to save her from the monotony, from the slavery that she was experiencing.


Jareth's head perked up. He blinked at something. He knew his goblins felt it too.

"What do you feel?" He asked them.

"Someone gonna wish baby away." Filey answered.

Jareth sighed. He could tell this was someone from the Underground which annoyed him even more. He transformed into an owl and flew to the area of the wish.

He knew the routine. Go and give the wisher a chance to run. Then he would eventually forget where they lived because of some magic contract made eons ago so that goblin kings wouldn't just track a wisher down. Then the wisher would forget about him unless they decided to also become his subject. Only the wished away would not.

"Let's get this over with." He told himself as he flew.


"Those aren't the right words." A goblin hissed away from Sarah. "You gotta say the right words!"

Sarah glared at Toby. She walked out of his room. "I wish the goblins would take you away. Right now."

As she walked away, toby's crying instantly stopped.

Something made her heart pound. Something was wrong.

So very wrong.

"Toby?" She called.

Nothing.

Then, the doors burst open and Sarah screamed when an owl came flying into her face.

Then she watched as the owl turned into something large and menacing.

The Goblin King.


CLIFF HANGER! Oh boy LOL for those of you who may have thought Jareth and Sarah weren't really bratty, well that time has come!

In the movie, Sarah was just going through whatever the heck she was going through internally that I think we can all relate to. Here though, she's lost it. She's tired and can't see the end of the tunnel. Sometimes we do that, you know? I don't want to get into my own story but I'll just say that my childhood, while my parents loved me, there was a lot of stuff in my home that was not a good place for a kid to grow up. Like Sarah, my siblings gave me a purpose but even then, I could get frustrated and take it out on them by getting mad (not abusive of course but like you know when you get mad at your siblings? It happened more often with me because of the awfulness in my home). So that's why Sarah, while she loves Toby, wasn't thinking clearly in that moment and screamed at him at least in this story.

Don't hate on Eloise even though she is frustrating. I mean if it were my son meeting some girl I know almost nothing about and then she stops showing up all of a sudden, I'd be more worried first. It's what moms do and in most cases, this is a form of "ghosting" and she has no idea of Sarah's abuse. You'll see that even though she seems to be an obstacle at the moment, she will turn around because she is Jareth's biggest advocate and she was a good queen, smart and knows what to do.

So obviously I took away the scene where Jareth actually watches Sarah play acting but I didn't really want to add that in there because I couldn't find a way to fit into the logic of the story. So I just left it as it is here. Hope that doesn't bother anyone but remember this is fanficion and an AU so it won't be exactly as the movie.

Leave a review of what you think will happen or how you're liking it so far!