It was cold. That was the first thought that seemed to bring Sarah back into reality. Her hair had become wet from the snow, her chin aching from a phantom grip she could still feel. The world was full of life once more, the breeze tried to soothe her and the creatures in the forest filled the air with quiet chirps and calls. But Sarah found she could not move, even as the leather of her boots became soaked, her body had been frozen into the ground.

If anyone had seen her they would have thought her a ghost. She stared with wide unseeing eyes into the distance, trying to make sense of the last few minutes. It had all happened so fast. One moment he was there and the next he was not. Even in his fleeting appearance he had managed to carve open each wound she had tried to close and changed her life irrevocably once more. She hated him. She hated him and that queasy smile and wicked tongue. She thought she had bested him. Little did she know that she had played right into his hands... He had played a long game and he had won.

At that thought a breath escaped her, one that rattled through her chest and hurt her throat. There was no denying the reality of the Labyrinth anymore. No denying the reality of him. The rapidly appearing bruise on her chin taunted her with the knowledge.

With an almost mechanical jerk, Sarah turned her body towards the pinpricks of light in the distance, starting once more down the path to her family. As she walked her heart pounded faster and faster. Was this the choice she was left with? Her life or those of countless children? This was no fair game.

13 hours. 13 hours until her life was up. Or 13 hours until she sacrificed everyone else. He knew she couldn't do it. Her heart was too soft and her head too noble. He had left her with a choice that they both knew had only one outcome.

As the noise of chiming glasses and scrapes of plates filled the air, Sarah cast her eye over to Toby. He was a young boy, her little man. He still had the slight hint of puppy fat about him, so that when he smiled his cheeks were full and rosy. A curly mop of blonde hair framed his face that under no circumstances, he had deemed, you could touch. As she watched him pull a cracker with Karen, pumping his fist in the air as he won, she brought a hand to her mouth.

She couldn't leave him. She refused…. but was she that selfish? She was sure once upon a time she would have said yes, the children would be forgotten and the world would move on. Everything would carry on as it was before.

She shook her head. She would never forgive herself. How many sleepless nights would she spend wondering who had summoned him. With every breath she took she would count in her head the numbers she thought it might be. And a small part of her damned them all, if someone was stupid enough to wish someone away and mean it then damn them. But another look at Toby had told her that she'd done the very same thing once. People were fools. But this was too dire a punishment for them to suffer.

But to be condemned to a life in the Labyrinth...she used to dream about it, wondering what it would be like to breathe in the scent of magic in the air and travel to lands no other human being had seen. But she had closed that chapter; the book was written and done, literally.

Opening the thought was like opening a Pandora's box of lost dreams and adolescent longing. And to be trapped with him…well, she supposed she used to dream about that too. But in all the years apart she had forgotten one thing. He was dangerous. The aching bruise on her chin hastily covered by make up told her that. A world of their own he had said, and just what kind of world would that be? Dysfunctional. At best.

"You okay Sarah?" Her father asked, noticing how silent she had become.
She turned, as if noticing him for the first time.

"Yeah. Fine. Just a bit too much wine I think." She feigned a laugh, and if anyone noticed how strained it was they didn't mention it. Her eyes strayed to the oversized clock in the shape of an egg on the kitchen wall. It stated that it was 9:00pm. Her mind started to buzz. She had seen him only an hour ago, at best. In 13 hours it would be time to make her choice. Even the prospect of facing him in daylight didn't help her stuttering heart. She picked up her fork, trying to savour the taste of overcooked turkey.
This time her nightmares had truly come back to haunt her. And writing the story down in a book to banish them was no longer a solution.

Jareth stood before the roaring fireplace in his bedchamber, barely breathing, hand clutched around his wine glass.

He'd done it.

On some whim he'd managed to trap Sarah in a corner that had only one means of escape. She would become his.

He revelled in the warmth of the fire, gazing into its depths and trying to discern the path for them that the future would hold.

He once vowed that when she said the words she would mean it. And this time she would. Of course she would sacrifice herself for the children he could claim. She was far too predictable. She'd mean every word that dripped from her tongue.

Yet something in him twitched in discomfort. That wasn't what he imagined. It wasn't what he wanted. He didn't want her to say the words because she had to. It had to be because she really and truly wanted to. Because she wanted him.

He shook his head, clearing it and draining his wine. It was no matter, he had her and he would have her forever. One day she would have to relent, surely. Even she was not so stubborn. And in keeping her he would save his land, set about rebuilding ties that had been severed for hundreds of years. It would be a long and arduous task. In fact he thought it rather noble of him to embark upon it.

He placed himself in the comfort of a velvet red armchair, anxious from the waiting. The clock ticked on. 12 hours. 12 hours until she was his. Yet still, a small part of his mind twisted and turned, damning him for his actions. He had said it all along. She was grown, an adult. He couldn't take her. There were consequences but consequences be damned. His head fell back against the chair as he frowned, trying to quell his racing thoughts.

Consequences be damned. But they would still be there and he could not ignore them.

He wondered how he would explain to her what her actions would truly mean. What giving herself over to the Goblin King would truly mean.
In a fleeting moment he had changed the course of their lives forever, and it unsettled him to think of the chain of events that would be triggered by it.

But she had looked so beautiful in that moment. Of all the times he had seen her he could tell that she was not yet ready, so close, but not quite. But in the darkness she had looked almost ethereal, standing in the blanket of snow underneath a starless night, he found he could not help himself. Her pale face shone with the glisten of freshly fallen snow, and this time her eyes were not cruel. They were full of fear, apprehension and dare he even imagine...excitement. He could wait no longer. He had always known he was selfish. He had known he was reckless...But until this night he had never truly realised just how far he would go.

He'd broken the rules by claiming a grown woman. He'd break her heart when she found out what it meant to be his.

Yet he could still not help the smile that twitched about his lips. The Gods could only tell what the future would hold. But he supposed they had the rest of forever to find out.

Sarah opened her eyes, bleary in the morning light. Slowly, she reached over to turn off the blaring alarm. As it was silenced she listened in the darkened room. There was no movement in the house, not a footstep or a whisper. She supposed it would be easier that way.

She almost pondered if she was still sleeping as she gathered her few but precious belongings. With each gentle swish of her bag the nightmare become all the more real. Her fingers twitched as they grazed her book. She had strived for something she'd always wanted and now it was lost to her. The cause of her success would be her undoing. With a sigh she picked it up, silently turning it this way and that. She would leave it to Toby, she decided. Maybe one day he would understand, maybe one day she would find a way back to him. With that tiny slither of hope, she crossed the threshold of her room, quietly shutting the door for the last time.

The winter morning was still dark, the streetlights still casting their orange light in the snow like fire on ice. Sarah knew he was there.

"Jareth?" She asked tentatively, trying to ignore the prickling of tears in her eyes. He would never see her cry again. She would never allow him the satisfaction.

He stepped into the light, snowflakes caught in his hair.

"Have you made your choice?"

She bowed her head

"Yes."

He almost seemed to shiver.

"Say your right words."

With a deep breath, Sarah flicked his gaze to him.

"I wish to return underground."