Sarah awoke in a confused haze as she crashed to the floor. A bad dream had sent her twisting right off of the sofa. Groaning, she untangled herself from the blanket that had followed her. Loki glanced down at her disdainfully from the arm of the sofa. Sarah quickly flung the blanket back up onto the cushions and padded across the floor on bare-feet to make a cup of Camille tea. Visions from the ghastly dream whirled around in her head.

She was in a mirrored room surrounded by strangers wearing grotesque masks like those favored by Opera Ghosts. The phantoms had pranced around her, crowding her, then a man swooped in and pulled her further into the swirling mass. As the dancer dragged her around she could hear the angelic voice of her upstairs neighbor serenading the ghastly specters. Sarah shivered. The dream was not a new one, she had experienced it numerous times since she was fifteen. She had no idea why the dream effected her so, it really was not very scary as nightmares go, she certainly had ones with more frightening material. The dancing dream plagued her on a level beyond fear, there was longing and disappointment as well as betrayal, wound up in that haunted dance-hall. Now Jay's lovely song was warped as well in the mirrored cage.

Sarah sat back down on the sofa with her hot mug and tried to focus on something else. The pink sun was already attempting to pry into her apartment so there was no use going back to sleep. Grabbing a pen and paper, Sarah began sketching the visions from her nightmare, maybe putting them on paper would get them out of her head.

"Oh Higgle, you know better than to call me a rat to my face," the Goblin King ran a hand through his hair in an apartment on the fourth floor.

"It's, Hoggle," the short man grumbled for the thousandth time, but on this occasion he caught the fleeting look of amusement cross his king's features. "And, you've known it the whole time haven't ya!" The dwarf muttered furiously as he scuttled into a chair. The realization that he had been the butt of a joke for centuries made him livid.

Jareth sighed and sat in a armchair facing the dwarf, "Of course I know your name, Hoggle. Do you think I am truly so stupid? I know the names of every single creature in my realm from the tallest rock-talker to the smallest wall-worm. You do have to allow me a little fun now and again."

"I didn't think you were stupid, I just thought you were too conceited to care," huffed Hoggle.

"So now I am a conceited rat, very well. What are you doing here?" the king's keen eyes drilled into the small man, all amusement gone. Hoggle had become the closest thing to a friend that the Goblin King possessed though the dwarf had taken time to warm up to him. After wasting a few years in bitter disappointment and rage at his defeat by a mere child as well as a broken heart, Jareth had sought out Hoggle who had been so close and so thoroughly won over by the girl. The girl, Sarah, had loved the dwarf and Jareth needed to know about love. Now he depended on Hoggle for companionship and even the occasional bit of advice. Currently, Hoggle was managing the court goblins in his absences.

"I just need to know that you aren't up to your old tricks. I won't help you hurt the little lady again," the dwarf looked away and crossed his arms. "You're deceiving her."

"Hoggle, it's complicated and she is not such a little lady any longer. I am not up to old tricks. Those were mistakes made in ignorance and arrogance. I had never loved anything before in my long life, Hoggle. That girl turned my world upside-down. I didn't think she could resist me, I knew from the very first time I saw her that she was mine, and I thought that was enough. Her rejection, her utter defeat of me, has made me a better being. I won't risk losing her again, old friend."

"Then why can't you be plain with her? Why not tell her the truth?" Hoggle asked his king.

"The truth, Hoggle? You want me to waltz into her life and explain that I am the specter from her nightmares, that I am the villain who stalks her dreams? And, after that she will just fall into my arms and ride off into the sunset with me forever?" Jareth chuckled cruelly. "That would be something." They sat in silence for a while.

"I am not trying to trick her, Hoggle. I just need for her to fall in love with me as a man, before she knows me as a king. If she can see that we were meant for one another and that I am not some evil fairy-tale monster, and that I have learned how to love, she may see me as I see her. I can never be truly happy without her, but she'll be empty as well without me. I am not so selfish anymore, Hoggle," Jareth gave the dwarf a weary smile.

"Fine, but the moment she hears your true name, she will remember everything, there will be no keeping it from her after that. You had better get your romancing over and done with. You know I can't keep those damned goblins in line forever either. I'm just not as scary as you are, your majesty. My threats on your behalf just won't hold them," with that the little dwarf was gone.

Jareth threw a leg over the arm of his chair and thought for awhile. He knew Hoggle was right, he couldn't wait forever, even though that really wasn't long at all. He had to prove to Sarah that she loved him and that he returned her love. Then that love had to be stronger than his true identity once she found it out. Part of him was thrilled with the challenge, he liked a good game, but there was too much at stake to let himself get in his own way.