Chapter One: Gavin and Ismaila

This is what you wanted

I'm harrowed and I'm haunted

Haunted by the light.

Will you be there waiting?

(The Decemberists, The Harrowed and the Haunted)

1985

Jareth thought he'd see the Samhain girl again, but he didn't. In between his Kingdom, a war that he had somehow found himself dragged into and his multitude of lovers, he didn't have time to investigate the magical mortal. Ten years passed—a mere blink of the eye to the Fey folk—and he had almost forgotten her.

He had become distracted by someone else.

He had first seen his latest fixation in the parkside adjoining his mother's house. Jareth had allowed his mother to visit the park once a week and on the odd occasion, he would supervise her in his owl form. Ismaila never commented on whether or not she knew he watched her—she was always alone and always seemed content to plod along the banks of the river in her own company. On such a day, he had watched her leave the house and he soared silently behind her. Someone else caught his eye almost straight away: a young mortal was skipping along Harrows Lane wearing clothing that was not fashionable for the era she currently lived in.

Jareth followed her journey from the bike gate that heralded the start of the walkway through the recreational ground, and down towards the bridge over the pond at the centre. On silent wings, he lazily glided towards a monument ahead of her where he perched to inspect his new quarry.

Upon crossing the stone bridge, Jareth realised that she dressed up much like a princess with a flower crown in her hair; her dog at her side was her loyal companion. On closer inspection, Jareth saw she was too young to be an adult but too old to be a child, yet here she was still playing pretend. As she approached, he suddenly recognised the speech she was making. He shifted from talon to talon on the obelisk, ruffling his feathers as she drew closer and closer.

"For my will is as strong as yours; my kingdom is as great—damn, I can never remember that line," she murmured, brow furrowed in frustration, in a soft polished voice. She rummaged around in her sleeve and drew out a red book. He knew it instantly and he bobbed his head in displeasure—how in the nine hells did she come to possess this book? He watched her carefully open the tome and mutter to herself, "You have no power over me."

Jareth's anger was palpable at those words. Thunder rolled overhead causing the girl to look up to the darkened sky, and it was only then she realised that she had lost track of time as she raced off towards the road with her dog galloping behind her. Jareth stayed rooted to the spot, uncertain whether to follow her or return Underground. He considered why this mortal intrigued him so; it was certainly more to do with the fact that she was playing dress-up at her age which showed an unbridled imagination that piqued his interest. Believing that was all there was to it, he made a choice.

He chose the latter.

Back in his castle, Jareth summoned up a crystal to try and trace the last known whereabouts of the Labyrinth book. It had been some years since he was last summoned in the mortal world, and he had simply assumed the book to have vanished or been destroyed. The only runners he got these days were hopeful fae trying to steal his crown—not one of them ever found the gate to enter his maze.

His search in his crystal had resulted in seeing a young boy wishing away his sister. Jareth recalled the boy's name was Gavin and he had sat in the sand outside the Labyrinth and cried or slept for the entirety of his thirteen hours. He shook the crystal as he tried in vain to figure out where the book went from there, but it came up foggy. He tried again with the same results; whoever gave her the book had magic enough to block him from detecting how it got into the pretend-princess' hands. Jareth growled but then on impulse decided to see what Gavin was up to now. The boy was sitting on his bed, resting the guitar against his bended knee and he was singing.

"Oh, Sarah with your eyes so green, when you look at me, I feel seen…" Jareth nearly smashed the globe to stop the caterwauling but then he noticed the photo he was singing to, pinned up on his wall. There were several (Jareth believed they were called) polaroids tacked onto the flowery wallpaper. But the one Gavin kept touching was of a young girl with dark hair wearing—he assumed—a school uniform. He peered closer and a rush of recognition swept over him.

Sarah! Her name was Sarah. The girl in the photo was the one from the park! Clearly, Gavin had somehow given the teenage princess the book. That solved that mystery, though it didn't explain the fogginess in his crystal. Gavin was as magic as a soggy brussel sprout stuck between a goblin's toes, therefore, he could not have possibly obstructed his scrying crystals.

He soon noticed a familiar strangeness wash over his goblins; all of them froze and a deathly silence swept over the throne room. A wish was coming, the castle seemed to whisper, and Jareth tensed up as the wish washed over him. The flavour of the wish was unlike anything he had ever experienced before; it was tantalising and the entire Labyrinth hummed with anticipation. With a rather regal flick of his wrist, he was battle-ready in his armour and cape.

Moments later the goblins popped out of existence, and Jareth felt the summons tug relentlessly at his navel. It was time.

Unfortunately, Jareth was unable to glean more during Sarah's run about the book's history and how she had got her grubby, cruel, yet clever hands on it. He had been completely distracted by the child. Not one in a million runners tackled the game as she had. Not one of them defied or intrigued him as she had. Hardly anyone ever got past the gate, let alone all the way to the end.

Sarah had been so diverting, he had almost meant what he said to her at the end. It had been a last-ditch effort to win, but he found as the words came out of his mouth that they held a conviction he had previously been unaware of. In the same breath, he knew she was too young to keep.

Despite his nature and desire to win, Jareth had ultimately been relieved when she won. The magic of time was his strongest ability, so he could see the potential this child would reach as she grew. And he knew she needed to return Aboveground to achieve that potential. Like a bird pushing a fledgling out of the tree for it to grow and learn, he too knew he would have to release Sarah to her world. It didn't take the sting out of his defeat, but he would have despised her if she had chosen to stay,

Jareth had visited his mother directly after observing Sarah's party with his traitorous subjects. He didn't say anything about what happened and she didn't ask.

As he prepared to leave Ismaila asked him what ailed him.

He hesitated in his reply. "Do you ever wonder if there is a moment in your past—a moment that showed you a glimmer of hope but was just as quickly snuffed out—do you wonder if that moment will ever present itself to you again?"

Ismaila shrugged and popped a cherry into her mouth. She delicately stirred her tea and then when she was ready she spoke, "Sometimes, Jareth, the way forward is the way back."

Jareth rolled his eyes, dismissing his mother as quickly as he ever had the Wise Man. He returned home to try and put his kingdom back in some semblance of order.

Ismaila smiled as her son left her alone. He was a good soul, if not terribly addled by his own arrogance. She loved him dearly and wished deeply for his happiness. She had found love in her husband and hoped her son would find it for himself too. Fate was a useless old bugger who needed more than a helping hand. She wasn't ashamed of her interference but she did get the ball rolling with the book she had gifted that small child all those years ago. She hadn't intended the girl to use its magic at such a young age.

It had been quite fortuitous that it had landed in Ismaila's lap in the first place. The last runner, a wee boy, had thrown the book away upon his return to the Above and when Ismaila had snuck out of her prison one day, unbeknownst to her son—her captor—she had stumbled across it sticking out of a rubbish bin on her walk through Nyack. She, of course, took it and kept it hidden from him. Something compelled her to find the right candidate for the book, which she believed she found in that inquisitive wee child that had visited her on Samhain.

And what Jareth didn't know, couldn't hurt him. Sarah was her friend. Once a week Jareth would let Ismaila out to explore the nearby park. Over time, he let her out every day— and she knew he watched her in his owl form; but not always. Ismaila had also noted a frequent visitor to the park. Though the child did not recognise her, and Ismaila didn't reveal her identity or her son, she knew instantly that it was the mortal child that she'd met once before. She learnt her name, but her magic—bound as it was—could do nothing with it. When she knew Jareth wasn't watching her she would talk to the bright, inquisitive, yet lonely girl. Her mother never noticed her sitting there with Sarah reading to each other and telling their stories. Linda was too engrossed in chatting with her friends or reading a magazine.

So Ismaila told Sarah all about magic and Sarah told her all about school and the theatrical plays she had auditioned for. She saw less of her as she aged but she noticed a huge change come over Sarah after she ran the Labyrinth. It had been a week since she had won and instead of being dressed up and alone, she arrived in her typical clothes and with a baby. Ismaila presumed it was the brother she had wished away.

Totally focused and engaged, she sat with the babe on the grass and talked and read to him as he played with a toy in his pudgy hands. Ismaila smiled. It hadn't been an ideal introduction for the two of them—or at the ideal timing—but at least she had learnt something from her adventure in Jareth's realm. She didn't have a solid plan for the future but the foundations had been laid by her own hand. All that was now needed was time.

2000

Ismaila was known to Sarah as May—to protect her real name and to be more inconspicuous in a mortal realm. The child's visits as she approached adulthood became less frequent, especially when she moved out of her family home. Their conversations had never delved very deep; they had never gone beneath a superficial level in fact. But on one visit to the park where she saw Sarah, she decided to tell her something of a personal nature. It had been nearly fifteen years since her time in the Labyrinth after all. Sarah was an adult and it was time that things between her son and her future daughter-in-law moved a wee bit faster.

"You've grown into such a beautiful woman," May commented as Sarah jogged past her over the bridge. Sarah slowed to a halt and grinned at her.

"May!" Sarah wiped her sweaty brow with her arm. "I would hug you, but I am all hot and sweaty."

Ismaila waved her hand in dismissal. "I haven't seen you in an age, my dear."

"I am only back in town to visit my family. I needed some exercise after all the food my stepmom had made me eat in the past day." She patted her tummy and laughed.

"You still look beautiful."

"And you've hardly aged at all," Sarah remarked as they started walking along the riverbank together.

"Good genes. You should see my son."

"You have a son?"

"I do. He visits me very often."

"You've never said." Sarah scrunched up her brow.

"Haven't I?" Ismaila asked, playing the doddery old lady, though she looked as young as her son. "Well, he's a bit older than you and exquisitely handsome. All the ladies and gentlemen want him."

"Then I am sure you will get a wedding invite from one of them soon."

"Unlikely. He hasn't met the right person yet." Ismaila paused on the bridge to watch the water below. "He is very particular. He is such a successful man and has so many things in his favour. And oh, is he romantic! You would suit each other."

Sarah toyed with a pebble resting on the stone wall. "I am having a break from men currently."

"I am sure you'd change your mind if you met my son."

"Haha," was all Sarah said, though Ismaila could see the touch of sadness around her eyes. The despondency grew into greater clarity as the young woman dropped the pebble into the water below and watched it sink as if her hopes and dreams were plummeting to the depths with the stone.

"I would like to get you together," Ismaila pressed. She watched Sarah's expression darken. No mortal man would be her equal. She proved that with her win over the Labyrinth. So it didn't surprise Ismaila that Sarah was struggling to find companionship amongst her kind. She knew that the young mortal wouldn't appreciate being set up either, but needs must when they lived in two different worlds. "You would balance each other out."

"No, thank you, May." Sarah folded her arms. "I am serious when I say I am having a break from men. I'm sure your son is perfect but now is not the right time."

Ismaila smiled as she pushed her heavy braid over her shoulder. Sarah had admitted Jareth was perfect, even if it was unintentional because she clearly didn't know her son was the Goblin King. She would one day discover how right she was. Her son was perfect for her—and for her ex-kingdom.

"Soon then."

Jareth needed something to replace Her in his thoughts. It had been fifteen years since she'd run his Labyrinth. And he hadn't seen her. After all, she had ensured any power he had did not include learning of her location.

Five years ago, during the tenth year after Sarah's run, Jareth had decided he needed to find something or someone to distract him. Then he came to the very good conclusion that the wee magical child he had found all those years ago sitting in his house with his mother would be worth an investigation. Twenty years had passed since that Samhain night and he suddenly remembered her existence. He didn't have her name, but he had her father and her mother's names.

Jareth had tried the mother first, only learning she was living on the other side of the country with a different man. Linda had told him in her very own words that she, "had no child." Jareth had tried to magically mine the information from her mind but a force he couldn't quite navigate had blocked him from access. He was too angry with her words to ponder the implication of the barrier. Especially as he knew she was lying rather than magically forgetting about the existence of her child when she had tacked on an impassive, "She could be dead now for all I care."

Next, he tried her father and with that, he had more success. But there was a barrier there too. And while Robert spoke of his daughter, he never revealed her name.

Jareth's plan was simple: Robert Williams was a lawyer and Jareth used the fact that the local zoning board was trying to demolish his house to hire Robert as his legal advisor. Slowly, he ingratiated himself into Robert's favour. They became friends much to Jareth's surprise and chagrin.

He didn't befriend mortals.

He was self-sufficient and they were clearly inferior to him. An image of a dark-haired, green-eyed child stepping confidently towards him instead of cowering at his feet rose up in his brain. He dismissed the reminder that he was not infallible with a snarl. She got lucky and had help, without which she would have cried herself dry in the sands outside his Labyrinth for thirteen hours like every other challenger.

But while Jareth had met Robert's new wife, Karen, he didn't meet either of the children they alluded to or learn of their names. Jareth assumed that the child who would now be an adult had learned of her magic and had protected her loved ones from revealing her identity. He marvelled at her cleverness and strength. Whoever she was would be a force to reckon with, if a mere mortal could put up such infallible barriers. He kicked himself for letting Sarah distract him from being the one who discovered the Hoimaliuaquk, which was the word used to describe mortals with magic. Hoimailuaquks were a strong source of imagination and power; if he had been the one to teach her magic, then he would be the one to have reaped the rewards. Rewards such as new abilities for himself or a stronger base of magic from which to draw.

Five years after he established an association with Robert, Jareth had still not met either child or learned their names. The time had been spent nurturing his friendship with Robert and Karen instead. The latter was so much preferable to Linda. Robert was a happier, if not still a spineless man. He'd never be more than close acquaintances with either of them, but he enjoyed their company.

The Williams' had invited him to a summer party at their house tonight and Jareth was strangely excited. Friendship was not a common relationship Underground and yet, the Williams' were both kind and welcoming to him. Neither of them had magic, and yet he felt drawn to them both in a way he couldn't explain. He assumed it was their daughter.

Jareth had accepted the invitation without a moment's hesitation.

The party was in full swing by the time he had arrived. Music was playing, the barbecue was on and most of the guests were in attendance. Jareth was greeted warmly by both hosts before he helped himself to a cider and started to mingle. He wondered if the Williams' children would be in attendance. He had entered the party by going around the side of the house to the backyard, so he hadn't even had a chance to scope out family photos inside to ascertain the identity of the girl from Samhain.

He was enjoying the relative anonymity of associating with mortals. He recognised a few from the meetings he had had with Robert in the past, but it was only when a relatively young man walked past that his interest had risen from mild to moderate.

Gavin.

Gavin was the last person to wish away someone before Sarah had wished away her brother. And if he recalled correctly, the boy who he'd seen in his crystal mooning over a photo of Sarah on his wall as he sang some saccharine lyrics about her. He smiled smugly to himself, satisfied that his lyrics were vastly superior. Then his smile slipped at the realisation that his vastly superior lyrics didn't win him the challenge. And this man was probably closer to Sarah and more familiar with her than he had any chance of ever being. He pushed her out of his mind. Jareth focused instead on whether any of the people here were Robert's children.

His eyes darted over a few that were her age, but there were no recognisable features in their faces. They weren't the Samhain girl. He watched Robert closely as other guests arrived, but none of them seemed to be his children. Jareth guessed they might not attend this shindig after all. He instead prowled towards Gavin and gave him a debonair smile.

The boy looked up from his phone in his hand to smile uncertainly back at Jareth.

"Oh, hello there," Gavin said with false confidence, as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. "I am Gavin Henderson."

Jareth breathed a sigh of relief that Gavin hadn't recognised him. He had been awfully young when he ran the Labyrinth so at best there would only be a slight chance of familiarity but nothing more. Jareth could tell that Gavin didn't know who he was.

"I am Jamie Martin," Jareth replied swiftly. "How do you know Robert?"

"Oh, he is my father's golf buddy," Gavin explained, grinning. "And his daughter is my girlfriend."

Jareth's heart clenched at the mention of Robert's daughter. He knew Gavin had intentions to court Sarah fifteen years ago. Had they come to fruition all this time later? Did that mean that the Samhain girl and Sarah were one and the same? If they were one and the same he would count himself a fool. But they couldn't be the same—could they? He laughed at himself. The chances of Sarah dating this fool were very slim. He swept away his rash hypothesis.

"And your girlfriend," Jareth began, trying to keep his tone light, "Is she here tonight?"

"Not yet. She is picking up her brother first, according to Mrs Williams. She's on her way."

"And what is her name?"

"Sarah," Gavin replied with a proud smile.

Jareth had never known Sarah's last name. He had only learnt her first name because he'd seen Gavin singing to her photo moments before she had wished her brother away. He also knew Sarah was a common name so it might be a coincidence. He wasn't going to revisit his hypothesis that they were the same person. Gavin probably was so obsessed with Sarah that he was just dating someone that had the same name as her. He nodded at the man and then moved to another group of people who were directly in line with the open back door, where he would see her as soon as she arrived.

He halfheartedly contributed to the conversation but his focus was on the door. His heart thumped against his chest as he saw a woman emerge from the back door, a can of cider in her hand as she adjusted her sunglasses with her other hand. He couldn't see her eyes, but there was no mistaking who she was.

She was the child from Samhain twenty-five mortal years ago—now an adult.

Linda Williams sat next to the pool on the balcony of her LA apartment, sipping her gin and tonic with gusto. Her boyfriend—no, fiancé—was probably having his dick ridden by a twenty-something-year-old somewhere downtown. Sighing, she tossed the wrung out lime into the pool with a satisfying plop, turning away before she counted how many slices were currently bobbing up and down in the pool.

She had only used the one glass, so it wasn't as if she was drinking too much.

She pursed her lips. Damn that child of hers—and damn Robert Williams too.

For years, Linda could pretend to ignore the existence of her ex-husband and their child. There was something about her that always struck her as odd; a kind of knowing and deep resentment of her being her mother. They say daughters are like mirrors, but she consoled herself that she was only resentful towards Sarah once Sarah had become resentful of her. Not the other way around. After all, Linda had sacrificed her body and career to give birth to her and she didn't owe Sarah any more than that. She gave life to the wee thing, as promised, and then she was within her rights to wash her hands of the entire business.

Then he turned up a few years back: the good looking man who had found Sarah in his house one Halloween had asked for the whereabouts of her daughter. Linda knew that one day they would come and collect on their deal. She felt a bit short-changed in the entire scheme. 'Have a child,' they ordered when they learnt she wasn't planning on ever having children. So Linda managed to get herself pregnant by Robert, who—the honourable man that he was—married her. She should have said no; should have had the child without getting married and then fled his house. But she tied herself to him—to her. That was her big mistake. Well, aside from having the baby in the first place.

"If you have a child, we will grant you your dreams."

Well, she got her dreams: she was rich, famous and had a hunk of a fiancé—a hunk that couldn't keep his cock in his pants if his life depended on it.

She assumed Jamie Martin was a messenger or an employee of the man that gave her the original offer of her dreams. They weren't one and the same. Though she was drunk when this man had turned up in her bedroom in 1969 with a wooden box in one hand and a ring in the other. She'd never believed in magic—still didn't. Shortly after Linda had given birth, she had chalked up the entire event to being high as a kite on both acid and alcohol; a bad combination. But then she got her dreams, and Jamie had turned up asking for her daughter. Linda noticed he didn't know her name. She had tried to say it in his presence and it died on her tongue. Instead, she bit out an acerbic retort and the man left.

Linda had contemplated ringing Robert and asking if Sarah was safe or had gone missing, but she had changed her mind when Jeremy had come home and instantly fucked her on the kitchen table-back in the days when his dick only wandered out of his pants for her cunt.

She thought back to that man with his carved wooden box. It had contained a crystal that held her dreams in a transparent prison. The man only spent ten minutes convincing her and then he left her standing with the ring and crystal in her hands.

She took the dreams and ensured she and Robert used no form of contraception and the very next month she fell pregnant. Thirty years later, she was sitting by the pool drinking herself silly feeling the taint of her dreams creeping in. She should never have borne the child.

Her dreams could have been achieved organically. She filled up her glass from the pitcher next to her and sucked on the lime before it too ended up in the pool. "I have no daughter," she said out loud as if the words could take away the mistake she made thirty years ago. "I am nobody's mother."

A/N:

Timeline:

1970: Sarah born

1974: Sarah finds the Harrows Lane house

1985: Labyrinth

1995: Jareth befriends Karen and Robert/visits Linda.

2000: present-day (party and Linda reflecting by the pool).

Lots of perspective jumps here but going forward that won't be happening. The rest of the story will mostly be Sarah's perspective with a few chunks of Jareth thrown in for spice. The rest of the story will be in the present time (The year 2000, when Sarah is 30).

Sorry, there was a delay in getting this chapter out. I was in a car accident. A driver swerved to avoid rear-ending me but still wrote off my vehicle. I was a bit shaken up. Thankfully my children weren't in the car and I am not liable so insurance will pay out. I am OK, but I have just been doing a lot of napping to recover from it. I wasn't injured but I was in shock and potentially had a delayed concussion.

Mega thanks as always to Telcontarian for beta reading this. There will be a bit of a delay with chapter 2 as I haven't got the attention span to read through my work before I send it off, so this is all my doing, so please don't blame my beta haha. For once her hashtag about it all being her fault doesn't ring true…