Sarah would have loved to say that the next three days passed before she knew it. But the truth was, they didn't. A lot had happened in those three days. A lot more than she'd hoped would happen.

First off, her car broke down and had to be taken to the shop, where it was being repaired. Although it was a second hand car, she hadn't had it that long. Her dad knew about as much about cars as anyone else in the household did, so they decided it would be best to take it downtown.

Secondly, Toby had gotten sick. Most likely just a regular fever, but the little boy had it rough. Karen was by his side constantly, urging him to drink water and trying to get him to eat. She was a tired mess. Sarah helped where she could, but due to an approaching deadline, most of her time was spent at work.

And speaking of work; the apartment she had planned to move into soon had been canceled. The landlord had a family member in need and had to prioritize them. Sarah would be lying if she said she wasn't a little bitter. Her boss was relatively understanding. He tried to give her some flexibility, but wouldn't allow the new book to suffer because of it.

Sarah had been able to work from home the third day. She'd have five more days to finish about eight more illustrations. Not back-breaking, but definitely a challenge. The girl had tried to carefully balance work while still supporting her half-brother and stepmother.

Even though she didn't like Karen that much, she couldn't ignore how the woman tried her best. Not just for Toby, but for the entire household. She would clean the entire house every other day and keep up with laundry, cooking and shopping. Often when Sarah took a short break from work, she would find the woman on her knees, scrubbing the floor, or balancing on a stool, trying to fish some cobwebs from the ceiling.

Her dad had often offered to hire someone to clean the house. As a high-end lawyer he made a pretty penny. But Karen was stubborn - something Sarah recognized in herself. Her stepmother would always refuse the offer. She wanted things cleaned her way and insisted that a cleaning service would never get it as spotless and taken care of as her.

But Sarah had sometimes caught her in a weak moment. Sitting on the floor in the kitchen next to her bucket and brush, catching her breath. Whenever Sarah had caught the older woman there, she would jump back up and look busy. Sarah would offer to help but was always brushed off. At most, she'd be asked to take out the trash. Though that was largely because Karen was a neat-freak and even the thought of garbage made her gag.

Sarah was no fool. She could see how much her dad loved Karen. At first, she denied it. But as she grew older she could tell. The way he always made her herbal tea in the evening, with honey and just a tiny bit of lemon. Or how he tucked her in on the couch when she was reading her magazines. He would tell her how much he appreciated her and everything that she did all the time.

Frankly, it was a little nauseating. But it was sweet.

As Sarah walked out of her room, done with work for the day, she caught Karen softly holding and rocking Toby in her arms. The woman seemed exhausted. Walking in, she whispered quietly to her. "Hey Karen, go run yourself a nice bath, I will keep an eye on Toby and get dinner ready."

Karen shook her head slowly, waving a hand dismissively.

"I insist." Sarah pressed, gently peeling Toby from Karen's arms and stroking his back softly.

Karen squeezed her shoulder in silent thanks and walked out of the room.

Sarah put him in his bed and took his temperature. It was a little bit high, but most likely he would feel better very soon. She made sure he would be comfortable before she turned on the babyphone. Karen had insisted on keeping it despite Toby was no longer a baby. She was fiercely protective of him. Turning off the light Sarah took the receiver downstairs with her to start preparing dinner.

Digging through the fridge and cupboards she gathered some ingredients for a nice pasta. While cutting the vegetables she slipped into relaxation after a long day.

In the moment of peace, she allowed herself to let go of the tension of the past few days. In her mind, she turned to optimism. She would look for a new apartment tomorrow after she'd picked up her car. If she could finish the last two illustrations for the new book, she was done and could sail right into the usual week off after crunch time.

A flutter of eagerness danced in her stomach. The Goblin King would even visit her tonight. She still had trouble convincing herself that it hadn't been a dream. She had been convinced for so long. Now that she knew it was real, she couldn't believe it. Sarah snickered to herself as she thought about it.

"Hey princess, what's so funny?"

"Dad," the girl gasped, whirling around to look at him. "Damn, you scared me half to death!"

Robert grinned at her, putting down his suitcase and binders of documents. "I see you tricked Karen into letting you cook dinner."

"Yeah."

Robert walked up to her and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Thank you, princess. I know you don't get along with Karen that well, but I appreciate every single gesture to work to the opposite." He took a piece of bell pepper from the cut vegetables and got himself a glass of water. "How is Toby doing?"

"Toby is alright. With a good night's rest I hope he will be back in good health tomorrow. He's asleep right now. Karen is having a bath."

"Wonderful. I will set the table. Tomorrow I'll drive you to the shop to pick up your car." With that, he walked out of the kitchen, most likely to change into something more comfortable.

After dinner, Sarah briefly stopped by Toby to check his temperature again while Karen cleaned the dishes. His fever had already gone and he was suddenly very eager to eat. Sarah had yelled downstairs to ask her dad to make him some soup, which he started on right away.

As she headed into her room, she right away walked across her room, opening the windows and sticking her head out excitedly. Sarah huffed as there was no owl.

"Expecting someone?"

"Mother of-" The girl exclaimed, putting her hand to her heart and turning back to the room. Jareth was leaning casually against her wardrobe, dressed in full goblin armor regalia. He arched one brow questioningly. "Hi," she huffed.

"Hello."

There was an awkward silence. Sarah mentioned with her hand through the room. "Uh, make yourself comfortable," she offered.

Jareth looked around in the small room, where there was little room to even get comfortable at all. He opted for the desk chair again. Even when he didn't have to be silent, the chair didn't make a single sound as he elegantly sat down. Interested, he glanced at the illustrations that were still on the desk, picking one up curiously. "So," he started. "As per your request, I am here. Please enlighten me as to what is next."

Sarah pushed a lock of dark hair behind her ear. "Well… I'm not sure. Can I offer you something to drink or eat?"

"I appreciate the hospitality, but no thank you."

The young woman nodded and sat down on her bed, grabbing a pillow to hold in her arms. "Can I ask you why you agreed to visit?"

Jareth crossed his legs, brushing something off his knee. "I seem to have found myself particularly generous in granting the wishes of a certain girl who wished away her baby brother to me." He looked at her as she nibbled on her lower lip, avoiding his gaze. "I can tell you have a lot of questions."

"Do you have any questions?" Sarah offered.

He leaned back in the chair looking around nearby. He picked up a pen to keep his hand busy with. "Any questions that I might have can wait." His eyes suddenly flicked up at her. "Please, ask away."

"The Labyrinth…" Those two words seemed to hang heavy in the air. "Was it real?"

He nodded. "The Labyrinth is most definitely real. However, what you have seen of it is but a small fragment of the Labyrinth. And an even smaller piece of my realm in its entirety."

"The things that happened there, the… creatures that I have met, were they real?"

He leaned back his head a little, looking down his nose at her with a slight tilt of his head. "They were real… enough. Why do you ask?"

Sarah caressed the pillow, falling silent for a moment. Real enough… How did he manage to create more questions than he answered in just a handful of words? "What… does that even mean?"

"It means that in the Labyrinth, not everything is as it seems."

"So, what wasn't?"

He pursed his lips, twirling the pen rather skillfully between two gloved fingers. "The cleaners." Jareth finally relented. "Those were an illusion. The junkyard was a remnant of the effects of the peach Higgle fed you."

"You mean you fed me." She said pointedly. A wide grin stretched on his face, sharp teeth poking from his lips. He almost seemed a little gleeful. Sarah frowned at that.

"I like to believe I have a better system for waste disposal in my realm." Jareth continued.

Waste disposal definitely wasn't high on the list of her curiosities about the Labyrinth. "Why couldn't I contact my friends after that night that I got back?"

"Friends?"

Sarah was a little surprised at the clear disdain he had for that term. It was uttered with a noticeable lip curl of disgust. Instead of prodding that aversion, she patiently waited for him to reply. He had a strange way of keeping eye contact. So far, he had barely looked away or even blinked while they had been talking. He seemed so… alert.

"That night was meant as a farewell. Contact between two different worlds is hard to sustain. At least for lowly magical creatures. Not only is it exhausting for them, but it's also in a certain way… unnatural." Jareth explained. "Your world and mine," he explained, motioning between them with his hand. "They are separated by a veil of sorts. To cross that veil, one needs a lot of strength but also a lot of prudence. If you are too weak, you can get trapped between this veil. If you try to bruteforce your way through, you might tear it."

Without knowing it, Sarah had started leaning forward, intrigued. "What happens if it tears?"

"It has happened before. In what your world calls the medieval times. Undoubtedly, you have heard myths of dragons, monsters, witch trials."

"Someone might have mentioned it." Sarah muttered with a nod. "Was it… repaired?"

"Yes." He saw her eyes silently prodding him. "The tear was mended from my side after a lot of preparation and with a lot of help."

"This might be a dumb question, but… were you involved?"

Jareth looked at her, he was a little surprised at that question. "Yes." As soon as the word left his lips he saw her eyes widen and he could tell that at that moment, a thousand more questions raced through her mind. "But I was very young back then. Comparable to your age when you came in contact with my realm. It was a combined effort of the strongest beings in my world."

Sarah took a moment to digest what he'd just told her, as she looked up at him, another question fell off her lips, almost involuntarily. "You're not bullshitting me, are you?"

The Goblin King barked out a laugh then. An unexpected reaction and in a way a little frightening. But Sarah hadn't seen him laugh yet, at least not in a way that wasn't malicious. It was strange, but a welcome contrast to his calm demeanor so far. The way it made his eyes crinkle and his stiff frame shift was very refreshing. "No, I speak the truth, I assure you."

"That is… wild." She said a little awkwardly. "I don't really know how else to describe it."

"You should have been there." He scoffed, the mirth quickly draining from his voice, the corners of his mouth curling down.

"So… is it dangerous? For you to come to this world, I mean."

Jareth shrugged, waving his hand rather dismissively. "No. As I said, it is difficult for weak beings to cross. As for me," he looked at her intently, curious to see her reaction. "I have grown to be one of the most powerful people in my world. And I grow stronger still, every single day. Traveling between our worlds is like second nature to me." He watched her gulp nervously, shyly averting her gaze. He shifted in the chair, stretching his long legs in front of him and crossing them at the ankle. "With my finesse, the veil barely even notices I slip by."

Sarah snorted at that, which caused him to arch one brow at her. "And you're so modest too."

Jareth simply sniffed, turning his head to look around the room.

"So," she started, causing him to look back at her. "If my friends can't visit or talk to me here… Can I go see them?"

The Goblin King looked her up and down briefly. "You certainly have some courage asking that. At least that group of misfits has some magic to call their own. What magic do you have?"

Sarah huffed, looking at him from the corner of her eyes. "Well, I don't have any. But-"

"No." Jareth deadpanned. She opened her mouth to object but he raised his hand. "Transporting the little brat you were back then, to fulfill your wish to win back your baby brother is one thing."

"Half brother." Sarah interjected.

"But," Jareth hissed at her interruption. "Ferrying you back and forth just for a little tea party, is a different story altogether. I am not reducing myself and my power to become your little lackey for your insignificant social endeavors."

Sarah pouted and Jareth narrowed his eyes at her. He shifted in a way that alerted her that he was ready to leave. "If this is the sole reason why you have invited me-"

"It's not!" Sarah insisted, nearly dropping the pillow she was holding on her lap. "No, please. I didn't mean to come across as if I was just using you." She said solemnly. "Truth be told, ever since I returned from the Labyrinth, I have missed it. So much. I can't stop thinking about it, and I don't want to." He looked at her quietly, still a little offended. As she looked down at her lap, she made idle patterns on the pillow. "I was happy to get my halfbrother back. I truly was - and I still am. But I can't help but feel that somehow, a part of the Labyrinth somehow stayed with me. I dream of it so often and sometimes I could swear the feeling I had while being there, somehow… lingered."

Jareth frowned and pulled in his legs to lean forward, his elbows on his knees. He looked at her so closely that Sarah visibly grew nervous. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

The girl was a little thrown off by his sudden interest. His bright mismatched eyes were hyper focused in his current position. It was almost hypnotic. "I-I… I don't know. But that's how it feels."

His gaze didn't relent. He was so still it was almost like time had stopped. Because he was completely still, there was nothing to distract her from his scrutiny. The moment seemed to last so long. With him not even moving a fraction it became rather uncomfortable. Suddenly there was a strange sense of dread creeping up her spine. There was a strange shift in the air again, much like there had been before he left last time. A sense that made it feel like the entire world was whispering to a halt. Her heart started quickening and she could feel a strange tingle running along her skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Suddenly she was incredibly aware that this wasn't the fluffy owl anymore. This was the Goblin King. An otherworldly being, that could manifest items in his grasp, that could defy gravity itself without a single sign of effort. She wasn't sure if it was just the light playing tricks on her, but it seemed like ever so slowly, his eyes started to darken. They were almost starting to look like those of the barn owl she'd seen countless times by her window. Sarah started to recoil a little, only partly voluntarily.

Both of them seem to startle as suddenly there was a cheerful singing near the door. Toby, she knew. Faintly she could hear her dad announcing to the boy that it was time for bed.

Still weirdly shaken by whatever it was that just happened, Sarah felt no rush to look back at Jareth. Instead, her gaze dropped to the floor and her hands slightly wrung the corners of the pillow in her arms. The strange tingle that had seemed to prickle her skin subsided to a strange numb feeling. Her heart was still racing, almost painfully so, like her body was still catching up on whatever it was that just happened.

"Sarah."

Instinctively, she looked up at him as he called her name. There was a rather gentle rumble in his baritone voice. "I apologize if I frightened you, it was not my intent."

"Did you just… do something?"

It was a strange question but there was a gut feeling that he wasn't just staring at her just now. There was something more. She just didn't know what. The mild concern in his eyes vanished. His eyes regained the coldness she'd seen before. Whatever sort of consolation he'd just offered, he'd closed himself off from her.

"You don't have to answer that." She offered him a small smile, which he did not return. "Can I offer you something to drink? Or a snack? I can make some tea."

The Goblin King raised, looking down at the girl. "I should go. I have matters to attend to."

The girl got up, putting the pillow aside. "Ah, right. I'm sure you are very busy. I apologize for keeping you." She felt a little reluctant to let him leave. Sarah still had so many questions, not to mention that she had missed this sense of magic in her life. Her illustrator gig seemed so… ordinary, her problems so distant. How could she now just go back to her nine-to-five job and movie nights?

Not letting herself meet his eyes she looked at the intricate armor he was wearing and the strange medallion around his neck. It still weirdly felt like a dream, even though she was rather sure that she was awake, and he was standing right in front of her. Something odd compelled her to move. Almost like she was entranced, she took a step forward and reached to touch the pendant around his neck.

"Sarah?"

She looked up at him, her hand recoiling awkwardly. "The little red book, the story of the Labyrinth. May I have it?"

Sarah parted her lips, surprised he'd ask her that. Her eyes briefly flickered to the bookshelf, where it stood in stark contrast from her study books and encyclopedias. He followed her gaze and moved over to the bookcase with large strides. Deftly he tilted it out from the other books and took it off the shelf. "W-why do you want it?" She pressed, moving over to the bookshelf and protectively taking a hold of the small red novel. He didn't let go. Sarah tugged a little more insistently but he didn't even budge.

"I think it's better that you let go of it." Jareth said in a slightly warning tone, clearly not only meaning her physical hold on the bundle. He watched her clutch on the book harder, her eyes fixed on it. "It's not healthy to maintain this sense of connection with my world. It wouldn't be fair to you to endlessly be reminded of it."

"Then why would you keep showing up by my window? Why answer the questions I asked you? It's not fair."

Jareth clenched his teeth at the familiar and childish phrase and tugged one more time on the book. When she didn't let go, he pulled it up high. As she was forced upwards, her face tilted up to follow the book. Once it did, he met her bright hazel eyes, brimming with tears. Her grasp on the book slipped and she backed off, defeated. "Sarah, I'm s-"

"Fine then. Just go. Take the stupid book." Her voice quivered a little. "And if you're still planning on sitting in that stupid tree outside my window, don't. Next time, I won't hesitate to light it on fire, whether you're in it or not." She spat and turned away from him, her hands fisting by her sides as she walked over to her bed. Unceremoniously she hopped on the bed, grabbing the pillow again.

"Sarah -"

"I said fuck off!" She yelled, her voice cracking, turning and tossing the pillow at him.

He didn't even flinch as it hit him in the stomach and it limply fell to the floor. The Goblin King picked it up and carefully handed it back to her. He almost jumped as she snatched it from his hands and Jareth knelt next to her, keeping the book out of reach. "I can help you forget." He offered quietly.

"Leave."

Her head stayed down, her features hidden behind her dark curtain of hair. He stood up straight, the book suddenly ten times heavier in his hand. He hadn't meant to hurt her like this. For her own good and for her sanity, she needed to leave the past in the past.

A long silence followed. He could see her hands starting to wring the pillow more and more fiercely, until he noticed small darkened dots on her pillow.

She was crying.

Jareth's lips parted, his stomach dropping. He reached one hand out to her, hovering over her shoulder. He pressed his lips together, balling his hand to a fist. He stepped back, shaking his head. There was nothing he could do. She would never see his world again, letting her live in the pretense that maybe she could was possibly even more cruel than setting this clear boundary.

"Goodbye, Sarah."

The girl squeezed her eyes closed, tears trickling down her cheeks freely. She blamed herself. She had invited him in. She had welcomed the Goblin King.

She should have known better. She shouldn't have trusted him. This… other-worldly man that had stolen her brother from her, that made her run through that glorified maze. Dumped her in a swamp so wretched she swore she sometimes could still smell its disgusting vapors. Poisoned her.

She, as the fool that she was, had trusted him. Now her last remnant of the Labyrinth was gone. There was nothing she could do. No one that she could ask for help. It…

It just wasn't… fair!

Sarah had been in possession of the book for as long as she could remember. Her dad had read it to her countless times as a child. It belonged to her. It was part of her. He had no right to take it.

The girl scrambled up, throwing the pillow to the floor, and grabbed one of her empty notebooks. Fiercely, she rubbed the tears from her eyes and frowned. Slamming the book on the desk, she grabbed a pen and flicked it open.

"Chapter one: the white owl

Nobody saw the owl, white in the moonlight, black against the stars, nobody heard him as he glided over on silent wings of velvet…"