CHAPTER 1

Sarah put her key into her apartment door after work and went straight to the bedroom. She took off all her clothes, went into the bathroom, turned on the faucet and filled the tub with warm water and soapy suds. She got in the tub and laid back with her head resting on the back edge of the old fashioned claw foot tub. Sarah loved her old fashioned tub that came with the apartment. She sighed and relaxed letting the warmth penetrate her body. She had a stressful day and wanted to unwind from it.

Sarah had gone to college and got two degrees, a masters in one on English Literature and she was a Children's Book Author and Artist for a publishing house. The other was a bachelors in Physical Education, specializing in gymnastics. She was very physically fit and limber. She had taken certifications in self defense, survival training, archery and firearms marksmanship. She was very active and busy teaching gymnastics on the weekends and creating and writing her books during the week. Her family had moved away to Australia when she was finishing her masters in English Literature and they drifted away. She was calling them weekly then monthly. Her messages stopped getting returned eight years ago or perhaps they never were received. She knew that would be due to Karen not passing them on or deleting them. Sarah stopped calling before her degrees were completed. They never called her either. Just big deposits came into her bank account was all she knew.

Sarah was twenty eight years old, she was a lonely woman. Relationships never seemed to pan out for her. Friendships were just as hard, she always felt like she never fit in even at her book writing or teaching jobs. She enjoyed gymnastics on the weekends.

—--

Jareth had waited thirteen years to claim Sarah. He had to wait for the Labyrinth's magic that blocked her from him being able to access her to expire from her run. Then he had to wait for a wish-away to come after to be able to go to the Aboveground to claim her. During his time within the thirteen years he had become bitter over her never contacting him, her never making a wish or her never even thinking about him. He had enough of waiting for her. He sent the runner to the Labyrinth and let his advisor deal with them. He was going to get Sarah whether she was willing or not. Jareth did not care how she would feel about it.

—--

After taking her bath she wrapped a towel around herself and was towel drying her hair walking into the bedroom. She stopped dead in her tracks. A man was standing in her bedroom. Not just an ordinary man, either, but a strange ethereal type of man with odd eyes.

He familiarly smirked at her and said, "Your time is up, Sarah. You have to go to the Underground. You had all this time to get your life in order and now you are to return." He liked how beautiful and physically fit that towel she was wearing showed off her long sexy legs and her firm breasts. He has been watching her and lusting after her all this time.

Sarah was freaking out and completely had no idea who this person was. What the fuck was he doing here inside her locked apartment? She said spooked, "Who are you and what are you doing in my apartment? I have no idea what you're talking about." She grabbed her robe off the peg by the door and hurriedly put it on while tying it.

Jareth said snarling, "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, you don't understand, you have no choice this time. I am claiming you as mine. If you would have used the wish magic I gave you and made the mistake of wishing I would have come for you sooner, but you are stubborn and I will break you of that habit the hard way if I must. You will return whether you want to or not. You have wasted enough of my time waiting to come get you. You refused me once and it bought you your thirteen years. Now, it's over and I have power over you once again." He lunged at her and she dodged him behind the wall by her door to the hallway and put it between them. He grabbed her by appearing behind her.

She screamed, "No! Help! Leave me alone!" She elbowed him in the chest, running away. Sarah was running down the hallway as he advanced to keep the distance away from him. She was running towards her living room and grabbed a book and threw it at him.

She shouted, "I want you to leave! I have no idea who the hell you are! Stop acting like I do! Get out!"

He pooh-pooh her and said, "Oh come now Sarah, stop playing games with me. You know perfectly well who I am. I am the Goblin King Jareth. You ran the Labyrinth and I am back to bring you back to the Underground as my…. indentured servant. You are mine to do with as I will. I am your king and sovereign now."

She threw a nic-nac at him and looked at him like he was crazy. She said, "Are you insane? I haven't got any idea what hell you're going on about. Get out! This is your last warning!"

He chuckled at her and said, "Don't tell me you have forgotten everything. Oh the pleasure it will be, to tame you to my sexual tastes." He advanced on her again. She took off running again. He tackled her as she started running. He was on the floor sitting on her butt with her face down.

Sarah screamed, "No, you bastard! No!" She couldn't twist around enough to hit him. He created a crystal and smashed it before she could get her knee up and roll him over off of her in a self defense move.

She was a bit dizzy but she was able to finish getting him off her body. She was furious and was hitting him, kicking him in his throne room while he was down. He rolled away from her trying to protect himself from her torrent of hits. All these little green and gray creatures were staring at them with their mouths hanging open.

Jareth was completely pissed off beyond rage that she hit him so many times and got away from his grasp. Sarah ran. He rolled to his feet and screamed, "Guards seize her!"

The guards were huge with bulging muscles. She dodged and ducked away from them until she ran into six more guards and she was overpowered. They pinned her arms behind her back and dragged her back to the king kicking and screaming and trying to bite the guards. They didn't let go.

Jareth said nastily, throwing a crystal at her binding her magically, "You dare strike me! How dare you put your hands on me! I'll teach you a lesson for touching my person in a violent manner!" He hauled back and struck her in the mouth drawing blood. She saw stars for a moment.

Sarah screamed, "I was defending myself from a kidnapper, you criminal bastard!"

He threw another crystal at her and she appeared in a dungeon cell still bound. She was panting, struggled and couldn't get free. Her legs and hips bent to get up and she sat on a bench. She was furious. She tried to stop her emotions that were running out of control. She thought, 'Where the hell am I now? A DUNGEON?! How the hell did I even get here? What the hell am I going to do? He's crazy angry now that I hit him. Where the hell is home? God, I hate him for doing this to me. I'm trapped here with a maniac set on trying to hurt me. Geez, my mouth hurts.'

She heard boots coming into the dungeon. Jareth walked up to her cell and he was all in black now and had a bullwhip. He entered her cell with intent and Sarah cringed inside but would not show him fear. He made a crystal and she disappeared and reappeared in the shackles naked facing the wall.

Sarah struggled and screamed, "Don't do this! Please stop!"

Jareth said hatefully, "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, you will learn right now that you have no choices anymore. I am your king now and you will be punished for laying hands on your sovereign! The next time you address me will be as, your majesty! I am through with placating you! You will learn the hard way now!" He unfurled the whip and struck her. She refused to scream. Every stroke was more painful until it no longer mattered; her body and mind shut down. She had had enough after fifteen strikes. She felt the blood running down her legs and butt running to her feet. She just hung there with her back laid open.

Jareth said, "This is your first lesson and you'll get the same if you step out of line with me again." After he said that, she was no longer conscious.

—--

Sarah woke up in a small dusty room with a very narrow bed and privy only. She was laying on her stomach naked with a sheet up to her hips groaning and her mouth and back hurt unbearably. She heard someone come in and closed her eyes, being silent. The person sits next to her and starts putting something on her wounds on her back. It felt cold, whatever it was.

The person said, "Ye be better now. It be healed and not hurt by morning. Ye make kingy mad. He be still mad. He bring all your stuff from Aboveground in other room next door, that better than this room you in. He not want you in better room yet, he say. You needs to learn what he say. He say you be chained to his bed eventually. He say you be doing hard labor in scrubbing castle floors. I see you in morning." Sarah thought, 'I have to get out of here somehow. I'm going to have to do it fast to save myself.'

The goblin left her room and locked it. Sarah could barely move. She was in excruciating pain. She went to the door and it was locked tight. She went to the bathroom and peed wondering what on earth she was going to do. She didn't want to wait to scrub the floors in the morning. She tried looking for something to pick the lock but the room was bare. She tried to see if she could fit through the little window but no. She was stuck. Sarah laid back down in her stomach and started to cry. She was frightened not knowing where she was or why that man hated her. He obviously had magic and used it against her. He was cruel and viciously insane. Sleep barely came for her that night.

—--

The next morning, Jareth sat on his throne and said to his goblin maid he sent to Sarah last night, "I want you to go to the room and retrieve Sarah after getting her a scullery maids dress to wear." He grinned to himself about the humiliation of Sarah.

The goblin came running back huffing. She said, "Kingy, she no come. She bit Dinky!" Jareth got up and marched down the hall towards the room Sarah was kept in.

Jareth kicked in the door of the bedroom he kept Sarah in and through a crystal at her as she was sitting on the bed. Sarah jumped and screamed. She appeared in a bedroom with her hands tied to the headboard of a large bed. Sarah screamed and struggled to be freed.

Jareth appears in the bedroom and says, "You won't cooperate, so now I have to do it the hard way for you and a good way for me." He started taking off his clothes and walked over to the bed in his pants. Sarah screamed and violently struggled more to get freed, tearing the skin on her wrists. He ripped the dress off her body in one rendering tear.

She screamed, "Your filthy rapist low life bastard!" She was completely naked with blooming bruises on her legs and arms from fighting him the day before and trying to get out of the room she was in previously. He grabbed her kicking legs and he made his pants disappear. Sarah screamed and kicked.

She whispered a prayer, "I 'wish' I was somewhere safer than here, please?" She disappeared from the room. Jareth growled and screamed enraged.

—--

Next thing she knew, she was in a cave-like stone room on her knees nude. It was very old and the stone walls were glazed with moisture and mold. She felt a bit dizzy and very cold. There was a green light in a stone pit on the floor. A wisp of green began to take shape and materialize.

A young woman in an old ancient green-gray robe stood before her and said in a soft echoing voice, "Lady Sarah, my Champion, you have returned."

Sarah was lost again not knowing what just happened. She whimpered and said, "Who are you?"

The woman said, "I am the Labyrinth. You must call me Gaia."

Sarah said, "Please, I don't know where I am or what's going on. Who was that man…. Jareth, I think he said, and what is an Underground? He said he wanted to enslave me as an indentured servant, said he was my king and sovereign and to groom me to his sexual tastes. He kidnapped me from my home, tore the flesh from my bones with a bullwhip fifteen times and punched me in my mouth, imprisoning me in the castle. He just now tried to make me scrub floors and when I refused he just … tried to rape me. Can you please help me?" Her eyes filled with tears. Sarah fell to the ground cold and a naked mess hysterically crying.

The Labyrinth was confused at the series of events her Champion just told her. The king had kidnapped her, beaten her, imprisoned her and tried to rape her? Gaia created a blanket and covered her with its warmth and softness.

Gaia asked, "You have no memory of this place?" Sarah shook her head no. "Poor child, you are lost and confused. Did my King Jareth bring you back here with no knowledge of the past?" Sarah nodded sniffling. A light shone on Sarah.

Gaia said, "You have a powerful memory lock on you. Oh child, you are here in complete ignorance of your past encounter here. You ran the Labyrinth trial and won. You are the only one who has ever won in all of time. Your heart was pure and your intelligence was high. You were worthy of the magic and title. My king should never have brought you here without sworn fealty. It is against my laws to bring a titled person who has no fealty against their will. You must leave this place and use the wish magic to keep you safe. My king is obsessed with you and is desperate to trap and keep you here. He is fae with high emotions and is set in his fury, rage and obsession to possess you. He has suffered heartache from loving you for the very first time in his very long life and it has turned him to his bitter dark side. You must use your resources to flee. You possess the magic of the Labyrinth and the wish magic. Use them to find a way to flee."

Sarah said, "Do you mean, like I wish for something and it happens?"

The Labyrinth said, "Yes, but beware of your wording when you say the wish to not cause harm or misunderstandings. You must be explicit." Sarah nodded. She thought that is why when she asked for a safer place it sent her here.

Sarah said, "I 'wish' that my wounds and bruises on my body were all healed. Thank you, Gaia. What is the fastest way out of harm's way?" She wasn't in pain anymore.

Gaia said, "To the east, in the Highland Kingdom. Beware of human slavers, Champion. They dwell mostly in The Outlands which is the ring around the Highland Kingdom where the High King resides. There are many kinds of people due to greed that participate in selling the captured humans to the Ogre and Centaur Kingdoms. Trust nobody until you are in the Highlands away from The Outlands further in and still be aware. You must never go south because that is where the Ogre and Centaur Kingdoms are." Gaia projected a map and it showed the different kingdoms, the Highland in the middle with a ring around it and eight kingdoms around the circle. There was a flashing red dot in the one kingdom showing where she was. Sarah had to penetrate the Outlands to get inside the Highland Kingdom.

Sarah said, "I 'wish' for my black bug-out bag, my black backpack, my black full bodysuit, a black long cowl hooded cloak, black boots, a black duffle bag of underwear socks and bras in my size." All of the bags and the clothing appeared in front of her.

Sarah said, "Excuse me." Sarah took out the bra and underwear and got dressed in front of Gaia. She put on her bodysuit, zipped it up and put on some socks, boots and a cloak. She picked up her bug-out bag and pulled out a belt and put it on attaching her knives. She shoved her gun in a pocket on her thigh. It had its safety on. She had her two knives, ammo for the gun, and a longbow in the long narrow zip up bag. She zipped all the bags up and put them on her body to carry.

Gaia said, "You will have to travel the Labyrinth to get out of the maze, then head east. You can be seen and found through magic, Champion."

Sarah said, "I 'wish' that nobody can see or locate me through magic."

Sarah said, "Can I scale the walls to run on the top?"

Gaia chuckled and said, "Yes, you are not a trial runner so rules do not apply."

Sarah put on her belt a retractable grappling hook. She had her compass. She was glad she took all of the survival training and self defense training.

Sarah said, "How do I get out of here into this maze?"

Gaia said, "Three lefts, two right and one left. Good luck my Champion. You must hurry."