Jareth's Heir

The moment Toby uttered his wish, he felt a a number of hands grab hold of him and pull at him. Before he could began to fight back, he felt a rush of air around him, and noticed that he could no longer feel the ground below him, or the toys and dirty clothes on top of him. Everything was dark and silent as if he were in a vacuum - he couldn't even hear the air rushing past him

Then, as quickly as it had all began, it stopped. He could feel the ground below him again. He looked around to get a bearing on his surroundings. At first everything was a little blurry. The light, while somewhat bright, was not really day light. It was like light on a cloudy day. As his sight began to clear up, he noticed he was in a very different place. The land around him looked dead and dry. Leafless trees and sparce golden grass were scattered about the landscape. Far in the distance looked like a big stone castle, and surrounding it appeared to be a big stone maze.

Toby heard a groan behind him, and spun around to see who had made the noise.

"Sarah!" he cried out. Behind him, sprawled out on the ground and surrounded by a bunch of squat creatures that looked like the goblins from his favorite book, lay Sarah. Her clothes were dirty and torn, her lower lip was swollen, and her face was both bruised and incredibly pale. He ran to her, pushing the creatures aside roughly in order to get as close as possible. He shook her gently and called her name.

"She ain't doin' so well, that one," said one of the goblins.

"Aye, she's gotta mighty nasty bump on the back of 'er 'ead," chimed another.

Toby carefully rolled her onto her side and inspected her head. Sure enough, the back of her head was wet and sticky with blood. Toby sobbed and shook Sarah again.

"Wake up, Sarah...please," he cried. When she gave no response, he looked at the creatures around him.

"Can't someone please help her?" he pleaded with them.

"Hey kid, we ain't angels. We're just goblins," one of them replied.

"Yeah," laughed another, "We did whatcha asked us to do. You're on your own now, kid."

The goblins around him laughed and nodded in agreement, before turning around and walking away from them. Toby called after them, pleading for help. When all they did was laugh, he cursed. He picked up rocks and clumps of dirt and threw them at the goblins, who did little more than laugh and dodge the projectiles.

"Stupid, stupid idiots," he growled, before slumping down next to Sarah. The bag that he had been holding onto earlier started moving around. 'I forgot about Frack. I must have dropped him when I tried to wake up Sarah,' he thought, reaching over and pulling his furry friend out.

"Well this sucks," he said to Frack, as he looked around. It seemed odd to him that he wasn't more afraid to be where he was. He knew where he was, for sure. He knew instantly when he saw the castle and labyrinth that he was in the world he had read about so often. 'I guess wishes do come true' he inwardly sighed, remembering what he had said in those last few moments of terror in his bedroom closet. 'I just wish I had wished that sooner,' he mentally berated as he looked at his sister.

Another groan came from his sister, and he moved onto his knees and hunched over her. "Sarah," he whispered, gently shaking her, "wake up." She groaned again, but this time her eyes slowly opened.

When Sarah's eyes opened, she was confused. The last thing she remembered was running across the lawn to her neighbors and screaming for help. She moved a hand to the back of her head where she could feel a throbbing pain. Her hair was coated with something warm and wet. She inspected her hand, not at all surprised to see the blood on her fingers.

She looked at her little brother, who was hunched over her with a worried look on his face. Behind him, she noticed dead trees and a clouded sky. 'Where are we?' she thought, slowly sitting up. Her brother put his arms around her and helped her into a sitting position. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her head, she looked around. Dead trees and grass everywhere. Boulders were scattered over the land scape. In the distance she could see...

"Oh God no!" she exclaimed, seeing the all too familiar castle and Labyrinth. "Toby how'd we get here?" she asked him.

"I guess I wished us here," he said, puzzled by what she asked. He'd have expected her to ask where she was. It almost sounded as if she knew this place existed all along.

"What? No, Toby - I knew I should've burned that book....ow," she groaned. Her anger and surprise was irritating the wound on her head, and causing her a worsening headache. She slowly stood up, but was hit with a sudden feeling of nausea. She bent over and placed her hands on her knees and waited for the feeling to pass.

"Sarah, are you okay?" Toby asked.

"I'm fine, Toby," she assured him. When the nausea passed, she stood up and gazed at the castle. 'This has got to be some dream induced by the bump on my head,' she though. She brought her hand up to her face and pinched her cheeck hard. 'No, definitely not a dream,' she thought as her eyes watered in pain.

"Toby, who brought us here?" Sarah inquired, curious to know if a certain blond haired trickster had anything to do with this.

"Goblins," Toby all but spat. "They grabbed me right after I wished you and I would get taken away. Stupid little jerks wouldn't help wake you up, though. They just laughed."

"You didn't see anyone else?" she asked.

"Nuh-uh," Toby answered, shaking his head.

Sarah crossed her arms and glared at the castle. She did not want to be here, but she had no idea how to get back...at least, not without going to visit the owner of the castle, anyway.

"Sarah, aren't you surprised to be here?" asked Toby. Sarah looked at her brother quizzically, so he continued. "I mean, we're in the Goblin King's world, aren't we? It's the place from the Labyrinth. Aren't you even a little freaked out that we're in a make believe place?"

Sarah stared blankly at her brother for a moment. No, she wasn't freaked to be there. Surprised that she had ended up there again after so many years of cut off contact with the creatures of this world, yes. But freaked that she was in a world that was supposed to be make-believe? Recalling the events that occured 8 years ago, when she had only 11 hours to go through the humongous Labyrinth to find her infant brother, she shook her head.

" I was here once, a long time ago," she muttered, purposely leaving out any mention that Toby had been here as well.

Toby's eyes widened in surprise, and he all but squealed, "Really? When? How did you get here? Did you wish yourself away too?"

"I don't remember," Sarah lied with a shrug. Her brother's shoulders slumped in disappointment.

After a moment of silence between them, Sarah sighed and regarded her brother. "Well, we can't just stay here," she told him. "We're going to have to get help if we want to go home," she added.

"You want to go home? Back to where the robbers were? Why can't we stay here and live with the goblins and stuff. It's not like there's anyone to go home to anymore," he whined.

Sarah shook her head. Sticking a finger into a tear on one of her sleeves, she pulled hard until that half of the sleeve had ripped off. Folding the piece of clothe neatly, she firmly pressed it against the wound on her head to stop any remaining blood loss. "Toby, we can't stay here. We belong with humans, not goblins " she said, waving her free hand in the direction of the castle.

"The Goblin King looks human enough," Toby shot back.

"He's not human. We're not staying with him, either," she said. After a moments pause, she added, "but...I guess it's not like we can avoid him right now."

"What do you mean?" Toby inquired.

"I mean that there only one person that I know of here who has the ability to send us back home," she answered.

"Well, what about the Goblins? They brought us here."

"I don't know if Goblins can do that, Toby. Besides, do you really think you could talk a Goblin, the creature that wouldn't even help you earlier, into spending some of his time sending us back home?"

Toby had to admit, she had a point. He had only seen Goblins once for a few minutes, and he could already tell that they weren't the most helpful creatures. He still couldn't understand why Sarah would want to go home, though. They didn't have any parents to go home to. What's more, Toby may have been young and naive, but he wasn't stupid. Sarah had become increasingly more worried over the past few months, like she knew something bad was going to happen. When she announced to him a few weeks ago that they were moving, she seemed almost relieved at the prospect of living somewhere else. He knew something was up, and it had to do with the weird phone calls she was getting. He would have thought after that break in Sarah wouldn't want to go back anymore, but obviously Sarah preferred living in a place she wasn't happy to living in a fairy tale world.

'Maybe she just needs to be here longer,' Toby thought, scheming as to how he could get his sister to want to stay.

"Okay," he conceded. "So, how are we going to get to the Goblin King? Do we have to go through the maze?" he asked.

"Unless we can sprout wings and fly there, yeah, we'll have to go through the Labryrinth," she said.

Toby walked back over to where he left his bag, and picked it up. Gently placing Frack in the bag, and zipping it up enough to keep him in without cutting off his air supply, Toby strapped the back pack to his back and faced his sister.

"I guess we should go, then," he stated.

"What's your hurry?" Sarah teased him, even though she had already began to start walking. Toby followed her, asking questions about Sarah's experience in this world. Sarah answered all his questions as carefully as possible, making sure not to hint at why she had to come there in the first place. The question and answer session continued for almost an hour until they finally reached the outer wall of the Labyrinth. By this time, Sarah's wound had finally stopped bleeding, so she folded the cloth in half and carefully tucked it in her pocket in case she'd need it for future use.

"So...uh...is there a door or something?" Toby asked, looking up and down the length of the wall, but seeing nothing that looked like a door or opening.

"Yeah...somewhere," Sarah said, remembering how she got in last time. This time, however, there was no squat little man who was exterminating fairies that she could ask for assistance. She walked up and down the wall, carefully examining it for cracks. 'I hope that wasn't the only door to get in. If so, it'll take forever to find our way in,' Sarah thought. Toby stood by quietly and let his sister inspect the wall. Since she had been here before, he figured she knew was she was doing.

After 15 minutes of close inspection, Sarah finally stood back and sighed in exasperation. "How do we get into the Labyrinth?" she growled in frustration. Toby rolled his eyes. 'I guess she doesn't know,' he thought.

The loud sound of moving rocks caught their attention. They looked to their left and saw two large stone doors opening 20 feet away from them.'Seriously? All this time a simple question opened those doors?' Sarah wondered, as she walked over to the opened doors with Toby in tow. When she reached the doors she peered inside, looking both to her left and to her right before finally stepping inside. When the doors closed behind them, Sarah looked at her brother.

"Alright, your choice: left or right?" she asked.

"You mean, you don't know the way?" Toby inquired, his eyes wide in surprise.

Sarah smiled and shook her head. "Not a clue," she answered.

"Okay....left then," Toby said. 'This is going to be interesting,' he thought.

Sarah turned left and began walking down the passage. All the while she dragged her hand across the wall as she went. "Toby, I want you to do the same thing I'm doing on that wall," she said, pointing to the wall on her right. "We're looking for a hidden hole or entrance or something," she added. Toby obeyed, trailing slightly behind his sister. They had only been walking for a minute when Toby felt his finger hit air, rather than stone. Puzzled, he stopped and looked to his right. It certainly looked like the stone wall. He extended his arm and waved it around. There was still no stone.

"Hey Sarah," he began, trying to get her attention. Sarah looked over at her little brother and smiled when she saw him waving his arm in thin air.

"Great Toby, you found one," she said, walking through the division in the wall and taking a right. Toby followed, a little confused at what happened.

"So is everything door hidden or something?" he asked.

"I wouldn't say hidden. More like camoflagued," she told him, taking a left turn into what had looked like just another bare stone wall.'Weird,' he thought.

They continued on for an hour taking turns choosing the direction they went in each time they came to an opening in a wall. On their last turn, Sarah chose to go right and they found themselves in a big garden with tall dead plants. They walked throught the garden and came to an aprupt halt on the other side. Just before they had reached the exit, a large Sphinx with gold colred almond shaped eyes and head of messy golden hair had come from behind the wall and blocked their path.

"Hello, Children," purred the creature is a very wistful and mystical voice. Toby looked up at his sister, and then looked back. His jaw dropped. The garden was gone, replaced by a bare stone wall. He tugged at his sisters sleeve and indicated to her the cause of his confusion. She shrugged and stated, "That's so typical. The one thing I hate most about this place is that everything changes."

"Yes, indeed it does. Despite it's weakend state, the Labyrinth is still quite alive," the Sphinx purred again.

"Weakend state?" Sarah repeated.

"You will see," the Sphinx told her. "Now children, if you wish to continue, you must answer a riddle, and answer well, for if you do not answer correctly..." the sphinx paused and let out a gutteral chuckle before licking her lips, "I shall have to gobble you down as my lunch."

"You're going to eat us?" Sarah stammered.

"Only if you answer incorrectly," the Sphinx answered.

"How many chances do we get?" Sarah inquired.

"Only one," the Sphinx smiled.

Sarah swallowed rougly and looked at her little brother. If it were just her, she'd take a crack at it...but since Toby was involved.

"It's okay, Sarah," Toby told her, seeing her discomfort. "I'm really good at riddles, let me do it," he told her, stepping up to the sphinx bravely.

"I don't know, Toby. We only get one chance."

"Trust me, I'm really good at this," Toby pursuaded. Before Sarah could say anything, he looked at the Sphinx and said, "Okay, what's the riddle."

"Such a brave boy. Here is your riddle : I can run but can not walk. I have a mouth but can not talk. I have a bed but do not sleep. What am I?"

Sarah stood quietly and watched her little brother think it out. She was no good with riddles, admittedly. Anytime she tried to do one, she always had to concede. It's not so much that she wasn't capable of logic, she just didn't have the patience for puzzles. Toby, on the other hand, loved puzzles. He was the kid who could solve a rubix cube within an hour. When their father would come home from buziness trips he would bring with him a new puzzle, or a new book of riddles to solve. He delighted in these things. She watched Toby's eyes shift around. His lips were moving silently as he worked out the answer to the puddle.

'Okay, what runs without walking? Well...water runs. Water doesn't have a mouth, though. What has a mouth but doesn't talk. An animal...but they can walk, and they don't have beds. Oh wait...'the river runs south', the 'mouth of the river', and a 'river bed'. It's so obvious, why didn't I think of it before?'

"I know the answer!" Toby exclaimed. "What runs without walking, has a mouth but doesn't talk, and has a bed but doesn't sleep....it's a river."

The sphinx smiled a toothy grin and bowed her head. "You're correct, little boy. You both may pass," she told them, stepping aside to let them through. Sarah and Toby thanked the sphinx as they passed.

"You did great, Toby. I'm impressed," Sarah told him.

"It was nothing," he said humbly, as they made their way down the new passage way.

The passage they were in continued on uninterruped for what seemed like miles, until they finally came to an opening at the very end of it. "You're kidding," Sarah said, as they passed through the entrance the opening. Ahead of them, to their left, and to their right stood 3 large stone walls will no exits. "We came all this way for nothing," Sarah growled, throwing her hands up in the air in her frustration. Toby stuck his hands in his pockets and kicked the dirt on the ground. They had to turn back and find a new way.

He turned around to go back the way they came, and unexpectly ran into a wall. He fell backwards onto his butt and grabbed his nose in pain. "Ow," he said. Sarah crouched down to inspect the damage, but Toby shook his head. "I'm fine...but the exit's gone," he told her, pointing out the now solid stone wall behind them.

"What the..." Sarah began, feeling along the wall where the opening once was. "Oh come on, this isn't fair," she grumbled.

Toby stood up and looked around. Maybe there was an opening on another wall. He walked over to the wall across from Sarah and began feeling the stone. Somewhere there had to be some sort of trap door or something. They couldn 't be trapped in here - they just couldn't.

Toby had inspected the entire wall and moved on to the next one. Half way down, as he was feeling along the wall, he heard a click below him and he looked down. Beneath his right foot, a stone that he had stepped on had sunk a little. 'That's weird,' he thought, as it clicked once more. He moved his foot, and the stone began to rise. "Hey Sarah, come look at..." he began, but couldn't finish. The moment the stone had become level with the rest of the ground the stones beneath him fell away, and he fell with them. He screamed as he felt into the hole, and kept screaming all the way down.

Sarah had been looking for another exit when she heard her brother say something. She turned around just in time to see her brother falling into a hole beneath. "Toby!" she screamed, running to the edge of the hole. She could hear his screams, and panicking, she ignored her better judgement and let her instincts take over. She jumped into the hole and followed her brother.

She found herself in freefall for 10 seconds before her backside met with a soft surface. She bounced off of it immediately and found herself landing on what she figured was a stone slide. Too dark to tell where she was, she let the slide lead her where it may. "Toby!" she cried, no longer able to hear his screams. "Toby, answer me!" she called again. The slide began to make a number of spiraling turns. Sarah had begun to get nauseas when the slide finally straigtened out. Below her she could see a faint light. It was the exit. As the light grew bright, a strong and offensive odor met her nose. She covered her mouth and groaned - she knew where this slide was headed. 'Please don't let it drop me in the bog,' she silently prayed.

Toby had landed roughly on his butt. He stood up slowly and rubbed his backside. He surveyed his surroundings, and held back his gag reflex that had been triggered by a strong stench. He hand landed on a patch of dirt right next to the water side of a green stinky body of water. The smell was overwhelmingly strong, made worse by small geysers which expelled small amounts of thick green water and disgusting gas with flatulating sounds.

"Sarah!" he called. He looked around. spotting the hole in the mountainside that he had fallen out of. He heard Sarah's voice coming from it, and it was getting louder and louder. He moved away, knowing that she had come down after him. A minute later, Sarah came tumbling down and landed, like him, on her backside.

"Toby, are you okay," she cried when she spotted him. She stood up and embraced him.

"I'm fine Sarah," he told her, trying to push her off. She caught the hint and let him go.

"Well," she sighed, "at least we didn't land IN the bog."

"What is this place?" Toby asked, pinching his nose.

"The Bog of Eternal Stench. Hope you never, ever fall in, or you'll remain stinky for the rest of your life," she told him.

"Oh," he said, inching away from the waterside. "So how do we get out of here?"

Sarah looked around, until she caught sight of a familiar broken bridge. She pointed to it, and said, "We have to cross there."

Toby looked towards where she was pointing, He noticed to get there, they'd have to hop, skip, and jump from land patch to land patch. "Great," he said sardonically.

"It's better than just sitting around here letting our nose hairs get singed by the smell," she told him, jumping to the next land patch. Toby followed her, stopping only to calm the squirming creature in his backpack. "We'll get out of here soon, Frack, don't worry," he told the ferret.

Once they had made it to the large patch of land with the bridge attached to it, Sarah had looked around. 'I wonder if Sir Diddymus is still here?' she wondered. She walked over to the small waist high little cave and peered inside. A large shaggy white dog slept, unaware of her intrusion.

Toby walked up to the bridge and looked at it. It was broken, and the gap between both sides was pretty wide. The bog, however, was extremely shallow here, and there was a path of stones peeking up out of the water which led from one side to the other. Not sure what Sarah was waiting for, he stepped on the first stone, and cringed when the act caused a wave of strong gas to waft up from underneath it. The rock seemed sturdy enough, though, so he took a step towards the other rock.

"Stop!" came a cry from the other side of the bridge. A small fox-lide creature with an eye patch jumped from the other half of the bridge and landed on a stone a few feet in front of him.

"I can not allow you to pass this way, young Knave," the creautre said, brandishing a weapon at Toby. Toby jumped back onto the bank and stared in shock at the creature that had just threatened him. The creature advanced a few stones, but stopped in his tracks when Sarah's voice rang out.

"Sir Diddymus!" Sarah cried in delight when she saw her old friend.

The creatures mouth opened when his eyes fell on Sarah. "Milady?" he whispered. Rushing passed Toby and up to Sarah, he asked, "Milady, what brings you here?"

"Well, it's a long story," she said.

" And one I would very much like to hear," laughed Sir Diddymus.

"Okay, but I'd rather not be here in the bog for too much longer. My I and my brother pass?" she inquired.

"You're brother? You mean, this young boy is Sir Toby?" he asked, looking Toby up and down.

"Yes," Sarah nodded.

"My, how he has grown. Yes, yes, let's get you both past this place. I know how detestable you find it," he said absent mindedly.

"Ambrosious!" he called. Immediatley, the large sleeping white dog arose and came to him. He climbed up into the small saddle on the dogs back and pointed to the bank across from them. "Very well then, let us advance," he told them, leading them across the bog. Sarah let Toby go ahead of her - smiling at the very confused look on his face. When they reached the other side, Sarah launched into her story of how they got there. She told Sir Diddymus about the passing of her parents, they break in to the house, and all the events up to when they met. She also explained to Toby, who by that time was so confused he could do nothing but listen in silence, how exactly she knew Sir Diddymus, as well as her other friends from the Labyrinth. This of course, included a detailed recount of what happened 8 years ago- minus the reason she had to be there in the first place. By the time she had finished, they were already almost to the castle.

"What coward would harm so a gentle a fair maiden as yourself? What a scoundrel. Why, if I had been there, I would have cut him down in your honor," he told her.

"I know you would have. But...you weren't there. If you don't mind my asking, Sir Diddymus, why did you all stop coming when I needed you?" she asked.

"Why, my lady, you never called," he told her, looking at her curiously.

"Yes I did. I called for you and Hoggle, and Ludo many times. You stopped coming 6 years ago. No matter how many times I called, no one came," she protested.

"Why my dear, if this is the truth, then I suspect someone has been meddling with the magic that allowed you to call us. I would have certainly come at your call without a moments hesitation," he told her.

"Gee, wonder who did it?" she asked facetiously. She had a pretty good idea of who did it. Who else with magic powers would delight in causing her stress?

"So, do you know what happened to Ludo and Hoggle? How are they?" she asked.

"Ah yes, Sir Ludo and Sir Hoggle. True friends, despite their faults. After the Labyrinth began to shrivel and decay, Sir Ludo made a home for himself in part of the forest farthest from the bog. Sir Hoggel was not so fortunate, however. Amoung us, he was the one to bear the wrath of the King. It was not so long ago that Jareth got his hands on him and dropped him into the bog. The poor man now spends most of his time in the Oubliette. He's convinced he smells terrible. I don't know why," he told her. Of course Diddymus would not understand why a person who had fallen into the bog smells terrible. He was immune to the stench in the bog.

"The Labyrinth is decaying?" she wondered aloud.

"Yes, yes...for some time the Labyrinth has been weakening and that is causing a slow decaying death for everything in it. The once beautiful trees and brush has shriveled up, the bog is slowly draining, and many of the weaker creatures are fading away," Sir Diddymus explained with a tone of sadness. "Many have petitioned the King to do something, but he either does not care, or does not posess the ability to fix it," he added.

Now that he mentioned it, Sarah thought, she had noticed some differences in the Labyrinth. The first time she was there, she could see the hedge maze even from a distance. This time, she could not see anything. Everything was dull and gray, like stone. She hadn't seen any pixies flying around, nor did they run into the smaller creatures which inhabitied the Labyrinth. What was happening to cause the Labyrinth to decay as it was?

"Here we are," Sir Diddymus sang out as they reached a door which led into the town. Then, as before, the guard slept as they passed through. Unlike before, however, they met no resistence as they entered town. There was no large machine that attacked them, no soldiers that came after them. The town was bustling with goblins going about their business. They walked straight through a marketplace completely unaccosted. Sarah even stopped to gaze at a collection of pretty gems before they continued on.

"Why isn't anyone trying to stop us?" she asked Sir Diddymus.

"Perhaps, dear lady, it is because your presence here is unexpected," he told her.

'Well, he's right. Last time Jareth knew we were coming. I guess that's why we met all that resistence,' she thought.

Meanwhile, Toby was going into information overload. Everywhere there wer goblins running around. In the marketplace, lady goblins bought chicken and grain from loud vendors who shouted about their prices over the voices of their competitors. A number of male goblins lay about drinking from tankards and laughing heartily. It was unlike anything he ever expected to see. He would occasionally slow his pace and eavesdrop on conversations.

"Yeah - me wife works as a maid in the castle," bragged one goblin. "She heard the royal apothecary talking to an advisor about the King. 'Parently, the King is losin' 'is powers. Supposedly he's gotta take a wife or name an heir or somethin' to get 'em back."

"Shit," replied another, "if all he needs is a wife and an heir, he can have me wife an' son. He can deal with 'er bitching and 'is crying and I can finally have some peace an' quiet."

"Toby, hurry up, you're falling behind," Sarah called. Toby turned his attention away from the speaking Goblins, and caught up with his sister and Sir Didymus. They continued walking until they reached the large chained doors of the castle.

"How are we going to open these without Ludo?" Sarah whined, pushing against the doors. Toby and Sir Didymus joined in and tried to help her. They put all their might into pushing, and were sureprised when the doors openly quickly. They fell to the floor as the doors flung open, and heard a rush of feet surround them. Toby looked up to find a large group of spear bearing goblins surrounding them.

"What do we have here?" one of them asked.

"Human intruders aided by a treasonous dog," laughed another one.

Sir Diddymus jumped to his feet and brandished his weapon. "I dare you to say that to my face you braggards!" he cried, launching at one of them. The goblin dodged the attack and hit Diddymus on the back of the head with the butt of his sword. Diddymus fell to the ground and was immediately apprehended and bound by three goblins. One goblin stuck his spear under Sarah's chin and forced her to rise. Another threatened bodily harm to Toby if he didn't do the same.Surrounded and unarmed, they were at the mercy of the guards.

"This one looks familiar," said the guard with his spear to Sarah's throat. "Let's see what our King has to say about her," he said. "Get moving, Girlie!" he shouted at her, forcing her towards the stairs which led to the throne room. The Goblin behind Toby did the same with him. When they reached the top of the stairs, the Goblins cried "Bow to the King!", then shoved them both to the floor.

Sarah landed hard on her stomach and felt the breath knocked out of her. Coughing and wheezing from the combinded breatlessness and dust on the floor, she pushed herself up off the ground and took a deep breath.

"That's no way to treat a visitor," drawled an amused voice above her. Recognizing the deep, smooth, and accented voice immdiately, her stomach dropped. Not about to let herself be humiliated in front of her greatest rival, she brought herself to her feet and looked the man in front of her square in the eye.

"Hello again, Sarah," chuckled Jareth.


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Author's Note: Due to a tight schedule, I won't be able to produce any more chapters this weekend. Thank you all for reading, and please remember to review this chapter. Have a good week end.