This story is dedicated to David Bowie, R.I.P. you amazing man.
Also to my sister for helping drastically change the direction that this and follow up Labyrinth stories will go. She told me how she always thought Jareth fell in love with Sarah during the course of the film and not before like I was thinking, and I realized that not only did that make a TON more sense, but it was also brilliant! 

Thanks sis!

    Also HUGE thanks to Vandrell for giving me permission to use this beautiful art piece as a 'cover' image!

Baby we were so in love, only one that I could trust

I would never give that up, there's no one like her

Knew you were my everything, was so glad that you with me

Had to tell my family I found that girl

    As long as the Goblin King lives, he will never understand how they know.

    These mortal humans who, somehow without magic, would dream and write stories about magical beings who have not set foot Aboveground for centuries.

    The tales of Arthur and Merlin, Oberon and Titania, it made sense that they would be known, those stories happened before the Great Migration. Before all beings and creatures of magic decided they needed to leave the mortal world and make their own. But the stories afterwards… Granted, the stories were only accurate up to a point, but still…

    How do the Abovegrounders know?

    He knew one or two stories of his exploits existed out there. The Black Knight and the Faerie Knight. The Hamelin incident. But those were so long ago and have been so greatly changed in the telling over the centuries that naturally, the Abovegrounders had never realized that the stories share a character.

    Despite his curiosity, it was not enough to completely dispel his considerably low opinion of those mortal humans. After seven centuries of taking children who are wished away by unloving or desperate parents, his heart had hardened to stone and he long ago gave up on finding anything or anyone that could convince him otherwise.

Then out of nowhere you were gone without a reason why

So I'm here in this place by myself, all you had to do was try

If you could see it through my eyes

It would explain the tears I've cried

Why did you walk out of my life?

Wasn't it clear to see that you were meant for me?

    One day, after dealing with a runner who gave up before even reaching the second entryway, the Goblin King felt a strange compulsion to take to his owl form and travel Aboveground. Something he hadn’t done for a few decades.

    He flew over a small town enjoying the crisp air and the quiet elation flying always gives him. When he chose to rest in this one pleasant looking park, he discovered near his obelisk perch three very young girls talking in that loud, chipmunk like chatter that young females of all races do.

    All three of them were dressed in clothing slightly similar to what he’s seen women of the Underground nobility wear. But even if the cheaper materials and the zippers were not a giveaway, he already knew that style of clothing was only used by Aboveground women and girls for playing or acting.

    One black haired girl, the alpha it seemed, was telling the other two, one with blonde pigtails and the other dark skinned with her black hair in one long braid, about the Goblin King!

    To say he was shocked was an understatement. He had no idea there was a story about him. There were lots of stories with Goblins, yes, and quite of few with kings of same, it happens, but she was describing him with remarkable detail. He bird-hopped as close as he could without detection, wanting to hear every bit.

    The girl was…eleven or somewhere around that. He was never any good at figuring out how old mortal humans are by their appearance.

    That would come back to bite him later.

    She was reading to her friends from a small red book. “’The Goblin King was not like his subjects. He was of the Fae folk.'"

    “What’re those?” Blonde pigtails asked.

    “They’re like faeries. Only taller, without wings, and are way cool!” Black braid answered.

    ‘Why thank you, young maiden.’ He snickered to himself.

    “How come he’s the king if he’s not a goblin?”

    Black haired alpha flipped thru the pages. “It doesn’t say why, but I bet it’s because the Goblins are so silly, they need someone smarter to get things done.”

    ‘Quite astute of you, and not too far off the mark.’ He tilted his owl head to try and get a better view of the book she was reading from. How did the writer of that book know so much?

    Blonde pigtails looked like she had more to say. “So, how come-“

    “Oh, be quiet and let Sarah finish! I want to know about the Goblin King. He sounds Tom Selleck awesome!”

    ‘Is that a compliment?’

    “No way! He sounds like he should be like Michael Jackson or Boy George. Y’know that kind of neat, sequined look that they got?”

    “Look, its Sarah’s book, let her settle this. Who do you think the Goblin King is like, Sarah?”

    Sarah stood up. “I’ll show you! I got this figurine of him from the same place I got the book!”

    ‘A figure of me?! That’s-’

    Sarah called out to her puppy. “Come on, Merlin! Let’s go.”

    The puppy yipped and yapped with glee around the three girls legs.

    The Goblin King was laughing so hard, it was a wonder the girls didn’t hear his owl sounds as they skipped away. She named her dog after one of the greatest sorcerers in the history of magic! Oh, he’s going to have to remember that and wait for the perfect moment to tell Merlin.

    He intended to follow the girls to Sarah’s home and use his magic to see whether this figurine is a good likeness, but then he sensed his Chancellor calling him.

    Internally groaning, he flew back to the portal deep in thought. ‘Pity I didn’t get to find out more about how this girl had such a surprisingly accurate book or if the figurine did resemble me. But by the time I would probably be able to come back, she would be elderly or dead. Abovegrounders are such a pathetically brief flicker…and yet they have such a magic in their arts…

    ‘How do they know…?’

If you could see it through my eyes

You'd know the reason why I tried

So hard to never let love die

I wish that you could see, see it through my eyes

1986 as the mortals understand time…

    He had sensed it. Someone was going to wish a child away soon. As always, he ordered the Goblins to go on ahead and hide themselves while he looked in at the wisher to be and assessed the situation. He hoped it would be a false alarm this time. So many mortals make a wish on impulse that he must always listen carefully to see if this one applies by the laws of the Underground.

    He traveled in his owl form to the source and discovered, to his surprise and curiosity that he was once again back in that same park and that same girl was there. She had grown into that not a girl, but not yet a woman stage. Even with his rather rusty knowledge of mortal aging, he could tell this one would probably grow into quite a beauty. Not by Fae standards, of course.

    He was all but flabbergasted that the girl, while not quite looking at him, was asking him, no demanding, to return the child! He hadn’t taken any child recently. Is this girl an Oracle? Or is this some sort of elaborate trap? Then she muttered to herself, quietly swore, and looked into a red book.

    He relaxed; Sarah was simply reciting lines from a book to that dog of hers.

    Heh heh…Merlin.

    He noticed it was the same red book from before. That is…disconcerting. It knows far too much about him.

    Wait, why did he remember her name? Any Abovegrounder he came across in the past was never worth remembering, but Sarah’s name came to him almost immediately.

    Then it started to rain and he watched her pick up her skirts, call to her dog, and run off. He chuckled at the sight of her pants beneath the dress and followed her.

    The signal was clear. She, or someone close to her, was going to make the wish any minute, and he would have to stay until this little drama played itself out.

    The Goblin King magically watched and listened, as she yelled at an older woman and then run up the stairs and into her room.

    He rolled his eyes. Since becoming the Goblin King, Jareth reluctantly became an expert at seeing the clichés of humanity play over and over. This was nothing new.

    Sarah doesn’t love her step-mother and step-brother, and has to take care of the babe against her will. She’ll probably have a tantrum and wish her brother away any minute.

    ‘Well sorry little girl, but the Goblin King does not take the wishes of grumpy maidens like you seriously. My laws and those of the Old Ones make it clear when and whose child I take and you are simply another whiny-‘

    She was speaking to the babe. There was something in her words that grabbed his attention.

    “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was a spoiled child, and he wanted everything to himself, and the young girl was practically a slave.”

    He coldly laughed while thinking, ‘Well, that seems harsh. The babe is barely a year old or so. How can he be that selfish that soon?

    “But what no one knew is that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the the girl, and he had given her certain powers.”

    ‘Oh, really? In love am I? First I’ve heard of it. And what powers? I would never give a Abovegrounder magic, let alone someone lik-’

    “So one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her, she called on the Goblins for help!”

    One Goblin woke the others from their nap. “Listen!”

    "’Say your Right Words’, the Goblins said, ’and we'll take the baby to the Goblin City, and you will be free!’"

    ‘Well now, this is getting interesting…’

    “But the girl knew, that the Goblin King would keep the baby in his castle for ever and ever and ever, and turn it into a Goblin! And so the girl suffered in silence. Until one day, when she was tired from a day of housework, and she was hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother, and she could no longer stand it...”

    ‘Think carefully, foolish girl. You might know the Right Words, but this is not something to be done on a selfish impulse.’

    “I can bear it no longer! Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!”

    ‘… ‘

    Several of the hiding Goblins groaned and one spoke. “Where did she learn that rubbish?”

    ‘And my family accuses me of being overly histrionic…’

    Annoyed by the whole scene, he was about to leave, thinking the night’s entertainment was done, when she finally said the Right Words.

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

    He should not have taken the babe. He knew this was against his own laws.

    When a child is wished away, he is only supposed to take them if the wish was given by parents who don’t care past their own wants or are at the end of their tether, never by a childish, older sibling who acted in haste.

    But the ego of this girl! Saying he was in love with her, and ignoring the babe’s crying so she can whine about her self-centered wrongs, it offended and disgusted him. She needed, deserved to be taught a lesson.

    And then she had the audacity to continue defying him! He offered her her dreams as under the Old Ones’ law, but she actually said ‘Not that I don’t appreciate what you’re doing for me…’ As if she was the only Abovegrounder who have had their dreams offered!

    The snake should make it perfectly clear to the little spoiled, ordinary girl; no one defies and offends the Goblin King. She is no match for him. No mortal human is!

    At least he warned her. The High King of the Underground can’t say he didn’t fulfill his duty. She won’t be in any real danger, but whatever happens outside of that she brought it on herself.

    Such a pity…

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

    For all the whining she did, he did have to, reluctantly, admire the way she stood up to him then. He made sure to be quite intimidating and he knew it was working on her, but she looked right up at his eyes and said ‘It’s a piece of cake.’

    Well of course he couldn’t let her get away with that. He was well within his rights to remove those hours.

    And to summon the Cleaners to frighten her properly.

    Still…

    Her eyes. They were so defiant…so full of fire…

    So beautiful…

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

    The unthinkable happened.

    He had felt something for this chit! He hadn’t cared or felt anything for centuries and this stubborn girl comes along and…

    He had always prided himself on being completely detached from such things. All those who ran the Labyrinth in the past never gave him any feeling other than disgust or indifference. So who is this mere mortal girl who can cause the Goblin King to…

    It wasn’t desire. He’s had several centuries to master control of himself when it comes to intimacy. He’s had no more need or desire of that, no matter how many simpering noblewomen pathetically flirt at him. This was…something powerfully different. Something more…incredibly wonderful…

    Errrgghh, it was such a simple plan! She eats the peach, she falls into the sparkly princess dream she’s had for most of her life, and he would bewitch her to forget everything.

    Countless runners have given into their dreams before with little to no effort on his part. As a rule he never enters their dreams, but he couldn’t help but feel he needed to keep an eye on this one.

    It was working perfectly. She forgot everything she was supposed to…but she saw him when she shouldn’t have and approached. He should’ve left the dream…he should’ve walked away, but he found he didn’t want to.

    When Sarah walked up to him and he removed his mask to look at her properly…

    He saw a beautiful, valiant full-grown woman instead of a pretty, but whining young girl.

    He was so mesmerized, so captivated by this vision, he didn’t even realize at first he was singing to her. A song that never existed before that moment. And when they danced, he discovered to his astonishment that he was enjoying himself. The way she felt in his arms, how she looked so stunning. It felt so right!

    But when she broke free from him to escape, it…hurt. It shouldn’t have, but he felt an aching need he had never experienced in his rather long life. He was so uncertain of what was going on, of what she was doing to him; he didn’t even stop her from breaking out of the dream.

    Where the Hell did that clock come from?! He would not have been so idiotic as to have it there when the point was to make her forget!

    The spell is shaped by the runner’s dreams and thoughts…Did Sarah somehow conjure it from her subconscious? To have the strength of will to alter the spell like that this far into it…

    Incredible.

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

    When he confronted her in the Escher room…it was like he was out of his body watching himself and Sarah.

    He just kept singing his anguish out to her but she was only focused on Toby and not listening to what he was desperately trying to make her understand.

    His heart...it hurts like it’s never done before. It’s too full of contradictions and pain.

    The Goblin King couldn’t decide whether he wanted to throttle Sarah from all the frustration and conflict she’s given him or to take her into his arms and…

    He had never felt such a raw emptiness in his entire life.

    Why?

    Why was she having this effect on him? Why, after all these centuries of runners, why was she different?

    The Escher Room broke itself apart when she jumped. How could it?! It’s the most fortified room in his Castle. That had never happened in the history of the Labyrinth.

    Who was this mortal?

    The air was hazy from the Labyrinth’s magic. It wasn’t reacting well to the shattering of the Escher Room and from the turmoil in the Goblin King’s heart.

    A heart he didn’t want to acknowledge having before now.

    WHO WAS THIS GIRL?!

    He was begging, begging Sarah to accept his offer. Since the day he was born he has never debased himself like this, but he wanted her to stay so much…

    Why?!

    She kept ignoring him and started reciting those damned Words.

    There’s so little time left! Wasn’t he making it clear enough how much he desired her!? Needed her?!

    ‘Look at me, Sarah! See me as I truly am! Not the cruel Goblin King you made, but the real Jareth. Why else would I have dressed like this, not in any villainous apparel but in my actual ceremonial clothing? I am offering you my true self as your slave!’

    Why won’t she listen? She must accept this proposal…

    She must…

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

    Sarah was talking to those three creatures thru her mirror. “I need you. All of you.”

    They, the Wiseman, assorted Goblins and even a few Fireys all appeared in her bedroom as they celebrated her triumph.

    A barn owl watched from outside. Despair and anger battled for dominance in his heart.

    ‘She needed all of them…

    ‘All but me…

    ‘She never needed or wanted me…

    ‘Why, Sarah? Why didn’t you see me? I tried so hard, so many times to show you…

    ‘Well, why would she? I am the villain. The evil Goblin King. She’ll never see or think of me as anything else no matter what I’ve done for her!

    She broke portions of his castle, she refused him, she cast a spell on his subjects so they’re more loyal to her than to their own king, she refused him, she partied with them laughing to his face she won, and she refused him!

    He flew thru the sky toward the portal to the Underground, as his outrage grew and grew.

    ‘What possessed me?! Why did I offer that cruel mortal her dreams?!’

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

The Castle Beyond

    There was a great deal of visible, floating debris from where the Escher Room was demolished but he didn’t care. Materializing into his natural form, wearing nothing but black, he landed in the Goblin City square where one could still smell smoke residue from the battle and one Goblin cannonball squeaking that someone please get him out of this wall.

    Ignoring that, and his Majordomo and Chancellor who rushed toward him in concern, he walked swiftly and determinedly straight to his castle. To the one room where everything changed.

    The ballroom was pitch dark and there was a jagged hole in one wall. But as he entered, a few candles on the remaining chandeliers slowly lit up to show several life sized crystal figures of him and that mortal dancing all around the room, even one of them sitting in the cushioned pit in the center.

    The Goblin King hatefully glared at each one of these statues as he walked down the wide, platform stairs to the main dance floor.

    After a few minutes of fuming, he magical summoned a morning star and began violently smashing each and every statue while yelling every obscenity he knew in the eight languages he was fluent in.

    In the Fae Forest, the Monarch’s nightly meditation is disrupted as he sensed his kinsmen’s torment.

    In Tír na nÓg, the capital city-state of the Underground, a young man woke up feeling ill at ease, but not certain why.

    By a lake nestled between the Goblin Kingdom and the Fae Forest, a woman buried her face in her hands. It breaks her heart that Jareth must suffer so. And that there will be more obstacles for him to face many years from now.

    The Labyrinth quaked from his rage and anguish, cracks formed in several places. Creatures and beings from all over, even the Fireys, are terribly frightened and try to find someplace safe, but right now there aren’t any.

    Such is the bond between the Labyrinth and its ruler. He cannot, must not completely vent his emotions. Oh, he’s allowed a petty temper tantrum here and there, but he mustn’t release the full extent of his feelings, especially the negative ones, or the Labyrinth is affected by them.

    The Goblin King doesn’t give a damn about that right now as he stands in the center of the ballroom, gazing at all the broken crystal fragments scattered around him.

    Breathing hard from the exertion, drenched in sweat, but still ensnared by his livid resentment to that stupid, ungrateful chit, he immediately transported himself to his bedchambers and does not come out.

    But though his anger pounded his head, though the agonizing emptiness felt like a raw, untreated wound in his heart and soul, as exhaustion overcame him and he drifted off to sleep, one small thought kept pulsing through his mind.

    ‘Why do I still care?’

What am I supposed to do? Just go on without you?

Easier said than done, I need some answers

I can't even lift my head thinking 'bout the things she said

Only thing that I have left is my love for her

    During the next nine months since she spoke those hated Words, he locked himself in his bedchambers, eating only enough to keep him alive. Just.

    The Wiseman and other important officials of the castle and the kingdom would stay at the door, begging him to come out. The Goblin City still had damage everywhere from the battle, and parts of the Labyrinth desperately needed his magic for repairs and its upkeep.

    But he stayed right where he was, not even to punish those traitors who helped and celebrated with her. As much as he despised them for what they’ve done, for some reason he couldn’t fathom, he hated himself even more.

    Until he understood why this was so, He refused to care about anything.

ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ

    A few weeks afterward, a large wall section of the Labyrinth collapsed.

    Several inhabitants were killed and many more injured.

    Jareth’s kinsman from Tír na nÓg, the one he trusted the most out of all of his family, arrived at the desperate request of the Wiseman. He had to literally strike some sense into Jareth in order to break him out of the black mood he sank into.

    Jareth was never so enraged at himself as he was at this moment. He vowed to never let his selfishness harm the beings under his rule and asked his kinsman for help in making things right.

    He will not fail his people again!

Then out of nowhere you were gone without a reason why

So I'm here in this place by myself, all you had to do was try

If you could see it through my eyes

It would explain the tears I've cried

Why did you walk out of my life?

Wasn't it clear to see that you were meant for me?

    For the next few years, Jareth did everything he could to be the Goblin King his subjects deserved. He used his magic to heal and to make the Labyrinth stronger, he worked hard to bring prosperity to the villages outside the Labyrinth, and he tried to give fair rulings during open court.

    However, every year on the anniversary of that day, he couldn’t resist looking in on Sarah and Toby.

    Because she said those Words, he couldn’t ever do more than look.

    He knew there were clever ways around them; it wouldn’t take much to make her return, to trick her back to his side as he so desperately wanted.

    Some days it was so very tempting…

    But no matter how many tricks he thought of, he never used them. He may be many things, rogue, lothario, trickster…villain. But he does have enough honor to leave her alone.

    He broke his own law in taking the babe, he took some of her hours away, and despite all of that, she bested him and the Labyrinth. She is the only runner to have ever done so.

    And…

    No matter how much he still wanted her, regardless of how strong the power she had and still has over him, Sarah more than earned the right to be left untroubled by him and his magic.

    When the anniversary would arrive, he would spend the entire day watching the two siblings either as an owl or in his Crystal tower. Even though he would only spend the one day looking in on them, he used his magic to bring him up to speed on her life and of Toby’s.

    Sarah graduated college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. During college, she worked part time jobs for the local community theater being a background actor and on working on the clothing for the summer renaissance festival. Then after she graduated, she got hired full time to the wardrobe department of the theater, showing great promise on designing and creating period clothing.

    She still read for nearly all her spare time, and wrote down her ideas and thoughts for just as long. Though she had her doubts if she could make it as a writer.

    Right now, she was just focusing on saving up to buy an old-fashioned weaving loom. One of her journals was crammed with all sorts of design ideas that are just aching to be made.

    Toby’s childhood was like many other boys with a loving family. Despite how he would have his ‘little hellion’ moments growing up and gleefully took the annoying younger brother role to heart, he soon matured out of them.

    The minute he was old enough to understand that crayons are not for eating, he sketched every chance he got and moved on to charcoal and pastel pencils.

    He recently told his family of his intentions to become a veterinarian.

    The Goblin King was quite proud of how Toby turned out. He would have made an excellent heir. During those hours when he took care of the babe, he noticed Toby had something special.

    Like his sister.

    It was his intention to ask both the Fae Monarch and the High King permission to make Toby into one of the Fae Folk instead of using his, and by extension the Labyrinth’s, magic to transform him by random into a being of the Underground.

    He didn’t lie to Sarah when he said her baby brother would have become one of them forever. He just didn’t correct her when she assumed it meant Goblin outright.

    Obviously, that never came to fruition.

    Even so, Toby was influenced by his stay in ways that are just now making themselves known. The lovely drawings he makes, the affinity he has with animals to the point where it’s almost empathic.

    At least some good came out of that whole mess.

If you could see it through my eyes

You'd know the reason why I tried

So hard to never let love die

I wish that you could see, see it through my eyes

I'm hoping and praying (hoping and praying)

That you will return (that you will return)

All my love is here waiting for you, baby just open the door

    As the years passed, a very small part of him, one he would try to ignore every time it emerged, realized it was for the best that she refused him.

    She wasn’t a fully grown adult, and even the Fae know there are some things that just aren’t done. Whatever else he may be, he is not a pervert!

    For all her whining, he just…didn’t realize just how young she truly was at the time.

    Plus she wouldn’t have understood what agreeing to his offer would have meant. The Underground would have changed her in that strange, fantastic way it always does when an Abovegrounder came to stay. Whatever form she would have changed into, she wouldn’t have had any say in the change and she would’ve hated him for this, thinking it was cruel and deliberate on his part.

    He knew deep down that whatever she might have felt during that wonderful dance, it could not have been love.

    Despite knowing this, he can’t stop himself thinking the same thing every time he saw her year after year after year.

    ‘How you turned my world, you precious thing.’

If you could see it through my eyes

It would explain the tears I've cried

Why did you walk out of my life?

Wasn't it clear to see that you were meant for me?

If you could see it through my eyes

You'd know the reason why I tried

So hard to never let love die

I wish that you could see, see it through my eyes

My eyes…