Standard Disclaimer Applies: Neither Sarah nor Jareth belong to me.

A/N: This is something that's been in my mind for a while, but only recently have I had the time to try and pursue it. I apologize for the first chapter being so short, but I'm not familiar with this side of the fanfiction. Writing is a fun challenge!

When you walk into a room with a distinctive smell you will immediately recognize it as your nasal passageways get flooded with the new aroma. After about twenty minutes, however, you do not even notice the smell anymore, as your brain decides to just ignore the constant stimulus. Fishermen cease to notice the stink of their wares; Garlic-eaters have to have someone else comment on their breath.

To Sarah's dismay however, the smell she was experiencing was exactly as strong as it was two days ago, and it was no less repulsive. True, she had gotten over her natural reaction to gag, but there was simply no getting over it. The worst part was that she could not simply get away from the source-the reek was emanating from her.

It was a Tuesday, and Sarah should have been at work, bored out of her mind preparing middle school students for state-administered standardized tests. She felt that she could not even call what she did teaching really. Even still, she would prefer it to what she was currently doing, which was scrubbing her skin raw with baking soda while sitting in the bath tub in her small apartment. She had taken a total of six baths in the past two days, eaten six cloves of garlic and two onions (in a futile attempt to replace one odor with another), and used an entire bottle of perfume. And still the smell remained completely untempered, nauseating and putrescent.

Sarah slumped over in the bath tub and brought her hands to her face, letting herself be overcome with frustrated sobs. Hoggle had not been exaggerating when he had spoken those words so many years ago: "If you so much as set a foot in the Bog of Stench, you'll smell bad for the rest of your life. It'll never wash off."

And Sarah had not just had her foot slip in. She had fallen in entirely.