Chapter One

(Sarah's tale)

Sarah, she was all grown up now, working in an office and earning a good wage. Engaged to a Vanderbelt, old, old money. She would never want for anything in her life, she would never need to work, or worry about bills. At the weekends she went out to their old family home, which had 11 bedrooms, a heated indoor pool, sauna, gym, tennis courts and a thousand other things. Everything a girl could dream of.

So why was she still dreaming?

Why did she feel so miserable, so lonely?

Why did she long for a man who she barely even remembered?

She didn't love the man she was to marry, her step mother had set it up to be rid of her. It was a deal done between their parents, they had little to no say in the matter. The man didn't love her anymore then she did, he didn't swing that way. For the sake of their family, she did it and kept the peace. Even though it broke her heart to do so, she felt that she would never feel love again. To be loved, and love in return was one of the most important things to her now. You always wanted what you couldn't have it seemed. The wedding was a few weeks away at most now, and thinking of it didn't fill her with love, but with dread and a terrible longing.

Sarah walked home alone, along dark streets from the tube station. She had been working late again, a big case was going to court in a few days. She had nothing better to do then pretend to play happy families, so Sarah had offered to stay behind and prepare the case files. As she walked along, she heard the clock striking, and automatically started to count the beats. 9, 10, 11, 12, so it was midnight was it?

She sighed and thought about having to be back in the office for 8 in the morning. She should have just stayed the night there! Another bell tolled out in the silent evening. "Thirteen?" She thought, "That was weird". But at the back of her mind, she remembered another clock which used to strike 13 times.

Sarah shook her head, she was just being silly now and she knew it, no clock struck 13 times, it was impossible! As she crossed the road to her flat, and pulled the key out, she heard a whispering, but gruff male voice. "Should you need us?" Then another higher voice, "Yes, should you need us!" She looked around, there was no one there of course. Her mind was playing tricks on her, she was so tired that must be why!

Hurrying towards the house, Sarah dragged her key out and let herself in quickly. Dropping off her jacket and handbag on a table just inside the door, she went straight to her bedroom closet and routed through some boxes on the top shelf. Dust pouring onto her head, she wouldn't stop until she found the right box. Her tiredness completely forgotten now. A memory had been sparked from long ago, she had to know if it was real or not. She moved a pile of jumpers, and there it was.

Nothing special, just a plain white box, covered in childish stickers and drawings. Sarah moved to the bed, and sat down placing the box on her knee. It had been ten years since she had opened that box. Ten years and three shrinks, since she had allowed herself to think about her special place or the man whose eyes burned like diamonds.

Jareth, the King of the Goblins, he had been the only man that she had ever loved. For years on her birthday, she would find a gift on her window ledge waiting for her when she awoke. A crystal, a goblin toy, something that would remind her of him. Fifteen, she had been just fifteen years old when she had first met him. For all her attitude and bluster and desperation to save toby, she had fallen for him, and fallen bad. The gifts that he had offered had tempted her so badly, she had hardly resisted him. Deep down she doubted that she had ever wanted to.

Her 18th birthday, her coming of age, he had left her a beautiful pendant studded with rare stones and a key plain and made of solid brass. She had known instantly what it was to open, but she was too scared to go. Too worried about leaving everything else behind. For a whole year she saw nothing of her friends, she had cried her eyes out with the loss. Her Step Mother reading her diary of her crazy seeming tales, had sent her to a shrink and then another.

By the time her 19th birthday had come around there was a gift of a single white owl feather on her doorstep. Sarah had been too frightened to pick it up after all her sessions. She left it there and packed away everything that had ever mattered to her. Not having the strength in herself to throw it away, she'd hidden it away in her closet. The feather had laid there for days getting wet and dirty. The day she moved into her own place an owl feather could be found on her doorstep at the new house. Again she ignored it.

That night she was woken by the sounds of a man sobbing, when she looked outside there was no one there. The feather was missing in the morning. Sarah had moved on as best she could and forgotten about Jareth and the Labyrinth, but she had always grieved for the loss of her lover. Something had died inside her that night, and she had known that she would never love again.

Now here she was, 30 in a handful of months, almost married, with a great job. She should be the happiest girl alive. The job bored her, she spent hours looking out of the window wishing and hoping for more. The man could never love her or her him.

Sarah would never know if it was her desperation to escape, to love and live once more in the sunlight. Jareth's need for her, or just her imagination which had finally shattered the lock on her memories of her past. But as she lifted the lid off of the box she felt like a teenager again. The treasures of her past fell back into her life. The Ludo doll that was so cute, the Sir Didymus toy that was larger then the person it portrayed! The musical box, her hands lingered on this winding her up and allowing the long lost tune chime out in the room.

Crying she hugged it closer, as she found the book that had started it all off. A small red leather bound copy of the labyrinth. Flicking to the place it always fell open at she read aloud. "Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle, beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen."

Those words were almost the last ones she had spoken to Jareth, bar six more. She couldn't bring herself to say those six because it was a lie. He did have power over her, he always had and always would. He crept into her heart and took over her life and soul. He was an addiction that she couldn't live without no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise. She had been craving for his touch, his glance all this time. She felt dead and empty when he wasn't there, a shallow husk.

Memories of her days in the Labyrinth flew back to her, mixed with the bittersweet of seeing in her mind that amazing man. Her heart froze in her chest, how had she ever given him up? How had she lived this pale imitation of a life when there was so much more out there for her? She had seen it, tasted it and thrown it all away. Stupid child! She abused herself.

"Say your right words!" the shadows whispered.

Sarah thought long and hard what the words had been, but so many years had passed for her. Had it started with 'I wish' or had it been 'Goblin King'? She remembered using both, but not which had worked. Right now she would try anything to get to see him one more time.

"I wish the King of the Goblins was here with me?" she asked. Looking around and waiting a few minutes she was gutted to see nothing had happened. She tried again, fighting back the tears. "Goblin King, Goblin King, where ever you might be. I'm sorry, please forgive me. I need you!"

Still nothing happened, broken hearted Sarah threw herself back on the bed and cried herself to sleep.