Sarah always reflected on her journey through the Labyrinth when she reached a stressful point in her life.  Right now she just happened to be in the middle of choosing a college for grad school and an awkward break up with her even more awkward boyfriend Jimmie, a clingy nerd she went out with half out of pity and half on a drunken dare from her roommate.  She had managed to maintain the façade of the relationship for a phenomenally short three months before getting completely irritated by the over technical scientific babble Jimmie spewed about connections in the brain that caused hallucinations or drug reactions and other things that Sarah knew from experience could be easily thwarted if one is determined enough and has enough peaches on hand.
Her parents tried for years to make her give up her imaginary game (for what else could it be) of fantastical creatures named Ludo or Higgle (“Hoggle!”) and an ever changing labyrinth with fuzzy blue worms, but it is hard to make something as real as this Earth to just go away without heavy medication.  Sarah simply stopped talking about it, although she was still followed home by the white barn owl.
Rain pattered on the windows as she pored over numerous grad school applications for theatre production.  One does not get put in a poufy white ball gown at a goblin masquerade and not end up a showy person. She was still wearing the stage makeup from her internship’s dress rehearsal of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which she played the fairy Moth.  Pale violet eye shadow glinted above her hazel eyes, framed by dark plum eyeliner swirling from the corners of her eyes to end in curly vines at her temples.  The excessive make up harshly contrasted with her tattered pajamas and tightly plaited hair.  Sighing, Sarah pushed away the stack of applications and leaned back in her rickety wooden desk chair.  The red numbers on her alarm clock read 1:20 am.
“Ack! Where does the time go?  I have no time to do anything except school and work!  It’s no…” she stopped herself from completing her old favorite cliché and jumped as her roommate grunted in her sleep.  Turning the knob on her desk lamp to dim it even more until it barely gave off more light than a single candle, Sarah passed a hand over her eyes that came back coated in lilac glitter, so reminiscent to that worn by a certain king that she gasped, her tired eyes wide as she stared at her pale reflection in her cheap standing mirror.  She blinked and rubbed her eyes, smearing purple makeup on her cheeks and fists.  She looked back into the mirror and sure enough, saw her sixteen year old self staring back at her, dressed in that white ball gown she both loved and hated.  She admired herself for a moment; for all its swathes upon swathes of puffy fabric, the dress did look rather fetching on her.
A velvety voice from somewhere behind her conceded, “I couldn’t agree more my dear.  Sarah, turn around.”
Sarah wheeled around on the heel of her foot, looking wildly towards her desk.  There was nothing there.  Strange, she was certain she’d heard…
“Oh, you heard me well enough, pet,” Jareth purred, “I heard you thinking earlier you know. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way.  You can’t simply wish yourself away, as much as I would love to take you up on that offer.  I never quite thought of someone wishing themselves away when those rules were created, else wise I would have included it.”  He chuckled from his elusive location in the room, outside of the window, or simply in Sarah’s head.  “Funny, I thought you said I had no power over you, but I guess your longing is more powerful than your will after all.”
“I have no idea where you are or what you mean to do by this, but I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sarah hissed indignantly.  “I did not wish myself away; it was merely a matter of expression.  I’m assuming you understand what a cliché is, or did it never occur to you that your livelihood might depend on an over used thought process?”
Jareth laughed and Sarah glanced quickly over at her roommate, worried that he might wake her up.  “Dear, dear Sarah, still as feisty as you were so many years ago.”  Suddenly and out of seemingly nowhere, the goblin king was leaning towards her, leering, “A quality I did always like about you, you know.”  The points to his canine teeth just nicked his lower lip as he spoke, giving him a predatory look Sarah had seen on him before years ago as he challenged her to solve the labyrinth guarding his castle.  He grinned impishly as a light rosy flush crept into Sarah’s cheeks.  
Sarah’s heart pitter-pattered violently as Jareth leaned nonchalantly against her desk, his black leather cape knocking several papers off her desk.  “Watch yourself, your highness.  Your crystals are in dangerous proximity to my knee.”
“Touché,” he smirked, then his expression sobered and he suddenly appeared weary and put out, grey like a man past his prime.  “Sarah, I’m tired.  I’m here because you wanted it; you want to go back and run the course.  I can give it to you but this time would have to be different.  You know that don’t you?”  His voice and expression softened almost into a look of pity.
Sarah glowered ominously at him, “Pfft, I wasn’t asking for anything, at least not seriously.”  
“You do have a habit of saying things you supposedly don’t mean you know.”  
“Oh, yeah, when was the last time…” Jareth cut her off with a pointed glance.  “Hokay, point taken. But still, I’m perfectly content here where there are no drugged peaches or oubliettes.”
“Really? So you’d far rather pore over copies of….Paradise Lost than spend time in my piece of cake Labyrinth?  Sounds smashing, but I really think you’re fibbing.”
Sarah was rolling the hem of her pajama top between her hands, watching the goblin king as he went through her things, a smirk on his face as he made his point.  “Regardless of what I’m reading for class at the moment,” she snatched the book from his hands, “I am really quite well without your brand of help.”
A crystal appeared in Jareth’s palm and he gazed into its depth as though searching for some shred of thought lost long ago.  “Such a pity you have deluded yourself into thinking you do not need me, Sarah.  You need me as much as I need you, whether or not you recognize that fact.  I need you for existence and you need me for your creativity.”  He looked up from his crystal gazing and began balancing the ball on the tip of his finger.  “Have you ever watched a non creative person act? It’s really quite pathetic.  I do believe those smarmy little brats in those Disney TV shows would suffice for example.”  The ball was now rolling elegantly over his knuckles.  “At any rate, I believe we are at an impasse.  You called for me, and I cannot leave until the job to be done here is fulfilled.”  He spoke slowly and with purpose, needlessly drawing out the words.
Sarah watched the crystal’s progress hesitantly.  She remembered that night long ago when he had once offered her one with all of her dreams, and allowed herself to really remember her time in the Labyrinth.  Sure, some fireys tried to take her head off and she nearly fell in the Bog of Eternal Stench, but if she was honest with herself (which was a lot harder to do with Jareth there grinning knowingly at her) she enjoyed it and needed it to wake herself up to reality which she had been reveling in until this recent appearance.  She sighed and leaned against her dresser, “I guess one dance wouldn’t be so bad…”
Jareth uncharacteristically punched the air victoriously and tried to hide it by scratching his ear.  Sarah cleared her throat and pretending not to notice, feeling embarrassed for him as he held a hand out to her, glitter swirling around the room as it dissolved into a cluttered white ballroom empty of people.  Without the other dancers, the ballroom seemed lonely and too large.
Music began and the lights dimmed as Jareth encircled Sarah’s waist with his right arm, taking her right hand in his left in classic ballroom dancing form.  Sarah rested her left hand on Jareth’s shoulder and allowed herself to be led around the room gracefully avoiding any overturned chairs and dishes.  “You know, I think it was neater in here last time I was here…”  She looked at Jareth and noticed his fey eyes twinkling happily and she realized she was wearing the white concoction she had last time and he was in his blue frock coat.
He shook his head slowly turning Sarah in an odd pirouette, “No, but it was too full and you were too distracted during your last visit to notice.  Besides, I have to have somewhere to put the goblins when they’re giving me a headache and I don’t feel like bogging them.”
“Ah, I see,” Sarah stifled a giggle. The two of them continued their dance around the floor nearly silently except to sigh occasionally or, in Sarah’s case to apologize for stepping on Jareth’s foot.  After some time spent revolving around the floor, Sarah sighed, “Being grown up is overrated.”
Jareth chuckled slyly.  “You could have stayed here…  Would you have been content then princess?”  
She sighed and thought about it a moment, spinning away from him and back at arm’s length, the skirt of her ball gown rustling as it brushed the floor.  “Yes and no.”
“And what is that cryptic answer supposed to mean?”  Jareth’s steps slowed as Sarah looked into his eyes instead of at the floor.  
“I don’t belong here Jareth.  I’m…I’m mortal.  I belong in the world I was born in-” Jareth attempted to say something but Sarah laid her finger against his lips to silence him.  “Hear me out before you respond.  I don’t belong here, and you don’t belong in my world.  Let’s face it, you’d look like an extra from a fantasy movie if you were to wander around, and your kingdom needs its king.  But--”
“There’s always a but,” Jareth sulked.
“But, neither of us is complete without the other.  From time to time, we need each other.  Even though you kidnapped my baby brother and fed me drugged peaches and I nearly wound up in the Bog, I still need your influence in my life.  I’d hate to think what my life would be like without your world of imagination.”
“And even though you defeated me, you add a bit of normalcy.  Hell, you’re a worthy adversary and I need to speak to intelligent beings every so often (More often than not),” Jareth added benevolently. He sighed and stopped dancing, glitter once again eddying around them.  “Unfortunately this means my little visit must end…” his voice trailed off as Sarah realized she was still standing in her dorm room.  “Pleasant thoughts, love...” his voice echoed through her mind mixing pleasantly with the tinkling music from her old music box…
                                                           ***
Sarah jerked awake as a gust of wind carrying raindrops burst through her open window. “Mmmmngarf…Huh?  I didn’t leave that open.”  She gazed at her alarm clock; 1:20 am.  
“Miss me since my last visit?”  someone whispered in her ear.
“Meep!”  She turned in her chair and found herself face to face with Jareth who was grinning contently.