I don't remember this place. I don't remember how I got here. In fact, I don't even remember where "here" is. I know I opened my eyes and I was standing in a room. A ballroom, in fact, and it was filled with the gleeful laughter of visitors. Between the pearl colored columns they mingled and danced to the tempo of music lightly touched with a romantic melody. Everyone looked so elegant. The ladies in glamorous gowns, the kind that poof out at the hips, and the gentlemen dressed in the finest of attire. But everyone had a mask. Each one was simply made and brightly colored, hiding their faces or at least parts of them so that I couldn't tell who any of them were. Some were funny, some were scary, and some were pretty normal. I came to the realization that I had made it to some party. Some sort of fancy masquerade. My own dress was breathtaking. A white satin veil over silk, sparkling in the light of the ballroom.

It was just like I always imagined it would be. The pomp and circumstance that made a princess feel so special. I was so confused by it all, though. I didn't know what had brought me there or why, but I knew that I was looking for someone. There was a prince among the commoners and my heart bode me to him. It's the way every fairytale is, isn't it? The gathered patrons proved to be unhelpful. Many paid little if any attention to me as through them I began to search for him. An elusive entity; the needle in the haystack. The more I searched through the crowd, the more frustrated and confused I became. How would I ever find such a thing among all these masks when I didn't even know what he looked like? I didn't know that he was seeking me as well, watching and stalking me like a cat to a mouse.

( Cut for length. )

"Through dangers untold," I said once I felt realization surge into me and I lifted my eyes, looking up at Jareth with resolve, every step forward matched by his retreating step back, "and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City." I could tell that, for the first time, he was the one who was frightened. He had taken me on what I would later call the journey of seven lifetimes, but right then it was the end of the game and I was going to win back that which he had taken from me; my baby brother. Which of us could be blamed, though? I began to reflect on what had started this whole journey.

"Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be!" I remember saying. Toby had been crying non-stop since my father and stepmother left for the evening. Much rather since they had dumped their responsibility of caring for their child on my lap. They had made me so mad with their unfairness and now left me to sit a baby brother who, I felt then, couldn't have been more ungrateful. I held him, cradled him, rocked him, told him a story, and did it do any good? It wasn't really him I was angry at, though, and had I only known that what I had always read in my fairytale would come true, I would have never said the words.

Like a slave girl, that awful woman would drive me. Do this and do that, she would say, doubled with her cliché speeches and tiring rambling that I rarely paid attention to. What compensation do I get for my trouble? Babysit Toby, that's what. Another chore to be done so that she and my father can go out on the town and spend countless hours without caring about me. Things were so much different before. My father cared deeply for me. He never said goodbye without a kiss and always had a way of making me feel better about bad things that happened. Now it was simply, "Bye, Sarah. Sorry you're angry, but I don't care so see you at midnight." He didn't actually say that, but that's what I heard. So if they shouldn't care, then why should I? "I wish the goblins would come take you away," I uttered right before I turned off the bedroom light. "Right now."

That was then. Now is far different. Now it was my turn to be the one in charge for the first time. "For my will is as strong as yours, and my --" I continued to say just before he thrust a hand forward at me.

"Stop!" Jareth ordered, making me pause, "Wait. Look, Sarah. Look at what I'm offering you: your dreams!"

I felt my brow lower and took another step toward him, "and my kingdom as great..."

"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."

"My kingdom as great.." His offer had caused me to forget a line that I could never remember in the first place. Rule me? He had taken from me everything that was me. Not only had he thrust my baby brother from my arms and into this forsaken Labyrinth, but he had taken away even my free will. That is as I felt my stepmother had done. For what I thought Toby had done. For those I sought what was supposed to be my justice. My justice.. became my crime; and this was my retribution. My responsibility. For my baby brother, and even for me, I lifted my eyes and locked them dead into his. If there were ever a soul inside that man, I would have seen it as I spoke. As your judge and as your jury, Jareth:

"You have no power over me."