Author's Note: The characters of Jareth, Sarah, Toby, Hoggle, Ludo, Didymus, etc. belong to the wonderful Jim Henson company, and I claim no rights to them. The goblins are another story, but any resemblance to any real goblins, living or (while improbable) dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional... except for Shove, because he wouldn't leave me alone until I put him in the story.

His breathing was ragged, his hair brushed her face softly as he gathered her to him, and she felt the slowing beat of their hearts as they came back down. The floor was rough against her back and she shifted, trying to get more comfortable, and then froze. She opened her eyes at the same time as he did.

The room was black as pitch. They lay, not on her bed, but on a stone floor, and the silence that cocooned them was almost impenetrable. He flung himself away from her, suddenly and she heard him cursing in the dark. She wished she could see him.

And then there was a light. A small one, to be sure, but a light never the less. It hung above her right shoulder, contained within a small, spherical crystal. She stared at it in shock, then looked around.

"Jareth," she said, "Where the hell are we?"

She heard the anger in his voice, but it didn't frighten her nearly as much as the truth she heard there, too.

"I don't know," he said. "I haven't the faintest bloody clue."


Reasons not to Kill the Author:

1.) Did I mention I'm planning a sequel?
2.) You'll never find out what happens next if you do.
3.) It's messy, and hard to clean up, and those CSI guys would find you eventually.
4.) Er... um... it would hurt? Me more than you, of course, but... well...
5.) Dead authors can't type (excepting VC Andrews, of course).

such a small update, this, and since you've come so far to read it, I feel I should be generous. And I will be. There will be not one but two sequels to this story. One is already haltingly in progress, called "Dangers Untold." You'll find it in my profile. It is currently on hiatus because it seems that I forgot something in this story. Something important, something that you're going to want to know. "Sometimes the way forward is the way back." In this case, it's true. So now I need to go backwards. Way back to the beginning, back to when the world fell down. And I'm going to take you all with me--one of you in particular.

Intrigued, my little goblins? Be patient. All it takes is one...