"Ah!" He hissed in pain as something gripped his shoulder and held him in place. For a moment he couldn't see as the dark had come upon him awfully fast, but when could see he was almost positive that he preferred not being able to. He was suspended in a tunnel of hands that seemed to belong as part of the wall itself. Then, Jareth realized why his wound hurt so bad, they where actually grabbing him.

"Come on! Come on!" A disembodied voice demanded. A cluster of hands formed into what could have been conceived as a face, "We haven't got all day."

"Haven't got all day for what?" Jareth asked.

"Which why do you want to go?" Another cluster asked.

"Yes, which way, up or down?" yet another asked.

"Who on earth would choose down?" Jareth asked genuinely puzzled by the thought.

"Someone who wants to get to the castle," The first cluster said.

"A lie no doubt," Jareth snapped, "No help here is ever any help at all, Take me back to the top."

The third cluster chuckled viciously, "He chose up." The rest of the hands seemed to form faces now. All of them whispering amongst themselves like conspirators making Jareth nervous about his choice. The voice of the guards seemed to echo in his mind: Ba ba ba bum! Certain death!

Nevertheless the hands helped them upwards and into the fresh air. After he had stepped no more than two paces away the hatch behind him slammed shut. He looked at the narrow walls that seemed once more to stretch on endlessly before him. No, they where trying to trick him! The guards said one door lead to the center of the castle and he'd asked the on that always spoke the truth, hadn't he?

"And I suppose both of you will tell me you speak the truth?"

"Yes."

Wait, could that question have been misinterpreted?

He swore as he realized it could be interpreted as asking if both at the same time spoke the truth. If that was the case he had asked the wrong door and could very well be walking to his death. Nervously he looked about for any sort of weapon as he continued down the path. Something glinted in the sunlight ahead, it was small and made of metal.

As he approached he found that it was a small silver pendant. He picked it up, maybe it was magical? No he guessed no, why would anyone leave a magically item on the ground where anyone could find it? He put it around his neck, if worse came to worse he could probably bribe some greedy little sh-

He chest pounded hard. It was almost as if it was being stoned from the inside. He cried out, reaching for where the pain was the most, directly behind the pendant. He made the connection there that the pendant was what was causing the pain.

Again his chest thumped as he had reached for the pendant. There was no time to untie the string he would just have too-

He would just have too-

Blackness formed around the corner of his eyes and then a burning, bubbling in his shoulder. He cried out for her as if to apologize as he fell. And then the world went dark.

*** The Goblin King was in a fit of rage when he looked into the crystal ball, "No!" he cried, "No! No! No! how did he find it?"

"Find what, my love?" a female asked from behind him. She slipped her arms around his neck as one would a lover and gazed into the crystal ball.

"My brother's pendant, Sarah, my dear," the little goblin sneered, "If this buffoon uses it then he will have more power than I could ever dream of!"

"How would he do that?" she asked kissing his ear gently.

"By absorbing the power my brother put into it before his untimely demise," The king said shaking her away, "Before I killed him."

"So take the pendant from him," she said as if the answer where so simple.

"Haven't you been listening, dumb girl? He absorbs the power," the goblin snapped, "The pendant becomes just a trinket and he is free to reign down terrors upon us."

"Well then," Sarah asked, "how did you kill your brother?"

"I poisoned him of course," he waved his hands about elaborately, "But there is no one here how can even approach Jareth without alerting him to the plan at hand."

"Not even me?" she asked brushing her hair back.

"Not even-" he stopped. His ears perked and a dark glint struck his eyes, "Oh, child, he chose you wisely."