Those Cruel Eyes Edition 1

Chapter 17

At the castle in Jareth's old throne room, all of the goblins were watching Emmeline and Jareth's progress through the Labyrinth solemnly.
One goblin shook his head sadly. "Poor Emmeline..."
"Shut up!" another hissed, backhanding the goblin. We mustn't have Master Hoggle hearing you say such things. Are you mad? Do you want to see your grand-goblins?"
The goblin shook his head rapidly, eyes alight with terror. "No, Guam, you're right. I'll keep my head."
"Good idea, Guthrye," Guam grunted. "Although, I do agree with you. Hoggle has gone too far. Lying to a young girl..." Guam shook his head with disgust. "I'm glad that we left that sword for Jareth though. Those lies Master had said..."
"Maybe if Hoggle-," Guthrye started, then was cut off by the sound of Hoggle's shoes scuffing up the steps into the throne room. Sure enough, Hoggle limped in. Hoggle limped over to the nearest goblin towards him, grabbed him by the scruff of his smock-like Jareth used to-and snapped,
"How far are they?"
Guthrye replied immediately. "Almost to the second task, Your Highness."
"Oh, this is bad, this is very bad..." Hoggle dropped the lower-class goblin and started to chew his nails as Guthrye scurried away. "If Emmeline doesn't follow my plan and betray Jareth, he just might become King again. Do you want that?" Hoggle yelled, making the goblins start violently.
"Why is that bad...? Sire?" a goblin asked Hoggle cautiously.
"Because," Hoggle exploded, "With that Emmeline brat, spawn of Jareth himself, they will have enough of their insidious cunning, cruelty, and attitude to pass the tests. That oh-so-important air, that's definitely what Emmeline inherited! That no-good, rotten piece of goblin sh-,"
"Sire," the goblin interrupted, "I honestly don't see the big deal. It's obvious that Emmeline has doubts, and even if we fail and Jareth becomes King again, it's not so bad, right?"
The throne room fell silent, and with Hoggle staring thunderously at the outspoken goblin, he realized that he managed to say just the wrong thing.
"Better?" Hoggle asked softly, caressing the word. "Better?! Better?! Is that what you just said? BETTER??" Hoggle screeched piercingly. He limped over to the goblin, grabbed him by the ear, dragged him over to a crystal, pressed the crystal with a finger, and commanded, "To the Bog of Eternal Stench!"
"Nooo!" The goblin screamed, but it was too late. The goblin disappeared to meet his fate. Hoggle whirled around on his heel and faced the hoard of petrified goblins. He smiled threateningly.
"Any other... ideas?" He asked sweetly. All the goblins frantically shook their heads.
"Good," Hoggle growled. He turned on his heel and stomped out of the throne room, slamming the palace doors behind him.
Guthrye dared to look at Guam, and whispered squeakily, "I miss Jareth."

"Hey, look!" Jareth called, pointing to a monument ahead of them. Emmeline looked up to see what he was talking about, and saw a daunting stone sphinx.
"Ohmigod," Emmeline gasped, "It's beautiful!"
Jareth chuckled at her look of wonder.
"This must be a test for wit!" Emmeline gasped. She started to run towards the sphinx, but faltered ten feet from Jareth. Emmeline turned and glanced at him.
"I've got to stop running off if I want to live," she joked half-heartedly. She waited for Jareth to catch up before they set off once more.
"Well, I do need to scratch, 'get eaten by a large stone lion' from my to-do- list." He chuckled, pulled an imaginary pen and pad of paper from his coat pocket and mimed checking off a chore. He expected a groan from Emmeline, but she was silent.
"Hey, you okay?" He asked, concerned. She didn't look at him.
"I'm fine," she muttered sharply. "Just anxious." She then hurried forward, as if trying to escape from Jareth. Confused, he picked up his pace, but said no more.