The Goblin King

Do as I say

Sarah slept restlessly that night. She kept waking up, to find the sheets sprawled across the floor and her skin covered in a layer of cold sweat. Every time she closed her eyes and tried to drift back into unconsciousness she saw Hoggle, Ludo, Didymus and Jareth, standing before her, shouting random strings of words at her that she couldn't understand.

Owls flew past her closed eyes as she tried for one last time to go to sleep.

It wasn't going to work. Hell, she'd even tried counting sheep, but those sheep had morphed into white dogs, carrying a fox like goblin on its back. She thought of him, wielding his needle-like sword towards the Goblin Army in a futile attempt to protect his friends.

But unfortunately, swords and dogs are not the way to go back to sleep 3 AM the night before your final exam.

Swearing and cursing at the world and all its contents, she pulled a sweater over her vest, and sat up in bed. Rearranging the bed sheets, she tried her hardest not to think of tomorrow, and the all day headache she was bound to endure. It wasn't fair. Jareth was probably sprawled out onto a King Size bed right now, having his servants deliver him anything and everything he could ever want.

'You could have been there too.' Her mind whispered. Somehow, the idea of her being next to Jareth in his King size bed was quite appealing... To say the least. Maybe they even had a cure for pre-exam nerves in the Underground.

Oh wait. If she was in the Underground then she wouldn't have had to take exams....

Sarah groaned, as another wave of hatred and guilt swept over her. Why did she choose this life? The one with no respect, where she had to get a job, and a boyfriend, but none of the boys she ever met seemed to match... Him.

He was pretty unique to say the least. His hair, his eyes, his clothes. How he seemed to emanate confidence and conviction, and yet didn't have to raise an eyebrow.

One might even go as far to say that he was.. Attractive.

She fell back onto the pillow and pulled it back around her ears. What was she thinking? Jareth, attractive? Might as well say that Hoggle was Prince Charming. It was all too much. She needed to sleep, needed to forget about it all.

She switched off the light and pulled the covers up around her chin. Looking up at the window, she heard the faint crash of thunder, and for a moment the entire room illuminated as lightning cascaded across the night sky, meeting the earth then shattering into a million star shaped pieces.

'Oh Jareth,' she sighed, shifting her position in the mattress. 'I bet you'd love this, but the sky we both see is not the same.'

It was silent.

Sarah wriggled her feet underneath the sheet and let out a breath.

Maybe tonight would be the last she suffered from the nightmares.

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Sarah came out of her exam seemingly okay. She greeted a couple friends, asked their opinions on the second question, and laughed as they waved their arms around and yelled about how they 'might as well post an emotional paragraph on Facebook about failure now.'

She walked on, past the library, where she had spent months revising, past the food court, where she had spent hundreds on 'revision-friendly' snacks, and past the small University shop, where she had spent hours choosing the right revision cards and the correct pen for her grip.