It's further than you think!

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"Everything I've done, I've done for you Sira." He pulled his hands through his white locks. The moon intensified every strand. "You wanted him dead, I erased him from history. You wanted them silenced, I cut out their tongues and stitched their mouths. I'm tired of living up to your expectations."

Tears puddled on her jumper. "I didn't ask for any of this Jareth."

He vanished in a sparkle of lights. Sira frenzied around, yanking her neck like it were her enemy. As magic tricks went, this was the best she'd ever seen.

Silence swept across the meadow. Everything was still. Sira's panic eased and she rational thoughts filtered back into her mind. Then in a blaze of sparkles Jareth re-appeared next to her, closer than before. His chest thrust into her face forcing her to step back. He looked down and sniffed her hair. A smile curved his lips. Sira stood still, fear robbed her of movement.

Jareth raised a gloved finger to her mouth. "I don't move the stars lightly Sira."

"I didn't ask you to move anything!" Breathes stuttered her response.

Anger tore across his face. He exploded into flames, scaling from his feet to his head. Sira raised an arm for protection. The flames crackled and climbed into the night sky. Then, as if doused by gallons of water, they died away.

No remnants of the blaze lingered. The grass was as lush as before, and the air as pure as ever. Sira peered around meadow, the moonlight cast everything in a milky tint.

"I wished they would all shut up!" A voice blared from the darkness that edged the meadow. "I wished they would all shut up!" The words repeated over and over again. Sira recognised the voice, it was hers.

"You see? I was doing your bidding!" Jareth's voice boomed as the recording faded away.

Sira spun every which way, desperate for something her eyes could register. "I didn't mean it. It was..."

"Death wouldn't be enough for him." Sira's voice again bleated from the darkness. The words were different but the volume and circulating menace remained.

"Stop it!" She cried. "Stop it!"

Everything stopped and he flashed back in front of her. His eyes raged, but he held a smile. "I have been patient with you, I really have." He went to stroke her hair but she flinched.

"I didn't want this!" She barked.

He added some teeth to his smile and hand combed his hair. "It's always about you isn't it? Always about poor little Sira. What about what others want?"

She wiped her face with her sleeve. Streaks of red coloured her eyes.

He pointed to the sky. "Watch." Like an orchestral conductor, his hands frenzied to and fro. Slowly, the stars began to move. Constellations that had burned in the night sky for generations became a muddle. Sira's mouth gapped open. The stars swirled and moved like shuffled dominos.

"That's me!" Horror wobbled her voice as she recognised the formations. "What are you doing?"

"It is us Sira. Forget this life. Just let me rule you, and I will be your slave!" Jareth's eyes never left his work.

A King and Queen sat on top of a thrown surrounded by servants.

"No... no." Sira shook her head.

Jareth dropped his hands and the constellation of stars fell away and returned to their former patterns.

"If you really don't want this. If you really don't want forever. I will give you thirteen hours to reach my castle in the heart of the Goblin City. If you do that, I will reset everything. It will be as if we never met."

The meadow melted into a desert. The trees wilted to the ground. The grass scuttled away like disturbed mice and yellow sand sprouted. The night sky rolled away and the beating Sun hung high. Sira jumped and yelped as the terrain beneath her morphed. Jareth plucked a sand timer from thin air and presented it to Sira.

"When the timer is finished, your thirteen hours will be over." Jareth pointed to a castle in the distance. It crested a steep hill and was surrounded by what looked like a maze. "I forgot to mention, my castle is at the centre of that Labyrinth."

Sira used her hands to umbrella the sun from her face. "It doesn't look far."

"It's further than you think." Jareth turned away. "Time is short." As the words left him a gust of wind kicked past and he faded like his body was sand. "You could forget it all and join me Sira. It's only forever, it's not long at all." His voice rode away on the wind.

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allthingsm4tt

Writer of things, meme supplier, semi-occasional six string swordist, sporadic cinema goer and smiler.