Today had been a day from hell for Sarah, all topped off with the toner cartridge from the office copier exploding all over her white blouse. She had tried and failed to hide it with her blazer.

All she wanted to do was get home and break open the bottle of wine chilling in her fridge.

Sighing, she dug her keys out of her purse while debating what to order from her favorite Chinese take out around the corner. Getting the door open, she dropped her belongings in the rickety antique chair she kept by her door.

Something sparkly caught her attention.

Glitter. Glitter everywhere! Goblin sized hand prints in various colors of glitter decorated her walls, floor, and furniture.

"Damn it." She muttered under her breath as she slammed the door shut. "Why me?"

Sarah kicked off her shoes and hung her jacket in the closet. "I understand now why he kicks them and threatens to bog them."

As if her life wasn't stressful enough, for the remainder of the month, Sarah was acting ruler of the Goblin Kingdom in the King's absence

It wasn't as if she'd ASKED for the job. No, that would have been the polite thing to do.

Rather, she'd come home after another stressful day to find His Royal Pain-in-the-Arse lounging on her couch in all of his glittery glory, rather like a big, overfed cat.

"Darling!" he'd purred. "What a lovely mess you look!"

"What are you doing here, Jareth? How'd you get past lobby security?"

"The mirror?"

Sarah slapped her forehead. "I forgot to cover the mirror." She sighed. "Not that it's not...interesting to see you after, what, fifteen years? But what do you want?"

Jareth flashed his most charming smile (and dang if her ovaries didn't perk up with sudden interest). "Why, nothing special, my dear lady. I find myself in sudden need of a babysitter. And, given how well you've handled children in the past, I've decided that YOU will make my perfect replacement."

Sarah's eyes went so wide they nearly dropped out of her head. "Replacement for WHAT?"

"Why, running the Goblin Kingdom, of course!"

Her eyes went impossibly wider. "Running the-JARETH!"

"Here's the instruction list on the care and feeding of goblins, the portal in the mirror is open, I REALLY must run along now or I shall be late for my own vacation ta ta!"

And just like that, he poofed out of existence.

Leaving a great, heaping pile of glitter spread all over her nice clean couch in his wake.

Sarah stared at the spot the Goblin King had formerly occupied.

"I hate my life."

That had been two weeks ago. Two weeks! And not a single note or crystal from the royal pain in the ass. The goblins had been relatively well behaved the first day; but by the second, all bets were off.

Scanning the glitter filled room, she spotted her laptop still open to Facebook. She must have left it logged in.

Groaning, she noticed a stupid video about body glitter had been shared 23 times on her profile, along with some rather disturbing chicken videos.

Upon further inspection she found 34 open tabs to various sites.

There were dating sites, games, more chicken videos, and to her horror a site with an order of $3,000 worth of candy. All it needed was a credit card number.

"Frick!"

"Yes, Queenie?" The little grey goblin appeared behind her.

"I thought you were guarding the apartment while I was at work."

"I dids guard it!" Frick looked mightily offended that his Queen should believe otherwise. "Gots rids of da chickens Snaggletooth brungs in. An da goats. Er ... ya mights not wanna goes into yas bedrooms fer awhile. We's still airin' it out."

Sarah gave herself a facepalm, slowly sliding her hand down her face until it covered her mouth.

She just stared around wondering what the hell she was going to do now. So much glitter! So many chicken feathers!

She was about to go completely mad.

"Where did HE go?" She said through clenched teeth.

Frick answered, "On Holiday."

"What could HE possibly need a holiday for? I'm the one slaving away in the office 5 days a week!"

Then she saw all the glitter and feathers again, shaking her head, completely perplexed.

Frick scratched his head. "Wells, he saids somethin' abouts takin' his lady ta a nice resort ta gets ta knows her better."

Sarah froze. "L-Lady?"

Frick nodded so hard he dislodged his hat. The pot landed on the carpet with a thump. "Yeps. Lady. He never brungs her to the castle buts he saids she deserves a nice holiday an' gots revs-rest-reversations tas a...beach resort, he callsed it."

Sarah could have sworn her vision turned red.

Sarah felt like throwing things, but settled for screaming. "Jareth!" She pulled on her hair and groaned. "I'll kill him. I'll kill the bastard."

Before she could fully release her anger, the phone rang and she answered without thinking. "What the hell do you want?"

"Whoa, easy Sarah." The male voice on the other end said. "I was just calling to see what time you wanted me to come by for dinner and ask if I should bring wine."

Sarah's eyes darted around the apartment and she felt like crying. She had completely forgotten that she had promised to cook dinner for her boyfriend, two weeks ago, right before Jareth had reappeared in her life and left her a kingdom of goblins.

"Oh no! Um, I completely forgot about dinner! I hate to do this, but could we reschedule? I just had a really awful day. Would that be all right?"

"Oh, uh yeah, that would be all right. Another evening then."

She sighed with relief. "Thank you Jonathan. I promise I will make it up to you."

"All right Sarah. Is there anything I can do to make your day any better?"

"Just hearing your voice helps. I think I'm going to take a hot bath and relax."

"All right. Well good night then."

Distracted by her boyfriends call, Sarah sent Frick through the mirror portal and covered it with her favorite purple throw. She stopped in the kitchen for a glass of wine and continued to her master suite, all while dreaming of a hot relaxing bath.

Sarah opened the door to the most horrifically foul smell second only to the Bog of eternal stench. Sarah's glass slipped out of her hand and landed with a resounding crash.

"Frick!" she screamed "how am I going to clean up this mess? And what happened to my bed?"

Slamming the door, Sarah sighed and retrieved her vacuum from the closet. "Looks like it's the couch for me, as soon as I clean up the glitter."

As Sarah vacuumed the glitter from the couch and floor, she thought about the dinner she should have been enjoying with Jonathan. She hated canceling on him as they barely saw each other because of their work schedules.

Plus being a surgeon, he often got called away in the middle of their dates. As she stooped to vacuum under the couch, she thought of how nice one of his deep muscle massages would feel at that moment.

"Stupid goblins and their stupid hijinks." Noticing the suction on the vacuum had become nonexistent, she checked the bag and found it full. "Great and that was my last one..." she removed it and attempted to empty part of it into the trash only for it to rip and cover her in an explosion of glitter, feathers, and dirt.

"Stupid Goblin King. Why does he get to spend time with his Lady," she said the word through gritted teeth, "but I can't even see my boyfriend."

As much as she tried not to use her favorite phrase from her youth, now seemed a very appropriate time. "It's not fair!"

Sarah slid down the kitchen wall looking very much like a peacock...covered in feathers, glitter splattered ink and dirt from who knows what. She placed her head in her hands and continued her chant " Its not fair * over and over and over.

She was gonna kill him! It didn't matter that she was still in love with him, she would never admit that to anyone. He was gonna pay for this unwarranted thrust of power, if only for a short time.

She had lost a chunk of her heart when she won her brother back all those years ago... and she still hadn't found anyone who could fill that gap.

Her heart still belonged to the arrogant, preening, cocky , infuriating Goblin King...and oh crap, she was in trouble.