Alright, a song fic here on Franz Schubert's the Death and the Maiden. Don't own any of these characters, no matter how much I wish for them. And it has some influence from Pika – la – cynique's Here's the day… So have fun.
Sarah was ecstatic. Her twenty-third birthday had gone off without a hitch everyone left happy content and she was thoroughly pleased with herself for planning it all on her own. As she got back into her apartment building she thought she could smell something different in the air, almost tangy, fruity, something familiar that she could not quite place but that she knew she knew. It puzzled her all the way up the stairs and to her front door. As she unlocked the door, a wave of realization swept over her.
"Peaches! That's what it is, pea –" Her voice stopped in her throat at the sight that lay before her. She could see into her room from the front door, into her room and to the dressing table that she had never parted with. What she saw brought her to a near panic.
Swiftly she moved inside, dropped her things, shut and locked the door. The lights were off and she had a feeling that the switches on the wall would be of no use to her, she would have to make due with the light coming from the street outside and with the eerie glow coming from her dressing table.
"It can't be," Sarah whispered as she moved slowly further into her apartment. "It can't be because it was a dream. It wasn't real. It. Was. Not. Real." Her words of encouragement fell upon deaf ears, as she still moved towards her room, not believing what she was seeing. Hoping beyond hope that she had just had too much to drink, had passed out, was dreaming or something.
After moving the normally short distance in what felt like a painfully long time she arrived at her dressing table. In the center of the table was one flawless, smooth, crystal ball giving off a glow that she had not seen since it was first offered to her years ago. Lying next to the crystal ball was a single pinion feather from a large barn owl.
"Hello, Sarah." The voice was soft and smooth and seemed to caress her name as it were something precious and of the utmost importance.
Sarah turned to face the source of the voice and staring right at here were the mismatched eyes of the Goblin King. He stood before her, the stuff of her dreams, her nightmares, dressed in the same dark armor as he wore on his first visit.
"No, no, no! You aren't real! You, y-you can't exist."
"I assure you, Sarah, I am very real. And I've come to make you that offer you once shunned, so long ago." He made a slight motion to the crystal on the table. "Come with me, Sarah, I'm offering you your dreams. All you must do is take my hand and come with me."
"Come with you where?"
"You know very well where. Come with me, Sarah, leave this place behind."
"No, no… I – I can't. I have so much left to do here, and now. I have friends, and family and no. I can't."
"Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender girl… I am a friend, come not to torment nor to steal you away. Be of good spirit, I am not cruel, I would have you sleep softly in my arms waking to your mornings of gold."
He held out his hand to her offering her anything and everything she wanted. She only needed to reach out and take it, and she could have anything and everything.
She took his hand and with a flash, they were gone, leaving only the crystal and the feather behind them.
.-'-.-'-.-'-.-'-.-'-.
The paramedics loaded the young woman into their van. As they slowly pulled away one of them decided to try and break the increasingly awkward silence.
"So… Who was she?"
"I.D. lists her as Sarah Williams…And her birthday was today."
The first sighed. "What a way to go, eh? A tumble down the stairs for a dance with Death, and on her birthday even.."