As usual, I don't own any of this.

Also, please reread what I have written so far. I have changed a couple major plot points. I didn't like the direction it was starting to go in, so I'm sorry to say a couple chapters got completely rewritten. Thank you, and I've already started on the next chapter.

I watch her leave, frustrated that she's still upset with me. I go to my study, determined to forget about her. She's being impossible. Rather than yelling at her like I so desperately want to, I took the advice of the Labyrinth, and was actually apologetic. She's the one who left.

Alright, so maybe I shouldn't have kissed her, then accused her of being an enchantress. But I don't see why else I would have wanted to kiss her. I haven't wanted to kiss anyone like that in a very long time. Not ever, actually, if memory serves. Kissing is bad. It creates an emotion that I don't care to feel right now.

I settle for sitting down and working on the never-ending pile of paperwork. Although the Goblins are unorganized creatures, several of my citizens are better about it. I attempt to loose myself in the words, to focus on my duties. When I look down after a few hours I realize that I have not in fact written permission for the dwarfs to build a new house for the recently married couple, but instead a song.

How you turn my world,

You precious thing.

You starve and near exhaust me.

Strains of music for it flit though my mind, and I find myself at my piano, playing this song like I've played it before. My fingers flow easily from one key to the next, with no doubt and no hesitation. Writing a song has never been this easy.

But maybe this isn't my first time writing it. If she's been here before, I would have seen her before her visit, keeping track of those who will soon become the wished always. It's possible that I was near her when I wrote this, which means that I would have forgotten all of if it, if there was a chance that it would trigger me to remember her.

Or, it's also possible that she heard it while she was here and held it close to her as part of her memories. But how, and why, would I allow a human to hear one of my songs? I guard them jealously.

I, I can't live within you...

As the final strains ring through the air, I feel another song starting. And this time, it's images that come with it.

My guest, as she must have been when she visited. Younger, more innocent, those green eyes wide with wonder as she moves through a ball room. I'm playing with her, a game of cat and mouse. She's looking for me. One song blends into another.

There's such a sad love,

Deep in your eyes.

A kind of pale jewel...

She looks so lost, and I finally allow her to find me and guide her into a dance. I can't remember feeling this...tender towards anyone ever before. She allows me to guide her through the people crowding us, dancing our way across the floor, gliding into steps we both know before we take them.

Those eyes stare at me, full of a wonder and innocence so rarely seen.

As the pain sweeps through,

Makes no sense to you.

Every thrill is gone,

It wasn't too much fun at all.

But I'll be there for you

As the world falls down.

The wonder starts getting replaced with confusion as she looks at the crowding people. She sees something, and it causes her to break away from me. She runs from me, and I feel my heart breaking. The people try to grab her, try to hold her there with me, but she slips past them. This is her world, hers and mine, and if she wants to escape, they cannot stop her. She stops at a wall, confused, and I try to move towards her. I want to comfort this poor creature, me, who has never offered comfort to another. Before I can reach her, she grabs a chair and slams it into a wall, shattering the world we were in.

The world that is created by eating one of my peaches.

There are several types of peaches in my orchard. One is filled with a poison so deadly that even a single drop of the juice on your skin will be absorbed in a matter of moments, and death from that drop takes less than an hour. A bite will have you dead in seconds. One has pain in it. A single bite will have you writhing on the ground until I feel so inclined to administer an antidote. And if I decide to give you one of those, well, it's rare that I am encouraged to be generous with my timing. Even before I created this orchard, I never pretended I was nice.

But there is one tree, a kindness even in it's cruelty, that instead of pain or suffering, or one of the other things my lovely peaches can do, it will give you your dreams. It opens a door for you to experience what you wish most in your heart. And, because it is my magic, I am obviously invited. But, the cruelty is the fact that you are trapped, until I so decide to release you from your dream. Now some would claim that to be a kindness. Live forever in the place they are happiest. But they are fools. It wouldn't be living. It would be a half life. But, to them, the cruelty is that they must wake up. So, how did this girl break one of my hallucinations?

The obvious answer is that I allowed it. But then why was I so heart broken and surprised that she left? This girl gives me more questions than answers, and I find myself wishing I could hate her for ever coming here.

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