Sarah could feel the mook's gaze on her. She wondered why he was just staring at her.

"Holy shit, what the fuck happened to you, lady?"

Sarah nearly burst out into hysterical laughter at the absurdity. A home invasion, and the first thing the thug had to say to her?

"Car accident," she said dryly. "Who are you?"

"I'm- that's not important." He sounded young, Sarah thought distantly. Younger than she was.

"Okay," she said philosophically. At least she'd tried. "Then why are you barging into my father's house with those heavy boots?"

"...You can't see me, can you." It was a statement rather than a question. Sarah wondered what had clued him in.

"Either that or I'm trying to emulate the Blues Brothers," Sarah said, touching the dark shades that she had gotten into the habit of wearing. Apparently the empty gaze of her glass eyes was freaky. "Or I'm a cosplay enthusiast, practising for Halloween. The scars are all make up, and my missing legs are an optical illusion."

"Really?"

"No."

A second pair of boots walked towards the entranceway. "What have you found, oh hellooo."

Sarah sighed inwardly. Were these goons reciting lines from the Mook's playbook? It occurred to her that these irreverent thoughts were springing up in her mind's desperate attempt to keep her calm.

"And who's this?" the second mook asked.

"I'm Sarah," she said. "Who are you?" She could feel her knuckles going white on the arms of her wheelchair.

Unfortunately, the mook wasn't stupid enough to answer her, and simply walked over to her chair and started pushing her.

"Hey!" she protested. "I can wheel myself!"

Granted, it generally took her a while, as she had to go slow to avoid bumping into things, but it was the principle of the thing!

The mook didn't bother to respond, and the next thing Sarah knew, she had been pushed into the kitchen. She could tell because the linoleum felt and sounded different under the wheels than the wooden floorboards did and she could hear her father talking to what she assumed was more goons.

"...I'll give you the money, I swear!"

"It's too late for that." The voice that replied to her father's desperate one was eerily calm. Sarah resisted the urge to shiver. She had stood up to the Goblin King, after all. She refused to show her fear to a mere human. "You reneged on the deal, Williams. You thought there wouldn't be consequences?"

"I didn't mean to! I didn't realise that Karen had already paid the latest of Sarah's expenses from that account! I can still get the money! I just need to-"

"That's a touching story," the calm voice interrupted. "But I'm afraid that our mutual friend has lost patience with you, Williams."

"Who the hell are you people!?" Karen suddenly demanded, shrilly. "What the hell is going on?! Robert, what have you done!?"

"Karen, I-"

Her father's pleading voice was cut-off by a sound Sarah recognised from the movies as a silenced gunshot, and a splash of something warm and liquid hit her.

"Nooo! Karen! Oh god oh god, No! Ka-" A second gunshot. A second warm, metallic splash.

Sarah gripped the arms of her chair so tightly that she could feel her fingers were going numb. Was this it? Were these the last moments she had? Covered in the blood of her father and Karen?

Sarah gritted her teeth, knowing that if she still had tear ducts, she'd be crying right about now. She would not show fear. Not to these murderers. She had not shown her fear to the Goblin King. She was older now, a good deal less naïve and a lot more aware of her own mortality, but she would not show fear, even if they decided to hurt her before she died.

At least she had saved Toby. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, she had fought her way to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that she had so selfishly, carelessly wished away. No human goons were going to manage what the Goblin King had failed at.

If he had gotten away safely, then she knew she could go to her death with as few regrets as possible.

She didn't want to die.

Oh gods, she didn't want to die.

She gripped the arms of her wheelchair, and braced herself for what she knew was coming.

A/N: Next chapter is coming in about a week. Oh, and it features a very evil man saying some pretty evil things, so again, fair warning.