Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. The baby was a spoiled child who wanted everything for himself, and the girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew was this: the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with her….

But what the girl didn't know that she too was in love with the King of the Goblins but she was too young to realize it.

She had fought her way to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child the King had stolen. He offered her everything but she refused for he had now power over her.

Years after when the girl now grown realized what she was offered but it was too late. For she knew that she would never get the happy ending she wanted.

The Goblin King would never offer her marriage again.

xxxxxx

Beep beep beep

Sarah turned over in her bed and hit her alarm clock off. She was rudely interrupted from her dream. It was finally Friday. She had stayed up too late last night grading. As much as she loved teaching Art and Theater at the local high school sometimes the only thing she looked forward to at times are weekends and long breaks, even a night out with her boyfriend.

Sarah stretched from her double bed and got up. It was 6:13 am. If she didn't hurry she would be late for school.

xxxxxx

During her AP Art class, she got time to do her own art work. Her advance art classes were the best time to finish up on some sketches. She was currently working on just eyes, eyes that haunted her dreams. There were different in emotion but always the same eyes. She had about 7 pairs on the paper.

Some of her work was hanging around her room. Many students liked the ones of the fox riding on a dog or the orange hairy beast that looked fighting but was happily smiling. Sarah put new ones up only once in a while but not recently. For they were all of him she didn't want him to be looking out through those haunting eyes while she teach.

The bell ringed. School was out. Sarah told her students to have a nice weekend. She wanted to finish her work before packing up to leave. Sarah grabbed some oil pastels to color the eyes that were in the middle. They were the last eyes she saw before leaving that place. She couldn't describe the emotion that was in them but it scared her and made her sad.

Sarah got up and looked at her finally finished work. A chill went up her spine. There was no denying that they were his eyes. She put the piece with the others, others of eyes, mouths, hands, crystals but never a full body of him.

Sarah looked up at the clock, it was 3:13. She had a date with Thomas planned. She didn't feel like going out tonight. Something was bugging her the closer it got to the date the more uneasy she felt about going out. It didn't make sense to her. She and Thomas had been going out for some time. He was a middle school math teacher and a cross country coach. He wouldn't be done coaching till 4:20 today.

Sarah grabbed another piece of paper and packed it up with her. She wanted to draw something else later this weekend.

xxxxx

It was 5:13. Sarah had finished getting ready to go out. Since it was nice out she wore a black with small white polka-dot sun dress with black high heels that had a little bow on the top. They were going out to a nice restaurant with some of their friends from college then after wards going to a bar.

Toby had called when she got home. He wanted to tell her that he got an A on his test. She was so proud that her brother was doing so well in school. He was only 11 but he was brilliant. A day didn't go by without her hearing something from her family. It was either by phone or by email. Sarah didn't live that far from them only a town over. She was happy to have a little house of her own. Her dad and stepmom didn't want her to move out. She knew they knew it was time. Both of them had helped her house hunt.

She ended up picking the one of Karen's favorites. Sarah remembered how her stepmom came running into the kitchen out of breath and all excited. They went to the house. Sarah loved it. It was close to a park. The house was surrounded by trees and was just beautiful.

She decorated every room with pictures of her family and paintings of her friends from the Labyrinth. She never forgot about them. She would call on them once or twice a year but it was getting harder with her schedule. They mentioned him but Sarah always got nervous when he was brought up.

The knock on her door made her stop thinking of the past. It was time for the present.

xxxxxx

Thomas was at the door. He stood there smiling at Sarah. His hair was jet black, his eyes were a deep brown, he was quite tan from coaching all the time. He was quite charming, maybe a bit clingy for Sarah's taste at times.

Since they weren't going that far they decided to walk instead of taking Thomas' car. They talked about their day and what some stupid kid did that day. There was a secret challenge with who had the worst kid.

Outside the rustic bar they meet their friends. Beth and Britt were Sarah's best friends. She loved them to death. They came with their boyfriends, who were some of Thomas' friends. They all talked about how things were, who was getting married, who was pregnant, just catching up on old times.

It was getting a bit late, a bit pass midnight. Thomas, Hunter, and Bill were getting quite drunk. Sarah hated that. She drank a little. She had gotten drunk once and that was enough for her. It was back in college. She and her friends were partying after a hard week of classes. Sarah ran into some strange guy who ended up taking her back to her dorm. She couldn't remember who he was but he had nice eyes. She had asked her friends about it later but they didn't remember him.

Sarah yawned. She was getting bored of sitting here. She told Beth that she was going home. Beth being the motherly figure of the group looked at her sternly, complicating if it would be alright for Sarah to go home alone. Sarah assured her that it was okay. Beth knew there was no stopping her, once Sarah made her mind up she was going to put it into action. They assure her that they would take care of Thomas.

Sarah left the bar. It had gotten a bit chilly. She took a deep breath and started to head back home. She took a different way home. It was the fastest.

One of the street lights was flickering on and off on the corner. A chill went up her spine. She could hear noises coming from the ally. Then she heard wolf whistles. Sarah grabbed her bag and so that she would be ready to hit whoever came towards her.

"Hey sweet thing, where are you going?" a black figure approached her.

Sarah picked up her pace. She could hear them following her. Almost home.

Then a guy came in front of her. She didn't notice him when he emerged from the darkness.

"What the rush?"

"Leave me alone." Sarah said as firmly as she could. Her mind was looking for ways to escape.

"She is such a pretty thing." Someone grabbed her from the back.

Sarah screamed and with her bag hit the guy. She used all her might and kicked the guy in front of her in the groin.

"A little feisty thing, aren't you?"

"Help!" Sarah screamed with all of her might.

She heard a screech, saw a flash of white and claws. She had a moment of freedom and took it and ran. She didn't stop running. She could hear screaming and screeching from behind her but didn't look back. She could see the light shining from her front door welcoming her home.

She opened the door and slammed it shut and locked it. She looked at the clock on the table it was 12:13. She looked through a window to see if anyone had followed her home. No one.

She got ready for bed. There was silence in the house. It bothered Sarah. She walked around her house checking that no one was there before going upstairs to her bedroom.

As brushing her teeth she looked at herself in the mirror. She was ghostly white.

"What was that thing?" Sarah asked her reflection. The events of the night played in her head. She never saw what made her get that moment of freedom. She sighed and said, "Thank you…whatever you are."

Sarah fell fast asleep. Everything was dancing in her dreams. It was of him, it was always with him. They dance to that haunting song. He sang it to her with that sweet seductive voice. Sarah looked at the clock on the wall of the ballroom. It was late. The dancers started staring at her clawing for her. She ran towards the end of the room. Panicking she had grabbed the nearest chair and…

CRASH.

Sarah woke up with a start and looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand, it glowed a blood red 2:13. Sarah shivered. There was a cold breeze in her room. The curtains of her window were blowing in the wind. Sarah could feel goose bumps craw up her arms and the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. That window was closed.

She slowly got up. Holding her pillow ready to take a swing at whatever just came into her bedroom. Light from the moon shown in through the window, she could see broken glass all over her floor. On the floor was a white heap. Sarah grabbed some flip flops and slowly approached it carefully.

She bent over the white heap. She expected to see a sheet with a rock wrapped in it but it was feathers. Slowly she reached out and touched it.

She gasped. The thing was covered in blood. There were shards of glass sticking out of its body. She got up from it and went to her door to turn the light on. She saw for the first time it was a small owl.

Again she rushed over to it, slowly turning it around. "Are you alive?"

Its eyes looked at her. The owl was going in and out of conciseness. It finally focused on her and panicked. The owl tried to peck her with its beak and fly away.

"Shh…I'm not going to hurt you. Everything is going to be alright." Sarah said softly. She needed it to calm down. It'll only hurt itself. After a while the owl calmed down. It hooted gently.

"Everything is okay." It looked at her through hazy eyes. Sarah slowly got up and grabbed a large empty shoe box from her closet. She took it with her to the bathroom. Found some clean towels and twisters and gauze. She went down stairs to her kitchen and grabbed the vacuum cleaner. She brought it upstairs and left it outside her room.

Carefully kneeling over Sarah picked up the injured owl and put it in the shoe box. She took the owl downstairs to the kitchen table. Laid the towels out and gently picked the owl up. Its eyes were always watching her. She kept speaking gently to it; tell it what exactly she was doing. I need to get the glass out. Using the twisters she looked for pieces she could see. The owl hooted gently. Its eyes were going hazy again.

"Stay with me little one," hoping that the owl wasn't going to go unconscious. Sarah needed to get it to a vet but it was only 3:13 in the morning. During her inspection she noticed the left wing was broken and on the right foot a part of its talon was cut off. Sarah picked the owl up again. She took it to the sink.

"I'm going to run water. I need to get the glass off of you."

Sarah made sure the water was warm and used the detachable spray to rinse the blood and glass from the poor creature. It seemed to be enjoying the warmth of the water. The eyes weren't as hazy looking. Sarah noticed for the first time that the eyes were slightly bluish. Then they changed into a brown. I'm tired that is all.

She laid the owl back down on the table and covered it with a towel. The owl's eyes were closed. It had fallen asleep. Sarah opened a cabinet to get her phone book out. I need to find a place that will take him in, if he can last a few more hours. Sarah looked over at the sleeping owl and bit her lip. You have done everything you could. The poor thing, I wonder what happened to it. His foot was cut it was missing a few toes. Who would do such a cruel thing to a helpless owl?

Sarah went upstairs and used the vacuum to clean up the shards of glass. She looked out the broken window. Where did you come from? Sarah grabbed her pillow and some blankets and made her way back downstairs. I'm sleeping as close as I can to it. If something happens I will know.