Crossroads of Fate

[Sai]

As Sarah would run down that painful path toward her mysterious masked heartless friend, she would find that every step sent him further away, and the dark thorns around her would close in... choking... entwining... closing off every bit of light, with Acteur floating overhead with a slightly bemused look on that mask of his...

And then the darkness would come full circle... and she'd find herself in an endless field of black. Nothing in every direction. With it came a crushing feeling of losing oneself... forgetting details about who they are and what they are about. If she were to look at her hands, she'd find them twisted black things with only three fingers... and if she turned, she'd face a mirror that showed her what she was now... A human-sized shadow heartless... with a diamond-shaped scar on her forehead.

And if she were to react to this, all the world around her would shatter, and below her feet the darkness would fall away to reveal a beautiful stained-glass floor depicting herself in a sleeplike pose, the piccolo in her hands a wonderful mix of white and black. One side of her sleeping form showed A black sillhoette of herself, the other a white one. And wrapped around her from behind was Acteur, her hair lifting into strings attatched to his fingers...

"Interesting conundrum you find yourself in, Miss Appleton..." a voice behind her would speak. Should she turn around, she would find the Nobody Sai sitting there in mid-air as though upon an invisible chair, a book in his hands which he calmly read.

"You stand in the twilight, unable to move one way or another..." came a second voice, and if she looked to it, she would find Atticus the Fallen standing there, in all his threatening nature.

"You can't move forward..." said Sai.

"if you don't pick a path..." uttered Atticus.

In the darkness beyond the edge of the stained glass was a figure very much like that of Acteur's. It was far enough that she couldn't reach should she attempt to leap for it. Again the voices would speak. "You'll have to choose carefully..."

"Follow the dark as your love guides you... but lose yourself."

"Follow the light as your heart tells you... but lose your prince..."

Both voices as one would speak. "Choose."

[serpentoflore]

Sarah's eyes moved from the two she barely knew, her hands coming together. A choice between having him with her or not having him? There was only one answer. No matter what she had to do, she would stay with him. Walking towards Acteur without any hesitation was the only way. She... She wouldn't be able to live a life without him. A deep feeling of loss would be worse than never having a chance with him. Her black gloved hands moved together.

This reminded her of a poem. In the beginning of her dream, she had been in path made by nature. The last lines of the last stanza of the poem came as she spoke.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

'Acteur...'

[Sai]

As Sarah went down the dark path, the two behind her would fade into nothing and disappear. The platform itself would disappear... everything would disappear. Sarah would find that the further she went, the less she could see, including Acteur who was still there, but slowly melded into the background...

Soon, she would be alone in the dark once more. She could sense Acteur nearby, maybe, but it was a dulled sensation. It was like being passively aware of people going by, but never once registering that it was in fact friends and family not seen in years. A sleepiness would creep over her, making the world numb and even the desire to be with Acteur... secondary. Her piccolo would fall away from her, dropping deep into the abyss before disappearing in shadow. The fallen's voice would come to her, a booming presence from everywhere.

"Close your eyes... surrender to the dark, and be one of us... Become one with our family, and you may stay with Acteur forever..." he said in a coaxing voice, even though Acteur was nowhere to be seen, and even his presence seemed... distant at best...

[serpentoflore]

Sarah's eyes slowly began to close, for some reason desiring Acteur a little less. Still, she wanted him as if there were a reason to do so. However, for some reason the desire grew slowly as she fell deeper into the darkness. "Acteur..." Her voice spoke out softly. All she remembered after that, was darkness.