----

Fog pools on the path – a dirt path, overgrown and marked with roots and brambles, no longer pavement – and coils upwards and downwards, in and out and over and under, seething like so much boiling water –

- and then pours itself into a shape, first dimly outlined, then stretching and solidifying into some form approaching that of a man -

Sarah’s breath is the only thing that sounds in the forest that now stretches around her. She hears her own shallow sips of air as starlight shines on the writhing fog, as a gust of cold wind takes on its own color and burnishes the contorting and changing figure, as moonlight warms the arms and hands suddenly outstretched, and gleams on the face turned up to the night sky –

Siehst du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron und Schweif?

- and burns into her mind the image of someone she knows, from long ago, reaching up and pulling part of the sky, black strewn with stars, down and around his shoulders -

Do you not see the Elf King?
The Elven King with crown and cloak?

Sarah looks, openmouthed despite herself, as the cloak tumbles to the ground in a sweep of soft darkness, and as stars fall, gently, to settle in windswept hair and make a crown.

Then she feels the bottom drop out of her stomach as the figure turns to look at her, and walks smoothly towards her, flowing over the bumpy roots and through sharp branches. Those same branches twist back from touching it - their wild jerks and snaps should be audible, but there is only silence.

A whisper comes to her from her memory. She mutters the phrase to herself, under her breath: “It’s a wisp of fog …” (es ist ein Nebelstreif) “It’s a wisp of fog …”

The being stops before her, and smiles.

“Really, Sarah. I think not.”

And any doubt she may have had vanishes – as she hears, for the first time in seven years, Jareth’s voice.




-------

This is the point where you need to run the f*ck away.


From Chapter 5 of Subtilior's Erlkönig fanfic. Which rocketh beyond anything, except possibly what she's writing now. She does the most amazing Evil!Jareth.
Go read and gape and shiver (and review!) - I have not done her writing justice. I don't believe it is quite possible.
[link]


Watercolours, 6 hours or so, with a little Photoshop tweaking for the starlight.