An End of Dreams (PG-13)- Challenge 128 with LisaN 5/20/11

[loveyoumick]

This was really wonderful, and so beautifully written ! Oh, Josef....

[darkstarrising]

This was really wonderful, and so beautifully written ! Oh, Josef....

Thanks, loveyoumick. I really hate to make my readers cry, but Josef's love affair with Sarah seemed destined to failure, although his love for her will live on.

[cassysj]

This is heartbreaking. It is the only thing that could be done once she went feral and this time she would be gone for real.

I loved the character of Sarah and write her constantly. While I usually wake her up with a happily ever after the stress she would have endured from thinking Charles left her for good would be too much for her.

Wonderful story, I'm sorry I just got around to reading it.

[darkstarrising]

This is heartbreaking. It is the only thing that could be done once she went feral and this time she would be gone for real.

I loved the character of Sarah and write her constantly. While I usually wake her up with a happily ever after the stress she would have endured from thinking Charles left her for good would be too much for her.

Wonderful story, I'm sorry I just got around to reading it.

Thanks, Carol and don't be sorry or sad This story was written to reflect Lisa's outline, but I'm glad you've got some happier endings for Sarah. Several people upstream have mentioned that Josef and Sarah's love story was in some ways a version of Romeo and Juliet - they love each other, but there are just so many obstacles keeping them apart.

[cassysj]

It is true about the Romeo and Juliet comparison. Perhaps it was destiny that her turning was unsuccessful. If she did wake up today Josef would have changed so much in the last fifty odd years and unfortunately for Sarah the world has changed dramatically. She would have so much catching up to do. This is a wonderful story gives me a lot to think about.

[GuardianAngel]

Oh, dsr and LisaN. How horrible to have Sarah back and to lose her again. Like Josef had said, the universe must have had a different plan for him. He and Sarah just weren't meant to be. Still, so hard to accept.

“No man should have to do this to the woman he loves.”

Yes, and Mick would know this first hand. Thank God for good friends.

[darkstarrising]

It is true about the Romeo and Juliet comparison. Perhaps it was destiny that her turning was unsuccessful. If she did wake up today Josef would have changed so much in the last fifty odd years and unfortunately for Sarah the world has changed dramatically. She would have so much catching up to do. This is a wonderful story gives me a lot to think about.

Believe me, Carol, it gave me an awful lot to think about.....Sarah was a bright, vivacious woman, but a woman displaced in time. Could she adjust? Maybe, but Josef was a different man than the one she fell in love with. So, after much consideration with Lisa, Sarah's fate was sealed.

[darkstarrising]

Oh, dsr and LisaN. How horrible to have Sarah back and to lose her again. Like Josef had said, the universe must have had a different plan for him. He and Sarah just weren't meant to be. Still, so hard to accept.

“No man should have to do this to the woman he loves.”

Yes, and Mick would know this first hand. Thank God for good friends.

Thanks, GA The universe hasn't been kind to Josef in the matters of the heart. Someday, he'll catch a break.

You've highlighted my favorite line in the story. In an earlier attempt at fleshing out Lisa's outline, Mick played a much more prominent role, but since this was really supposed to be a story about Sarah and Josef, we started over. With Mick arriving too late to help find Sarah, he did what he could for his friend. Setting his lover's body ablaze is a pain he could indeed understand and spare Josef.

[jen]

At first, I was so happy to see that Sarah finally woke up. Then, hear slipping into the chaotic rogue state was heartbreaking. Without her Sire and love, the chaos eventually won.

Fabulous story!!!

Thank you!

[darkstarrising]

At first, I was so happy to see that Sarah finally woke up. Then, hear slipping into the chaotic rogue state was heartbreaking. Without her Sire and love, the chaos eventually won.

Fabulous story!!!

Thank you!

Thanks, Jenna This was one of the more difficult challenges to write, but in Lisa's outline, Sarah was the proverbial fish out of water; her home, her city, even her Charles had changed. She paid the ultimate price for her love of Charles, as did John Whitley.

[cassysj]

This story breaks my heart but it's so well done.

[darkstarrising]

This story breaks my heart but it's so well done.

Thanks, Carol Appreciate the re-read - this is only one way Josef's story with Sarah could have ended. I held out hope that she would one day wake up and Josef could finally have some happiness.

[nutmegger911]

Oh dear, this is so tragic; so wonderfully, beautifully tragic. How sad that each of them did what they thought was right and yet it turned out so terribly wrong.

We should do more of these reader/writer challenges. The results are simply amazing.

[darkstarrising]

Oh dear, this is so tragic; so wonderfully, beautifully tragic. How sad that each of them did what they thought was right and yet it turned out so terribly wrong.

We should do more of these reader/writer challenges. The results are simply amazing.

Thanks, nm911 The Josef we saw in the series was something of a playboy, yet in Sleeping Beauty, I got the feeling Sarah grounded Charles somehow. While Sarah 'slept', Charles/Josef was trapped in his own limbo, never moving forward in a permanent relationship, hoping that one day Sarah would return to him. In this story, they finally get a chance to connect again, only to be separated forever. Josef's love will last forever for his sleeping beauty, but now he can move on.

[allegrita]

I'm rereading favorite stories, and I had to go back to this one. It's so very heartbreaking, but at the same time it ties things up so well that it has an element of satisfaction, too. I think you and Lisa are right in that Sarah would have had a hard time adjusting to such a different world. But I love the scenes of her moving through the New York night, loving the life she can feel throbbing in the city... and loving the lives she takes, as well. She might well have been a consummate vampire, in happier circumstances!

It is so sad that Whitley took his own daughter's life, but it seems somehow apropos for this star-crossed story that Sarah would sacrifice herself for Josef. That's true love.

My heart breaks for Josef, but I'm so glad Mick was there for him at the end, and that Mick was the one who took on the burden of burning Sarah's body. He knows so well how that weighs on a person.