Anna's Requiem, Chapter 1
As a 26-year-old mother of two kids living through a war of the governments in the year 2157, life was not easy for Anna. She did what she could to survive on a daily basis, however there was no longer a civilized structure and the public had fallen to utter chaos in the last decade.
It was a slow process, at first, beginning with the execution of government leaders around the world. An organized event stirred by the wide spread terrorist group, the GATF, otherwise the Global Association of Territorial Freedom. The fall of the governments was meant to be an end to corruption, however without limitations society had begun to weaken in its ability to differentiate between right and wrong. In conclusion, it led to several dictatorships in distant countries and the evils of mankind to blossom into what is now being called The Society's Apocalypse.
Over the last few years Anna was forced to face many hard truths in this time of greed and scandal. Everyone now only fought side-by-side in a tight knit family or were simply forced to find their own way. She wasn't fortunate enough, though, and her family, whom she thought would be there, turned their backs on her at her most desperate hour. Her spouse also uncovered something to his nature she was not expecting.
"Just leave, dammit, Anna!" He spat at the small woman slumped against the wall of their home, sobbing with her fingers dug in the carpet. Her world was falling apart. How did this even happen? One night he came home acting very strange and accusing her of being a dead weight in the family. She only ever cared for their kids when she wasn't working. That is, before she lost her job.
"Why, Robert?" She choked, "I've only ever done everything in my power to help our family! Why are you threatening to kick me out? Is it because I lost my job? You know it wasn't my fault. I was set up! My boss was always afraid I would make her look bad. We talked about this!"
"How does that make sense? If you're good you get rewarded, if not then fired!" He stated, not accepting any excuses she made up, as if she were lying.
"You know the system in messed up these days, Rob! Everyone is feeling a ton of pressure from GATF these last few years, especially now since they are forcing the reform of the job industry. It's all a big mess, we need a leader and yet they are content keeping the common people as a headless chicken!" She pleaded.
He wouldn't listen, he had had enough with the details and just got it out, "Anna, I just don't want you, can't you see? I never wanted you. You are a dead weight in my heart. I should have dropped you when I had the first chance, but I couldn't bear to deal with my family's reaction if they heard I wanted to abandon a soon-to-be mother!"
This was going too far, her heart was ripping in two "You don't mean that." she whispered, too scared to comprehend his words.
"I only pretended," he sighed. "You know my family is tight. They wouldn't allow our kids to be raised without me, let alone without them. I had to take you in and, by God, I hated every minute of it!"
This sprung new tears to her eyes. How could he say such terrible things? After all they have been through, he seemed so happy and loving. Was it all a lie after all?
A few months later after scrounging up what she could to sell, Anna managed to save up enough money to hire a lawyer. The fees these days were so impeccably high she literally had to get rid of everything even remotely valuable. It even included her classical guitar her grandfather had left her before he passed away. She would do whatever it took to be able to raise her own kids. Even if they had to share custody she would be happy with every precious second she got with them.
Fate, however, was ugly and cruel. Using her past depression as a weapon and the load of money from Robert's family they had, without falter, won the case and robbed Anna of her most valuable blessings. Her one true joy in her life: Her sweet innocent children. Now there was not even a glimmer of hope in seeing them for her visitation rights were somehow overruled. His family wanted her to disappear entirely. Corruption and grief had finally taken over her life and she had nothing left. No purpose. No reason to live.
Anna had run out of spirit, with the last shove of the courtroom officer, she left the building in a daze. The light outside was blinding but she felt no different. Her world was closing in around her in a shell of darkness. The depression was seeping in through her mental wall. Anna was losing herself again but one hundred fold this time, which she might not ever recover from.
I couldn't even say goodbye. The thought left her feeling hollow and sick enough to vomit next to the building, receiving disapproving looks and a few 'tsks' from the jurors who were leaving after her. No one has damn heart in this world! She cried to herself.
Her rage and numb mind forced her to do the only thing she could think of which was get in her car and drive. Just drive. Anywhere but here, anywhere off this forsaken planet if she could! Her tank was full from the morning fill. She hadn't even eaten yet because she wanted to save her money for gas and take the kids out to celebrate her still at least being a mom, even if she never got the chance to be a part of a complete family. That's all that really mattered to her. Now she has nothing but the few dollars she had left to her name. The last of her worth could fit in her pocket.
It was nearing sunset and after what seemed like an eternity of driving Anna had still felt the hate at her back. No amount of driving or running away could extinguish this horrid grief that was plaguing her soul. She felt like her life had been forfeit the moment that awful gavel struck.
Trees lined the highway now, the air as fresh and crisp as spring; dew still clung to the needles on the trees. Rows and rows of forest now covered the hills and lands, which before would offer her comfort, but now she didn't bother to notice. All she could see was the last of her will buried in her glove box. A last ditch effort to escape the pain, she entertained the idea. Her depression was eager to have given her the thought from the start and she no longer felt the pull to avoid siding with it. She was on the deep end of her manic by now. The rage was temporarily gone and what remained was a vast dead field of desolation.
The engine sputtered at last as the last drops of fuel emptied the tank, making her pull over coincidentally by a hidden path in the woods. Feeling herself being drawn towards the path, she stopped the car just as it died out and pulled the hand brake up with a bit of effort. She felt much weaker since her self-pep talk in the mirror this morning. Anna was astonished she had even said such words of encouragement to herself in that very same day now that all hope was lost. She felt like a fool to believe in herself. Money got you places in the world today, not love.
In an eerily calm manner she opened the glove box and pulled out the object, looking it over long and hard. With nothing left to lose she tucked it away in her pocket and got out of the beat up car. She had sold her last newer model in attempt to save although it didn't get her much more than she had expected to.
Looking past the car, Anna's empty gaze followed the trail before it lost sight behind a bend of trees and brush. The pull was beckoning her now to follow it and she gave in without a second thought.
Shooting upright from her sleep, Galadriel's face was beaded with sweat. Celeborn awoke to sense her distraught as she recalled the events of her dreams knowing they were all too real.
"There is a life source words cannot describe. A power in the East is forming too great to deny.." Her eyes widened, "Something is coming.."
Anna was walking deeper into the woods. The trees grew thicker and twisted, often blocking the path yet she remained true to its course. Sounds in the night would have made anyone's hairs stand on end but she didn't even notice. Not a care was left in her small, small, world. What was the point in reacting, it wouldn't make her survival any more ensured, not that she wanted to anyway.
No matter how she tried to keep them at bay her thoughts still wandered in flashes of harsh memory. Her father stopped taking her calls, her grandmother no longer believed in her strong little granddaughter, her mother even outright refused to be there for her, saying she had much more important matters at hand. Her friends slowly vanished from her reach, her boss nitpicked everything about her and made her work the worst hours and pushed her to her limits until one day she planted false evidence against her and leveraged it towards her removal. The people she viewed as her true family pushed her out and Robert's family never showed their colors until the testified against her in court. She was alone in this world and it was very cold.
Why was the world full of so much hate? She started to cry again, shivering as the night brought on a chill. She didn't even have her jacket with her. Nothing was according to plan. Not one thing in her life was developing; as they should after all the time, hard work and stress she put herself through.
Anna continued to sob to herself and thought about getting her jacket from her car. She half-heartedly turned around to head back but immediately stopped. The trail.. I was just on it but somehow it's gone! "Of course!" She yelled to the tops of the trees, "it just HAS to be ME!" Anger enveloped her chest as she picked up and threw strange looking pinecones at the trees, she didn't care what they were, so long as they broke.
"Legolas," King Thranduil called his son's name when he heard the light footfalls at the entrance to his chamber.
"Mani uma lle merna, Adar?" Legolas said straightforwardly. His father would only have beckoned for him if it were something urgent this early in the morning. (What do you want, father?)
"Something disturbs our borders, can you sense it? It is.." he sought the wording, "a new power that has grown in only a matter of moments." His expression darkened, "One without a source. Tread carefully and I shall send guards to follow. For now, I have other matters to attend." He returned to his desk to continue writing on what appeared to be a new treaty regarding the old alliances of elves and men after the One Ring was destroyed. It has been nearly a decade since it's destruction and men now called for a new alliance after some years of discussing the less modern arrangements being in need of refurbishing.
Her emotions were still very raw and rampant as they changed like the tides of the sea. The depression was throttling her senses and made her lash out again and again, causing some disturbance in the distance.
Pausing for a brief moment Anna barely had a clear enough mind to understand that she was drawing attention to herself. It felt oddly good to know something cared enough to move from her reaction, however not as good since it was in a strange looking forest in the middle of the night.
Giving up on finding what made the movement, Anna sat down and leaned her side next to a tree and pulled out the object from her pocket. The shiny keychain Swiss Army knife glinted in the moonlight, making her daze off in its reflection. She didn't feel so afraid of opening it now. With a click, she extended the fresh blade. She then recalled why she had bought it in the first place: As a mother she always feared for the worst, especially in these recent times where you never knew what would happen no matter the time of day. Nothing was ever certain anymore.
"As a mother.." her voice wavered, repeating her thoughts, unaware of the lurker watching in the trees. A mother, no more..
Her frame was small yet looked slightly toned as it shook in the night and her hair was a beautiful faded brown with natural waves falling to the middle of her back. He was taken aback by how she had said, 'as a mother.' Was someone this young capable of bearing children? He wondered. She barely looked older than 19, from what he could see, however it was in her large almond shaped eyes he could sense wisdom beyond her years.
Her face was damp with freshly fallen tears and it made his heart hurt to hear her speak of children with so much pain in her words along with what she had displayed earlier. What has happened to this mysterious lady of the night and if she is in fact a mother then where are her children? He wondered with caution.
Slowly, Anna tipped the edge of the knife's point to her wrist and just lightly touched it, drawing a single bead of blood. It was very sharp. Good for a clean cut to get it over with.
Getting a better grip on the handle and taking a deep breath, she forced the blade to make a deep incision when suddenly a strong pair of arms wrapped around her from behind and grabbed her wrists to firmly hug them to her chest. Startled at the presence of another being Anna made a sharp gasp as the knife fell from her. He was already too late as it had nicked a row of veins and drew a pulse of fresh blood across her clothes and the damp earth. The blood was flowing quickly and the man made haste to make a tourniquet with his large hand if only the woman wasn't fighting back.
"Get off of me!" She hissed, the blood flowed painfully with each movement. She was desperate this time for the end and didn't wish to be saved at all. Still, he held tight, with her back to his chest and his light breath in her ear.
"Be calm, my lady!" He managed to say before she elbowed him with her other arm, breaking her uninjured wrist out and reached for the knife. Already sensing her move, he grabbed her around the waist and jumped them back away from the knife, holding onto the struggling woman.
"No!" She cried and fought until the blood that had fallen had drained her of strength, making her legs give out and fall into him as her head went back. Her body fit perfectly against his warm embrace as he sat her down, lying against him. He made sure to keep his hand in a firm lock over her bleeding wound however he was worried she wouldn't make it to the healers in time.
A few guards came through the clearing and waited for his order, "Asca! Give me a strip of clothe." (Hurry!) Upon doing so he released his hold on her arm to tie the cloth above her elbow, her fresh blood dripped to the floor at a much slower rate. Another guard tore a cloth from his shirt to wrap around the wound, seeing this female seemed important to Legolas.
Looking through a gap in the trees high above Anna saw a brilliant night sky with an array of stars she had never noticed before. It was strange and yet very beautiful. The last thing she remembered was the warmth of his cheek on her forehead and the sweet smell of his neck before all had faded to black.
He was losing time, he realized, as her face fell against his in unconsciousness. Picking up her lifeless form from behind the knees, the other arm at her back, he ran with his accompaniment back through the forest towards his home. It was lucky the spiders were on the decline ever since the era of the ring was fading into history, so their path was unchallenged as they quickly made way.