Another day of school had passed and Elena was walking home alone. She pulled her jacket closer to her to guard against the increasingly cold wind. 'Stupid jerks' she muttered quietly to herself. 'They think they're so much better than me' she kicked the dirt lightly and it blew away to her left. Quietly, in the back of Elena's mind the quiet voice rose forward and whispered softly to her, 'but they are better.' Elena flinched silently and walked quicker. She hated when her sub-conscious brought itself further up.

A few moments later she arrived home and quietly took out her keys to open the door. She looked quickly to the garage before turning the key and noticed that her parent's cars weren't there. She sighed quietly as she made her way inside. 'I should have known, it's not like they're usually here.' She set down her backpack by the coat hanger and made her way up the stairs to her room. She landed gracefully on her bed and closed her eyes for a minute. Then she sat upright and went to sit at her desk. She slowly released her waist length, chestnut brown hair from the bun she had it in and let it cascade down her back. She put her head in her hands and breathed deeply. Another traumatizing day at school that she had reluctantly survived. She reached down and took out her leather bound black journal. She unraveled the tie and opened it to her last journal entry. She had entered it yesterday. She read it over quickly and tried to gather any other thoughts she had had from the day before. 'Let's see, I went to school. Got laughed at and humiliated and then came home to an empty house. Fixed dinner around 6 for myself and did homework before making my way to archery practice. From there I went to karate, and then weaponry training.' She sighed inwardly. 'At least I can escape there' she mumbled. She looked over at her alarm clock and hit it lightly with her finger. 'Another 3 hours. What am I supposed to do until then.' Suddenly, a smile came to her face and she stood up quickly. She made her way to her closet and looked around suspiciously. She laughed lightly thinking about how ridiculous she must look. She then parted her clothes and lifted up a panel in the back. Behind it were swords and knives of every kind. Long daggers, and short ones, sharpened and sheathed. She smiled openly and picked up a box that lay near the front of the shelf below a golden handled broadsword. It was pure silver with engraved leaves on top that were lined with emerald. She traced a few of the leaves before opening it carefully and holding her breath. Her eyes sparkled when she saw what lay in it. She reached her hand slowly in and gently touched the engraved blade of a short dagger. She ran her finger slowly down the hilt and stopped when she reached the small green stone in the center. She chuckled softly while tracing her finger around it. 'It's not really green' she thought. 'More like a black, no a silver' she paused and looked at it more closely. 'That's weird' she thought as the stone seemed to change color at the wave of her thoughts. Whenever she was thinking of things like spring and trees it would turn green, and whenever she thought of stuff like happiness and laughing it would turn silver. But when she thought of the new of war, or sadness it would turn black. What scared Elena the most though was when she thought of death, or carnage, then the stone would unexpectedly turn red. Just like it was turning now. She snapped out of her thoughts as she noticed the handle slow and start to look like it was spreading over the entire dagger. She snapped the lid closed loudly and breathed out the breathe she never knew she had been holding. Oddly enough her heartbeat had quickened and she seemed to have broken into a light sweat. She put the box down and backed up slowly. She mentally kicked herself for holding the blade so long and pulled down the panel. She readjusted her clothing and went to sit back down at her desk again. Her Grandfather had told her never to hold the blade when in deep thought or longer than was necessary. She had never understood the warnings he had given her. 'And probably never will' she thought. 'Not that it matters now' she thought frowning. 'He's gone and no matter how hard I try to remember him he isn't coming back.' She sat down heavily on her bed and a tear rolled down her cheek. She brushed it away roughly and breathed deep. 'I won't cry, I won't. Not for anything.' she thought harshly. 'Emotions only control you.' She stood up and went downstairs her steps barely heard on the wooden stairs. She jumped the last 4 steps and landed lightly. "Now for some food" she said aloud. She made her way to the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator door. "Nothing in there" she said, closing it back up. She opened a few cabinets and decided on some Dorritos that she found on the bottom shelf. She pulled out a chair and started eating. Her thoughts quickly strayed back to her Grandfather though and she found her breathing slowing down. She focused on what he had said to her the week before she left to go back to her parents house. She had been staying there for a few years so that her parents could "get a break" from her and reorganize their lives. She hadn't wanted to go back, she loved her Grandfather too much. He had always been there for her when she needed him and he always had great stories to tell about a faraway land he had called Middle-Earth. He told of Elves, hobbits, dwarves, and the race of men there. And he had also talked about an evil presence. Elena's face scrunched up in thought as she tried to remember what her Grandfather had called the presence. 'Oh yeah' she thought. 'He called it Sauron.' Elena had always felt that the evil character shouldn't have been just a presence though, she thought it should have been a man. She didn't know why but she had always liked hearing about Sauron. When she asked her Grandfather about him that week he had gotten quiet and had simply looked at her thoughtfully. When she asked him what was wrong he had gotten very serious and asked her why she always wanted to know about the evil more than the good in his stories. She had answered him as truthfully as possible when she said that it was because he made a good character and that every story needed a good villain. What she had left out though was that in some odd ay she had felt a connection to the character, Sauron as soon as her Grandfather had brought him into the story. In some odd way she felt like he was right in a way. To want destruction, and a strong will. She shuddered when she thought about it though, and didn't know why she liked it. She wasn't a mean person, she just saw it from his perspective in a way. She just thought that maybe he wasn't all wrong. But whenever she had that thought another part of her always came in saying that it was wrong, that Sauron was evil and that was not the way things should be. Usually that side of her won out and she would continue to think that way, but the other part of her was always there, ready and waiting to step in whenever it found her dark moments. Like at school, and when her instructor made her angry. It scared her to know those thoughts were there, just waiting below the surface to rise again.