Title: What I Would Do For You

Summary: Years after her friend apparently committed suicide, Leah finds out the impossible: She's alive… so far… As Leah races against time to rescue her, she must ask herself: Which instinct is stronger, friendship or self-preservation?
A/N: Disclaimer: I don't own Middle Earth or the Silmarillion, or any characters yet to be introduced. Leah and Adira, however, are of my own creation. Anyway, Enjoy, read, and review!

Prologue: Goodbye, Hello

Adira raised the gun. She made sure the note was in place. Brushing a strand of reddish-brown hair behind her ear, she smiled. Goodbye, Earth, she thought. BANG! She shot the gun into the air. And… as her mother came running to see what happened… she melted away, never to return to this world…

Chapter One: Life Goes On

Leah hurried to her Algebra I class. Another tardy and it would be a detention. Rushing by the jocks' lockers, Landon Johnson lazily put his foot out, a pathetic attempt to trip her. She understood his message: Get lost.

Today she made it by their lockers without getting harassed. Normally Landon or his friends might try to steal her books or shove her against the wall. Bullying was a new experience for her, at least this physical type of bullying. Girl trash talk she could deal with- hey, just talk trash back, right?- but boys pushing her around was not as easily dealt with. Leah even knew why they picked on her- this year, her sophomore year at McCallister High, was the first year since Adira died that she hadn't had a boyfriend to protect her.

Leah wasn't a weak girl. She was tall and relatively strong and could hold her own in a catfight, if it came down to it. But the football players were just… bigger. Is this how you felt, Adira? You'd just shove your way through them like they didn't matter. Even though you were half their size. More and more, Leah felt herself "talking" to Adira. Why? Guilt, maybe. Leah KNEW Adira's death was her fault. That stupid fight…of it weren't for her, Adira might be alive. If, if…

Leah rushed into Mr. Thomas's room seconds before the bell rang. "OK, people, open your textbooks and let's review your homework from last night." Thomas boomed. They'd had homework last night? Whoops.

Leah passd the rest of the period in a dreamlike state. Algebra I was her 7th-period class. After that she could go home.

"Leah! If you would be so kind as to rejoin us!" Mr. Thomas's voice invaded her thoughts.

"Yeah, whatever." The rest of the period passed uninterestingly enough. Actually, nothing of interest happened… until Leah fell asleep on the bus ride home.

She was in a forest, a huge forest. The very trees resonated anger, murder… evil. She heard screams, and seemed to be running, but she was covering no ground, going nowhere…. Then Leah was falling, falling… into a flaming Eye. Then, Adira's voice: "Help me Leah! Help, please, Leah, where are you?" She tried to scream "Here!" but it came out as a guttural snarl. She felt anger and … hate dominated her. "Keep screaming. I won't help you." a voice that was not her own said. Adira's voice was pleading now. "Please, help me…" she began screaming in a language Leah could not comprehend. "Bado na Ennorath! Tolo hi! Ava achemo! Im harnannen!" then, barely a whisper, "Im gosta. Help…"

Leah woke up with a start. She remembered every detail of her dream in vivid - the hate of the trees, the horrible Eye, Adira's tortured screams…. Was Adira trying to contact her- from beyond the grave? That Eye- did it mean Adira was in hell?

Was it all just a dream?

Or was it a message? Leah didn't know if she wanted to find out…

Translation time:

Bado na Ennorath- Go to Middle-Earth

Tolo hi!- Come now!

Ava achemo!- Don't look back!

Im harnannen!- I'm wounded

Im gosta- I am afraid