Disclaimer: It isn't mine. End of story.
A/N: Again, a short, dark oneshot! This really seems to be my forte here. Oh well. Anyway, this was inspired by a number of things - a fanfic I had just read, the fact that I had just watched LotR on DVD, and the song Anakin's Betrayal on the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith soundtrack (which I highly recommend listening to while you read this). I also tried a new style, so just a warning. I've also written a companion piece to this, which I'll post soon. So, please leave a review and tell me what you think of it!
Darkness is all he knows. He is deep, deep down in the blackness of the abyss. Days could pass, weeks could die, years could be gone, and he wouldn't know it. He is trapped. He doesn't think he will ever get out. The way is shut. Even for her, the way is shut.
Nothing can save him from this trap. It is built of nothing, but it is more substantial than even the strongest wall of stone and mortar. It is darkness, it is nothingness. He is floating, fading, but he cannot do anything.
Only two voices penetrate this prison. One is the voice of his captor, the monster that holds him in this dark void. The other is the sweetest thing he has ever heard. It is her voice. The voice of the woman he loves. It is also the most painful thing he has ever heard.
He cannot see her face. He cannot feel her skin, drink in the warmth in her blue eyes, or speak to her. He is silent, trapped beneath the surface that is so close that he feels it suffocating him, and yet, it is so far away that he cannot touch it, cannot break it.
He is not alive, but he is not dead. He cannot move, he cannot speak. He is everything, but he is nothing. He just exists, in his prison of darkness.
From time to time, he will see the light, he fights for it, and then he falls back into darkness. His captor is cruel and gives him just a taste of what he wants, then rips it away.
Everything he loves has been taken from him. His captor has chased away his friends, caused his lover to loathe what he has become. He feels nothing, and yet, his pain is constant. Nothing he can do can change what has become reality. It seems that it is too late for him to be saved.
Then, light penetrates the dark walls of his prison. He shies away from it, afraid of what it might bring, but joyful because he cannot remember the last time he saw light. Images, faces flash in front of him, then are gone.
A pillar of darkness shifts – the black oblivion becomes his captor. Cruelty is etched into every line of the man's face. And yet, it is his face, too. Stifling eyes meet the prisoner's, a vindictive kind of glee in the captor's eyes. He is glad that he has created this prison.
"She died today," the harsh, cruel voice of his captor tells him.
He cannot cry. His pain is the unseen, unheard kind. He has no chance to escape. He has no reason to. He is trapped forever. The way is shut. The way will always be shut.
A part of him wished he had never come. Another knows otherwise. He never would have known her if he hadn't. He never would have known their love.
"Bow to me," his captor says, his voice so very cruel.
He looks up. He is broken, but he will never bow to his captor.
"Never," he replies. His captor stares at him for a moment. Then, everything is gone again. He is floating in the darkness. It is his abyss, now. Not his prison. He is numb and can feel nothing at all. And he is glad of it. Slowly, he loses himself to the blackness of his abyss, remembering nothing of the betrayal that brought him here. He remembers nothing of the creature his own mind created, the thing that keeps him captive.
There is no hope for him. He is farther gone than he ever was before. This is his reality. Darkness, numbness, hopelessness. All are coming crashing down in his prison of nothing. He is being pulled under, but he doesn't care. There is nothing left for him to fight for in that world of light he once knew.
He will never resurface; Rosto the Piper is no more.