Author's Note: I have decided to completely re-do this story. I started it when I was about thirteen and back then I really didn't know much about the story except for what I had seen in the movies. Now that I have read the books more closely for details I may have missed earlier, I can understand more of what was going on. When I went back and re-read this story, I noticed how Mary-sue it was and it completely shocked me to know of how ignorant I had once been. This newer version will be different than the original and I hope it will be better, more interesting, and less two-dimensional. I'm not saying that it won't be a Mary-sue, because it will be, but just that hopefully it won't be as unrealistic. I apologize in advance if I somehow upset any of you that liked the original better, but this is what I felt that I needed to do.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings and I never will. I only own Natasha and Emily and maybe a few new characters along the way.

Chapter One: Normalcy…to a Point

"I don't see why my mom made me stay home this year. She usually always lets me go with her to the party," I pouted as I sat down on the couch in front of the TV. "I mean, come on. How many seventeen year-old girls are inside, all alone, without any boys, on New Year's Eve?"

"Oh, give it up, Tasha," my best friend, Emily, said as she sat down next to me. "It's not that bad. Think of how I feel. My parents went to Times Square for the celebration and left me here to rot with you." I folded my arms across my chest and glared at her. In return, Emily smiled innocently at me and handed me the bowl of popcorn. With a huff, I took the bowl and focused my eyes on the TV. My annoyance with my mother only increased as we watched the people partying and screaming on the television.

"I just don't get it," I continued on with my earlier topic. "My mother can be so unfair." I turned to Emily just in time to see her roll her eyes.

"And I just don't get why you can't let it go!" Emily said, exasperated. "Maybe your mother wanted to have some fun without you."

"Are you saying my mother was trying to get rid of me?"

"No," Emily replied, "I'm just saying that even mothers like to go out by themselves sometimes."

"But still-"

"Natasha, it's New Year's Eve. Relax, let it go, and move on."

I groaned and laid back against the end of the couch. I stretched out my legs and smiled as they put themselves across Emily's lap. She shook her head, smiling and let them be, our previous feud forgotten for the time. But minutes quickly lapsed by and I couldn't help but grow bored and tired from watching all the people having fun on the television.

"Natasha, you're not falling asleep on me, are you?" My eyes snapped open. I blinked several times and focused on Emily's face.

"Of course not," I told her, pretending to be shocked.

"Really? Because your eyes have been closed for the past ten minutes," she said.

"They have?"

"Yup."

"Oh."

"Are you really that tired?"

"No, I'm just bored. It's probably because I know I could be out there partying, but I'm stuck here inside with you," I answered. Emily rolled her eyes.

"Maybe this will help liven things up then," she said. I was about to ask her what she was talking about, but before I could, I found my entire head drenched in water. Sputtering, I sat up, wiped the water from my eyes, and stared up at Emily in shock.

"What the hell was that for?" I demanded. Emily stood up and laughed.

"I wanted you to stop complaining about the damn party that you had the misfortune of missing," Emily replied.

"Well, now you're going to have the misfortune of me complaining about being wet," I stuck my tongue out at her. Emily simply shrugged her shoulders and sat back down and continued watching the TV. Not wanting to miss the perfect opportunity, I picked up a handful of popcorn and chucked it at her. Emily gasped in surprise and stood up.

"Eww! You pervert! You got popcorn down my shirt! I saw you aim for there!" she screamed. This caused me to fall down laughing as Emily proceeded to dig out the popcorn from her shirt. Finally, with a growl of frustration, she stood straight up, put her hands on her hips, and stared at me.

"Fine. Truce?"

"Sure," I managed to gasp out.

Within five minutes, I had calmed down and everything had quickly gone back to normal. We were back to watching the TV again. It was now three minutes until midnight…until 2007.

"I'll go get the…champagne," I said as I stood up and stretched.

"Your mom bought you alcohol?" Emily asked, incredulous. I snorted.

"What makes you think that she bought it for me? It's here, we're here, and mom's gone. The circumstances are calling me towards it."

"Natasha! Surely you're not actually going to actually drink it!" she exclaimed.

"Emily, lighten up. You know I wouldn't. It's just apple cider," I laughed at her.

"Oh," Emily blushed. I shook my head at her and poured two glasses of the "champagne".

"Sometimes I think you can be so stu-" but Emily suddenly cut me off.

"Shh! The countdown is starting!"

"10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1! Happy New Year!" Emily and I clanked out glasses together and took a sip.

"So…what's your New Year's resolution, Tasha?" Emily asked me.

"I don't know. I guess I want to stop being so afraid to take chances. I want to start reaching out to things I want. What about you, Emily?"

"I want to lose twenty pounds," she said in an annoyingly perky voice. I snorted into my drink. "No, I want to stop being such a control freak. I'm always planning things on going a certain way, and when they don't, I get upset. I want to learn to live for the moment." I nodded and a silence drifted between us for a few minutes. Finally, I spoke.

"Well, I guess we should-" but I stopped as a huge yawn escaped my lips.

"You guess we should what?" Emily asked, amused.

"Got to bed," I finally finished.

"Yeah, I'm tired," she agreed. I nodded and walked over to turn of the TV. However, as my finger reached to push the off button, it turned off automatically. When I turned to look at Emily, I expected to see her grinning and holding the remote. Instead, though, she looked just as confused as me. She tucked her blond shoulder-length hair behind her ears and opened her mouth to speak.

"Well, that was weird," she said and I had to laugh at her "brilliant" observation. I looked back at the TV and tried to turn it back on. Nothing happened. I made to move, but the lights suddenly turned off as well.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked, exasperated.

"I have no idea," Emily replied, her voice on the other side of the room. "Do you have any flashlights?"

"Yeah, I'll go get them," I said as I slowly made my way to where I thought the kitchen was located. I only managed to stub my toe once on the coffee table, but the situation was getting so creepy that neither of us was able to bring ourselves to laugh at my clumsiness. Once I reached the cabinet where we kept out flashlights, I felt around inside for it. I finally found it and let out a relived "aha!" I flipped the switch but nothing happened.

"Emily, it's not working," I said, somewhat nervously.

"Maybe it just needs new batteries," she offered.

"I changed then last night when I dropped an earring under my bed," I told her. "It should be working."

"That's weird. Do you have any candles?" I shook my head, but quickly remembered that she couldn't see me.

"No, my mom hates candles. She says the different scents and smoke from them bother her sinuses," I answered.

"We're screwed," Emily laughed softly, though I could tell that she was beginning to get scared.

"Let's open the blinds on the windows. Maybe we'll be able to see a little from the moonlight," I heard Emily shuffle through the living room. I began walking over to the other window, but Emily's voice stopped me.

"Um, Natasha?" she started. "I can see houses that still have their electricity. Maybe we should go over and ask if we could borrow a couple of flashlights." I quickly agreed and walked towards the front door and began to open it.

"Holy shit! The door won't open!" I nearly shouted.

"Did you try unlocking it first?" came Emily's dry tone from the living room. I immediately rolled my eyes.

"No, good idea," I said sarcastically, "cause I'm just that stupid!"

"Well, sometimes you can be," Emily answered. I growled.

"I'm serious, Emily. It won't open!"

"I'm…I'm going to call my brother. He'll come and pick us up. Because I'm starting to get a little freaked out," Emily announced. I didn't say anything but instead continued trying to open the door. It still wouldn't budge. I rested my head against the door and took a few deep breaths, willing myself to calm down. After a few moments, I heard a few frustrated groans coming from Emily.

"What?" I asked her.

"My cell phone's not working," she literally whined.

"Did you try my home phone?"

"It didn't work either."

"Crap," I said as I walked back into the living room.

"What are we going to do?" she groaned.

"You expect me to know?" I snapped.

"Listen, let's try and calm down. There's got to be some reasonable explanation for this," Emily said. I snorted sarcastically and I could practically feel her glaring at me.

"Well, then, Miss Logic, what do you suppose we do?" I asked her.

"I suggest we sit down on the couch and wait until the power comes on or until your mom gets home," she answered. I did what she suggested and she soon followed.

Not even two minutes passed by before I realized that I could not just simply sit down and do nothing. I was already too worried, though I tried to hide it, and my conscious kept repeating in my head all the horrible things that could happen. I went to open my mouth, but before I could, a loud crash was heard from upstairs. Emily and I both must have jumped at least three feet in the air each. My heart began racing so hard and fast that it almost hurt.

"What was that?" Emily screeched, panic clearly taking over the rational part of her.

"How the hell should I know?" I screamed back.

"Do you think we should go up and see?" she asked. I turned to her voice in shock.

"Are you insane?"

"Shouldn't we see what is up there?"

"If we want to be killed, the yes."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"Are you really that stupid? When all the lights are off, the doors locked, and the phone connection gone, you do NOT go upstairs towards a large crash!" I shrieked. "A kidnapper could be up there. Or…or…or a rapist. Maybe a murderer! They could have been planning this all along!"

"Natasha, calm down," Emily said.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? You were the one screaming a second ago!"

"You're panicking. Just take a deep breath. Good. Now, we don't know what's up there. That's why we're going to look up there. We're seventeen. It was probably just your cat who ran into something in the dark," Emily tried to reason. And it worked. Somewhat. Just in case, I suddenly ran into the kitchen and grabbed two steak knives and handed one to Emily.

"Let's go," she said. We quietly made our way upstairs. We entered my mother's bedroom, but from the light from the moon, we could see that nothing was disturbed in there. We exited the room and we found ourselves walking towards my bedroom. The door was shut. I looked at Emily. Although I could not see the look she was most likely giving me, I could tell we were both thinking the same thing. While I was out of my bedroom, I NEVER shut my door.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly reached for the door handle, Slowly but surely, I pushed my door open. Emily and I took small, hesitant steps into my bedroom. Once we were completely in, the door slammed behind us. Emily and I jumped closer together. I was about to turn back for the door, but a blinding light suddenly erupted from the middle of nowhere. My hands immediately lifted to cover my eyes, causing my knife to drop to the floor and I heard Emily's fall as well not a split second later.

The light soon became too much for me. My skin began to burn and I became lightheaded. I swayed for a few seconds before I fell heavily to the ground. The last thing I remembered was seeing Emily collapsing beside me before a large eye, covered in flame, clouded my vision. A second later, everything faded to black and I could see no more.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to read this chapter. They will arrive in Middle-earth in the next chapter and I hope that things will begin getting better and more interesting. I'd appreciate it if you'd review, but please no flames. I certainly accept any constructive criticism you can give me. Thanks again!