Disclaimer and Author's note: I don't own J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Anyway, this is going to be a very, very long story, so kick back and relax. I also created a video preview for this story. Those of you who wish to watch it, just head on over to youtube and type in "ONCE UPON A RING - BY AARON LEDGERS." It's epic. I recommend watching it, lol. Plus, it might give you a hint on what to expect from this, or maybe not. You never know.
THE FELLOWSHIP: ONCE UPON A RING
Dedicated to Katherine and Nathaniel Sanders
PART ONE: MODERN EARTH
"Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.
And thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."
—Thomas Jefferson—
A gentle autumn breeze was sliding down the deserted streets of New York City.
The sun was beginning to rise, and the sky had been illuminated with the colors of a beautiful new dawn.
However, despite the early hour, no cars were driving along the concrete roads and almost nobody was walking along the sidewalks. In fact, only one visible person was standing under the morning glow that glimmered on the horizon. The girl in question was only four feet and six inches tall, her hair was whiter than snow, and her skin was extremely pale.
At the moment, her eyes were closed tightly: nothing aside from the silver lashes framing those gems could be seen as she stood there on top of the railing. Her arms were spread like an eagle, and her thigh-length hair was drifting in the wind: aside from her tresses and skirt, she was still as a statue. She remained that way for an unmeasurable amount of time... barely even seeming to be breathing.
But then... the sun finally slid over the horizon, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Two large, empty, iridescent irises refracted the light like twin mirrors, twinkling with subtle hues of amethyst, crystal blue, and baby pink. In front of her was a gorgeous view... the buildings below her gleamed and sparkled, and not far beyond was the ocean, which glittered like diamonds. However, instead of looking at this sunrise with a smile, her pale face was emotionless.
In that moment, silence reigned free, punctuated only by a heartbeat.
Her own heartbeat.
Above her was the sky, with the glorious colors of a magnificent dawn.
In front of her was a view that even a queen could love.
But below her lay nearly fifty stories worth of empty air.
One more step... just one more step and this would be the last sunrise she'd ever lay eyes on. She slowly tilted her head back and stared at the beautiful sky with a frightening amount of emptiness in her eyes, feeling no admiration for the magnificence she was beholding.
The vast plane above her brought nothing but loneliness.
She was hollow.
It only made her realize how small her existence really was.
Even a morning like this could no longer bring her joy, and that's why the moment had come: she could escape... she could be free of everything with just one more step.
Just one step... it wasn't so hard, right?
She could be free of the pain... the fear... the loneliness... everything she hated so badly.
Everything she wanted but could never truly have.
She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath, planning on lifting her right foot... but her leg wouldn't budge: it was shaking so violently that she couldn't even budge it from the railing. A gentle wind blew through her silvery hair when she finally lowered her arms and looked down at the distant road: the breeze helped to cool her stinging cheeks and eyes, but it was doing nothing to quell the burning sensation in her heart.
She couldn't even kill herself. She couldn't escape.
There was no way out.
"Just one step," she finally whispered, shivering all over as she stared at the spinning ground below with blank eyes. "That's all I need. One step... just one."
However, before she could continue thinking about it, the sound of a door opening behind her filled the air and she froze like a statue once again.
"Wha?! What the hell?" someone snorted, sounding more than a little startled. "No way... your hair is... it's white! It's totally white!"
The girl blinked and slowly turned her head to look at the idiot who'd spoken: she blinked again in confusion when she beheld a clean-cut man who looked to be in his late twenties. He was staring at her with raised eyebrows, and he was rubbing the stubble on his chin: his short black hair and steel grey eyes made him seem very plain.
"Obviously," she stated in a startlingly emotionless voice, giving him a vacant stare; she seemed to be looking through him rather than at him. "Albinism does that to people."
The man twitched after he glanced down, because it was only then that he realized where, exactly, she was standing: his face immediately drained of color.
"Kid, what the hell are you doing?" he calmly demanded, slowly taking a step forward and lifting his hands. "Seriously, come down from there! It's dangerous!"
"Yes, it is," Kate stated almost wistfully, giving the guy an empty smile and turning away to face the sunrise. "So much that it would definitely be fatal. Funny, isn't it?"
"What are you saying?! H-hey, come on! Come down from there, right now!" the man roughly demanded; regardless, he looked severely shaken up. "I don't know what's going on with you, but suicide definitely isn't the answer. If you want to talk, come down and I'll take you out to eat or something, okay? Just, come down!"
Katherine's eyes were hidden by her hair by that point.
Then, she dropped her arms, letting them hang limply.
"Shut up," she finally muttered, slowly twisting her legs and sliding off of the skyscraper's thin railing; the business man stared at her with startled grey eyes and watched as she picked up her school bag, because not long after she started walking for the door he'd just come through. Without bothering to wait for a response, she swept past him, purposely ignoring the way his enormous eyes locked onto her hair.
"Wait," he commanded sharply. "What's your name, kid? And how old are you?"
She halted for a moment.
"You're not entitled to know anything about me," she coldly informed him, slowly turning her head and glaring over her shoulder. "Nor do I owe you an explanation about my age. Just forget you ever saw me here."
"Not until you tell me your name," he calmly retorted, slowly walking over and setting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Please, just answer the question..."
Her amethyst eyes narrowed a little and she averted her gaze... wondering what to do.
But then, she had a vision of the man in front of her.
The world around her dissolved and she was suddenly standing in the middle of a street.
Her eyes widened when she saw him sitting in a blue minivan at a stoplight. He was looking at something on his phone, so when the light turned and he pulled out into the busy street, he didn't see the bus going faster than the city speed limit allowed. Kate flinched and squeezed her eyes shut to block out the sight of the two vehicles colliding, and she hesitantly turned away before opening her eyes. She blinked when she caught sight of two street signs.
Fifth Avenue and Broadway.
She squeezed her eyes shut again, this time even more tightly...
But when she opened them, she was once again standing on the rooftop she had never really left in the first place.
The man in front of her had backed off a step and was now looking at her with a wary expression.
"I'll tell you something more important than my name," she said in a low voice, not meeting his gaze. "Stay the hell away from the crossing of Broadway and Fifth Avenue."
"What?" he scoffed, doing an extreme double take. "What do you mean?"
"Just do as I say!" she snapped. "And don't touch your phone while you're driving."
"Are you giving me advice or looking down on me?"
"Neither," she muttered, shaking her head. "Not even minivans can withstand an accident like that. Anyway, I'm leaving now."
When he merely gawked at her, she scowled and swept off towards the rooftop door and headed inside the building. After taking a moment to calm her racing heart, she pressed the button to call the elevator and clasped her school bag with both hands, tapping her foot in irritation. Once she stepped in and turned around, however, she noticed that the man was staring at her with a weird expression. To her immense surprise, just as the elevators started closing, he abruptly lunged forward.
She jumped when he stuck his arm through the gap.
"What's your name?" he demanded, giving her a very odd expression indeed. "Before you go, that's all I want to know: first and last."
"Could you let me leave, please? I'm gonna be late."
"Not until you tell me your first and last name."
"You're really going to harass me?"
"Until you tell me your name," the man slyly retorted, narrowing his eyes, "or better yet, how you know what kind of vehicle I drive."
She glared at him for a long moment, amethyst eyes sharpening in an intimidating manner.
"Katie," she said in a monotone, averting her eyes. "My name is Katie Sanders. Now, please let me go before I call the police."
For a long moment... the man did nothing; then, without a word, he withdrew his arm and the elevator doors started sliding shut again.
She glanced up at him one last time just before they fully closed.
He looked half intrigued, half disbelieving, but there was also a gleam of curiosity in his steel grey eyes.
Then he was gone and she was alone with her uneasiness.
The ride down to the ground floor was mostly silent... punctuated only by the tacky music that came along with riding in a New York elevator. Not long after that, she left the fancy hotel and began the three-mile walk to the one place she hated more than her current living residence.
School.
By the time she arrived, Katie Sanders had wiped all traces of emotion off her face.
Bracing herself behind a wall of isolation, she hefted her backpack and headed through the rusted gates of her 'government sponsored' high school. It was reputed as a private academy, but all of the locals knew it was actually a place for juvenile delinquents and orphans: the success rate for Ivy Ridge was so low that even the worst of the homeless would cringe.
Katie had arrived a little earlier than usual, so she figured she'd have enough time to rest in the library before her first class started. Mostly because she couldn't deal with the bullying so early on... at least, not on this particular day.
When she walked into the library, however, her irritation dissolved.
This spacious room was almost always empty since the majority of the students in her school liked to slack off and do nothing with their lives. That's why it had become her sanctuary... and one of the only two people who Katie actually cared about was sitting in it all the time, feeling just as lonely as she was. The librarian never had any visitors, so she was always grinning whenever Katherine showed up. Being smiled at had been nothing more than a fantasy until she'd started attending Ivy Ridge, so for all it's faults, this little bit of joy kind of made up for everything.
"Hello, Miss McKinley," Katie greeted softly, catching the attention of the old woman dozing off in front of the desk. "Sorry for startling you... I'm here a little earlier today."
"Katherine?" the woman gently asked, grandmotherly brown eyes blooming with warmth. "Well, now, I didn't expect to see you so early. School hasn't even started yet... but then again, I guess that could work to my favor, hmmm? Would you like a cup of hot cocoa?"
"R-really?" Kate peeped, feeling as though the melancholy ache in her heart were already washing away. "Yes, please... thank you, Miss McKinley."
"Oh, goody! Now, now, don't you worry about it," the woman chuckled, stamping a returned book and watching as the slender albino smoothed her black school skirt; then she got up and walked over to the coffee pot. "I can see you've got another bruise on your cheek... forgive me for prying, but have you been eating properly, Katie? That awful wretch had better be feeding you and Nathan... oh, and that reminds me! How is your brother doing? I haven't seen him around lately."
"I'm... eating..." Katie reluctantly admitted, widely skirting the topic; it wasn't exactly a lie, since she was always eating in the cafeteria, but home was another story entirely. "And... Nathan is like he usually is: distant."
"Oh... well, don't worry, darling: he'll come around soon, I'm sure," the librarian sighed, clucking her tongue as she waited for the water to boil. "You know, boys his age are difficult to understand. I used to have the same problems with my own son when he was your age: one day, he clamped up like a turtle and stopped talking to me. I think Nate probably just has a crush on someone."
"It's a thought, but I doubt it..." Katie mumbled, pulling on a strand of her hair before she sat down with the woman behind the desk. "I already told you about why he acts the way he does. I doubt he'll ever like anybody with the trust issues he has... and since everyone thinks I'm a witch, a lot of people have been keeping their distance from him, too."
Shockingly enough, this was the sad truth: everyone at school, even some of the teachers, believed that Katie was a real life witch due to some exceedingly bizarre occurrences when she'd somehow managed to predict the future. Her strange looks had never really helped matters, but still... that's what everyone currently believed. Her reputation had stemmed from an event that had taken place little over a month ago: her final class had just let out, she'd already gotten her things, and she'd been on her way out the door.
But then, she'd brushed arms with her principle, who'd been on his way inside.
Inexplicably, she'd had a vision of him being killed by a potted plant and had whirled around, roughly grabbing his arm.
Considering the type of school she attended, she shouldn't have been surprised that he'd assumed she'd been trying to attack him.
After he'd slammed Kate down on her back and started restraining her, the pot had fallen from the window above and shattered on the concrete.
The man had instantly stopped what he was doing to take a look at it... and after looking above, his face had gone slack.
For the next two weeks, he'd repeatedly called her into his office trying to get the truth out of her. Unknown to Kate, however, or even the principle himself... the gossip about his actions had spread throughout the whole school, and every time he'd called her in, there had been people listening to his one-sided conversation outside the office. Things had been relatively okay until she'd finally caved under his coaxing and admitted that she sometimes had visions and strange feelings about bad things happening to the people around her.
She'd told him that she didn't know how or why it happened, but it was usually better to avoid ignoring the feelings.
She'd then proceeded to explain that the event with the potted plant was a perfect example and curtly closed her mouth again, hoping he was finished. Because that was the truth: Katie sometimes had dreams that somehow came true later on. Granted, it didn't always happen, and most of the time she didn't even remember her dreams unless the events they'd represented started taking place in reality. More often than the dreams, though, she would sometimes just... see things... or randomly get strange feelings about certain events before they took place.
During that conversation, she had seen it in the man's eyes that he hadn't believed her, but it had taken two and a half weeks just to get a semi-normal response out of her, so he'd accepted it without further question. Unfortunately, the moment she'd let that secret slip, her response to the principle had spread throughout the school. And since she had never really been liked by the people around her, it hadn't taken long for the teasing to start. Eventually, it had devolved further: going from teasing, to bullying, to being treated like an outcast by her classmates.
Truthfully, it pissed her off: she'd been reluctant to confess her secret in the first place because of how much she hated it.
Having dreams that could come true at any time was terrifying to think about, because for her, a nightmare might not be a nightmare later on.
But nobody understood her point of view enough to bother thinking about things like that.
In their eyes, she was just a new toy to play with: an item of the school who needed to be taken down a few pegs.
The only part of this situation that she was grateful for was the fact that her brother had no issues with dreams coming true. He didn't even have premonitions like she did, so at the very least... he had mostly been safe from the harassment everyone at school had been giving her.
However, even though the two of them were twins, they weren't exactly the closest siblings in the world. Quite the contrary, despite her emotionless facade, Katie actually loved her brother so much that sometimes it was almost too painful to keep going.
And today, she had almost stopped altogether because of him.
After all, he was the main reason why she'd been up on that railing.
"'God, you should just disappear already,'" Katherine murmured, staring at the floor with hollow eyes. "'I really hope something bad happens to you today.'"
"Eh? What was that?" the librarian asked, looking up at her with those grandmotherly brown eyes. "Did you say something, honey?"
"No," Kate called, shaking her head. "Nothing..."
Nothing.
That word embodied everything she was to her brother.
To anybody, really: her home life was just as fucked up as her school life, so she knew as much from personal experience.
Truthfully, Nathan had never stepped in when their foster mother had started hitting her, nor had he done so when she'd been abused by their previous foster families. At school, after her secret had been exposed, he'd sided with the students who'd started tormenting her, and laughed with the kids who'd made her cry at night. He didn't care about her even a little bit, but the worst part was the fact that Katie couldn't even blame him for it. After all, she was responsible for a horrifying accident that had occurred because she'd had one of her premonitions.
Her vision of it beforehand is what had caused everything leading up to the end result, and it was all because she'd tried to prevent it from happening.
After a moment of staring at the ground, Katie let go of her hair and pushed her bangs out of her eyes.
"Are you all right?" Mrs. McKinley sighed, looking at her. "You seem a little more down than usual."
Kate was pensive. She didn't really want to respond.
"It's just... hard..." she admitted, shaking her head before bending over and straightening her knee-high stockings. "I was already singled out now and then because I look so different with my albinism, but now I'm treated like a virus that nobody wants to catch. I didn't really think it would bother me all that much when it first started, but things have changed. Some of the creeps from my class, like Alan and his two friends, Salem and Mitchel... they get physical with the bullying. And since the regular teasing never ends, I'm actually starting to hate coming to school."
The woman sighed.
"People fear what they don't understand, and what they don't understand is usually different from them," the librarian sighed, setting a mug of hot chocolate in front of her. "That's why they lash out at you, Sweetie: don't let it get to you. And if Alan or either of those boys he hangs out with hurts you, tell me, okay? I won't hesitate to take it up with the principle!"
"I'll tell you if something happens, like always," Katie murmured, closing her eyes and tiredly sipping her cocoa, "but letting other people handle my problems just makes the antagonism worse."
"Well, if that's the case, try your hardest to resist them, then: you're strong enough to handle things!" the woman murmured, then brightened up. "By the way, I have something that may cheer you up!"
"Really?" Katie asked, looking up at the woman with somber violet eyes. "What is it?'"
"Lady and gentle-girl, feast your eyes on this: ta-daaaa!" the elderly woman laughed, holding up a weathered book with a proud wink; Katie's mouth slowly fell open in shock and she stared at it blankly, not even believing her eyes. "It took me a very long time to save up enough money to buy this! It's one of the original copies, too... it's a rarity! And since you're technically the only person on the hold list, I can renew it for as long as you want! No restrictions, no complications, it's yours! Just give your friend my regards, okay?"
Katie's eyes very nearly started watering when she took the book from the librarian and touched the cover with shaking fingers.
"How in the world did you find this thing?!" she whispered, slowly looking up at Miss McKinley in sheer awe. "There are only ten thousand copies in existence! So, how?!"
"Trust me, it wasn't easy," the woman sighed, frowning a little as she thought about it. "I found it only by chance, honestly: I was shopping in Guam during last week's vacation when I spotted the title in a rundown bookstore. They wanted six hundred dollars for that book! I had to work for a little while during my vacation to completely afford it, but in the end, it's here and you're happy. Right?"
Katie didn't respond.
On top of being an emotional wreck, she was extremely tired since she'd been having vivid, recurring nightmares for the past three months. Her social worker had told her the bad dreams would pass nearly two weeks ago when she'd brought it up, but he'd been wrong: they were getting worse.
In fact... lately, she had been having extremely sinister nightmares concerning giant birds of all varieties, disembodied voices, blood, and lots of fire.
However, when Kate had finally opened up and discreetly spoken to the old librarian about a 'friend' who was having 'similar' nightmares, the albino had been startled to learn that the woman thought her visions actually sounded familiar. The result of that conversation had led to the discovery of a rare book with only ten thousand copies on the market.
Unfortunately, the fact that her nightmares had led to the discovery of this book had seriously frightened her.
She hadn't wanted to think they were real.
"Good God..." Katie whispered, heart dropping through the floor when she flipped the book open to the first page; an evil-looking monster with black wings had been sketched into it. "U-u-um... thank you, Miss McKinley... my... friend will be happy now that we can find out what her dreams mean."
"Don't you worry about a thing, little dear," the woman sighed, giving her that warm, grandmotherly grin before she glanced at the clock. "Oh, my! Is it really almost six thirty already?! You should hurry up and get to your first class, otherwise you'll end up being tardy!"
"I can't," the pale girl mumbled, lowering her eyes in dismay. "Alan and his cronies have no qualms about skipping classes, so I'm kind of stuck here. They know I always head for the library each morning, remember? I had to go through the back window last time since they wouldn't go away."
"Oh, is that all? Maybe I can help you," the librarian chuckled, heading over to her desk and opening the top drawer; when she pulled out a tiny key and held it out to Katie, the silver-haired teen frowned and took it with gentle hands. "See? It's good being a teacher's pet now and then!"
"What's this?" Katie hesitantly asked, blinking at the key with a worried expression. "I mean... what does it go to? The window?"
"No, silly, it's the key to the back door," the elderly woman replied, pointing to the door resting at the very back of the library. "It lets out near the drama rooms, and the hallway will take you right to the cafeteria. I'm sure you'll be able to find your way from there, right?"
"Yes... I often go down to the drama rooms to read after school gets out," Katie admitted, stuffing the book into her backpack. "Are you sure you don't mind doing this for me, though? I mean, couldn't you get in trouble for loaning me one of the faculty keys?"
"Oh, pish posh! You'd never tattle on me," the old woman giggled, waving a dainty hand. "Get going, kiddo... don't be late for class."
"Okay... thanks again," Katie sighed, giving the woman a rare smile before she jogged towards the door. However, just before she got there, a terrible ache assaulted her and her feet slowed. After a moment, she turned around and clenched her fists. "Um, hey... I... this morning... I..."
"Yes?" Mrs. McKinley asked, blinking at her with a grandmotherly smile. "What is it?"
The girl stood there for a long moment, trying to figure out what she wanted to say in order to make the tightness in her heart go away. Katie opened her mouth, as if she were going to speak, but then she closed it again and lowered her eyes: not long after, her irises became somewhat lifeless and they lost their sheen once again. Shaking her head, she turned away from the confused librarian and unlocked the rear door; the girl blinked when it opened and pocketed the key before giving the librarian a long look.
The woman frowned with worry when the albino stared at her for several moments of silence.
Trying to convey a message that would most likely never get through.
Then she slipped out into the drama corridor, hefting her bag as she prepared to face the worst.
It wasn't because of her situation, though... it was because, she was still holding onto the last shreds of her optimism.
Her motto was simple: if you only expect the worst, you can only be pleasantly surprised.
And as terrible as it might sound, it was with good reason that her ideals had fallen so far: it had been ingrained in her heart and her head a long time ago that if you feel, you will break... but if you don't feel, nothing can hurt you. But because her treacherous heart wasn't made of stone, hurt was all she understood, no matter how much she wanted to avoid it.
And that's why... on days when she didn't go to her private high school, she simply threw on some old clothes and headed out into the woods behind her house to be alone. She had a garden back there, a place she had been tending to for months now. Her garden was peaceful and quiet... soothing, in a way. It was so different from her normal, chaotic, everyday life that she would have preferred being homeless.
If only so she could live in her garden forever.
Because, when Katie was tending to her secret garden, there was no pain... there was no sadness or anxiety... there was no guilt.
There was no need to pretend that she was normal.
And if she was going to be honest with herself... Katherine Ashley Sanders was not a normal girl.
At all.