Reminder:: I do not and never will, own any of Tolkien's characters, places, works, etc. I also am not affiliated in any way with The Killers or their music company in any way, nor do I own their music or lyrics. I just love their music like I love Tolkien's writing~

Hello, and thank you so much for clicking on my story! It's my first, I'm a bit nervous, and I'm just making things up as I go. Hopefully it doesn't get too dreadful! Please criticize politely and enjoy. Oh, and I plan on finishing this, too. I know that's a real turn off for people when they get caught up in a new story only to discover that the writer is sick of it and quits... Thought I'd let you know~!

Chapter One :: The Drive

"Sarah, come quick!"

"Grah…"

"Get your butt outta bed, you silly!"

Suddenly the covers were ripped off of me. I rose with them, snarling and foaming at the mouth—ready to tear into whoever dared interrupt my weekend hibernation. Exhaustion. High school did that to people.

My little sister was the one to challenge me. She was bouncing around like a blonde monkey, howling and squealing plans for the day. I couldn't even understand what she was babbling about in my morning, irritable fog. I just growled and swatted at her.

She dodged and hopped onto my purple comforter. She rolled around laughing like all five year olds do. This time I lost it and tried to slap her between my hands like you would do to a fly or mosquito. Stephanie yelped and scampered off to 'tell Mommy'.

Knowing I was going to get yelled at, I sighed and swung my legs off the bed to prepare to defend my case. I rubbed my brown eyes until they watered, trying to make myself come alive. I ran my fingers through my hair and yawned and stretched. I stood up, adjusted my shorts and tank top, and started shuffling across the white carpet out into the hall.

I pushed the door open to the bathroom and glanced into the mirror. I let out a huff that tossed my black bangs out of my face. They just fell back into place though, so I tried to ignore them as I got ready for the day—finally accepting defeat that I wouldn't be heading back to bed any time soon.

I pulled out my MP3 Player and speaker that I had snatched along with fresh clothes and plugged them in on the bathroom counter. Before long, the song 'Mr. Brightside' was blasting through the entire house over the sound of the rushing water of the shower.

"Comin' out of my cage and I've been doin' just fine. Gotta gotta be down because I want it all—" I started belting out the beginning of the song along with the stereo.

"—But it's just the price I pay! Destiny is calling me! Open up my eager eyes…! 'Cuz I'm Mr. Brightside!" I sang as loudly as I possibly could and suds-ed up my hair.

Since the song was on repeat, I sang it through a few times before my shower was over. "I never… I never…" I sang softly along with the end of the song as I dried out my hair and put my clothes on.

By the time I was done, I had my shoulder length hair combed out, I was showered, dressed in black pants and black graphic T-shirt, and my braces were cleaned. Yay, I feel pretty.

The second I crawled down the stairs into the kitchen, I was attacked by raucous shouting and yelling and screaming and laughing. Yup. That was life at the McLaughlin house. Dad was at the office already—he ran his own young business and had to work six days a week—Mom was making sausage and scrambled eggs in the same pan in mass quantities, and the rest of my siblings were scattered about arguing, talking, and fighting for food.

Confused? I have ten siblings, not including myself. Know what's really confusing? My parents have a sick sense of humor so they named each of us with a letter 'S'. I didn't know there were so many names that began with 'S'… First there's Stephen. He's the oldest. Steve is twenty and should be leaving sooner or later for college. Whenever that is. Next are Samantha, Sandra, and Sean. They are the triplets. All of them are nineteen—Sean being the only boy of the three. Next is me—Sarah—I'm seventeen. Tomorrow I'm eighteen, but I doubt anyone around here will notice since we have birthdays all the time. After me comes Sylvia. She's fourteen and a cheerleader. You can guess her personality. After Sylvia is Sophia who's eleven. Then there's Serenity who's ten. Sophia and Serenity are pretty close. They stick together like they're twins and they almost never talk to anyone but each other. Scott is eight and very proud of the fact. He rules the siblings who aren't in the two digits. After him is Stephanie—the monkey we met earlier. She doesn't talk much except to annoy—her specialty. Stephanie is told she's cute on a regular basis and she knows it. She's perfected what adults think is 'cute' and she gets away with nearly everything. The only thing I can remember she didn't get away with was when she tried to put Simon in the blender because she 'wanted to see if he could fit'. Of course, the runt of the family is Simon. He's only three and he's a climber. Literally. He's normally scaling Dad or Steven, but his latest target has been the refrigerator, so Mom has to keep an eye on him.

Our house was madness and since I woke up last, there was barely enough food left for me. Of course, Mom reminded me of this as I stepped up to take my ration. I had plugged in the headphones when I was going down the stairs and was still listening to the same song as I held out my plate.

"Sarah, up late again? You can't keep doing this, Hon, or you're going to starve!" She laughed although it was a perfectly serious statement.

I shrugged, grabbing a couple sausages and a napkin. "Eh, it's worth the extra sleep." I was suddenly shoved by Sylvia who was pushed by Samantha on accident. There was a burst of shouting as I made my way out of the kitchen. I called to Mom: "Remember what I said, Mom? You seriously need to leash a couple of these guys!"

"Don't talk like that, Sarah!" Mom grumbled good-naturedly.

"Oh, yeah? How about a shock collar for Simon? He's on the fridge again."

"Wha—? Simon! Come here!" Mom scrambled away from the stove for a second to retrieve her son. "And don't even think like that!" She added to me.

I nodded, not taking it in, and left the house. I sat down on the front porch step and ate my sausage breakfast in the late morning sun of October. As I munched, I looked around our little suburban street. It wasn't a development, but the houses were close enough it could have been. Our street didn't have a fancy name like developments did though—nothing like 'meadow' or 'lane' or 'wood'. We lived on 684 Spencer Road. Heh. I remember how Dad wanted to name Simon 'Spencer', but Mom argued that was our street name and that would've been weird. Agreed.

I finished, wiped my hands and mouth on my napkin, and tossed the napkin into the trash can near the front step. As I was about to swallow, I gulped and gagged. Horror stricken, I pulled a long blonde hair out of my mouth that was with my food. Gross! But that's what you get in such a crowded place full of blondes. Everyone in there was blonde. Except me. After begging and pleading and whining and even a little attempt at bribery I finally got my hair dyed black. It made me feel less like a clone.

There was a sudden beep of a horn and I looked up, startled.

"Hey, Sarah! You gonna sit around all day or what? Climb in!" A girl waved from the back seat. It was a relatively close acquaintance of mine named Megan. She was kind of wild and rebellious, so I got along with her, but she was obnoxious, annoying, and happy which were immediate turn offs for me.

I shrugged and looked at the front seat. Katie (a preppy friend of Megan's) was riding shot gun next to the driver who I didn't recognize. I walked over to them slowly and leaned into the back window.

"So you comin'?" Megan prodded excitedly.

"I dunno. Where ya goin'?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Who cares! We have licenses and gas money, so we're just going for a drive!" Katie laughed and snorted. She then continued to text whoever and ignored the rest of us.

"Hm…" I pondered. I looked back at the house and groaned inside. Mom would probably make me do chores or something helpful and educational. Gross. "So who're you?" I pointed at the guy in front.

"David."

"Okay, doesn't sound like a convict's name—I'm in." I shrugged and hopped in. I slammed the car door shut as my mother came out of the house.

"Sarah! Where are you going?"

I looked to the others. "Mall!" I shouted.

"Do you have your cell phone?" She fussed.

"No…" I groaned. I hated carrying cell phones. What a pain. Bulgy, loud, and a way for anyone to keep in contact with you. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE. Shudder.

Mom hurried up to the car and looked at us all. "Okay… Want to borrow my phone?"

"We won't be gone too long." Megan smiled innocently.

Mom hesitated but smiled at me. "Be back before eight, okay? I'll need help with dinner."

"Okay, Mom. Promise." I grinned.

"Who're you?" Mom asked, looking suspiciously at David.

"Uh… David?"

Mom cocked her head to the side. "Hm. Doesn't sound like a criminal to me. Okay, have fun guys!" Mom waved. After we took off, everyone laughed at me.

"Gee, I wonder if you two are related?" Megan giggled.

"Eh, stop it."

"Okay, okay. So you serious about coming back by eight?" Megan asked doubtfully.

"I guess I'll try. She really does need help with dinner."

"You serious?" Katie gave me a disgusted look.

"Do you have thirteen people to cook for? Didn't think so." I barked coldly.

Katie shrugged and turned back around. It was quiet for a bit as we all did our own thing. Katie texted, Megan bit her nails, I stared out the window, and David drove just a little bit over the speed limit.

Katie and Megan started chatting it up about Twitter or Facebook or whatever so I decided to bug David about the speed limit.

"Hey, David, right?"

"Yeah? You Sarah?" The boy with short, brown, spiky hair looked into the rearview mirror at me.

"Yup. You know you're like, ten over the speed limit?"

"Yup."

"Okay…?"

"Gives a nice breeze, don't it?"

"Well… True, but so does sixty."

"Chill out, Sarah. I've been driving for a whole year." He grinned.

"Wow. Gee. I feel so much better that I'm with an experienced driver." I slumped back sarcastically.

"Glad to know."

I rolled my eyes and continued to stare out the window. It was probably noon and I was getting bored. The trees along the highway tore by and soon we turned off on some exit or other. Why was I here again? Was driving supposed to be fun? When were we going to do something interesting?

David seemed to be getting faster the smaller the roads became. After another hour we were speeding along at nearly eighty miles an hour down a back road with nobody on it. Megan turned up the stereo, announcing to us that it was her favorite song, and started screaming out the lyrics. Ugh. Terrible! At least I did that in the privacy of my own home… I didn't even like the original version of this song…

David drove with the fast techno beat and sped up the car even more. I was getting kind of antsy now. I kept fidgeting in my seat and was constantly leaning over to see how fast we were going. After we hit eighty-five, I lost my patience.

"Okay, seriously, slow down. This isn't cool."

"Oh, like you would know. If you didn't want to come, Sarah, you didn't have to." Katie scoffed, still glued to her phone. She flipped her bleached hair and rolled her goopy eyes at me. I doubted she even knew how fast we were going.

"Yeah, Sarah, lighten up! We do this all the time—it's no big deal." Megan assured.

I didn't feel reassured at all though. I crossed my arms and slouched further into my seat—if that was possible. This was wrong and I knew it. But what could I do? I was stupid enough to refuse a cell phone, we were miles from my home, and I couldn't just get out of the car now. I would have to wait until we drove back. In the meantime, all I could do was cross my fingers and pray we would live.

We stopped around three for a bathroom break. We were at McDonald's, so we decided to have a bite there, too. Megan and I sat down at a table in the center of the room while David and Katie went up to order for us.

"I hope they're not expecting me to buy—I didn't bring any money." I sighed and stared at the boring cream walls covered with advertisements.

"Ha, me too!" Megan giggled. I kinda laughed with her as the others appeared with a bunch of fries and sodas.

Great. Just great. I hate pop. Well, at least I don't have to pay…

David handed me what looked like a Sprite and I sipped it distastefully. I munched on the plate of fries as everyone settled in and did the same.

Katie had a million things of nothing to talk about to Megan and once again David and I were left out of the loop. I was mad at him for not slowing down though, so I didn't say anything to him.

Soon we were back on the road. At first, we were at a normal pace and I was very grateful. But just as I thought we were going to survive, David started speeding up again.

"Hey, how far are we away from Kirkwood?" I asked. It was where we all lived and went to classes for senior year.

"About fifty miles." David answered.

"Okay." I nodded. Far, but close enough. We seemed to be heading home anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. I should be home in time to keep my promise to Mom, too.

We drove for a really long time in silence. If driving around all day at neck-breaking speeds not talking is fun to these people—they're socially inept crazies. I told myself I wouldn't be doing this again anytime soon. I can't believe this was my whole Saturday!

I started to nod off as the sun started to set. It must've been somewhere close to seven and I was bored out of my mind. Sleep sounded like a good idea, but I kept feeling that if I fell asleep, David would start driving faster.

Before I knew it, Megan was shaking my shoulder. "Sleepy?"

"Uh-huh." I nodded and sat up. It was dark outside. "How long was I out?"

"Eh, about two hours?" Megan asked the front. Katie nodded but kept texting.

"Seriously! Crap, Mom's probably gonna be ticked." I looked out the window and was surprised we were in the countryside and not suburbia like I was expecting. "Where are we?"

"Dunno." Megan shrugged.

"Can we go home soon? Please?" I asked.

"Bored?" Megan asked disappointedly.

"Sorry." I shrugged.

"Okay. David, where's home?"

"Close." He answered.

"Time?"

"Fifteen? Twenty minutes?" He guessed.

"Sound good?" Megan asked.

"Yeah, thanks." I nodded, feeling much better.

I sat back, much more relaxed, and waited for the scenery to become more familiar. I finally started recognizing things through the dark as we passed the closest farm to my house. Luckily, we seemed to be going to my home first.

I actually became so comfortable that I didn't realize that the car had sped up again. The headlights passed quickly—shining their light on the trees and road signs that whipped passed. So fast, you couldn't even read them.

Just as I was getting nervous again, my worst fears were realized…

David didn't see the coming bend in the road. Instead of turning right, the 1993 rusty white Volvo flew off the road and into the tree line. Megan gave a yelp and Katie finally showed emotion because her phone was thrown from her hands by the bump. She started to scream bloody murder. David gave the wheel a great turn to the right to try to steer the car back to the road. He wasn't strong enough to go against inertia and make a complete donut, but he turned the car completely to the side so that David and I were hurtling towards the tree line.

There was a lump in my throat. Even though I was terrified, I couldn't scream or even have time to panic. Everything was happening so fast. It was instantaneous. It felt like an earthquake and pressure seemed to be squeezing me from every side. The rear of the car—my door specifically—smashed into something with an enormous amount of force and I was jostled from side to side. Glass shattered and throughout it all, Katie's screams were the only things that filled my ears other than the sound of the bending and twisting metal of the car.

My seat belt. My seat belt. My seat belt is crushing me. The seat belt held me in and pinned me to the side of the car that was wrapping itself around the tree. I was bent with it all. The pressure was too much. All of this happened in a few short seconds. There wasn't time for pain.

And suddenly…

I was blind.