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: Leah and Adira are my OCs. This chapter is entirely Leah's dream, rated T because I don't want an 8 year old saying "Mommy, what does [insert word here] mean?"
I don't own anything but Leah and Adira. Characters yet to be introduced belong to Tolkien. And those of you who are particularly perspicacious will notice that Adira tends to cry out in Elvish.
Chapter Three: Dream Realms
There. The screams again. Oh, God, they were definitely Adira's. and although Leah couldn't see the Eye this time, she felt it- oh yeah, she could feel its evil presence. It weighed on her back, cramming into her subconscious mind. Leah tried to scream. She was again in the dark forest. The snarling voice was struggling to be heard over her real one- perhaps because Leah wanted to speak this time? "Adira!"
"Tolo hi! " Adira cried in the strange language. "Leah! Please come! Im harnannen! Ai, Elbereth!" Adira sounded so close, and yet so far away, always around the next looming, evil tree. And suddenly- after what seemed like years of searching- Leah saw a figure just ahead of her. It was on its hands and knees. It looked human enough- if not for the inhuman wails coming from its mouth.
"AIE! GWANNO EREBNIN!" it clutched at its head, as if that would take away the terror of the forest out. "Go, in the name of Eru! Leave me!" Leah knew in her heart that this crouching, wailing person was Adira. Only it wasn't, her brain argued. Adira was much shorter, and her ears were not pointed, as this being's were, and Adira's hair had more copper light in it. Yet- could a person age after death? Adira had committed suicide at 14, yet this person looked more like 17.
The figure lifted its head- and Leah almost retched. Without a doubt, this mangled form was Adira. Her face was somehow longer, and more beautiful than she had ever been on Earth- but Adira's scars on her face and body told of torture and misery. All along her face and neck ran deep gouges, as if made by claws. Her face was burned and scarred. She had bruises and gashes without number, and at least two open sores on her face, oozing pus. Adira's hair was matted with mud, sweat, and blood, and her clothes- they might have once been a tunic and leggings, but now barely enough tattered cloth remained to keep her decent. Her left foot was horribly mauled, as if by a wolf or lion.
Leah crouched down, and loathed to touch her old friend. She put her hand on Adira's shoulder anyway, and Adira flinched under its weight. The name Adira was supposed to mean strong and majestic; this girl, half dead and bleeding, was anything but. "Adira, what have you done?" she mused aloud. Leah fought back tears.
Of all of Adira's hideous injuries, her eyes were the worst to behold. They had once been clear and blue- now her eyes were faded to grey and looked haunted, hunted- and afraid.
"See? I'm not dead." Adira still spoke with that sarcastic, arrogant wit that she'd had- back home. At home Adira had been a genius at science. Her intelligence spilled into her voice and words. That she was alive- really, truly alive- was a huge comfort to Leah.
"I'm not dead." Adira repeated, more slowly this time, her tongue fumbling over a split lip and missing teeth. "But neither is this life. This dream cannot go on much longer, Leah. Like in the Avatar movie. My real body is in a dungeon, like your is in your bed."
"You're not dead." Leah was still fumbling over this information. "but your note- your suicide- you disappeared-"
"Yeah, I staged my suicide. What did you think of the note?" Her face cracked in what might have been a smile, and more blood poured out. "I thought it was good. But yes, I left Earth-"
"You left earth?" Leah interrupted. She now met Adira's tortured gaze. "Like, another dimension? Like on that movie, where the girl walked into the closet? Or like another planet? Can you come bac-"
"Never." Adira's quiet voice rang with finality and firmness. "I will never go back to Earth, your Earth. I'd rather endure this hell a thousand times over."
"You can't mean that! Look at you, your foot-"
"I mean every word of it. But Leah, time is limited, and I've been trying to contact you for weeks. I need help to escape. I'd hoped Thingol might send- never mind that."
"You just said you never wanted to go back!" Leah cried out in frustration.
"You misunderstand. I don't want to go back to your earth, I don't want to go back to America or my old life. I told you, my body is in a dungeon. And this-" she gestured to her "Avatar" body- "is weakening."
"So you need my help to go back to- your new country? Is that right? In this-" Leah struggled for words- "alternate dimension?"
"Yes. Will you?"
Before Leah could answer, something highly irregular and frightening happened- the ever-present Eye, that Leah constantly roving and searching, cast its awful gaze upon the dark forest, in those mirky woods. Then the trees, that radiated anger and hatred, the trees began to move. Curling up their roots, causing small earthquakes, moving, walking.
Adira laughed dryly, but there was no mirth in it, only pain. "The trees are his servants, you know." The Adira began to sing in her dry, quiet voice:
Earth shakes
Stone breaks
The forest is at your door
The dark sleep is broken
the woods have awoken
The trees have gone to war.
Leah woke up in a cold sweat.
