Authors' Note : Hobbits next chapter. A Duster is a long coat-like thing. Rather like a trench coat. Kara is dead. She will not be seen again. Also, please leave a name when you review. Not just (). It will make it much easier to answer questions. Thanks



Waiting for Salvation

Soundtrack: Remember Me (Journey)

Remember me... remember me...

Find myself all alone in darkness without you

Now I can't turn away from what I must do

You know I'd give my life for you

More than words can say

I'll show you how to love someone

I know you'll find the way

Say goodbye, close your eyes - remember me

Walk away, the song remains - remember me

I'll live on somewhere in your heart,

You must believe - remember me

No way I can change my mind

I don't have the answers

If you could see through my eyes

You'd let go of your fears

And though I have to leave you now

We are part of each other

I'll miss your touch, you'll call my name

I am with you forever

Say goodbye, close your eyes - remember me

Walk away, the song remains - remember me

Winds of change we can't expain - remember me

I'll live on somewhere in your heart

You must believe - remember me

You know I'd give my life for you

More than words can say

I'll show you how to love someone

I know you'll find the way

Say goodbye, close your eyes - remember me

Walk away, the song remains - remember me

We live to watch over you - remember me

Feel I'm gone, my heart lives on - remember me

Don't you think of me in the end

I'll come in through your dreams - remember me

Close your eyes - remember me

Say goodbye - remember me

Say you will - say you will - say you will...

Close your eyes - remember me

Say you will - say you will - say you will...

Say goodbye - remember me...





She was going to die.

It was one of the hardest things that Adam had ever had to face. The woman he loved was going to die, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that he could do to save her. Adam would have moved Heaven and Earth for Alice if he could. She was dying however, and nothing could change the fact that her death was going to be at her own hands.

Alice lay on the battered linoleum that lined the kitchen. Her long black hair trailed over the floor, matted by sweat and blood. Her blood. The moonlight illuminated her pale and clammy skin. Hectic fever spots had appeared on her cheeks and her dark eyes were sunken under bruised lids. As Adam leaned over her, he could see that they were cloudy and unfocused, her pupils still shrunk to mere pin pricks of black, lost amid the dark blue of her irises. Though she fought, it was apparent that the Flight's hold on her was still too strong to beat. Alice was still lost in a world of horrific nightmares of her own creation.

The lights still weren't working in the apartment. What ever spell Alice had thrown at him had probably knocked the entire grid off line for a while. Support services were not noted for being extremely prompt in housing areas close to Necropolis.

"Damn it Starr, why are you doing this to me?"

Alice made no answer. If anything, she started to fade even faster, as her body began to absorb the backlash of the spell that she had cast moments before. Adam closed his eyes for one dizzying moment, almost afraid that when he opened them again, she would be gone forever.

//Wouldn't you deserve it? You left her alone to die before. She gave up her world for you and that was how you repaid her.//

"Estel...."

Adam's eyes flew open, hearing Alice's voice, whisper soft.

"Shhh. Lie still Starr, I'm going to call for some help, just hold on, okay?"

Painfully, she turned her head at the sound of his voice. Adam experienced a moment of concern when she repeated the same strange word that had first caught his attention.

"Estel..."

Her next words froze him to the spot before he could reach for his cellular phone.

Her voice, which previously hadn't risen above a whisper, had taken on a musical quality that had not been there before. Beautiful as it was, it was still thick with anger.

"No. It's your turn to suffer now. Why should I even bother to try for you? You never even thought of what would happen to me when you left. Your precious dynasty mattered far more to you than I ever did. I gave everything up for you. The Valar know how I suffered for you. Now it's your turn. I hope you never see the light, Adam Gordon. My love. My life. May you be lost in darkness forever, Estel...."

Adam blinked in confusion. Her strange words sparked feelings of helplessness and panic in him, that had no reason for being there. He had never asked Alice to give anything up for him! As for leaving her alone to die, Adam was quite sure that Alice had never been closer to death than this moment, and he was most certainly not planning on leaving her side. The strange thoughts and feelings were not the only things troubling him. Alice herself had sounded so ...familiar, despite her words, which he didn't understand. The anguish in her voice was staggering. She sounded as though she had lost someone. Lost someone so long ago that she could no longer remember them without cursing the day they had met.

Alice started to cough then, and in the moon light, her lips turned dark with blood. Adam fought against his despair, as he slowly stroked her face and hair.

She should be getting better //... the hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and thus shall he be known...//

Adam paused once again in his appraisal of Alice's condition.

//This is ridiculous,// he thought. //Alice is spouting nonsense, and I'm actually starting to *think* that I have the power to heal her with a touch? I'm starting to sound a odd as those guys who pulled me from the river.//

It seemed obvious that the conversation he'd had with the pointy-eared freaks had thrown him for more of a loop than he would have believed.

His head shot up suddenly. The men who had fished him out of the river, the crazy ones who called themselves *elves*...they'd spoken of healing powers, hadn't they? Hadn't they healed *him*? Frantically, he started to search through the pockets of his long-suffering uniform. He didn't trust those men at all, but the fact was that he had no choice. He'd be willing to suspend disbelief for as long as it took.

With a small cry of triumph he pulled out a small square of cream-coloured paper. Written on the back in green marker were the directions to an apartment not more than a fifteen minute drive away.

With silent thanks whatever god had prompted him to bring his car tonight, Adam gently picked Alice up from the floor and headed out into the night.