A/N Thank you Aragorn Elessar and Nyx, your reviews brought joy to my day!
*Asterisks* mean an unspoken thought or written material, depending on the context.
CAPITALS mean emphasis. . . but you could probably figure that out.
Disclaimer: The characters in this story are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons is coincidental. I do not own any rights to Lord of the Rings (excepting those of a dedicated fan), or any other registered products or names which may appear in the course of the story.
Rated PG for material which may be traumatic to some readers.
Chapter 2: Meet the Wardens
Deirdre sat sulking on the edge of her bed. She had always known her parents were strange, but what kind of lunatics had their own child kidnapped? She hadn't thought she was THAT bad of a daughter. She shuddered and tried to block out the memory of the night before. The picture of her abductor ripping her beautiful poster off the wall replayed itself constantly in her memory. Her lovely elf boy, standing tall and straight with his bow, crumpled and torn in the hands of that fiend!
Deirdre's teeth clenched, and when her door swung open the brown haired woman who entered the room was greeted with an expression like that of an enraged mama bear. The woman took no notice of Deirdre's hostility, but smiled brightly. "Good morning, dear, did you sleep well?"
"Sleep well? Did I sleep well? I was bound, gagged and taken from my own home, I watched my property destroyed before my eyes, my parents were aware of what was happening and did nothing to stop it, and you ask me if I SLEPT WELL?!"
"Destroyed? Oh dear, and I did warn them," the woman said worriedly. "They know that doesn't come until later, but I'm afraid Joe and Earnest can get a little overenthusiastic at times. It's very painful for them- the memories you know."
"No I don't know," said Deirdre crossly, "and do I care? No! All I want is for someone to tell me what in Middle Earth is going on!" Her stomach rumbled loudly. "And when is breakfast?"
* * * *
It appeared to be the living area of a resort cabin, and not a five-star resort either. Megan sat slumped in a lumpy easy chair, replaying her conversation with Justin from the night before.
*"You're jealous! You're doing this because you're jealous of Orlando Bloom?"
"I am not jealous!"
"Huh."
Justin sighed in disgust. "All right, maybe I am. But do you know what it's like to date a girl who's in love with a . . . an imaginary demigod?"
Meg slumped into a corner of the van. "I don't believe this. You think I don't care about you because I like Legolas?"
His voice was a snarl. "You don't just 'like' him. You think about him constantly! I can see it in your eyes, whenever you get that dreamy, spaced out look, and I know you're not with me anymore. You're obsessed and you've forgotten what's real and what's . . ."
"I do NOT have to listen to this."*
Meg had shoved herself into a corner of the van and tried to remain wrapped in icy silence. However, with Justin's continued ranting about obsessions and Middle Earth in general and infatuations with elven archers in particular, Meg was forced to jam her fists over her ears and sing "I Know a Song that Gets on Everybody's Nerves" one hundred and eleven times (or elventy-one). Normally she would have been excited over landing on this important number, but she was too ticked off with Justin to leave room for happier emotions.
"That drip had better understand the relationship is over," she muttered to the empty room. Then a rather unpleasant smile crossed her face. "On second thought, I hope he doesn't. I would enjoy breaking the news to him . . . with a baseball bat."
* * * *
A sniffling sound emerged from the huddle in the middle of the floor. Jess wiped her nose on her sleeve and stared dolefully at the wrecked room. She had torn the bed apart, covering the room with sheets and blankets, and even lifted the mattress and checked beneath the bed frame as far as she could squish her arm through the three inch gap, but she had found nothing but a couple of bottle caps and something which Jess thought had once been half an Oreo. There was not a trace of her locket.
When a key turned in the lock, Jess scrambled for a corner of the room, cowering by the side of the dresser. She froze as a tall, thin woman with glasses and frowsy brown hair entered, and wished futilely for the Ring to make her invisible.
The woman frowned, glancing around the apparently empty room and bathroom before spotting Jess in her corner. "There you are!"
She crossed over and looked down at the trembling girl. Jess' eyes widened in recognition and she drew in a sharp breath. *Cappuccino.* "You drugged me! Who are you and where am I and as soon as I get out of here I'm calling the poliiiice!" Her high pitched tone wavered into a wail, as she tried to scoot herself behind the dresser.
The woman blinked owlishly and looked distressed. "There, there dear, no need to be upset about it. It's not our usual method of course, but Joe and Ernest both had to be away picking up the rest of our guests, and well, I'm afraid I couldn't have handled you by myself. It was just a harmless sedative that gave you a good night's sleep. That's more than the other girls got, I'm afraid."
The woman looked rather stern, as if Jess ought to be grateful for having her cappuccino doped and her body hauled to the Valar only knew where. Jess sniffed hard and tried not to show exactly how frightened she was.
"Now enough of this nonsense. We're not going to hurt you, so you had much better do as I say. Pull yourself out of that corner and follow me."
She marched over to the door and held it open expectantly. Jess followed. Who knew what diabolical punishment might await disobedience?
They walked down a short hallway, painted a depressing gray, and entered what looked like a living area. A dilapidated sofa and chairs filled one half of it, while a matched set of table and chairs took up the other. The morning sun streamed through windows, and at first Jess was too busy blinking to notice the other occupants of the room.
"Is this it or are there other convicts to be led out from their cells?"
Jess squinted in the direction of the sarcastic voice and saw a girl a couple of years older than herself seated on one of the lumpy recliners. Another girl leaned against wall beside the window, light reflecting off of bright red hair that was clearly not natural. Both girls looked as if they had slept in their clothes and forgotten their hair brushes. Jess suddenly realized she must appear the same, only worse because she had been crying.
The nameless woman's smile was strained. "This is all that will be attending this session. Megan dear, this is not a prison."
"Good, then I can leave immediately. Would you call a taxi for me?"
"You can't leave now," snapped Frowsy Hair, her smiling at an end.
"Of course not," boomed a jovial voice from the doorway.
Jess turned to watch a short, round man bounce into the room.
"You wouldn't want the doctor to release you from the hospital before you were completely cured were you? Since I'm the resident physician around here, you'll have to have my permission to leave, but I'm afraid none you get clean bill of health, just quite yet."
Joni sighed in relief. "I couldn't agree more, doctor."
This must be the Dr. Istar her mother had referred to. He was grinning hugely, as if it was the best joke in the world. The girl called Megan groaned and buried her face in her hands. Jess knew exactly how she felt.
* * * *
*Dear Mom,
The food here is lousy. They don't even have decent bread and water. I think the jail keepers are crazy. Please, please, please pay my bond and get me out of here! I promise I'll pay you back.
Your desperate daughter*
"So how did you two end up in this nuthouse?"
The question interrupted Deirdre's imaginary letter. Looking up from the imitation scrambled eggs, she saw that Dr. Istar and his assistant, the skinny woman's name was Joni, were absent. The two had kept up a constant and cheerful stream of conversation throughout the meal, most of which ran something like this:
Dr. Istar: Very seasonable weather we're having.
Joni: I couldn't agree more, doctor.
Dr. Istar: I'm so glad the weather isn't disappointing.
Joni: I couldn't agree more, doctor.
Dr. Istar: One hates to go outdoors when the weather is disappointing.
Joni: I couldn't agree.
Deirdre had rapidly tuned them out. Now the three girls were momentarily alone. Deirdre looked at Megan, who had asked the question. The girl looked mildly curious and slightly bored. Deirdre admired her cool demeanor.
"A couple of masked men broke into my bedroom last night. They tied me up with duct tape and tore my room apart. My mother was just standing there, watching the whole time," she offered.
"Duct tape?" Megan's eyebrows rose. "I guess I was lucky. All they did was pull me into a van in a dark alley. What about you, Jessica, right?"
"J-Jess." The freckled girl and whimpered all through breakfast and her glasses were so tear streaked that Deirdre wondered how she could even see. "My mother introduced Joni as a friend of hers. We went out for coffee and she d-drugged my cappuccino."
"Drugging your coffee, these people really aren't afraid to stop at anything are they?" Meg sounded disgusted.
"Did your Mom arrange for you to be kidnapped too?" Deirdre inquired.
Meg shook her head, "No, a jealous boyfriend was responsible."
"What, did you dump him?"
"Nah, he said I spend too much time thinking about Legolas."
Deirdre's eyes widened, "That's weird. When they were kidnapping me, the thugs tore down all my Legolas pictures."
"And my locket is gone!" chimed in Jess. "It had pictures of Elrond and Legolas in it."
"Whoa, so is this like some kind of anti-elf society? Are they part of the dark side fans?" Deirdre wondered.
"Hardly, they don't anything to do with Mordor any more than Rivendell." Megan stared at her companions-in-distress. "Don't you guys know why we're here? Didn't they tell you anything?"
Both girls shook their heads. Megan snorted. "Figures. Maybe they thought the uncertainty would weaken your minds. Girls, this is a deprogramming agency. Most of the time they kidnap people who have been brainwashed by cults and try to restore them to reality."
"What? I don't belong to a cult! I've been Catholic my whole life!" Deirdre protested.
Meg's tone was dark. "They're not trying to free us from some screwy religion. They want to make us forget Middle Earth."
A/N Next chapter the battle officially begins! Updates will be about once a week (hopefully). And would it hurt you to drop off a little review? No, of course not!
*Asterisks* mean an unspoken thought or written material, depending on the context.
CAPITALS mean emphasis. . . but you could probably figure that out.
Disclaimer: The characters in this story are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons is coincidental. I do not own any rights to Lord of the Rings (excepting those of a dedicated fan), or any other registered products or names which may appear in the course of the story.
Rated PG for material which may be traumatic to some readers.
Chapter 2: Meet the Wardens
Deirdre sat sulking on the edge of her bed. She had always known her parents were strange, but what kind of lunatics had their own child kidnapped? She hadn't thought she was THAT bad of a daughter. She shuddered and tried to block out the memory of the night before. The picture of her abductor ripping her beautiful poster off the wall replayed itself constantly in her memory. Her lovely elf boy, standing tall and straight with his bow, crumpled and torn in the hands of that fiend!
Deirdre's teeth clenched, and when her door swung open the brown haired woman who entered the room was greeted with an expression like that of an enraged mama bear. The woman took no notice of Deirdre's hostility, but smiled brightly. "Good morning, dear, did you sleep well?"
"Sleep well? Did I sleep well? I was bound, gagged and taken from my own home, I watched my property destroyed before my eyes, my parents were aware of what was happening and did nothing to stop it, and you ask me if I SLEPT WELL?!"
"Destroyed? Oh dear, and I did warn them," the woman said worriedly. "They know that doesn't come until later, but I'm afraid Joe and Earnest can get a little overenthusiastic at times. It's very painful for them- the memories you know."
"No I don't know," said Deirdre crossly, "and do I care? No! All I want is for someone to tell me what in Middle Earth is going on!" Her stomach rumbled loudly. "And when is breakfast?"
* * * *
It appeared to be the living area of a resort cabin, and not a five-star resort either. Megan sat slumped in a lumpy easy chair, replaying her conversation with Justin from the night before.
*"You're jealous! You're doing this because you're jealous of Orlando Bloom?"
"I am not jealous!"
"Huh."
Justin sighed in disgust. "All right, maybe I am. But do you know what it's like to date a girl who's in love with a . . . an imaginary demigod?"
Meg slumped into a corner of the van. "I don't believe this. You think I don't care about you because I like Legolas?"
His voice was a snarl. "You don't just 'like' him. You think about him constantly! I can see it in your eyes, whenever you get that dreamy, spaced out look, and I know you're not with me anymore. You're obsessed and you've forgotten what's real and what's . . ."
"I do NOT have to listen to this."*
Meg had shoved herself into a corner of the van and tried to remain wrapped in icy silence. However, with Justin's continued ranting about obsessions and Middle Earth in general and infatuations with elven archers in particular, Meg was forced to jam her fists over her ears and sing "I Know a Song that Gets on Everybody's Nerves" one hundred and eleven times (or elventy-one). Normally she would have been excited over landing on this important number, but she was too ticked off with Justin to leave room for happier emotions.
"That drip had better understand the relationship is over," she muttered to the empty room. Then a rather unpleasant smile crossed her face. "On second thought, I hope he doesn't. I would enjoy breaking the news to him . . . with a baseball bat."
* * * *
A sniffling sound emerged from the huddle in the middle of the floor. Jess wiped her nose on her sleeve and stared dolefully at the wrecked room. She had torn the bed apart, covering the room with sheets and blankets, and even lifted the mattress and checked beneath the bed frame as far as she could squish her arm through the three inch gap, but she had found nothing but a couple of bottle caps and something which Jess thought had once been half an Oreo. There was not a trace of her locket.
When a key turned in the lock, Jess scrambled for a corner of the room, cowering by the side of the dresser. She froze as a tall, thin woman with glasses and frowsy brown hair entered, and wished futilely for the Ring to make her invisible.
The woman frowned, glancing around the apparently empty room and bathroom before spotting Jess in her corner. "There you are!"
She crossed over and looked down at the trembling girl. Jess' eyes widened in recognition and she drew in a sharp breath. *Cappuccino.* "You drugged me! Who are you and where am I and as soon as I get out of here I'm calling the poliiiice!" Her high pitched tone wavered into a wail, as she tried to scoot herself behind the dresser.
The woman blinked owlishly and looked distressed. "There, there dear, no need to be upset about it. It's not our usual method of course, but Joe and Ernest both had to be away picking up the rest of our guests, and well, I'm afraid I couldn't have handled you by myself. It was just a harmless sedative that gave you a good night's sleep. That's more than the other girls got, I'm afraid."
The woman looked rather stern, as if Jess ought to be grateful for having her cappuccino doped and her body hauled to the Valar only knew where. Jess sniffed hard and tried not to show exactly how frightened she was.
"Now enough of this nonsense. We're not going to hurt you, so you had much better do as I say. Pull yourself out of that corner and follow me."
She marched over to the door and held it open expectantly. Jess followed. Who knew what diabolical punishment might await disobedience?
They walked down a short hallway, painted a depressing gray, and entered what looked like a living area. A dilapidated sofa and chairs filled one half of it, while a matched set of table and chairs took up the other. The morning sun streamed through windows, and at first Jess was too busy blinking to notice the other occupants of the room.
"Is this it or are there other convicts to be led out from their cells?"
Jess squinted in the direction of the sarcastic voice and saw a girl a couple of years older than herself seated on one of the lumpy recliners. Another girl leaned against wall beside the window, light reflecting off of bright red hair that was clearly not natural. Both girls looked as if they had slept in their clothes and forgotten their hair brushes. Jess suddenly realized she must appear the same, only worse because she had been crying.
The nameless woman's smile was strained. "This is all that will be attending this session. Megan dear, this is not a prison."
"Good, then I can leave immediately. Would you call a taxi for me?"
"You can't leave now," snapped Frowsy Hair, her smiling at an end.
"Of course not," boomed a jovial voice from the doorway.
Jess turned to watch a short, round man bounce into the room.
"You wouldn't want the doctor to release you from the hospital before you were completely cured were you? Since I'm the resident physician around here, you'll have to have my permission to leave, but I'm afraid none you get clean bill of health, just quite yet."
Joni sighed in relief. "I couldn't agree more, doctor."
This must be the Dr. Istar her mother had referred to. He was grinning hugely, as if it was the best joke in the world. The girl called Megan groaned and buried her face in her hands. Jess knew exactly how she felt.
* * * *
*Dear Mom,
The food here is lousy. They don't even have decent bread and water. I think the jail keepers are crazy. Please, please, please pay my bond and get me out of here! I promise I'll pay you back.
Your desperate daughter*
"So how did you two end up in this nuthouse?"
The question interrupted Deirdre's imaginary letter. Looking up from the imitation scrambled eggs, she saw that Dr. Istar and his assistant, the skinny woman's name was Joni, were absent. The two had kept up a constant and cheerful stream of conversation throughout the meal, most of which ran something like this:
Dr. Istar: Very seasonable weather we're having.
Joni: I couldn't agree more, doctor.
Dr. Istar: I'm so glad the weather isn't disappointing.
Joni: I couldn't agree more, doctor.
Dr. Istar: One hates to go outdoors when the weather is disappointing.
Joni: I couldn't agree.
Deirdre had rapidly tuned them out. Now the three girls were momentarily alone. Deirdre looked at Megan, who had asked the question. The girl looked mildly curious and slightly bored. Deirdre admired her cool demeanor.
"A couple of masked men broke into my bedroom last night. They tied me up with duct tape and tore my room apart. My mother was just standing there, watching the whole time," she offered.
"Duct tape?" Megan's eyebrows rose. "I guess I was lucky. All they did was pull me into a van in a dark alley. What about you, Jessica, right?"
"J-Jess." The freckled girl and whimpered all through breakfast and her glasses were so tear streaked that Deirdre wondered how she could even see. "My mother introduced Joni as a friend of hers. We went out for coffee and she d-drugged my cappuccino."
"Drugging your coffee, these people really aren't afraid to stop at anything are they?" Meg sounded disgusted.
"Did your Mom arrange for you to be kidnapped too?" Deirdre inquired.
Meg shook her head, "No, a jealous boyfriend was responsible."
"What, did you dump him?"
"Nah, he said I spend too much time thinking about Legolas."
Deirdre's eyes widened, "That's weird. When they were kidnapping me, the thugs tore down all my Legolas pictures."
"And my locket is gone!" chimed in Jess. "It had pictures of Elrond and Legolas in it."
"Whoa, so is this like some kind of anti-elf society? Are they part of the dark side fans?" Deirdre wondered.
"Hardly, they don't anything to do with Mordor any more than Rivendell." Megan stared at her companions-in-distress. "Don't you guys know why we're here? Didn't they tell you anything?"
Both girls shook their heads. Megan snorted. "Figures. Maybe they thought the uncertainty would weaken your minds. Girls, this is a deprogramming agency. Most of the time they kidnap people who have been brainwashed by cults and try to restore them to reality."
"What? I don't belong to a cult! I've been Catholic my whole life!" Deirdre protested.
Meg's tone was dark. "They're not trying to free us from some screwy religion. They want to make us forget Middle Earth."
A/N Next chapter the battle officially begins! Updates will be about once a week (hopefully). And would it hurt you to drop off a little review? No, of course not!