Chapter 8

"ADA," the yelled word jolted him awake, wondering where it had come from then realised it must have been himself. Elladan warily looked around the room to find he was alone. The dreams had been getting worse the past few days, he was ever so drained and it was starting to show. He was finding it harder to hide it from people, especially Elrohir. Elrohir was always asking about him, and was starting to wonder if the younger knew anything else apart from 'are you alright?' and 'what is wrong?' it was really starting to annoy him, and with all these sleepless nights, his temper was wearing thin very quickly.

"Elladan?" talk of the twin. "Are..."

"If you finish that with 'you alright' I will kill you," he growled, the younger visible backed away.

"I'm sorry brother; I'm jus worried about you."

"I do not need or want your concern," he said sharply.

"You have it anyway," the younger said in an equal tone, "although I'm starting to see you don't deserve it."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Elladan hissed, jumping from his bed to by the younger, grabbing his arm.

"Nothing, just forget it." Elrohir started to move away.

"No, I will not 'just forget it', tell me what you meant." He demanded.

"Let go of me."

"Tell me what you meant and I'll consider letting you go." His voice left no trace of an idle threat.

"I just meant that you have not been yourself, not since father..."

"Don't you dare say died, because he did not, I know it, he is alive."

"Is he? Or do you just want to think so? You started shutting yourself off when he disappeared, then when Estel left..."

"How many times must I tell you, Estel is the one who is dead. He turned his back on us brother, I will never accept that Estel lives. He died the day he walked from this place."

"Elladan..." Elrohir started, but was ignored.

"If he still wanted to be a part of this family don't you think he would have come to see us at least once? No, he has been nowhere near this place in ten years brother, ten years. We have heard no word of him, he could really be dead out there and we don't know..." he was yelling.

"Why can't you just tell me what is wrong?"

"There is nothing wrong." He hissed, "How many more times must I tell you this?" his voice was nothing more than an icy sneer.

"I never thought in loosing one brother, I would loose two."

"You have only ever had one brother. One true brother, or do you still count that human as family?"

"He was more of my family than you ever will be." Elrohir hissed, "I don't know what you are in there, or what you have done to my twin, but I want him back, not the monster that has replaced him." He felt a large hand strike him, sending him staggering back and he hit his head against a wall.

"Do not ever speak about me like that again. Understand?"

"Yes," Elrohir nodded, "I understand completely, lord." The younger elf bowed and left the room, trying to figure out when his brother had changed so much that he had destroyed himself. He would do anything to get the Elladan he loved back, and started to think where to start, when he was faced with a familiar sight. A tall blond elf and a slightly shorter human leaning heavily on him for support. Perhaps this was what he needed to get his beloved twin back.