But now the dreams and
waking screams
That ever last the
night
So build the wall,
behind it crawl
And hide until it's
light
- Metallica, Hero of
the Day
Elrond leaned against the door to his room, his eyes shut. The light from the setting sun stained the room with a bloody light that made him squeeze his eyes shut. He hadn't felt fear like this since he left Middle Earth, and he struggled to banish the emotion back to the shadowy corners of his mind, to keep company with memories of both wars of the ring, among other horrors he didn't want.
When he opened his eyes, the room was painted in shades of deep blue and shadowy grey, the sun now below the horizon where it wouldn't trigger memories of battle with its blood-red light. The twins should have had this room. They wouldn't care if the sun-set turned everything red.
He shoved away from the wall, going to the locked cabinet where he'd gathered some of the more interesting brews men had come up with in the millenia since Middle Earth had faded from their memories. A bottle of rum, and a small tumbler were extracted from the cabinet, and he settled down on the balcony, looking out into the forest that came almost up to the house itself.
At least that was less painful than it could have been. Though I could wish that Delanie was less curious, and hadn't gone snooping into the library. Or picked another one of the various books to read.
He took a sip of his drink, a frown on his face, thinking of why he'd agreed to come back, to a world that had changed beyond recognition. What have they done to this world? They have done Sauron's work for him with their cars and their smoke-belching cities. And loose in it, they hide monsters, without knowing, or caring that they are there.
Another sip. And I have sent Arwen into this dangerous place, to grow as one of them, all for the sake of keeping the world safe from the evils of the rings. But will it do any good?
The faint screams of soldiers falling beneath the blades of orcs came to his ears, and his jaw clenched, his fingers curling tighter around the glass. Tonight would be a night of dreams and memories better left forgotten. And nothing would stop them. Except being drunker than a dwarf.
The tumbler shattered against the brick of the patio below the balcony of his room, and Elrond retreated to the darker shadows of his room with the bottle, curling in the corner of the bed. To forget. The only luxery I envy those who will stop this all. To forget it all when they die, and find a new life, free of the memories, and the obligations of the past.