Haunted By His Night
Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any of the stuff (character, places, plots, general universe) from the Lord of the Rings movies or books, I just mess with them.
Haunted By His Night: Chapter 5
The next day passed uneventfully the ruling family of Rivendell. Aragorn had managed once again to avoid the all seeing eye of Elrond, and his brothers both realized that if they had not already known there was in fact a problem, they would not have seen one by looking at Estel. How he had managed to keep his emotions under such strict guard they had no idea. When already twice that day they had been asked if there was anything wrong.
How was it that others were so adept at picking up the twins moods, but could not pick up on those of Estel? Elladan reasoned that most the staff had been there for over a thousand years; maybe it was the sheer amount of time that gave them the advantage. Elohir on the other hand reasoned that as a child, and even as a teenager Estel had been very open with his feelings. Therefore when the older, more closed off Estel returned home, they had no premise on which to base his feelings.
That night as planned they convinced Estel to sleep in Elohir's room using the excuse that his was in fact the bigger bed. They had set it up so they argued about if for twenty minutes before Elladan finished the argument by saying they would sleep in Elohir's much smaller bed. Estel laughed at the antics of his brother, which he believed to be a sad attempt at trying to cheer him up.
That night all three of them got ready for bed in their separate rooms. Estel got changed into his pajamas, thinking about what he was going to do next. A part of him felt foolish, being forced to sleep with his older brothers until the bad dreams went away (Mind out of gutter please). But there was another part of him that loved it all. Loved the fact that his brothers would be willing to do this for him, and still not tell anyone what was going on.
He finally let part two won out and headed towards Elohir's room. He felt so foolish doing this; he couldn't even look his brothers in the eyes. He ran and jumped into the bed, under the covers. He didn't even spare a glance to see if the door between Elohir and Elrond's room was closed. The twins exchanged a glance; this was going better than they could have anticipated.
They both climbed into bed one on each side of their little brother, and neither slept. They listened to their little brother's breath even out, and waited for the nightmare to begin. An hour and a half later their waiting was over. They wanted to wake Estel when the thrashing signaling the beginning of a nightmare started, but both knew they had to wait for Elrond to awaken. That meant waiting until he started to scream. Five minutes they watched in pain as their baby brother suffered until finally the let out a loud scream.
It would have to be enough to wake Elrond because neither one of the twins could watch Estel suffer any longer. They both started trying to wake Estel up, but it wasn't working this time. Estel's screaming got louder, as they tried shaking him. Both let go and stared at each other helplessly. Suddenly the door burst open and in ran their father. He took stock of the situation and in moments was at Estel's bedside trying to wake his youngest son. Finally a few moments later Estel awoke on his own, gasping for air.
Elrond looked into the eyes of his adopted son and saw something he had never expected to see in someone so young, pure unadulterated terror. He reached out to his son and watched as Estel flinched from his touch. He reached out again, much slower this time and stroked the now present tears from Estel's face. A moment later he found Estel pressed against him crying. Elrond wrapped his arms around his youngest son and tried to calm him. He made a motion with his hand, to send his sons back to bed. They left the room, their hearts feeling lightened. Ada could make anything better.
Elrond held his son for what seemed like hours, but must have been more like minutes. When the sobs had subsided Elrond finally asked what was wrong. Estel stiffened in his grasp. "Please Ada, later." Estel sounded so much like he did was he was a child that Elrond couldn't say no. This would have to be talked about, but it could wait till morning. He started to stand up, to get the blankets off the floor to cover Estel, when a hand grabbed his arm. He looked down to see Estel clinging to his arm looking desperate. "Please don't leave me alone Ada." Elrond grabbed the blanket quickly and went to lie down on the bed.
Elrond pulled Estel into his arms, whispering into his ear. "I will never leave you ion nin, I promise"
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Ion nin is elvish for my son
Another chapter over and most likely only one more left. I plan to have this finished by the first of September, to avoid it interfering with school.
