A/N: SURPRISE SURPRISE 2 CHAPTERS IN 2 DAYS

IT'S AN OCTOBER MIRACLE!

Just wanted to pop in here and say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who's reviewed, because I recently noticed we broke 100! :D THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! You're the best! C:

To answer a guest's review on the last chapter: Yes, the scene with Aragorn getting pushed off of the cliff was a reference to the movie. ;) Props to you for catching it!

And to LotR-HP-PJ: Haha, if you have a fanfiction account, you should message me sometime! I'd love to rant with you! ;) As for your question about the Silmarillion/other history books, I would say no, unless they contained information about the events of the War of the Ring. The history of Middle-Earth wouldn't change without the Fellowship, just all the current events shown in LotR. :) As for this mysterious 'object of power...' you'll just have to wait and see. ;)

Chaos Unleashed: Chapter Fifteen

Erin's POV

"Are you okay, Erin? You don't seem like yourself."

I sighed and looked over at Jared from where I sat behind the counter as our latest customer walked out. "That's the third time this week you've asked me that."

He frowned a bit. "Sorry. You just...I've never seen you so exhausted."

I smiled as best as I could. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Why do I feel like you're lying to me?" he asked, looking a bit suspicious even though he smiled back.

I laughed, but winced on the inside. Because I am? I'd been staying up late every night that week, desperately trying to come up with information to solve my latest problem, but it seemed like nothing was working. Every time I'd come across something that seemed like it could work, I wouldn't be able to fit it in with whatever other stuff I'd gathered. With each passing day, I felt more and more panicked, wondering what could be happening in Middle-Earth as a result of my mistakes.

"How's stuff been at home?" my coworker asked. "I haven't heard you talk too much about that lately."

I hesitated. "It's...good, I guess. We've been busy."

"Do you still do art and stuff?"

"Of course," I said. "Why would I not?"

He laughed a bit. "True." The slight frown returned to his face again when I let out a big yawn, though. "Are you...sure you're okay. You seem tired."

"Yeah, I know," I said flatly. "But I can't just not show up to work, you know? Especially not now," I mumbled.

"Wait, what?" Frick. Didn't think he'd catch that. "Did something happen?"

I shrugged, but didn't look his way. "We're just running out of money, that's all."

"How? Have you guys been taking spontaneous trips to China or something?"

I laughed. "I wish."

At that moment, a guy who looked to be in his early twenties walked into the store, preventing Jared from asking any more questions. Thank the Lord. I smiled at the tattooed man as he approached the counter a few minutes later. "Hi, how can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'm buying this." He plopped a game down in front of me, and I smiled as I picked it up.

"Grand Theft Auto Five, huh? Nice choice." He smiled back. As I rung the game up, I noticed a particular tattoo that went around his wrist. "Is that the inscription from the One Ring?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Did you hear about all those movies disappearing?"

I swallowed, but nodded as well. "It sucks. Those were my favorite movies ever."

"Same, man. I don't even know how something like that would happen!"

I laughed, hoping I didn't sound as uneasy as I felt. "I know, it's crazy! Fifty-nine ninety-nine, please."

The guy pulled cash out of his pocket and handed it to me. "Hopefully someone can fix it somehow."

"Yeah!" I smiled, trying not to scream. "Yeah, I hope so, too!" I bagged the game and handed it to him, along with his change. "Have a good day, man!" He nodded before walking out, and as soon as he'd left the store I groaned and smashed my face into the plastic counter top. "God hates me, I swear."

"What?" a confused Jared asked.

I sighed again. "Nothing." Raising my head, I checked my phone. "Hey, our shift is over. We can lock up and head home for the night."

"...Okay," he said. "I don't have much to do, just gotta lock up the back room and then we can head out."

"Oh, I don't need a ride home tonight," I said. "Kaia's gonna come pick me up." As I spoke, I shot Kaia a text to come get me.

"You sure?" Jared called from the back room."

"Yeah."

"All right. Go ahead, then. I'll finish stuff up here."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's okay."

"Thanks, Jared." I turned and vaulted myself over the counter top before walking out of the store, more than ready to get home and get some sleep.

oOo

Jared's POV

I watched Erin walk out of the store, my frown deepening. Why was she so dodgy today? She didn't answer hardly any of my questions directly, and she hasn't wanted to talk about her home life in ages. And why was she so touchy about that guy that was talking to her? She looked like she wanted to strangle someone. Had something bad happened? Either way, she was hiding something. I could tell. Whatever it is...I'm determined to get to the bottom of it.

oOo

Kaia's POV

I snapped out of my mindless staring ahead as Erin opened the car door and climbed in. "How was work?"

"Boring. I just want to go home and sleep."

"Don't we all?" I said, and she nodded in agreement. As I started to pull away from the mall, it fell silent. Shit. I'm gonna have to tell her sooner or later. She's the only one that doesn't know. I took a breath as we rolled out of the parking lot, glancing over at her. She was tapping away on her phone, probably texting Kathryn to let her know we were on our way home. A second later, she reached to turn on the radio, but I stopped her. "No, man. Not now."

She shot me an odd look. "Why not?" A beep from her phone as she got a new message. "...And what's Kathryn talking about? You 'haven't told me' something?"

I cringed slightly. "Uhh...yeah."

"What's up?" There was a long moment of silence. "...Kaia?"

"I...Oh God, I can't even make this sound nice. I got kicked out of my band."

"WHAT?" Erin shouted so loud that I jumped a bit, nearly swerving. "H...How?"

I set my jaw, a bit of bitterness coming back to me as I remembered how it had gone down. "Trent just decided he was done with my bullshit, I guess. They were wondering why I've been fucking around so much lately, and I couldn't tell them why without revealing the Fellowship, so they kicked me out."

Erin was just staring at me in disbelief. "But...what about us? How are we gonna pay for stuff now? I guess Kathryn already knows, huh?"

I nodded. "I found out like an hour ago and told everybody. And I...I don't really know what we're gonna do. We'll probably be able to last another week or so before we start going into debt and shit."

Another pause, and Erin exhaled. "...Wow. Wow! We're so screwed." She covered her face with her hands.

"I'll be honest, I'm thinking the same thing," I said. "Maybe I'll just start trying to drum up some art business of my own in the meantime, I don't know." I pushed a stray curl behind my ear. "I guess I gotta figure out something now."

"Yeah, probably. And I'm not even any freaking closer to figuring this whole transportation thing out. Oh, sweet baby Jesus...this isn't gonna end well, is it?"

I shook my head as we continued the drive home, the slight fog that had blanketed our town strangely fitting for the mood. "I doubt it."

oOo

Erin's POV

It had been about a week since the disappearance, and things were less than satisfactory in our household. Since the Fellowship understood that Kaia had basically lost her job, there'd been an unspoken agreement across the board that things were going to change. Gone were the days of big, fancy meals and adventures to the laser tag arena. It was scaring all of us, not knowing how long we would last with such a small income now. We were conserving food, water, electricity, gas...everything. Over the summer, we'd been teaching the bare essentials of driving to Legolas, Aragorn, and Boromir so that they could be somewhat prepared (albeit illegally) in the worst case scenario, but that had been cut off, too.

Despite all this, though, today had been a pretty good day. Quiet, but good. At the moment, I was sitting in the game room with Aragorn, Frodo, Gimli, and Kathryn, watching as the man and dwarf were doing some old-school co-op on Starfox 64. "Do a barrel roll!" I shouted, laughing as Gimli clipped the side of a building and lost a wing. Frodo looked up from where he was reading and smiled, too.

"I don't think that'll help, lass!" he responded.

"Do a barrel roll!"

"Erin, I can't-"

"Just do a goddamn barrel roll!" Kathryn cried. I laughed more, and Gimli rolled his eyes.

"Come, Gimli!" Aragorn said, leaning forward a bit to concentrate more. "We're gaining on them!"

"I can't get past these infernal things!" he spat, jerking his body to the side as he narrowly missed being hit by enemy lasers. "No!" A lucky shot from an opponent sucked the rest of his health away, sending him crashing to the ground.

I did a slow, drawn out clap. "Way to go. Now hand me the controller." Just as he passed it over, I heard the sound of a car pulling up to the house, and a door opening and closing as someone got out. "Is Kaia home already?"

Kathryn shrugged. "Dunno. I thought her shift didn't end for another hour."

"Whatever." I turned towards the screen again, preparing to redo the level with Aragorn, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Uhh...I guess it's not Kaia?"

"I'll get it," Kathryn said. Through my peripheral vision, I saw her get up and walk away, but the majority of my focus was on the game as it began again. Come on, come on...no! No! Dodge that!

Suddenly, Kathryn spoke. "Jared? What are you doing here?"

I froze and dropped the controller, turning to look behind me. Sure enough, I could see the top of his dark brown head in the doorway, and Kathryn was just barely blocking his view inside. Oh, frick! He can't see them! I jumped up and ran over to the door, sliding to a stop in front of him. "Jared!"

"Hey," he said, looking at me. "I thought I'd drop by and say hello."

I narrowed my eyes, confused. "You couldn't have waited until work tomorrow? I just saw you!"

He ignored my question and Kathryn slowly started to back away. "Do you have someone over?"

I tensed, shifting in front of him as he tried around me. "No, no! We're just-"

I was cut off by a loud shout of triumph from Gimli. "HA HA! That's the way to do it!"

God save me now. I cringed as a look of anger came over Jared's face. "You lied. What's going on, Erin?"

"Nothing!" I squeaked. "Nothing at all!"

"No, don't give me that shit!" he shot back. "You've been hiding stuff from me all week! I don't care if you've suddenly found a boyfriend or something, but-"

"Erin!" I heard Frodo shout from inside. No no no no! A second later, he was running up to my side. "Erin, come see what Kathryn just found on Tumblr!"

"No, Frodo!" Kathryn cried.

Too late. "Frodo?" Jared looked down at the small hobbit standing there, his mouth hanging open. "What...You have Elijah Wood in your house?"

Frodo frowned. "I-"

"No, Frodo, not now!" I yelled, panicking. "Jared, get out!" I pushed him as hard as I could, sending him stumbling backwards a few steps.

"Erin, what in the name of God is going on?" he yelled.

I followed him out the door, my heart pounding with fear as I stepped off the porch with him. "Jared, don't you say a word of this to anyone, please."

"How could I not?" He looked really mad. "You've...Erin, I don't understand! Who was that?"

I bit my lip. "That...that was Frodo. Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings."

He just stared at me for what seemed like the longest time before shaking his head in disbelief. "...You're insane. What's happened to you?"

I frowned. "I beg your pardon?"

"Did you...did you like, hire some guy to dress up as Frodo for you? Is it like a sick fetish of yours or something?"

"WHAT?" I yelled. "No! No, that's seriously Frodo! Jared, he's in my house!"

"You're insane, Erin!" he said again, now looking slightly fearful. "You've lost it! They're not real, Erin! They're imaginary characters!"

"No, they're not!" I shouted back. "You just saw Frodo standing right in front of you! I promise you I'm telling the truth; it's not for anything bad!"

He scoffed. "Oh, and I'm supposed to believe you now? After you've been lying to me this whole week?"

I blinked. "What? I – oh, never mind. Look, I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm being honest with you right now. The Fellowship of the Ring is living in my house. That's what you just saw."

"You're kidding me. You've got to be kidding me. I knew you were crazy, but this...this is just..."

"Jared, please," I begged. "You've got to listen. I know it sounds unbelievable. I didn't believe it myself at first."

"At first?" he exclaimed. "How long has this been going on?"
I shrugged. "Oh, about four months."

It looked like Jared's eyes were about to fall out of his head. "What?"

I sighed. "Okay. You want the truth? You want the whole, honest truth? Here it is. The Fellowship of the Ring showed up in my closet at the end of May. I don't know how, but they're here. They've been living with us for the summer, and since all the Lord of the Rings movies and stuff disappeared last week, we've been trying to figure out how to return them to Middle-Earth. We think that their realm's in danger." I paused. "Do you...understand now?"

Jared said nothing at first, and I though maybe he was finally starting to get it. But then he slowly backed up, shaking his head. "...You've lost it."

"Jared, no!" I shouted, jumping forward to grab him. He flinched as I touched his arm. "No, I'm being serious! I'm living with elves, hobbits, men, and dwarves! Legolas is in my bedroom! We've taken them laser tagging and played Mario Kart together! It's all real, Jared!"

"No! No, it's not!" He yanked himself out of my grasp and backed away faster, moving towards his car. "I know you love that stuff, but this is too far, Erin. You've got to snap out of this. You need help."

"No I don't!" I screamed as he climbed into his car. "Jared, please wait! You can't tell anyone about this! JARED!" I tried to yank his car door open in a blind panic, but he just locked it and quickly revved his engine as he pulled away. I ran into the middle of the road, watching as his car sped off. "...Holy mother of Smaug..."