Right Where We Belong

There were stars peeking through gold and silver and green leaves when I woke up. I wanted to say it was the trails. Even though the ground beneath me was soft and I was covered with a soft, thin blanket. There was no reason that my sisters couldn't have decided that we could just...well...camp out there. A part of me said that it was wishful thinking, but that was what I lived on. Wishful thinking was all that I had. Wishful thinking was what got me through everything in life.

Pushing myself up, the world around me dissolved into dark trees. Some of the tree trunks gleamed silver as if they were lit. That couldn't be though. Shaking my head, I squeezed my eyes shut as if that would change what I was seeing. Opening my eyes I let out a little squeak and fell backwards at the sight of a blonde haired man standing near me. "Wh-what-" a hard look had me silenced and curling up on myself as I watched the man feeling fear rock my being. I wanted my sisters. Annie and Thea would make things right. They would protect me.

"That will be enough for now Haldir." I knew the voice from the night before as it spoke in the distance. My mind wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad thing. And so I remained in a state that was withdrawn and almost catatonic. I wanted my sisters. They would make things better. They were the only ones who could make things better. Why did no one seem to understand that? Couldn't they see that she needed her sisters? Why wasn't anyone trying to find them? She had to...she had to find them. If no one else would than didn't that mean that it was her duty?

Hands touched my shoulders and I felt a scream clawing it's way from my gut. It made me feel sick even as the hands remained only on my shoulder not moving down or up or away. "Jamie...he needs you. More than you need your sisters. You are his only hope." The scream caught in my throat fighting, biting, clawing in a desperate attempt to break free. I could feel myself starting to sway and rock. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. My sisters would find me. They would pull me from the world that my mind was creating for me.

"He needs you Jamie," the woman's voice whispered. "He is hurt, in pain already. You have little time to touch his heart." The words tried to take hold in me, planting little seeds of memory around my heard and the orchard of my mind. Even as I tried to pull away, deeper and deeper into my thoughts and voids of memories, the woman's voice seemed to follow me. "You will have to be strong for him and for yourself. But do not be afraid. You are no longer alone. Of that, I give you my word."

The words surrounded me. Dancing in and through me even as my mind tried to hide away waiting to be rescued from something so new, unfamiliar, and potentially dangerous. I didn't know it then but I was silently chanting my sisters names over and over again as if the mantra might draw them to me or to protect me from anything that might hurt me in their absence. I never remembered doing it, but in the end it didn't matter.

In the end, my only escape was to sleep a little while longer.