13. Echoes
Author's Notes: The consequences of isolation. Part 1.
Echoes
She is full of hollow places. Dripping caves and winding tunnels that open into darkness. Something is waiting for her down the ends of some of those corridors, but she is too afraid to look, afraid of what might be there other than the darkness. Her voice does not echo despite the space about her.
They do not see the holes in her, the vast emptinesses. But they have a way of looking through her nonetheless, talking as if she cannot hear, murmuring hard things in soft voices that reverberate in her head.
Mad.
Whore. Or hor—?
Poor thing.
Poor thing.
Sometimes she wakes in the darkness to the touch of fingers in her hair, and she knows them, is comforted by them, before she screams herself awake, floundering amid grey, wet sheets that rise and fall like swells around her, wide and fathomless, crashing against the hollow places, filling them. Filling them.
She is full of hollow places. Dripping caves and winding tunnels that open into darkness. Something is waiting for her down the ends of some of those corridors, but she is too afraid to look, afraid of what might be there other than the darkness. Her voice does not echo despite the space about her.
They do not see the holes in her, the vast emptinesses. But they have a way of looking through her nonetheless, talking as if she cannot hear, murmuring hard things in soft voices that reverberate in her head.
Mad.
Whore. Or hor—?
Poor thing.
Poor thing.
Sometimes she wakes in the darkness to the touch of fingers in her hair, and she knows them, is comforted by them, before she screams herself awake, floundering amid grey, wet sheets that rise and fall like swells around her, wide and fathomless, crashing against the hollow places, filling them. Filling them.
This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.
