CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - HOMECOMING
Kelly brushed herself off and stood up, looking around her. It looked like some kind of nuclear crater had hit the area. Chrissie, Fred and Mark stood up as well, looking around. Chrissie seemed to have tears brimming in her eyes and be whispering something she couldn't quite hear. They seemed to be back in the school area, Kelly could recognise several of the houses that stood around. But there was no school.
They walked over and looked at the masses of flowers, teddy bears and cards displayed. It covered the entire length of their school field and there were hundreds of pictures of themselves on missing posters taped onto them.
Kelly gulped. They had been away nearly nine weeks.
As someone came out of a house across the road and started screaming, she smiled. What must they look like, her with a sword and daggers and all of them dressed in Elven clothing.
As people began running towards them, it seemed that Kelly was swept up by a tidal wave.
*** One week later ***
Kelly picked up the phone and dialled each of her friend's numbers in conference mode.
"So have you been allowed out yet? It's been a goddam week already and I'm going mad. Even MT was better than this."
There were several murmurs of agreement. After they'd been reunited with their parents, their protectiveness had seemed to go overboard.
"I think I have more holes in me than a sponge." Chrissie said wearily.
After they'd all cried amnesia, doctors had begun prodding them for different tests, scans and more tests, hoping to find some explanation. Drugs tests, CAT scans and who knew what else. Kelly didn't think there could be that much blood left in her.
The doctor's official theory was that, due to Kelly's extensive scarring, they'd all been kidnapped and she'd been tortured. Apparently the others must have witnessed it and become traumatised and she must have mentally regressed it as well.
"Are you going to school tomorrow?" Fred said. There was an immediate reply of three simultaneous yeses. To get out of the house would be wonderful.
"Well I'll see you tomorrow. Whatever drugs they gave me, it's certainly making me tired all the time." Fred continued.
They said their goodbyes and hung up their phones.
***
When Chrissie and Fred found Kelly the next day, she was bent over a microscope. To even find Kelly in a science lab was scary enough these days, let alone at a time when there wasn't actually a lesson. It almost seemed strange to see her without a sword at her hip.
"What you doing, Kelly?" Fred asked slowly, not really knowing if she wanted to know.
Kelly looked up and pushed up her lab specs. "The technology at this school is amazing. I had an idea, and I've been dying to try it out. Do you remember ages ago when we learnt about the polymerase chain reaction?"
Chrissie frowned and Fred looked blank. "The artificial replication of DNA? Okay then. I still have a sample of that green stuff that brought us back and I thought perhaps if I could apply the same process, maybe I could replicate enough of the stuff."
Fred cut her off. "Are you already thinking about going back, Kelly? It's only just over a week since you left."
Kelly put her head in her hands. "There is nothing for me here, nothing. I'm caged again, Fred and it's killing me. You know how I was in MT and that was only four days. I've been locked in my own home for a week. My parents look at me like a crossword puzzle and the scientists can't stick enough holes in me. Everyone who sees me looks at me like I'm a ghost.
Chrissie, you told us what you saw before you left. Can you honestly say you don't want to go back to see if it really is him? I mean I buried him, but you never know with those Elves and that immortality lark. Wait, don't start, let me talk for a while. Your Mum will be just fine without you and your Mum and Dad too, Fred. It's what you want that counts."
Kelly typed a few keys on the computer next to her and watched as the tray next to her started to hum.
"I'm leaving. There'll be enough of that stuff in about five minutes time. Are you coming?"
Chrissie looked at Kelly like she'd just announced the sky was yellow. She had her education to do, her ambitions to become a psychologist. Nobody in Middle Earth even knew what psychology was. She'd mourned Duin-Shiel for over two weeks now, and although she felt she had a long way to go, she was finally getting over him. There were so many blonde Elves in Lothlorien and she didn't even know if it was really him. And if it was him, he was immortal; he could wait awhile.
Fred thought for a moment. There were giant spiders in Middle Earth, and goblins. She couldn't even look at a normal sized spider here without screaming now and even the thought of going within a hundred miles of those things was terrifying. But she supposed the Elves were very good looking.
Chrissie shook her head, closely followed by Fred.
"What about Mark?" Chrissie asked.
Kelly smiled. "Called him this morning. He's not interested."
"Just how long have you been planning this Kelly?" Fred asked, a suspicious grin on her face.
"Since about two hours after we got back. I have envelopes signed and sealed back at my place, I'm just waiting for this goo to hurry up and multiply."
The computer beeped twice and Kelly quickly deleted all the files on this substance. She didn't want anyone stumbling across it once she was gone.
Pouring the substance into two tubes, she handed one to Fred.
"If you ever change your mind, just add water and stand well back. I think all that stuff about the stars being in alignment was rubbish. Well I hope it was anyway."
Fred frowned, wondering if it was going to explode in her hand. "But what about the black." She began, remembering the black powder Galadriel had poured into the mirror before adding the green stuff.
"Don't worry so much Fred. I chemically combined gunpowder with it, then replicated it. It should be safe enough, just don't shake it about too much."
Fred cradled it in her hands, her face turning slightly white. She raised an eyebrow. "Kelly, where did you get the gunpowder?"
"Oh, I ordered it off Ebay." Kelly didn't seem bothered.
"But someone might trace where you ordered it from."
Kelly smiled. "And trace it right back to Mr Winchif's new apartment with his secretary. I never liked him anyway." She winked.
Fred was close to a scowl. After all they'd been through, she'd almost forgotten Kelly been a scientist by day and hacker by night before they'd left.
Kelly shifted her position. "So I guess this is goodbye then. You know I hate sappy things don't you."
Fred smiled. "You be careful, Kelly. You won't have us to bail you out anymore."
Chrissie eyed the spare tube of stuff longingly. "If you happen to meet a particular Elf and he's still alive and well, will you tell him.tell him.to expect me when he least expects it."
Kelly smiled at Chrissie's apparent randomness. "I will." She answered both of them.
Pulling a box out from under the desk, she slipped on her black tunic and trousers, smoothing out her old assassin's garb with obvious pleasure. Putting a knife in her boot and sword by her side, she was ready to go.
"I'd leave if I were you, I don't know how big this explosion is going to be and if I know my luck, it'll probably bring down much of the new school. You're not too attached to it yet are you?"
Chrissie and Fred shook their heads, waving goodbye to Kelly as they left.
They felt the tremors shake the ground by the time they'd left school property. Looking back, it seemed as if the entire science block had gone up in flames.
Chrissie watched reprovingly. "Definitely not as good as last time."
She glanced at a sign by the side of the road as they walked to the bus stop, clearly not wanting to hang around here any longer. Westwood was being rebuilt and was expecting to be finished within eight months.
Fred watched the smoke rising from the building as she watched through the dirty window of the bus. Somehow, she had the strangest feeling that Kelly was not completely out of their lives yet, that she still had some more havoc to cause them. And she had another feeling, even stronger than the first, that some day Kelly was going to need them to bail her out of trouble again and they were going to need her too.
***
Kelly got up and brushed herself off, finding herself in the main room of a tavern. Unfortunately, Kelly had the worst luck for these kinds of things and also since she'd been a single traveller this time around, it apparently put off all forms of safety and alignment. Once again in the lion's den, she spied a window on the wall and jumped right through, not bothering with the door.
She'd landed in the planning room for the resurrection of the sect. She'd been so naïve when she'd thought there were so few of them.
Drawing her sword whilst running, she heard pursuit begin behind her. How they must hate her now, she thought, killing their brothers then having the cheek to drop in on them like that.
Kelly jumped over a log and ducked under a low lying branch. Even if things looked dire now, at least they were back to normal. Soon she would find Damien and they would hunt orcs and foul things together.
As for the Elf, she would deliver Chrissie's message if he truly still did survive. But after that, who knew? She may have completed her blood debt in a manner of speaking, but it didn't mean she couldn't still whoop his arse.
Someone dropped down in front of her and she slashed wildly with her sword, almost severing his arm. Running on past him, she skidded to a halt as nineteen people in black garb lowered themselves from the trees around her, forming a tight circle around her. Nineteen against one, and her with only a sword and two knives. Bad odds indeed. She almost gave up hope, no one could hope to survive such a thing.
Almost. Smiling as she threw a knife behind her, breaking the circle enough to begin hacking at the first few of them. Twisting and spinning, kicking and running, she saw them closing in around her. Jumping and grabbing one of the ropes they'd climbed down on, she pulled herself upwards onto one of the lower branches.
Several of them followed her, but the odds were significantly better, despite the fact she now had to balance on a branch thinner than her leg. She'd never do anything like this back home, she thought as she kicked the first one down to his death. She almost wished she were back home, where it was safe and quiet.
Smiling, she scrubbed that. There was no other place that could satisfy her heart and soul, no other place she'd rather be. She was home.
***
Freddie loves Frodo: You have to admit, Chrissie can be very intimidating sometimes. Hence the passing of the buck.
Tbiris: Should be corrected now, thanks for the heads up!
Freddie loves Frodo: I thought you would like that, fellow torturer. I think, in regards to the jewelled dagger, I have been more than generous.
Chrissie: *gasps* what is going on with you? I think your results tension has pushed your common sense out the window.
Hobbit-Eyes: Hah! I managed to leave a small small opening about blonde hair, so who knows? I'll leave it to your imagination.
Chrissie: *gasps again* still mad? Well never mind, it's all good.
Hobbit-Eyes: Yeah.sorry about the long wait I've had major problems with Fanfiction recently and been on holiday, go me! Hopefully this will satisfy your need.
I'd just like to thank everyone that reviewed and a thousand apologies to anyone I've missed!!
So it's all finished now, or is it? Fred is safe from the spiders; Chrissie is on her way to becoming a psychologist; Kelly is once again fighting for her life and Damien is waiting for her.
I think this is a nice place to end it, despite my itchy fingers wanting to write another sequel. But I've already got a separate story on the tip of my tongue involving some certain group of friends, so watch this space!
Forest Elfin
Kelly brushed herself off and stood up, looking around her. It looked like some kind of nuclear crater had hit the area. Chrissie, Fred and Mark stood up as well, looking around. Chrissie seemed to have tears brimming in her eyes and be whispering something she couldn't quite hear. They seemed to be back in the school area, Kelly could recognise several of the houses that stood around. But there was no school.
They walked over and looked at the masses of flowers, teddy bears and cards displayed. It covered the entire length of their school field and there were hundreds of pictures of themselves on missing posters taped onto them.
Kelly gulped. They had been away nearly nine weeks.
As someone came out of a house across the road and started screaming, she smiled. What must they look like, her with a sword and daggers and all of them dressed in Elven clothing.
As people began running towards them, it seemed that Kelly was swept up by a tidal wave.
*** One week later ***
Kelly picked up the phone and dialled each of her friend's numbers in conference mode.
"So have you been allowed out yet? It's been a goddam week already and I'm going mad. Even MT was better than this."
There were several murmurs of agreement. After they'd been reunited with their parents, their protectiveness had seemed to go overboard.
"I think I have more holes in me than a sponge." Chrissie said wearily.
After they'd all cried amnesia, doctors had begun prodding them for different tests, scans and more tests, hoping to find some explanation. Drugs tests, CAT scans and who knew what else. Kelly didn't think there could be that much blood left in her.
The doctor's official theory was that, due to Kelly's extensive scarring, they'd all been kidnapped and she'd been tortured. Apparently the others must have witnessed it and become traumatised and she must have mentally regressed it as well.
"Are you going to school tomorrow?" Fred said. There was an immediate reply of three simultaneous yeses. To get out of the house would be wonderful.
"Well I'll see you tomorrow. Whatever drugs they gave me, it's certainly making me tired all the time." Fred continued.
They said their goodbyes and hung up their phones.
***
When Chrissie and Fred found Kelly the next day, she was bent over a microscope. To even find Kelly in a science lab was scary enough these days, let alone at a time when there wasn't actually a lesson. It almost seemed strange to see her without a sword at her hip.
"What you doing, Kelly?" Fred asked slowly, not really knowing if she wanted to know.
Kelly looked up and pushed up her lab specs. "The technology at this school is amazing. I had an idea, and I've been dying to try it out. Do you remember ages ago when we learnt about the polymerase chain reaction?"
Chrissie frowned and Fred looked blank. "The artificial replication of DNA? Okay then. I still have a sample of that green stuff that brought us back and I thought perhaps if I could apply the same process, maybe I could replicate enough of the stuff."
Fred cut her off. "Are you already thinking about going back, Kelly? It's only just over a week since you left."
Kelly put her head in her hands. "There is nothing for me here, nothing. I'm caged again, Fred and it's killing me. You know how I was in MT and that was only four days. I've been locked in my own home for a week. My parents look at me like a crossword puzzle and the scientists can't stick enough holes in me. Everyone who sees me looks at me like I'm a ghost.
Chrissie, you told us what you saw before you left. Can you honestly say you don't want to go back to see if it really is him? I mean I buried him, but you never know with those Elves and that immortality lark. Wait, don't start, let me talk for a while. Your Mum will be just fine without you and your Mum and Dad too, Fred. It's what you want that counts."
Kelly typed a few keys on the computer next to her and watched as the tray next to her started to hum.
"I'm leaving. There'll be enough of that stuff in about five minutes time. Are you coming?"
Chrissie looked at Kelly like she'd just announced the sky was yellow. She had her education to do, her ambitions to become a psychologist. Nobody in Middle Earth even knew what psychology was. She'd mourned Duin-Shiel for over two weeks now, and although she felt she had a long way to go, she was finally getting over him. There were so many blonde Elves in Lothlorien and she didn't even know if it was really him. And if it was him, he was immortal; he could wait awhile.
Fred thought for a moment. There were giant spiders in Middle Earth, and goblins. She couldn't even look at a normal sized spider here without screaming now and even the thought of going within a hundred miles of those things was terrifying. But she supposed the Elves were very good looking.
Chrissie shook her head, closely followed by Fred.
"What about Mark?" Chrissie asked.
Kelly smiled. "Called him this morning. He's not interested."
"Just how long have you been planning this Kelly?" Fred asked, a suspicious grin on her face.
"Since about two hours after we got back. I have envelopes signed and sealed back at my place, I'm just waiting for this goo to hurry up and multiply."
The computer beeped twice and Kelly quickly deleted all the files on this substance. She didn't want anyone stumbling across it once she was gone.
Pouring the substance into two tubes, she handed one to Fred.
"If you ever change your mind, just add water and stand well back. I think all that stuff about the stars being in alignment was rubbish. Well I hope it was anyway."
Fred frowned, wondering if it was going to explode in her hand. "But what about the black." She began, remembering the black powder Galadriel had poured into the mirror before adding the green stuff.
"Don't worry so much Fred. I chemically combined gunpowder with it, then replicated it. It should be safe enough, just don't shake it about too much."
Fred cradled it in her hands, her face turning slightly white. She raised an eyebrow. "Kelly, where did you get the gunpowder?"
"Oh, I ordered it off Ebay." Kelly didn't seem bothered.
"But someone might trace where you ordered it from."
Kelly smiled. "And trace it right back to Mr Winchif's new apartment with his secretary. I never liked him anyway." She winked.
Fred was close to a scowl. After all they'd been through, she'd almost forgotten Kelly been a scientist by day and hacker by night before they'd left.
Kelly shifted her position. "So I guess this is goodbye then. You know I hate sappy things don't you."
Fred smiled. "You be careful, Kelly. You won't have us to bail you out anymore."
Chrissie eyed the spare tube of stuff longingly. "If you happen to meet a particular Elf and he's still alive and well, will you tell him.tell him.to expect me when he least expects it."
Kelly smiled at Chrissie's apparent randomness. "I will." She answered both of them.
Pulling a box out from under the desk, she slipped on her black tunic and trousers, smoothing out her old assassin's garb with obvious pleasure. Putting a knife in her boot and sword by her side, she was ready to go.
"I'd leave if I were you, I don't know how big this explosion is going to be and if I know my luck, it'll probably bring down much of the new school. You're not too attached to it yet are you?"
Chrissie and Fred shook their heads, waving goodbye to Kelly as they left.
They felt the tremors shake the ground by the time they'd left school property. Looking back, it seemed as if the entire science block had gone up in flames.
Chrissie watched reprovingly. "Definitely not as good as last time."
She glanced at a sign by the side of the road as they walked to the bus stop, clearly not wanting to hang around here any longer. Westwood was being rebuilt and was expecting to be finished within eight months.
Fred watched the smoke rising from the building as she watched through the dirty window of the bus. Somehow, she had the strangest feeling that Kelly was not completely out of their lives yet, that she still had some more havoc to cause them. And she had another feeling, even stronger than the first, that some day Kelly was going to need them to bail her out of trouble again and they were going to need her too.
***
Kelly got up and brushed herself off, finding herself in the main room of a tavern. Unfortunately, Kelly had the worst luck for these kinds of things and also since she'd been a single traveller this time around, it apparently put off all forms of safety and alignment. Once again in the lion's den, she spied a window on the wall and jumped right through, not bothering with the door.
She'd landed in the planning room for the resurrection of the sect. She'd been so naïve when she'd thought there were so few of them.
Drawing her sword whilst running, she heard pursuit begin behind her. How they must hate her now, she thought, killing their brothers then having the cheek to drop in on them like that.
Kelly jumped over a log and ducked under a low lying branch. Even if things looked dire now, at least they were back to normal. Soon she would find Damien and they would hunt orcs and foul things together.
As for the Elf, she would deliver Chrissie's message if he truly still did survive. But after that, who knew? She may have completed her blood debt in a manner of speaking, but it didn't mean she couldn't still whoop his arse.
Someone dropped down in front of her and she slashed wildly with her sword, almost severing his arm. Running on past him, she skidded to a halt as nineteen people in black garb lowered themselves from the trees around her, forming a tight circle around her. Nineteen against one, and her with only a sword and two knives. Bad odds indeed. She almost gave up hope, no one could hope to survive such a thing.
Almost. Smiling as she threw a knife behind her, breaking the circle enough to begin hacking at the first few of them. Twisting and spinning, kicking and running, she saw them closing in around her. Jumping and grabbing one of the ropes they'd climbed down on, she pulled herself upwards onto one of the lower branches.
Several of them followed her, but the odds were significantly better, despite the fact she now had to balance on a branch thinner than her leg. She'd never do anything like this back home, she thought as she kicked the first one down to his death. She almost wished she were back home, where it was safe and quiet.
Smiling, she scrubbed that. There was no other place that could satisfy her heart and soul, no other place she'd rather be. She was home.
***
Freddie loves Frodo: You have to admit, Chrissie can be very intimidating sometimes. Hence the passing of the buck.
Tbiris: Should be corrected now, thanks for the heads up!
Freddie loves Frodo: I thought you would like that, fellow torturer. I think, in regards to the jewelled dagger, I have been more than generous.
Chrissie: *gasps* what is going on with you? I think your results tension has pushed your common sense out the window.
Hobbit-Eyes: Hah! I managed to leave a small small opening about blonde hair, so who knows? I'll leave it to your imagination.
Chrissie: *gasps again* still mad? Well never mind, it's all good.
Hobbit-Eyes: Yeah.sorry about the long wait I've had major problems with Fanfiction recently and been on holiday, go me! Hopefully this will satisfy your need.
I'd just like to thank everyone that reviewed and a thousand apologies to anyone I've missed!!
So it's all finished now, or is it? Fred is safe from the spiders; Chrissie is on her way to becoming a psychologist; Kelly is once again fighting for her life and Damien is waiting for her.
I think this is a nice place to end it, despite my itchy fingers wanting to write another sequel. But I've already got a separate story on the tip of my tongue involving some certain group of friends, so watch this space!
Forest Elfin