𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬 ➵︎ [ 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘧 ]

54| Futility

This chapter is dedicated to fAtShItHeAd :D

Thanks for your votes and comments! It's been hard to write with all my exams but your support has gotten me through these tough times <3 !

────── ༻♛༺ ──────

I was weightless.

Suspended, floating in an eternal abyss, a faint light shining from above. Below me, an endless blackness.

No. I couldn't be back here.

I could feel the pull of the void at my feet. I could feel it's cold fingers wrap around my ankles as the darkness slowly expanded beneath me, like the throat of a beast trying to swallow me whole.

Panic gripped my heart as I desperately tried to fight its grasp. But I wasn't getting any closer to the surface.

Suddenly, an agonising pain erupted from my abdomen, and I glanced down to see the red of blood in the water from a deep wound. I frantically tried to push myself upwards, to reach for something to grab onto, but there was nothing. I was only tiring myself out as I drifted deeper and deeper, the water around me reddening with my blood.

And yet, faint voices rippled from above. Looking up, I could see the faint glimmer of light rippling on the distant surface.

But with every passing second, my lungs felt like they were being scorched.

An image of my friends and family appeared before my eyes. My mother and father's words of comfort, Aragorn's warm smile. A pair of soft blue eyes. Legolas.

I hadn't seen the real them for...months. Only the empty shell, the unsettling void that she would conjure just to torment me.

I could feel a tear mix with the surrounding water.

I clenched my jaw.

Garnering any strength left in my body, I began to kick, trying to escape the clutches of what lay below, my eyes trained on the light above. Swallowing the immense pain in my abdomen as I slowly began to rise again, my body fought for every last bit of air, every muscle in my body screaming in protest.

But I had to make it. I had to.

I could make out the water's surface within arms reach. The light was blinding, and I couldn't make out anything beyond it.

I felt my fingers break the surface of the water. Immediately, a voice rang out from above, but it sounded so distant.

"Her hand...did you see that?"

"She's awakening!"

But the force from below was relentless in its efforts to drag me down. The final bit of air in my body disappeared as I struggled towards the surface.

I couldn't take it anymore. I closed my eyes. As I gave one final kick, my body forced me to take a breath.

"Daeriel...Daeriel..."

This time the voice was clear.

Slowly, I reopened my eyes.

They slowly readjusted to the light of the room. The feeling of waking was terrifyingly familiar.

A throbbing pain ate away at my abdomen.

"Thank the Valar..."

I shifted my attention to see Legolas by the bed, with Aragorn beside him. The sight of them sent stabs of panic down my spine.