Protect & Serve LotR-Lord of the Rings Fanfiction - Fan Fiction -WattyAwards2012

Chapter 5: Holding On

I was shoved forward through the door before I could resist, my feet tangling in the swathes of skirt as I tripped and struggled to keep from tumbling to the ground. By the time I had spun back to the door, it had shut and the lock been thrown with an audible click. My fingers twisted uselessly at the knob, not budging the door one bit.

Crouching low, I examined the plate around the doorknob, but realized the door locked only from the outside, not even a skeleton keyhole showing on this side of the door.

Becoming more frantic, I stood and felt desperately along the other edge of the door, but to my panic, these weren't removable pins in the hinges that I could pull out. With a sledgehammer, I might be able to break the heavy iron hinges, or with a battering ram break down the solid-wood door. But I had neither.

And I was stuck here.

Stuck with no way out.

No, can't be stuck, have to find a way out. Have to get out!

My breathing became shallower with every inhale. My vision spinning as I exhaled in shallow pants, the cursed dress so tight around my body that I couldn't draw air in properly.

My panic only heightened as I stumbled towards the bed, falling to my knees as I fumbled desperately at my heap of weapons, sending them careening across the floor as I pawed through them for my knife.

The stone walls around me darkened, changing from light gray cut-stone to the dimly lit dewy rocks that still haunted me.

"No, I got out of that cave," I gasped to myself, trying to convince my own mind. My vision darkened more, the close air of the cave closing around me. "I have to get out of here! I won't die in this Godforsaken cave!" I cried desperately.

Though my vision seemed to darken and become sightless as I panted shallowly, my fingers instantly recognized the feel of the jackknife I'd carried from my own world. Numb fingers flicked it open and hacked at the serpent tightening around my chest. Hacking until I'd cut it to pieces all the way down to my naval.

Drawing great shuddering breaths at last, I fell backwards on my butt, leaning my back against something solid as tears raced down my cold skin. Shudders continued to wrack me as I rocked slightly front to back, one hand pressed to my chest as my other hand clung desperately to my knife. My lifeline and protection.

Finally, the shudders passed and my tears dried. My vision was again clear as I stared bleakly across the room I was stuck in. It wasn't the cave in North Korea. It was my rooms in Minas Tirith. Rooms I had been locked in. Stuck with no way out.

Feeling the panic starting to rise again, I sprang to my feet and threw my weight at the flimsy doors to the small balcony. I didn't bother trying to fumble with the latch, simply shouldered into the door and broke the small latch, the doors flying open and offering me the freedom of fresh air and the sky.

"I'm okay. I'm alright," I whispered to myself. "I may be stuck here, but this isn't like that cave in North Korea. Much bigger and I can at least see the sky."

I took several deep breaths. Still too off-balanced to meditate or anything useful, but I focused the military portion of my mind, going through my options.

"Even in his grief, Denethor has some kind of courteous sense of chivalry which he thinks he's best serving by locking me in here for my safety. If he can think that much through when all he felt was despair, I can figure out how to get out of this room even when all I feel is panic."

I was leaning heavily against the wall of the balcony my hands braced wide upon the cool stone, my eyes closed as I tried to stave off another panic attack. But I heard the wet thwacks of something dripping. Opening my eyes, I saw red drops falling onto the stone and running down the side of the wall.