Lim Aear

Author's Note: Wow, I don't think I've ever got so many reviews! Thank you so much guys, I'm really surprised everytime to see how much some people love this story! I'm very sorry I've been away for so long, but I've been more than busy. As most of you have guessed, the last chapter was not the end... Some things need to be resolved and that will happen in the next couple of chapters. I would also like to thank my BETA Marisa, for making this story look good!

Disclaimer: See Prologue.

italics: thoughts

Chapter 28


Her whole body felt numb. She was floating in that wonderful world between consciousness and unconsciousness. It was a calming feeling of peacefulness that enveloped her senses, caressing her like a light breeze and carrying her away with it as if she were a light feather.

Voices.

Oh, why didn’t they leave her alone? She liked it so much here… She was flying over that swirl of colours that created the painting of her dreams.

Dip…

Rise…

Dip…

Rise…

And the swimming in her wonderful sea of senselessness continued, swift like a dolphin, light as a small seahorse. But the voices started sounding louder… closer… and she could not fly anymore… nor swim. She felt her body heavier, her senses more awake.

No… no… let me stay here!

“Elaine… wake up… you have to wake up, sweetie…”

Mom??

Falling back into consciousness was a painful experience. The bright light was blinding her even with her eyes closed and the pain… oh, the pain seemed to stretch on to every inch of her body! Her throat was dry and sore and her head felt as if it weighed a hundred tons.

For a moment, she blinked confused. Where was she?

As her eyes adjusted to the bright light, she moved them from the smiling form of her mother sitting on her bed to her surroundings. It took her unsettled mind a few minutes to register the facts, but her fogged mind finally recognized the place she was in.

A hospital??

She was in a hospital room! But why…-

Legolas!!

The flood of memories rushed in her mind with such an intensity, that made her dizzy. She struggled to get up and clutched frantically at her chest, the doctors rushing to her side at her abrupt movements, to keep her down.

“The arrow… did you take it out? Where is he, mom? Where is Legolas? No, let me go!”

Her voice was coarse and groggy; she almost didn’t recognize herself. What was going on? Had Legolas taken her to a hospital? She thought she was dead! What of Lim Aear? Was it safe?

“Easy Elaine! I don’t know anything about an arrow, but we did remove your appendix,” one of the doctors told her, as he pushed her down on the bed. “Now, you better stay in bed, or I fear we’ll have to stitch you up again!”

There was no need for Elaine to be told to stay still. She had already frozen, her eyes widening at the doctor’s words and the lines on the cardiograph beside her reaching their peak. The doctor motioned for the nurse to get a sedative shot; the patient was in a fragile state at the moment and psychological abnormalities would not do any good. Elaine didn’t even notice the commotion around her, she was staring ahead with a blank look, shaking her head in disbelief. It could not be possible… No, they were surely lying to her…

“But… but I had my appendix removed six months ago… and… and… you were in France, mom! Dad, please tell them! What happened to the elves? My husband, I have to go to my husband…”

She was crying by now, mumbling to herself like crazy people do in their state of delirium. But it was true! The past month was true! How was it possible? She had had the operation six months ago!

“Oh, my child! What have you done to my child!”

Elaine had long now blocked the scene developing around her. A nurse was trying to revive her mother who had fainted, her father was worriedly asking around why his daughter was blurting out such nonsense, but, somehow, the doctor’s words managed to break through the mist in her mind:

“Don’t worry, her state is normal. Some patients have hallucinations because of the sedation and the drugs for the pain… she will come around!”

A hallucination… all a hallucination… God, please don’t be so cruel to me…

A hallucination?

Was it all a dream? A creation of her mind?

No, no, no…

A whole month! A whole different world! How could it all be a dream? So much pain… so much fear… so much love… No, there had to be some mistake!

She turned her eyes to the window on her left.

It was snowing.

So it was true. It was February.

It was all a dream. A hallucination. The love of her life was a creation of her own mind.

Grabbing the bowl beside her, she emptied whatever little she had in her stomach.

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Being left alone with your thoughts is a dangerous thing. Things become so crystal-clear, that you could claim you found the reason and meaning of life. Or they can mess up so much, that you start losing ends and beginnings; you don’t know where you started; you don’t know where you’ll end. Elaine, however, was sure she would end up in a mad house if she did not find a logical explanation for what had happened.

In the darkness of her hospital room she had cried; and cried and cried until she had no more tears left. Never before had she felt so lost. Everything and everyone around her passed before her as if in a daze; as if she was trapped in the darkened corner of the ceiling and watching everything from above. She could still not believe it. Yet, everything showed it had been only a dream. But how, when she still felt her heart beat so strongly? How when she had tasted him and his taste still lingered on her lips? How when in her loneliness she could recall his warm embrace and the whispers in his musical language… Whispers she would never hear again…

How…? Why…?

Would she ever know?

Was it possible… was it possible that her mind had created such a world? Such a wonderful race…? Such an amazing husband…? Had her twisted mind put her through all this pain and strife because of the sedation drugs? All those emotions, all those sublime feelings… how could a mind create all this without having experienced it?

Was she cursed to live in the memory of a mere dream? Cursed never to find love again, except in the blue eyes of the creature she had fabricated in her mind? Punished to recall his smile, his voice, his touch, taste, scent, his everything, when the darkness of night would leave no room but for dreams and memories?

How…? Why…?

Would she ever know?

A few days later, the ride home from the hospital was a haze for Elaine; as was everything else. There were no sounds; no colours, smells or tastes. The world around her was a grey mass of nothingness and she was drowning deeper in the dark recesses of her mind… Sliding slowly inch by inch…

Until her eyes happened upon the desk in her room and she became fully aware of the world around her with a blinding intensity.

The blood drained from her face.

“Angie…”

Her erratic breathing made her sister’s name come out in a whisper.

“Angie…!”

Hearing the cry of her sister, Angie rushed in her room to find Elaine in a shocked state.

“El, are you ok? El… what’s wrong?? Mo...-“

“No, no, don’t call her… Please…”

Angie watched her sister sink on her bed, looking somewhere ahead, as if she had seen a ghost. She kneeled before her, caressing her arm to calm her down, but she realized to her dismay that Elaine was actually trembling.

“Elaine, I’m calling mom…-“

“Where did you find this book?”

Elaine’s broken voice halted her mid-step and Angie turned around to look puzzled at the source of her sister’s turmoil: it was a worn-out, thick, leather bound book sitting in a prominent position on her desk. Why would a book upset her so much?

“I don’t know El… it’s your book. How should I know?” she told her shrugging.

She watched as Elaine slowly got up and approached the desk warily; as if the book would launch at her and bite her. She carefully ran her fingers over the cover, tears running down her cheeks.

“Elaine, what’s wrong?” her sister asked her softly, her heart aching at the anguish on her face.

“I… I thought it was a dream Angie… That I would never see him again…”

But what had happened? How had she gotten the book if it had all been a dream…? Elaine was beyond confused and relieved at the same time.

How…? Why…?

Would she ever know?

Hmmm... Anyone can guess what happened?