Middle Earth Gothic

simaethae:

thelioninmybed:

• You only stepped out of your front door to visit your sister. But the road went on and on and now a dragon has been slain and a king crowned and you’ve missed elevenses. She’s going to be ever so worried. 
• The woods grow darker every year. There are spiders in them, huge ones, but it is not them you are afraid of. Trees should not whisper and they should not hate. 
• You’ve never seen the sea and yet your ears are filled with the screams of gulls. Every night you dream of icy water sliding up your thighs, of the growing pressure in your lungs, of something in that grey-green darkness reaching out to welcome you home. You wake, shivering, with your lip bitten through and your mouth filled with the taste of salt.
• The cats seem to be watching you. You do not trust them.
• Your son is dead. But you never had a son, you had a brother, and you are no longer certain of his name – did it start with A or E? It does not matter; he is dead. Of that you can be sure.

• The birds are trying to warn you. You really ought to listen.

• The twins died in the woods – you never saw the bodies but you know it to be so. It should not be possible then for your brother, years later, to walk from the treeline with a pair of squalling children in his arms and ask if he can keep them. Different boys, you tell yourself. But you look into their eyes and do not quite believe it. Your brother does not see it; they are not his ghosts. 
• There is an Elvenking. No one is sure who he is or where he came from – even he does not seem certain – and yet no one doubts his claim.
• It is your birthday. 

• You have a mother. You’re sure you have a mother. Doesn’t everyone? Sometimes you imagine what it would be like to remember her face.
• You thought you had a wife. Your wife is in the West, with the dead. Your wife is dead. You – no, that’s not right. She was never dead. You ask your brother what happened to her, but he only looks at you strangely, and turns away.
• It was a present. A birthday present. A gift. How else would you have had it, you say, angrily. You’re not a thief.
• The trees grow tall here. They grow all around you. They keep everything out. You’re safe here. You’re safe. You will always be safe, she says, her voice like music.