One That Got Away

Chapter 2

It was dark, but there were pulsing lights of every color that flashed madly in the air. People were bouncing and cheering and singing loudly. And, barely heard, the scream of instruments and roar of a singer. People wore silver and black and neon and and barely anything at the same time. Everyone was wearing something that glowed or let off light and they all bounced and moved and touched and roared in approval of the chaos. Thorin's fighter skills kicked in automatically and he squared his shoulder and shifted his balance.

"We're bored to death in heaven, and down below in hell. We only want to be ourselves!" The crowd screamed and cheered and several people were locked in an almost inappropriately tight embrace.

"What..." Thorin gaped into the room. Fili shook his head in shock but Kili was listening to the music intently.

"I know this song," he muttered and pushed past his uncle and brother into the crowd. As Fili reached out to grab his brother, Thorin glanced behind him to see-a cupboard. A cupboard full of mops and brooms. What in the name of Mahal? Hadn't that just been a tunnel? Hadn't this just been Erebor? Kili was pushing through the crowd.

"Hey!" shouted a blonde girl in a miniskirt. She had glowing, pink paint all over her body. "Aren't you that Aiden Turner guy?" Kili glanced at her. Mara had mentioned Aiden Turned before. He was Kili's doppelganger from her world. The one who told his story.

"No, but I get that a lot!" he shouted back, imitating Mara's vernacular. The girl grinned.

"Rock on, man. Wanna make out?" she shouted.

"I'm good, thanks. How about him?" He pointed at a guy next to her and the girl latched onto the suggested party to tremendous cheering from his friends. Kili kept moving towards the stage, sure he recognized this song. He was getting very hot and feeling dizzy from the blinding lights, close bodies and roaring music.

"FALLEN ANGELS!" and the song stopped. There was cheering as everyone applauded and then there was a 'bamp bamp bamp bamp', "Summer after high school when we first met, we made out in your mustang to Radiohead and on my eighteenth birthday, we got matching tattoos." Kili frowned, shaking his head to clear it. That voice was so familiar. He shoved through the crowd to the edge of the stage where people were clustered and watching when they weren't dancing. The people on stage were performing.

There were two boys, one in black and one in white playing guitars, though not any guitar Kili had ever seen. These were sleek and and brightly colored and flat, with huge chunks missing. Another boy, a man really, was banging on a set of intricate drums with the words 'Fighting Dreamers' on the biggest, his ruby red hair swaying to the music as he bounced his head. A woman was playing what looked like a piano, if pianos are flat and confusingly small and made strange noises. She was beautiful and wore an intricate outfit with ruffles and lace. The men wore shirts and trousers like Bilbo sometimes wore, if the pants were longer, but the singer...

She was in a shirt that was ripped down the sides, exposing her ribs and bra underneath. 'Fighting Dreamers' was printed on the shirt as well, which was faded as if it was old. Her head was shaved on the sides, the remaining hair dyed lapis blue and trailing to her shoulders. Tattoos ran along her scalp where the hair had been removed and she wore thick, black boots, a confusing contradiction to her extremely short pants. She was holding onto a strange rod, though Kili thought it might be what Mara had called a 'microphone' and was singing into it. As he took in the many bracelets and bands on her wrists he noticed a scar on her arm.

It was across her wrist, pale and thick and there were a dozen more all along her arm, and the other one, too. Some were red and irritated but most were pale and startlingly familiar. The pattern itself was familiar. Kili glanced at her legs and saw the scars there as well. He paled and looked more carefully at the girl. She was around his age, and fierce looking, with multiple piercings in her ears, her lip, one on her brow. She looked sad and angry as she sang the love song.

"In another life, I would be your girl. We'd keep all our promises, be us against the world. In another life, I would just have stayed, then I wouldn't have to say you were the one that got away." Kili frowned. He used to sing this song with Mara, those weren't quite the words...Except. He leaned one way as the people shoved around him to get closer to the stage. He could just see the edge of a scar on her stomach, jagged and trailing. Oh Valar. But he was distracted by the hand coming down to her side. It had a thin blade clenched in it. The singer was pressing a knife into her side!

"I should have told you what you meant to me. Now I pay the price." Kili looked up and the girl had tears in her eyes. The music was still playing but she had stopped singing. She was supposed to, it was the bridge. But she was pressing the blade into her side and he saw the skin start to stretch. Kili panicked, and did the only thing he could think to do.

"MARA!" he shouted at the top of his voice and the girl's eyes snapped to his face. Her mouth opened and she blinked at him wildly. The knife clattered to the ground and she almost dropped the microphone, too. She mouthed his name as the other band members glanced at her in worry. Then the boy in black rushed to her side and took the mic.

"'Cause in another life! You would be my girl. We'd keep all our promises be us against the world!" People hadn't noticed anything as the singer gasped for air, eyes on Kili. He grinned and waved at her tugging at his tunic front, telling her he was really there. But that didn't seem to help her at all, because she started breathing fast and shallow breathes, eyes wild. She pressed one hand over her mouth as the musicians stopped playing. There was applause and the guy on the drums crossed to the front of the stage and quickly took the microphone from the shorter guitar player.

"Thank you and goodnight! Revolution!" he said shouted and the singer rushed off the stage. There was applause and echoes of 'Revolution!' from the crowd as music started playing. Kili clambered onto the stage, much to the band's surprise, and ran after the singer. Through a wooden door, down a hallway lit with odd lamps through a door with the words 'Fighting Dreamers' scribbled on paper and stuck to it. There she was. She had her hands tangled in her hair and she was breathing in a panicked way, like a cornered animal during a hunt. She span, saw him and let out a sob.

"K-Kili? H-h-how are you here?" she said in a pitched voice.

"Mara, we found you," Kili said stepping towards her to pull her into a hug. She held out her hands and he stopped.

"I was delusional for a week. My name is Maranda I am not a Fairy I am a human girl. There is no place called Middle Earth, Thorin Oakenshield did not not propose to me," she said in a dead voice, eyes closed and shoulders stiff. That last bit surprised Kili, but he had bigger issues to worry about.

"What? Mara I'm right here," Kili said in confusion.

"My name is Maranda," she mumbled and crossed her arms in a warding motion, as if she could protect herself from whatever spectre she seemed to think Kili was. Kili paused and looked at her. She didn't look like herself. She looked older, as if years and years had passed. How long had she been away in the strange world she lived in?

"Mara, you know me," Kili said kindly.

"I lost my mind and suffered a mental break due to stress. I was never in Middle Earth," she mumbled almost to herself. Kili frowned.

"You really believe that?" he asked softly and her lips trembled.

"Yes. Completely," she lied. Kili looked her over and his eyes landed on something around her neck. He smiled at his feet.

"Nice necklace," he said and Marana's hand flew to her throat. There, nestled under her black choker, over her string of blue beads, was a single, shimmering pearl on a golden thread. "You don't believe any of that. You're just trying to convince yourself and everyone that you are sane. That you're okay. Mara, my best of friends," Kili walked purposefully towards her. "Will you please let me in?" Mara's lips trembled and a weak sob broke loose. She flung herself into Kili's arms and he held onto her as she sobbed hysterically into his shoulder.