A Second Chance

A Second Chance Part 1

You know that feeling when you're sitting at home feeling depressed about how lonely you are, how unfair your life is? Of course you do. Anyone who has ever been a teenager has had that feeling at some point in life. Well the other guarantee is that we find a way to escape. I did just that, I escaped into fan fiction. Sounds ridiculous I know, how can stories about made up characters and worlds and situations possibly take away the pain of real life but they did. It worked for me. Every time life got too much. Every time my dad beat me or my mum screamed at me and told me that she wished I was dead, every time a boyfriend cheated on me I escaped to a new world, one where I was loved and protected and cared for.

I became obsessed with the idea of entering one of these worlds and read over and over the stories about girls falling into Middle Earth and dreamed of being one of them and that is kind of where my story starts, on a cold Monday morning when I learnt two very important things; number one – Falling into Middle Earth hurts... a lot, and number two – the stories lied!

But let me start from the beginning, my name is Finley and I am twenty-six years old. I live in London with my mum and her forth husband after my boyfriend cheated on me then kicked me out giving me a black eye in the process, needless to say, my life is pretty shit. On an average Monday morning I begin my journey to work in the rain, leaving the flat and heading across the estate. The wind is bitingly cold and I pull my hoodie more tightly around me and over my head not really concentrating on anything around me and I hear brakes. It's strange actually, I feel the impact of the car hitting me and squeeze my eyes shut as I feel myself fly through the air waiting for the ground to come and meet me and it does.

When I come to the first thing I am aware of is pain, an all in compassing, consuming pain that seems to pulse through every part of me. The second thing I am aware of is that I am not where I was before I was hit and I was definitely not where I was supposed to be. The ground beneath me was soft and mossy and I couldn't hear anything, no cars, no sirens no shouts. Struggling to open my eyes I gaze upwards at the canopy of twisted branches above me, blinking rapidly and unable to contain the startled whimper that escapes me as I do so. Where am I? For a long time I cannot move, or breathe, or comprehend what was happening to me, the pain coursing through my body convinced me I wasn't in a coma and I am pretty sure I am hallucinating but in that case where the fuck was I?

After several more minutes it becomes obvious that no one was coming to rescue me and so I very slowly pull myself to my feet and try to take in my surroundings. I was in a forest, one unlike any I had ever seen, not that I had seen too many living in the centre of London but you get the idea. These trees were different, they were tall, ancient and looked strange, more gnarly and different in colour. Sighing I begin to walk knowing that I needed to find somewhere or someone to help me soon, I was injured, pretty badly and incredibly lost, possibly with a serious head injury.

It is two days before I see any sign of life and when I do I almost pass out from shock. Either I was way sicker than I had thought or I had just got my wish and fallen straight into some sort of parallel universe. The village ahead of me was small and the people dressed in medieval clothing were moving about happily, I watch for a long time from my hiding place behind the trees at the edge of the forest. It is only when I shift to try and ease the incredible pain in my side, I had at least two cracked ribs I think, that I spot the sign. Bree... no way it couldn't be! I was in... Oh God I was in Middle Earth! I sit back heavily against the trees and try to take it all in. One thing is for certain if I ever went home I would be sure to tell the world the truth, there were definitely no beautiful, protective men or elves waiting to save me and care for me, I don't know why I had expected any differently I think bitterly to myself, my entire life had been one mess after another why should this be any different? I decide to wait until night fall before I head to the town and so try to rest closing my eyes, exhaustion doing the rest for me.

I wake to the cold sharp edge of a sword pressed to my throat.