Title: Touch of Night
Author: Tuxedo Elf
Characters: Glorfindel/Ecthelion
Prompt: 35 - He felt as if the whole dark world was turning upside
down.
Word Count: 389
Rating: PG
Summary: Glorfindel has nightmares……
*************
Blood, fire, death. They wrapped themselves around him and took
hold, refusing to let go, though he fought them with all he had. He
clawed desperately, trying to escape, shouting out his refusal to
give in to the creature that tried to ensnare him.
Yet it was hopeless and he became more and more entangled the more
he fought, until at last there was nothing left to do but fall.
With a thump, Glorfindel hit the bedroom floor, his eyes flying open
as the shock forced the nightmare to release him. He gasped for
breath, hastily pushing away the sheets which clung to his body like
a shroud. Trying to calm himself, he put his head in his hands,
forcing down the bile that rose in his throat. Outside it was still
night and he felt as if the whole dark world was turning upside
down. He dare not close his eyes though, for fear of the visions
returning.
Instead he rose, lighting all the candles he could find, filling the
room with a soft light. Once that was done he poured a glass of
miruvor and settled into a chair by the window, waiting for the
dawn.
*************
When at last morning came, he rose and blew out the candles before
washing and dressing. It felt good to bathe, as if the act of
washing his body could cleanse his spirit of the nightmare. It could
not, of course, but for a moment he was able to cling to the
illusion.
It was with some reluctance that he left his rooms, knowing that his
cries would have woken his neighbours. Sure enough, as he walked
down the hall, he heard the mutterings.
"He screamed again last night," he heard a voice say. "He must have
been dreaming of his death again. It is dreadful that he should
suffer so!"
Glorfindel tried his best to ignore the comments and walked on.
There was no point trying to explain that it was never his death he
saw in his dreams. That was an event he barely remembered. No, it
wasn't his body he saw entwined with the balrog's flames and it
wasn't his own cries he heard echoing in the night. It wasn't his
body that he saw fall, taken into the murky depths of death.
Not his. Never his.
END