Author's Note: Uh, I'm trying something. I've only a vague notion of where this is going, so suggestions are welcome. And yeah the quotes were said to Eowyn and no the girl is not the Shield Maiden. As much as I like Eowyn I thought an OC might work better here.

Disclaimer: I don't own and don't want to. Besides no one can write like Tolkien.

He is a boss among authors.

The End

"…thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy mind left naked to the lidless eye…"

A shudder wracked her already trembling body. Those words never let her sleep more than a few minutes, never let her have a moment of peace, not that she'd experienced a moment of piece in the Houses of Lamentation. It was just a relative term; comparing the cold, dank, dark, and silent solitude, save for those words that occasionally passed through her mind, to endless hours of torture in a black eternity that had no beginning and surely no end.

She remembered she'd once been a Gondorian, and archer, a normal girl bored and craving adventure beyond Minas Tirith's high walls. A chance to become something more than a normal girl, attending classes and searching for a husband.

She remembered those things, as she remembered words like sun, moon, star, love, and grass. The images and impressions they may have once conjured now lost like her name, age, and previous life to the blackness she lived in.

May times the fleeting desire for her torturers to return rose in her mind, but it was the fear of the pain they'd bring that quickly squashed them, though her fear of being alone was slowly rising above her fear of pain. Maybe that is why they took so long to return, maybe that is why stopped delivering food and water. Another form of torture. Make her crave the company of her captures only to forsake her entirely. It was working.

The need to scream or sob was overwhelming; anything to let them know she was alive still, but her voice had long gone hoarse and her throat rattled and stung as every breath dried her already parched throat.

She almost wished He would return. A shudder that had nothing to do with the chill air shook her. No, no she was not so desperate, to wish for his presence, at least not yet. She didn't want to be that desperate. Everything He did was far worse than the orcs' most devious contrivances.

Maybe if she remained quiet, maybe she could die, and then she'd be free. It was a small wish that had kindled in her breast long ago and had ever been at war with her desire to live and escape, though she knew the latter were folly.

They'd stopped delivering food and water. Her end than had to be near.

"…thy mind left naked to the lidless eye…"

She clamped a hand over ears and shook her head. That voice, those words. If he'd spoken truly, even death would not save her from this place. The energy suddenly mustered to beg the darkness for swift demise failed as her head hit the stone floor. She couldn't even keep her head up anymore, she didn't want to try.

Her complacency and resignation frightened her mind, but her eyes closed. She felt that they had, though there was no difference between her lids and the perpetual night around her.

A heavy clang disturbed and a strange mix of joy and dread filled her. She wouldn't be alone, anymore! Maybe a small smile curled her lip, but whatever happiness she felt, was snuffed out as she faintly made out the hollow cadence of a single pair of metal boots steadily moving closer.

Using the wall she stiffly and heavily pulled herself into a sitting position. Faint hisses and tremors wracked her sore body as she shifted. Abandoning the wall in her condition would be impossible. How weak was she that she couldn't even sit without using the cold, heat devouring stone as a crutch.

Satisfied that she was in a position that would hide the full extent of her weakness for a little while, she let her eyes close and head fall back against the horrid wall. Slowly she felt a chill creep through her, and in the silent pitch broken only by her shallow breathing, labouring heart, and approaching footsteps slowly growing louder.

There was nothing left to do but wait.