The Resurrection!

So, after a long gap im gonna try to get back into this Tumblr thing. Ill be sending my Instagram stuff here, and maybe ill post an actual article once in a while. Stay tuned to find out more.

Movie review: Lord of the Rings: Extended trilogy

The lord of the rings have won tons of awards, commendations, the endless fame that only a trilogy this good can ever receive, but the sad part is that most of the people watching them have only seen the theatrical versions! I have personally heard people complain about the plot being confusing and too quickly-moving, but if they had seen the extended edition of the film, I believe their minds would be changed.

The storyline of Lord of the Rings is truthfully not easy to follow, but the real fans of the series, myself included, can really appreciate how well the extended editions enhanced the whole experience. The only way to follow some parts of the story in the original versions is to recall the chapter in which it was written in the books. many people have never read the books, and therefore aren’t able to fully understand minor, but interesting parts.

Do not misunderstand my position, I have only begun to read the book series so I am not claiming to be an encyclopedia of middle earth, just a loyal fan who has seen the movies more times than he cares to admit. Now, I’m going to stop talking in 3rd person, and while I do this i recommend the extended trilogy to any and all of you. Give it a watch, even if you have seen the theatrical versions. you will not regret it. 

Thats the end of my review, may it be but a nudge in the right direction for anyone still curious.

What is my name?

I woke up, but the world seemed different today. Normally I wake up sleeping in a bed at either my mother or my father’s house looking up at a ceiling and listening to the noises of the people shuffling about in the house. Not this time. I m waking up looking at a clear starry sky instead of a colored ceiling. I sat up, couldn’t see much as I waited for my eyes to adjust, and realized that I felt somewhat strange… I couldn’t describe it but I just didn’t feel… right. Now that I could see I took in my surroundings. I was on a long stretch of road leading toward my hometown. I recognized the road, I drove it often to visit a friend who lived not too far away, but I couldn’t make sense of why I was there now. I stood up and shook myself awake, but I still felt somewhat dazed… almost like I was still dreaming. I walked towards the soft glow of my familiar town, deciding to head towards my father’s house. He knew things, he could help me understand what happened and help me through it better than mom. She would probably have a fit and throw something. 

The night was eerily still as I walked along that road, no wind, no rustling of trees on either side of the road, not even the squeak of a bat on its nightly hunt. It wasn’t far to my father’s place, but it seemed an eternity getting there, all the thoughts running through my mind of what may have happened, was I kidnapped? Was I drugged? Was this some cruel prank my friends thought would be good for a laugh? No it couldn’t be them, they wouldn’t knock me unconscious. Then it occurred to me, what if I was mugged or taken advantage of and simply tossed into the road like a used napkin? Panic took over in my head as I made my way through the small tree-lined streets dotted with oddly shaped houses all quite small compared to the houses in the next town over where all the rich snobs lived. Examining the houses as I walked seemed to help me calm down somewhat. I finally spotted the house I wanted; his car wasn’t in the driveway though. Fishing through my pockets, I realized I didn’t have a key. Trying the door was useless; it was locked just like every other time he left the house, even when I was home. God forbid his precious daughter should be allowed to spend time alone in a house without every alarm system and security measure in place. I’m 18 for god’s sake!  

I gave up on dad, he was probably spending the night with some girl he met at the bar that night or drinking beer and playing video games with his buddies. No, he would have taken me with them if that were the case. He can’t get over the fact that his daughter can kick his and all his friends asses at guitar hero. I love my dad. I decided to head over to mom’s house, it was a bit of a walk through town, but I knew some people in the area who normally let me use their backyard as a shortcut, so I hopped some fences and found myself in the middle of town. All the stores were closed, street lights on, no cars around. The only thing that prevented this from looking like a still image was the traffic light, ever vigilant in its job of changing color at the right time, even with nobody to direct. I crossed the street and did a lap around the convenience store, to see if any of my friends were hanging out drinking, surprisingly they weren’t there. There must be a party somewhere I wasn’t told about. I continued down the street, passing some pathetic little mom-and-pop owned stores that sold various things, shoes, beads, flowers, children’s toys, all the stuff people would need in their lives. Hah, that’s a laugh. Would it kill them to drop a Best Buy somewhere around here? 

I passed by the pub; all the lights were off, no cars in the parking lot. They close at 4am. Why was it still so dark if it was after 4am? It’s practically August! I decided it must have closed early for some reason, though knowing the owner he just got lazy and kicked everyone out for the night so he could do a bit of drinking himself.

I kept walking down the long street lined with various stores. Not a light on in any of em. For some reason I thought about how lonely the street lights must be, spending all this time simply lighting a road that nobody uses at this time of night. At least they had the traffic lights to keep them company.

I turned down a narrow street and looked around for mom’s house, there it was. But why was she leaving at this time of night? And in such a rush? She bolted out of the door, just barely stopping to lock the thing, before I could even catch her attention she was in the car, out of reach of my shouting. She started the car, and thanks to the broken left light, didn’t even see me as she drove past me on that dark side street. Oh how I wished one of those lonely street lights would turn this way, just for a moment. But no, she drove past and turned right at the end of the road. She turned right. Why would she turn right? There’s nothing to the right except… the hospital. I knew it. Something was very very wrong tonight. 

I looked for my car in the driveway to follow her, it wasn’t there. Where was it? I strained myself to remember the last time I was in it. I was visiting that friend down the long forest lined road. For the life of me I couldn’t remember his name. I just know he had a massive crush on me, and I was a little exited to visit him tonight because I was going to tell him I felt the same. Why couldn’t I remember his name…? and then it hit me. I couldn’t remember my own either. Or anyone else’s. Who was I? I had no idea. I went over the facts in my mind: 18 years old, video game freak, and general loner besides a few choice friends whose names ALSO have escaped me. I was worried. I needed to see why mom (whatever her name was) was going to the hospital. It was much too far to walk. I decided to try to find my car, then head to the hospital to catch up with mom. Dad could even be there too, two birds with one stone. The only thing I could think to do was head to that guy’s house to see if he knew where my car was. Maybe he could even tell me my name. Hey, a girl can hope right?

After a walk back through my little town, it was all one direction after I got back onto the main road. I realized I hadn’t seen a single person all night. There were usually people partying loud enough to hear from their houses, or drunk groups of people stumbling through the street. There was nobody. Not even a dog to bark at every little noise the night made, if there were any noise that is. I eventually found myself back on that road where I woke up, I kept going in the opposite direction this time, knowing I would eventually find that guy’s house and hopefully him. Why I couldn’t remember his name of all people was beyond me. I could remember the time we spent together, all the happy moments, the small misunderstandings that we laughed about afterward, the endless hours spent alone kicking each other’s asses in various games, both of us thinking similar thoughts about each other, neither of us brave enough to say them aloud. Tonight was the night I was going to break the tension and make the first move. So what happened? I couldn’t remember. I just wanted to feel his arms around me, whatever his name was…

I found his house just where it always was, off the side of the road connected by a short dirt driveway that led into a home-made garage that somehow managed to keep peoples cars dry, 2 at a time usually; sometimes a bike or something might fit as well, if we were lucky. Tonight there was only one car. And it wasn’t mine. Luckily it was his, so I knew he must still be home. No lights were on, but that was normal, he liked the darkness whether he was sleeping or not, sometimes that was an advantage, I could stare at him in the darkness just wanting to kiss him while a loading screen managed to barely show the outline his face.

To my surprise, a scream came from the house. Not a normal scream though, he always screamed at some of his games, either because it scared the pants off of him or because some online player just beat him and he was angry about it. This time the scream was different. This time it was long, and full of one word, said over and over again. That one word sent shivers up my spine. Somehow, just the way he said it, the tone and volume of his voice, it scared me in a way I’ve never been scared before. 

“No.”

Just one word.

“No.”

Again and again.

I wanted to go help him, but I was frozen in fear of what he could be screaming for. I heard the lock on his door rattle, I didn’t want to be seen while he was like this. It just didn’t seem like a good idea. There was nowhere close enough to hide, the forest was across the road and that seemed the only good place, except one. Without even thinking about it, I dove into the back seat of his car through his open window and hid behind the seats on the floor. 

Of course he had to get in the car. Where else did I think he would go? I don’t know, I just knew that I didn’t want to be in his way. He started the engine and drove, WAY over the speed limit, I could tell even from the floor. Occasionally he would yell, or scream that terrifying word again. After a while I could have sworn I heard him start to cry. I wanted to hold him in my arms, try to comfort his pain, whatever may be causing it, but I couldn’t bring myself to come out of hiding. 

After a few minutes of driving way too fast down what I guessed was the main road due to the lack of any turns, I saw the red flashing light of something cast across the ceiling, maybe a police car, or a fire truck? Then it came to me: it was an ambulance. We were at the hospital. He slammed on the brakes causing me to press uncomfortably against the back of his seat, threw open the door and ran toward the giant white cube-like building without even bothering to close his door. I climbed out of the back as quickly as I could and followed him out the door, and ran after him into the hospital’s revolving doors, still spinning from the force he used to get through them. As he bolted down the hall toward the elevator I had hoped that I might catch him before he got to it, but as I called his name the doors at the end of the hall opened and then closed, with him inside. I turned sharply to the left, finding a set of stairs and bolted up them. 

At every floor I listened to the elevator pass by, thankfully it was quite slow, so I could catch up to it pretty easily. It stopped at the very top floor. Seeming to lose absolutely no speed from his run down the hallway, he shot out of the elevator like someone fired him from a gun, and once again I followed. He stopped in front of an open door, stood there for a moment, clearly in shock from what he saw there. Tears flowed down his face and dripped from his chin like a leaky faucet. He slowly walked into the room out of my sight.

I didn’t want to intrude on something private so I waited outside the door, listening intently to the voices coming from inside the room. The first one I heard was my mother’s.

“Vance… I’m so glad you got my message,” she said it with a wavering voice, she sounded like she was crying too. VANCE. That was his name. I loved his name. I thought it over and over in my head, determined not to forget it again. Then I heard my father.

I stepped into the doorway, The first thing I saw was Vance, his face in his hands, weeping like I had never seen him do before. Sure he had cried in front of me, but never like this. This was something I had never seen before. He was completely overcome with sadness. He was usually so strong, he was the one to comfort someone if they were crying about something. Seeing him cry this hard made me want to as well, but I had to at least see who he was crying for first. I looked into the room.

I saw a regular hospital bed, hooked up to all sorts of monitors and tubes and things like that, my parents were in tears beside it, a doctor stood solemnly in a corner observing the emotional scene. Then I looked closer at the person in the bed. She was in bad shape. Her legs were bandaged up completely, what was left of them that is. One of them had been severed just above the knee, there was another chunk missing from the thigh, and there was a large chunk of metal jutting from the other leg. Something about that chunk was eerily familiar. Her left arm rested across her stomach, which was also also wrapped in bandages, these ones slowly turning red from the wound hidden beneath them. Her right arm simply lay beside her, not moving just like the rest of her mangled body. Then I saw her face. There was no way that I was looking at the person laying before me. It wasn’t possible. Her red hair, matted with blood, the lone freckle near her lip, the small stud in her nose, this could only be one person.

It was me.

Everything rushed back to me. I was in a world of pain. My lower half felt like it was on fire, my stomach ached in so many different ways, I had a headache so horrible that any other headache before this would have felt like a soothing massage at this point. My right arm, that’s the only part that didn’t hurt. 

I managed to open my eyes and let out a soft moan of pain, catching the attention of everyone in the room. My parents rushed over “Lynn!” said my father in a panic “Can you hear me?” so that was my name. huh.

It was painful, but I managed to whisper the word “yes” through my pain.

“Doctor, shes awake, does that mean she could make it?” came my mother’s voice through her stifled tears. I swiveled my eyes over to the silent statue of a man standing in the corner, he looked down at his feet, then to my mother and said

“I’m afraid not. She has too many internal injuries. I’m sorry to say, she may only have a few hours left. She wont last the night.”

Both my parents dissolved into uncontrollable crying holding each other tightly as if they had never separated. It was a sight I truly missed, seeing those two hold each other, I couldn’t help but smile the slightest bit at seeing them like that.

Vance stood up from his chair and came over. He had managed to calm himself down, he put on that face he always does when he’s trying to cheer me up, masking how he really felt at that dreadful moment.

“Lynn… do you remember anything that happened?”

“driving… to see you…” I heard myself say, it was all I could do not to try to hug him, I knew though it would be too painful. The doctor appeared beside him, he started talking in a soft voice telling me that some drunk driver with his headlights off had hit me head on and our cars managed to fly into the woods on that long road. The road I woke up lying on. So that’s where my car was. Somewhere in the woods off the side of the road. I had passed it twice. Not that it would have been any use, apparently it was busted up pretty bad. For god’s sake, there was a chunk of it sticking out of my leg. And apparently I wasn’t really even there when I “woke up” on that road. So many questions swirled in my mind, but I couldn’t bring myself to voice them. I tried to focus on the doctor explaining how the other driver’s car had a system that called the emergency people to the scene, but I just found myself gazing into Vance’s blue eyes and smiling, tuning the doctor out completely. 

Tears started to flow down my own face as I thought of the things we would never get to do, we would never hang out again, never load up on way too much sugar and spend the night with video games and energy drinks ever again, never have our special heart-to-heart talks about life, and worst of all, never kiss him. Hold on, maybe I could manage that last one.

“wait…” I managed to say, stopping the doctor mid sentence, something about how my heart monitor worked, I didn’t care. I had one goal and I aimed to achieve it. With all the strength I could muster I managed to say “can… I be alone… with Vance?”

Everyone looked shocked at first, then nodded to each other and slowly left the room, not going too far, I could hear them sit in some creaky chairs down the hall somewhere. 

“why did you do that Lynn?” what a stupid question.

“you must… know by now, Vance.”

“know what? Tell me, I’m listening.” He said with tears sliding down his cheek. He was losing his calm. It took a lot of effort, but I used my one good arm, and wiped the tear from his cheek then whispered the most simple words in the English language. So simple, yet so perfect, so completely necessary for this moment. 

“I love you, Vance.” The smile that spread across his face and the tears brimming again in his beautiful blue eyes were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I never wanted to stop looking at him, except maybe for one thing…

“I love you too Lynn, I have for a long time”

“I know, I have… too” too tired to talk any more, I slid my hand to the back of his neck, pulled him close, and finally kissed those lips I had been aching for all these years. It was the greatest moment of my life. When our lips finally separated, neither of us could keep from smiling, but crying all at the same time.

“I don’t have long… stay… just you… not them… stay with me until-“he put a finger to my lips to stop me.

“I understand. I’ll let them know. I’ll be right back okay?” he left the room for maybe a minute, but it felt like an eternity. When he finally came back, so did my smile, and with it, his. 

He spent the next hour beside me, we kissed a lot, and talked about all the times we were alone and wanted to tell each other how we felt but never got the chance. We talked about everything, just like it were any other day, but this time there would be no tomorrow. Not for me. These were my last moments. 

Pain struck me. Fire ripped through my chest. This was it.

With my last bit of strength I kissed him one last time, and forced myself to say “I love you” just one more time, and as darkness closed in around my vision, the last thing I saw, the last thing I heard, the last thing I ever knew and ever would know, was Vance telling me he loved me.

Then there was nothing.

After a long while in the emptiness, there was something. It was him. I remembered his name this time. Vance. He knew my name too. Without saying anything, he told me he couldn’t live without me. And now here we are, floating together through eternity.