If you recognize this story then you honestly deserve a veteran's discount at this point. And I deserve to be stoned in the town square for rewriting it for the thousandth time.

This story was first published in December 2013, finished in 2018, rewrites began in 2019, and then last month I took it all down and said to hell with it, I've moved on. Since then I've received many, uh, polite and not-so-polite messages asking where this fic went, and due to my annoying penchant for nostalgia and some nudging from my dear friend Papergirlpapertownn (who was also kind enough to make me this shiny new cover - please check out her works when you have the chance, she is wonderful!), it is back. Again. And shall be rewritten in full the way it was always supposed to be.

I'm not sure how active this fandom is anymore, but this was the first fic I ever published and finished, so it holds a special place in my heart and I'd love to mark it as 'Complete' again. If you care to join me for the ride, then you are most welcome! I hope that you will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Anyway, enough from me. Please be so kind as to leave a review if you enjoyed it!

And if you've stuck around this long: Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Your support has meant so much to me over the years and I can never thank y'all enough.


Chapter One

Of Books, Bus Stops, and Shortcuts

Alison Ashburne wondered—not for the first time—why of all the days in the year, her mother had chosen that particular week to ground her from her car as she watched the rain pour outside the classroom window.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, and there was a flurry of movement as students stood up, collecting their things and practically running out the door, ready to enjoy their weekend.

Alison packed away her notebooks and pens more slowly, already imagining how uncomfortable she'd be waiting for the bus in the downpour, and she silently cursed her mother once again.

"Hey, Ali, you ready for the dance hall this weekend?"

Alison turned at the voice of her best friend, Lexi, and saw the blonde girl waggle her eyebrows and grin, flashing her fake ID at her.

"Lex, you know better than anyone that I'm grounded for the next three weeks," Alison said, slinging her bag over her shoulder as they exited the classroom. After five minutes, the school was already deserted, and their footsteps echoed down the polished hallway.

"That's like, three years." Lexi wrinkled her nose in distaste. "What am I supposed to do without you?"

"I don't know; maybe go with your boyfriend?" Alison suggested sarcastically.

Lexi rolled her eyes. "You know Jacob doesn't like dancing."

"I don't either, but somehow you always manage to get me to come." Alison pushed open the front doors, and the two girls stopped under the overhang of the school, listening to the rain patter on the roof. Alison sighed at the sight of the soaked parking lot, already dreading her sodden walk to the bus stop.

"Are you sure you don't need a ride?" Lexi asked, noticing her reluctance, but Alison shook her head.

"My mom said I have to take the bus into town," she said. "It's part of my punishment. And, yes, she asked Mrs. Robinson next door to watch and make sure no one else drops me off," she added when Lexi opened her mouth.

"I feel so bad," Lexi said, wringing the sleeves of her raincoat. "I shouldn't have convinced you to sneak out to go to that concert. I had no idea—"

"Lexi, it's fine," she assured. "It was my fault I got caught, anyway. Don't blame yourself for me being a dumbass."

"Yeah, but—"

"Hey," Alison said firmly, "don't beat yourself up about it. I'll see you on Monday, all right? Enjoy your weekend."

She forced herself to smile, and Lexi grinned back.

"Okay. Be safe." Lexi waved as she sprinted to her silver Ford Focus, getting drenched within seconds. Once her friend was inside her car, Alison dropped her smile, looking at the rain in disgruntlement.

She watched Lexi drive out of the parking lot, sorely wishing she had taken her up on her offer as she pulled her jacket hood up over her head and began to walk in the direction of the bus stop. She cursed herself for being stupid and not bringing an umbrella before storming out of her house that morning, but after her mom had told her that she wasn't allowed to drive her car for the next three weeks and she would have to take the charter bus to get back into town, she'd been so angry that she'd left without even glancing at her weather app.

A part of Alison felt guilty for what she had done—lying to her mom and climbing out of her bedroom window to go to some concert at the dance hall in town, and then getting caught because she had forgotten to disable the security alarm—but she was tired of being a goody-two-shoes, living in the same boring, small Texas town and doing the same boring things every night. She felt like her life was supposed to mean something more than school and sports and homework. She knew she was meant for greater things, for adventures or something of the sort, but she was stuck in the same repetitive life, like a broken record that kept playing the same part over and over again with no way out, and it pissed her off. Why couldn't her mom just understand that?

She approached the deserted bus stop, her teeth chattering from the uncomfortable chill of the October rainfall, and sat down on the bench, the awning over her head offering some shelter from the downpour. She checked her phone, seeing that the time only read 4:15, and groaned, yanking her headphones from her bag. The bus wasn't going to be there for another ten or fifteen minutes at least, and she began to form a passionate argument against her mother in her head as she jammed the earbuds in her ears and blasted her music.

Alison gazed across the desolate road to the gray and bleak farmland, the sky beyond it obscured by heavy rain clouds. Not knowing what else to do, she just stared across the road and sang out loud, not having anyone around to hear her.

She'd only been there for a few minutes before she suddenly felt a prickle on the back of her neck like she was being watched. It was only then that she realized that she was not alone anymore and that an old man was now seated on the bench beside her. She started, ripping her earbuds out and feeling her face burn at the thought that this man had just had to experience her horrific singing.

"Oh, my gosh!" she said, shutting off her music and stowing away her phone in her pocket. "I am so sorry, sir—I didn't know you were there, I'm so sorry."

The old man smiled kindly at her, his eyes a piercing blue that contained wisdom beyond her own years. "Don't be sorry, my dear. I apologize for sneaking up on you, but you seemed so wrapped up in your music that I didn't want to disturb you."

"Again, I'm sorry for that," she said, trying for a smile that just came out awkward.

"Don't be." The old man held out his hand. "I am Mr. Grey."

She shook his hand. "Alison Ashburne."

"What a lovely name," Mr. Grey remarked, adjusting comfortably on the bench. "Very strong; very proud."

"Er, thank you," she said. Not knowing what else to say, she instead observed Mr. Grey from the corner of her eye, fiddling with the zipper on her jacket when he made no further attempt to speak to her.

He was dressed in a light gray suit with a matching hat, which covered his close-cropped gray hair and cast his benign, lined face into shadow. He carried a brown leather briefcase, but there was no umbrella in sight, even though he was perfectly dry. She wondered what such a sophisticated man was doing at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, and her sudden curiosity goaded her back into speech.

"So…" She smiled nervously when Mr. Grey looked at her again with those piercing eyes. "Do you, um, live around town or anything?"

"No," he replied, cheery. "I'm merely visiting."

"Family? Friends?" She wished she hadn't opened her mouth again, for the scrutiny of his gaze was uncomfortable. She prayed that the bus would be coming soon.

"You could say a friend."

He smiled, looking back out to the rain. Alison just sat there, wary and awkward.

After they lapsed back into silence, Mr. Grey opened his briefcase. Alison caught a glimpse of a strange piece of paper, almost like a weird map, before the case snapped closed again. Mr. Grey had taken out a small paperback book, worn and slightly beat up, and she felt a twinge of annoyance. She was an avid book lover, and it pained her to see books that had gone through abuse.

She peered closer at the faded green cover and uttered a small gasp of pleasure when she recognized the novel. "The Hobbit!"

Mr. Grey looked at her with a sparkle of amusement. "You've read it?"

"Yes, but it was a long time ago." She frowned, remembering how much her father had loved reading it to her, and suddenly wished she hadn't said anything. "I don't really remember it that much, to be honest."

Luckily, she didn't have to listen to his response, for at that moment the charter bus trundled into view down the road. She stood quickly, shouldering her bag and preparing to brave the rain again when Mr. Grey's voice stopped her.

"Have you ever been on an adventure, Miss Ashburne?"

Alison turned, startled by the question. "Excuse me?"

"An adventure," he repeated. He tapped the cover of The Hobbit. "Like this one."

She figured he must be pulling her leg, but he looked at her in genuine curiosity.

"Um…no," she replied as the bus pulled to a screeching stop in front of her. "I've only been out of this town a dozen times in my life, as lame as that sounds." She shrugged. "Never even been out of the state, either. But an adventure like Bilbo Baggins's would be fun."

She meant it sarcastically, just playing along with him, but he seemed delighted by her answer.

"Really!" His eyes twinkled with something she couldn't identify, and she grinned half-heartedly as the bus doors swung open. "Perhaps there is some hope yet to come for you then, Miss Ashburne."

"Yeah, okay," she said, edging closer to the bus. "Nice chat."

She was about to climb aboard when his voice stopped her again. "Oh, and Miss Ashburne?"

She refrained from rolling her eyes before looking back over her shoulder. Mr. Grey was still seated leisurely on the bench, making no move to join her as he held up his book. "Read The Hobbit again. I'm sure you will find it…inspiring."

Alison only nodded in reply, punching in her bus card and taking a seat near the front. There was only one other person on board, seated in the back and snoring with a pair of headphones on.

The bus doors swung closed, and the vehicle began to move when Alison noticed that Mr. Grey had not gotten on after her.

"Um, sir?" she called to the bus driver. "There's another person at this stop we need to wait for."

Though Mr. Grey had been slightly uncomfortable and annoying, he was still elderly, and she didn't want to leave him in the rain. However, the bus driver just gave her a strange look through his rearview mirror and said, "There's no other person at that stop, ma'am. Sorry."

"What?" she muttered.

She swung around in her seat, about to point out Mr. Grey—except he wasn't there. The bench was devoid of any gray-suited, briefcase-carrying old man, as was the surrounding vicinity. It was as if Mr. Grey had simply vanished.

The bus started forward again, heading toward town. Alison watched the stop fade into the rain in disbelief, refusing to accept that Mr. Grey was gone. He was there. She had seen him with her own eyes; spoken to him and shaken his hand. He couldn't be gone.

But he was, and Alison didn't know what else to think except that he had left when she had gotten on the bus. Pushing back her damp hood, she settled into her seat and tried not to think of Mr. Grey again. She managed to succeed for quite a few months, but of course, fate always had other plans.

And Alison Ashburne was about to discover just what exactly her fate was.


Six Months Later

"I can't do this anymore," Alison moaned, rubbing her temples with her fingers. "My brain is fried."

"I feel you," Lexi replied through a yawn, dropping her pencil on her paper and stretching out her fingers.

"How about we stop here and regroup tomorrow?" Kyle suggested, his eyes bloodshot behind his glasses as he took a last sip from his coffee cup.

"Agreed," Victoria said, stacking her papers and putting them into her backpack. "Same time, same place?"

The study group all mumbled in agreement, packing up their various belongings sluggishly, slow and dull from their hard afternoon of studying for final exams.

Alison was the first to get up and was about to leave when Lexi stopped her. "Oh, Ali, here." She pulled out a pair of jeans from her bag and tossed them to Alison. "Thanks for letting me borrow them."

"No problem," Alison said. She was too lazy to put them in her backpack, so she just slung them over her arm as she headed out the door, waving over her shoulder to her friends.

The late April humidity clung to her skin as she crossed the empty street, leaving the coffee shop where they'd been holed up for the better part of the day behind as she hopped onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road. Night had just fallen, and the street lamps flickered on, providing soft pools of orange light for her to walk through as she made her way home.

To her right was the small downtown square of West, Texas, everything already closed and locked up for the night except for a few restaurants and the dance hall, where she could hear the whoops and laughter of people as they danced and the rhythmic, twangy pounding of country music. To her left was the tiny park, thick with pecan trees and dark from the absence of artificial lights, and she ducked in, for she knew a path through the park that would practically lead her to her front doorstep.

She breathed in the fresh, clean scent of dirt and trees as she wound her way through the shortcut. After a couple of minutes, she began to see the glow of house lights in the distance, and she made her way toward them until she was forced to halt abruptly.

It was as if she had run face-first into a glass door. Alison smashed her head into it, hurting her nose, and fell back into the grass, her bag falling from her shoulder and hitting the ground with a muffled thud.

"Ow," she grunted, rubbing her nose. "What the hell?"

She felt in front of her, not seeing the thing she had run into, but after a few seconds of groping her fingers pushed up against something solid. She sat up on her knees, pushing forward still, but it was as if there was an invisible barricade in front of her, refusing to budge.

"What the hell?" she repeated. She felt to her sides and encountered the same thing; pressing back, her shoulder blades connected with the same solid, invisible wall. She scrambled to her feet and banged on the invisible walls, trying to find a way out.

"Hello? Hello!" she yelled, but she knew it was hopeless. She was still in the middle of the dark and deserted park, and she doubted that anyone would be able to hear her. "Somebody please help!"

She suddenly felt a blow to her stomach as if someone had punched her in the gut, driving the air from her lungs. She collapsed to the ground, still trying to scream and push as her stomach heaved. She clawed at the invisible walls as bright light flooded her vision.

"Help! Help!" she screamed.

And then the ground split open beneath her.

As Alison began to fall, she grabbed onto the first thing her hand found, which was—wow, thank God—the jeans that Lexi had given back to her.

Screaming and grappling at empty air, Alison and her pants fell and fell, until she crashed into something hard and solid and blacked out.

When she awoke, a pair of familiar, piercing blue eyes greeted her, and an eerily familiar voice said, "So. You have finally arrived."

Alison looked up groggily and saw Mr. Grey standing over her, looking very strange and different from how she last remembered him.

"Welcome to Middle-earth," he said.

Blackness swirled in Alison's vision. Before she passed out again, she managed to croak out one word: "Shit."


Until next time!

(Keep in touch! You can find me on Tumblr at booty-boggins)