Phobia Mayhem Challenge

Step One
This story was written as a response to the Phobia Mayhem Challenge from The Write Away livejournal community. The mechanics were: 1) One of the characters must suffer from a phobia, and 2) The piece has to be 2,500 to 6,500 words long. This one was 4,600+ words. The unedited version. Sorry it's a bit long but I hope you enjoy reading :-D

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Brooke couldn't believe she caved! Cousins were such a pain. It was always the taunts that got to her. Always. At school people knew here as that quiet girl in class who had a decent number of friends. She was normal there. With cousins, it was different.

Being from a big family, it was inevitable to have a few relatives of Brooke's age, or close to it, to grow old with. Twenty-two. Usually, Brooke didn't really notice the number but it were times like these when being of the youngest of them kind of made her their helpless guinea pig. 

Reunions with Brooke's family were always known to be eventful. First, the arrivals, then the catching up, then poker, then a little bit of joking around, and finally, drinks were passed around - even to the older teens given that they stayed inside the residence. Their house as it was. 

Just to clarify, those twenty-two cousins still didn't count three of Brooke's siblings, all of which were older than her. That was twenty-five irritating, taunting individuals. 

All these things were running along inside Brooke's mind and she was getting tired of it sounding repetitive. She couldn't help it. This was only the way she knew how she could stay calm. Why did she need to stay calm?

Because they wanted her to steal something. 

Just thinking about it made her breath hitch in panic and her palms start to sweat as her hands shook. Brooke wondered why she was even doing this. They knew she couldn't handle even the thought of theft but the almighty cousins knew what to poke and prod to get her to do anything they wanted. 

"Besides," one of the older ones had said, "It's only this one time, Brooke."

Yeah, one time of damnation!

The thought ambushed Brooke before she could stop it from surfacing. Stifling a groan, she tried her best to calm her breathing down. Without even seeing them, she knew her cousins were somewhere on the second floor of her house hiding behind curtained windows to watch if she would pull through. Three of those irritating people were in their early thirties for crying out loud. Majority of the rest were in their mid to late twenties. Yet, they were the most excited to see her go through this childish dare. 

"We want you," Kevin had said earlier with an ingratiating grin, "to climb the fence and steal the gnome."

It sounded ridiculous now that Brooke thought about it but Kevin meant what he said. The neighbor had a greenhouse and situated on its entrance was a freaky, knee-high gnome statue that could easily be seen from the second floor windows on the right side of the house, where, incidentally, her cousins were watching from.

Brooke felt terrible. Who stole anything during Christmas Eve? Plus, her neighbor was a kind, old woman who always sent them home-baked goods whenever her health permitted it. How could she even go through with this?

Leaning back on their side of the six-foot-high fence, Brooke glanced up at one window and saw her older sister send her an encouraging thumbs-up. For a moment, the temptation to give her the finger erupted from Brooke's gut and the out-of-character impulse had her giggling nervously. She sounded like a hyena in pain. 

"Dear God," she mumbled while rubbing her sweaty palms on her jeans. "I can't do this."

Stealing was a crime, It may not have been as serious as murder but it was still a crime. However, Brooke took it more seriously. Sometimes, too much and her siblings, as well as her loving cousins, were eager to help her deal with it the only way they knew how. By stealing the neighbor's gnome.

Some might think this whole scenario was rather over dramatic. Brooke understood her relatives' motivations though. Looking back, she couldn't really remember when it started but she had always been afraid of stealing. It worsened to a point where Brooke wouldn't pick something up from the floor at school in fear of having people accuse her of taking it without permission. She had also picked up the habit of triple checking her change whenever she bought anything anywhere. Another example was that Brooke believed that cheating was a form of stealing and as a result was a stickler for rules when they played board games.

All in all, it didn't seem so bad but her cousins meant well. They wanted her to let loose and have a little fun.  

This didn't seem fun at all.

"Go, Brooke," she mumbled to herself. "You can do this. Just this once."

Instead of calming her down, the mantra only succeeded in making her more nervous. Breath hitching again, she stumbled her way towards the tree she used to climb as a child. It was an intimidating feat seeing as that she wasn't as limber as she used to be but she was able to climb a decent height before jumping down on the other side of the fence. She didn't even want to contemplate hesitating at this point.

A muffled cheer could be heard from her house and Brooke felt annoyance overshadow her nervousness for a few seconds when she mentally cursed her relatives. How was she supposed to do this properly if the very people who dared her to do this would give her away?

A sudden onslaught of nervous tension kept her frozen in place and she had to rest her back on the side of the fence. Brooke stared wide-eyed at the gnome. It was eight giant paces away. So close. When Brooke's vision started to black out, she realized that she had been holding her breath since she dropped down on the neighbor's backyard. Exhaling roughly, she gulped in huge amounts of air only to end up dizzy from doing so. 

Why did she agree to this again? Because coming from the mouth of her cousins, her fear did seam irrational. Nobody in her family knew just how hassling it was to be afraid of something like this. To others, it may have sounded surreal and even weird. To her, it was her nightmare.

How many times had it been since people in school mistook her for being obsessive compulsive with her incessant over-checking of papers when it was her turn to pass in the test sheets from her row. Or how about being called germ phobic when she refused to move a friend’s belongings when it was clearly blocking her way. Heck, she couldn’t even borrow a library book without asking the librarian multiple times if she could use the books they had available.

Now, this was her moment. A chance to be the bravest she’d ever be. If Brooke wasn’t so scared at the prospect of what she was about to do, she’d scoff at her thoughts.

It was now or never. Brooke took a step forward and immediately backed away, gluing her back on the fence again. Her old neighbor lived alone but it was Christmas Eve. Though already very late into the evening, the woman could have had guests over and Brooke didn’t want to risk being caught trespassing. The fact that she even thought of that made her proud but it did little to diminish her fear.

Biting her lip to stop her teeth from chattering, Brooke checked, doubled-checked, and even did a third sweep with her eyes at the old neighbor’s house to her left. The backdoor seemed secure and no lights from the windows indicated that the house was a silent, sleeping entity out to intimidate her.

Swallowing the rising hysteria crawling up her throat, Brooke walked as quietly as she could towards the innocent looking greenhouse to her right. Living so far south made it so that snow made rare visits and Brooke found herself grateful for that fact. Without it the air was cold enough to leave the tips of her ears painful. Even her nose and fingers weren’t doing so well.

Absentmindedly adjusting her scarf for some semblance of warmth, Brooke continued on. Deftly she heard sounds of the party from her home and was momentarily embarrassed that they were making such a ruckus. It must have been fine though since their neighbors weren’t complaining.

Brooke walked past the half-way point when she suddenly stopped as realization sunk in. She just trespassed on her neighbor’s backyard to steal a gnome. She was here to steal that harmless looking – albeit freaky – gnome that looked as if he was guarding the old lady’s well-cared for greenhouse.

This was so stupid. A number of kids from her school would have been laughing at this and would even jump at the chance to switch places with her. Here she was with an opportunity to do something that she could look back on and laugh about with her future children – if she ever had any. This was laughable.

A normal person would find this whole escapade hilarious. Brooke wasn’t known to be normal. Instead of laughter, she burst into tears. Not the tame, manageable kind, but the sloppy, noisy bawling of a frightened girl who was at a loss as to what to do.

Who was she kidding? She couldn’t do this. As it was, Brooke could barely even stand. Throughout her sudden breakdown, her eyes remained glued to the small gnome as if waiting for him to tell her what she should do next.

“Are you okay?”

The voice and the sudden hiccup that Brooke made almost made her choke. Looking up, she noticed that the entrance to the greenhouse was opened and framed by the doorway was a person wearing sweats and a dark colored shirt. Other than that, Brooke couldn’t see him well enough since the light was very little from where she was standing.

“What are you doing here?” After a pause, he added, “Who are you?”

The tears didn’t stop. When the comprehension of being seen finally dawned on Brooke, she felt sick. It was interesting to note, however, that even caught red-handed, she was still more terrified of the act of theft rather than being caught. She’d never analyzed her fear before but knowing the reality of it didn’t make her feel any better.

“I’mheretostealthegnome,” Brooke finally managed to say trying to wipe the tears that kept sliding down her cheeks.

“Excuse me?” he sounded incredulous as if wanting to make sure he heard right.

“I,” she started trying to stay calm, “am here to steal the gnome.” Unable to help herself, Brooke continued. “It was a dare. It’s stupid. Some people would find this funny but it isn’t. I climbed the tree and jumped the fence. I can’t even remember if that really is what happened. I –“

“Stop.” Brooke bit her lower lip in trepidation. The guy gestured at her. “Why don’t you come inside? It’s warmer in here. Plus, I think it’ll calm you down.”

It only took a moment for Brooke to imagine what a sight she was – in the middle of a panic attack and sobbing her heart out. A quick glance back at her house decided for her. They couldn’t see the door from those windows. They wouldn’t know there was somebody who caught her trespassing. It was part of the dare.

You are not allowed to be seen by anyone else but us.

She failed that condition. Not that her cousins knew that. Hunching her shoulders inward, she entered the greenhouse completely avoiding the small statue she passed. A gasp of surprise escaped her. It really was warm in here. No wonder that was what the guy was wearing. On the wall opposite where Brooke was standing was a thick coat and scarf that were hanging from a hook. Those obviously belonged to him.

The greenhouse’s inhabitants were all resting on long, rectangular tables – plants surrounded her. Though Brooke knew next to nothing about it, she was sure most of the vegetation in here was growing healthily out of season. Many of which were beautiful colored flowers.

The light inside the greenhouse was dim but bright enough for Brooke to finally get a better view of the guy who had caught her red-handed. Upon seeing him, a more primal concern took hold of her. The man was huge. Tall, more like – intimidating. Messy dark curls framed his angular face and he had a scar on his left eyebrow that left a hairless line in the middle of it. Dark eyes stared back at her. Black or maybe a darker shade of something else, Brooke couldn’t tell. Then, to cap it off, a tattoo on his right bicep peeking under the short sleeve of his shirt just made him look more intimidating.

Tears stopped but the hiccuping was still there. There was a youthful hint on the guy’s face that made Brooke think they were around the same age. Curiosity getting the better of her, she asked, “Who are you?”

 His raised eyebrow made her think he wouldn't answer but he simply said, “The grandson of the person who owns that house. You?”

“The neighbor.”

“From the rowdy bunch? The one who holds parties every Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve?” Seeing the surprised look that crossed her face, he added, “I visit my grandmother every year.”

“Only you?”

“Only me,” he replied with a small nod. “Not that I don’t find this exchange rather interesting, I’d much rather go back to my earlier questions. Are you okay? Who are you? What are you doing here?”

With a sigh, Brooke debated with herself about telling him anything. For the second time that night, she caved. “My name is Brooke. Yes, I live in that rowdy house next door. I’m here to steal the gnome that’s guarding this greenhouse and no, I am not okay.”

Brooke had avoided looking at him while she said all that but she took a chance at checking to see what he thought of what she just declared. Curious, bored, but somewhat amused. That was how he was taking it. He seemed to have also found a stool somewhere and was now sitting on it, elbow resting on the edge of a table, his chin resting on his palm.

“You’re here to steal the gnome?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because my cousins dared me to.”

“And do you always do what your cousins tell you to?”

She hesitated. “No.”

“Then why do it?” When she didn’t answer, he decided to proceed with his interrogation. “I like this place.” Brooke furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at the sudden change of topic. “My mother never had the same fascination my grandmother had with plants. I do. My grandmother takes good care of this greenhouse but she’s old so I try to stop by once in a while to check up on her and the plants. The familiarity of seeing things in order is soothing. The same goes with Tom Bombadil.”

“What does The Lord of the Rings have to do with this?”

Surprise crossed his features and a delighted smile appeared on his face. The sight of which was stunning. His bored look made him appear dull but the grin now adorning his lips showed just how attractive he was. Brooke felt unjustly misled.

“You’ve read it?”

Due to her train of thought, she felt lost. “Read what?”

“Tolkien books?”

Reluctantly, she nodded “A lot of people have.”

“Not as many as you’d think.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“I guess but it sure gets me on a better mood. As I was saying, Tom Bombadil, the gnome, will be greatly missed if he suddenly goes missing.”

“You named the gnome Tom Bombadil?”

“No, my grandmother did. Why are you going to steal the gnome?”

Now that the tears weren’t making an appearance and that her panic had momentarily gone, Brooke was able to think better. With a little shuffle of her feet, she replied, “I need to steal that gnome.”

The guy looked amused. “Ok, why do you need to steal the gnome?”

This was probably the weirdest conversation she’d ever had. “I need to steal the gnome because if, no, when I get it, it’s going to be a life changing event.”

Amusement gone, he became perplexed. It was obvious he was trying to work it out in his brain but failed to make sense of it. “How do you figure?”

How? Could she really tell him this? With a labored sigh, Brooke readied herself to speak but stopped when he raised his hand. Standing up, he gave her his stool, went to the back of the greenhouse, and came back with his own and sat down. She did the same.

“Are we really going to discuss this?”

He shrugged. “Unlike your house, I’m the only visitor my grandmother ever has during the holidays. She sleeps early and now I’m bored. Humor me.”

So she would. “I’m afraid of stealing.”

A few beats of silence. “That’s supposed to be a good thing isn’t it?”

“Not to me.” He got even more confused at this so Brooke decided to elaborate. “To me it’s all psychological. For example, I go to a friend’s house, proceed to the kitchen, and see a knife on the kitchen counter. There’s a curious child nearby who might find the knife to be a nifty toy to play with. It’s only logical to put the knife away right?”

He nodded. Brooke went on. “I wouldn’t be able to touch it, let alone put it away. For me, I would think I was stealing it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. In a restaurant, I can’t even take a bottle of ketchup without asking the management for it.”

His mouth opened as if about to say something but thought better of it. Tapping his finger repeatedly on his thigh, he finally said, “So this is like therapy for you? Stealing Tom, I mean.”

With a slow nod, Brooke watched as the boy in front of her gave her a thoughtful look. She was getting nervous about what he’d say; which was probably the reason why she was slightly startled when he asked, “Aren’t you feeling a bit warm in that?”

Brooke did feel warm. To rectify that, she merely loosened her scarf and unbuttoned her coat. Removing them seemed to imply she would be staying here a while so she didn’t bother. As she fixed her attire, he started to speak, “Let’s go back to Tom. If I understand you, you have a stealing phobia.”

“Yes.”

“You are so afraid of the idea of stealing, even unintentionally, that it interferes with your life.”

“Yes.”

“How bad is it?”

She shrugged. “I’ve never been tested. I know that it could get worse though.”

“Undoubtedly. Now your cousins are daring you to steal Tom so that it would help you with this… problem of yours?”

Brooke scoffed at that. “No, they’re not that noble. They did it because they know that it would be impossible for me to do it.”

“And yet you’re here.”

A sudden smile crossed her features. “Yeah. I guess I did ok.”

When he didn’t reply immediately, Brooke looked up and found him studying her. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he grinned. “Neighbor girl, you smile pretty.” Embarrassed, Brooke ducked her head making him chuckle.

“Tell you what,” he said standing up. With practiced ease, he pushed the stool under a table with his foot. “Go ahead and take good ol’ Tom.”

Surprised, Brooke’s head whipped around to look at him. He pulled her to stand and headed for the door. Alarmed, Brooke tugged at his arm to stop him. “You can’t go out. My cousins are watching from my house. They can’t see inside the greenhouse but if you step out they’ll know something’s up. Plus,” she sighed. “I can’t take the gnome anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because you already caught me at it. You’re just practically giving him to me. That makes it invalid.”

He turned to face her fully. Crouching down slightly so that they were eye-level, he reasoned with a tick of each finger. “First of all, I caught you having a nervous breakdown.”

“I didn’t have a ner –“

“Second,” another digit goes up. “I have no right to give you Tom since it was never mine to begin with.”

“Yes, but –“

“Third,” another finger went up. “The act of stealing is done in secret and without permission from the owner. Like I said, I don’t own dear ol’ Tom. Since I’m somehow now involved, we can do this in the mode of a partnership.”

“Partnership?”

 “Yes. Me as an accessory.”

“You,” she said slowly in the attempt to wrap her head around the idea. “Are going to commit a crime with me?”

Grinning widely, he replied, “Thus the phrase, ‘partner-in-crime.’”

Brooke was shaking her head before he could even finish what he was saying. “That’s just crazy. I can’t let you.”

“You don’t really have a choice. It’s either you make me a partner now or you can do this some other day, which, I highly doubt you can accomplish judging by how you reacted earlier when you came face-to-face with Bombadil over there.”

He had a point. Brooke started to fidget. This was just getting from bad to worse. Then she remembered that she actually had to succeed in stealing Tom by the end of the night making her nauseous.

“I don’t think I can do this.”

“Don’t say that.” They went quiet. “I have an idea.” Brooke watched as he approached her and held on to her shoulders. “Would you feel up to it if I said that I would steal Tom back?”

Brooke’s heart skipped a beat. “You’d do that?”

“We are partners after all.” Then he laughed. “This is so weird.”

It was weird. Not in the way he thought though. How many people in the world could honestly say that hearing a guy volunteer to steal something back would sound so sweet? It made Brooke smile.

“There it is,” he said suddenly. “You really do smile pretty, neighbor girl.”

He really should stop saying that. “I told you I’m Brooke. Stop calling me neighbor girl. I’m Brooke Walden.”

He smiled. “Nice to meet you.” He walked behind her, held her shoulders, and ushered her towards the door. “We can’t have you chickening out so you have to do it now.”

Brooke’s surprise made her dig her heels on the ground but that didn’t stop their progress. Before she could even protest, he opened the doorway and gave her a gentle push until she stumbled outside.

“Go ahead,” he encouraged. “I’ll come back in a minute.”

With that, he vanished inside the greenhouse leaving her alone with the gnome. Looking at little Tom Bombadil, Brooke was surprised that her fear wasn’t so profound. Instead of analysing it further, she stooped down, wrapped her arms around good ol’ Tom, and lifted him up.

Not anticipating its startlingly heavy weight, Brooke staggered and adjusted the gnome’s position in her hold. At the sudden muffled cheer from her house, she winced. So, her cousins were still watching after all. The thought only irritated her.

“Brooke,” called the neighbor’s grandson from inside the greenhouse. It was the first time he’d call her that. Her name sounded odd coming from him. She realized she’d much rather he called her Neighbor Girl but didn’t mention it.

 “Come here,” he waved at her with an amused tilt to his lips. He must have heard her cousins. When she was close enough to him, Brooke tightened her embrace on Tom Bombadil and leaned closer when he bent down to whisper something in her ear.

“Remember,” he said. “I’m stealing that back.” Feeling a tug at the left hip side of her coat, Brooke almost glanced down to check what he was doing but stopped when he held on to her elbow. “Check your pocket later when you get home.”

That was it. Brooke glanced up at his face to see him smile down at her. She backed away. There he stood on the opened doorway. Sweats and a dark colored shirt, the tattoo on his right bicep hidden by the growing distance as she retreated.

“If you’re jumping the fence, there’s a shed there that might help,” he called out with a wave of goodbye.

Brooke twiddled her fingers as a form of goodbye and gave a small enough nod so that her relatives wouldn’t find it suspicious. With a little turn, she saw the shed immediately. Without giving her neighbor’s grandson a final glance she rushed towards it and felt immensely grateful that the shed was easy enough to climb.

Tom Bombadil went up the roof first with a little helpful push from Brooke. Then, after a quick strategic manoeuvring, she was up there with the gnome. Standing up seemed to be a stupid thing to do on top of the shed so Brooke opted on crawling to the edge where it was connected to the fence. Once there, she saw that her eldest brother, Tim, was waiting for her on the other side.

“Hurry up,” he whispered excitedly.

Brooke took Tom Bombadil first and handed it over to her brother. Tim took it from her and assisted her down. Once her feet hit the ground, she breathed easier. Finally, home.

“You okay?” Tim asked checking her over.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Good.” Without waiting for her, Tim rushed inside the house and, again, jubilant cheers erupted from inside.

Brooke didn’t know if she was going to be angry or amused at their lack of concern for her. When her name was suddenly chanted inside, she knew it was time for her to make an appearance. Before that though, she reached for her coat pocket near her hip and felt a piece of folded paper inside. Taking it out, she unfolded it and read.

Steal it back
Name’s Austin Kessler
I go to Fullerton High
Tom doesn’t count
Think of it as a twelve-step program of sorts

I’ll be waiting Neighbor Girl

Confused, she read it again. So, his name was Austin. Fullerton High was a thirty minute drive from here. The only reason why Brooke knew that was because her parents had debated once if she should go there. What did he mean steal it back? Wasn’t it him who was supposed to do that?

It was then Brooke noticed. Her scarf was missing. She bit her lower lip to stop herself from smiling. That sneaky giant. Though the idea of actually doing what the note said gave her a good dose of anxiety, Brooke welcomed the new sensation of excitement as she read the note again.

Steal it back

Could she?

Think of it as a twelve-step program

She laughed at that.

I’ll be waiting Neighbor Girl

That line right there was her downfall. Folding the paper and pocketing it back in her coat, Brooke walked towards her rowdy home with a preoccupied mind. She was doubtful about pulling off stealing her scarf but strangely enough, she wanted to do it. Austin may have said that Tom didn’t count but for her it did. It was a very big accomplishment. Brooke even felt she could accomplish anything now if she had her mind set to it.

Then she saw the toy on the floor by the backdoor’s entrance. A pale apple green plastic elephant that must have belonged to one of her nieces or nephews. The thought of picking it up made her fidget.

Oh, well. Back to square one it seemed. How in the world was she ever going to get her scarf back?

-0-

Disclaimer: I do not own Tom Bombadil especially The Lord of the Rings. Both are from the amazing imagination of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.