Randy has dozens of incomplete stories. And world class writer's block. So what does he do? Why, of course…wander into a new fandom. What could be more logical? (Loud boisterous guffaw.)

This came to me back in Lent of 2011. It is a "what if?" story. What if, for example, after he betrayed Our Lord, Judas Iscariot repented, while he was hanging himself? Even as the rope stretched taut?

A Roman Catholic Franciscan priest. Father Benedict Groeschel, an advocate for the poor, author, psychiatrist, and broadcaster, has spoken eloquently how God will deal with the soul, even in the closing moments of life.

In his original book, The Return Of The King, J.R.R. Tolkien makes it seem that Sméagol / dash / Gollum fell back into evil and perished, as it were, in mortal sin.

But…what if…well, read and see. It is out of that conjecture that this story came out.

Wicked And Tricksy

We snuck into the cave after them. We hit the fat hobbit's head with a rock. We hoped we cracked his stupid skull. We tried hard.

Then we fought with Master.

We realized Master's plan…to throw Precious into the fire. We couldn't let him, gollum! He and we fought like starving animals fight over a single piece of food. We wanted Precious. Everyone wanted the Precious. Orkes. Men of Gondor. Men of Harad. Easterlings and Southrons.

He wanted it, too. The Dark Lord. He made It. He gave It His soul to live in It.

Master warned us, earlier. The Precious spoke to us through him. The Precious took his mind, as It took our mind, gollum. It told us It would throw us into the fire.

And for the first time in our life, we hated the Precious. It dared to threaten us. That made us want it all the more. We would teach the Precious a lesson. It thought It could just use us and throw us away. We would show it how It how wrong It could be. Gollum!

But we were wrong. It was stronger than us. It was stronger than Master.

Master fought back. But we had sharper teeth. We bit Master's finger off. We thought we won. The Precious made us joyful. The Precious made us careless. We danced. We hopped and skipped. And we fell.

We hit the rocks many times as we fell. It cracked our bones. We landed near the river of molten lava.

We hurts, Precious. Yes, we does. Even He and His orkses didn't hurt us this bad.

We remembers. His single eye looked upon us. He saw and heard everything we ever said and did. He forced us to say the name. "Baggins!"

That hurt was nothing compared to this. We never imagined it possible to feel so much hurt. The pain is everywhere. We could walk on it, like the ground under us. It is bigger than the world. We can find caves to hide from the sun and the sky…but we can't hide from this. No, we can't.

We sees You, Precious. We holds you in our hand. Precious is shiny and beautiful. Our eyes are blurry, but we can still see the Precious. We puts You on our finger. But it doesn't help. We still hurts.

We are going to die. Gollum. Precious can't heal us.

Men of Gondor. Orkses. Black Riders. All of them hurt us. Master alone cared for us. Master loved us. Master is good.

We were fishing with our brother when he found You. You made us fall in love with You. All shiny and golden. You made us forget everything but You. We killed our brother so we could have You for a birthday present. We put You on our finger, and no one could see us! Gollum! What fun it was, to spy on people, and steal from them!

But people could still see our shadow. We grew to hate the daytime light…Yellow Face. And the nighttime light…White Face.

We ran away, so no one would hurt us. We found a cave, and in we crawled, like a worm.

We hated the trees, and the sounds of birds. We hated the wind, and the rain, and the snow. We hated the summer and winter. We crawled further, to the deepest place we could find. Just us, my Precious. Gollum.

We loved You. We treasured You. You made us immortal. You kept us invisible and we kept You found.

But You slipped away from us! You let Baggins find You!

Sméagol knows now. You went back to Him! He made You to rule the world. With You, He could control the Dwarveses. And the Elveses. Nasty Elveses! And men. Yes. Men are easy to control. He gave rings to Men, and made them Black Riders. But He couldn't keep You. He lost You. Just like I lost you. He couldn't keep You safe. Other Men took You from Him. Why did You want to return to Him?

Master was right. You are treacherous. You twist our words. You twist our heart.

You are weak. You need hands to carry you. Birds can fly. Fish can swim. Rats can walk. Even snakes can crawl. But You…someone drops You, and all You can do is roll on the ground. You have to put someone under a spell for them to pick You up.

I laugh at You.

Precious is angry. We can feel it. Yes, we can. What will you do to us, my Precious? Cast us into the fire? You already did that.

My Precious. You are evil. You are wicked and tricksy.

Nasty Precious. Wicked Precious tricks us and cheats us. We finish what Master began. We cast You into the fire. We fling you…so!

There. It is done. Who will Precious get to pick It up, now? A Black Rider? An ork? Will Precious call Her to crawl across Mordor to rescue It? She doesn't care! All She does is spin webs and eat what she catches. Sméagol should've been smarter and just caught fish.

Is She even still alive? The fat hobbit stabbed her. Maybe She is dead. Sméagol will soon be dead. And Precious. And the Dark Lord. He needed You. That's why Master came to Mordor.

Master outsmarted the Dark Lord. Master outsmarted You! He didn't want to rule the world. Nyah!

Let Precious feel hurt. Does it hurt, my Precious? Floating there on the lava? Starting to melt? Shining so brightly? Hah. Sméagol laughs again. Tell it to someone who cares.

Relief. Sméagol feels light…like a great weight is taken off his back. Sméagol hopes Master feels light. Sméagol is so sorry for biting Master's hand…hopes Master's hand will heal.

Something is wet on our cheek. A…tear? Sméagol doesn't even remember ever crying before.

Sméagol is sorry for hitting fat hobbit. Cannot remember his name. Cannot tell him. He would not believe us. Only Master ever believed us.

Sméagol hears a very loud noise. Everything shakes. Rocks fall into the lava. He feels very hot…it hurts…

…Curse us and crush us…such pain…gnash us and mash us…we hurt so bad…is Anyone there? Help us…we plead…

to be continued…

A / N

The She whom Sméagol is referring to is Shelob, the spider monster who lived in the mountain pass at Mordor's side door entrance and caught the unwary travelers. The orks referred to her as Her Ladyship.

The sense of the burden being gone I want to be reminiscent of both Frodo's sense of freedom when he is rid of the Ring, and Pilgrim's sense of freedom, as portrayed in the allegory, Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan. He looks up at the Cross whereon the Savior died, and his burden of sin rolls off his back.

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on

either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, "He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death." Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden.

He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.

Hey…like I warn my readers…I'm the Born Again Bible Thumper.

I also wanted to portray Sméagol's obsession with the Ring as being a love-hate relationship. Like an addictive behavior. An addict thinks he / she is in control, and may even feel like he / she is the dom and the habit is a submissive in a dominance / submission situation…if you catch my drift. That is what habits are about, after all.