Chapter 35: Just a Memory
Tick, tock. The Ring is a clock. A hypnotizing pendulum of greed and desire. Lustful whispers taunting the most vain weakness: power: control. "Larkspur, Larkspur,.. I know what you desire...You can have it...just take me...so simple, so easy...You don't want this filthy hobbit to have the power you deserve...Kill him! Take me..."
"Go on! Throw it in the fire!" Sam hollered.
I flinched. My lip was curled, baring my teeth. Frodo had to get rid of it before our longing overcame us. "What are you waiting for?" I screamed.
"Just let it go!" Sam pleaded.
Time past. It felt like years, but was only ten seconds. Slowly Frodo rotated around, the chain hanging off his fingers, a cold dead look of lust engraved on his face; his eyes rimmed with red and trance, ice grey. "The Ring is mine." He snarled. With a snap, he ripped the Ring off its chain and slid it onto his pointer finger. He vanished from sight.
"No!" Sam and I yelled.
A shockingly hard object smacked into the base of my skull. The world spun like a whirlpool. Losing all feeling, I collapsed into a numb heap.
Several seconds later, I shook most of the dizziness out of my head. I bolted up just in time to see, to my utter horror, two creatures go tumbling over the edge of the Crack of Doom.
"FRODO!" I shrieked and scrambled to the edge.
He's gone. He's gone again. For real this time. Oh, Frodo: we were so close! So close...I trembled, shaking with apprehension, tears streaming down my face as I slowly gazed over the edge, terrified by what I would see.
My stomach dropped. I couldn't believe my eyes; to my surprise and utter relief, he was hanging onto a ledge, several feet below the top of the ledge. I lowered my hand down to him so he could grab on. He gazed down at the fiery chasm with depressed eyes; he knew it could be so easy now, just to give up, to end all his pain. But I wouldn't stand for it. "Don't you let go" I pleaded. "Don't give up on me. Not now. Not ever. Not after all we've done. You are not that weak. You are not that inherent to evil." I prayed. "Reach!"
With a look of demure, but growing hope, he threw his bloody left hand up to mine and clasped it with all of his might. I yanked him up the side of the crack just as the Ring disappeared under the surface of the lava. All the tension and pressure in the atmosphere zapped and vanished.
Relief swarmed over me. It was over.
It was just a memory.