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Frodo slowly woke up while he was being carried by an orc up and up, through stairs and corridors. Finally they reached a small room in which the orc threw him and slammed the door. He heard a key turn in the lock. The only light in the room came from a small hole in the wall, way to small to get out through, but it gave him possibility to look around the room. His fingers fumbled around his neck but didn't find anything. He fell to his knees and tears filled his eyes. The mission had failed. Middle-Earth would fall, all because of him. He didn't make it. The ring was back in the hands of Sauron, and the dark lord would enslave the world, and cover it in a second darkness.

When he lifted his gaze, he could make out two small figures in the end of the room. He went over there and found glowing ash from a fire. Frodo took a closer look at the limp forms on the floor and nearly got a shock when he saw they were Merry and Pippin. But he did not recognize his little cousins, no longer happy, sparkling and full of life, but thin and pale. They were covered in blood, some of it dried, and their hands looked awful, as if the skin almost had been burned off. Speaking of skin, their backs did not have much of it left, their shirts were torn in pieces, probably by a whip. Their hands and legs were bound, but the ropes on their hands were black and looked possible to fall apart as soon as anyone moved them. Frodo thought they were dead, but shook them lightly to make sure.

'Merry? Pippin?' Their eyelids popped up simultaneously and they slowly, with much effort sat up.

'Frodo, is that really you? We thought it might be an orc! We were pretending to be unconscious, they are just waiting for us to wake up, so they can keep "interrogating" us. We didn't tell them anything, don't worry,' said Pippin. Frodo lowered his head and bit his lip.

'Don't think that matters much now, though' it was just a whisper from Frodo, but his cousins heard him in the silence.'

'Where is Sam?' Frodo looked up.

'I don't know. There was a big spider attacking me, I think Sam got away, but I'm not sure, I blacked out. I hope he got away.

'Then maybe he took it. I mean, if he thought you were dead, the mission would still have to be done. Maybe he will continue and throw in the ring. How are you, are you hurt?' asked Merry.

'No, I don't think so, the spider might have hurt me, I'm a little sore. But what about you, you look terrible, what did they do?'

'Well,' said Pippin, 'they wanted information, so they started with beating us with lashes, then when they didn't get anything, they started a fire and put our hands in it. I think they were very angry with us when they left, so they're probably planning something worse for next time.

'Worse!' Frodo exclaimed, 'I don't know how you're feeling, but after what I can see, you wont be able to take much more.' His younger cousins first looked down and then up at him again.

'Look,' started Merry, 'when we came here, we knew that they would torture us, and we knew that after they had given us as much as we could take, we would die. And,' he made a pause, 'we're not exactly looking forward to that day with horror. You'll know when you've been here a while, you just can't see any other end, and when it is the way it is here, that end might better come quick. Suddenly, they heard the key turn in the door. Merry and Pippin quickly got down on the floor in the exact same position as before, and pretended to be unconscious. Frodo didn't really know what to do, so he did the same. An orc stepped forward, looked at them and growled.

'Still unconscious, and the new one is too. Maybe the spider put some poison in it. Come on, let's go, we've got more important matters to tend to.' The orcs left again, and after making sure they were gone, the hobbits sat up again.

'I thought you said you wanted to die, why do you keep pretending like that?' Merry and Pippin looked at each other, finally Pippin spoke.

'Look Frodo, the wounds on our backs go deep and the room is very dirty. They have probably been infected already. I don't know much about healing and stuff, but we think that we soon will get sick, and eventually, well.die. That end is better than killed by slow torture.' Frodo was completely devastated, he didn't recognize his cousins anymore. His young, sweet cousins talking about death and dying as if they spoke of having a picnic. He wanted to cry, but didn't. Instead he kept quiet, crawling into a corner. Merry came after him and sat down beside him.

'Look Frodo, we will die here, whether we want it or not. This might just be the best way, at least the best you can do here. Frodo, you have to try to escape. You are still healthy enough to go. Please Frodo, you must find a way, before they start torturing you too. I have no idea how, but we'll find something out.' Frodo blinked away his tears and looked up at him.

'I don't know if I want to, if you're here, doomed to die. Maybe, I mean probably, *he* has got the ring too, and then what's the point in escaping?' Merry didn't say anything, he just looked back at Frodo. Frodo took up Merry's hands and looked at them.

'Does it hurt?' Merry gave a slight nod.

'Yes, but not so much as it hurts me to think about the shire, everything gone. Not as thinking about Middle-earth, all covered in darkness, nothing happy or alive anymore. Please Frodo. If Sam still has got the ring, you can help him. The next time an orc opens the door, you must stand right next to it and sneak out, okay?' Frodo nodded through tears. Then he carefully hugged both of his cousins goodbye, and went to sit next to the door.

They waited for about an hour, and then they heard the key in the door again, when the door opened, Frodo was ready to sneak out, but what he saw almost made him fall flat on his back by surprise.

A/N I'm writing in school today, and I managed to get a whole chapter ready. As I have told you before, I'm not English, I'm Swedish, and that's kinnda lucky, coz I don't know if I would be allowed to write this in my mother tongue.bye for today.