Disclaimer: Not mine!
Author's Note: This fic. takes place juring the end of the scene "The Crack of Doom" when Frodo is hanging onto the cliff's edge, and Sam is reaching down and telling him not to let go. The song lyrics are from "The Eagles" and "The Destruction of the Ring." Both of which are featured in "The End of all Things."
There is no other choice,
There is no other way.
"Don't let go." Sam says, and for a moment he hates him for saying that.
The only thing that's holding him back, giving him the failing strength to feebly cling to the cliff's edge, is Sam, his loyal friend through all the nightmares of their journey. If Sam weren't here, he thinks, it would make letting go so much easier because there would be no one there to save him; to pull him back.
If Sam weren't here, then he could fall into the fires below him without anyone there to hear his scream, or to watch as he's swallowed whole. He could go alone, and quietly, and no one would learn until it was too late to do anything about it.
He doesn't want to feel the emptiness inside of him anymore. The emptiness left behind by the Ring when he lost it, and he wants it to go away. He wants it to be filled again with something that will take all the pain away, and numb him so he can't feel anymore.
Maybe that's it. He's tired of feeling, of caring what goes on in the world around him.
He looks down, and he barely sees the burning, liquid fire as it slowly rises. He sees something that he's longed for, something that he just knows will take the pain and the emptiness away.
He sees peace, and he doesn't register that it could be a lie; a final whispered promise of the Ring before it succumbs to its fate. But this time he actually sees the promise, and he can't help but believe it.
"Reach!"
'Don't you see it, Sam?' He wants to say, but he doesn't, and he can't. He fears that if he says anything at all he'll lose the peace that he can see at last.
He knows, somewhere deep in his mind, that maybe the peace he so seeks won't be found below him. But he doesn't want to live and remember the peace that he sees now, or the other promises of the Ring and what could have been if he'd answered them.
"Don't you let go," Sam's saying now. "Don't let go."
But Sam's whisper comes too late. He decides to listen to the final promise; decides to answer and the call of the sight below him: the Shire and Bag End; home. Somewhere that he's wanted to be for a very long time.
He doesn't hear Sam's scream of pain, or his strangled sobs, doesn't see Sam reach down and attempt to catch him. He doesn't feel the fire swallow him, or feel it burn his skin until there's nothing left but more pain.
He's beyond all that.
Is everything sad going to come untrue?
End.