For @tolkiengenweek day 3: Gray Spaces ● Enemies and Rivalries ● Fealty. A snippet of my fic about the precarious relationship between Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol/Gollum, and the tangled web of bonds that ensnare them. (Also inspired by the brilliant Frodo Laid A Geas thread)
The rest is on AO3: till human voices wake us (7,403 words) ---
‘How did it happen, then, precious? Did Déagol drown himself? Or did somebody make poor Sméagol do it?’
Pale, dull eyes lowered. ‘We did it ourselfs,’ Sméagol whispered.
Gollum cupped a hand around his ear. ‘What was that, my love?’
‘Sméagol did it. I did it.’
‘Yesss!’ Gollum crowed. ‘Sméagol did it. Sméagol chose it. And now Sméagol’s a nassty – little – ghostie. Candle, corpse-light, dead and rotten – Dust and ashes – gone, forgotten.’ The pale eyes flickered this way and that, as if looking for an escape. ‘Not gone, not forgotten! Master sees us; Master calls us Sméagol – ’ ‘Likes that name, he does.’ Gollum smirked darkly. ‘Master’s got uses for ghosties, after all. Be one himself soon enough.’
Sméagol shook his head violently, covering his ears. ‘No, no, no!’
‘O yes – slipping away he is, down, down, down. We knows. We remembers.’ With sudden violence Gollum dragged his clawlike nails down his own forearm, leaving a trail of welts. ‘And grabs us and grasps us as he goes, precious! For if there’s still a scrap of Sméagol left, praps there’ll be a scrap of Master – after.’ He cackled nastily. ‘Not much chance of that, no!’
