Trust no one

So many vultures soared in the sky with their low, guttural hisses that showed their impatience.

Majestic in their ugliness these predators and harbingers of death soared high in the darkened skies.

As they circled the vicious atrocities being committed below.

Not even the threat of an approaching thunderstorm would keep those vultures from swiftly swooping down to get a bite to eat. 

Outside the prison walls mass drownings had been happening for months.

Having so many prisoners to feed was putting a strain on the national budget, drowning execution style was the proposed solution.

Thousands of accused were taken out on barges to the middle of the Loire River and amongst them were Millicent and Melisandre.

Many prisoners were dehydrated, half starved and beaten within an inch of their lives.

Groans of the dying could be heard as they thrashed around in pain. 

Majority of the prisoners were filthy, soaked in their own bodily fluids as sanitary conditions in the prisons were poor. 

Being forced to march from the prison to the river banks meant that many dropped like flies along the way, too weak to put up a fight or even try to escape.

Trussed up like turkeys, the condemned were tossed onto wooden planks of the barge.

Holes had been punched into the sides of the flat-bottomed barges.

Already weighed down by the excessive weight of the human cargo it was slowly sinking.

The water had now passed her hips as it continued its unbearably slow descent leading them all to a watery grave.

Turbulent waves splashed salt water in their faces and burned their wounds as they drifted out to sea. 

Abandoned by their captors, a few managed to break free of their restraints and tried to swim back to the shores, their blood seeping out into the water as they drifted.

Amused, those savage guards didn't hesitate to use their sharpened sabers to jab and attack the prisoners.

Helpless victims watched as those that tried to escape died in the murky waters.

Leaving those still left alive to struggle and shout tortured cries for help to no avail.

As their bodies slowly submerged beneath the icy river water.

Their only recourse was for their lifeless bodies to drift to shore after being half-eaten by fish.

"Trust no one."

Her mother's strained and raspy voice brought Melisandre Belmont back to reality and out of her private musings.

Every now and again a fat, heavy raindrop splattered on the heads of naked men and women.

Strangers bound together tightly by rope and packed more closely than a tin of mackerel.

Coldness filled the air, a reflection of the heart of a young lady experiencing real loss for the first time.

Beside the young lady a weary mother's eyes slowly dimmed, as her breathing got harder. 

"I'm sorry my child, it was my foolish decisions that brought you into this world. So in your next life live cautiously, never share your real thoughts and feelings with others, don't fall for that fallacy called love." 

Frustrated, this mother turned her neck to the side to speak to her daughter, choosing to focus on her most precious daughter in a world that has gone mad.

A cacophony of groans nearly drowned out her mother's soft, pleading words.

"Even if you feel lonely it's just for a season and time never stands still. Never forget and honor my dying words so that your days may be long upon the earth."

Some stranger wretched behind her and Melisandre felt cold vomit slide down her back and sent shivers down her spine. 

Determined to get her words across and despite her lips turning purple, Millicent used the last energy she had to hold this important conversation.

A mother's love meant that she would give it her all, her dying breath, sacrificing her own life force to keep her daughter alive, a lingering hope for a brighter future for her child.

Millicent needed to keep her daughter's attention and not have her distracted by the pandemonium occurring all around them.

By asking forcefully, "can you promise me that?"

Melisandre closed her eyes, after slowly exhaling, she reopened them and said, "I promise."

Why did things turn out this way, why did their neighbors betray them? 

Melisandre had played with Laurence as children and never realized he harbored such lustful thoughts and resentment towards her family. 

"Trust no one," repeated her mother.

These were the last words Melisandre Belmont heard from her mother's lips. 

She spat those words out with her last dying breaths, a cruel parting from Melisandre's last known living relative.

A sad goodbye to the only parent she had left in the world.

Up to her neck in water and unaware of how much time had passed.

Melisandre no longer cared about living, she looked forward to joining her parents in heaven soon. 

Revenge was the last thing on her mind when the water reached her lips, she would leave that despicable Durand family to their own karma. 

When the water was almost to her eyes, now her hands and feet felt numb, almost as if her body had gone immune to the freezing cold water.

Then Melisandre thought to herself, she can't go to heaven without fulfilling her promise to mother.

How would Melisandre be able to hold her head up high before her parent's if she took the coward's way out.

Melisandre finally admitted to herself that she didn't want to die.

Attracted to the stench of blood and body parts floating in the murky river was a large crocodile. 

There was nothing she could do but watch as the crocodile attacked one of the decapitated bodies that still had one of the guard's sabers stuck in some unfortunate soul's ribs.

Right now the savage beast was nibbling on floating human remains in the water but what if it decided it preferred its meat fresh and raw with the blood pumping.

Melisandre looked around frustrated, no one was coming to save her.

Frantic cries from the remaining prisoners filled the air when they saw the crocodile.

Their panicked attempts to get away, splashing the water, made the barge sink faster.

Such struggling only served to draw its attention to live bait.

Melisandre looked around wildly but her hands were still tightly tied behind her back.

Just then something long and rough brushed against her leg, her anxiety tripled as her heart raced frantically within her chest.