Carliene Stark

II Chapter 84

Carliene

I stood in front of three graves. Opening the ground like three wounds. And although my better judgement told me otherwise, I stepped closer towards them, like one would approach the edge of a high cliff. The void beyond it silently calling out for you.

The first had a gravestone covered in frost and snowflakes dancing slowly down into the darkness of the ground. The second was surrounded by blackened earth, and a smoking stick to mark it, glimmering embers, stuck to it like fireflies. The last was set before a large weirwood tree, its roots twisting down into the darkness and the red leaves landing on lush gras and blooming bushes surrounding it.

Although it was so quiet, and almost peaceful, I could sense that there was danger in the air. And just before I approached close enough to see into the graves something stirred within them. from the first a pale corpse arose, covered in frost with purple lips and blue eyes sunken deep into the sockets. I could not take in all its details before the content of the second grave burst into flames. A creature of charred skin and with molten lead in its veins crawled out of the burned ground and when I stared into its ember eyes, I could feel them burn into my very soul.

I stepped back slowly, looking to the third grave to see what kind of horrors might claw out from beneath a weirwood tree. The corpse was white as milk and stared at me with eyes that held no pupils or irises. Thick blood dripped from them instead and when its pale lips parted it spilled from them as well. I watched with terror as the three monster slowly crawled our of their resting places and stood, three pairs of eyes never leaving me. They made me feel like I was drowning in a freezing lake or choking in a burning field or being pulled from my own body, all at the same time. It made me want to cry. It made me want to piss my pants or empty out my stomach. But all I could do was stare and hope this dream or vision would be over soon. 

I had given up on trying to understand them all. It was too much. Too confusing. Too maddening. 

"Dead things should stay dead"

Who's voice was that? I spun around, but there was nothing here except for me and the three graves. But it sounded so familiar. 

I turned away from the graves, knowing it would leave me vulnerable, but i hoped that if I payed them no mind, the vision would disappear. Instead I tried to concentrate on the voice, hoping I could find its source. But it had spoken only once, and already I was remembering it differently. It could have been my father. Or Olenna Tyrell. Or Jon. Or even Tyrion Lannister. 

I found none of them. Instead I watched the image of an ancient man in a weirwood tree form before me. I squinted my eyes, unable to perceive where the tree ended and the man began. But there was hunger in his blind eyes and although he never moved an inch, I could feel him reaching for me.

I tore my eyes from him and quickly headed in the opposite direction. You will not have me, I repeated it in my mind. You will not have me, it was important, even though I did not know why. 

A moment later I stood in a bustling city. People pushed past me as noise filled my ears and the smell of food and waste and human bodies in all the different states of cleanliness, filled my nose. Just as soon as I realised that I was in King's Landing, it all fell apart. Suddenly the plaza was empty and the only sound was the whipping and crackling of the fire that engulfed the buildings, thug most of them had already burned down to smouldering wreckages. The only people I saw were piles of ash that somewhat resembled the life forms they had once been. The smell of burned flesh and smoke carried the scent of rotten egg with them and caused my eyes to water.