The layers of ice

Unforgivable

Under the treat of a rifle Anastasia bathed, dressed and did her hair, in silence, during the night. She didn't even try to escape.

She asked for some time to pray, to bed a final goodbay to everyone, to beg Natalia for pardon for having misjuged her, who just tried to protect her, for some heinous religious fanatic.

Than she was tied up again and moved to the truck again. It was still night and she could look at the stars while they were driving to the lake.

The sky was so serene, so calm... And it helped her to calm too. She was going to die, there was no other way, so why would she spend her last moments worrying ? She thought about her familly, about her little brother, she decided she would ask her kiddnapers to keep them safe as her last wish.

She also thought about Natalia, and she wondered how she learn about the sacrifices...

After some time they stopped near a gravel beach. The fish smelling man took her in his arms and settled her on the rocky shore before rejoining his camarade. They conducted a complex ritual, with prayers and chants, prostrated in front of the lake. They sang a solen song, and after it ended, the fish smelling man took her again and carryed her on the ice.

-Please, don't sacrifice my brother, she asked.

And he smilled at her.

-Don't worry, the law forbid the sacrifice of more than one membre of each familly.

Anastasia left out a sigh of relief. Now she knew her littke brother was safe she could die with her mind at ease.

And he placed her on the ice.

And he started to walk back to the shore.

-What are you doing ?

-The ice will melt and you will fall in the lake.

Her calmness was swept away with one motion. She thought they would kill her with a bullet, or a knif... Somthing clean, fast, appropriated for a sacrifice.

"I will drown..."

She would wait for her inevitable death, she would fight in vain as she sink, she would suffer !

The antisipation alone made her panic even more then when she was kiddnaped. Tears flowed out her eyes, a sob escaped from her troat...

For the first time she realised. She wasn't afraid of death, but of the suffuring which would come along with it.

She called her kiddnaper pitifully...

-Kill me... Please ! she cried.

The fish smelling man averted his eyes, as if he felt suddenly guilty. As if he had the right to feel that way.

-The law demand the human sacrifice left alive on the ice which would melt before the sun reach its zenit, he said with a low voice, hesitant.

-Please... Have mercy ! I don't want to drown !

She hated what she said. She wanted to live ! She never ever thought about comiting suicide ! Being forced to beg to be killed felt she lost a part of herself she would never recover.

-Please... Why do I have to suffer ? Why is it not enough I die..?

The fish smelling man turned his back on her and walked to the shore in silence.

So Anastasia cried, sobed, left out all the fear, the desper, the anger she somehow managed to conseal a few hours earlier.

She cried for help.

But she knew very well no one would come...

She cried louder, for the sky to hear her...

For the god she never trusted in...

And for the monster she has been sacrified to.

-Spirit of the lake... Please ! Someone... I don't want to die !

Her cry echoed throught the desert, silent, glacial landscape plunged in darkness.

She was doomed. It was pointless, she could only sob quietly and wait for her hour to come...

But, suddenly, she heard footsteps.

She couldn't see anything.

Hope bloomed in her heart like a flower.

-Hear me, I do not have much time.

It was a man who was speaking, she could only gess his silhouet in the moonlight.

-Don't talk to anyone about me. Tell them you escaped by yourself.

He cut her ties with a silver dagger.

-Don't look at me. Listen. You'll have to  return to the shore as soon as the sun rise. The ice is not very tick these days, it will melt fast. Run to this clif. 

He pointed a dark refief in the distance. It was almost invisible in the dark.

-As soon as you run past this you will see lights. It's Baiskal. Return there the fastest you can. Understood ?

-Ye... Yes, answered Anastasia, still stuned and her face wet with tears.

-Than run ! 

-And you..?

-Just remember you will put numerous persons in danger if you talk about me. The sun will rise soon ! Don't waste time, run !

And Anastasia ran.