You look up peacefully to the sky, watching as the soft, heavy snowflakes gently fall, caressing your skin with frozen strokes. You close your eyes and breathe in the scent, the familiar cool air gently fulling the usual aromas of the air.
Around you the other women bustle, carrying loaves of bread or spices. You wave to them all as you sway the hem of your black dress around, your black cloak following your smooth motions.
You begin to lull your head back and forth as the wind begins to blow into your ears, tossing your chocolate locks relentlessly.
"Hide!"
Your head snaps to the source of the shouting, and your eyes desperately fly open to analyze the situation. You can see a figure with blonde hair running towards you, slightly limping.
You watch as your friend, Lena, sprints back inside the gate of the east wing of the castle, a trail of blood following her, scrambling desperately inside before closing and locking the gate.
"What's wrong?" You anxiously whisper, furrowing your eyebrows in fear while she pants, catching her breath from the running she had done.
She falls to the ground and wraps a hand around her thigh. You rip the skirt of your dress to make a temporary tourniquet, wrapping it desperately around her blood drenched leg. As you lean heavily on her leg to apply pressure, you can see the fear as the other girls assess the situation.
The snow around her is turning pink, but the wound is beginning to stop bleeding as much.
The women have begun to gather around in a frenzy, whispering amongst themselves and looking to one another in confusion.
"The Boltons... they don't want any witnesses..."
-
You had been working in the Bolton's Castle ever since your small group of people had been overtaken. You defended the starks, and so he destroyed you.
Being a relatively pretty girl that could bear children, you were taken alive; although you wish you could say you were lucky, you'd rather be dead than endure what he had in store for you.
The only glimmer of hope was the friendships you formed with the other women there: women from everywhere. Women like you. Young and old. You were one of the youngest to be taken, being just sixteen at the time.
Now you're twenty.
Although Ramsey seemed to be politically savvy, he had a recent slip up. A girl named Isa that was a distant relative of Sansa Stark was murdered by him when she refused to lay with him. He had made it a public execution in the den for the ladies, which is where you remained with the other women. It was gruesome and horrific.
You couldn't even imagine the pain, being flayed alive. Just the thought turns your stomach.
Since Sansa had escaped and realized her distant relative was missing, she put two and two together and was sending forces to the castle.
There wasn't supposed to be a fight; however, when Ramsey was nowhere to be seen along with a majority of his men, they decided to lay siege to the castle.
When the starks questioned where the relative was, the men decided to act ignorant... and that means no witnesses...
-
"Witnesses?" You hear a woman shout in confusion.
"The stark girl!" Lena answers with a grunt, biting her lip in pain, before you begin to hear a loud commotion in the distance along with a stampede of footsteps.
The circle of women falls silent as you can hear the men approaching, quickly.
You look to the women with shock as they all begin to scatter, looking for a place to hide.
You look up into the sky, raining heavy snow down upon you, catching the edge of your eyelashes.
"Come on!" You hear Lena shout, gathering the strength to rise while grabbing your frozen hand and pulling desperately. Your feet finally begin to move and you watch as your cloak follows behind. Adrenaline kicks in as the both of you run for anywhere to hide.
You sprint to the quarters of the stark girl, Isa. Before she was killed, you three were closest together. She showed you how she had broken the wooden floor below a small section near the corner of the room, her bed moved over it along with a small rug. Running quickly by the bed, you duck underneath and pull aggressively on the rug, tugging until it reveals a small hole, about three feet wide and three feet long. You didn't know how deep it went.
You look to Lena with a grin.
Suddenly, you can hear the gates crashing in the distance along with a woman's screams.
You don't have much time.
"Come on!" You whisper, tugging desperately on her olive green dress sleeve, kneeling by the bed.
You lie flat and begin crawling, and finally reach the hole after a small struggle. You can hear Lena grunt in pain as she crawls next to you, and your eyes widen at what you see.
The drop is about seven feet down, but you can see a long tunnel. The tunnel has a dim light in the distance, and is large enough to crawl in. It must be part of a secret passageway around the castle!
You knew they existed, but you had never found one.
"Thank you Isa." You hear lena gleefully whisper, before a loud scream is cut short in the distance.
Your eyes lock in fear before she pushes you towards the hole, grabbing your arms and lowering you beneath. You land with an echoing thump as you look above to see Lena following you. You watch as you hear the rug being dragged over her head before she adjusts it correctly in position. You are engulfed in darkness with small, microscopic holes seeping tiny beams of patterned lights from the rug. You feel rather than hear Lena land as she awkwardly falls half onto you with a bang.
You cover her mouth when she is about to release a scream of pain. You can feel the liquid splash on you and you know the sudden movement injured her further.
You are about to comfort her when another high pitched shriek is cut off with a whimper, and you know the men are close.
Your eyes widen in fear, and you grab Lena's arm in the blackness.
She grips your arm tighter as you can hear the door to the room being knocked down, the thud of the door crashing against the ground causing the tunnel underneath to shake.
You can hear the men searching and fumbling around the room, knocking drawers and wardrobes over in the process. The constant clashing and banging fills your ears and mind with fear as you desperately grasp each other for comfort.
The noise finally ceases, and the footsteps from above leave the room in a deafening silence.
For the longest time you do not move. You do not speak. The only noise you can hear is the thumping of your quick heartbeats mixing with the dying shouts and cries of your friends outside.
You release silent tears as you sit, helpless, listening for what feels like hours.
You hear the men grumbling about killing the witnesses before stomping out of the gates east wing.
"Let's see if this tunnel leads anywhere." You hear lena whisper, before you can feel her form slide away in the darkness. She whimpers as she drags herself down the beginning of the tunnel, leg limply trailing behind her. You follow the sound of her scraping along the pathway, the ground slick with new blood. The further you crawl, the brighter the light in the distance appears.
You can see the hem of your dress collecting and dragging the dust and dirt around, as well as absorbing the sticky maroon liquid flowing from her leg. As you scoot closer to the light you realize there are metal bars vertically guarding the exit, a straight drop of over a hundred feet to the castle grounds.
"Look, his men are running!" Lena whispers with relief, scooting over to let you lay beside her as she points a finger towards the ground. You watch with amusement as the frightened soldiers mount their horses and begin to speed away into the distance, the approach of the Starks causing their terror.
Watching the direwolf banner flutter in the wind, you are filled with joy at their approach. What if they save you, take you back to their castle. You and Lena could be free for once. How odd that would be!
You are awoken from your dreamy state as you can hear an audible cry from Lena as she cradled her leg.
"Let's go back outside. They'll help us." You whisper, trying your hardest to push your hands forward and project yourself back.
"Do you think the Bolton's are coming back?" She anxiously murmurs.
"Only one way to find out."
You pause slightly when you notice your hands are caked in dried blood as well as the complete front of your dress. The small pebbles dig into the palms of your hands, but you bite your lip as you grunt and push yourself back into the darkness.
Soon enough, your boots hit the harsh stone of the wall, meaning you are back to the start of the tunnel. Watching your head, you bring yourself to your knees and stand up straight, stretching your muscles.
Lena's pained sounds echo lightly through the tunnel.
You feel Lena run into you and do the same, before she reaches out to you.
"Here, I'm gonna bend down so you can use me as a step to get up higher and back up, then you can pull me up." She explains as you somehow make your way onto her back.
Your hands fumble around until they graze the soft material of the rug. Easily you then find the edge of the hole, and grasp it. Pulling yourself up, you fling the rug back and light fills the small space. You squint your eyes from the harsh light, but push yourself into all fours as you reach your hands down to pull Lena up to you. Gripping tight, you use your strength to hoist her up. Her top half makes it over before she squeezes herself over the rest of the way, injured leg bleeding profusely as she lays next to you.
"Alright, lets go get help." You anxiously announce as you begin to crawl out from under the bed.
Sliding your legs free, you once again stand and stretch out, but are distracted. The door to the room is particulate open, and a trail of blood leads outside. While Lena is frozen to the spot, you walk slowly and grip the edge of the door, gently opening it.
What you see still horrifies you.
The once serene open space is littered with the bodies of your dead friends.
The once locked gates are half broken, flung haphazardly to the side with scuffs of weapon marks.
Blankets of snow surround the bodies and turn the pure frost into a maroon puddle. Some have their hands outstretched while others hold their fatal wounds. Eyes clouded with emptiness, they look to the sky. Snow still is falling heavily, trying to cover the ugliness and tragedy. The harsh wind bites your exposed cheeks and you move your hands to cover your mouth. Your hot breath collects in your palms and spills out of the sides, creating a fog effect.
You didn't realize you were crying until you feel your tear freezing to your skin.
You are the only survivors.
Turning around, you notice Lena has finally seen the carnage as she falls to her knees both in pain and in mourning. Crying, she caresses the cold cheek of a woman laying peacefully in the snow, no longer in pain. You hurry to sit beside your friend, putting an arm around her.
"We need to leave, they'll be alright." You coo comfortingly, mirroring her distraught features.
Before you can move a muscle, you hear the thunder of footsteps approaching your wing of the castle.
"They're back!" You shriek, terrified. You try to pull Lena with you, attempting to drag her towards the rug again, but she resists, shaking her head.
You release her hand and kneel in front of her, grabbing her face between your hands. You cup her cheeks and look into her eyes with fear and sadness.
"Lena we have t-"
"I can't, I can't go. I can't. I have to stay. I'm gonna did anyways. You go to safety." She apologetically murmurs, looking at the mangled bodies surrounding her.
As the snow falls around you and gently hits your face, you understand how she feels. You don't want to live in fear. If it's over, it's over.
You can hear the stampede of men almost to the gate, and you look into her eyes and nod your head.
"Wherever you go, I go." You whisper, tears spilling over onto your cheeks.
Kneeling, you both wrap your arms around each other, holding on tightly. You notice her grip begins to slacken, and pull back to see her face. It's pale, nearly white as the snow cascading around you. The only color visible is the stain of a few drops of blood. Her eyes seem to be glassy, but no tears are present. Her body seems to melt in your arms, as if strings holding her upwards had been cut. You gently shake her.
"Lena, Lena stay awake okay? Lena, stay awake." You plead.
Her face suddenly seems to brighten up a bit, a small smile forming in her features. Her eyes are focused on something as her mind seems to be filled with joy.
You turn to where she stares, a group of men standing a few yards from where you are. They hold the stark sigil as they march in unison towards you.
"See, Lena, everything is fine. See?" You happily comment to yourself, holding her but putting your sole attention of your saviors in the distance.
You watch as a large man in all furs dismounts from his horse, walking steadily towards the pair of you. His demeanor switches to a pained one as he takes in the two of you. With fiery red hair on the top of his head and running down his chin and across his face, he looks fierce.
"I'm sorry about your friend." He apologetically comforted.
You look to him with sincerity and confusion.
"Friends? Well, yes, they're all my friends, but we both managed to sneak away under t-"
"No, darlin, the one you're holdin." He adds.
"Lena? She's alright, but we need to get help quickly! I don't t-"
The man comes directly up to you and lays a hand on your shoulder.
"She's gone, beauty." He sympathetically whispers into your ear.
You get goosebumps as you process what he says.
She can't be.
You look down to see her eyes clouded and looking towards the sky with an emptiness you have never seen before. Blood trickles from her nose as she lays limp in your arms, surrounded by maroon banks of snow. You shake her gently, calling her name as she sways lifelessly in your arms, following your movements without resistance.
You feel the mans hand rubbing your shoulder and his apologies as you immediately lay Lena down in the snow. You shake her shoulders, her name now a haunting presence as you scream if helplessly into the wind. You can feel the wetness of tears running down your face as you are pulled back, being dragged blindly through the snow.
You thrash violently, reaching towards her as you are pulled further from her body.
"No! No! Take me back to her! Take me back! I won't leave you, Lena! Nooo!" You scream forcefully, your energy draining as you spend the remnants of your spirit calling her name.
You are suddenly enveloped from behind, your arms being held against you.
"She's gone, girl. She's gone. But you're not."
It seems like hours before you calm down. The same red haired man has been standing by your side this whole time, sympathetically placing his hand on your shoulders.
"Where- where do I go now? What do I do?" You question, voice quivering.
"Now you come with us." He answers.
You look toward the ground and nod gently.
