SWEET CREATURE [ Ramsay Bolton ]

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Something is wrong. Darren senses it when he sees Fiona's door is wide open. He hurries closer towards it, follows the trail of blood that leads inside her chambers. The scene he stumbles upon jars him. The young girl lays on the floor, mouth smeared with blood. Katherine sits beside her, looking even worse.

"What in seven hells have you done?" he gasps, slowly stepping into the room. Katherine's eyes rise up, looking into his. There's no expression on her face; she's just... blank. It's as if she's just as shocked as he is.

"Leave us, Darren," she tells him. He worries that she's using her mind trick again, but he's not following command. There's no influence on his mind. He only moves closer, dropping down on the other side of Fiona. He leans over, presses his ear to her chest. There's so sound to signal a heart beat. He might as well be pressing his ear against the floor.

     "No," he whispers, leaning back up to look into her lifeless eyes. He cups her face in his hands, still searching for any sign of life. Her skin is cold. "You killed her." He looks at Katherine, eyes wide and confused. His own heart beats faster in his chest, and he feels his face flush with anger. "How could you?" How could she?

Katherine stares at him, unblinking and still as marble, still as Fiona's lifeless body. It's unnerving and his stomach turns. There's no life in Katherine either. She's a walking corpse, no need to breathe or move.

     Katherine isn't moved by his dismay, though she can admit it is quite cute. "How sweet," she says. "You care for her." She cocks her head to the side, looks curious as if she doesn't quite understand how his emotions work. Humans are silly that way. Such attachments make them weak.

     Darren gently places Fiona's head back on the hard ground. Her head lolls to the side. He doesn't want to see anymore. Finally, he stands and faces Katherine. She can see his nostrils flaring, his fists turning red as he squeezes them tighter. His blood rushes. He's ripe with anger.

"You told me to protect her."

"And what a fine job you've done," Katherine sneers. She doesn't move from her place on the ground. The poisonous herb is still mixing with her blood, it still makes her weak. Her heart hurts in her chest where it's desperately trying to pump the vervain out. She crosses her arms, leans into her bent knees and says, "I mean it. Who could have foreseen her falling in love with you?"

     Darren takes a step back.

     "You little fool," Katherine says in amazement. "Does it really come as such a surprise? You're the only decent man around. You're the only man who has shown her any semblance of kindness."

     It's certainly not something he expected. Since when? he wonders. They hardly spoke. He was hardly in the foreground but for a few glaring moments. There was the time he had pulled her to him, and out of the grasp of the too eager soldier. She had clung to him tightly but of course she would, she was frightened.

"She was a child," he spits. A woman too young to know what love is, what it can be like. Now the chance to ever experience it has been ripped away from her. She was too young.

"Yes," Katherine agrees, and his disgust grows. "A very hopeful one at that."
She lowers her eyes to look back at Fiona. Katherine looks very much like a child herself when she rests her chin on her knees, wrapping her arms tightly around her legs. A few curls frame her face, softening her.