The Traitor's Escape

Chapter Thirteen

She was walking through darkness, feeling a heaviness press upon her. Fighting through the wave of oppressiveness, Sansa pressed forward towards a lone figure in the distance. A constant drip, drip, drip filled her ears. When she looked down at her bare feet, she realized she was submerged into water just below her ankles. Each step made a ripple through the clear surface, even though everything was black beneath her feet. Her reflection didn't show on the surface, as if the world was shrouded in darkness, despite the fact she could see her own feet, legs and arms.

She started to bend down, to touch the surface, when she heard someone crying. Immediately straightening up, she squinted off in the distance. A figure could barely be made out, standing out there alone. Why were they here, in this place? Running was nearly impossible, not with the heaviness still upon her, but she hurried along as best as she could. She didn't let her eyes leave the figure, fearful that the stranger would disappear as soon as she looked away.

Drip, drip, drip.

The trickle of water grew louder the closer she got to the figure. If her eyes hadn't been drawn to the water, she almost would have missed the discoloration. She paused, staring into the water swirling around her feet. The clarity was tinged red.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Then, she could hear the rasping. "...Left us... Traitor... Selfish..."

Hands shaking, her breaths coming shorter, she barely made herself move forward. Only five feet away, but the face was obstructed in the darkness now. The water grew darker, until it looked like blood. She couldn't raise her head, not when she knew whatever she would look at next would be...

"Sansa!"

Sansa lifted her eyes immediately at the voice, recognizing the sound painfully. Her chest ached. Standing in front of her wasn't one, but two figures, small in stature. Upwards, somehow, they were hanging there, with nooses wrapped tightly around their throats. Dark, shaggy auburn hair of both young boys. They hung there, drifting across the water's surface with the tips of their toes. Blood dribbled down their tunics and breeches, drip, drip, drip, down onto the water below.

"All your fault," little Rickon whispered.

"Selfish, needy," Bran rasped, staring at her with unseeing eyes.

A sudden scream from behind made Sansa jump. She spun around, to come face to face with Arya. She stared at Sansa, her head cocked to the side at an unnatural angle. Her eyes were empty, her face covered in blood and further down over her whole body, and her hair was hacked to shreds, so short she could have been mistaken for a boy. "All your fault!" Arya said coldly. "Stupid, naïve little brat. You're the reason we died."

Then, Robb began to shuffle forward from the blackness besides Arya, bloodied all over. Arrows protruded out of his body, blood trickled down his face, and pooled beneath him in the water. He raised one arm at her, pointing, and cried, "All your fault. All your fault. Mother, father died. I'm dying. DYING."

And then, all at once, they were grabbing at her. Yanking at her auburn locks, pulling at her arms, taking her in every direction. She tried to fight them off, struggled against their holds, but she seemed to grow weak. The heaviness that had settled upon her seemed to increase, pressing her down to the ground. Sansa began to sink in the water from the weight. The dark engulfed her feet, then her legs, and crept further and further up her body. Coldness crept into her body, freezing her from the outside in.

Sansa tried to scream, attempted to escape, but her siblings were too strong. As she opened her mouth, to plead for forgiveness, the water was up above her head and she choked on the freezing cold water. She couldn't breathe. The cold washed into her being and she began to sink further and further. Blurry images of her siblings stared from above her, cackling silently.