#august242023

"Memories are such a delicate thing, easily removed and replaced if you know what you are doing. Which, of course, I do."

The woman tilts her head and shakes it from side to side. "Too bad I couldn't remove my own memories. I couldn't take away that you let my mother die, not once, mind you, but twice. You think I don't know what you did!"

The woman's voice picked up; for a moment, Santana saw her sister Dementri, standing there. She swayed, and tears flowed down her cheeks. "You don't understand. I tried to save her."

"Save her? Save her!" You turned her into a monster. A mad woman whose mind was destroyed entirely. From what I have been told, she was no more than a rabid dog. And you did that!"

The woman stalked toward Santana, her face contorted in her rage. "She saved you! You, a woman so powerful that time has sometimes bent to your will. And you are telling me you couldn't save her. That you couldn't get this one thing right!"

Santana cringed. Tears continued to slide down her cheeks at her niece's words. "I tried! I don't know what went wrong. She should have ended up like me not, not deranged and out of her mind. I can only assume because her mind has always been slightly broken trying to change her into what I was broke it completely. I'm sorry, more sorry than you can imagine."

Sasha draws back her hand, and it comes down across Santana's cheek hard enough to cause her head to twist to the side. Santana didn't stop her. The pain of such an attack was nothing compared to the pain she felt inside about her sister.

She just stands there, tears streaking her cheeks, her eyes full of pain and sorrow. She didn't expect any pity from her niece. She could see in the woman's eyes that she blamed her for everything, that the loss of her mother had destroyed her as much as it had damaged Santana.

Instead, Santana slowly went down to her knees, bowing her head. For such a woman as the raven, this was unheard of. She kneeled before no one. It told a great deal about how beaten the raven felt.

"What are you doing?" Sasha is taken aback by this, unsure of her Aunt's actions. "Get up! Face me!" But Santana remains where she has kneeled.

"Isn't this what you wanted, Sasha. A life for a life. Your mother gave hers to me. I give mine to you. Then it will be even." The words came out soft and sincere but also defeated.

Sasha pauses, unsure what to do. The woman kneeling before her looked almost identical to her mother. They had, after all, been identical twins.

Still, she had had every intention of punishing her Aunt, torturing her. And yes, perhaps, in the end, she might even kill her.

She hadn't expected Santana to give her life up so easily. She could hear the pain in her Aunt's voice, the tiredness, the complete and utter sadness.

Sasha turns from the woman and shakes her head. "Guards! Take her back to the dungeon. She is to be given nothing but water tonight."

Santana doesn't move until the guard grabs her by her wrist and drags her to her feet. He forces her toward the doors. Santana looks back at her niece, and although the woman's back is to her, she can see her shaking and knows she is crying.

How long had the woman waited for her revenge, weeks or months? It was clear everything had been carefully planned out. She wanted her to suffer, for Santana to feel her pain, yet Santana already felt her pain.

The man tossed her in the cell and closed the door behind her. Some water was pushed inside a small opening, and she grabbed it, drinking it immediately, realizing her mistake too late.

She retched, and her body seized. The room spun out of control, and she saw her sister take form out of the corner of her eye. No! Santana screams. Anything but that.

But Sasha wanted to torture her, torment her, and she knew exactly how to do so. It would be hours before the hallucinations would subside.

Santana lay curled into the corner of the bed, shaking, having tried everything to push the images of her sister away but to no avail. Now she just stares off into space, her mind ravaged.

It would be days or perhaps weeks before the door would open again. Time had lost meaning in her days of torture.

When it finally opened, a man would enter, arguing as he did so. "How dare you, Sasha! You have violated this family. We all swore in this family to always protect each other. A blood oath that you have broken!" He gathers Santana in his arms, noticing how thin and frail she has become.

Santana can't move, she can't speak, barely even alive. She can hear Sasha's rebuttal but can't make out the words exactly. Everything is fuzzy, a ringing in her ears that doesn't seem to go away.

She hears the two arguing more, and the world fades to black again.

Trenton, Santana's brother, notices that the woman has passed out and continues to his carriage. He gently lays his sister in on the seat opposite him, and another woman is immediately over her, examining her.

He turns back toward Sasha. "Your mother would be ashamed of you." Sasha flinches, but the snarl on her lips turns her hurt feelings into anger. "She deserved everything she got. My mother suffered for months; she has only suffered for weeks. I would have let her go eventually."

Trenton shakes his head. "You will have your grandfather to deal with. And have mercy on your soul. For he will not."

He lifted himself into the carriage and gave his niece one last glance before he shut the door and ordered the driver to leave.