Antirne stared silently at the dusted ground for a moment. The pressing guilt that had placed her into exhile only days before had still not dispersed; despite the fact that she now knew she had committed no wrong, she could still not forgive herself for any of it. To kill an innocent is to kill yourself, but to kill one who would have made my shame as a slave complete.... She shook her head in disgust. To kill is wrong, no matter what the reason. The war for Antirne's soul had now begun to take place; a battle between her conscious, and her sanity. Inside, her heart was in a black turmoil, and her head spun in a wicked jerking motion, making her feel as sick as she may have appeared to her fellow comrads. She could feel the eyes of everyone suddenly upon her, as if awaiting a decision. Her cheeks burned; suddenly she realized she could no longer feel her body. A roaring wind filled her ears and she felt herself cry out.... just before the darkness enveloped her.

Visions flashed into Antirne's mind. The black veil that she had kept in place of her memories for so long was suddenly lifted. Screams filled her ears, and she suddenly felt the sharp kiss of a phantom whip upon her back. Her body jerked violently as she screamed aloud; but she could hear none of it. More and more memories began to pull her down into the black abyss of her mind. She struggled to pull away, wrenching and jerking in the inky black ocean. More images began to swell and crash over her, tossing her back and forth, pulling her under its strong current. Suddenly, she could no longer breathe as the memories of her childhood claimed her body under its raven murky surface.

"Get her!" she heard him scream behind her as she bolted down the narrow corridor for the door. She wrenched at its solid form, her small hands gripping and pulling; restricted by the rusted shackles connecting each wrist by a thick, solid chain. Tears streamed down her face as she fought to escape her fate. She felt arms close suddenly around her. Heavy breathing suddenly filled her ears and the smell of stale whiskey filled her nostrils, making her gag and cough. Suddenly she was jerked aside, forced to face her foe. Her knees buckled as she was slammed into the mud-bricked wall behind her. More tears fell as she tried to pull away while screaming. She felt herself slammed again. One of the hands quickly let go of her arm but was replaced just as swiftly as it had left, this time over her throat. Antirne's panicked cry was painfully cut off. She felt the blood constricting as her mind reeled. Drums began to pound in her ears and her lungs screamed for oxygen. Oh, Gods! She thought.

"Now -- yew be'a good gur'l....an'...." he trailed off with a leering smile as the hand gripping her arm loosened and traced its way down her side and then up the inside of her thigh. Antirne whimpered and weakly tried to push him away. His hand removed itself, only to reward her with a violent slap. Black and red spots began to fill her vision. She grabbed at her assailant's neck and arms, trying to force him away. A gruff, mocking laughter filled her ears -- causing her only to fight back even more. She dug her nails into the soft flesh of his eyes, causing him to shreek and release her. He fell into the wall behind him clutching at his bleeding face, his scream rising and falling with each new breath he drew. Antirne's vision clouded and she suddenly saw red. The raw rage she had felt for the past nineteen years of her servitude suddenly clawed its way out of the blackest depths of her soul and cried for vengence. She could hear every whip lash, and the scars burned suddenly upon her back. She gripped the chains dangling from her wrist shackels hard; as the sound of her breathing filled the lonely hallway. She took one heavy step toward him, and then another. More visions clouded her mind as she closed in the distance between herself and her captor. She felt her jaw clench tightly and her muscles contract as she stepped behind him and visiously circled his neck with the rusted chain wrapping around his throat like a lover. She felt his body lurch in shock but refused to slacken her grip. She continued to tighten her grip until she felt something suddenly give in her master's neck. His body suddenly gained gravity and she let it fall to the floor. She looked around her suddenly aware of how much noise he had really created during the struggle. She heard the distant shouts of the other slave owners searching the upper rooms of the slave's sleeping quarters for the origin of the screams. Antirne shuddered as she broke out in a cold sweat. Her hands shook as she slowly bent down to finally fold her fingers around the key to her shackles. She stared at the key lying in her palm for a moment. She jumped as the voices grew closer to where she was. Swiftly she unlocked the chain from her wrists and opened the door..... running out into the last ray's of the dying sun.

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