"A product of our breeding"

A massive angry crowd collected around her.

Her hands were securely tied behind her back, the rough rope cut into her tender flesh creating bloody, welted bracelets of pain.

Her ankles were bound and anchored with heavy rocks.

Her crude tombstones, not worthy of effigies.

Voices screeched and howling men in black cloaks shook their fists in the air.

And angrily pointed at her.. The commanding voice came of a tall bearded gentleman who approached the trembling, helpless young woman. "Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you!!"

The Crowd chanted, "Bloodshed will pursue you!"

Another gentleman raised a Bible high into the air and declared in a powerful tone, "The vengeance of Synn is upon us! A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; No one will support him."

"AMEN!" Roared the crowd.

Then he grabbed the helpless girl by the hair and pulled her head back exposing the marks on her neck.

A frightened, hysterical swarm of gasps flooded over the people.

He looked her in the eyes and continued, "The life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to you, you must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off. For HE has shed the blood of our saints and prophets, and YOU have given him blood to drink. I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring upon you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked."

The girl's screams of disbelief and horror echoed over the water and the chanting as scores of hands hoisted her over the bridge.

The crowd yelped their approval as the rocks were thrown over the stone railing and she was violently ripped from their grasp. Urine trickled down her thigh as her body slapped hard onto the surface of the icy water.

She then sank slowly downward in terror, seemingly suspended in time, gracefully, excruciatingly drifting, quickly sinking....to the bottom of the river. The weight tugged at her legs, pulling her deeper into darkness and airlessness. The water became freezing and more bitter as she sank.

Her head began to pound.

Her eyes strained in wild panic as her feet suddenly pressed into the muddy river bottom. The rocks that pulled at her ankles disappeared into the silken sludge, creating a murky cloud that slowly rose up over her body. She heard the muffled gurgling sounds of air rising to the surface far above her.

Her flesh pimpled in the cold assault. Her nipples painfully hardened of death and her hips twisted this way and that, trying to free herself from the weights and the rope that held her so solidly in place. Her twisting movements only stirred the water. Mud filled her eyes and the rocks that tugged at her feet sank inescapably into the swallowing earth..

She held her panicked breath as long as she could.

Her skull felt as if it would burst.

She began to sob and scream at the injustice of it all..

Large gulps of water drowned her curses, entering into her lungs, freezing them with their icy, suffocating invasion. A burning sensation and frozen needles filled up her nostrils and ran down into her chest. Once fully drowned, she drew in just two more water filled breaths. One breath sharp and quick: One breath thick, cold and agonizingly slow. Her head became light and her body tingled with thousands of tiny white lights of pain.

The girl's heart then failed of shock.

She was gone!

Her face frozen in unjust despair.

Eyes blind.

Wide open.

Moments too late, the rope around her wrists slipped free and drifted away.

Her long golden locks took on the appearance of wavering tentacles around her face. The tension left her body. Her eyes glazed. She was now limp as her delicate arms gracefully moved with the current in the water, mocking the dance of a peaceful ballerina, slowly turning in her sinister jewelry box.

Tranquil Panic Forever.

Frozen in Time..