The crowds of my subjects were converged around a man being tied up at each limb. The ropes were connected to four angry horses who were all snarling out in different directions. The man was surprisingly calm for his most eminent death. He just stared at the sky with a neutral expression.

How brave of the man to lay there deaf while the crowds around him shouted obscenities and cursed his existence. How brave of the man to feel the knots around his wrists and ankles and not twitch a single muscle in fear. How brave of the man to see, smell and hear the horses that would guide him to death and yet not shed a single, grieving tear.

How strange that things so commonplace could turn sanguinary without anyone realising it. A crowd of people becoming a mob of monsters. A sailor’s knot becoming a prisoner’s restraints. A horse to help you through life becoming a horse to rip you to death. A common man becoming an assassin of a king in mere minutes.

How unjustified of me to feel empathy towards the murderer of my father. How justified of me to feel empathy towards the man who rid me of my abuser.

Then slowly he turned his head and his dark blue eyes stared right into mine. They made my eyes burn and tear. I expected him to curse me, give me a look of disgust but he did no such thing. He merely gave me a smile. A slow, lifeless smile and then his lips formed words.

“For you, mia bella,”

I was the one to scream when his body was slowly torn to pieces.