"I know it will not feel natural, lass, but you should avoid taking a deep breath as it will cause you to float. Try and release the breath from your body as you go under. Do you understand?" Gerald asked. She nodded, unable to form words at his suggestions, making the entire ordeal seem much more upon her. "I'm sorry I have to say this now, as it causes you distress, but you understand we will be interrogators out there, where people are watching."
"It's alright, I understand." She answered softly. They walked out of the cell together, Gerald leading with Elizabeth following and John closely behind her, holding the rope that bound her hands. Her feet were bare against the cold stone of the jail floor and she wasn't surprised to see frost crusting the tips of the grass as they exited the building. It was just after dawn and fog laid close to the ground. Elizabeth involuntarily shivered as they walked along the path, joining the minister and a group of men that waited, including the blustery Mr. Bishop. Thankfully no one spoke at the moment, as they all walked down the path that would lead to the river. She clenched her toes against the cold packed dirt of the path when they started to go numb from the cold. Most of the men wore layers of clothing and coats, except John who was still in the same shirt and breeches he'd worn last night. She was only in a thin shift and dress, no shoes, no coat, no stockings. They walked into the woods along the path, which were shrouded in darkness at this time of morning. Between the shadows, fog, and frost, the setting matched perfectly with her inner turmoil and anxiety.
It didn't take the group long to approach the river that bisected the tall trees. Her feet slipped repeatedly on the increasingly slick path that was covered in frosty decaying leaves overlapping a thick and cloying mud. John pulled the rope up, as she nearly fell, but did not help her. She understood that he would have to keep up the facade of witch hunter, but she couldn't deny that even the appearance of his indifference hurt. They walked along the river bank until they reached a wide area where the water was black and looked deep. Elizabeth clenched her jaw and resolved that she would not cry or tremble with fear in front of these men, who would take pleasure in that. She looked back towards John as he came around to her with a length of rope, she wasn't sure where it had come from.
"Remove her clothing first." The minister demanded. "It is not beyond a witch to sew heavy items into the fabric to assist her in this trial. They are masters of deception." He spoke loudly for the small crowd of men that stood behind him, nodding in agreement.
John's jaw clenched and his eyes darkened, filled with hate. She saw the struggle he endured to control his rage, she saw his restraint nearly break, before Gerald spoke, strategically diverting attention away from his nephew.
"Yes, of course, minister." Gerald laughed. "Johnathan, surely would not be much troubled in the task, yes my boy?"
She looked up at him fearfully, but knew that he wasn't able to deny the request. His face was once again shielded into an impassive expression. She looked down towards the dirt in shame as he quickly unbuttoned the simple dress and unlaced the shift and roughly pulled them down her body, exposing her pale skin, still covered in healing scratches. She crossed her arms across her chest as much as possible with tied hands, and tilted her hips away from the small crowd of men to shield her naked pelvis. Her eyes teared from the overwhelming sense of shame that vied for her attention against her equally unbearable fear and anxiety. Her skin was covered in gooseflesh from the cold and she began to shiver.
John pulled her wrists down roughly to her sides and looped the rope around her upper arms, pulling it tightly each time it circled her. He crouched and tied her legs together tightly as well, bringing her exponentially more embarrassment at the sudden vicinity his face had to her naked womanhood. There was no trace of the amiable teasing man she had quickly learned to trust. He looked at her like he felt nothing but fury and disgust, she turned her face away to hide from his stare. She knew it was an act, he had told her that he would need to act this way, but hearing it and seeing the hate in his magical green eyes were two very different things. He seemed much larger to her now as he stood before her tightly pulling the ropes around her to bite into her abused skin. She realized that she had never been adequately afraid of him, despite his large, intimidating frame, and she realized the foolishness in that as she felt the strength from his large hands firsthand. She was not able to bite back her whimper as he secured the knot tightly and pulled the restraints roughly to test them. The rope was tight enough that it would leave deep indentations in her frozen skin when it was removed, if it was removed.
She looked up into his face once again and frowned at his dark and ominous expression. He looked down at her like she was the scum that surrounded the river bank and she felt humiliation spread in her chest tinged with a surprise at how much he affected her. Elizabeth halfway expected there to be some ceremony associated with this trial, but John simply removed his shoes and pulled her suddenly into the freezing water as the crowd of observing men stayed silent. She gasped at the shock of the water against her exposed skin. He didn't give her time to acclimate; he just pulled her deeper into the river. She slipped on an especially slimy stone under the water and fell onto her restrained knees, the water instantly rising above her shoulders. She yelped at both the pain from the impact of the rock and from the intense jolt of the frigid waters. John was already up to his waist in the river and pulled her up by the ropes tying her hands together. She cried out at the unexpected intensified pain in her wrists, which had been repeatedly irritated from various restraints over the past two days. John stopped once she was next to him and loosened his grip on her restraints. Every inch of her skin that she felt had been finally numb to the cold during the walk, had been reawakened as she was pulled out into the much colder water. Her feet, especially, throbbed in excruciating pain.
"Don't hold your breath." She barely heard him speak in his low tone under his breath. This was the only indication that she had before he picked her up and threw her away from him into the water quickly. She hadn't had time to interpret his words before her head was already down. She went under the water immediately and realized, after the shock of the cold, that there was a steep drop-off in the water where John had been standing. Luckily she had been too unaware to even accidentally take a breath in preparation at being submerged. She panicked as she sank lower and lower into the blackness of the water, the ropes keeping her limbs firmly attached to her core. She opened her eyes but there was nothing to see, only faint shadows which made everything worse. She clenched her eyes closed as she realized John was not next to her anymore. He told her that he would be with her, but he wasn't, he was way above her on the quickly receding surface. It was naive of her to have expected him to be able to save her from this fate. After everything that she had experienced, she should have been prepared to be alone in this as she had been in every previous trial she'd encountered in her young life thus far. She finally hit the cold stone of the river floor with her naked posterior.
She hadn't been ready to go underwater, she knew that was part of the plan, but her expectations didn't quite match her experience. Too quickly, her lungs burned with air hunger. It didn't take long at all for that pain to become prioritized over the pain in every other area of her thoroughly abused body. It was a strange sensation as the pains in her feet, skin, and from the cold all melted away when her body decided that those were unimportant compared to her impending death from drowning. Every nerve focused on her needy lungs, her body begged her for air with a persistence she had never known to be possible.
She couldn't move, she knew if she could she would push herself up from the river floor. In the back of her mind, she realized John had known this when he was tying her up and had made the ropes especially tight. As the seconds passed, her mind was frantic with the need to breathe, urging her to take a deep breath of the certain death that surrounded her. Surely a breath full of water would be better than no breath at all. She exhaled the little air that had been left in her lungs, opening her eyes to watch the air bubbles taunt her as they raced to the surface to join the excessive amounts of oxygen available above her. So close, yet so out of reach to her. She was going to die down here and she suddenly felt as if that's what she must have deserved all along.
She suddenly thought back to telling John that she was a bad person. He hadn't reacted as she thought he would, or should. She heard his voice in her head as if he were right next to her again.
He was a damn lucky man to have you, but he is gone, and you are not.
Was she truly deserving of all of the guilt that she'd inflicted upon herself? She accepted that she hadn't loved her husband, but she had been a good and faithful wife. She suddenly felt the guilt that she had been carrying drift away as quickly as the bubbles from her final breath. Her eyes remained opened underwater and had adjusted slightly to the small amount of light that made it to the bottom of the deep river. As the edges of her vision faded she heard John's voice in her mind again and was soothed.
