The next morning, fear swept through the entire village when everyone learned what had happened to Maria that night 😨😲
— “Please… no…” — Maria’s voice trembled so violently that the words almost dissolved in the hot evening air.
Antonio dragged her silently down the stony riverbank. His fingers dug painfully into her arm, and Maria desperately tried to break free, grabbing at dry bushes and sharp rocks. The mud slipped beneath her feet, her knees were already wounded, but fear was stronger than pain.
A few hours earlier, for the first time in many years, she had dared to oppose her husband in front of people. She had said only one sentence at the market:
— “I’m not afraid of you anymore.”
She said it quietly, almost in a whisper. But for Antonio, that was enough.
Now he walked ahead of her with an ice-cold face, as if he were leading not his own wife, but a complete stranger.
When Maria saw the old tree growing over the murky river, she felt her heart freeze with terror. The water below them was restless. Something heavy was moving beneath the surface, leaving long circles behind.
Crocodiles.
Maria suddenly stopped.
— “Antonio… I beg you…”
But he did not answer.
He only pulled out a thick rope.
Maria began crying even before he tied her hands. Through her tears, she tried to explain something, promised that she would never oppose him again, and clutched his shirt with trembling fingers.
But his eyes remained completely empty.
He pulled her up with the rope to the thick branch of the tree, and a moment later Maria’s legs hung helplessly above the water.
THE FIRST SPLASH OF WATER RANG OUT ALMOST IMMEDIATELY.
A huge crocodile surfaced so violently that dirty water splashed across her face. The animal opened its jaws right beneath her feet. Maria screamed and instinctively pulled her knees up to her chest, feeling the rope cut into the skin of her wrists.
A moment later, a second one appeared.
They circled beneath her slowly and patiently, from time to time suddenly leaping upward. Every snap of their jaws sounded so close that Maria almost lost consciousness from fear.
— “Don’t leave me… I beg you… please…” — she could barely speak anymore, gasping heavily for air.
Tears mixed on her face with the dirty water. Her hands burned with pain. Her fingers were beginning to go numb. She felt that she was slowly losing strength.
Antonio calmly mounted his horse.
NO MERCY. NO HESITATION. ONLY A BRIEF LOOK IN HER DIRECTION.
Then he turned the horse around and rode away.
Maria watched him until his figure disappeared behind the dusty rocks. And beneath her, the water began to foam again.
One of the crocodiles jumped so high that it struck her shoe with its snout.
Maria screamed.
And her scream echoed over the river for a long time, while the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon.
The next morning, the whole village was already whispering about what had happened by the old river. And when people found out what Maria had lived through that night… everyone froze in horror 😱😱
MARIA NO LONGER KNEW HOW MUCH TIME HAD PASSED.
The night seemed endless. Her hands had gone so numb that she almost stopped feeling the rope cutting into the skin around her wrists. Cold sweat ran down her back, and her breathing became weak and broken. Beneath her, the crocodiles were still circling in the water.
Sometimes the river would calm for a moment, and that was exactly when the fear became even greater. Then suddenly, one of the monsters would leap upward again, opening its enormous jaws right beside her feet. Maria pulled her knees tightly to her chest and sobbed quietly, because she no longer had the strength to scream.
— “Please… help me…”
At dawn, her head dropped forward helplessly. The image before her eyes began to blur when suddenly, somewhere nearby, the sound of an engine rang out.
An old pickup truck stopped sharply by the riverbank.
A tall man jumped out of the vehicle and froze when he saw a woman hanging above the river. For several seconds, he stared at Maria as if he could not believe his own eyes, and then he rushed toward the tree.
A gunshot rang out into the air. The crocodiles immediately disappeared beneath the water.
— “PLEASE HOLD ON! DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES!” — HE SHOUTED, CLIMBING ONTO THE BRANCH.
A minute later, Maria felt herself being carefully lowered to the ground.
Later, the police found Antonio at home. He was calmly drinking coffee, convinced that his wife was already gone.
When he was led through the entire village in handcuffs, people watched him in silence.
And Maria sat in the hospital room and, for the first time in many years, was no longer afraid that in the evening she would once again hear her husband’s footsteps behind the door.
