It was conceivable that her stubbornness, coupled with her beauty, naturally constituted a provocation that would trigger bestial desire in the eyes of the interrogators.
After one arraignment, Margot, barely clinging to life, was thrown back into the cell by a soldier. Upon seeing her disheveled and powerless to resist, he immediately got nasty, pinning Margot down on the straw and began tearing at her clothes.
"Let go of my sister! You rascal and fiend!" Edith immediately tried to rush forward, but weakened by days of imprisonment and hunger, she stumbled and fell to the ground.
At that moment, Adele, lying on the floor, pounced suddenly, sinking her teeth into the soldier''s arm. The man howled in pain and viciously threw the gray-haired mother aside, causing her head to collide heavily with the stone ground near a puddle.
"Aunt!" Edith screamed and rushed to her side.
As they helped her up, the elderly woman''s breath was already faint.
Edith picked up a shard of broken glass from the corner and brandished it like a little she-wolf, baring her teeth at the villain. "Back off! Or I''ll slit your throat right away! I''m not afraid of your threats, you thugs! I''m not even afraid of death!"
"Madwoman!" The soldier, startled by the consequences of his actions, muttered a curse before abandoning Margot''s body and stumbling out.
Edith gently laid Aunt Adele on a sack of straw, wiping the blood from her forehead, futilely attempting to restore her breathing to normal. Since being imprisoned, the old lady had been in a state of semi-consciousness, and now she could no longer be awakened. The air inside the cell was stagnant with a putrid stench, and the continuous dripping of sewage onto the crude sickbed only exacerbated the dire circumstances.
Margot crawled on her knees to the iron grille of the cell, desperately pleading with the men outside to transfer them to a drier and better-ventilated cell. Her pleas were rejected. With both hands clasped together, the maiden begged for hours on behalf of her mother, but no one paid her any attention.
That evening, the old woman took her last breath.
Edith vigorously shook the cold, metallic bars, making a clattering sound, an