AN: And here's another for you guys! I hope this makes up for not posting lately.
Where was he?
Sansa had scoured her room of all the possible hiding places but Sandor was no where to be found. She checked under her bed, near the wardrobe, and in the alcoves near her chambers. She gently called out his name, even whispered, "My lord" to see if he'd come out and growl to her that he was no lord and he spat on knight's vows and whatnot. But there was no sign of him.
After fifteen minutes of searching, Sansa curled up on her bed, and cried.
"He lied to me," she whispered herself. "He was lying the whole time. He... lied to me. Gods, he told Joffrey everything, I'm sure. Everything I said, everything I did. That's why Ser Ilyn was there, to kill me after the battle was done. I'm going to be killed. How could he do this?"
Sansa sobbed harder. "I trusted him. How could he hurt me? How could he do this? I trusted him..."
She stumbled to her window and threw open the shutters. The sky was glowing green, from the bottom up, and faded into blackness. She could hear clashing steel, screams, swears, shouts of commands, and banging coming from the Mud Gate. The smell of smoke and blood filled her nostrils. Sansa clutched the windowsill, digging her fingers into the rough stone. She screamed. It was not a fearful scream, or a tearful scream, or a sream of joy. She was angry. Her scream was filled with hate and by the time she had pushed herself away to collapse to her knees on the floor, her knuckles were bloody from hitting the stone and throat was raw and sore.
She hated herself. She hated Sandor. She hated Joffrey, and the Queen for fooling her into believing, even for a moment, that her father was a traitor and she had traitor's blood. She hated her sister, for escaping when she could not. She hated Robb for not coming to her rescue. She hated her mother for not convincing him to. She hated King Robert for dying and leaving the realm in the hands of Joffrey, and for making her father come to King's Landing.
Her father...
She hated her father. He accepted. He knew what Joffrey was, and he gave her to him anyways, without warning. She hated him.
Sansa wiped angrily at her cheeks with the back of her hand and stood. She looked at the window.
It would be a long fall, she thought. It might kill me. I could become crippled, like Bran, but the Lannisters would not waste their resources to save a stupid girl like me...
She stepped towards the window and climbed onto the ledge. Looking down made her feel dizzy and made her stomach churn.
I could do it. I could kill myself before Ser Ilyn had a chance to. Or maybe I could fly away, like a little bird.
Sansa looked back at her bedroom, at the doll on her bedside table.
"I'll take you with me, for some small comfort." she decided. She climbed back down to retrieve it, looking at it illuminated in the green light of the wildfire. She did not hate her father, or her mother, or her siblings. She could never hate them, never. Sansa sighed and let the tears flow again, setting her doll back down beside the Hound's handkerchief and she stepped away.
Wait...
Why do I have the Hound's handkerchief?
Sansa whirled and snatched it.
"I gave it to him... why is it here?" she asked herself. Suddenly, everything he said to her came rushing back to her.
"When the time is right, you'll know. Just take everything as a sign, because that'll be the only way."
Sansa held her breath as she unfolded the handkerchief, and then she half cried, half laughed as she took the lemoncake in her hand.
"Of course, of course, how could I be so stupid?" she said to herself. "He's right, I am a daft little bird."
Sansa pulled the satchel from under her bed and armed herself with Shae's dagger. Then she ran as fast as she could, trying her best to keep quiet as she crept around the men guarding the exits. The only problem was that they seemed to guard every possible exit. The tiny ember of hope in Sansa's heart quickly burned out as she realized that she would never leave the castle without being caught in the act.
She gasped and hid in an alcove when she heard slippered footsteps approaching, thinking it was Lord Varys. To her delight, it was Shae, with her brows furrowed as if deep in thought.
"Shae!" she hissed. The handmaiden perked up and rushed Sansa back into the alove when she stepped out.
"Lady Sansa! What are you still doing here? Why haven't you gone?"
Sansa shook her head. "There's no way out. If I tried, I would be caught, Shae. There's no way out."
Shae gave her a knowing smile and brushed a lock of hair behind Sansa's ear. "Do you trust me, m'lady?"
Sansa nodded. She took her hand. "Follow me. I have one more secret for you."