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Other Forms Of Execution

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pkindenhaag said:
It had been a tough but good life... She didn't really think much about her childhood.... Once she'd developed her lovely body she'd realised that life could be fun... She'd never be rich, but she got by... She loved sex and the men who paid her loved lying with her too... there hands playing with her breasts, running fingers through her long brown hair, their tongues bringing her to a special place of joy... It brought in the coins, and if she ran short she wasn't afraid of a bit of stealing... In fact, she loved the excitement of that too...

The first time she was caught the market stall man let her off with a slap of his leather belt... The next time, they pulled off her clothes, two of them holding her arms out tight, and the third giving her a few hard lashes with an old rope... The crowd in the market gathered and watched... It was all over quickly and she suddenly realised that this too was part of the excitement... Sure, it hurt - like hell - but she felt something trembling deep down inside, rising up and taking over her heaving body... She smiled secretly..

The life continued.... she'd take a man in the local tavern and that would pay for food and clothes... if she ran short, well, there was always as stall with a distracted owner... She knew deep down that this was a road to ruin, but she had no-one else... and it was a life she liked... She was becoming addicted to the rush of the risk...

One day she was careless... she was flung into the market place cell, and an hour or two later dragged out to the whipping post... The constable ripped off her blouse and ten strokes later it was over... A set of bloody lacerations covered her back... And yes, it hurt... but it was also strangely good... She began to realise that this was her road... She couldn't stay beautiful for ever... and somehow her path to destruction was mapping itself out...

Many a night she'd roll into the upper room at the tavern with some man or other... She let them get drunk, but not so drunk that they couldn't enjoy their time together - she was good at her job and she wanted to give value... and she loved it too... But things were always tight... the temptation to steal was always there... and mostly she got away with it... Until the day in the market when she made a mistake... This time she knew it would be big trouble... Once more to the cell and the next day to the whipping post... She knew what to expect - the crowd gathering (for little was more entertaining than a beautiful young girl stripped and beaten)... the kiss of the old wooden post... the iron shackles holding her hands tight over her head.. the ripping of her blouse, exposing her back and breasts to the gaze of all... The first blow of the whip - always a shock - you could never remember the pain of that first blow, as it forced your whole body into the post... Then the counting... trying not to cry out... but slowly giving in... moaning... screaming as the pain grew and grew... Twenty - all done.... But not this time... The executioner brought up a glowing brazier with a long iron brand thrust into it... The letter "D" for dief... "It's over quickly... one sharp pain, that's all" - she'd never faced the iron before... her face twisted round to see what was to happen - part terrified, part curious... Then "Hiss..." it was forced into the soft white flesh of her shoulder... Such pain she had not known! And she was wreathed in the smoke and smell of her own burning flesh... for a fleeting moment... then she fell backwards, held by the shackles, her naked back arching over, her hair hanging to the ground...

It took days to recover from that... Her back and shoulders were in agony .... but she did recover and life went on the same as ever... Until the temptation came along, after a night in the tavern attic, to slip away with the leather purse of her customer... She thought she was away, but he woke and all hell seemed to be let loose... The inevitable followed... into the cell... but this time when the men there stripped and chained her not only did the weals on her back betray her but now the letter "D".... and this time, before the magistrates, it wasn't just another whipping ordered... "The woman is not to be reformed... We can't tolerate this behaviour !" So, this was it... "The court condemns the whore Sofi to death by hanging - take her away" - so death at the end of the rope... Sofi knew that sometime it would all come to this... She sobbed, but she was also intrigued... How would it feel? It wouldn't be quick, but it wouldn't be that slow either - there were worse ways to go... and at least she wouldn't grow ugly and old...

Back to the cells she went... chained and naked... but day passed to day... When? When would they come for her? Eventually the doors slammed open and she found herself dragged into the bright light of the town square, but there was no scaffold, no crowd... Instead a rough cart with a wooden cage into which she was quickly bundled...

And now her eyes moved again to the crowd in the Grote Markt - held in temporary suspension... - and then she was looking down from above... At two women, grievously tormented, tied in such an awkward way to the two great wheels... Their bodies half-destroyed, their breasts just bloody wounds, their faces... Still so beautiful... Their lips trembling... anticipating... waiting.... And then the silence was broken by a huge roar from the crowd, and now her eyes focused just on the executioner and the great metal bar he held over his head.... and her world span round and down and became the tiny space where she lay, bound, in agony, waiting....

To be continued... and approaching the end....
Click to expand...

Death on the Wheel..
.View attachment 94509 b02.jpg
....and that moment had come... The executioner looked first to Sofi, then to Susja... and with a little smile approached the red-headed girl - she would be first... To a raucous cheer the bar, at once high, its dull metal edges twising in the sky, descended... and smashed into Susja's ankle with a terrible crunch, immediately joined by a howl of agony as the pain washed up her body... Glancing down through clouding eyes she saw her foot, attached still by reddened flesh - now swelling rapidly - yet at a crazy angle, the bones of her ankle broken... She could hardly breathe., but rapidly the bar crashed down again, now to her other leg... The pain swelled to a chorus... Without pause up went the executioner's hands - where next? He worked up her twisted, bound limbs - calves: Smash! - then above her knees... the thickest part of her legs - but broken on both sides with two blows each... Sweat poured from her entire body, her legs now mangled and resembling nothing but strands of reddened, swelling, bloody flesh... Not the smooth legs that lovers had caressed, but useless, bones held together only by the wrecked flesh... Susja trembled involuntarily, her screams reached out across the now stilled square, bouncing from the buildings, reverberating, then subsiding into a continual moaning...
/ATTACH] b03.jpg b04.jpg b05.jpg b06.jpg View attachment 94515

Now he turned to Sofi... her eyes, widening, had been transfixed by the breaking of Sujsa - and now slowly swivelled back to stare up at the bar, now poised over her own body... She knew what was coming, as - almost in slow-motion, the bar descended towards her little white ankle... and then the pain erupted and her sreams were let loose... Left, Right, Up Up, her legs, her thighs - her back boucing on the hub of the wheel with each blow, the pain layered upon pain... pain beyond pain.... pain beyond understanding.... and seemingly endless...

Back to Susja.... Now her arms... wrists - BROKEN! - forearms - BROKEN! - and so it went - pain beyond description... blood and marrow spurting occasionally from the rips in her once-delicate flesh, her voice torn from her throat and projected into the grey swirling sky...

Women in the square, at one moment cheering for the deaths of the girls now became muted, holding their children close to them, shielding their eyes in their robes, for this was something that they should not see... Or hear... the cries, the moans, the gulps and gasps as the body of Susja clung to a life that had long since passed into the realms of a horror story...

And now the final blows approached for Sofi... Barely sensible now, but so close the bar fell to her eyes... her body shuddering with each dull blow as the flesh and bone gave way, drawing ever softer, yet ever more agonised cries from her lips...

Then it was done.... Almost.... The assistants approached each wheel, canting them forward until they were almost vertical, facing the crowd in the square, who looked up on the two girls... Just an hour earlier they had arrived, dirty and in rags, but beautiful... Now they were images of the utmost horror and disgust... ravaged breasts, limbs bloody and twisted... Truly broken creatures.... Only their still lovely faces, spattered in blood, gave some sense of the joking, laughing, kissing, loving things they had once been... and would not be...

As the wheel came to rest in its final position, Sofi grunted once more, her body shifting as gravity took its hold on the broken limbs, grating flesh, bone and nerves.... How long? How long would this continue? The executioner's work was done and he retired to clean and refresh himself... The crowd, now dimly visible through dark eyes, watched on, fascinated by the death agonies unfolding in front of them, but some slowly drifing away... The dark clouds continued to roll in above and drops of rain began to fall...

The rain became heavier.... The crowd dispersed... going to their jobs or to the tavern... Few had the energy left to do much work that day, and maybe a drink was the best thing... Just a few remained, their clothes becoming soaked in what was now a downpour... Water coursed over Sofi's body, washing the blood away, cleaning her face... Wetting her trembling lips.... Her eyes moved slowly to Susja, heaving on the spokes of the wheels in a slow, repeating pattern... And then to Sigi, hiding behind the rail to which she remained chained... .... tears mingling with blood and rain water....
b06.jpg b07.jpg b11.jpg b14.jpg
First to one, then to the other.... Her eyes reaching out, and meeting Sigi's wide gaze.... until the one became the other...

Postscipt

Sigi remained chained to the rail for another hour... The rain came down without ending... At the end of the hour the assistants who had been sheltering came back up onto the platform and removed the bonds from the now still bodies of Susja and Sofi, letting them fall onto the wooden flooring, before dragging them off back into the cart... Sigi never saw them again. That work done, they released Sigi from her chains, wrapped her in a rough robe to shelter her from the storm, and led her down off the execution scaffold. Her punishment was done... With a shove, they sent her sprawling into a muddy puddle and then with shouts and arm gestures, told her to get away... Unsure what to do she stumbled... then turned and, carried on legs like jelly, ran - into the alleys around the Grote Markt, away - far away - lost in the narrow streets until she could find some shelter... A passerby saw her... she was pretty... there was a tavern near by...

But as she cowered there, in the rain, covered in her wounds... She knew where her path ahead lay....Someday she would become Sofi, become Susja... That was her destiny....

tumblr_mwopgsW9F91rfc12eo1_500.jpg
pkindenhaag said:
Death on the Wheel..
.View attachment 94509 b02.jpg
....and that moment had come... The executioner looked first to Sofi, then to Susja... and with a little smile approached the red-headed girl - she would be first... To a raucous cheer the bar, at once high, its dull metal edges twising in the sky, descended... and smashed into Susja's ankle with a terrible crunch, immediately joined by a howl of agony as the pain washed up her body... Glancing down through clouding eyes she saw her foot, attached still by reddened flesh - now swelling rapidly - yet at a crazy angle, the bones of her ankle broken... She could hardly breathe., but rapidly the bar crashed down again, now to her other leg... The pain swelled to a chorus... Without pause up went the executioner's hands - where next? He worked up her twisted, bound limbs - calves: Smash! - then above her knees... the thickest part of her legs - but broken on both sides with two blows each... Sweat poured from her entire body, her legs now mangled and resembling nothing but strands of reddened, swelling, bloody flesh... Not the smooth legs that lovers had caressed, but useless, bones held together only by the wrecked flesh... Susja trembled involuntarily, her screams reached out across the now stilled square, bouncing from the buildings, reverberating, then subsiding into a continual moaning...
/ATTACH] b03.jpg b04.jpg b05.jpg b06.jpg View attachment 94515

Now he turned to Sofi... her eyes, widening, had been transfixed by the breaking of Sujsa - and now slowly swivelled back to stare up at the bar, now poised over her own body... She knew what was coming, as - almost in slow-motion, the bar descended towards her little white ankle... and then the pain erupted and her sreams were let loose... Left, Right, Up Up, her legs, her thighs - her back boucing on the hub of the wheel with each blow, the pain layered upon pain... pain beyond pain.... pain beyond understanding.... and seemingly endless...

Back to Susja.... Now her arms... wrists - BROKEN! - forearms - BROKEN! - and so it went - pain beyond description... blood and marrow spurting occasionally from the rips in her once-delicate flesh, her voice torn from her throat and projected into the grey swirling sky...

Women in the square, at one moment cheering for the deaths of the girls now became muted, holding their children close to them, shielding their eyes in their robes, for this was something that they should not see... Or hear... the cries, the moans, the gulps and gasps as the body of Susja clung to a life that had long since passed into the realms of a horror story...

And now the final blows approached for Sofi... Barely sensible now, but so close the bar fell to her eyes... her body shuddering with each dull blow as the flesh and bone gave way, drawing ever softer, yet ever more agonised cries from her lips...

Then it was done.... Almost.... The assistants approached each wheel, canting them forward until they were almost vertical, facing the crowd in the square, who looked up on the two girls... Just an hour earlier they had arrived, dirty and in rags, but beautiful... Now they were images of the utmost horror and disgust... ravaged breasts, limbs bloody and twisted... Truly broken creatures.... Only their still lovely faces, spattered in blood, gave some sense of the joking, laughing, kissing, loving things they had once been... and would not be...

As the wheel came to rest in its final position, Sofi grunted once more, her body shifting as gravity took its hold on the broken limbs, grating flesh, bone and nerves.... How long? How long would this continue? The executioner's work was done and he retired to clean and refresh himself... The crowd, now dimly visible through dark eyes, watched on, fascinated by the death agonies unfolding in front of them, but some slowly drifing away... The dark clouds continued to roll in above and drops of rain began to fall...

The rain became heavier.... The crowd dispersed... going to their jobs or to the tavern... Few had the energy left to do much work that day, and maybe a drink was the best thing... Just a few remained, their clothes becoming soaked in what was now a downpour... Water coursed over Sofi's body, washing the blood away, cleaning her face... Wetting her trembling lips.... Her eyes moved slowly to Susja, heaving on the spokes of the wheels in a slow, repeating pattern... And then to Sigi, hiding behind the rail to which she remained chained... .... tears mingling with blood and rain water....
b06.jpg b07.jpg b11.jpg b14.jpg
First to one, then to the other.... Her eyes reaching out, and meeting Sigi's wide gaze.... until the one became the other...

Postscipt

Sigi remained chained to the rail for another hour... The rain came down without ending... At the end of the hour the assistants who had been sheltering came back up onto the platform and removed the bonds from the now still bodies of Susja and Sofi, letting them fall onto the wooden flooring, before dragging them off back into the cart... Sigi never saw them again. That work done, they released Sigi from her chains, wrapped her in a rough robe to shelter her from the storm, and led her down off the execution scaffold. Her punishment was done... With a shove, they sent her sprawling into a muddy puddle and then with shouts and arm gestures, told her to get away... Unsure what to do she stumbled... then turned and, carried on legs like jelly, ran - into the alleys around the Grote Markt, away - far away - lost in the narrow streets until she could find some shelter... A passerby saw her... she was pretty... there was a tavern near by...

But as she cowered there, in the rain, covered in her wounds... She knew where her path ahead lay....Someday she would become Sofi, become Susja... That was her destiny....

tumblr_mwopgsW9F91rfc12eo1_500.jpg
Click to expand...


Addendum
Thank you for tolerating me as I have slowly put this story together... It's my first try, so please forgive the stylistic slips (and other slips), as well as the odd lapse of continuity here and there, and thanks to everyone who has offered support and advice along the way... The story formed in my mind - weirdly - as I was trecking in Burma last year... I think a combination of lots of silent time with not much to do (other than walk!) in the hills together with the odd effects of anti-malarials! Anyway, it had been coming together for a while... I really enjoyed putting it to "paper" - I was sometimes excited by the scenes forming on the screen... and in my mind... And I was trying to choose who I would be... In the end, this time, I think it is lovely Sigi... the witness... who has her own journey to take to her death... the fourth death of the title.... I think I may come back with her sometime....
 

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It has been fun travelling this road with you. I feel for poor Sigi but that is the result of good writing so bravo.

As to the four deaths, while I am sure many would cry out for an encore by Sigi surely it is the death of the mind and of hope that is most frightening?

Still a salute to your efforts from this rodent :) Well done PK
 
RacingRodent said:
It has been fun travelling this road with you. I feel for poor Sigi but that is the result of good writing so bravo.

As to the four deaths, while I am sure many would cry out for an encore by Sigi surely it is the death of the mind and of hope that is most frightening?

Still a salute to your efforts from this rodent :) Well done PK
Click to expand...

I second RR's comments. Great writing.
 
excellent, what a great way to celebrate your birthday pk!

that final image of Sigi (#9) sears into my mind, unforgettable!​
 
tumblr_mwopgsw9f91rfc12eo1_500-jpg.94519

A pure jewel of a find to illustrate the end of your first story...

Thank you for tolerating me as I have slowly put this story together...PK

Compared to Tree's writing your story was a 'Reader's Digest Condensed Version'

Tree

...no, Eul, I did not say 'virgin'... I said 'version'...
 
Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up with the chronicles of Sofi, Susja, and Sigi, working on my own little literary contribution (sorry for the plug for my Princess Onora story, coming slowly but surely,) but I'm going to start from the very beginning, keeping in mind what Sigi, looks like.
Don't want to make more work for you than is necessary, but is it possible for you to edit the story into a new post in the stories section in the forum, to make it readily accessible to those who aren't following this topic?
Again, just how perfect that picture is with your text is beyond words. I would love to save her.

pkindenhaag said:
Death on the Wheel..
.View attachment 94509 View attachment 94510
....and that moment had come... The executioner looked first to Sofi, then to Susja... and with a little smile approached the red-headed girl - she would be first... To a raucous cheer the bar, at once high, its dull metal edges twising in the sky, descended... and smashed into Susja's ankle with a terrible crunch, immediately joined by a howl of agony as the pain washed up her body... Glancing down through clouding eyes she saw her foot, attached still by reddened flesh - now swelling rapidly - yet at a crazy angle, the bones of her ankle broken... She could hardly breathe., but rapidly the bar crashed down again, now to her other leg... The pain swelled to a chorus... Without pause up went the executioner's hands - where next? He worked up her twisted, bound limbs - calves: Smash! - then above her knees... the thickest part of her legs - but broken on both sides with two blows each... Sweat poured from her entire body, her legs now mangled and resembling nothing but strands of reddened, swelling, bloody flesh... Not the smooth legs that lovers had caressed, but useless, bones held together only by the wrecked flesh... Susja trembled involuntarily, her screams reached out across the now stilled square, bouncing from the buildings, reverberating, then subsiding into a continual moaning...
/ATTACH] View attachment 94511 View attachment 94512 View attachment 94513 View attachment 94514 View attachment 94515

Now he turned to Sofi... her eyes, widening, had been transfixed by the breaking of Sujsa - and now slowly swivelled back to stare up at the bar, now poised over her own body... She knew what was coming, as - almost in slow-motion, the bar descended towards her little white ankle... and then the pain erupted and her sreams were let loose... Left, Right, Up Up, her legs, her thighs - her back boucing on the hub of the wheel with each blow, the pain layered upon pain... pain beyond pain.... pain beyond understanding.... and seemingly endless...

Back to Susja.... Now her arms... wrists - BROKEN! - forearms - BROKEN! - and so it went - pain beyond description... blood and marrow spurting occasionally from the rips in her once-delicate flesh, her voice torn from her throat and projected into the grey swirling sky...

Women in the square, at one moment cheering for the deaths of the girls now became muted, holding their children close to them, shielding their eyes in their robes, for this was something that they should not see... Or hear... the cries, the moans, the gulps and gasps as the body of Susja clung to a life that had long since passed into the realms of a horror story...

And now the final blows approached for Sofi... Barely sensible now, but so close the bar fell to her eyes... her body shuddering with each dull blow as the flesh and bone gave way, drawing ever softer, yet ever more agonised cries from her lips...

Then it was done.... Almost.... The assistants approached each wheel, canting them forward until they were almost vertical, facing the crowd in the square, who looked up on the two girls... Just an hour earlier they had arrived, dirty and in rags, but beautiful... Now they were images of the utmost horror and disgust... ravaged breasts, limbs bloody and twisted... Truly broken creatures.... Only their still lovely faces, spattered in blood, gave some sense of the joking, laughing, kissing, loving things they had once been... and would not be...

As the wheel came to rest in its final position, Sofi grunted once more, her body shifting as gravity took its hold on the broken limbs, grating flesh, bone and nerves.... How long? How long would this continue? The executioner's work was done and he retired to clean and refresh himself... The crowd, now dimly visible through dark eyes, watched on, fascinated by the death agonies unfolding in front of them, but some slowly drifing away... The dark clouds continued to roll in above and drops of rain began to fall...

The rain became heavier.... The crowd dispersed... going to their jobs or to the tavern... Few had the energy left to do much work that day, and maybe a drink was the best thing... Just a few remained, their clothes becoming soaked in what was now a downpour... Water coursed over Sofi's body, washing the blood away, cleaning her face... Wetting her trembling lips.... Her eyes moved slowly to Susja, heaving on the spokes of the wheels in a slow, repeating pattern... And then to Sigi, hiding behind the rail to which she remained chained... .... tears mingling with blood and rain water....
View attachment 94514 View attachment 94516 View attachment 94520 View attachment 94521
First to one, then to the other.... Her eyes reaching out, and meeting Sigi's wide gaze.... until the one became the other...

Postscipt

Sigi remained chained to the rail for another hour... The rain came down without ending... At the end of the hour the assistants who had been sheltering came back up onto the platform and removed the bonds from the now still bodies of Susja and Sofi, letting them fall onto the wooden flooring, before dragging them off back into the cart... Sigi never saw them again. That work done, they released Sigi from her chains, wrapped her in a rough robe to shelter her from the storm, and led her down off the execution scaffold. Her punishment was done... With a shove, they sent her sprawling into a muddy puddle and then with shouts and arm gestures, told her to get away... Unsure what to do she stumbled... then turned and, carried on legs like jelly, ran - into the alleys around the Grote Markt, away - far away - lost in the narrow streets until she could find some shelter... A passerby saw her... she was pretty... there was a tavern near by...

But as she cowered there, in the rain, covered in her wounds... She knew where her path ahead lay....Someday she would become Sofi, become Susja... That was her destiny....

View attachment 94519



Addendum
Thank you for tolerating me as I have slowly put this story together... It's my first try, so please forgive the stylistic slips (and other slips), as well as the odd lapse of continuity here and there, and thanks to everyone who has offered support and advice along the way... The story formed in my mind - weirdly - as I was trecking in Burma last year... I think a combination of lots of silent time with not much to do (other than walk!) in the hills together with the odd effects of anti-malarials! Anyway, it had been coming together for a while... I really enjoyed putting it to "paper" - I was sometimes excited by the scenes forming on the screen... and in my mind... And I was trying to choose who I would be... In the end, this time, I think it is lovely Sigi... the witness... who has her own journey to take to her death... the fourth death of the title.... I think I may come back with her sometime....
Click to expand...
 
jacksjg89 said:
Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up with the chronicles of Sofi, Susja, and Sigi, working on my own little literary contribution (sorry for the plug for my Princess Onora story, coming slowly but surely,) but I'm going to start from the very beginning, keeping in mind what Sigi, looks like.
Don't want to make more work for you than is necessary, but is it possible for you to edit the story into a new post in the stories section in the forum, to make it readily accessible to those who aren't following this topic?
Again, just how perfect that picture is with your text is beyond words. I would love to save her.
Click to expand...
Yes, I will do that.... But my computer needs fixing so may be a little while..... Thank you for your comments..... But please don't save Sigi..... She is frightened of the pain but also is so excited.....
 
is it possible for you to edit the story into a new post in the stories section in the forum
Click to expand...
That section's part of the Archive,
where we (staff) post the most popular stories
in a version uninterrupted by replies, probably a pdf copy too.

With all the "likes" and favourable comments it's getting,
I'm sure this story will find its way into the Archive.​
 
Th
Eulalia said:
That section's part of the Archive,
where we (staff) post the most popular stories
in a version uninterrupted by replies, probably a pdf copy too.

With all the "likes" and favourable comments it's getting,
I'm sure this story will find its way into the Archive.​
Click to expand...
Thank you Eulalia - I will do this as soon as I can....unfortunately my hard-drive has died and won't be back til after the holidays....May be able to do it before then but not sure. :-(
 
seems to be the season for drive-demise,
mine's on the blink too .... :rolleyes:​
 
yep - I've copied everything important into Dropbox as well as on memory sticks.​
 
Public Service Announcement from your local geek: backups are not only for when you think a drive might fail.. and there are many ways to make them almost automatically there is no excuse not doing them regularly.. oh, and that applies to websites too ;)
 
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