Chapter 14 #3
I sigh in relief. How long do I want to keep him hanging for?
The next part is more fun. You get to gut him.
I clamp my legs together. He’s saying all the right words to me. I want to gut him. Now.
Jacob’s wiggling slows and that means it’s time to release him.
I pull the lever again and it drops the rope completely, letting his body fall to the floor.
Jacob gasps for air as the guards from earlier step up and quickly drag him back up to the gallows.
This next bit isn't for the faint hearted. Most people are aware what goes on with this torture method, but it has been a while since it was last performed. I’d better put on a show. I wonder how many people will vomit.
I turn to Gray and see he has gone to light a barrel of wood and makes the flames hot and high. He looks at me, nods and smiles. The fire is ready.
Once Jacob is on his knees in front of me again, facing the crowd, one of the guards yanks his head up by his hair. My guard comes round in front of me and opens his hands.
My blade.
My girl.
He has her and he’s presenting her to me.
I look up to him, he nods and I take my blade from his hands, still not touching him.
Yet. I step around to Jacob’s right side, and I look at the crowd.
All eyes are on me. Most women have looked away, but some men are smiling.
Some are leaving, some are getting closer.
I lean forward, Jacob’s eyes widening and following my blade, as I place my dagger to his stomach. I stab and drag it through him, cutting slowly from left to right. He screams, a pitiful weak thing, bubbling and frothing with bloody spittle. His insides seep out through the cut.
Red.
The crowd gasps. I hear vomiting, crying, children screaming.
I like it.
My guard hands me a hot branding iron and I grab the handle. Not touching. Not yet. I face Jacob, his eyes open and on me, barely any life in them. He's coughing up blood weakly, involuntarily.
“Drop his head so he can fully see his own insides.” My guard speaks out for me, his voice laced with lust, with power and dominance.
He read my mind. The guard holding up Jacob’s head drops it forward and then steps back to join the other guard, both on standby.
Jacob pales even further as he looks at his innards, spluttering blood all over them, blubbering and whimpering.
Red.
I aim the poker and I place it slowly into his entrails.
Jacob starts to fall forward but my guard catches him and holds him up, his eyes on me, not on the work I am doing.
I steal that gaze for a moment before I put my poker into another part of Jacob’s intestines, and grin as they begin to smoulder.
Pull them out now, then put them in the fire.
My guard lets go of Jacob, another stepping forward to hold him in the same position.
On his knees, looking down at his own body with his insides hanging out and seared in places.
Gray fetches the barrel of fire closer to us and stands Jacob up, presenting him to me as the other guard backs away.
It takes no visible effort for him to stand Jacob’s weak body up and I love how he is the one helping me.
I put my hands on Jacobs' insides and pull with a slurping, popping, wet sucking sound. I drag it all into the fire, most still attached to him. Gray holds Jacob’s head up and aims his sight at the barrel so I can see the flames dancing in Jacob's eyes.
Jacob’s eyes turn to my own, almost nothing left there.
I stare at them, and I wait. Nothing else matters right now.
I can't hear anything, I can't see or focus on anything else right now, other than watching his life leave him. I flick my eyes to my guard’s; pure blackness meets mine and I look back to Jacob’s.
His gaze is focused on mine, and I see it.
I see his eyes lose focus, I see the light wink out, like someone pinching off a nearly burnt-out candle… I see his life leave his pathetic body.
That kill, his soul, is mine.
Gray and I inhale a breath at the same time, our eyes meeting.
Richard comes and stands next to us and we both look at him at the same time and stand, Gray stepping slightly in front of me.
“Can I help you, Constable Richard?” Gray spits the words at him, towering over him and Richard starts to look a little uneasy.
“I am taking over from here. You should pack your things and leave.” Richard looks to me. I nod my head and make my way off the stage. My guard follows me and I hear him grunt towards Richard as he passes, making me smile a little.
I didn’t get the whole package of this hung, drawn and quartered method but I got the death. Jacob’s soul. Now, I’m content to take my leave and figure out what to do while I lay low, finishing off my blacksmithing jobs and taking care of my beautiful animals. Sounds quite nice.
I turn around to face Gray, but he’s gone and I am once again alone. I sigh and make my way to collect Ada.
I am full of food and mixed feelings. Richard makes me feel so uneasy, on edge, and I don't like it, and Ada is scaring me.
Her mane, tail and coat are changing so quickly to grey.
I don't understand what this means. I really hope she isn't sick, I don't know how I would handle having to put her out of her misery.
But Gray helped me today and we got to kill together; he gave me my own blade to take the life.
I sigh, pushing my empty plate forward on the table and looking outside my window. The night sky dances with the sparkles of the stars and the moon is coming up to full.
I fall into my bed, pull the covers up high and try not to think too much about this past week. I've lost my girls at De-Vil’s, I lost my job and now, I might lose Ada.
I must not lose Gray too.
My Gray.
Mine.