The next part: ending Nanette's story! Next story, I think, will be somewhat different structurally: I've already introduced most of the worldbuilding and set the scene, after all... Well, that's later.

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When the pear of pain exhibit was blocked again - it proved to be quite popular, in part due to its partly interactive nature - Nanette looked to the other side of Aria, who was trying to shift her weight on the frame but apparently failing miserably and only causing herself more pain.

There was another execution exhibit there - and ironically, despite it being one of the more torturous methods of death were it real (at least, by Nanette's estimation), it was one of the most comfortable to actually be in. It was also nude - fully nude, this time - but the nature of the exhibit prevented the body from actually being viewed.

It was an exhibit for boiling alive. A huge pot was situated over a quite real open fire, filled with water, and a naked tied up girl sat in it. The trick to keeping the water from actually boiling her was a pair of faucets on the far side of the pot - one to keep cold water streaming in, the other to seep out hot water, keeping the water at quite comfortable 'hot tub' temperature. The girl did emulate pain, however, although mostly silently - if everyone were to scream, the cacophony would be unbearable.

Well, Nanette supposed, not everyone was in it for actual pain and horror. Some people just wanted to be a part of the event without subjecting themselves to a lot of discomfort - and in this one, she could even shift around, although the tied up limbs would probably get sore after a while. This was what execution exhibits were more or less for.


Next one over was more lively - it was torture again. This was the good old classic, flogging, with a variety of painful looking instruments. The girl here was, as Aria said were allowed to be, a primary schooler - a tiny thing with puffy blonde pigtails. This exhibit was also partially nude, but it was skirt that the girl kept on. Had an older girl been picked for this, her bottom would probably also be bare (and open for striking), but a primary schooler just had her back exposed to the visitors. She didn't wear a bra, of course - a girl this age had no need for one.

This was also an interactive exhibit. The attendant even let the visitors give one lash each, although he instructed them to be careful and gentle - you could do real damage there if you didn't know what you were doing! All the (surviving) girls would be given quality medical care afterwards, of course, but it was always better to minimize damage to begin with.

Nanette had heard from Aria that this one was also on the list for executions. It was possible to kill a person by lashing them all day at full force! It was one of the more painful ways to die, and unlike other execution exhibits, it didn't actually have a set time when it would happen. The attendant would just strike at full force all day (every time the visitors came up, that is - no need to make it too brief) and encourage the visitors to use full force, too. If the girl was still alive at the end of the day, then the event did happen - instead of giving her a few demonstrative lashes, the attendant would beat her continuously until she did die, usually of blood loss or shock.


The next ones after this were again hard to see from Nanette's position - she wasn't supposed to move around a lot, after all - so she shifted back to watching the first four. Aria's was pretty boring, but she was her friend; the wooden horse was probably something Nanette could stare at all day, and hanging could actually end up being real if the attendant were careless. Of course, if something like that happened, the girl would probably just be cut down and administered first aid, but it was fun to imagine. And of course, the pear was always an attraction - every time the girl noticed Nanette was looking at her, she'd ask the attendant to hold a demonstration again, although she was supposed to rest in between visitor groups.


Quite a few of these tortures could actually cause permanent damage - all the risks were listed on the leaflets the girls were supposed to familiarize themselves with before coming to an audition. For the more risky ones, often much fewer girls would actually show up for the audition than signed up initially, having realized that they were not up for that after all. With the exhibits held twice every year, all students usually had a pretty good idea of how brutal and painful the tortures would be, but those who didn't have a special interest in medicine could generally not predict the consequences - other than the obvious ones, when the tortures straight up were mutilations. There wasn't allowed to be more than one like that every year, though.

Even the exhibits that didn't include much pain in themselves were usually very uncomfortable to be in all day. There were only two or three pee breaks allowed all day, and while the girls were always given a lot to drink, they were not fed. And of course, most exhibits meant you were supposed to hold the same position all day, and it was usually not comfortably lounging around.

Nanette herself started feeling discomfort pretty soon. She tried to shift a bit, and in part she succeeded, but her hands were still tied up behind her back, and she couldn't move her head a lot, nor was there a lot of leg room under the quite real wooden stump. If she sagged back, the axe would press onto her neck, and shifting forward would cause her neck to be stretched uncomfortably. And it's barely been a couple of hours, too! Or even just an hour? There was a wall clock in the room, but as it happened, it was just behind Nanette's back. She wasn't gagged - some of the girls were - so she could possibly ask the attendant to tell her the time when there was no-one right next to her, but she decided not to. It felt more fun when she was stuck timeless and time felt like eternity.

This was the last eternity of her life, too, the thought came. The end of this discomfort would be not release and relaxing, but her death. If she lost track of time, she could end up being reminded of it by having her head cut off...

This wasn't entirely true. There was a window in the wall opposite Nanette, and she knew the exhibit ended after dark. As long as it was bright outside, she still had a lot of time; but she couldn't see the sun nor the shadows very well, so what time of day it was was a mystery.

This was where she would die. This was the last stretch of her life, the last position she took. The peanut butter and jelly sandwish she ate this morning was her last meal. Granted, she made it already thinking that - but only just now did it really sink in.

Last day. Last position. Last view - and quite a pleasant view it was. The girl on the wooden horse found some irregularity in the surface and cut her labia; while the attendant turned away for a moment to pick up medical supplies to patch the cut, she rocked back and forth to make it as big as possible. Nanette supposed different kinds of pain distracted from each other and were more bearable. She regretted, in retrospect, that she didn't ask to try the horse during the rehearsals - quite a few girls did, and those weren't their last chances!

Last chances. Everything Nanette hadn't gotten to try until now, would never happen. She'd never travel, she'd never get married. She'd never graduate. Never try foods or see sights or get experiences.

Nanette never did have set feelings for her future. With her parents, any ideas for her life after graduation only ever felt like fleeting non-serious dreams. It was nice to think it could be possible, but it was like thinking about learning to fly or going to Mars - entirely removed from her actual plans and understanding of herself.

This gave her present experience of preparing for death a special dream-like quality. Not even graduation was real anymore, not even tomorrow. Her future cut off sharply at the end of the day, and Nanette found the idea to be surprisingly relaxing. There was literally nothing to be anxious over; even her acting perfomance until then, she'd forgiven herself in advance for botching. She wouldn't get to experience consequences of anything ever, other than the consequence of the decision to agree to the exhibit, anyway. She felt detached and light, like a feather.

She looked at the punk girl with the pain pear again and wondered leisurely if the girl's eagerness to perform for Nanette's gaze rather than give herself a rest would make a difference in her health afterwards. It probably would, Nanette decided, and every time she looked at her she'd hurt her. Those were consequences that would persist past Nanette's death... but they weren't really her responsibility. The punk girl's decisions were her own. If she wanted to hurt herself for Nanette, why wouldn't Nanette indulge her?


Hours trickled slowly by. Nanette refused to drink, preferring the parching dryness in her throat and lack of need for getting up. Other girls were not allowed to refuse like that, she saw, but they had their future health to care about, while Nanette's sensations now were sensations only. She was as good as dead already, and she was allowed to pick whatever she wanted to feel like until then.

Thirst was annoying, but it was still something she was in control of. She couldn't really refuse to be beheaded now - well, she probably could, but she WOULDN'T, and that was a certainity - but she could quench her thirst any moment, and every minute that passed without drinking was her own to prolong. She did shift around, allowing herself minor reliefs for stiff muscles, but thirst was there to stay. All the torture exhibit girls were suffering more than that right now, and Nanette was just joining in as best she could.


The time for the main event came up as suddenly as it could. Nanette had long forgotten to keep track of the light behind the window; well, she did stare out there from time to time, but she forgot to connect it to her own remaining lifetime entirely. This was blissed, disconnected, calm boredom, and she gave herself to it entirely.

Until there was a sudden sound from the announcement speaker that remained silent all day.

"All visitors of the exhibition, attention! The main exhibition event is to begin in five minutes!"

Nanette felt her heart quicken. This was it; five minutes left to live - what was there to begin or end, anyway? How long could hammering the axe into her neck last? A minute? Two? With how painful Nanette expected it to be, it might as well be eternity, but she'd really be dead the moment the axe first bit into her neck. That was the real point of no return - up until then, and even now, Nanette knew if she refused, she'd be allowed to. Nothing like that had ever happened, girls didn't get cold feet during the exhibition itself, but if it had, she knew they wouldn't hold her down forcibly.

They would as soon as the event actually started, though, as pain convulsions were not negation of consent. She just had five minutes to wait until the moment she couldn't refuse anymore, not even if she wanted.

The crowd gathering in the middle of the exhibition hall - who exactly would die was still not announced - was not as big as Nanette sort of expected it to be. The event would be broadcast live on TV screens all over the school, she recalled; the real crowds were probably there.

The attendants of their own exhibits, leaving their own charges for a bit, organized and arranged the people into a neat semicircle, some standing, some sitting: everyone would get a decent view. There still wasn't a formal announcement of who was to die, but Nanette was clearly at the center of the semicircle, and she was now the center of attention. Breaking the character for a moment, she gave the spectators the brightest smile she could manage: she wanted the recording of her death to have this on it, the undoubted proof that she was going in willingly and happily.

Finally, the speaker came alive again. It announced Nanette's full name, age, class, then shifted into the description of history of beheading in general and this method in particular. Nanette, who already knew all that, tuned it out, instead concentrationg on producing the best fear grimaces possible and 'struggling' in a way that would still hold her in place.

Finally, the announcement was over, and along with the silence, the lights came off. There were just a couple of lights shining right into Nanette's eyes; she winced for a moment, then transformed it into an expression of fear, again.

There was a sound of hammer, and Nanette felt sharp pain in her neck.

This was it. From how on, she was dead.

Despite pain, she managed to hold still. One, two, she counted, silently; on three, there was another blow.

She did not feel her body anymore. She wasn't sure if this was because of her spine being severed or because she was that high on pain. She could still think almost clearly - she remembered where she was, what was happening, what death was. Her perception of the outside world was getting cloudy, though; she knew intellectually there were people in front of her, but even if she tried, she couldn't concentrate on making out the shapes. The darkness everything but her was entrenched in wasn't helping.

The sounds felt quiet, too.

The pain was also fading away. The last thought the girl had, as her head was already rolling down from the stump into the specially prepared basket, was:

"I thought this would hurt more"

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Tune in next time for more adventures in the Boarding School of Weird!