Thirteen Steps to the Garrotte

A hush fell over the cold,stone walls of the ancient room,which was lighted only by candles.The townspeople stood,listening quietly while the footsteps of the members of the Tribunal echoed ominously as they approached the bench to render their judgements.Each sat down at the long table and looked straight ahead while the chief judge raised her hand and spoke,ordering the condemned prisoner to be brought before her.Two guards stepped forward seizing the tall,elegant woman to whom she referred.She was thirty-two years-old,one-hundred and seventy-five centimeters tall in her stocking feet,and weighed fifty-five kilograms.She was exquisitely beautiful,with compelling green eyes.Her buttocks were beautifully shaped and firm.The woman's hands were bound behind her,and she was dressed in exquisite black satin.She wore a pair of tight and shiny,highwaisted black pants made of a thick,firm polyester/satin,lined in silk,the pants tucked into her black,knee-length,high-heeled boots.Her black satin shirt was perfectly cut and nearly covered breasts that were small and very beautiful.She wore a light purple scarf,done in a band,and arranged under the collar of her shirt like a necktie,done in a boyish knot..Her hair was just past shoulder length and of darkest,softest brown.Her teeth were even and white,and her skin flawless.She had an aristocratic manner,reflected in her deep green eyes.A Rolex watch with a black leather band graced her slender left wrist,and black three-quarter length satin gloves adorned her hands,beneath the hemp rope that bound them.A black leather handbag with a long strap hung from her left shoulder,the rope binding her hands behind her,tied to the bag as well,so that it wouldn't slip.Her feet were in iron shackles over her black boots.The members of the Tribunal regarded her with righteous contempt.The chief judge spoke,facing and addressing the prisoner.

"You came here,apparently unaware of our customs.It has been so,by law,for centuries--violations of theocratic law cannot be allowed.Alex Price,you have been found guilty of all charges brought against you,and for your sins,shall you be taken to the public scaffold to suffer the slowest of deaths by the garrotte.The Tribunal finds overwhelming evidence of your being a wretchedly poor wife,insensitive to your husband's needs,and utterly unmindful of the sanctity of your own marriage.May your suffering be your salvation.before God,and may He show you mercy on the terrible Day of Judgement ".Now officially sentenced,knew she would face the High Executioner.Alex fell into her chair,sobbing quietly,as the judge motioned with her hand to the public executioner,a nun of the same religious order as the members of the dreaded Tribunal.

Her name was Sister Nora.She was a woman of perhaps forty-three,with a pleasant enough face,not fat,but portly rather than burly.She was devoted to the convent and to her position as public executioner.She had carried out three previous garrottings on the high scaffold,and it was her hallmark as a saver of their souls that she cause the condemned to suffer severely for their sins in order to atone for them.Her official title was the Madame High Executioness.She and the specially trained novices who were her assistants,carried out their work on the high,black,oaken scaffold that stood in a quiet glen at the edge of the small town which Alex now regretted she had visited,then married in.Sister Nora listened to the confessions of the condemned before their executions,and encouraged them to repent of their sins before God and to accept the judgement of the Holy Tribunal.As a religious woman,and public official she was charged to inflict the most terrible,but most just punishment,before Heaven itself.She offered Christian comfort as much as judicial execution.

Madame,the Executioner bowed deeply and long before the Tribunal,raising her head only after the Chief Judge addressed her."Take this sinful woman to the town scaffold and let her suffer for not less than two and one-half hours on the terrible garrotte before the crowd ". There was a deep,shuddering gasp from Alex as the words were pronounced.The executioner nodded,bowing deeply,then turning to face the sobbing victim,said it would be so. "Madame Judge,she will have the metal collar put in place on her neck at 6pm and she will feel it tightened and loosened dozens of times before she feels the mercy of the end,at just before 9pm.Justice will be harsh and excruciating.Let our holy laws prevail".The hundreds of onlookers in the room cheered her as she finished speaking.Two novice executioners,both women in their late thirties,took swift charge of the trembling Alex,put her immediately on her feet,and brought her to the death cell to await the gruesome events of the day to follow.

Shortly afterwards,the High Executioness mounted the scaffold steps with one assistant to prepare the garroting apparatus,position it on the scaffold floor,and then lock it into place.Sister Nora had purchased the garrotte in Paris herself two years earlier when she was visiting the city prison to witness the public guillotining of a criminal she had known some years earlier.The instrument consisted of a heavy post, twenty centimeters square,and one-hundred and fifty centimeters high.The post was held immovably with heavy brackets on all four sides.Alex would be seated on a square,heavy chair,her black boots and shackles half a foot off the scaffold floor. The chair fitted onto the post,and was locked there when the garroting was being carried out.The executioner could secure her feet near the base of the chair,or they could be drawn back and bound to the post itself.or they could be left free to kick and thrash violently.The wheel was attached to the screw mechanism which was precision-fitted onto the post itself,and allowed the executioner to strangle the victim very slowly,millimeters at a time,and with excruciating pain once the collar was made snug.She adjusted the seat to accommodate Alex' height,then readied the metal plates that would hold her head in place on both sides,in the manner of a vice.At the level of her mouth,a simple hole in the post ran from front to back.The hole was used to house a long metal spike,sharpened to a wide point,which at the whim of the executioner could be sent through the back of the victim's neck to sever the spinal cord,then exit through the victim's mouth.The long spike would be placed in the hole,then would be driven through Alex' neck and out through her mouth with a single blow of a heavy mallet--a grim ,but dramatic end to an excruciating punishment.

Both nuns worked carefully and efficiently,rope segments were coiled,and laid where they would be within easy reach of the executioners when it was time to inflict the grim sentence.A large,black linen hood,lined with black satin was fitted over the uppermost back of the tall post,to be ready to draw over Alex' head after the collar was adjusted snugly on her throat.A pommel on the garrotting seat was put in place to keep her from sliding down.It would press against her damp,dark fur as she struggled in agony,her clitoris rubbing against it unavoidably,as she writhed in her seat,strangling and choking for hours to the shrieks and squeals of the sanguine crowd.When the preparations were done,they departed,but not before they knelt and prayed fervently that the garroting would be well-attended by the townspeople,and that the guilty woman would long for salvation as she suffered.They prayed for her soul. In her cell,Alex paced anxiously,occasionally tearful,fully aware that she was to suffer so,before the large crowd that would surely gather to see her thrash..The sun set and the moon rose.The night was long.

The crowd began to gather at the scaffold early the following morning,as many arrived to seek a good vantage point to watch the execution.There were slightly more women than men,but all were eager to see the gruesome dance that Alex would do.Their eyes beheld the imposing scaffold,and the ropes,the garroting chair and the sawdust under the open seat.The garroting collar was in the possession of the High Executioner.By 5pm,the crowd had swollen to more than six-hundred onlookers.More would trickle in,so that by 6pm,nearly seven hundred men and women would eagerly await the execution.At 5:50pm,the Madame High Executioness slowly climbed the steps of the scaffold,and then knelt to pray at the garroting chair,her hands clasped together as she readied herself mentally to perform her office.Many in the crowd quietly joined her.There was adequate viewing space on three sides of the scaffold,and behind the scaffold the view was poor,but above the platform,any of the proceedings could be seen from windows and overhanging porches that faced the scaffold from that side.Some of the windows were small and high,and the occupants inside could not be seen from anywhere outside.Younger men and women often witnessed the executions below,and one often fondled and brought to climax the other,as the hanging or beheading or garroting or whipping or flogging or branding was being carried out.The practice was widely observed by many whenever it was possible.Often,a man might stand at the window watching a condemned man mount the gallows ladder,see his neck put in the noose,and then see Sister Nora twist his feet off the ladder as her assistant removed the ladder,leaving him to kick before the crowd.Unseen,as he watched it and described it aloud,was a wife or girlfriend or fiancé who took his swollen manhood in her mouth,and brought him to rapture as he witnessed the victim thrashing by his neck.Women were equally pleased to witness an execution,and enjoy their lover's hands inside their panties as the guilty man or woman danced on the rope.

Alex went behind her privacy curtain in her cell and lay down on the simple cot.She lowered the blanket first,then lay on her back,drawing the blanket up only to her knees,and lowering her pants to her knees too.She closed her eyes,and gently slipped her hand into the damp space between her lacy,black,satin panties and her tender,furry mound,glistening under her probing fingers,and the gently pressed heel of her hand. She massaged her little,pink clitoris,and it soon began to throb and cry out with ten thousand insatiable voices.Her torso began to writhe in rhythm on the cot and her fingers became more insistent in their exploration until she was soon dripping wet where she lay,her hips turning in small circles,her head thrown back,her throat exposed,vessels pulsing,a foreshadowing of the garrotte,her belly languid and heavy.Her other hand reached up slowly and began to massage her breasts in tender circles with three fingers held together.She imagined being seized by her executioners and forced,into the heavy garroting chair as she struggled,her hands bound behind the post by the two assistants,the wrists crossed.while Sister Nora tried to calm her,urging her to suffer with dignity each time the garrotte was tightened.She caught the sounds of rapture and terror and held them in her throat,as her swollen clitoris cried out in unimaginable ecstacy,as she envisioned the cold metal collar beginning to press against her throat.Her torso rose off the cot,and,her breath came in short,quick grunts.Her shackles clanked together rhythmically.She twisted and squirmed and her fingers probed everywhere,now,dripping abundantly as she finally cried out in the last moments of her lingering pleasure,her back arching like a primeval cat,as she began to lay back down,exhausted. Above her dripping wet labia,her sweet,swollen clitoris throbbed even now.She squirmed slowly on her cot,eyes gently closed,hands on her breasts,her black,lace,satin panties sopping with the musky perfume of damp,August nights. She swallowed,and waited for her executioners to arrive to prepare her,and take her to judgement on the high scaffold.

At 5:40 pm,Sister Jeanne and Sister Letitia entered the death cell to prepare the condemned woman to mount the scaffold.Alex was allowed to wear her black,satin,tight pants,and black shirt,and her boots,still shackled,and gloves,her Rolex still on her left wrist. Her hands were immediately bound behind her with stout hemp rope,wrists crossed.She was allowed to carry her bag and the rope binding her hands was used to tie it in place as well.She moaned as they were bound in place,and then moaned again as a wide,brown strap was placed around her over her bound arms then tightly buckled in back to immobilize her upper body entirely.She watched as Sister Jeanne folded a large black kerchief,placing the folded edge at her forehead and letting the rest hang down the back.She brought together the two corners at the sides and drew them tight together before placing a very tight but simple knot at the nape of Alex neck.All her hair was tucked snugly underneath,forming a snug,tight kerchief that left bare Alex' slender,white neck to receive the cold metal collar of expertly forged steel.The collar had been forged by the High Executioness herself,and was curved to accommodate the curvature of the victim's neck. It had a width of six and a half centimeters to cause agonizing suffering,that,at the same time,would not easily crush the airpipe.She made it intentionally cruel.The collar had been used on three previous occasions to execute a women and two men.All had suffered terribly before the final twistings of the wheel,and the inevitable tightenings of the collar,that with infinite slowness,crushed their airpipes as they thrashed and twisted and writhed and choked. The two novices took her arms and began to lead her through the cell doors to go the short distance to the high oaken scaffold,the nuns praying quietly as their steps brought Alex closer and closer to her doom.Her legs wobbled,but the firm hands of the two nuns kept her upright and walking forward.They made a last turn to the right and there ahead was the scaffold,the crowd,and the Lady High Executioness.

The scaffold was painted a dull,flat black that contrasted forbiddingly with the dark brown of the heavy oaken gallows.Alex turned chalk-white,and began to slump in the arms of her executioners.They reached the scaffold steps as the crowd looked on intently.Above,waited the High Executioness,her arms folded across her chest,her face expressionless.She wore black pants,a long-sleeved white shirt,and a long white apron that covered her from breasts to shins,and which was wrapped snugly around her and tied off in back..She took a deep breath,ready to do her duty.The crowd fell silent as the condemned woman was brought forward,to mount the steps,dressed in elegant,black satin,tight pants,her hair bound up in a black,knotted kerchief,her light purple,satin scarf setting off her black satin shirt.She was a compelling sight.Her height,her beauty,her bound hands,her pale,bloodless countenance,and her helplessness combined to arouse profound feelings as she was seen climbing the steps of the scaffold to die for her sins.This was a woman who would soon be made to suffer agonizingly for what she had done and for what she had not done.On the side of the scaffold that abutted the dwellings,dozens of men and women watched from above,from porches and windows.

The nuns urged her upwards and partly carried her,as her gait became unsteady and she began to moan,trying to hold back,but only weakly as her executioners pressed her ever upwards to face Sister Nora and the inevitable garrotte.The sight of the regal woman,her hands judicially bound behind her back,the strong,brown hemp rope bound over and around her black satin gloves,aroused sympathy in both men and women,but they were few in number.The wide,brown strap that bound her arms tightly to her body seemed excessive to some,but the previous woman who had been garroted,arrived on the scaffold floor,and began to struggle demonically when she was marched to the garrotte.The heavy strap that she too had had put on,allowed the executioners to quickly subdue her and strap her to the chair immediately.

The crowd cheered when Alex,her eyes wide and her body trembling in fear,was handed over to Sister Nora at the top of the thirteen steps.In the middle of the scaffold,the dreaded garroting chair waited,fully prepared,to receive the guilty woman.Sister Nora and Sister Jeanne seized her quickly,and she began to struggle in desperate earnest,trying to dig in her feet to keep from being taken to the chair.The struggling Alex,still chalk-white,looked at the chair in horror,taking in the ropes,the metal plates that would hold her head immobile for the collar,the black hood that was drawn over the post that would cover her face as she suffered.The crowd watched her struggle,delighted that she was so fearful.Sister Nora nodded to her assistants,and the terrified Alex was lifted off the platform floor bodily,and seated in the chair,still struggling as best she could,her feet now off the scaffold floor. Sister Letitia took a long,wide retaining strap,put it over the condemned woman's belly and quickly tightened it and buckled it to hold her in place,then took another and put it around her chest,just below her breasts.Sister Nora bent quickly and seized the woman's left knee while Sister Jeanne took the right,and they bound them to the heavy chair,Alex sobbing desperately as the gruesome preparations continued.Sister Letitia pushed back her head to meet the post,and Sister Nora brought the two metal plates into line and tightened them to render the victim's head immovable.The suffering woman,sobbing and now distraught could only move her eyes.Her hands,bound behind her,were released and she began struggling anew,her lower legs flapping grotesquely,the sound of the iron shackles smashing against the chair legs,and her hands flailing every which way to no purpose,alternately grabbing the sides of the metal head plates,then pulling on the belts across her belly and chest,as the crowd cried out it's approval,watching the panicked woman struggling vigorously.The three nuns,working together,rapidly subdued her arms and retied her hands behind the wooden post,placing the hemp rope right over her three-quarter length satin gloves,while Alex cried out,twisting in the chair.The crowd applauded as one when she was fully bound and ready.The clock on the church tower read 5:57.

Sister Nora produced a small carved box,similar to a music box,and opened it to remove the contents.She took out a small leather pouch,bearing the Seal of her order,then opened the pursestring and reached inside.She stepped to the front of the scaffold,raising her hand to show to the crowd the steel collar she had taken from the pouch,and with which she would execute the guilty woman seated in the chair before them.It was a curved piece of well-tempered steel,a half-circle of smooth,polished metal with a narrow slit at each end to fit onto the reverse flanges of the tightening rod attached to the turning wheel.She held it high while the crowd watched,and Sister Letitia read the formal sentence of death in a clear,steady voice.Sister Nora turned when the sentence had been read,and walked to the post behind the prisoner.She reached down,and put the collar against the condemned woman's throat,then fitted the metal holding flanges through the slits on the end of the collar.Still holding the collar,she turned the wheel slowly until all the slack was taken up and the collar was well-seated.The victim moaned aloud in short bursts as the collar pressed against her throat ever more firmly,her eyes turned,trying futilely to see the nun's hands as they did their work.She squirmed in the chair,twisting in terror as the crowd held it's breath.Sister Nora intoned,"May God have mercy on your wicked soul,madame". The condemned woman's eyes rolled fearfully,trying to look behind her,as her head was kept immovable by the unyielding head plates.Sister Nora nodded to Sister Jeanne,and the younger nun reached up and removed the black hood from the top of the post.Some in the crowd turned away.Sister Jeanne stood before the victim,readying the dreaded hood in her hands,then bringing it forward,she gave it a brief snap to the side,then drew it over the victim's head and the metal plates in a single merciful swoop,pulling it down and arranging the edges so that the prisoner would see nothing more.Alex shuddered and then wet herself uncontrollably,soaking her already sopping,wet panties.Her urine dripped through through her satin panties,and through her satin,black pants,onto the scaffold floor wetting the sawdust beneath.Gasps and laughter rose from the crowd as the victim's face reddened beneath the hood in utter humiliation,Sister Nora took the tightening wheel in her hands,and started to turn it slowly.

The clock in the church tower read exactly six o'clock.Looking down from a single,small window were two younger townspeople,a man and a woman,both breathless as they watched the execution unfolding below."Oh my lord!",exclaimed the woman,unable to keep from laughing,"She just wet herself--she's sitting there dripping from her pretty panties all over the scaffold floor.Oh my God!" The man moved behind her and held her breasts firmly as he looked down upon the scaffold and the bound prisoner.The woman moaned softly as his hands moved from her breasts to her buttocks and fondled her sweating flesh passionately.She saw Sister Nora reach up to seize the wheel,and she moaned again as the prisoner stiffened in the chair,struggling desperately.The woman moaned anew as the man placed his hands inside her skirt and massaged her furry,raised mound,now damp with excitement,and beginning to become moist.She rolled her head,eyes half-closed as his hands touched her musty,evening dew.Alex continued to struggle as the wheel tightened further.Unseen behind the window above,a spasm rose in her belly as the woman felt his hands exploring her.The prisoner strained against the ropes and straps,and her legs began to flail violently before the eager crowd."Oh my God",moaned the woman behind the window,her voice rising and becoming tremulous,"Look at her kick,Oh my God,LOOK at her KICK!" The man moaned aloud as he watched the suffering prisoner thrashing on the garrotte,and heard his lover's voice becoming suddenly hoarse.He reached over and took her trembling hand,and put it inside his pants so that she would take his swollen member and fondle it vigorously.Down below,Sister Nora continued to perform her office before the hundreds of onlookers.

Below them,on the high scaffold,the slack was gradually reduced until the collar began it's awful pressure..Beneath the black hood Alex' eyes widened,and she began to struggle for air as Sister Nora turned the wheel and increased the unyielding pressure of the collar.Alex' sweating hands twisted behind the post,her wrists held by the same unyielding hemp that had held behind her,the hands of a guilty woman thrashing by her neck on the high gallows,only a few days earlier.She tried to move against the belly strap and the chest strap,but they were utterly immovable as she writhed in terror.Sister Nora,,turned the wheel slowly,and the victim felt the metal band begin to crush her airpipe with ease.Shrieks and cries issued from the crowd as it sensed the condemned woman's overwhelming panic.Her upper legs strained against the knee straps,then her lower legs started to flap and kick in every panicked direction they were able,the iron shackles clanking horribly as she suffered.Sister Nora tightened the collar with a quarter turn more of the cruel wheel,closing the suffering woman's air passage almost entirely.Alex thrashed hideously,and she emitted a very loud,prolonged belch of gas from her bowels that drew gales of laughter from the crowd,especially from the younger women.Sister Nora turned the wheel another eighth of a turn and left it there to make the suffering victim suffer even more. Her legs thrashed in agony,flailing the air,as her buttocks writhed on the chair,and she squirmed in indescribable pain before the cheering crowd. As Alex began to slump in the chair,Sister Nora slowly and expertly turned the wheel back,allowing a tiny amount of air to be gasped in through the narrowed opening of the air passage,then after a minute or more,she tightened it back again.The prisoner suffered for another two minutes,then Sister Nora released the wheel entirely,allowing the terrified victim huge gulps of air.Her chest heaved hungrily as she sucked in breath after breath and partially revived herself.But it lasted only seconds.High above the scaffold,the two lovers embraced again.The woman fell to her knees,as her lover continued to watch the garroting,and fumbling with her lover's pants,lowered them hastily and took all of him into her mouth.

Sister Jeanne bent close to Alex' ear and asked if she would now repent of her sins before the end,but before she could speak even a raspy syllable,Sister Nora turned the wheel anew,and began to tighten the collar again.Alex,sensing that the next part of her suffering was now upon her,began to thrash in earnest,legs kicking violently,and hands twisting desperately behind the post.Sister Letitia bent forward and whispered to her that no one had ever broken away from 'Sister's good,stout hemp'.The collar was tightened even more and the airpipe was all but obliterated beneath the pressure of the savage garrotte.Her torso stiffened suddenly and she felt her wet clitoris,still bulging and exquisitely sensitive from her moments on the cot,seeking the pommel.She writhed continuously as her legs kicked in agony,and she again released a long,loud sputtering belch from the seat of the chair..More laughter ensued from the crowd,the women enjoying the victim's embarrassing plight without sympathy,and commenting to each other in whispered,but spirited asides,punctuated with giggles.She pressed herself against the pommel while her legs thrashed,and she struggled to draw in tiny gasps of air.Sister Nora cruelly turned the wheel a full half turn,and Alex screamed in silent torment.Sounds of satisfaction came from the crowd as the wheel was turned and the collar tightened,and the condemned woman reacted violently.It was impossible to draw air in,and her chest felt crushed and near to exploding at the same time,as she flailed and bucked in utter terror.Her head felt like it was being crushed between the metal plates holding her in place.Sister Nora finally released the collar,but very slowly and allowed the victim to recover before continuing.Even when the collar was not crushing her throat,her panic and fear overwhelmed her with horror.Her twisting hands continued to struggle,the coarse hemp wearing through the satin of her gloves until her wrists were raw,the skin worn away.Above the scaffold,behind the window,the woman brought her lover to rhapsody in heavy,pulsing waves,as he thrust forward and back,and in and out,finally filling her soft mouth.Sister Nora reached up again and took the wheel in her hands.She began to turn it,but very slowly.Alex stiffened,moaning beneath the black hood.The collar began to tighten,and pressed inexorably against her throbbing airpipe.She thrashed grotesquely before the crowd,the iron shackles clanking, and her face,unseen,became contorted and hideous.Behind the window,the woman smiled at her lover as they watched together the scaffold below .She swallowed all he had given her.She put his hand inside her skirt to feel her dripping panties.On the scaffold,Sister Nora turned the wheel a cruel,half turn.The victim convulsed in agony as she received the grim wages of her sins.The woman and her lover became more and more aroused,she,finally throwing back her head,as the pleasure of his hands and mouth overcame her.She took in short,jerky,halting breaths as her ecstasy swept over her in rising waves.She moaned as her throat became thick and she was unable to speak.She watched the scaffold floor below her and saw the suffering Alex thrashing.Her eyes widened as she saw the woman suddenly thrust uncontrollably against the pommel in small battering movements,her shackled legs flailing above the scaffold floor.She thrust back and forth in quick,short spasms,struggling terribly as Sister Nora held the wheel steady,and regarded the condemned woman as she suffered.Sister Jeanne looked at Sister Nora with admiration for her stalwart courage and commitment to administering justice to the wicked.Sister Letitia whispered,"Justice be done".A moment later the wheel was turned back,and the collar loosened.Alex slumped in the chair,now weak and exhausted from the ordeal of the garrotte. The crowd cheered as she moaned in pain,trying to get more air,her breathing shallow and rapid.

After a few minutes,Sister Nora again took the wheel,and Alex felt the collar become quickly snug,then tighter,then tighter still.Her panic rose immediately as she suffered the slow,indescribable tightening of the metal collar.Her torso thrust against the pommel yet again,and waves of the sweetest pleasure swept over her at the same time as her suffering.Her clitoris had never been so sensitive.The slightest movement sent spasms of agonized rapture through her belly.Her labia dripped into her sopping black,satin panties.Her legs kicked before the onlookers.The lovers above,behind the high window,fondled each other without cessation,or respite.Another loud,belch,again long and sputtering,rose from the chair as the victim continued to writhe and squirm.The crowd laughed as one,and then gasped when she lost all control of her sphincter,and emptied her bowels into her waiting,wet panties.The woman and the man behind the window heard the dreadful sounds of her evacuation,and laughed as much as the onlookers in the crowd. "Oh God!",cried the woman,"I'm glad l'm not wearing those panties! What an awful messing".Her lover laughed,and said,"I'm glad you're not wearing them too",which caused her to laugh all over again.The onlookers at the scaffold reacted similarly,with laughter and comments to each other.

The garroting continued until just before 9 o'clock. Sister Nora loosened the collar for the last time at 8:45,allowed the nearly limp woman to recover briefly-not fully,for her airpipe was almost rubbery from having been almost crushed nearly thirty times as the crowd looked on.Sister Jeanne looked at Sister Nora and nodded and smiled quietly.Sister Nora took the wheel for the last time,and tightened the gleaming,curved,steel collar on Alex' throat until it was snug enough to produce a frightened moan.The woman's whole body tensed,and she started to moan continuously,but Sister Nora turned the wheel until she was completely silent,then left it in place while Alex thrashed.After several minutes,she turned the wheel with infinite slowness until the suffering woman was near expiration.Sister Letitia came forward and felt for the pulse,and indicated it was nearly the end.Sister Nora nodded to Sister Jeanne,who produced a long,thick,metal spike,sharpened at it's wide tapering tip,and inserted it into the front-to-back hole in the post.She checked from the side to make sure the victim's mouth was properly aligned with the spike,then nodded to Sister Nora.The crowd held it's breath as the Madame High Executioness put out her hand in front of her to receive the heavy mallet from Sister Letitia,then turned to face the victim from the side.She pushed the spike in until it touched the woman's uppermost neck,at the base of her skull. Sister Jeanne yanked off the suffering woman's black hood. Alex looked out upon the crowd,her mouth agape and her vision starting to fade,but her head held in place by the metal plates.Then with a look of cruel resolve upon her face,Sister Nora raised up the mallet high above her head,and then brought it down with a vengeance.The mallet struck the spike and sent it straight through the victim's neck,severing her spinal cord,then passing through her foodpipe,her airpipe,and continuing straight out through her open,gaping mouth.The dead prisoner began to convulse uncontrollably,everywhere she wasn't tightly bound.Her legs shook and flopped and her hands still twisted. After a minute or more she became quiet,her sins cleansed.The crowd slowly dispersed,as Alex remained in place,hands and feet still twitching in tiny spasms.The moon rose over her seated body,and the breeze wafted gently over the scaffold.