"Accused Rebecca Healy; you have been found guilty of the crime of theft of property over the value of 15 shillings. The sentence of this court is that you shall be returned to the place whence you came, and at noon of the following day, to be led barefoot to the customary place of execution and there you shall be hanged by the neck until your body be dead. Rebecca Healy; may the Lord have mercy on your immortal soul."

The twenty year old woman stared at the judge in shock, her blue eyes became as wide as could be expected to after hearing such a dreadful sentence. Then it hit her. The daughter of one of the more  prominent merchants in the town realized that there would be no mercy for her and any hope of her family being forced to pay a fine or even being transported to one of the colonies to start a new life had just been extinguished. Upon realizing that this was indeed the last day for her to be alive for its entirety the girl let out a loud ear-piercing scream which quickly transitioned into a long wail. Two bailiffs, wanting to spare the sizable crowd which had assembled itself in the courtroom to hear the fate of arguably one the most beautiful daughters of the town, more of this heart-rending spectacle, grabbed the terrified girl, who was now on her knees sobbing piteously, begging the judge to reconsider the horrible sentence, by her shackled arms.

As the bailiffs were dragging the sobbing and begging Rebecca out of the courtroom back to the gaol to live out the rest of her short life. Elric, the apprentice of the local hangman too was worrying about his future. His master had left the town a week ago to look after his mother who had fallen ill. Although he had often assisted his employer with the executions, helping him to pull the condemned up by their necks, putting their bodies into coffins and selling their clothes (since the hangman was an honest man he always received a small commission), he was never at the center of the spectacle. As such small mistakes he made did little to influence the town’s opinion on his proficiency as a hangman and as such, the likeliness of him becoming the new town hangman when his employer would become too old for the job. When Elric heard the death sentence being passed upon the girl he knew that this time it would be his task to perform the execution in its entirety.

Since the execution was set for the next day, he had little time to make all the nescessary arrangements. He collected the money from the judge and went to the local ropemaker to buy both the rope that would bind Rebecca’s slender wrists as well as the rope the girl would be suspended by until she was no more. The ropemaker always had a couple of feet of hemp rope that had been stretched and cooked in order to make it as inflexible as possible. After that was taken care of he paid the local tailor a visit and collected the calf-lenght cheap white shift it was customary for female condemned to die and be buried in. As the young hangman looked at the faded dress he realised the rarity of the event he was soon to become a vital part in. As the town kept growing, more and more wares came in and as such the number of thefts kept growing and with that the number of condemned thieves. There was hardly a month without some condemned wretch mounting the scaffold to perform their „dance“ in front of the gawking multitude. Most condemned whom he helped deliver to the hereafter were male, most of the time homeless vagabonds who were drawn to the town for its newly acquired wealth. Of course it was sometimes the case for an old gypsy hag, a whore who had fallen on bad times or a female vagabond to be dragged in front of the local magistrate in rags to be sentenced to death. Those women couldn’t however compare to the young woman whose sentencing he witnessed earlier today. Rebecca Healy was admired by many for her luxiourious ginger hair, her piercing blue eyes as well as her slender but well-formed figure. Her father had plans to send her away to the capital to marry the son of a bigger merchant family in order to expand their activities. All those plans had been destroyed however by the atrocious sentence.  Elric himself had himself taken a liking to the young redhead, only from a far of course as he himself with his ghoulish profession and modest income would hardly be considered a good match by her family. He was sure that the young woman did not even know  his name. Sadly it was now upon him to put a noose around her neck and hoist her up to strangle to death in the air. It was the harsh reality of his trade, but one he had long since come to terms with. The hangman's apprentice had never imagined himself execution such an important person and wondered how it had happened that Rebecca Healy had been convicted in the first place. From what he had heard through gossip, the young woman had, in a sudden rush of immaturity, stolen one of the local tailors‘ dresses. Although the craftswoman herself had forgiven the foolish girl and asked the judge for leniency, he had remained unmoved. Elric speculated that one of the other merchants in the town had „greased the hand of justice“ in order to remove a dangerous rival.

In order for the young hangman to complete the preparation for tommorows execution there was one more thing he had to do.so he made his way to the local coffinmaker and in order to make the nescessary arrangements. As Elric did not know Rebecca’s exact measurements he had to speculate as the coffin should be big enough to fit the young thief’s  body inside it, but not too big so it would not cost the town too much. Executions were solely a matter of the court in this town and the bodies of executed criminals became the property of the court and as such the families of the condemned could not make any arrangements as to the clothes their relatives would die in nor the details of their burial. Elric handed the payment to the coffinmaker and upon receiving the assurance that the Rebecca's plain pine coffin would be completed on this very day and delivered to the scaffold at dawn. Content with Today's preparation, the hangman's apprentice headed back home. After a day's work he would usually have a cup of wine at the local inn but before he could fill his belly and listen to the stories told by traveling merchants there was one last preparation he needed to make.

He entered the empty house of his employer, sat down on a stool near the window (the setting sun still provided enough light and he did not want to waste  any lamp-oil. He took the thicker rope out of his sack and proceeded to tie a hangman’s noose. It was a  motion he had done many times before and so the process itself only took a few moments. Elric looked at the noose he had fashioned and wondered how much money he would be able to make from selling it piece by piece to people who hoped it's supposed magic powers would protect them from evil. Since it would be used to end the life of one of the town's most beautiful young women Elric was sure that he would have enough willing customers this time around. The hangman's apprentice rose to his feet and made his way to the desk across the room to a desk situated on the other side of the room upon which lay a clay jar full of grease which was used to make the noose tighten easier and thus close the airway of the condemned faster making for a shorter „dance“ and quicker death.

Just as Elric started to coat the rope with the grease he heard a knock on the door. Quietly cursing the late visitor he walked to the door and opened it to see a hooded figure.

"May I come in?"
Elric immediately recognized the voice of the Judge who had sentenced the young woman he was preparing to hang.

"Of course your honor, I shall light some lamps at once."
"There is no need. I will only stay for a short while. I came to talk to you about tommorow's execution, the Healy girl. I was wondering if you could do the court a small favor and prove yourself as its loyal servant."
"Certainly your honor, I serve at your pleasure."
"Good lad. I want you to substitute the rope you bought today with this one."

The judge produced a piece of rope already tied into a noose. It was darker and thicker than the one Elric bought and he could see, without touching it that it would tighten a lot slower than his.

"Very well your honor, I shall see to it"

He took the rope from the judge and wanted to grease it. When the Judge saw his intentions he interrupted him immediately.

"There is no need for that, I don’t want you to waste it on the neck of a thief. This pig fat would be put to better use on a piece of bread."

Elric gave the judge a bewildered look.

"But your honor, it is customary that…"
"Enough. You either serve the court or you do not. If you ever doubt your allegiance I want you to remember that  there are plenty of young fools out there who would do much more for easy bread."

The judge gave the apprentice a threatening look. Elric understood. He took the judge‘s rope and put it in the sack with the other utensils he would need tomorrow. His visitor turned around and walked towards the door but turned around on the threshold threw a pouch containing some coins on the bed. And said:

"I think it would be best if our little meeting remained a private affair. Remember, I take good care of my friends. But if you ever betray my trust I want you to remember that justice often is a double edged sword."

The judge walked out leaving Elric with a bewildered look on his face. The apprentice quickly left the house as well and heading out to the inn where he had two cups of wine instead of the usual one. There was also a purely practical reason for his visit as he used some of the court's remaining money to hire a local day laborer to assist him in lifting the condemned thief off the scaffold  by her neck. Upon making his arrangements he walked back to his home and was overtaken by  nervous sleep after much tossing and turning.

The apprentice awoke the following day at dawn , washed the sleep from his face and ate a modest breakfast consisting of two slices of bread and some cheese. He then took the sack with all of the needed items and made his way about half a mile to the gallows when he arrived at the scaffold there was already a small crowd waiting for the spectacle to commence. They cheered for him as he walked up the platform and took the rope and threw it over the beam and tied the other end off with a knot that was easy to untie. The day worker he had hired was already waiting beneath the scaffold for his deployment. Elric had already explained to him that all he needed to do was provide the nescessary muscle strength to get Rebecca Healy off the ground quickly. After ensuring that all was properly prepared he walked to the gaol along with the remaining items: the binding rope and the white death-shift.

Upon entering the stone building of the gaol he spotted a visibly distraught man leaving the building whom he recognized as the father of the condemned. He had heard the previous night that the unhappy man had sold all his assets and chartered a boat that would bring him to the colonies so he would not have to witnessed his only child being executed in such a brutal way. Elric went through the heavy gate of the gaol and stated his business to the jailer who promptly led him to the steel door of the girl's cell. The gaol at that time was empty and so him and the jailer could hear the condemned woman praying loudly, with her voice frequently breaking into sobs.

"Dear God, you have sent your only begotten son to die on the cross for the sins of man. You who have even forgiven the repentant criminal on the cross. I beg you….please….forgive me for I believe wholeheartedly in your divinity….please….I….I dont want to die like this!"

The young woman's prayer broke off into sobs again. Elric couldn’t handle it anymore and the jailer opened the cell door for him. He saw her kneeling on the floor, her head in her hands, sobbing spasmodically. When she heard the heavy door open, she jumped to her feet and looked at the two men with her blue eyes reddened from all the crying opened wide in terror. She reminded Elric o fan animal caught in a trap that sees the hunter coming towards it with a knife. Elric spoke to the terrified young woman,

"Miss Haley. A priest will be here shortly to take your last confession but before he arrives I am going to need you to follow me, don’t make this harder on yourself please."

The fear-stricken woman slowly staggered out of her cell, Elric grabbed her by the shoulder and lead  the condemned young woman to another room in the gaol wherein was situated a tub filled with warm water and an empty chest. The jailer told Rebecca to take off all of her clothes, wash her body thoroughly, deposit all of her clothes in the chest then to put on the white calf-lenght shift brought by Elric. Both of the men then left the room, the jailer however on whom the beauty of the young condemned were not lost lead Elric into yet another room, this one however had a small barely noticeable hole in the wall through which the room with the tub and the chest could be observed in its entirety. And so both men watched as the young woman one of them was tasked with killing slowly took off her leather shoes with shaking hands then slowly and quite clumsily unbuttoned her shirt which by now was badly stained by her tears. Under her shirt the young redhead was wore a tight fitting tunic which she took off as well. Her bare breasts were now visible to both men, they were not particularly large but what they may have lacked in size they last up for with their form, there was not even a hint of sagging, her prominent nipples provided good contrast to the rest of her body which was, in keeping with her hair colour and her pampered life before she traded it in for a dark prison cell and a rough hempen rope to end her young life, quite pale and free of blemishes safe for the freckles on her face. Rebecca proceeded to take off her last bastion of modesty, her blue ankle-lenght skirt. She wore naught under it and soon Elric and the jailer were able to see the naked body of the condemned in its entirety. Her legs were quite long, her slender mid-section almost did not any trace of fat on it, her arms and hands were quite small and feminine. There was a small thatch of ginger pubic hair between her legs and her well shaped round white buttocks were peppered with freckles. As the unhappy woman cleansed herself in the tub, Elric could not avert his eyes from her feminine form. As Rebecca finished washing herself and started to dry her skin with a piece of cloth which lay on top of the chest the jailer grabbed Elric by his shoulder, indicating that it was time to go. The two men sat down on a bench opposite of the room where Rebecca Healy’s last bath had now come to an end. Before long the priest arrived and dispassionately asked them whether the condemned was in the room. When he received an affirmative answer he entered the room and closed the door behind him. As the priest administered the last rites to the condemned her hangman and the jailer struck up a conversation.

"She sure is a good looking lass. Shame it has to end this way for her but then again, I am pretty sure that when the people in the crowd see her kicking the air, they will think twice about breaking the law."
"Certainly"

Replied Elric

"I just hope she will be able make the walk to the gallows. It would be a shame if she would have to be dragged and carried to the scaffold. Tell me, did she get any sleep tonight and was she fed properly?"
"Well, she spent most of the night crying and sobbing, as most future gallows birds tend to do but I gave her a cup of wine and I guess that helped. I think she slept about four hours If I recall correctly. Now when it comes to food and drink, we fed her more than enough and we sure gave her more than enough water I am usually not one to waste resources but then again court orders are court orders"

With each word Elric understood more and more. He did not have the time however to contemplate the conspiracy that he had become a part of as the door to the room opened and the priest walked out without saying a word leaving the steel door open. The two men entered the room and saw the young woman sitting on the chest clad in the white execution garment. The priest's visit seemed to have calmed the condemned somehow as she no longer shivered and blankly stared at the wall. Elric broke the silence

"Miss Haley, it is time."

Rebecca slowly rose to her feet . Her hangman could see that the young woman shivered and was trying to avoid another breakdown as best as she could. In spite of the horrible injustice she was being subjected to the desire not to dishonor her family. She had begged her father not to witness her final moments, so he could remember her as his loving daughter, not a hanged thief. She was determined to go to her fate with dignity, perhaps her family would  one day return to the town and it would be better for her to be remembered as a brave girl who accepted her fate bravely. The young woman also noticed that her bladder had filled up from all the water the jailer had given her to her on the previous evening she was too overwhelmed by her imminent death by strangulation to ask to use the privy. When the girl stood up Elric saw that she was still wearing her leather shoes and so he said to the condemned:

"Miss, the court has sentenced you to walk barefoot to the gallows so you are going to need to remove those or we shall do it for you"

The young condemned bent down and gingerly removed her footwear and stood, now barefoot before the two men, one of them was tasked with putting a rope around her neck which would be used to pull her up by her slender neck and hang her until she was no more. She was then told to put her arms behind her back. While the hangman bound her slender wrists, the jailer held her by the shoulders straying her. As the arms of the young woman were firmly tethered at the wrists she began crying again. He then grabbed the shivering condemned by the shoulder and motioned the barefoot young woman out of the room. When Elric exited the gaol There were already 4 soldiers waiting outside to escort Rebecca to the scaffold along with two bailiffs and the priest who had administered Rebecca her last rites earlier. Elric led the condemned to the center of this grim procession so she was standing in the middle of the four soldiers and was flanked by two bailiffs. Her hangman then positioned himself behind them.

As the grim procession set itself in motion Rebecca saw small groups of people lining the road none of them threw things at her, none of them insulted her, all off them had either sympathetic, sad or curious looks on their faces. As the condemned walked further on the dusty road towards her doom, her bladder was demanding her attention more and more but it was manageable and it mattered little to her whether she would die with an empty  or full bladder. She was lost in her thoughts of never seeing a sunrise in early summer again and the fact that she would never talk to her family or friends again. Those thoughts wrapped themselves around her and caused her to start breathing extremely quickly. As they turned the corner and the scaffold came into view the young condemned couldn‘t control her fear anymore and began to sob and hyperventilate. The young woman then gave a high pitched scream, fell to her knees, vomited and fainted with terror. Immediately she was pulled up by the bailiffs back to her knees and given a few minutes to compose herself as she sobbed and stained her only piece of clothing with her tears as she was unable to wipe them away with her bound hands. The bailiffs then lifted her back to stand on her, now dusty, bare feet and the grimm procession continued to make it’s way to the scaffold. When they arrived under the gallows the two bailiffs grabbed the crying, barefoot girl by her bound arms again and led her up the stairs. Up on the scaffold Elric’s assistant and an army drummer were already standing beneath the gallows. The two court officers deposited the bound girl in front of the noose that would, in a matter of moments choke the life out of her. She was doing her best to control herself as she saw all of these people who would witness her death and so she clenched her teeth and only shivered in fear.
It was now time for Elric to do his job so he approached the scared girl and put the rope around her slender neck, he then grabbed most of her long ginger hair and proceeded to carefully pull it outside of the noose so it would not interfere with the young redhead’s strangulation. He then walked back, motioned his assistant to follow him, grabbed the other end of the rope and pulled the condemned up slowly until she had to lift herself on her bare feet and stretch her slender neck to be able to breathe normally. From behind Elric could now see tears dripping onto and staining the wooden floor of the scaffold in front of the young woman’s overstretched, white, dusty soles. The sentence was then read out slowly by one of the bailiffs which caused the condemned thief to start sobbing again. All resolutions of dying in dignity forgotten, Rebecca began to beg for her life offering terms of redemption and promises of never coming in conflict with the law again. It was all for nothing as the army drummer began his drum roll. Everybody knew that when it ceases the condemned would be lifted into the air to perform her last „dance“. Without hope for the mercy of man, the crying redhead now addressed God, begging him to spare her this terrible death. It was all for naught. The drummer abruptly stopped his roll and three seconds later Elric and his assistant gave the rope a strong tug and fully lifted Rebecca Healey off the floor.
The girl gave an audible gasp as the rope tightened around her slender neck and immediately started trying to get her soles back on the floor of the scaffold. Audible gurgling was coming from her opened mouth. At first Rebecca tried to stretch herself downward as far as possible hoping to reach the ground. She did this for about 15 seconds, her pretty face slowly turning from very pale to a light shade of red. As the young thief couldn’t get any her bare feet on the ground and her lungs began to burn and she could only get a very small amount of oxygen inside them with each gurgling gasp, she began to kick her legs. Normally with an oiled rope the gurgling and gasping would subside after 20 seconds or so as the noose would simply become too tight to allow for that, this time however the desperate sounds just kept coming from the young woman's opened mouth for what seemed like an eternity. As the sounds coming from the strangling girl became less the frequency of her kicking only increased. Then it happened, the panic-stricken thief tried to get her bound hands in front to pull the strangling rope from her throat but instead grabbed her gown and pulled it back in her terror. The seams on her cheap dress were hardly of the best quality and the seam on the back broke and so the front of the death-shift fell down, no longer covering the sufferer’s, now sweat-covered torso. The crowd gasped as they saw the horrible immodesty the young woman was subjected to and gasped at the unseemly spectacle. Everyone now saw her heaving pale breasts as her legs continued to dance frantically kicking the remnants of her white, faded shift far and wide for everyon to see.
After 15 horrible minutes the bare-breasted woman's movements became weaker and weaker. Elric sighed with relief as this horrible spectacle was slowly coming to an end. Although small strangled whimpers still emerged from her drooling mouth but there was no doubt her life was slowly slipping away. The legs of the condemned woman still moved but in a thoughtless disorganized manner. Rebecca's suffering and dishonor were not over however as almost everyone could hear a hissing coming from between the girl's kicking legs. Everyone could now see the yellow stream of liquid coming from beneath the ripped gown of the suffering, now utterly dishonored young woman. It was quite a frequent occurrence for hanged criminals to lose control of their bladders but as they were usually only given a few sips of water, not many people noticed their release. In this case, however, the shameful urination went on for many seconds and at the end of it, a large puddle had formed beneath the dangling sufferer. The kicking grew more and more listless after the young woman had fully, involuntary, relieved herself. All movements gradually stopped soon after.
Five minutes after the hanged woman stopped moving Elric went on with his task of removing the body of the condemned from the gallows but first however, he cleaned up the mess Rebecca's execution had caused. He then untied the rope and slowly lowered the young woman's body to the floor of the scaffold. He then walked back to his victim and took off the rope from the girl's neck (It had left an impressive red welt in her white flesh) and put it back into his sack. He wanted to ask his assistant to help him move the coffin up to the scaffold but he was already gone off to get paid, no doubt. Elric sighed and went down the stairs he had made his way up. Most of the crowd had already gone on their way, clearly distraught by the horrid and indecent spectacle. Elric grabbed the pine coffin and carried it up the stairs. When he arrives at the top, he heard it. Strangled sounds, then hoarse screaming. With disbelief he saw Rebecca Healy’s body moving spasmodically, as much as her bindings allowed her…