It was a cold morning, one of those where you can see your breath mornings. As I walked out of my shop there was a noticeable chill to the air and I'm not talking about the temperature. Folks in town had been talking about the new laws implemented by the newly appointed governor for weeks. Many thought his new laws where what our village needed. An iron fist against criminals who, had in recent years taken to our streets. Others felt that this would simply lead to tyranny. The laws had been met with mixed emotions indeed, until today! Today there was no question that most seen the laws as completely unjust. Never the less today we would see the first victim of the new laws hanged.

As I strolled down the street I saw  many of the stores which had never closed there doors during business hours shuttered. Another edict of our governor was that no one in town was to miss a public execution. For the first time in my life I watched everyone in the village walking in the same direction. No hustle and bustle, no running into folks in the market. No, not today, we where all headed to the village square where the newly erected gallows stood waiting silently for her first victim. I hadn’t left early like others had as I wasn’t keen on watching some poor sole squirm at the end of a noose until every breath was exhausted. Unfortunately as a village elder I had a front row seat with the other elders reserved by decree of the governor. I could not escape seeing this spectacle any more than the victim who undoubtedly was being dragged from there cell at this very moment.

I arrived at the gallows twenty or so minutes before the scheduled execution and found many of my friends waiting with their head hung in shame. It was eerily quiet, no one spoke as no one really knew what to say. We all just stood there trying not to make eye contact, fearing what each of us would see in each other’s eyes. As more folks straggled in a man in a black cloak came strolling through the crowd and made his way up to the gallows. We all knew he was the governor and that his mask concealed nothing. He cleared his throat as if to quiet a loud crowd which echoed through the silence. “On this day we will bear witness to a new day of law and order in our village”, he said with a booming voice. As he continued my mind drifted and his words became little more than noise until suddenly I was snapped back to reality with a hand on my shoulder. “Brother David”, he said jolting me out of my lost state, “you are our most respected elder, our youngest but certainly most respected.” I nodded uncertain as to what the correct response was. “As you know we have not had an execution in many, many years,” again I nodded in agreement. “As governor I feel it only fitting I bestow the honor to you brother!” My heart sank this was no honor to me and I didn’t want it, but with dissension being a capitol crime I again nodded my head fearing the noose just a feet away from us.

I didn’t even have time to digest what I had been tasked with before the sound of cart wheels on the rough cobblestone street could be heard in the distance. I watched as the horse and cart entered the square. The black horse with its hot steaming breath was certainly ominous enough, even I took a step back! The guard smiled with an evil I had never seen and told me the prisoner was in the back as he lead me around the cart. As I arrived at the back of the cart my fears where all suddenly confirmed. Laying down handcuffed and shackled was the young girl I’d be hanging in just a few moments. The rumors around town where all sadly true, painfully true!

Before me was a girl I’d only seen once before when her family moved to the village. They where poor, and had come here due to the famines out west. She had grown up poor and as such had not grown properly. She was short and petite, 5 feet maybe and weighed 100 pounds soaking wet. A pretty little red head despite all her hardships. Her skin was pale with light freckles on her face. The freckles continued down to her bare shoulders. Her dress was short and cut off well above the knees and it was clear she had been wearing it for at least her time in the dungeons as it was covered in filth. The cold caused her small nipples to poke through the thin, dingy, white dress. The guards had obviously had there way with her but either out of kindness, or more likely to cover their own crimes, had at least bathed her before letting her put her dress back on. As I stood her up I thought to my self, she couldn’t be much more than 18 at best. Although in my position her age didn’t matter. Any hesitation and I was sure I’d be joining her in the noose. Her green eyes pleaded with me to have mercy, but she new I wasn't in any position to offer help. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to the gallows with little resistance. The silence was broken by the chains shackled to her small bare ankles clanging together. As she approached the stool under the simple one person gallows she began to shake and I could tell it wasn’t from the cold. I helped her onto the stool and turned her towards the crowd. I then pulled the noose over her small head careful to pull her long red hair back through the noose.  I then grabbed the other end of the rope and pulled tightening the noose and removing any slack. She gave a slight whimper as the rope kinked her head slightly to the left. She was helpless scared and strangely beautiful!

The governor began to read the charges which where clearly trumped up. Her only real crime was cutting across the governor’s estate while coming home from the market. He described her as a trespassers who’s only intent must have been to steal from him, and that thieves and trespassers where to be hanged. “For her crimes against the state and the people of our fair village Emily Walker you are to be hanged by the neck until your feet stop twitching.” “Executioner fulfil your duty!”

I took a breath, reached down to the stool with one hand and with my other hand touched her bare foot in a gesture to help calm the girl. As she looked down at me I saw a single tear and what appeared to be a look of forgiveness to me. I knew this was the moment and with one swift jerk she dropped an inch or two.

The girl who had just looked into my eyes now hung motionless, inches from me, her feet only inches from the ground. I stepped back waiting for a reaction, but there was none. She just hung there eyes open with a look of sheer surprise on her face. Could her small frail neck have broken from that small drop? Could her lack of nutrition made her neck so weak that it simply snapped with the slightest pressure? Just as I started to breath a sigh of relief that perhaps she didn’t suffer I saw a twitch of her toes. Then came a muffled groan. She blinked and looked around panicked. I could see her stretching her legs all the way to her toes hopelessly reaching for solid ground. Then a sudden shutter took over her and her legs folded up in front of her to her chest. Then with a massive force she kicked straight down. For a moment she was weightless and a loud gasp came from the girls mouth followed quickly by a gaging sound as her wind pipe was cut off again by the rope snapping  tight.

As I watched her struggle our eyes locked for a moment and I realized we where both having mixed feelings about what was happening. Her violent kicking and thrashing had turned more rhythmic. She began thrusting her pelvis back and fourth, only stopping occasionally to squeeze her thighs together a few times then back to thrusting! As I watched I was almost fascinated with her movements. Then it hit me as she suddenly grabbed her dress behind her and with her fingers began to pull it up.

Within seconds she raised her dress high enough to reveal the that guards had not put panties back on her after she bathed. Her soft smooth white skin glistened around her small pink pussy. It was wet and she was pulsing hard! Was she enjoying this? Was this actually getting this poor girl off? Shit! Is it getting me off? I suddenly realized I was hard and it hadn’t gone unnoticed. I realized she was staring right at me with a look I’d only seen from girls at the brothel. Her tiny body made a few more thrusting motions. As she stared at me I began to covertly rub myself. That apparently did it, her whole body seized up and her eyes rolled back in her head. She hung stiff as a bored for a while, toes stretched as far as they could go. This went on for a half minute or so, just long enough for me to make a mess out of the inside of my pants. As I finished I looked around and to my amazement everyone was so focused on her no one had seen what I’d done.

As the wave of painful pleasure ended her eyes snapped to reality again. Now with a look of sheer terror on her face understanding that that was only a brief reprieve from her braided torturer. Her dress fell from her hands and she began to kick and flail as if in some crazed acrobatic dance. Her hands tied behind her back she fought in vein to reach the noose. With each passing second without air she became more desperate.

She must have remembered the relief she had from kicking straight down because she suddenly tried it again. This time there was no relief the knot was synched and it wasn't going to give her anything. Sadly she became desperate and kept trying over and over again kicking hard to the ground. Suddenly a loud pop echoed over the crowd and I watched all the expression leave the girls face. Her body began to shake violently as if she where having a seizure. Her small bare feet twitched frantically making the shackles around her pretty little ankles sound like sleigh bells. In her panicked state the poor thing had managed to snap her own neck. Her movements now where merely involuntary and would be short lived. Within seconds her body hung limp and a trickle of yellow piss ran off her bare feet collecting in a pool beneath her. She was dead for sure now and her suffering had certainly been ended with one quick snap.

A few random twitches of her little bare feet hardly rustled the chains that bound them. The crowd began to disperse and I was left staring at the dead girl. What the hell just happened? Did I really just do all that? I was jolted back to reality once again by the governor's hand on my shoulder. With a sadistic grin on his face he congratulated me on my first hanging. I wanted to shake my head in disapproval but with the image of the girls pleasured face still fresh in my mind I simply nodded again. He then patted me on the back and said “with us cleaning up crime on the streets I shall be calling on your services again soon.” Then he simply walked away. I didn’t even have a chance to process what he was saying. Just as I was finally about to share my disapproval he pointed at my pants and  told me “you’ll want to take those home and wash them in cold water soon.” “wouldn’t want them to stain now would we.” This was a reminder to me that like it or not I got pleasure from this. I knew then that while her dance had distracted everyone else it hadn’t distracted him. He knew what id done and he was banking on me doing it again.

I stood in silence looking at the girl swaying ever so gently in the breeze. Could I really do this again, I thought to myself?  Could I really kill again and would I enjoy it? I had no family to be disappointed with my choice. How far would I really be willing to go when asked by the governor. Just then a strong wind kicked up and the chains on the girls ankles rustled, the pleasant sound made me relax. I just smiled at the pretty little read head girl and thought cold water, yes that’s just what I need now, cold water, and I shuffled back to my shop in the dark. Little did I know that I was entering the dark ages of my life!