The blows rain down on him, his body projects forward and then contracts in pain. His face was tense and tormented, and he grits his teeth so as not to scream. When he goes back after a blow I can see that his is fully erect, big, rigid, erect vertically wedged between his belly and the pole.
I imagine that his member rubs against the roughness of the wood when he projects himself forward under the effect of a whiplash but I do not think he feels the slightest pleasure. I wince when another blow slams on his buttocks and makes him press himself against the post again.
I become nauseous. A wick tore pieces of skin on his right side. Observers loudly encourage the lictor. I can no longer watch this torture of Gidon's naked body.
I turn my head down the hill. A group of men walk towards us, followed by a few women. Their mostly black clothes and long robes make them look like a group of crows. I guess it was the temple priests accompanying Yonatan's parents.
" Pssst, Yonatan !"
Yonatan still looks at his companion, mesmerized by his brutal punishment.
"Look down the hill. I think your parents come to support you. Perhaps your father will forgive you? »
He turns slightly towards the road and recoils, as if he had seen a snake crawling towards him. "By the prophets, you are right, Reuven ! I'd rather be swallowed up by the earth than face my father. »
"I thought you'd rejoice. Perhaps he is coming to save you from crucifixion? He has contacts among the Romans, I suppose. » I shift on my knees which are already painful
"Oh, he had dinner with the prosecutor occasionally. That is why he would nail me himself rather than beg the Romans to spare me! He does not want to lose the esteem of the Romans: that would destroy him. »
"But you are his son!"
"He will disavow me as soon as he learns of my conviction."
I observe our crosses in more detail. The sedile is darker than the rest of the wood, as if it were wet. I realize that the body of the last occupant has certainly just been removed, so the sedile is still covered with its fluids. And I'm going to be forced to sit on this thing in a short while. Do these Romans have no decency?
I turn my head to observe Gidon as he has just passed out. His head is slumped on his chest. The lictor notices this, stops the flogging and shouts to the guards, "Wake him up! He will not escape punishment by fainting. This dog must be fully conscious. »
The guard grabs Gidon's hair with one hand and pulls his head back. On the other hand he presses his testicles harder and harder against the sedile. Suddenly he comes back to him and starts gesticulating and growling while gritting his teeth as he feels his balls crushed. He is ready to be flogged again and keeps him cowardly. Longinus yells, "Give him water!" The guard pulls his head back by his hair while another takes a breast and pours a large amount of water on his face. Gidon spits and coughs but he swallows as much water as possible.
When the guard decided that Gidon had enough water, the flogging resumed skinning the naked body of the young man a little more.
Yonatan forces himself to observe Gidon and not the road by which the small band of priests arrives. They stop at a safe distance, observe us and soon we hear the sound of their conciliabules.
"It's him! ... The son of the high priest! ... What did they do to him?... He seems to have been beaten!... It is indeed him, kneeling, arms crossed completely bare, his body completely exposed to the sight of all! ... What a shame!...... How could such a nice young man fall so low? ... Didn't he worry about his family? ... What a fool! ... Did he not understand where his rebellion would lead him? ... He will be crucified, his naked body nailed to wood, his private parts in plain sight... What a shame for the high priest! »
Yonatan pretends not to pay any attention to them although I am sure he listens to them.
He seems impassive and carefully observes Gidon's ongoing torment . Our companion jumps violently and throws himself against the post with each blow but he still does not scream.
A howl sounded towards the road. It is Yonatan's father who utters piercing cries as he tears his tunic and fights his chest: "My son is dead. I don't have a son anymore. " he repeats over and over again. Some of the priests who accompany him begin to say prayers, while others recite psalms. The women cry loudly and two of them put up with a lady who must be Yonatan's mother.
Yonatan looked towards his father when he heard the piercing scream. The young criminal, naked on his knees, his arms crossed, tied to his crossbeam begins to sob: "Daddy, Daddy, why don't you want to save me?"
Yonatan then begins to talk to me to relieve himself.
" Come back, you see what kind of man my father is. He wants to protect his image and reputation, even at the cost of his son's life. I know he didn't even try to negotiate my freedom. Although I fantasized about it, I always knew deep down that he would never do it. If he had been the judge, he would also have condemned me to the cross. He probably told his Roman friends that the murderer deserved everything he was going to suffer! His rejection is hard to bear but it is nothing compared to the shame of being naked and soon being paraded in front of him and his friends. God, I would give anything for a loincloth! »
Yonatan's face then decomposes, he lowers his head and sobs again. Meanwhile, Gidon, skinned alive by the locks of the whip, lost consciousness once again and was revived with water. He still hasn't screamed. His back, ass and legs are now covered in blood. Strips of skin hang where the whip has not completely torn them from Gidon's body.
