The cool summer night finally fell.
A small part of Helena was glad that here were no insects which the icy aura of the wraiths must have chased off. The pain was nowhere close to ceasing but Helena could sense it would not be much longer until life left her. Exhausted and with her wounds now inflamed, Helena could barely push herself upwards to fill her lungs with a small amount of
oxygen. Again, unfortunately, she underestimated the callousness of the wraiths.
One of the spirits' unique senses was that of life. During the night, when their strength was at its peak, they could see Helena's life force draining just as clearly as a mortal being could see the sun during the day. So far, Helena had been crucified for nine hours, since five in the afternoon. They wanted her to linger for a while longer.
Helena suddenly felt a chill behind her tortured legs, wincing as she heard the nail tearing through the wood. The other wraith affixed a small rectangular thick piece of wood to the nail. Helena winced in pain as cold skeletal hands wrapped around her feet. She wailed as the wraiths separated her feet from the wood, slowly, with the intention of causing more pain. Fresh blood and liquid oozed out the the holes made by the spikes as Helena was once again left hanging from the nails in her arms, pushing against the strained bones of her wrists. "Finally... this... is it." - Helena thought as she expected to, at last, asphyxiate without any way to push herself upwards again.
Sadly, she was wrong, which she truly realized when the wraiths cruelly pulled the nails from her ankles, discarding one, and placing her wounded feet on top of the piece of wood they had affixed to the beam. Helena now realized the footrest's true purpose. She would not die immediately and linger at least until the morning thanks to one infernal piece of wood. Her mouth agape and tears pouring from her eyes, Helena watched as the nail was placed over her feet, which had been placed atop one another.