The execution is not over yet!
Suddenly, I hear Piedi shout in anger :
“Bastards!”
I immediately see what happens : another condemned arrives, his wife.
She hardly can hold the heavy patibulum. She is bare-breasted, barefoot, and only wearing a loincloth.
Piedi wriggles on his as if he wants to try to get off, but that is obviously in vain!
The officer, as usual the evil himself, forces her to suck his cock, and swallow it all, in front of Piedi, who has to witness it all. The onlookers enjoy it!
Then, she is in turn dragged to her cross, and subjected to the cruel process of nailing. She screams loudly in pain, when her feet are nailed, and then she faints.
Sad, for Piedi, that his wife also got executed. She was innocent. Mine was at least guilty of hiding a rebel, Livia, who hangs on a cross next to me.
I can only feel disbelieve in what happened to us! Piedi, me, Livia, my wife, Piedi”s wife.. We hang next to each other on a cross to die, naked, in front of onlookers who all behave hostile to us (strange, I spot a few who once told me in confidence they opposed Roman occupation, but apparently they shout with the mockers).
The Romans, of course, look satisfied of their job.
Without any rest provided, we all depend on keeping ourselves in motion, performing the ‘crux dance’, writhing our bodies up and down, up to take breathe, down, to release the strain and pain of the upright position. It all goes with a rhythmic moaning. We slowly die in agony, but struggle to survive. The onlookers seem to be fascinated by that view. I know how it is : as an onlooker, one thinks ‘glad it isn’t me!’, and simultaneously ‘how would it feel if it would be me!?’
Right from me, Livia, her life cut short in her twenties, because of her commitment. I must say, she behaves very brave. As if she wants to challenge the Romans and the crowd. She still has the power to utter some words, in between her efforts, telling me that my wife has apologized for not having been able to protect her, and that my wife is also talking Piedi’s wife through the ordeal, as much as possible.
When the effort allows it, Piedi utters some comforting messages to his wife, which I, Livia and my wife then try to relay them to his wife the best we can, and reverse. And she does the communication with me and my wife too.
We take a lot of courage from Livia’s conduct, and try to convey some sense of mutual solidarity to the crowd. As Livia said to us : “Let them nail us, but not break us!”
So, time passes, slowly, in pain. Time seems to stand still, all notion of it is lost. Moving means pain, not moving means other pain and terrible cramps. I am sweating terribly. Insects are terrorizing me!
I am completely exhausted! The same for Piedi on my left. On my right, Livia is lamenting. She is now only talking herself through it. My wife? Don’t know, she is too far from me now! I have myself lost my courage. All I can do is wailing on my fate. I don’t care anymore if people see me do it. I don’t care anymore about my humiliation, my nudity, let them mock it all if they have fun!
I notice, there is excitement among the crowd. The Romans and their executioners seem to prepare themselves to work again.
I can’t believe it : they are bringing two more condemned to the crosses!