Passion Play: The Thieves - part 1
James and Louise, who accompanied the volunteer Messiah at this year's Easter Passion Play, weren't volunteers. They did not belong to the parish acting troupe that performed the mystery play of the Passion of the Lord and the outdoor Good Friday Stations of the Cross every year. They were real criminals, sentenced to death and given no choice. The authorities decided that they would be executed during the Stations of the Cross, so that their death would be useful for something, adding color to the mystery of the Passion of the Lord.
This year, as companions of Barabbas, crucified with Jesus, the two of them were to appear: he, who committed a triple murder on the background of mafia vendettas, and she, who, in a fit of jealousy, deliberately poisoned her fiancé's lover and, in the process, accidentally killed seven other people who ate the same damn salad.
Of course, they were both terrified of being nailed to crosses, but she was more terrified: Jacob acted as if he didn't care, and maybe he really didn't care: he had some sort of heart disease and it's possible that he wouldn't have even made it to the end of the show. Louise, on the other hand, felt a strange ambivalence: the fear of physical pain was mixed with a thrill and excitement. She once dreamed of a career as an action actress or stuntwoman. Now she felt some unhealthy excitement at the thought that, at least before she died, she would play the role of her life and at the same time experience something that no one had experienced for centuries, and which certainly would not be boring. And besides, they both would gain fame, albeit posthumous. At least she would. She was completely sure that all the lenses and microphones in the square would be directed towards both "rogues", and especially her - Louise was a really attractive twenty-year-old - and not towards this, rather mediocre, actor, playing the character of the Master, simulating the Messiah very poorly. Like the world, no television station or photographer had ever had the opportunity to make a documentary film of a real crucifixion - and none of them had any intention of giving it up: behind several rows of "onlookers", hundreds of cameras were set up, almost as at the coronation of British monarchs. And powerful sponsors financed everything without blinking an eye, giving money to those who needed it, and thus enabling the - formally unacceptable - public execution of two convicts under the guise of a "scientific experiment".
A tug on her arm startled Louise from her thoughts. She looked at the square. "Christ" already had the beam of his cross on his shoulders, tied to his shoulders with a rope. Now it was their turn. Her and her companion's hands were untied, the same thick, heavy boards were thrown onto their backs and tied without much finesse. Pushed again, she came to the center, positioning herself at the end, behind "Jesus" and James. "Soldiers" surrounded them. The lector, leading the spectacle combined with the service, read a short prayer and a group of believers and the parish choir sang a piece and moved towards the next station.
Louise looked around. If it weren't for the skyscrapers, shops, cafes and McDonald's surrounding the square, and the crowds of onlookers in contemporary clothes, almost all of them with smartphones or cameras in their hands, she would feel as if she had really traveled by some sort of vehicle to biblical times. But it immediately occurred to her that for them, that is, for the Messiah and the thieves, the houses and people who surrounded them during their suffering were very contemporary! If she were really a condemned woman being led to death by Pilate's legionnaires in armor and with spears in their hands, she would look at them the way today's detainees look at policemen in bulletproof vests with assault rifles ready to fire and onlookers with smartphones in their hands: as something normal and obvious.
They walked around the square with the whole crowd following them, but their path was neither far nor long. The subsequent stations of the cross passed by all too quickly, especially since the two of them had nothing to do but tail behind the picturesque group of soldiers surrounding the "Messiah", still dressed in a purple cloak (again, contrary to the text of the Gospel!). The falls, the meeting with the Mother, Simon of Cyrene, and finally the crying women - everything fit into a good quarter of an hour. But the real Stations of the Cross did not last much longer - the trail from the walls of Jerusalem to Golgotha Hill, which exists to this day, was not even a kilometer long.
Finally, when they had made almost a complete loop around the square and were getting closer to the artificial "Skull Hill", on which solid bases had been prepared to which their crosses were to be attached, Luisa heard the name of the station: "Lord Jesus stripped of his clothes", and she felt her heart suddenly speed up and her face turn red.
Because, of course, not only the Messiah, but every criminal sentenced to a shameful death on the cross had to be "bared" before it. In the past, the word did not necessarily always mean complete nudity, and - despite the particular emphasis on faithfulness to historical details - the Messiah was always left with a loincloth, as depicted by the overwhelming majority of crucifixes in churches around the world, in order to respect His divinity and not offend including the religious feelings of the faithful. But in the case of her and James, there was no question of offending religious feelings, so there remained at least a shadow of fear... And even if they wrapped them around her hips, would they cover her breasts or force her to parade around topless? She had no idea what they were planning because, of course, no one had warned her and James, as the real condemned convicts, how exactly they were to be crucified.
She calmed down only when she saw how the "soldiers", having taken off the tunics of "Jesus" and the "Evil Thief", were tying loincloths around their loins. James too. She sighed deeply once and twice to control her fear of the approaching execution.
Finally, the torturers approached her. Louise closed her eyes and turned her head to the side. She didn't even try to resist. Thanks to this, everything went quickly and smoothly. The torturers took off her sandals and dress. Instinctively, she pressed her thighs together and lowered her head. Still squeezing her eyes and knees shut and blushing with shame, she waited for her loincloth. Why did they delay so much? The men had their loincloths put on them immediately!
However, seconds passed and nothing happened. Touched by sudden anxiety, she opened her eyes.
And then she saw with despair that her captors had already left, taking her clothes and leaving her naked and barefoot in the middle of the street.
They clearly had no intention of coming back and covering her nudity. In a flash of understanding, she realized that the organizers had somehow managed to convince – or perhaps bribe!? – church and city authorities to agree to the most historically correct and at the same time acceptable solution: men will hang on crosses in underwear, both the Messiah and the criminal, but she, as a woman – and only she – completely naked! Just like female convicts died in ancient Rome, most often burned at the stake: the famous and praised by everyone Roman law not only allowed, but even ordered women to be burned naked.
Embarrassed, she looked up and saw that literally everyone was staring at her. And, of course, no one was looking at her face... She struggled, but her hands were tightly tied to the crossbeam resting on her shoulders and she could not in any way shield her private parts from the crowd's gaze.
And the crowd, who had not expected such a turn of events, literally went crazy. Cheers, whistles and applause filled the square for a long time, drowning out even the voice of the loudspeaker and the parish choir.
She felt tears in her eyes. The fact that they decided to crucify her naked between the clothed men was so damn, terribly unfair...! Did they not understand how much more difficult and terrible they were making her death by such public disgrace?
She looked at the bishop, the mayor, and the police chief, who were standing very close, in front of her. They, too, watched and enjoyed her entire nakedness, and in their glances she saw contempt, amusement, and cruelty.
No... they just understood it perfectly...
She wanted to tell them something, but the soldiers pushed her forward again; she felt the blow of a whip on her back and the kick and sting of a spear on her buttocks, and she screamed: this time they took her by surprise. She moved heavily, tense to the limit, on stiff legs. Her heart was pounding. For the first time in her life, she walked through the city center among a crowd of people full naked! She shuddered and got goosebumps, not from cold, but from fear, as she realized that she was walking through this familiar city for the last time...
In the background, the parish choir intoned some passion song to a mournful and gloomy melody that gave her chills.
There were almost a hundred meters left to where the last stations would be played. She walked with her head down, burying her face in her hair and looking at the ground beneath her feet. Only when she had calmed down a bit from her first impression and dared to look up for a moment, she saw, of course, what she had expected: all eyes, cameras and smartphones were directed towards her, not the Messiah. She lowered her face even lower, blushing again. The recent thought of the fame she would gain in this way now seemed completely idiotic to her. All slaves crucified in ancient times gained the same fame: as soon as they finished the show and died, their bodies were thrown into the garbage, into the river or to the open pit to be rotten and eaten by dogs, and if there was no hurry, they were left hanging on crosses to be devoured by vultures. And the day after no one even remembered their names! A fame of a crucified slut... And now exactly the same fate awaits her.
Without looking ahead, she didn't see how close they were to "Golgotha" and when suddenly the soldiers stopped her by grabbing a beam, she almost fell on her back. Loosening the ropes, the torturers removed the patibulum from her and nailed it solidly to the pole lying on the "hill". She felt paralyzing fear. So that's it...? She covered her breasts and womb with her free hands. There was laughter from the crowd. Well, there was no point in covering the embarrassing places of the body: in a moment she would be hanging above their heads, straight and with her arms spread, completely exposed, immobilized and defenseless...
She heard the name of the station: "Lord Jesus nailed to the cross." The priest read or said a short meditation from his head. Then the soldiers took hold of the "Messiah" and placed him on the cross, tying his feet and wrists securely to the tree. Hammers roared and the actor began to simulate painful screams as the "torturers" drove nails next to his hands and feet. Pathetic. Then they smeared red paint on the "wounds", bent down and, on command, raised the cross vertically. It slid almost without a sound into the prepared hole. The latch clicked.
Then they came to James, and he began to scream and struggle, swearing and biting. They beat him on the head and back with whips to calm him down. She couldn't look at it. She lowered her head again and clenched her eyes and teeth. All she could hear was the real painful scream and howl of the man as nails were driven into his body - for real this time. Jacob whimpered and moaned incessantly, and Louise suddenly realized that his voice was coming from somewhere above. And then she heard the same click of the latch and realized that he was already hanging; that now it's her turn, now, immediately!
She felt a panic attack and thought she was going to faint from fear. Her legs gave way beneath her. She didn't have the strength to fight the executioners or run away; She wouldn't have the slightest chance of doing so. She dropped her arms to her sides and swayed, but before she sank to the pavement, men's hands held her upright. Unceremoniously hugging her around the waist, under the buttocks and by the thighs, touching by chance her breasts and crotch, they half-led, half-carried the naked girl, hardly conscious with fear. They turned her to face the audience, standing next to her. Her gaze fell on the mighty hammer and the rough, angular nails with square heads held by the executioner. She screamed desperately and, losing all control over her body, she started chattering her teeth in fear and... urinating. The merciless crowd, seeing her so humiliated, burst into uncontrollable laughter. People probably thought that Luiza was a hired stripper or a whore, at least a shameless woman who only played the role of a terrified convict for money and fame.
Because the crowds were not told that it would be a real execution for the two "rogues"!
Half a minute later, lying on her bottom in a pool of her own urine, stretched out and tied to the beams and the pole, Louise was ready. The crowd fell silent, waiting for the beginning of the best show.
