The witch torture of Grace - Chapter 9: An interference from above
Victoria sat there and stared out the barred window. She did not know, what she should feel. Today would be the day. After months of waiting in this cold, filthy dungeon, today would be the day on which she would die. Grace and herself would be burned this morning. Months ago, she had hurried to save her best friend Grace from the chambers of Inquisition, but only brought herself into the dungeon as well. Victoria had confessed to be a witch and accused Grace too. She did not want to, but they had tortured her to hell. Finally, she had not been able to stand it any longer. Victoria had brought the death on both of them, herself and Grace. Was Grace angry with her or would she understand? Victoria had no idea and she was scared to see her friend. After the confession both had been brought back to the dungeons, but seperated from each other. And then the time ran. Day became night. Winter became summer. The terrible coldness in the dungeon became a warm air and Victorias last hope, that she would freeze to death in the icy dungeon during the winter before she would burn disappeared. So, this was the last sunrise of her life then. Yesterday, a soldier had been in her cell and told her about the execution. Victoria was scared to hell. The last months, every minute felt like a year, since she sat here in boredom in this tiny cell. But now, that the terrible ending was ahead, the sky fell dark and grew bright again in what felt like a minute. Being burned alive and there was nothing Victoria could do to save herself and Grace. Desperation overwhelmed her again as it had thousands of times in the last months and hundreds of times in the last 8 hours. She felt like as if she had to cry, but could not anymore. Her eyes were red from all the sobbing and no tear was left. Was Grace still alive? Victoria hoped not, then the worst was over for her.
But Grace was. Two floors beneath Victoria the cells had no windows, no barred doors but thick, strong wooden ones and the floors had no light. Upstairs, the most cells had barred windows, like Victorias. The girls there suffered from the coldness, but had fresh air to breathe and the sun to watch. But down here, the only light came from the torches of the guards. The girls down here were imprisoned in a realm of pitch black darkness, which intimidated and depressed them even more. Grace had always been down here and so she was now. Since her improsonment she had seen no sunlight and almost had forgotten, what fresh air smelled like. The only odours Grace could remember were filth, piss, shit, sweat, blood and iron. Unlike Victoria, Grace had no idea, which day today was. Victoria upstairs knee, that the moment pn which she and probably Grace would be taken to their death was only minutes away. But as Graces door was unlocked, she thought, that she would receive food again. The last few months, every three or four days she had been given a few slices of dry bread, which she gratefully accepted. It would not satisfy her hunger, but Grace had been caught more then half a year ago. The feel of hunger was not only normal for her, she barely recognized it anymore. In the darkness, she was not able to see her body, which probably was for the better. Victoria had changed in the prison, but Grace was not remarkable anymore. One still could see the beautiful woman who disappeared long ago, but then Grace had a beautiful body, thick red hair, a warm skin colour and such a lovely face, that in the darkest night the sun would rise. But almost a year of imprisonment and torture had left a different view. The stunning girl from back then was in a horrible condition. The poor woman was almost starved to death and only consisted of skin and bones. Further, you could see on the first glance, that she was mindbroken. Dark red rings showed all the desperation and tears, which this woman had lost. She was pale as a ghost, dirty and rotten emotionly dead. All the injuries which she had suffered in the torture chamber marked her. Her face was bloody and blue, obviously it had brutally beaten. Her vagina showed brand marks and all over her back scars of a whip were to be seen.
Grace had issues with walking, because her legs and feet had been injured as well. They had left almost none part of her body untouched. And it was like this, that the guard found her.
"Up with you, you filthy slut! You and your wicked friend will be burned today!"
Her eyes widened in shock. A terrifying fear ran through her and it was the first real emotion, which she had in months. But Grace had begged and cried for mercy often enough to know, that is was worthless. So, she got to her feet and without any word or resistance, she let the soldier unchain her. Even as she was led out the dungeon, stuck in a pillory with head and hands, she did not resisted. Then she saw Victoria, who was also naked and led the same way. Oh right, Grace was naked. She had forgotten about that as well. When was the last time, that she carried robes on her skin? It was impossible to say.
Unlike herself, Victoria was not mindbroken enough to let everything just happen. She tried to fight back and cried for mercy under tears of desperation. When she saw Grace, her eyes widened.
"Grace, are you..."
"I am okay. Don't try to fight or they will hurt you. Just let it happen. It is worthless." These words came out of her mouth in such an uninterested and bored way, that Grace was shocked about it herself.
"No! We are innocent, please! No!" Victorias screams were heartbreaking and terrifying and Grace pitied her. But she could not do anything to help her. As Victoria resisted further on, Graces guess was proven right: The guards went brutal on her and dragged her as harshly as they could after they had beaten her. That all made the poor Victoria even more crazy, but now she finally walked. Against her will, but she did.
Both of them were walked by the guards through the village. A massive crowd had gathered along the way to the centre, where all the executions took place. The reactions were mixed. A few knew Grace and Victoria and were sad to see them like this. The most women watched them with fear, because they were scared to end up like them. This thought was not without reason: The hostility against women and the insane witch huntings only became less 12 years later in Northridge, when population grew back and people came up with the thought, that this not might be a curse of the witches, but a logical problem following the fact, that nearly every young woman who could become pregnant were murdered. Following this thought, the opinion of the people towards witch huntings changed and pressure grew on Lucius Fermigo. But he did not want to get rid of his sadistical pleasure and carried the mass murders against women still forwards. It took another year until the population of Northridge had enough of him and settled the matter by invading his house and stabbing him to death. The gouvernment and the courts of Northridge let the matter go, because they were not enough proofs to judge someone guilty. In fact, there were countless proofs and the mayor and the high judge of the town knew almost everyone who assisted the murder, because both of them took part in it as well. The truth was, that Fermigo inofficially controlled the whole town by threatening both of them with imprisonment and death. His influence in the system of the church was high enough, so he said. And so, he brought Northridge under his control and reigned in terror. But over the years, not only Northridge but also the pope and the whole church developed second thoughts about witch huntings and the Inquisition became more and more unimportant and Fermigo lost his nearly all of his influence. The new chief Inquisitioner of Northridge became a man named Harry Storntrey and he was of the new generation of church clerks. Under him witch huntings still took place, but came more seldom with every year. Unlike Fermigo, Storntrey was considered as a likeable and wise person and under him, some women who were accused of witchcraft managed to proove their innocence and came free again. 28 years after Graces and Victorias death, the old pope deceased and a new took his place. This new one declared the Inquisition as old fashioned and unneccessary and called it to an absolute stop. Three days later, Hannah Grime, a 31 year o ldfarmers daughter, for which these news came to late, would be the last woman, that had been burned as a witch in Northridge.
But at this moment, all of that was far future. Luis Fermigo was as mighty as one could get and the dark, bloody age of Northridge was at its peak. Nearly every men and even a few women, who teally believed in witchcraft and the church behaved hateful towards them, calling them names, spitting or throwing dirt and stones. Victoria still sobbed and felt ashamed as never before, nude and helpless in front of everyone, but Grace had left all that behind. She just wanted this life, that has been so beautiful for so many years and then has turned to the darkest hell to be over. The death was the final salvation for her.
Finally, they reached reached the market place. On three big Charts endless amounts of brushwood bundles, firewood and straw were loaded. Then another person appeared, that caught Graces attention. At the first moment she thought, that this was a third witch, that shall be burned. It was a young Asien woman, very beautiful. Grace guessed her 25 years or so. She was clothed in dirty robes, a grey, filthy, ragged blouse and a skirt, which did not look a bit better. She walked barefeet, her hands and feet were shackled with rusty chains and she looked also hopeless and sad. A guard pointed to the three carts and told her something. Grace could not hear him, but the way he looked and the woman flinched and shivered, he had behaved really harsh towards her. The woman moved towards the cards and started to carry great amounts of wood to the middle of the place as good as the chains let her. Obviously, she had to struggle with the weight and the guard yelled at her and stroke her with a stick. The woman yelled and tried to Harry. Grace understood. This was a slave woman.
After 30 minutes and lot of strokes, the asian woman was done. Someone grabbed her violently by the hair and dragged her off the scene, the womsn yelled in pain and followed as good as she could. Despite her own situation, Grace felt pity for her. Her own suffer would end soon. But this girl had her entire life ahead and it would be horrible. And she would not reliefed by the death, Grace feared
Then it was time. Grace and the by now hysterically insane Victoria were brought up the pyle of wood and it was this moment, that something happened. Dark clouds had been over the sky all day long and they decided to come down all at once in this precise moment. It started with a single drop, then it were two, then tree, as if the sky wanted the people to make ready for what was coming next. Then, when people had recognized, that this was rain, a typical event of the nature took place. The city of Northridge exploded in a world of rain and everything was completely soaked within three minutes. Victoria and Grace had not been bound to the pale in middle before the firewood was so wet, that a witch burning was unthinkable. Grace and Victoria both shivered, since they froze horrible naked in the stormy rain, but that was the only thing, that they had in common. Grace felt angry, because her death, which she by now wished so desperate for, would now delay. Victoria on the other hand had shown on more than one occasion today, that she had not given up the hope to survive this. Grace did understand it, but she feared, that her best friend had a false imagination of surviving. In Victorias head surviving this meant coming out of this and carry on their lives as anything of this never would have happened. But the reality was, that their reputation was destroyed. After all that had happened, nobody would show them respect but hate and contempt. People would openly address them as whores and sluts and would spit it them, when they would walk along the streets. Maybe, or better said most likely, they would even be attacked. The people of Northridge were far away from the mindset they would have 25 years later from this day, were a prooven innocent witch would be accepted back in the society like the day before they got caught. Right now, they were the scum of the earth for everyone and all of them wanted to see, how they died. Let both of them go would be outrageous. Further, Grace assumed that Victoria and her own body were literally destroyed. The torturers had crippled them forever. Both of them had several broken bones and were barely able to walk. They never could live without help and who would help a person who now has a reputation like that? They only could try to leave Northridge and start a new life somewhere else, where nobody would know them, but how? As already said, they could barely move anymore on their own and further, by their imprisonment both had been expropriated, so that they had lost everything. They were poor and had nothing. They couldn't afford a restart. And all that would only happen, if they would survive and all. And everyone except Victoria knew, that there was no mercy. Not know. But all this didn't take place in Victorias head and she desperately claimed that little spark of hope, that would save their lifes in the end, so she thought. Therefore, Victoria considered herself and Grace as saved for the moment, when the thick, stormy rain started and began to laugh in relief. She stand there, naked in front of everyone, only minutes from her own, painful death away, wet to the bone and shivering in a coldness, that would have definitely caused a sickness, if she would not have been dead by the evening of the next day and still laughed. She laughed like she did not in months, so thankful Victoria was for this rain. And it was this laugh that made the entire situation only worse for herself and Grace.
Après quelques instants de silence, les citoyens de Northridge hurlèrent de colère et le rire de la sorcière blonde rendit la chose claire. Les sorcières avaient invoqué la pluie pour se sauver et maintenant elles se moquaient d'elles à ce sujet. Cela rendit tout le monde fou de fureur et si les gens avaient obtenu ce qu'ils voulaient, Victoria et Grace auraient été empalées, éventrées et déchirées, tout cela en même temps, en public. Le fermier Sawyer, un grand homme robuste, essaya de monter sur le bois avec sa fourche pour l'enfoncer dans le ventre de Victoria, ce qui mit fin à son rire éclatant sur le coup. La situation semblait devenir incontrôlable et les habitants de Northridge étaient sur le point d'exécuter les femmes eux-mêmes de la manière la plus horrible, lorsque les gardes réussirent finalement à calmer tout le monde et à maîtriser la situation. Le diable aux yeux pâles lui-même, Lucius Fermigo, qui serait vraiment une victime de cette fureur insensée quelques années plus tard, mais qui était toujours un homme craint et respecté, parla.
« Mes chers amis de Northridge. S'il vous plaît, écoutez-moi. Ne nous mettons pas en colère ici, car cela ne servirait à rien. Vous êtes d'humeur à mettre fin à la vie de ceux qui utilisent d'autres méthodes et je peux vous comprendre. L'arrogance avec laquelle cette prostituée s'est moquée de nous me fait également frémir de fureur, s'il vous plaît, croyez-moi. Mais c'est exactement ce qu'ils veulent. Il y a une raison pour laquelle une sorcière doit mourir dans les flammes, mes chers amis. Il faut qu'il en soit ainsi pour s'assurer que son âme brûle également et que son pouvoir s'éteigne. Si vous, mon cher fermier, enfoncez cette fourche dans le corps de cette prostituée satanique, vous détruirez certainement son corps. Mais que se passera-t-il alors ? Il ne faudra pas deux jours avant qu'elle ne revienne sous la forme d'un esprit puissant et maléfique, qui empoisonnera votre bétail, enverra les renards à vos poulets et poussera votre charmante épouse au suicide. Ils doivent brûler, mes amis. Et ils le feront ! Demain matin, nous serons de nouveau là, ils le seront aussi et j'espère que vous l'êtes aussi. "Vous pouvez être sûr que je suis digne de confiance et que je ne manque jamais à ma parole. Nous allons profiter de cette journée pour enquêter sur cette affaire et nous assurer que cela ne se reproduira plus ! Après cela, retrouvez-les tous les deux au pilori, ici même sur la place du marché, disponibles pour votre vengeance toute la nuit ! Mais en faisant cela, rappelez-vous : vous pouvez leur faire tout ce que vous voulez, des mauvais traitements à la torture, mais ils doivent survivre jusqu'au matin, sinon ils reviendront !"
Grace le détestait, mais elle devait avouer qu'elle était impressionnée. Les masses étaient d'accord et s'en allèrent. Fermigo avait un talent pour l'oratoire et était capable de manipuler et de contrôler les gens comme il le voulait. Pas étonnant qu'il soit dans une position aussi puissante. Mais cela disparut de sa tête lorsqu'il ordonna de les amener à la prison de la ville et à la chambre de torture.
Victoria se mit à nouveau à sangloter, mais Grace soupira avec lassitude. La mort ne la soulagerait donc pas encore. Bien sûr, la vie devait lui donner un dernier seau de merde avant.
