Page 24 of Unseen

“As I said, seeing for oneself is so much more impactful, than simply being told.”

“Told what?”

He gestured to the chair, and raised an eyebrow when I did not move.

“Sit down, Evie, or you shall miss the spectacle.”

I swallowed hard, and took a seat on the creaky chair. My back was straight, my legs itching, every urge in my body telling me torun, run, right now.

But I did not run. I clenched my hands in my lap until I was sure my nails were biting holes into my skin, and kept my eyes fixed on the crowd beneath us. Looking at the man who sat beside me would have been too much.

“Dickens himself used to attend these,” Azriel said, pointing to the gallows with the head of his cane. “It is such an inspirational environment, would you not agree?”

It was anything but inspiring. It was horrifying.

The crowd beneath us broke into yells of disgust as the guards appeared on the gallows, a scraggly man with bound hands trapped between them. Even from this distance, I could see his skin was sallow, his cheeks sunken, a sure sign this man drank too much and had not enjoyed an easy life. His shirt was torn, exposing most of his chest, and his trousers were filthy and sodden.

“Killed his brother apparently,” Azriel said, and sucked on his teeth. “Some filthy business over a woman. Fight broke out in a tavern, and this good man stabbed his brother in the throat. At least that’s what the papers said.”

The man’s movements became more frantic as he was dragged to the noose, punching and jabbing uselessly at the guards with his bound hands. Even over the jeers of the crowd, his insistent shouts of innocence could be heard.

“They’re all innocent, aren't they?” Azriel chuckled, tapping his cane lightly against his leg.

Rain began to fall, and the man tried to wrest himself out of the guards’ grip. He was swiftly met with a punch to the side, and the guards hollered abuse at him as they forced him on to the trap door.

The magistrate appeared with a leather bound book in his arm, raising his hand to ask for silence, which was only partially granted to him.

“Robert Hendridge, you have been charged with the crime of murder, and have been brought to this place to die!” The magistrate announced, and Hendridge spat at his feet.

“I didn’t fuckin’ do nuffin’!” He shouted, his voice cracking as hysteria began to take over.“Ya can fuck yerself you filfy pig!”

“Do you have any last words?” The magistrate asked, nonplussed.

“I’m innocent!” Hendridge cried. “I never fuckin killed nobody!”

The magistrate closed his ledger, and waved his hand. “String him up.”

Hendridge garbled and protested as the jeers and boos of the crowd drowned him out, and Azriel tapped his cane against the ground.

“Defiant til the very end, one must admire it.”

“Admire what?” I asked, watching as the fight seemed to leave Hendridge’s body. He sagged pathetically as the guards placed a sack over his head.

“The will to live. To survive. Indeed the strongest instinct we as humans have.” He clicked his tongue, leaning forward,one hand braced against the railing. “I do wonder, now, what is going through his head? These final moments, in the dark.”

“I imagine he’s terrified,” I murmured, my tongue thick and heavy in my mouth.

“His whole life must be playing out before him at this moment. Every second, just ticking away, waiting for death.”

The guards stretched the noose around Hendridge’s neck, tightening it and then stepping back. The man had truly lost any defiance that had been in him, his head rolling forward and his shoulders shaking. His hands were outstretched before him, as though reaching to some unseen spectre, pleading for help, for pity, for absolution.

He looked so wretched, and I felt such a sense of pity for this man, come here to die in front of these leering crowds, that I found my eyes burning with tears. Someone had to do something besides cheer on the death of this man, this man they did not know, who had done something they had not witnessed. But they were here to judge him all the same.

“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,” I murmured, and Azriel snorted beside me. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done…” I shook my head and dashed away a tear as it slid down my cheek. “On Earth as it is in Heaven… Give us this day-” I broke off with a gasp as the trap door beneath Hendridge’s feet gave way, and the man plummeted through, the rope unfurling quickly. It came to a sharp stop, and Hendridge’s body dangled beneath the gallows.

He was twitching violently, his hands beating alternately against his chest and his thighs.

“Oh dear.” Azriel leaned back in his chair, and shook his head. “His neck did not break. It is so much better for them when their necks break. Death is quite instant then. But you see, one needs a certain heft to break the neck.” He turned to me, gazing at my profile as I kept my eyes fixed onHendridge’s dying body. “Yes, a certain weight on the rope is required, and someone as slight as this wretched man - or perhaps, well, as delicate a build as you - they could not provide that weight. They would be left to be strangled at the end of that noose.”

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