She woke not knowing if it was day or night, summer or autumn, she only knew that the sun was gone.
The dungeon was filled with groans of pain and the gentle sobs of women who had accepted their fate. They had been trialled and tested as witches. They were going to be hanged. Silvia held the hand of the girl hunched next to her who, later on, was going to be hanged today. The girl couldn’t have been much older than 16 and by the rope burns and bruises on her face Silvia knew her confession came from hideous torture. Silvia looked at her other hand and shuddered at the memory:
She was milking the goats for the farm she was working on that winter, nothing about that day seemed unusual in the slightest. That was until men from the village came with malice and fire in their eyes, bringing her in to confess. They had grabbed her by the shoulders, and dragged her into a small room, the room where the torture began. They had put her hand in a vice, two of the men holding her down so she couldn’t run away, asking her if she was in cohorts with the devil himself. Of course, having not met the devil, she said no. The vice was tightened. They asked her again, but she still had never seen the devil. The vice was tightened. She could hear cracking coming from the joints in her fingers. …show more content…
blood started to drip out of the vice, making a puddle on the wooden table.
Now, if they had asked her about witchcraft from the beginning Silvia would have, eventually and reluctantly, said yes. Only when her answers became unintelligible and her fingers bent in all the wrong directions, did they say the word
The dungeon was filled with groans of pain and the gentle sobs of women who had accepted their fate. They had been trialled and tested as witches. They were going to be hanged. Silvia held the hand of the girl hunched next to her who, later on, was going to be hanged today. The girl couldn’t have been much older than 16 and by the rope burns and bruises on her face Silvia knew her confession came from hideous torture. Silvia looked at her other hand and shuddered at the memory:
She was milking the goats for the farm she was working on that winter, nothing about that day seemed unusual in the slightest. That was until men from the village came with malice and fire in their eyes, bringing her in to confess. They had grabbed her by the shoulders, and dragged her into a small room, the room where the torture began. They had put her hand in a vice, two of the men holding her down so she couldn’t run away, asking her if she was in cohorts with the devil himself. Of course, having not met the devil, she said no. The vice was tightened. They asked her again, but she still had never seen the devil. The vice was tightened. She could hear cracking coming from the joints in her fingers. …show more content…
blood started to drip out of the vice, making a puddle on the wooden table.
Now, if they had asked her about witchcraft from the beginning Silvia would have, eventually and reluctantly, said yes. Only when her answers became unintelligible and her fingers bent in all the wrong directions, did they say the word