Rudalka

1709 France

Rudalka was a simple man who loved his job. And though he was hated while performing his duties, when the mask was off most people liked the quiet man. No one knew Rudalka was the Hangman, the most feared man in all of France. For it was at the end of his rope all would one day meet their maker.

At this time, there were many who were put to death. The Queen, a most vicious ruler, was very unjust in her land. Those that thought unlike her majesty was punished, tortured and put to death. Sometimes not in that order. Many a time Rudakla was ordered to hang a corpse.

One day while Rudalka was sitting on the edge of the hangman's platform eating his lunch the Queen herself came to speak to him. Rudalka was at first quite afraid of her. She was after all the woman he worked for, that allowed him to hang innocents all day long and she was beautiful as well. He was intimidated by her as most small men were.

Swiftly Rudalka knelt before her, his knee sinking deep in the residue that is left behind from a hanged man. But this was not enough to please the High Queen of the Realm. She ordered him to stretch upon his stomach in this nasty smelly muck. Rudalka hesitated a moment more before sinking himself belly deep in the crap beneath him. It had never occurred to Rudalka that while he watched peoples hard lived lives drain from their bodies in a very unkindly manner that he, himself would have to be belly deep in it one day. He thought himself above the peasants that he hanged out to die daily.

But here Rudalka found himself, almost face first in the very leftover life that he'd just squeezed from the last man upon his pyre. The High Queen of the Realm then ordered him to push his clean shaven face into the muck that was even now causing his eyes to water. If Rudalka had been more the man perhaps he would have lifted himself from the filth that was forced upon him but like most men of little power, it has gone to their head and he feared it to be taken away. But in his hesitation the Queen reached down and pushed his face into it. Rudalka tried hard to not resist her but he was rapidly running out of air. He could hear her voice as if it were miles away.

"Do you wish to die, Hangman?" He shook his head "NO" for he dared not to open his mouth.

"Then I bid you to kill twice as many peasants a day." Rudalka was confused but nodded, He would do as the High Queen of the Realm bade him to do.

The next day the Queen came once more. Again she ordered him to wallow in the filth of the dead and again he slid to his belly but hesitated to place his face in the muck. Again the Queen made the decision for him.

"Do you wish to die, Hangman?" She asked again, he replying by shaking his head 'NO'.

"Today I order you to cluck like a chicken and sing every time you hang some one." Is she crazy? Thinks Rudalka but he nods anyway.

Rudalka did as she bade him. He clucked like a chicken and sang to each person, corpse and animal he hung that day all the while thinking that the High Queen of the Realm might just be crazy.

Day after day she came to him. And each day brought a new thing for him to do. By the end of a fortnight, Rudalka was sure the High Queen was insane! Rudalka was finding he no longer loved his job. She was taking his joy and twisting it into something ugly. As the days passed he slipped deeper and deeper into a depression. The few who knew him grew worried, the even fewer that saw him from day to day grew curious. His behavior began changing. He was an angry man now, drinking his mornings away before he went to do the Queens insane bidding.

With a heavy heart, Rudalka climbed the stairs to his Hangman's pyre. He no longer cared much for things. He was only just now realizing what he'd done to hundreds of people. Hundreds of lives he'd witnessed snuffed out, perhaps even thousands. He once was proud to keep count of the number of people he'd justly hung but could he now be sure he'd hung them all justly? He was an instrument of the Law of the Land but the Law of the Land was insane. So how many lives did he terminate unjustly? Even one was too much for him to bare. How much pain, turmoil and anguish did he bring to others for a crazy woman?

He did not know but Rudlaka was sure it was many. Too many for him to ever atone for. His eternal soul was doomed to wander the afterlife in a continual punishment.

Rudalka, so lost in his own inner demons, slipped his own rope over his head. He reached for the leaver that would send him into the pit below, its once warm and loving feel now a cold reminder of the unjust pain he had visited upon many. He clutched the leaver and pulled it, for once he didn't hesitate in his actions.

In the moment before his neck broke, his bowels spilled and his soul was sent forth, he saw them. All of them. Every face of every man, woman, and child that he'd hung upon his pyre. They were all there, awaiting his final judgment. But what he'd expected to see in their faces was not there. They seemed to say that they forgave him his trespass, forgave his lack of courage in the face of a demented woman and forgave, even now, his weakness to live his own life.

Their hands reached for him, cradling his spirit as it fell from his lifeless body. Standing atop the Hangman's pyre, watching the spirit walk away in forgiveness, stood Rudalka. His eyes that of a man seeking redemption but too frighten to ask for it himself.

You see, Rudalka had slipped into insanity along with the High Queen of the Realm. The once happy man allowed himself to pulled into insanity.

Are you strong enough to stand up in the face of adversity?

He wasn't.......


RavenWolf



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