| Short Stories |

Deaths Hallway

⚠️TW⚠️ Violence and Death and Gore

Feet shuffled as the line shifted forward. I wriggled my hands to try to escape from the ropes binding them together. I was already getting rope burn from all the tugging and pulling on my wrists. Why was I complaining when I was already knocking on death's door. No, no, I was in death's living room. The only reason I was alive was because I was in the living room, but the moment I stepped into the hallway. It would be over. And the hallway was only thirty people away. The hallway was the hanging at the end of the line I was standing in.

I scanned the castle courtyard. Four walls with windows and doorways surrounded the many people. The bricks were cracking greyish-brown. The four gallows with four people waiting for their dooms. Guards were scattered around watching to make sure no one stepped out of line. Streaks of blood stained the cement pathways. Execution sucks. I could hear the loud crack of necks breaking.

"Hey!" I called to a guard standing nearby as the line shuffled forward again.

He stood his face like stone, not making eye contact. "I know you hear me!" I spat, "You can stop ignoring me and acting all tough now."

He furrowed his brow and glanced at me. "I saw that." He stood still again. "Just loosen up these ropes for me and I'll stop, will you?"

All he did was look at me. "It's the least you could do, I am gonna die today. Might as well let me be comfortable." I rolled my shoulders. "Speaking of comfort, this dress is a little long. Do you have a shorter one?"

"Stay in your place." He said. His voice was like gravel.

"Come on. It will only take a second." I stuck out my hands to him.

He looked down at them in disgust. "If you don't stay in your place, girl, I'm gonna bump you up further in the line." The man threatened

I rolled my eyes, "Can you please just loosen them up, I'm gonna be executed. Have some decency."

"Last chance."

I pushed my arms closer to him and smiled, in hopes he would.

"That's it, go walk yourself up there in between the brown haired girl and the blonde boy." He pushed my arms back into my chest and I stumbled backwards.

The lady I fell onto put her tied up hands on my back and pushed me back up. "Thanks." I mumbled, smiling at her.

"Go on, I'm waiting." He jeered, smirking.

"My pleasure." When I walked past I brushed shoulders with him. Twenty people closer to the hallway.

I shoved myself between the two people further up the line. The girl in front of me was stunning. The dress she was wearing came down onto the ground. It was so long it drug a little on the ground, making the edges a little brown from the dirt. Her dress was a tan colour, the skirt part was a circle skirt. The collar was square. Well I guess someone is gonna die looking good. I admired her hair, the way it sat on her back in the low messy bun. She looked back at me and tears were streaming down her freckled face. She wiped her tawny eyes and smiled at me. "I'm Anne." I tried sticking out my hand for her to shake it but I forgot about the ropes holding them back.

She chuckled looking down at my tied up hands. Her smile faded away once she saw the burns. "Do you want help with those?" She gestured to my hands. "I think I might know how to loosen them."

"That'd be great. Thanks." I smiled at her. She brought her hands up to mine and fiddled a bit with the rope. It looked quite difficult while hers were tied up too but it seemed she already loosened her own. I watched her face while she was in deep concentration. The way she squinted her eyes and bit her bottom lip. "So, you still haven't told me your name?"