Short Horror Stories

The executioner's apprentice

Gently the wind makes the hanged sway from one side to the other.

So gently a passerby might not even notice it.

And yet I stand here, looking up at the hanged man, his head covered with an old sack. He has ceased to be human and now is a mere shell, an object for the wind to play with.

Or the wind could be God, trying to calm down the spirit of the deceased.

The man had fought a lot before he was hung here, small wounds on his hands and arms indicate such.

I wonder what the look on his face is like, but I also don't really want to know.

"C'ome here." My master commands me, taking me away from the scene.

It's time to go, our job is finished.

It was us who hung the man.

It was difficult, I didn't think I really wanted to, but he was a bad person.

My master is this town's executioner, he slays those who defy the powerful.

A job no one wants to do.

And yet, one I cannot refuse.

In silence we return to our home.

The hangman is left hanging as an example, it will take a while before the birds will have finished him.

Upon reaching the front door one of the local lords is standing before the door.

"Good evening." He greets us, my master answering politely back.

I merely bow my head in respect.

"What can I do for you?" My master asks the lord.

"Well..." He starts talking, but I can't seem to follow him. I'm too wary to do so.

We enter the building and sit around the table.

Suddenly the lord starts speaking to me: "So you must be the new apprentice?"

My master lowers his voice in annoyance: "Sir, this boy is a mute."

"Oh, my apologies." He quickly turns away from me after giving me a glance filled with pity and continues his conversation.

The lord goes on to talk about a witch he caught, supposedly a horrid woman who gave someone in town an incurable disease and we are to take a look at her tomorrow.

The next day we visit the witch.

Bound to the table, she's still begging for her life.

Once she notices me, she keeps her eyes locked to me.

My master and the lord leave the room to finish the paperwork.