In the torchlight’s dance his swollen eyes, blinded by salt sweat, squinted at the ring of hulking shadows, crowding him with profane oaths in the July swelter. He raised no appeal to the starless heavens, only sank to his knees as the length of hemp looped the cypress branch overhead.

Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, his writing has appeared in the Nonconformist Magazine, the San Antonio Review, Samjoko Magazine, Short Story Town, Danse Macabre Magazine, Pigeon Review, CafeLit Magazine, the Green Silk Journal, Typeslash Review, The Potato Soup Journal, Sein und Werden, Of Rust and Glass, Little Death Lit, Flyover Magazine, Sandpiper, Fiery Scribe Review, The Chamber Magazine and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies.