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“If she could just get a moment of peace,” said Daka.

“The head that wears a crown has no peace,” said Zuba.

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Ramoth was splayed out half-naked in a dank cave like da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, chained by his

hands and feet.

“Mercy! Mercy! Please! Kill me quickly!” he said.

“I deny you mercy, Ramoth, as you denied mercy to me and my family,” said GoGo.

“Your death will be slow and excruciating.”

She nodded to Sooth. He walked over to Ramoth and placed a bizarre metal crown of

thorns onto his head. The crown had long, smaller chains attached to it. Sooth hung the ends of the

chains onto hooks at the tips of four long, metal pipes protruding from the cave floor in a circle

around Ramoth. He stepped back.

“You wanted to be a king? Now feel what it’s like to wear the crown!” she said.

“Fuck you, queen of dogs!” shouted Ramoth.

GoGo pulled a lever and slowly the pipes turned. The chains wound tighter and tighter,

pulling the crown of thorns slowly, torturously down around Ramoth’s head. He screamed and his

eyes bulged in ghoulish agony as the metal thorns tore his skin from his skull until his face was the

bloody-muscled anatomy of a man under the flesh. His teeth were exposed inside his now lipless

mouth like a demonic grin.

“My queen,” a voice said.

“Ramoth . . . Ramoth. Die, die slowly, ” said GoGo asleep in her bed.

“My queen, wake up,” the voice said.

GoGo woke up from her dream. Sooth was standing there.

“What . . . What is it?” she said in a groggy voice.