Belial Pelegrim
The Heretic's Fork

Written for the Darksiders compilation for this year's Halloween season:

Popular with the Spanish Inquisition these little horrors were usually engraved with 'Abiuro'; Latin for “I recant”. And recant they did! Despite looking fairly inoffensive this little device is not only great for toasting marshmallows but is apparently all you need to get a confession out of the toughest of heretics, sinners and blasphemers. It’s actually quite ingenious and ever so compact. As you can see in the picture above the “fork” is strapped around the neck and placed with the sharp prongs just digging into the base of the throat and underneath the chin. The victim would be restrained so they were upright, either by hanging from the ceiling or tying to a chair. Then they were left. Anyone wearing the heretic’s fork is unable to fall asleep – the moment they did the prongs would pierce the skin causing more than enough pain to wake them up. After a few days of this torture they would be so sleep deprived that they’d confess to anything.

soundcloud.com/fornicata/sets/...torture-chamber

Guitars, bass, programming: BP