Cristina Hohenmuren was a servant in the house of the Baron Von Auberlin. She was all of nineteen years old when she was hired by the Baron’s wife Margareth to clean the bedrooms and the kitchen. A few months later, Cristina was able to convince the Baroness to also hire Cristina’s sixteen year old sister Elisabeth to help with the cleaning. What Cristina did not anticipate was that she would catch the eye of the Baron. Cristina was a beautiful blonde-haired young woman who was perhaps five feet, six inches tall. She had beautiful full breasts whose curves drew the attention of every young man in the village. The pale pink nipples that seemed to be constantly erect in the presence of the Baron were surrounded by an equally pale areola that was as large as Cristina’s outstretched palm, yet overshadowed by the size and beauty of her breasts that promised to be able to easy feel twins if Cristina were to bear them. Of course, Cristina longed to be a mother to many children, just has her mother had been before dying in childbirth, Cristina and Elisabeth being the youngest of six children, four boys and two girls. The boys had all grown up to be strong men but unfortunately, they all died in battle during the Crusades before ever having the chance to father any children of their own.
Within a few months of Elisabeth being hired by the Baroness, Cristina found herself cleaning the master bedroom when the Baron came in. Before she knew it, Cristina had been swept off of her feet and had become the Baron’s lover. This was a very dangerous thing because the Baroness was a very dangerous, spiteful woman. She actually held the true power of the Barony, not her husband. And one of the things that Margareth would never except would be for the Baron to father any children that did not come from her own womb. This was even more profound because the Baroness was already in her third decade and had not yet borne a child.
Less than two months after becoming the Baron’s lover, Cristina discovered that she was with child. Knowing that the Baroness would not merely kill Cristina but would also kill her child as well, Cristina fled with the aid of her sister Elisabeth. They both fled the village, but not before the Baroness learned by accident of Cristina’s pregnancy. The Baroness quietly sent out jagers or hunters to find the Baron’s pregnant lover. Margareth had a special fate planned for anyone who dared accept the Baron’s seed and carry the child that the Baroness was meant to bear. But the two sisters had planned well and were able to evade the jagers for over half a year. But when Cristina was near the time of giving birth, they could not run fast enough and both sisters were caught by the jagers.
On the way back to the Barony, Cristina went into labor. A midwife from a nearby village assisted in the delivery of Cristina’s baby daughter. The jagers were under strict orders to bring the sisters back alive. Cristina nursed her baby girl during the remained of the trip back to the Barony. Then when they reached the castle, the Baroness ordered all three to be taken to the dungeon and put into a cell. They were in the cell for three more days before the Baroness came down, accompanied by a pair of professional torturers, a husband and wife couple, Heinrich and Brigitte. Brigitte had a patch over one eye and a scar on her cheek that was visible below the patch….possibly a scar left by a red hot poker.
Margareth demanded that Cristina tell her who the father of the baby girl was. But Cristina refused, knowing that to acknowledge that the Baron was the baby’s father would surely result in the Baroness murdering the child. So the Baroness ordered the two sisters to be stripped naked and to be bound to the rack, first Elisabeth and then Cristina. A bar was attached to Elisabeth’s ankles to ensure that her legs were spread wide as her ankles and wrists were attached to the rack as she was held down by Brigitte and Heinrich. Even Margareth stepped in to help secure the struggling Elisabeth. Elisabeth even spat in Brigitte and Margareth’s faces.
“You will pay for this. And I warn you, if either of you lose consciousness at all while you are being interrogated, an extra measure of suffering will be inflicted as punishment, ” Margareth coldly said as she wiped the spittle off of her face.
As much as Cristina could not bear to hear to hear her sister’s screams as the rack stretched her lovely body to near the breaking point, Cristina would not admit to her daughter’s parentage. Elisabeth also was a very beautiful young woman, her long hair just a shade darker than Cristina’s blonde hair that reached to her mid back when not braided and pinned up. Not quite as well-endowed as Cristina, Elisabeth was still slender, with lovely firm but slightly pendulous breasts peaked by full puffy pink nipples and had an equally strong desire to be a mother and to breastfeed her babies someday. Still, Elisabeth loved her older sister very much and would do anything to protect Cristina and her baby. “The whore’s sister has tits that promise to hang down just as full as her sister’s do,” Brigitte declared as she fondled Elisabeth’s nipples until they were fully erect and the teenager was gasping, both in pain as well as unexpected arousal. Heinrich kept tightening the rack, another notch at a time, followed immediately by more screams from both sisters. Elisabeth’s belly was stretched taut by the rack. Another turn of the crank would cause something to give for sure.
Margareth ordered Heinrich to rape Elisabeth even as the increasing tension on the rack threatened to dislocate the pretty teenager’s shoulders. Elisabeth struggled as Heinrich mounted her and prepared to plunge his hard cock through her hymen to take her virginity from her. Brigitte wanted to put a red hot poker into Elisabeth’s vagina instead, but the Baroness said “No, he will continue to rape her. Other things will be done in due time.” Cristina watched in horror as Heinrich thrust in and out of Elisabeth’s bleeding vagina, all the while pinching and twisting those pouty, erect nipples on the ends of Elisabeth’s beautiful firm breasts. Just as the torturer was spilling his seed into Elisabeth’s vagina, the torturer’s wife turned the crank on the rack one more notch, causing Elisabeth’s arms to painfully pop out of their sockets. Elisabeth passed out shortly after the loud pop of her shoulders being dislocated was heard above her screams. Cristina was horrified as she watched her beautiful younger sister being raped and tortured. Then it was Cristina's turn on the rack. The rack was just as vigorously used on Cristina with the young mother loudly screaming then passing out just as the loud pop was heard. Both of Cristina’s arms popped out of their shoulder sockets as well. With their dislocated shoulders, the two sisters were robbed of all use of their arms until such time that the limbs were pushed back into their place. Even then, it would take weeks for anything close to full use of their arms to be restored. But Margareth would not permit the restoration of the sister’s limbs just yet.
Margareth ordered that the two sisters be taken and bound to a pair of sturdy posts about eight feet apart, facing each other with their wrists bound around the posts behind their backs. Straps were looped under their armpits and secured upward so that the sisters could not sag downward. Their damaged shoulders were in great pain as the straps were secured. Their ankles were spread wide apart and bound so that their genitals were fully exposed, though their pubic hair and full outer labia still covered the inner entrances to the sisters’ womanhood. Once again, Margareth asked Cristina who the father to her daughter was. Cristina still refused to answer. Brigitte took a lit candle and held it under Cristina’s labia. The air filled with the smell of burnt hair as the candle flame caught Cristina’s public hair on fire and reduced it to ash, leaving her labia red and blistered. The same was done to Elisabeth next. This added further to the sense of shame and humiliation that the two sisters felt after being stripped of their clothing.
Cristina’s breasts swayed heavily while she stood there bound to the post. It had been hours since she last nursed her daughter. Now her breasts ached with all of the milk inside of them. Margareth asked Cristina how important it was to her to be able to continue to nurse her baby. Of course, Cristina said it was very important and begged the Baroness to let her feed her baby, even pleading with them to simply hold her daughter to her nipple and letting the baby suckle while Cristina remained bound to the post. Then Margareth asked Elisabeth how important it was to her to be able to someday have a baby and to breastfeed….even asking Cristina’s sister how many babies that she wanted to have. Elisabeth replied “Six, just like my mother did.” She then asked Elisabeth which of her breasts was her favorite. Elisabeth said her left breast since it was a little larger than the right one. Then Margareth ordered Brigitte to begin to burn Elisabeth’s left nipple with the bright yellow flame of the candle. The air in the dungeon was soon filled with the sweet smell of burnt tit flesh. Elisabeth’s head hung down loosely over her chest.
“My Baroness. I believe that this one has lost consciousness.”
“Rouse her so that she can endure the punishment for fainting to avoid the pain.”
A pungent spice was placed under Elisabeth’s nostrils, causing her to cough and wake up.
“You remember that you were forbidden to faint while being interrogated. Now, you will pay dearly for your disobedience,” Margareth cruelly explained.
Brigitte enveloped Elisabeth’s pretty pink left nipple and all of its puffy surrounding areola in the candle flame, over and over. It was blistered and bright red when Brigitte stopped the first time. Margareth asked Cristina again about the baby’s father, but Elisabeth shook her head, knowing that to answer the question would condemn both Cristina and her baby to death. Brigitte started to burn Elisabeth’s other nipple, only for a longer time, making it brown and shorter than before. Margareth reminded Cristina that she could end her sister’s suffering by telling the truth and that Cristina’s nipples would soon feel the candle flame also. Elisabeth’s screams were a warning of the pain that Cristina would soon feel. Brigitte resumed burning both of Elisabeth’s nipples in the candle flame, cooking the puffy pink buds until they were both dark brown, charred, short and ruined as objects of sexual beauty and sources of nourishment for any future children. Then it was Cristina’s turn, with Brigitte slowly cooking each of Cristina’s nipples in the candle flame. Oddly enough, at Margareth’s orders, Brigitte focused most of her attention on Cristina’s right nipple, rather than the nipple on her larger left breast. Barely any milk at all came out of Cristina’s browned and badly burnt right nipple when Brigitte finally pulled the bright yellow flame away. A somewhat larger milk flow continued from Cristina’s left nipple…less than before that nipple had felt the long, fiery caress of the candle's bright yellow flame but enough to feed her baby girl.
“Take their pleasure buds, Heinrich,” Margareth demanded. The torturer smiled as he pulled a pair of red hot pincers from the brazier of hot coals. He started to open up Elisabeth’s labia first, but Margareth then said, “Take the whore’s clit first this time.”
Brigitte reached down and held Cristina’s scorched labia wide open so that the young mother’s clit and vagina were fully exposed. Heinrich brought the jaws of the pincers down between Cristina’s thighs. She could feel the heat but could not see how close the red hot metal was.
“Say goodbye to your ability to play with your clit,” Brigitte said just a moment before Heinrich firmly closed the red hot jaws on Cristina’s precious pleasure bud.
“I wanted you to know first this time what your little sister is about to feel,” Margareth hissed .
Heinrich used the red hot pincers to crush and cook Cristina’s clit, the sizzle of her sensitive flesh quickly being drowned out by her screams. Cristina thrashed in agony, but that only made things worse for her as the straps under her armpits pulled at her pain-filled, dislocated shoulders. With one final twist, Heinrich yanked away the charred remnants of Cristina’s clit. Then he lifted up the pincers in front of Cristina’s face to show her what he had taken from her. When Brigitte released Cristina’s puffy labia, they quickly covered up the brutal violation of the young mother’s sexual flesh.
“I wonder if you ever used your tongue to give your little sister’s clit pleasure during those months away from here. In any event, she will never get to enjoy her pleasure bud ever again. Of course, you can end your sister’s suffering by telling me what I need to know,” Margareth said.
Both Cristina and Elisabeth shook their heads in response.
“Take the little one’s clit now. Don't be gentle with her either,” Margareth ordered.
A few minutes passed as the pincers heated up red hot in the coals again, while the sisters cried in anticipation of what was about to happen to Elisabeth.
“Oh, God, No!” Cristina cried out when Brigitte opened up Elisabeth’s labia in preparation for Heinrich’s red hot pincers. More screams and the odor of burnt clit flesh filled the air before Heinrich twisted off the charred remnants of Elisabeth’s clit.
Margareth leaned up to Cristina and softly spoke.
“You know that you have already been found guilty of adultery, with your child being the proof of you having sex out of wedlock. Tomorrow, you will be taken out to the village square to face the breast ripper. But I am not yet through with you and your darling little sister today. Tell me the truth, and I will spare you and your sister anymore more torture before you face the ripper tomorrow.”
“Oh, no. Please don't let them use the ripper on me. I need my breasts to feed my baby.”
“Don't worry. The ripper will only be used on ONE of your breasts. But you have still not given me what I demand. Confess and save yourself and your sister.”
“No. Cristina. Tell the bitch nothing. I love you and will endure anything for you, my dear sister. Be strong,” Elisabeth cried out.
“Spoken like a true whore. Brigitte, that young one must be marked as a whore then.”
Brigitte grabbed Elisabeth’s left breast from underneath and held it still while Heinrich pulled a branding iron from the brazier of red hot coals. Cristina cried out, begging for mercy for her sister. But within moments, the branding iron was burning a ‘W’ deep into her flesh, just above her burned and charred areola.
“I don't like the look that this one gave me. I want to do something about it,” Brigitte said while pointing towards Elisabeth.
“What do you want to do about her looking at you?” Margareth asked.
“I want to burn her eye out with a red hot poker.”
Margareth walked up to Elisabeth and looked her right in the face.
“You've been very difficult this entire time. But I will give you a choice. I can have Brigitte put the poker in your eye…..or I can have her put it down in here instead.” Reaching her fingers deep inside of Elisabeth’s vagina, Heinrich’s seed still dripping out of it.
“Oh, please no……don't do either.”
“You were ripe today. I can tell. You will soon have a belly full of Heinrich’s child….and then you will face the ripper as well. Do you want that?”
“No, please…no.”
“Well…your eye or your cunt. Which is it?”
“Please don't blind me.”
“So, your cunt it is…but don't think that those evil eyes of yours are safe just yet.”
This time, Heinrich held open Elisabeth’s labia while Brigitte pulled out the red hot poker. It had a long thick tip, like an erect cock, only a little more pointed.
“How deeply do you want the poker inside of this whore’s cunt, Baroness?” Brigitte asked.
“Do whatever pleases you. But ensure that she never enjoys being fucked ever again.”
Heinrich held open Elisabeth’s labia so wide that the entire entrance of the teenager’s vagina popped open, virtually revealing her entire womanhood down to the opening of her womb. Brigitte then started to slowly insert the red hot poker into Elisabeth’s vagina. As the hot metal began to cook her vagina from within, Elisabeth started to writhe her hips back and forth in an attempt to escape the fiery intruder. All she ended up doing was to make it look like she was trying to fuck it. Two inches….three inches….four inches of pokers soon was inside….and Brigitte continued to slowly push it deeper.
“Do you want her womb to be barren, Baroness?” Brigitte then asked….the hot tip of the poker only an inch or two away from the opening of Elisabeth’s cervix, the heat cooking the flesh surrounding it and destroying the nerves and muscles within her vagina as well.
“Your choice, Brigitte.”
Brigitte pushed the poker in a little deeper….cooking still more of Elisabeth’s birth canal. The hot metal tip actually started to touch the opening of Elisabeth’s cervix…and Elisabeth could feel it.
“My womb!” she cried out….not knowing if the fiery intruder had yet destroyed her future as a mother…feeling the poker being pushed in just a tiny bit further. Elisabeth fought against the pain, fearing that if she passed out that she when was revived that she would find the poker inserted all the way into her burnt out womb and another poker aimed at her eye.
Suddenly, Brigitte yanked the poker out of Elisabeth’s vagina, cooked flesh still stuck to it….including flesh on the very tip. Steam still came out of the teenager’s charred opening to her vagina, when Heinrich released Elisabeth’s labia, neatly hiding the ruin of Elisabeth’s vagina.
“Well, whore. Do you think that you will ever have a baby pop out of your cunt now?”
“Oh, God….I don't know…..I don't know….” Elisabeth cried.
Margareth now turned to Cristina.
“One last chance…..because next, it is your cunt’s turn to feel the poker inside of it.”
“Don't do it, dear sister,” a near unconscious Elisabeth pled.
Cristina resolutely shook her head once more.
Heinrich had already thrust the poker back into the brazier of hot coals. Now it was red hot again, though remnants of Elisabeth’s cooked vaginal flesh still remained on it….showing how deeply the poker had entered the teenager’s vagina. Now, Cristina struggled as she felt Heinrich open her labia wide open. The young mother could feel the heat of the glowing red metal as the entrance to her birth canal popped open.
“Is this one to be made barren?" Brigitte asked as she aimed the red glowing tip of the poker at Cristina’s vagina.
“Yes. But take your time. This bitch may yet break before the red hot iron enters her womb and makes her bastard daughter an only child.”
Brigitte slowly pushed the red hot poker into Cristina’s writhing vagina. Like her sister, Cristina involuntarily thrust her pelvis back and forth in a vain effort to escape the fiery intruder. Elisabeth lifted up her head and saw to her horror that the line of burnt flesh on the poker had now also disappeared into Cristina’s vagina and that Brigitte was continuing to slowly push the poker in deeper. Brigitte had pushed the red hot poker even deeper into Cristina than she had with her teenage sister.
Cristina had passed out just as the tip of the poker made contact with the opening of her cervix. Margareth quickly used the strong spices to revive Cristina.
“That was surely a mistake for you, you whore,” the Baroness said to Cristina before turning to Brigitte.
“Push the iron into her womb now. Then you can take her sister’s eye.”
With an evil grin, Brigitte slowly pushed the still red hot iron further inside of Cristina’s cervix….the tip now entering her womb. Cristina felt her womb cooking from within and knew that she would never bear another child now.
Finally, Brigitte removed the poker and thrust it back into the brazier of hot coals for one more use. When Heinrich released Cristina’s labia, they neatly covered the charred opening of her now barren womb.
“Very good. We don't want the crowd tomorrow to see that this whore’s cunt has been burnt to ruin. If her sister even has a slender chance at all of having a child at all, she will have to quickly put something inside of her burnt cunt to keep it from healing permanently closed."
Both sisters hung limply from their bonds to the posts, barely conscious but in complete agony.
Brigitte had Heinrich lift up Elisabeth’s head by her hair. His grip was like iron when she saw the glowing red tip of the poker pointed less than two inches from her right eye.
“This will take care of your evil eye, bitch.” Brigitte said just as she thrust the iron into Elisabeth’s eye. A horrible, shrieking sound filled the chamber as Elisabeth’s eye burst and smoke flowed from her now empty eye socket. Fluid from the ruined orb flowed down Elisabeth’s face before Brigitte finally pulled the red hot iron out. A charred hole now resided where a lovely blue eye once looked at the world.
“Be thankful that I didn't have Brigitte shove that poker up your sister's asshole and into her entrails. She would then be facing a slow, painful death instead of just missing an eye. Now take them both to their cell. Take her bastard daughter there too. I'm sure that her whore mother will want to feed her,” Margareth ordered.
“Neither of them will be able to hold the child to her mother’s teat after what was done on the rack, Baroness,” Heinrich noted.
“Then push the younger girl’s arms back into their sockets for now. She can hold her sister’s baby to the teat for feeding.
Elisabeth screamed twice more as each of her arms were roughly shoved back into their sockets. She was still barely able to use her arms, but the Baroness was firm that Cristina would spend the night without the use of her arms to hold her child.
Cristina’s breasts were so full of milk that she barely could stand the pain. Elisabeth held the baby girl to Cristina’s left breast to suckle in spite of how much Elisabeth’s shoulders hurt. Cristina cried out when the baby’s mouth began to suck on Cristina’s burnt nipple, but she had no choice but to allow the hungry infant to suckle. After a while, Elisabeth shifted the baby over to Cristina’s right breast, but that hurt even more. Far less milk was also coming out of that brown and partially charred right nipple as well. The right breast hurt so very much and was visibly larger than the left because it was so swollen with milk.
Eventually, they both briefly fell into an exhausted, pain filled sleep. Elisabeth did not know what was to happen to her, but Cristina was terrified at the thought of the breast ripper tearing into one of her breasts.
The morning light came early with the jailors opening the door. They pointed at Elisabeth.
“You. The Baroness has ordered that you stay here with the baby. But your sister is to come with us now,” they roughly said.
“Be strong, elder sister,” Elisabeth called out while Cristina was being dragged roughly from the cell. They had barely managed to wake up in time. There wasn't even enough time to lift the baby up to Cristina’s teat for another feeding. Elisabeth heard her sister scream twice after leaving the cell. The guards had finally pushed Cristina’s arms back into their shoulder sockets.
With the night’s production of milk, Cristina’s breasts were now both about the same size. They ached terribly, both from the torture and from all of the milk trapped inside.
Cristina’s arms were bound behind her and she was made to stand in a horse-drawn cart that took her from the Baron’s castle to the village square. Once there, she saw the crowds gathering already. The guards then tied Cristina’s wrists behind her back to one of the sturdy posts in the village square. A brazier of hot coals was blazing merrily next to the post. Cristina saw with horror that the breast ripper inside was already red hot along with several other tools including a couple of knives.
The Baron himself was standing in the square along with Margareth. He had a pained expression on his face when he saw the brutal burns on Cristina’s formerly lovely pink nipples. He had enjoyed licking and sucking on those tender pink buds so very much while he made love to Cristina. Now, he could say nothing. He could only read off the charges against Cristina and declare her fate.
“This young woman, Cristina Hohenmuren, has been found guilty of adultery and of bearing a bastard child out of wedlock. As in accordance with the law, she has been sentenced to have one of her breasts torn apart with a heated breast ripper. May God have mercy on you, child, the Baron sorrowfully said, knowing that one of those beautiful breasts would soon be taken from Cristina.
Heinrich and Brigitte stood by for a few moments while the sentence was read. Then Heinrich put on a pair of heavy leather gloves and pulled the breast ripper out of the coals. The teeth and jaws of the ripper were bright red, glowing from the heat. At first, it looked like Heinrich was going to use the ripper on Cristina’s right breast, sparing the breast whose nipple had not been nearly burnt off. But Brigitte then stepped up and whispered in Heinrich’s ear for a moment.
Heinrich then took a step over towards Cristina’s left. She now saw with horror that he was going to use the ripper on her left breast instead.
Cristina’s breasts were so swollen with mother’s milk that they jutted our from her chest in spite of their normally slightly pendulous shape. Cristina could feel the heat as Heinrich took the open breast ripper and positioned it so that it surrounded Cristina’s left breast. She prayed for a miracle, but was suddenly brought back to reality when Heinrich suddenly closed the ripper onto Cristina’s breast. At the same time, Cristina heard the crowd began to roar its approval, especially the men, many of whom clearly had bulges in the crouches of their pants from erections.
The red hot teeth sank deeply into the midst of her Cristina’s milk gland clusters, causing a stream of milk to forcefully squirt from her damaged but still very erect nipple. Then Heinrich started to pull and twist the ripper, still buried deep within Cristina’s breast as she shrilled screamed in agony. The heated metal teeth began to tear through Cristina’s breast as Heinrich kept pulling. Finally, the ripper tore completely through Cristina’s left breast, leaving it in four shredded pieces dangling from her chest. From the great wound, individual scorched milk gland clusters hung also from between the great tears in her chest, attached only by the thin white strands of her milk ducts that had attached the milk-producing organs to her nipple. Yellow globs of fat were also clearly seen protruding from the four dangling remnants of Cristina’s breast. There had been a flare or two of flame when the red hot metal of the ripper had come into contact with the fat inside of Cristina’s breast and ignited it during the ripping.
Cristina hung limply from the post, held upright only by her bonds. She was barely conscious. Her head hung over her chest. A pool of spilled milk and blood spread on the ground below her ruined breast.
“Bring the doctor,” the Baron ordered.
A man quickly ran up and began to examine the ruined left side of Cristina’s chest. There was obviously no hope of saving the breast that had so recently felt the cruel bite of the ripper. So, the doctor started to cut away much of the ruined tit flesh, starting with the removal of Cristina’s damaged milk glands. Periodically, he would stop, pull out a red hot poker from the brazier of hot coals and push it inside of the great wound to cauterize a vein or artery. He needed to keep Cristina from bleeding to death if he wanted to save her life. Cristina would scream again in agony each time that she felt red hot iron again come in contact with her flesh. Then he cut off the remains of Cristina’s nipple and surrounding areola to give as a prize to Heinrich and Brigitte. Finally, the doctor pushed together the skin that had once covered Cristina’s beautiful left breast and used red hot iron to cauterize it together to close the wound over the now flattened left side of her chest. It was a terrible contrast to Cristina’s large, milk-swollen right breast that still jutted out proudly.
Then the guards untied Cristina from the post and dragged her half-conscious body back to the cart. She was then transported back to the dungeon where her sister awaited. Cristina was horrified to learn that the guards had taken turns raping Elisabeth’s burnt vagina while Cristina was being punished with the ripper. Cristina wailed as she attempted to feed her baby from her remaining breast. Her infant daughter suckled hard on the short brown remnant of Cristina’s right nipple to get what little milk she could. The baby’s attempts to feed were very painful for Cristina, both physically and emotionally as well.
A couple of hours later, the Baroness came down to the dungeon. The cell door was then opened.
“You are all free to go. But do not ever dare come back to this barony for any reason. If you are still on our lands by the time that the sun sets, you are subject to death. Now go,” Margareth ordered.
The tattered remains of their clothing was given back to Cristina and Elisabeth. Then they were forced out the castle’s gate. Cristina did her best to continue to nurse her daughter as she walked away from the castle. They were in such pain that their walking pace was extraordinarily slow. The sun was about to go down when they reached the edge of the nearby forest.
The three disappeared, never to return. The people of the village say that they never made it out of the forest…..alive. But no one knew for sure.