I saw people all around me. Shouting. Yelling. But I couldn’t understand what they were saying. All I knew what I couldn’t breath! All I felt was the fire in my lungs as they tried to get oxygen, and the burning of the rope around my neck.

Suddenly, I was back in the cathedral. I gasped for air, as though I had actually been there. “God!” I shouted, hoarsely. That brought the pain back anew. A fit of coughing seized me.

I looked up at her. Tears streamed down her face. “Are you all right?” she asked.

I couldn’t speak clearly, yet, but I nodded. After a few minutes, I could speak again. “That… My, God, you were trapped in that poor woman’s body until the end?!”

She nodded. “Mary was a sweet woman who didn’t deserve what they did to her. It was horrible what happened, but I’ve been through worse.”

“Worse?!” I said, stunned.

“Some where in here I was shot and left to die in a mass grave. Took me three days to die.” She shivered at the thought. “You sure about this?”

I nodded. “For you, it’s worth it.”