Singing in the Rain

And that's how the world remembered him: defiant. Down to the last moment, the last note--oh yes, there was indeed an end--he never accepted defeat. Never once in that bitter rainstorm; never among the hungry crows; never, as the man without a soul extinguished his own, did he flinch.
He stood proudly on the plank, the rope necklace he didn't quite deserve hanging conspicuously on his spindly neck. He smiled crookedly, as if his girl were approaching from afar in a breezy sundress on a windblown beach.
The figure was not his girl, but his downfall. The man was a black ghost: eerily silent, garbed in silky black cloth that did not budge in the roaring gale and did not dampen in the deluge. Although the defiant man could not hear, the figure was muttering a prayer under his hood, the one he always whispered before the board came down: "They succumb for their sins, let them fall; for in their weakness You are strong. Let regret welcome them in Hell."
But those worry lines were erased from this brave man's face. No regret would welcome him, for it seemed he had never experienced regret. He smiled his crooked smile and waved jauntily at the shadowy figure, then broke into song--a song of his own creation, about the power of truth--the tune harmonized charming innocence with subtle wisdom. Had he been able, he would have skipped. Had anyone been there, they would have wept at the irony.
The dark cloak halted directly in front of the man's shoes, and glanced up, just enough so his mouth leered up at the singing carcass. His lips were cracked and bleeding, but pulled back in a leering grin. He removed the board.
At this point, he would usually stalk away with the same unsettling quietness, mutely thanking the Lord that one more criminal met justice, and never think on the man left swinging there for weeks. This time, he paused. For just one minute, the rain became tears and regret that streaked down his upturned face. Finally, slowly, he turned heel and sauntered back to town, his mouth reshaping the words of the song he silenced, the song that offered such promise.
~

Idea credits to Bearamaneramagarrett