Ooh i really like them both. The first one is kind of sweet in a creepy way, and the second is just creepy but completely amazing.

this story is awesome!! i love the detail about being able to smell the blood and well i pretty much loved all of it lol great work!thank you for the kind review on Soul Asylum by the way

The first ending is sweet. It evokes pity for the narrator. The second ending is just freaky. It gives a deeper meaning to it all, somehow.. that we are influenced, however indirectly, by those who came before us. A very nice viginette.

I prefer the alternate ending, myself. It adds more dimension to the story. Without it, it seems a bit stilted and awkward as a stand-alone piece. I hope you develop this into a longer story! i would love to read more!
=kat=
http://w.fictionpress.com/~katatonic

Neato!

hahahah, whoa..
i love that last sentence.. i loev sentences with oomph! especially dark oomph!
i found one spelling error: "knifes (KNIVES) of all shapes and sizes"
very cool alternate ending.. i'm a sucker for blood-and-gore stories
i must go and read more of your stuff!
and about that contest that i read about in your profile.. why do you need to take the stories down to enter them?
just curious..
please come on over and read my fic too! =)

I am just cruious as to why mostly all your horror stories are very short. Come on, make them longer.

You never cease to impress me with your work.I have to say I favor the original ending the most. I'm not sure wether or not you planned this but I didn't know until the end that it was from the executioners point of view.When it said "I see intestines dangling in front of me" I thought it was the victim looking down at his own. So the twist ending really suprised me (Which I thoroughly enjoyed.)The alternate ending was creative since the "Waking up from a dream" ending is very played out. You sort of made it your own by adding the twist with the family tree.Your a twisty gut. Anyway congrats on another winner.
**Scars**

Nice. You're really into the violence. I love Braveheart, even if it is historically inaccurate.
Are you sure that's really an alternate ending? It seems to me that it would also work as a continuation, where the first part is a dream-memory, like remembering past lives, and the second is his modern day reaction. That in turn could raise interesting questions that are only possible at 3am. Such as, what if each was out of his time? The executioner didn't like killing but had to do it. The other doesn't have to do it but loves it anyway.
Argh, it's late, and I have to be up for work in the morning. Ignore my ramblings, unless you find them interesting.

I liked that a lot, especially the alternate ending. It gave the story a deliciously wicked spice.
A suggestion: lose the "single teardrop" part. It has been highly overused and IMHO spoils the atmosphere. Plus, no such thing exists.
Other than that, good work.

EK! Scary stuff you've got there! I like the first ending better, the second one... scary... in a good way, I mean. Keep writing!

great job on both endings. the first one is better, since i think it would take more explanation to make the second one as good as it could be. i loved the story though.

*** head* You and I wrote about the same thing, purification through pain... surprising how they turned out so differently. *smiles* Ah, takes all kinds, hm? Very nice, I enjoyed your take.

I most definitaly like the first ending better. In the second one everything happens to fast and the whole "it was a dream" thing is way too overused. Granted, you did through an interesting twist into it...but I still liked the surprise from the first one better.
As far as the rest of the story goes, it was really good. I think your PG-13 rating is being generous however. What with intestines falling and skin being ripped...I liked your description by the way. Perhaps you should have described what the Sgain Dubh is because I have no idea (maybe that can be blamed on the fact that I haven't seen Braveheart? I don't know).
Anywho, good work.

I think that the first ending is better, because it feels odd to cram that many twists (three of them, plus the one in the body of the story) into so few paragraphs. I'd like to see you focus more on your imagery-- even if it comes at the expense of a surprise ending, a thorough description can really help the emotional impact of a story.