Sacrifice For The Alpha

Chapter Two: A Tale As Old As Time

DACIANA’S POV

One century ago the town I currently reside in had just started to develop. Crops flourished and people were happy. They were led by the guidance of the oracle and the elders. They had everything they needed. But this balance was threatened by one single act of foolishness and greed.

The head elder at the time had the bright idea to sneak into the sanctuary of Alpha Lucian Bloodfang of the Bloodfang kingdom and steal a precious gem stone. He wanted to sell it to another kingdom. Of course he didn’t get away with it. He was caught and murdered on the spot. This act of greed angered the Alpha and he cursed our town.

The crops began dying, the people became afflicted with strange sicknesses. Half of the population of the town died under strange circumstances. The elders decided to meet with the Alpha to try and beg him to relieve them of this harsh punishment.

As the tale goes the Alpha refused to meet with them. He was angered that a human would dare invade his sanctuary.

“If one had the confidence to do it then another would surely have the confidence to do worse. Then towns and colonies would come together to form kingdoms and try to defy us.”. He said bitterly. The gem was of great significance to him. Rumours say it was the only thing that reminded him of his late luna that had died a few years before the incident.

The elders pleaded with him. They told him that they would do anything to appease him. He then gave them a condition. He would leave the town alone and restore it to its former glory if he received every time the blood moon appeared, which was every 20 years.

The Alpha’s condition was made known to the townspeople. Some didn’t want to go through with it. Some agreed that the elders should go along with it. They felt one sacrifice every twenty years was a small sacrifice to pay for the town to be saved.

Disgusting

The elders, after much deliberation, decided to go ahead with the Alpha’s decision. They passed on this tradition from generation to generation. Once in every twenty years under the blood moon a human sacrifice would be made to the Alpha in his palace. The human would be brutally murdered in front of the Alpha by the executioner. The oracle would choose the human to be sacrificed a week before the blood moon.

Now

It was my turn to be sacrificed.

They didn’t see it as inhumane. They saw it as doing what they could to save the town. Besides, nobody would mourn someone like me. I was treated like an outcast. Some people even called me cursed.

I never knew my parents. My mother died while giving birth to me, my father followed almost immediately due to an illness. I had lost both of them at a very tender age.

I was raised by my aunt who wanted nothing to do with me. She would often tell the townspeople that I brought great misfortune wherever I went. All she wanted to do was get rid of me.

“Yknow if you were decent I'd marry you off. But no man wants you. You disastrous child!”. She would often say that.

The first few times hurt a lot, but then I started getting used to her insults and cruel words. I didn't even want to be married off.

Once I turned eighteen she drove me out of her home, leaving me to fend for myself.

The townspeople would look at me with disgust. As if I was cursed, they believed I was. They believed I was the cause of my parents death. A cursed child who had brought doom to her family.

I managed to get by and survive. I thought my life was getting better… and now this.

“Maybe it's better this way.” I thought to myself out loud.

“I'd finally leave this place, this world. I had suffered so much. Maybe this was the relief I had always wanted.”

“Rambling again I see?”. The guard said as he brought me food for the day.

I didn't answer him nor did I take the food from him.

“You're a sorry sight, a very pathetic sorry sight”. He snarled and walked away.

After 5 days in the cell I started to accept my fate. I was getting closer and closer to the D day. There was no fighting it, there was no protesting. Nobody would hear my cries. Nobody was coming to save me. I was going to die and that was final.

“I'm coming mom and dad. I'm coming to see you. I don't think I was meant to live this long anyways”.

The guards would often laugh at me mumbling to myself.

“Not struggling anymore aye”

“I think she's realised that this is the end for her. Wise decision, you only got a day left”. They said and laughed cruelly.

Pathetic idiots

One day it would be their turn to die.

I laughed inwardly at the thought of them being slain in the Alpha's presence instead of me.

The Alpha wasn't any different from them. He was barbaric and brutal. Human sacrifice for a gem stone? I mean he already killed the thief why inflict pain on the innocents.

He feared defiance.

Typical.

That night I couldn't sleep a wink. I was basically counting the seconds till my execution. Every second, every minute felt like a knife being pierced into my chest. Dying wasn't the problem. I had longed for it for a while.

The problem was dying for the traditions of a town that treated me like an outcast, a disease, a curse.

“Wake up Daciana”. The guard's voice resounded, waking me up instantly.

I didn't realise that I had slept off and that it was now morning.

“It's time”. He said and opened the cell doors.

I didn't fight back. I stood up before he could even drag me up.

I walked out of the cell, the chains on my hands and legs clanking with each step I took.

Each step I took that brought me close,

To my doom.