The Wicked Solstice

Chapter 1

The elders call,
They want a soul.
They desire to save themselves
In return for a fool.
A fool they can sacrifice,
A fool they can trick,
A fool they can kill for a price
A fool they can pick.

They'll pick this fool
In hopes to survive another year
Where they can keep their own soul
And live without fear.

This tradition began not long ago
When the Monsters fought
And ate our people slow.
Another year this sacrifice bought,
But the Monsters returned in June.
They asked for another fool
As they called under the moon.
So, another year, another soul.

Now we sacrifice every year
And pray our names are not drawn.
Someday we hope to live without fear,
But that day stopped for me when they pulled my name at dawn...

•••••

Part 1: The Draw

      The sun rose quietly over my small village of Nortadane. The streets were empty as the summer solstice began that morning. Although the sky reflected a normal day with its gray and greenish haze, we all knew it wasn't a usual day. It was June 21st, and that meant the elders would draw a name to sacrifice to the Monsters that ruled over us for almost one hundred years.

The elders never drew the name from a bucket or a hat, but they would draw the name from a spell. My village was heavily influenced by magic and the arts, and the elders were high magicians that practiced and taught the rest of us. Most people could do a simple spell, but they were never taught until they were twenty. I was only nineteen the morning they drew my name, so my fingertips and lips never practiced the arts or felt the spirits within me.

"Don't go too far, Ocean," my mother warned as she stood in the doorway of my cottage bedroom. She watched me lace up my boots after putting my blue dress on over my corset. "The world isn't safe out there today."

I looked up at my mother and tried to study her face. Her hair was no longer golden but silver and the skin on her face was no longer smooth but sunken in. Her cheeks were hollow, her eyes were a dull brown, and her hands were fragile when they used to be strong. The elders didn't care about the age of their victims, so nobody was safe. After fifty-three years of worrying, her body displayed her fear.

I used to ask my mother why we stayed in Nortadane. Why didn't we move to another town? Why didn't we escape before the elders took both my sister and my father? However, when the school failed to share the truth about my world, my mother gave me the details. There was no world outside of our town. The Monsters obliterated the entire world of Landria, and Nortadane was the last place humans lived. However, it wouldn't be the last place for long when we practiced an evil tradition every June.

My mother also shared how the Monsters came to Landria. Where our world was once beautiful with plenty of gardens, bountiful fruits and animals, clear skies, and various cities that boomed with technology and new age ideas—the Monsters destroyed all of that. However, they never invaded Landria. They were always here. Instead of the Monsters In folklore such as werewolves and three-headed dogs, these Monsters were once human. They were magicians that studied the arts and worshipped the dark side of magic. Allowing their desires and darkness to overcome their souls, they allowed magic to change them. They forgot who they were, and they were ruled by a higher power. They were almost like demons, but they were never angels to begin with. Instead, they were the highest magicians in Landria that aided the growth of technology until their own selfish desires became more important than their people.