Mommy, My Slumber

"Darling, wake up."

Mommy's voice calls me from sleep. "Darling, wake now. We must rid of the demons."

She pulls my hair, and whispers above me. I make fists into my sheets, fighting silently. She yanks harder, and I begin to cry.

'Don't worry my darling, the bad will be gone soon, and all will be right." She lifts me from my bed, into the arms of my brother. She leads the way into the spare bedroom, with the lights dimmed. There, the carpet is pulled up, and the grimy floor is stained with blood of animals. A chicken. A pig.

My puppy.

She is dressed in a nightgown, with her hair pulled back into her head.

"The evil will be vanquished tonight,"she mummurs. I've known this day was coming. The priests even higher than Mommy chose my birth special. My conception was planned perfectly. In our religion of Wicca-Wicca, the most powerful witchhood, everything is exact. I am six, tonight is my birthday.

It must be tonight. Tonight will have my birth month, birth day, and age all in the same number. The special number. Brother spreads me across the wooden table, like the puppy was laid months before me.

I'm a little scared, but as the lights are completely dimmed, and the candle chanlider is lit above, I'm excited.

Groups of excited members gather me, each taking turns pulling my hair. Other children tear at my nightclothes, and are motioned away, some of the boys spitting in my direction. I hear them giggling out in the hallway. I know they are in joy now. For six years everyone has been waiting tensely at my age, waiting.

All of the men thank Mommy above me for giving them me.

"With this, the demons will be taken away and the other children protected." I am glad my siblings will be protected. Our Mommy will raise them.

Before the cermony begins, Mommy is ushered to the top of my head. She hangs onto my pigtails, pulling hard. I can't cry. She is too happy. She giggles, "You will sleep forever like the other five before you. I am the sixth six year old for this job. I am the last for the next fifty years."Be honored my daughter, and enjoy it."

With praying done, the sharp silver of a spear is hung directly above my neck. Lights flash, and with each flicker the blade is closer.

I giggle, "Goodnight Mommy." All lights are gone.