Human Sacrifice

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

“Zach Nese?” the doctor asked, looking at Zach as he sat by the empty bed. He waited patiently for his mother to leave surgery but things weren’t looking good, and he kept blaming me for how I always got her stressed out. He tried to keep his breathing calm as he focused on the present situation. “Your mother is...Flora Nese?” she asked, looking down at the clipboard in her hands. Zach nodded.

A nurse walked over and with a frown looked down at Zach. It was Tracie, Zach’s girlfriend. They’d been going out since they were my age and never really separated. “Why are you here Zach?” she frowned. She was Mae’s older sister and shared the need to wear glasses. She’d occasionally come for dinner at our house too but recently she’d been having family troubles and couldn’t come.

“Mum had a heart attack. They’ve taken her into theatre because she doesn’t show any signs of improvement. Oh and to top it all off, Brix has disappeared” he sighed, rubbing his temples. Tracie frowned and looked at the doctor who shook her head slightly so Zach couldn’t see. She saw on the doctor’s notes that she had an underlying heart problem and an attack could shut her heart down completely.

Zach watched intently as doctors rushed into theatre looking worried as machines began to beep frantically. He stood up and watched the scene unfold in front of him. No way was he losing mum. She was the reason he returned after so long. Some doctors where yelling instructions but most were only covered with other people shouting; Zach sat down and covered his ears. He never dealt with stress well.

The next hour passed very slowly and was full of movement, screaming and beeping. Tracie sat by Zach and handed him a coffee, her hand shaking softly as she regrettably had an ultimatum for him. His hands were shaking even more than hers as he swallowed the hot liquid. “Zach...you have to listen to me”

“I’m listening” he replied coldly, evidently just wanting an answer.

“Your mother...she’s passed away. She had heart problems and the attack basically stopped her heart from working properly. We tried all we could” she said softly, trying to comfort him.

Zach let the tears free from his eyes and dropped the coffee. His world shattered with those words and the realisation that he’d lost his whole family. “I have to tell Brix” he sobbed into Tracie as she rubbed his back. “I have to tell her”

I wrapped a towel around myself as I walked out to the garden. It was beautifully sunny today and I took the opportunity to get a nice tan. I lied the towel down on the grass and lied on top of it, finding a comfortable position. I pulled my sunglasses on and sighed. Today would be nice and relaxing. Until somebody blocked my light.

“Eugh get out of the way” I said unamused. Mae always decided that I looked like a lobster with a tan and that I should stick to shade-bathing like her.  She put a towel down by me and decided to join me though which was really unusual for her. “What’s up?” I asked, looking at her from over my sunglasses.

“Tracie texted me earlier. I think you should see the text” she frowned, handing me her phone with the message open.

Mae, tell your friend Brix that her mother passed away this morning. She had underlying heart problems and the attack didn’t help. We tried all we could. I’m looking after Zach for a while. Tracie X

My eyes welled up as Mae hugged me tight. Time seemed like it was frozen for those moments when my brain registered it. “Brix you’ve got all of us, and I promise I’ll make sure that neither the princes nor the King make things any worse. I’m so sorry” she said with sympathy in her voice as she hugged me and wiped away my tears.

For the rest of the day I stayed silent. At dinner I ate quickly then excused myself to go to my room. I managed to find some photos in the bag I was carrying when they grabbed me and took me here, plus Katya had managed to smuggle some of my stuff her to make me feel more at home. I pinned the pictures in a large collage to the wall, trying to make it look like my bedroom. I couldn’t feel safe in the place where I was set to die.

Sierra traced her ghostly fingertips over the photos. “My father died whilst I was here y’know” she sighed. “At least with you, you have people who care and respect your feelings. When they found out they used it against me” she added.

“How?” I sniffed, looking at her. Maybe they might do the same to me, so knowing would mean that I had an advantage on them.

“They found out that he died and they held me back from going to his funeral. Then they joked about it for a while because he was the last family member I had and they knew from that point on that nobody would care if I’d disappeared. They hurt me and just laughed, then they...killed me” she cringed at the memory and looked over the photos again.

“Sierra I’m so sorry. Do you think you could help me in any way? I mean, I really don’t want to be sacrificed” I said shaking as I looked at the poor ghost girl.

“Throughout the years I’ve been here I’ve seen people try many different things to stop their fate from happening. One girl tried to make her prince fall in love with her instead of his mate, another killed herself. To be honest, I think the only way is to misbehave so much they won’t be confident enough to sacrifice you in front of all the vampires because they’ll think you’ll embarrass them too much.” She said. I liked that idea. It went with my plan to break all the rules perfectly.

“Thanks for that. I need an idea though, a really big idea” I said, thinking to myself. I looked around the room for inspiration.

“When I was here and alive, I had a plan. See, considering it’s nearly Christmas you could mess up the large dinner they have. That could be a pretty big disaster for them, and the princes will want to keep you alive until the sacrifice so they can’t punish you for it” she smiled, and my eye glinted.