Human Sacrifice

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

“Happy Birthday to me” Janice sighed, looking in the mirror as she took to her hair with some scissors. She hated how thick her hair was and frequently thinned it out, and being locked up would mean no different. She envied how Scott treated Monica and I nicer than her because she was just a walking blood bag ready to be harvested.  Mae and Janice had been confined in this room for at least a week now, but both of them had lost track of time.

Mae sighed. “At least you’re alive for your birthday; I’ll be dead before mine”

“I guess the sooner we die the better really. We’re basically being starved as it is and it doesn’t seem like we have long anyway. Brix has given up on trying to escape, seems she likes it here. Gwen is a whore to say the least. Elwyn is too shy and quiet to help us in any way; we’re just being kept until the time is right Mae”

“We can’t just sit here though, and wait for them to kill us” Mae sniffed, looking down at the blood stained floor. She figured it was my cell because she’d heard about what Patrique had done to me. “What life is that Janice? Waiting until the day when we get out, finding that we have to die”

“Look Mae. I know you’re scared and nervous, but we’re dying tomorrow. Brix won’t even be there to save us” Janice looked down. She felt like she’d been betrayed by me, because I promised that I’d get everyone out. I’d have to break in just to say goodbye to my best friend.

“I just don’t want to die, I think that’s understandable. I’m not even eighteen yet” Mae sighed. Her mother was always looking forward to Mae graduating, but that would never happen now. She’d never get old, get married, and have a job or children. Her life had been told as if she’d live until she was old, but instead her life had been cut short for a reason that is not justifiable.

“It’s my twenty-first birthday today, how do you think I feel” Janice said, wiping her eyes. “I was going to move to Cali, buy a huge house and spend my days rocking to my favourite bands. Now I’ll just be in an early grave, forgotten by everyone”

“I wanted to be a doctor” Mae sighed. “My mum had always wanted me to be one, because it would show how clever and dedicated I am”

The two sat in silence after that. Janice never usually opened up to anyone (she preferred to bottle up her feelings) but she’d told Mae everything. She’d even explained why she had so many tattoos, or why she wore a ring but was still completely single. She’d been waiting for a guy to come and save her but that fantasy was too farfetched for reality.

*****

I pulled away from Scott. My cheeks flushed red from that kiss; Patrique never kissed me like that. He wouldn’t kiss Monica like that either. I blushed and look down as he held my hands. Patrique nudged Gwen and nodded towards us, and Gwen smiled. “He should’ve picked Brixie instead of Monica; Monica’s too frigid for him”

“He doesn’t know it, nobody but me does, but there is a way to change it” Patrique smiled, taking a sip of his wine. “If Monica were to die, accident or not, then he would have to pick one of his remaining girls. Janice is being drained tomorrow, so he would have to pick Brix. Only he can kill Monica though”

It was a good time to have sensitive hearing. I heard everything. I could make it look like an accident, then I wouldn’t have to die, and I could get out of here and have a normal life. I looked back up at the windows to see Monica standing by one and I flashed a beaming smile. I knew she was my best friend and everything, but like Janice said it was every girl for themselves.

I strutted inside with my new found confidence and smiled back at Elwyn as I passed her.  She looked at me with shock, the last time I saw her she told me I looked like ‘someone who had lost their will to live’. Katya smiled at me.

“It’s nice to see the real you again” she stated, handing me a large key. “Here, you can use it to unlock any room or cell in this mansion, and I suggest you unlock Mae and Janice first, give them a chance to hide before they get drained”

“Did you manage to find an escape route?” I asked. I could help them escape from here and then neither the King nor his two sons would be able to find them, and they would be safe. Unless they made substitutes, in which that case I would be killed.

“No, but I found a room that even the King wouldn’t want to go in. The queen’s old room. They can stay there” she smiled. I walked down the corridor of cells and found one where I heard crying from, so I opened it. Mae hugged me tight and sobbed, whilst Janice just nodded in my general direction.

“I found a room you can both stay in that Katya said will be safe, come on” I said, pulling them both out of the cell before locking the door. Katya walked down one of the longer corridors and up some stairs, and we followed close behind her. I felt like a spy or a fugitive.

Katya preceded to crowbar the door open. Mae looked at me worried, then at Katya. “Why is it so shut that you have to use a crowbar to open it?”

“Because the King doesn’t want anybody in here. He says the memories are too hurtful because of the fact she died, so he secluded her room off to everyone, that’s why nobody will realise you’re in here”

Janice looked at Katya unsure, looking at the room that could mean her freedom. “Won’t he realise that the room has been opened?”

“No, he doesn’t visit this part of the castle anymore” she replied confidently. “Come on” she smiled, walking inside. I followed Mae and Janice in before pushing the door shut behind us. The room was lavish and grand, but everything was covered with a thin layer of dust. Furniture had been smashed, glass shattered and possessions thrown.

“How did she die?” Mae frowned, stepping around the shards of glass. The room looked so ruined, but everything here showed her status easily.

“The King had a big argument with her because he thought she was cheating on him, which explains the mess. Turns out she had a one night stand with his brother, and Ashtin killed her soon after. You know the necklace he wears? That’s a vial of her blood” Katya shook.

“That’s disturbing and creepy” Janice shook, looking down at her reflection in the shards of glass. “Do you think that’s why Scott and Patrique are quite messed up too?”

“Probably, but they were only small when it happened. Scott never forgave him but Patrique stayed quiet throughout the whole thing” Katya nodded. “I was just working here at the time, and I remember that Scott used to argue a lot about how his mum had left and nobody loved or wanted him”

I looked down and my eyes met a letter that had been crumpled up on the dresser. It was addressed to ‘my darling sons’. I swallowed and pushed the letter into my pocket and bid Janice and Mae a good night before running out. I bumped into someone. I looked up to meet Patrique’s eyes. “Why are you running?”

“I...erm...nothing” I swallowed, holding onto the letter.

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to force it out of you” he growled. “I pushed past him and ran down the corridor, only to hear him running after me. My breaths got shorter, and I knew he’d catch up with me.