Fractured Souls

The Chosen One

Sometimes you just get the feeling that something is going to happen. That nothing will ever be the same.

In Painswick, there is routine. Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast (if you have the money), go to work/school, come back home, do chores, eat dinner (again, if you have the money), and sleep. Or something along those lines.

But three years ago, when I was 12, a stranger came to our town, demanding us to sacrifice a child on the last night of every month. Terrified, we obliged. To choose the child, we had five tests; of strength, agility, basic knowledge, survival skills, and our ability to get out of certain situations.

Basically the adults threw a bunch of kids from 10 to 15 into the forest and evaluated how we adjusted to life without support over a period of 3 nights, and when we came back, they chose the best to sacrifice, as they would be the most likely to survive.

I've never been chosen, and yet everyone time the stranger comes back to take a child, I feel something, like hope, which sinks down when I'm not chosen to go with him.

I vowed that this time would be different.

I trained all month, and when I arrived at the forest, I was prepared. It would be my 27th time in here, more than anyone else in the group, so I was already ahead of them in that aspect. It would also be my last time competing, and I was confident that I would win.

After the third night, I sprinted back to the town with the other kids and gazed hopefully at the three adults, who acted as the judges.

"You've done well children," Yasmin, the youngest judge, at age 20, praises us. "We have made our decision."

I shift from one foot to the other, crossing my fingers behind my back.

Elise, the eldest, comes forward and smiles warmly at us.
"Aubrey, if you would step forward please?" She asks.

I spin, shocked, and watch my best friend walk up to the platform, visibly shaking. She is even more pale than usual, which is saying something.

I'm numb. I wanted to go, I'm the only one that would willingly sacrifice myself to the strange man, and yet here I am, my last shot to go with him, gone.