The Sacrifice

Chapter one

It's late. Midnight. The witching hour, as some like to call it. The full moon is right in the middle of the sky, illuminating the forest floor. A hooded figure dabs her finger in a reddish liquid and smears it over another girl's forehead. A chill goes through the girl's body, the liquid is cold, and she thinks it might be blood.

She is standing in the middle of a tent, being prepared for a special ritual. A ritual vital to the survival of the coven. She is the only one that can do this ritual. The chosen one, as they liked to call her. Her whole life she lived under the scrutiny of the coven, protected and coddled and never ever let out of sight. Even if she was supposed to be the most powerful witch, she was instructed to never try to practice magic, she didn't need it since she had guards to protect her and tend to her needs.

The ritual was drawing nearer and she got a strange feeling in her gut. Something didn't seem right. How was she supposed to do this ritual without knowing a lick of magic? She might be powerful, but nothing comes easy without practice. She grips a handful of white lace, from her ritual dress, and clenches her fist until her knuckles turn white. Another hooded girl, roughly her age, is braiding her hair. One girl is doing her makeup and another is placing a white hood over her shoulders to protect her from the bite of cold air autumn brings.

An older looking women steps inside the tent flanked by two young men. Those men were familiar to her, they were her guards and they were to escort her to the ritual grounds. The older woman looked the girl over and a smile, that never reached her eyes, covered her face.

"Ruby dear, are you ready for your big night?" she asked the girl, whose eyes went wide.

"Uhm...I'm not sure high priestess." The girls grip tightened on the dress. The woman didn't look too happy.

"Don't be nervous, you'll be just fine Ruby. You were born to do this, our chosen one." She brushed her fingers over the girl's shoulder. A feeling of dread creeped into Ruby's mind from the touch. Her eyes glazed over and a sense of panic enveloped her. There was a voice in the back of her head, screaming at her at full volume.

Run! It yelled, chilling Ruby to the core.

There was nowhere to run, she had two men guarding her, or more likely making sure she doesn't escape. Everything looked weird to her. The once kind people looked at her with pity or with glee, a bloodthirsty air was around them.

She looked around darting her eyes in all directions, trying to figure a way out. But, even if she got away where would she go? The coven is all she knows. The guards led her to a circle lined with candles , some witches were chanting while other completed the sigils on the circle. Ruby didn't like the tone she heard, even if she never got to learn Infernal. She knew it wasn't a good thing they were drawing a circle while speaking in the demon tongue.

"Excuse me..." she got a guards attention, "can I go to the bathroom?" she squirmed in place, trying to sell it. The guard rolled his eyes and looked at her with a pity.

"Alright, I'll go with you." He nodded towards the woods, she looked at him in a weird way. "I won't look. Promise." He gave her a smirk, making her want to throw up, as if she didn't want to already.

She followed the guard to the denser woods and walked a bit further away from him, testing how far she could go before him noticing her. He turned around and she took the chance. She started running. For a few moments she thought he wouldn't be able to find her, but she thought too soon. A branch snapped under her foot and the guard was immediately alarmed.

"Hey! Get back her, bitch!" he yelled after her, picking up speed and starting to sprint towards her.

She ran as fast as she could, but he was gaining after her. She tripped and fell into a bush, while he continued running. It was too dark in the deep woods, even with the moon out. A tear escaped her eye and she wiped it away in a hurry. Her thoughts were jumbled and she couldn't think straight. What did she do? She ran away from home. But she could've sworn they wanted to...kill her. Tears welled up and her vision blurred.