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The Sacrifice (WillowVX & littlerooster)

Clarke looked at Annie for a second then turned away.

"I was trying to protect you" he said to no one in particular.

"You never could have won" he added.

He looked defeated, like everything in his world was just taken from him, he really did try to protect her, perhaps too much, trying to protect her from the truth of it all, and now she was caught and would be sacrificed, and he couldn't do anything else about it.
 
Annie was furious.

"No!" She shouted, losing her temper. She thought of Robbie. Of everything he's done for her. And what did Clarke do? He lied. "Robbie was the only one who protected me. He did everything he could. He put himself in danger to save me. He tried to give his life, Clarke!" She was wild with tears, pulling at her restraints. "You put a gun to my head." Her chest hurt, the pain and betrayal showed in her eyes. "If you really cared about me, you would have protected me at any cost. Instead, you lied to me, and you hunted me down. Like all of the other blood thirsty animals in this town." She laughed and shook her head, defeated.

"And you know what? That's the biggest difference between you and Robbie, Clarke. Robbie believed in me. He believed that I could have won." She broke, despite herself, and looked at Clarke. All at once she remembered the first night she met him. She remembered him taking her into his home. She remembered how he saved her from the boys trying to touch her. And she remembered when he kissed her. It was all too much for her to handle. And she was just broken.
 
Clarke just laid there in silence, she obviously didn't remember or care about the night he found her, saved her from the boys who would have raped her, how he took her into his parents home. It didn't matter, none of it mattered anymore really, it was all written, she would be sacrificed and he, along with all the other males in town would have a turn with her. It was just how things were done here.

Her Aunt came in, "Annie, we have to have a talk, let's go somewhere private" she told Annie with a solemn smile.
 
Clarke said nothing. It made Annie even more angry. How could he just lay there? She was about to say something else until her aunt came into the room. She untied her from the chair and pulled her into the kitchen and motioned for her to have a seat.

Annie didn't meet her eyes. She wouldn't be talking to anyone.
 
Her Aunt having finished untying her took her into the room and sat her down.

"I'm sorry this is happening Annie, it looks like you will be the sacrifice this year, is there anything you need to know about sex or boys?" she asked as if she were going on her first date.
 
Annie just glared at her aunt. She let out dry laughter at her question. She walked up to her and got right in her face. She looked her up and down and shook her head.

"I swear on my mothers grave, I will burn this whole goddamn place to the ground." With that, she picked up the closest thing in arms reach. It was a plate. On the counter. It would be enough to knock her out, it wouldn't hurt her too badly. She hit her aunt over the head with it and darted for the back door.

She came back. Robbie was safe. Uncle Ben said he wouldn't be punished. Now Annie had to finish what they started.
 
Ben and Clarke heard the ruckus in the kitchen, Ben came running out just as Annie was already outside running away, he couldn't believe she assaulted her Aunt, he rang the posse and once again they were on the search for Annie, the whole town in fact knew she was a marked girl, she would not get far. Not this time.

A young girl about 15 saw Annie running and started screaming out, the young girl quite happy for Annie to be the sacrifice and not herself, her father started to chase Annie down.
 
Everybody was after Annie. A girl, a bit younger than her, saw her and yelled for the men. Annie was a fast runner. She already had some distance between them. She ran all the way to the river where her and Robbie had first hid in the tree. That was the closest, safest place she could think of. She climbed up before the man was able to spot her. They searched circles around the river until night fall. Then the men retreated. Annie was tired. She sighed and slumped against the tree trunk. She almost fell asleep until she heard a voice.

"Golden rule of hide and seek." Clarke said from below, sounding tired. "Never hide in the same place twice." Annie stiffened but heard him sigh. She listened intently but she couldn't hear anyone else.

"Are you going to turn me in again?" Annie whispered from the tree. She took care to keep her voice down. No matter what, Clarke always seemed to be able to find her.
 
Clarke had managed to get himself up not long after Annie ran away, he knew that she would go back to the same places and went to the area that her and Robbie first hid in, thinking she would like the familiarity and memory of Robbie.

"No, I am not going to turn you in, but you have to start listening to people, you really still have no idea of the game you are playing" he said to her.
 
"Listen to you?" Annie asked, skeptical. "you want to see me sacrificed just as much as everybody else in this town." She was scared. If Clarke turned her in right now, it would be over.
 
"And yet, I don't want that at all, there have been so many misunderstandings" he said to her, looking around, to make sure they didn't catch him with her.
 
Annie's head was spinning. She didn't understand. Robbie said he was in on it. Robbie said that Clarke caught her and tricked her to get sacrificed. Clarke even tracked her down. Twice. He shot Robbie, he put a gun to her head. What could be a misunderstanding? She rubbed her temples and rested her head against the tree branch.

"Then explain." She sighed. Trying to keep herself coherent enough not to fall out of the tree.
 
Clarke knew his game was pretty much up, but he kept trying, he also knew he only had 2 channels, the nice guy and the bastard that he really was, he looked at her for a while before starting to speak again.

"Look, it's just the way I am, you wouldn't have believed me if I told you the whole story, you won't believe me now either and you know most of it already. But seriously, what are you going to do? You are stuck up a tree, whether you come down for me or you stay there until they find you, what is your grand plan here Annie?" he was stating facts, she couldn't deny it this time.
 
Annie didn't know whether or not she could trust him. She wanted to. But she could hear Robbies voice inside her head telling her Clarke was bad news. But he did have a point.

"what will happen if I come down? Will you explain everything? will you help me get away?" She was wary. But she was also running out of options. and allies.
 
He looked up at her smiling "Yes I will tell you the whole story, everything, there is still so much you don't know" he said to her.

He heard people approaching, his father looking for Annie.

"But not now, stay up there" he told her.

He walked up to his dad "She's not around here, looked about this while area Pa" he said to him.

He made up an excuse that he needed to rest a little, still weak from the fight with Clarke and his dad wandered off searching elsewhere.
 
Annie held her breath and listened intently. She couldn't believe it. Clarke was covering for het. She didn't understand anything. She wished Robbie could be there. Annie sat ib silence and waited for Clarke's dad to leave.
 
Clarke approached the tree again, "Ok Annie you can come down now, if you want to that is, but staying up there just makes you more vulnerable". he explained to her.
 
Annie sighed. What choice did she have? She slowly made her way down from the tree.

"How do you always manage to find me?" she asked Clarke. Annie still didn't trust him but she had to work with what she had. she wanted to see Robbie. She needed to make sure he ess alright.

Annie sighed and ran her fingers in her hair.
"You said you cared about me. If that was true, then help me get to Robbie."
 
"Oh my dad is a cop, I guess some of it just rubs off" he told her smiling. "Always been good at finding things and people too" he said to her.

"You know taking you to Robbie might not be the smartest move, but if that is what you really want, we can do it" he said to her, he couldn't believe it, she was so head strong and she would end up getting caught, but he didn't care anymore, he was at the end of his rope with this girl who couldn't seem to get out of her own way.
 
"You know, Clarke..." Annie started, not sure how to continue. "I really believed in you. When you first found me in the park, I felt safe. For the first time since my parents died, I didn't feel completely alone." She looked up at him with pain behind her eyes. "Youre betrayal really hurt." It was hard to confront Clarke like this. It hurt. She put her arms around her middle to keep.herself together.

"if you take me to Robbie, and help us get away, we will get far away from here. And I'll never ask you for anything else. I will stop causing you so much trouble. It's obvious how short tempered you are with me. I know I'm stubborn and I know I'm difficult. But im strong." She looked at his unreadable face. He looked wounded. He looked like he was hurting. Annie was still very confused. He was so back and forth. Annie thought Robbie was the ticking time bomb, turns out he's not the only one.
 
He was hurt, he liked her and he was only trying to help, he wasn't much with speaking and spelling everything out for someone, he just thought Annie should have trusted him, he could be naive that way, he realized that she wanted Robbie.

"Robbie won't be able to travel for a while, the more you hang around here and him, the more likely it would be for them to find you" he told her.

He still liked her, enough at least to see her not get gang banged by the whole town, but whether or not she would listen would be a whole other story.
 
Annie thought. She didn't want to press her luck.

"Drive us to the next town over." She said abruptly. His eyes went wide like she was crazy. "Clarke, listen... If you can just get us to the next town over, then we'll figure it out from there. And your part will be over with. You'll never have to see me again. I'll stop causing so much trouble for you." She looked down and bit her lip thoughtfully. "I mean... You did almost kill him. And you came to turn me in. Twice." She hoped Clarke cared about her, even the slightest, and would want to redeem himself.
 
He shook his head, what was wrong with this girl, what part of reality did she not understand.

"Robbie cannot be moved yet, don't you get it" he said to her almost yelling.
 
Clarke was losing his temper with her again. She needed to be careful.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." She tried to calm him down. "I understand. I'm sorry. I'm just scared. And I want to get us both out of here, before something bad happens." Annie shook her head. "Something bad is going to happen, Clarke. I feel it." She rubbed her arm on her forehead.

His face seemed to be softening a bit. "Okay. We can go somewhere, yeah? You and me? And you can explain everything. We can worry about the rest in the morning." Annie offered.
 
He started to calm down, she seemed to really be good at pissing him off.

"Ok, lets go to the cave where we met that time, the group, it will just be you and me, it is the best place to go" he started walking and hoped that she was following him, he wasn't sure what she thought of him anymore.
 
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