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The Sacrifice (WillowVX & littlerooster)

Clarke laughed. He knew the truth. Annie loved him, but not in the way she loved Robbie.

"You have something that I'll never have, man." Clarke said, defeated. "She will pick you. She has sacrificed herself more than once, just to be with you. To save you." His eyes burned into Robbie's with intensity and sighed. "She will always pick you. But I will never stop trying." He fidgeted in the ropes a bit, trying to get comfortable. He rested his head against the tree he was tied to and closed his eyes. "If I've learned anything, it's that you can't control her. She is stubborn. And she thinks with her heart." His face made a grimace. "That's something I never learned how to do."
 
"She might always pick me, but she will always defend you, for some reason she will always accept you back in her life and you will always burn her, again and again you will burn her Clarke, if you really do love her like you say you do, you will walk away and never find her again" he said to Clarke with seriousness.


"And yes her stubbornness will bring her undone if she doesn't start thinking with her brain instead of her heart" he added.

"You think with your heart as well Clarke, your heart is just a dark one" he concluded.
 
Clarke nodded. He knew that Robbie wasn't wrong. Clarke was full of darkness. He knew that. He also knew there was no way he could stay away from Annie.

"I've been so selfish. I didn't care what happened. She could have been sacrificed, broken. And I would have had her. I would have comforted her after. And she would have had no choice but to be with me." He looked away, at a twig, and stared for a long time. Minutes went by and both boys sat in silence. "The only way to keep her safe is for her to never hear from me again." Clarke knew it was true. How unfair, for her to come into his life, to love him unconditionally, and for him to hurt her again and again. All he's done since she met him was hurt her. And she forgave him every time. "I don't deserve her." His words were almost inaudible. Clarke knew, one day, he would make it up to her. He didn't know when. He didn't know how. But he would.
 
"No, you don't deserve her" Robbie said to him, he just sat there in silence, not wanting to sleep, not trusting Clarke one iota.

Soon Jenny woke up, "You should be asleep Robbie, well I guess you can sleep in the car when we get going" she said to him.

It was around 5 am, some birds were starting to stir but nothing more. She woke up Annie. "Time to go, we'll gag Clarke and take off, we'll call your dad when we are far away." she explained to him, she knew to some degree she was leaving him to the mercy of the woods and chance, if anything happened to them before they could place the call he could be screwed. Still this was the game he chose to play.

She started to nudge Annie to wake up.
 
Annie woke up slowly. She had a wonderful dream. It was breakfast time. Her mother was still asleep in her parents bedroom. She was never a morning person. She tip toed down the hall and peaked her head in. Her mother slept peacefully, Annie smiled. She crept down the stairs and found her father. He was up at the crack of dawn, every morning. She awoke to the smell of maple syrup. Her dads face was so bright, his smile so wide. This was the best she's felt since... Well, for a long time. She didn't want to wake up. She forgot the hell that waited for her.

Her eyes opened and took everything in. She became sad. How did her life turn into such a mess so quickly? They all prepared things to leave and made sure Clarke was secure.

"Hey, guys..." Annie started as they were climbing into the car. "Do you mind if I talk to him? Say goodbye."
 
Robbie rolled his eyes and looked away, he slowly got himself up and sat in the car, Jenny was equally mystified and sat in the drivers seat, ready to roll.

"Go ahead, and remind him, if he follows, he dies" she said to Annie.
 
Annie could plainly see that Robbie and Jenny weren't happy with her. She hoped that they would understand. She looked back at them and gave them both an apologetic look. She turned and walked to Clarke, where he was tied to the tree.

"Hey." She greeted awkwardly, scratching the back of her head. She didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry." She mumbled and bit her lip, looking at him sadly. She wishes things could be different. She wanted to be his friend. But she knew he would just never let her. "I just came to say goodbye." She sat down a minute and looked at him. His face was shadowed, and hurt, and tired. Annie sighed and touched his knee.

"Clarke..." She began, not knowing exactly how to continue. "I'm sorry for making things difficult for you. I'm sorry for coming into your life and ruining things. I never..." She stopped and took a deep breath, trying not to cry. "I never wanted any of that. I just wanted somebody that I could trust." The tears fell now. Clarke could never be the person she wanted him to be. He was a demon disguised as an angel. And he had her fooled. "You know that I love you." She smiled and laughed lightly through the tears. She touched his face then quickly pulled away. Annie sniffed and wiped her eyes and nose with the back of her sleeve. "But I have to let you go. If I don't... Clarke, they'll hurt me." She looked at him, pleading with him to understand. "You have to let me go. You have to do the right thing." Annie whispered, her voice lower. She sat on her knees and reached around to give him a hug. Away from the view of Robbie and Jenny, around the other side of the tree where his hands were tied around it, she slipped a scalpel into his hand. She stole it from inside of the ambulance, for protection, if she needed it.

Annie kissed him on the cheek and lingered for a moment. She whispered in his ear, "Untie yourself when we drive away. This is the last time that I'm trusting you to do the right thing. I want you to choose to do it on your own." Annie stood him and looked at him again.

"Goodbye, Clarke." She wiped her eyes on her sleeve one last time before she turned around to leave.
 
Clarke didn't say anything when Annie approached nor did he say anything the whole time she spoke with him, he enjoyed her arms around him, he enjoyed her touch. He didn't know what to say, "I love you" seemed so pathetic a thing to say to a girl that he had nearly killed, had literally hunted down as if she were some escaped convict, had thrown quite literally to the wolves in the form of the town men to fuck 'train style' as part of a festival for an ancient God that no one believed in anymore, not even the townsfolk themselves so the whole sacrifice ritual had turned into a money making enterprise for the powers that be and a punishment for the girls who rebelled, girls like Annie.

So what was he supposed to say? She pleaded with him to do the right thing and leave her alone, to just drop it all. He knew it was the right thing to do just that, he knew that Jenny would kill him if she ever saw him again, so why couldn't he drop it? Why did he already know that he would chase her to the very ends of the Earth to just be near her, to just have the faintest chance that she might need him or want to be around him again.

He felt her slip him the scalpel, she told him to untie himself after they left, not to follow. In Clarke's obsessed mind this meant that she still liked him, she still wanted him, she said she loved him to top it all off.

She said Goodbye and walked off, he never said anything, he didn't need to.

They both knew it wasn't over between them yet.

When she got in the car Jenny turned to her "I know this is hard for you but it is the only way, the best way, and you watch he will turn up again" she said to her.

"Goodbye to bad rubbish" Robbie said not looking at Annie, disgusted in her feelings for Clarke.

Jenny started the car and drove off.
 
Annie climbed into the backseat and sat next to Robbie. Jenny drove away. Annie looked at Clarke one last time and she prayed he would make the right choice. She wanted him to learn.

Now in the back seat, it was eerily silent. Annie felt like she should explain herself. Robbie looked upset. Seeing that painful look on his face made her insides tighten.

"Robbie..." She started and touched his arm lightly. He looked over and sighed. He pulled her into his arms and he rested his head on top of hers. "Can we talk, please?" She asked and kissed him on the chest. She loved Robbie with every part of her. She was a hundred percent certain of that. She didn't want him to be mad at her.
 
Clarke just sat there, still with the scalpel in his hands, he didn't start cutting the ropes yet, he wanted to suffer, he wanted to just sit and think without anything else on his mind, he knew they or at least Annie would call her father, he felt that maybe if he just let himself cool down, he might be able to get a different perspective on everything. He wanted to do the right thing, but could he?

He heard the car start and drive off, so this was it, he was alone now.

Robbie still felt very deeply hurt and confused, he wasn't sure what just happened.

"So talk" he said to her without much feeling at all.
 
Annie laid against him, she didn't look up. His arms were rigid around her, like he was afraid to let go, like if he did she would float away and back to Clarke.

"I love you Robbie. I shouldn't have to tell you." She picked up his hand and put hers against it, palm to palm. "What ever it is between us, it's stronger than all of this." Annie sighed. "Clarke.... He was my friend. I cared about him. I still care about him - atleast who he pretended to be." She tried her best to explain. "I can't give up on people. It's something my dad taught me. Clarke needs saving, one way or another. I know you understand that. I know that my compassion and strength is one of the reasons you fell in love with me. Please understand why I had to save him." she looked up to his face now, her cheeks wet.

"I love Clarke, I can't lie about that. But not the way that I love you. I could never love anybody the way that I love you." She sniffled and wiped her tears, which had begun to become a habit. "Thats why I came back." she was crying hard now. "Robbie, I was going to sacrifice myself to save you. If you believe nothing else... Then believe that."
 
Robbie felt like he was being a heel, he felt even angrier that he thought Annie didn't feel he deserved to feel these negative feelings, he sympathized with her, it was difficult for everyone involved, but at the end of the day this guy was a traitor who would sell her and all of them out in seconds.

"I love you too Annie, I just hope you don't trust Clarke too much, it won't be the last we see or hear of him, I can feel it, I know how you feel about me, I am just confused at how much trouble you have gone too with him" he said to her.

"I know baby, and I would die to save you too" he said to her, he was softening, he didn't have it in him to stay angry at her.
 
Annie shook her head. "I don't trust Clarke. I just want him to do the right thing. I don't know why it feels so important. He's... different, then the people in that town." She said this last part carefully. "You both have something inside of you, Robbie. It sets you apart from the rest of them. But Clarke.. he just doesn't have the strength that you have." She wrapped her arms around Robbie's neck and he held her tighter. She cried into his shoulder.

"I am so sorry." Her arms tightened around him. "Please don't be mad at me..." She was trying to breathe and speak between sobs. "I just... I just couldn't let him die." She added quietly. "I don't want anybody to die. When I thought I'd killed the sheriff..." Annie trailed off and shook her head. She shuddered when she thought of that. Pulling that trigger was one of the most impulsive things she's ever done. Come to think of it, since she'd arrived in Maidensfayre, her life has been one giant string of impulsive decisions. And so far - Robbie was the best decision she's ever made.

"We can't be separated again." Her crying had slowed now and she pulled away slightly to look at him. "We can't be apart. I've almost lost you too many times." She was afraid. She couldn't do any of this without Robbie. Just prayed that Clarke would stay away. The further he was, the easier it was to forget the way she felt about him.
 
He saw that although she had love for Clarke he was in love with him. Her life before all of this must have been quite ordinary, she would have been a regular teenage girl going to the mall and doing the silly things that girls do, since her time in Maidensfayre she has been a part of a conspiracy, hunted down, almost raped and all by her own Uncle.

He looked at her softly "Oh Annie, it's ok, sorry, this all has been so fucked up, I just had the idea that Clarke might come back and try and finish us off for good" he said to her.

A couple of hours had passed now, Clarke started cutting away at his ropes, he had decided that Annie should be sacrificed, he had given into his dark side, he also knew things about Jenny that she didn't know, he would eventually find them again, he had a Police database system at his disposal, he wore away at his ropes and waited under the tree, plotting.
 
"If he comes back... I won't be able to protect him again." Annie whispered as she laid against Robbie's chest. "I'll pull the trigger myself." She said it to herself, more than she'd said it to Robbie. Would Clarke really do that? This time, Annie didn't just forgive him, but she saved his life. After he tried to kill Robbie. After he betrayed her so many times. Is he really so ungrateful? Is he really that SELFISH? Annie had to hope that the light she saw in him was strong enough to make him do the right thing.

Clarke's face was in Annie's mind. She wanted him to be good so bad that it hurt her. Almost has bad as it had hurt her to leave him behind. Even being in Robbie's arms, she felt a pull towards Clarke. She just wanted to get away from that town. Away from this nightmare. And as far away from Clarke as she could possibly get.
 
Jenny kept driving along that isolated country road, she had been dragged back to Maidenfayre from her college studies, her parents wanting to sacrifice her to the townsmen, she grew up hating the town and it's sick ritual, always dreading turning 15 and having to undergo the lottery system.

She found out around 13 that the whole ritual was a joke, no one believed in the old god Adalfried anymore and hadn't since atleast the 1940's. Men nominated trouble making girls, either delinquents, girls who had spurned their advances or in some cases men who wanted to elevate their standing in the town so they nominated their own daughters or nieces.

She had spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like, to have to lie there while all the males 19 and over got to have their way with her, one after the other, literally 200 males, taking their turn.

It became an obsession for her even at that tender age, she wanted to prepare for it, she knew it wouldn't matter if she was a virgin or not. If they were hell bent on sacrificing her they would anyway.

At 16 she sold her body for the first time, she was away on vacation with her family, she passed a man in the restaurant of the hotel they were staying at. He was much older, perhaps in his early 50's, he was overweight and bald, he offered her $500 for a night with her.

She was 16 and although he was not attractive, the money was, she took him up on it and to be honest she thought, it was probably better then with a young good looking guy, he was gentle with her.

She started stripping at 17, at night club not far out of Maidensfayre, but far enough to avoid detection, she made great money and saved for college life. Once at college she started to strip at a bar near school.

Now, she was travelling to god knows where, escaping her own family and town, only her brother who knew nothing of her money making talents and a young girl who seemed to be idealistic to a fault.

She had no idea what was next.
 
Annie and Robbie rode silently for a while. She wondered about Jenny. She thought of how little she really knew about the girl.

"So, Jenny." Annie begin from the back seat. "What were you studying in college?"
 
Jenny was jolted out of her trip down memory lane by Annie's question.

"Oh I was studying law funnily enough was going to be a lawyer. What about you, any plans for the future" she asked her.
 
It wasn't so much that he was trying to talk her out of being with him, he just wanted to know what it was that drew her to him, what made her want to stay with him.

"I've read about this, it is called Stockholm Syndrome" he said laughing trying and wanting to lighten the mood.

He listened to her describe herself as the mistake of the family, family never meant much to him, he never felt any connection, family dinners were always worse then being around strangers. At least with strangers you expected to feel alone.

"Well maybe we can find some peace in each other" he said to her, he used his finger to scoop up a tear and tasted it.

"I don't know what will happen next honey, but we'll be together as long as you want me" he said to her.
 
Annie smiled at this. "Are you going to go back to school when all of this is over? I think you'd make a great lawyer." Annie meant it. The girl had a fire that was just undeniable. She thought about Jenny's question.

"I played piano." She said and looked down at her fingers. She hadn't played since her parents died. "I wanted to go to a music conservatory." She laughed. "But that's probably not going to happen."
 
Jenny wanted to sat something positive to reassure Annie, she wanted to tell her that, that still might happen, but she just couldn't start giving Annie false hope, she had no idea what any of them would do now.

"Things have changed dramatically haven't they, what did you like to play the most?" she asked trying to lighten the mood.
 
Annie smiled and played with her fingers. "I loved Classical. It just felt so, right, you know? It felt like I was in another time." She sighed as she thought of the feelings playing used to give her. She missed it. "It was beautiful." She rested his head against Robbie's shoulder, he still had his arm around her. He looked down and smiled at her. It was funny, Annie noticed, that she could tell how much he really loved her with one bright smile.

"I love you." She said abruptly to Robbie and she weaved her fingers into his and held on tightly.
 
Jenny smiled as she listened to Annie talk about music, "A different time sounds good alright" she said to her.

Robbie's eyes lit up as Annie said she loved him, he knew of course but there was nothing like affirmation.

"I love you too Annie, I didn't know you played piano either, it's funny isn't it? We have spent so much time together and yet we really don't know anything about each other's pasts, everything we have done has been about surviving and running away" he said to her.

"I hope things only get better for us now" he added.

Jenny saw a burger joint approaching, "Anyone hungry?" she asked as she pulled into the parking lot.
 
Annie felt so warm as she heard Robbie tell her that he loved her back. It made thoughts of Clarke feel very far away. Something stirred inside of Annie, the same feelings that she got inside of the cave. He missed being that close to him.

"We have plenty of time to get to know everything about each other." Annie said. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand tightly.

Annie and Robbie both nodded their heads. Annie put her free hand on her stomach. How long had it been since she's eaten? She didn't realize the gnawing hunger pains clawing inside of her.
 
Jenny parked and they all left the car to get some food. She scanned the restaurant as if searching for prey, perhaps some guy she can give a quick blow job to for $50, she had done this before especially when stripping, it was an easy way to make some money. She thought about Annie and felt that maybe in time she could get Annie to do the same thing if need be.

She ordered them some burgers and fries and seeing an older man sitting alone, she started making eyes at him, he noticed and smiled back.

"I think I see someone I know, I will just be a little while" she said while she went off to flirt with him.

Robbie knew that they should probably be calling Clarke's father about now, he didn't want to say anything though, he just smiled at Annie and waited at the table for their order to arrive.
 
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