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The Sacrifice (WillowVX & littlerooster)

Suddenly Annie felt pressured. They all looked to her like she had some brilliant grand plan. Annie didn't even have her temporary license, how could she free a whole town. She thought. She might sound stupid, but she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"What if nobody participated?" She wondered, quietly. "If nobody took part in the festival, there would be no sacrifice." She continued. "If all of, or alot of, the men in the village refused. If the girls refused to put their names in. Or if the chosen one refuses." They were looking at her like she was crazy. "Think about it. If we can slowly make the resistance grow, we can get a good amount of the town to just refuse. It would be a rebellion." Annie said self consciously. She scooted closer to Clarke. She saw something like excitement light up in Robbie's eyes. He would be someone to have on your side during a fight, Annie thought.
 
"Annie" Clarke said holding her. "Sorry if that sounded rough, we all need to be careful that is all, by hearing your ideas it just helps these guys know you are one us, I already knew of course" he smiled at her.

"The thing is, that is what we have been doing, it has been a slow burn process, changing one mind at a time, too slow maybe, but if we lose, we lose for good, you know? There is no second chances. We have thought about some extreme stuff, burning the festival structures, stuff like that, we are serious Annie, you need to know that" he smiled at her and the rest of the group smiled and nodded.

Julie started talking again, "Annie, we are the kids of some of the most influential families, as are you, your Uncle draws the so called winner" she explained to her.
 
Annie rested her head against Clarke's shoulder as he held onto her. She felt okay again, having him this close. She nodded in understanding. Dangerous times, trust no one. Just like a movie.

She listened to Clarke explain some of their ideas and she felt better. They really did want to stop it. She also listened to Julie.

"If all of the children of the counsel come together and stand up against them, they would HAVE to listen." Annie sound. "Wouldn't they?" She looked to Clarke for confirmation. "Just postpone this years festival. Or make enough people refuse. Or cause a diversion or distraction and maybe steal the virgin. Do SOMETHING. And then when nothing bad happens, they will realize that it's just stupid superstition." Clarke was so supportive. Annie didn't know what she would do without him. She noticed something in Robbie's face change. He stoop up abruptly and he started pacing.
 
Robbie was pacing back and forward now, angry, "You all know Jenny has been brought back home to take part in it again" he said.

Clarke answered him "Yes, her folks have brought her back from her first year in college, she is 19, it will be her last lottery".

He started punching the wall and Julie had to hold him to stop him from hurting himself.
 
Annie jumped at Robbie's outburst. He was scary. He was angry. He had a lot of rage inside of him. He scared her.

"What's wrong?" Annie whispered to Clarke. "Who's Jenny?" Before Clarke could answer she heard Julie's voice. She was rubbing Robbie's back, trying to soothe him and calm him down.

"Jenny is Robbie's twin sister." Julie explained in a quiet, sorrowful voice. "She ran away to go off to college." She looked at Robbie with side eyes. "Robbie helped her get away, gave her money. His parents found out. They are forcing her to come back." Robbie wrenched out of Julie's grip and stormed out of the cave.

Annie felt a pang. Now she understood. He wanted to protect his sister. The fierceness in his eyes told Annie that one way or another, he would. No matter who he had to go through to get to her. Without thinking Annie ran outside after Robbie. Clarke yelled after her but she just kept going.

"Robbie!" She shouted. He turned around to glare at her. "I know how it feels." She started but stopped. She took a breath and tried to calm herself. "I lost my little brother. Along with my parents." She gave him sad eyes. "I would have done anything to protect him." His eyes softened a bit but it didn't last long. This boy was cold as ice, Annie thought.
 
He looked at her for a moment, kind of almost smiled and then kept walking.

Julie came out "Let him walk Annie, he has always been like this, full of fire, he will calm down and come back, it's just the way he deals with crap" she said to her.

Julie took Annie back in the cave and they explained how this time of year is stressful for most people in the town, funnily enough the people who should be stressed or against it the most aren't people like teachers, police, the clergy, counsel people, they were all very much for it, even the local womens group supported it.

"They would do much harm to us if they found out about our group" Ruth for the first time spoke up.

"I turned 15 this year, I'm terrified it will be my first lottery, Clarke found me tying a rope to a tree and stopped me" she said smiling at him.
 
Annie felt her stomach in knots. Part of her can relate. The anger and the fear and the fire inside of Robbie, she felt the same thing inside of herself. Her head hurt. She looked at Clarke and his bright eyes held the world in place for her. She went up to him and hugged him tightly.

Annie looked surprised. "You are their children!" She was in disbelief. "How could they do this to you? How could the hurt you for trying to stop it?" This was all too much. She had half of a mind to storm into the woods, herself.

Annie couldn't help but feel a small stab of jealousy as Ruth smiled at Clarke. "Looks like you're the town hero." Annie said to Clarke and he wrapped his arms around her. Ruth was pretty. Clarke didn't seem to notice. She didn't want Ruth to get picked. She didn't want any of the girls in town to have to go through this. She looked at Ruth with resolve in her eyes.

"You won't get chosen." Annie said with determination. "And neither will I. Or Julie. Or Jenny." She shook Clarke off of her and stood up, fists balled at her side. "This is the last time this is going to happen. We will not let our families do this to their children. We will take down the entire town if we have to. It's just not RIGHT." She stopped and had to calm herself, so she didn't get hysterical. "I mean it. I don't know how, but I'm going to come up with a plan. I am going to get you all out of here." Annie's steel trap has been set. Her mind was made, and once that happened, there was no going back. "This stops now." During her "Braveheart" speech she hadn't heard the footsteps behind her, walking into the cave.
 
They all laughed in a good natured way at Annie's speech, hamming it up with her. The truth is they were so brainwashed by the festival and the town that they knew they would be like lemmings going along with whatever happened, submitting to whatever sick pseudo religious porn that the town wanted them to act out.

There were foot steps behind her, it was Robbie returning, "Sorry" he said a little self consciously.

"I think we should do a poster campaign. Get the word out you know" he suggested.
 
Annie jumped as Robbie snuck up on her. She whirled around and her heart beat fast. He gave her a small sorrowful look and said he was sorry. Annie felt there was a double meaning. Robbie's face was grave and he stayed standing.

"Isn't that dangerous?" Annie asked Robbie.
 
"Yeah but we have to do something, even if we do it at night or get someone to send emails from the outside, something, all we do is talk and nothing happens, I'm sick of it" he said still angry.

"Yeah but YOU KNOW what happens if we get caught" Clarke reminded him.

"I don't care anymore" he answered as if a million miles away.
 
Annie was torn. She looked back and forth from Robbie to Clarke. Clarke, gentle Clarke with his soft blue eyes and shining hair, he was so careful. But he might be too careful, Annie thought. She scrunched her face and scratched the back of her head.

"Clarke..." She turned to him and started. "Maybe Robbie has a point. If we don't take some sort of action, this isn't really a resistance." She sat down by him and held his hand. "It's just... a book club. A bunch of a kids sitting around a campfire and dreaming of freedom." She cast her eyes around the faces of the kids in the room and shook her head. "We have to stop it." She looked over at Robbie who stood silent, body rigid. He didn't move anything besides his eyes, which flared with something that looked like mutual understanding.
 
"Sometimes I think I should fuck someone" Ruth said desperately and then went quiet hanging her head down.

Julie laughed, "that is one way out of it but you know what they do to girls who lose their virginity this time of the year" she said.

"Yeah but atleast it's private" Ruth said sobbing.

Clarke looked at Annie as if to say, don't ask, please don't ask, not here, not now.
 
Annie stiffened. What did they do? She looked at Clarke questioningly. When he didn't answer she asked pulled him close to her while the others were talking.

"Clarke..." Annie started, whispering, as not to get the others worked up. "What do they do to them?
 
"I think I need some fresh air", Clarke said getting up, "Come with me Annie"

They went for a walk outside the cave into the frigid air, there was a fawn in the woods nibbling on some grass.

"Annie, there is so much to the whole story and I have just been telling you a little at a time so you can get used to it all. Girls have tried in the past to lose their virginity around this time and even at other times, as all the girls are inspected before hand, they can't hide it obviously. The ones who get caught used to be used to work in brothels, for farmers and soldiers, now days some get used in brothels and some are forced to perform webcam shows and are branded sluts. This place is fucked up and in case you are wondering, escaping isn't so easy either as influence and connections spread far and wide" he explained to her.
 
Annie took Clarke's hand and they walked out of the cave, Clarke explaining and answering her question.

"That is..." Annie took a deep breath. "Horrible! How can they do that! To their own families!" She had to clutch onto the front of Clarke's shirt to keep herself up. She felt her knees buckling. The counsel had complete control over the town. The women here were just sex objects.

"Clarke, I want to get out." She whispered and blinked a way a few small tears. "I'm scared."
 
"I know you are scared" he told her, getting a little pissed off, he just told her that the influence these people had spread far and wide, that running wasn't as easy as it sounded, now she wanted to get out again.

"Don't do anything silly, we just can't make it worse than what it already is, like I said, girls have tried to run before, these people put their God before their families" he told her holding her tight.
 
Annie could see Clarke getting angry. She shrunk back a little bit. He pulled her in and held her tightly, trying to convince her not to do anything stupid. Annie was so lost. Even in the arms of her blonde angel. Sometimes, she couldn't help but wonder how against this he really was. She knew what happened to Selene... But he seemed to just accept the fact that there was nothing he could do. What would happen if Annie was sacrificed? Would he take part? She shivered. She didn't want to think about it.

"And that's why we have to fight." Said an emotionless voice from the entrance of the cave. Robbie emerged and lit a cigarette. He walked up to Annie and she pulled slightly away from Clarke.

"You are really brave, kid." Robbie said to Annie. "But if you run, you're dead." He took a long drag of smoke and held it in a while. Then he sat on the ground and let it out with a sigh.

"Will you fight?" Annie asked. She wasn't sure who he was asking. It was a question to them both. She looked down at Robbie who glared up and she looked over at Clarke who glared down. Annie hadn't noticed it before, but she got the impression these boys weren't too fond of each other.
 
"We will fight Annie, it's not that, it's just we have to be smart about it, we have one shot at a pitched battle and if we lose the resistance is crushed for good, do you get it? If we take things slow and smart we can keep building" Clarke explained to her.

"Clarke is right, we all get frustrated and impatient, but in the end we can't just see this as a personal battle it belongs to all of us and our kids when we have them" Julie came out and added.

"It sucks but they have their points" Robbie begrudingly agrreed.
 
"I understand... but what happens to the girl that gets picked this year? We just stand back and watch her get sacrificed?" She looked at them sadly. "What if it's you?" Annie said to Julie. "Or you?" She said to Ruth. "What if this year, they pick Jenny?" She looked to Robbie. "Or me..." She trailed off. "What can we do? What's the plan of action?" She looked from Clarke to Robbie to Julie and back to Clarke again. She stepped closer against him. If he wasn't close to her, she would probably float away. He was the only thing keeping her grounded right now.
 
"We don't know yet, we have some contacts in nearby towns, they might help, like we keep saying we do have plans, we have talked and thought a lot" said Julie.

"Honestly if I get picked I would sacrifice myself, not for their festival but it would be better then the resistance getting crushed just to save me, do you understand?" Julie told her.
 
Annie nodded. She did understand. She felt a pang of admiration for the already admirable Julie. It reminded Annie how young she was. Could she sacrifice herself? She didn't think so. She thought, I guess you never really know whether or not you're a hero until you're put to the test.

"So what do we do now?" Annie asked, self consciously. She blinked a few times. Her vision was starting to get a little hazy. During their heated discussion, they never really noticed the fog that started rolling in.
 
"We have a BBQ" said Clarke, getting some meat from Robbie's truck, Robbie looked at him as if the familiarity of just going to his truck like that wasn't really welcome, but he tolerated it, all the same.

They girls gathered some sticks and they made a makeshift open fire and laid out a metal grill over the top and cooked steaks and hamburgers over the open flames, they did some corn as well.

They chatted about happier things and Ruth noticed the fog creeping up.

"They will declare the festival open tomorrow morning" she said looking at it.
 
Clarke's eyes lightened a bit. He wanted happier things. No more talk of sacrifices and rebellion. Annie couldn't argue. Robbie glared at Clarke as he walked to his truck to get the food.

"I won't let them pick Jenny." Annie said to Robbie. She didn't know why she said it. He looked so cold. There was a distance in his eyes, different from everyone else. Annie wondered why. She had a feeling is was more than just his sister. What ever the reason, he looked like a wounded animal. Annie had a strong urge to comfort him. "We won't let it get that far."

Annie didn't notice anything when she first saw the fog. She didn't realize that it was significant. They all had their jobs and they started the cook out. Talking and laughing and just being normal. It felt good, Annie thought. These were people she really liked. If she hadn't run into Clarke in the woods that night, she had no idea where she'd be right now.

When Ruth noticed the fog, Annie remembered why it was supposed to be important. It marked the start of the festival. There was a lurching in Annie's stomach and a dead silence fell over them all.
 
"It just means we now have a deadline" Julie said to Annie, squeezing her a little.

Clarke watched and smiled a little, it seemed Annie always needed a lot of support. It was an unusual situation to say the least, he thought about how weird it was that all of this seemed normal to them.

"Has anyone ever tried to explain this to an outsider?" Robbie asked almost reading Clarke's mind.

"Like I mean how do you?" He added, "Explain it all"
 
It seemed like they all walked on eggshells around Annie. None of them understood that she was scared. Oddly enough, the only one who gave her any understand, was Robbie.

"Why don't you explain it?" Annie asked Robbie. She cared about Clarke and she felt good when he was around, but he always left things out. He was too careful around her. She wanted the cold hard truth. She needed it.
 
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