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The Sacrifice (WillowVX & littlerooster)

Robbie was getting angry. He said he was like the others. Annie looked at him, stunned. "Are you crazy? You are NOTHING like them. Robbie, we have to try. All we can do is try to get her to come with us. She will do what she wants, but we have to try. I know you don't want to leave her. And if she doesn't want to go, I understand if you want to stay with her." Annie hugged him and rubbed his back, in a comforting gesture. "You are nothing like them." She whispered in his ear and kissed him on the cheek.

There was a knock at the door. Annie froze and Robbie's arms went rigid around her. Both of their heads snapped up towards the door. Another knock. Robbie hurried up and hid Annie underneath the bed. Letting the comforter hang down, so she couldn't be seen if somebody glanced down. It was his father. Annie listened as they spoke. Her heart pounded wildly and she was terrified of getting caught. She tried to keep her breathing quiet. When the door closed Robbie lifted the comforter and signaled for her to come out. He locked his door and gave her a grave look. He looked afraid. She's never seen him look like that. She's seen him cold, angry, distant. But at this point he looked very afraid.

"Robbie?" She asked, fear in her voice, tears welling in her eyes. The lottery was going to be tomorrow. They were going to get her tomorrow. They were running out of time. She sat on his bed and she put her arms around herself, trying to keep from falling apart.
 
Robbie didn't know what to do, he didn't even know where Jenny was.

"I don't know where they are keeping Jenny, I have no idea what to do" he said.

He received a text on his phone, it was from Clarke "I know Annie is with you, we all know, there is no escape, this will just make it worse".

Robbie held Annie as they felt even more doomed.
 
Robbie said he didn't know where Jenny was. Annie knew they had to get out. She knew how dangerous it was. But they couldn't leave Jenny behind, they just couldn't. If Annie left, they would sacrifice Jenny for sure. That's his sister, he would never leave without her. Robbie's phone went off, it was a text message. Annie didn't see what it said. Robbie checked it and clenched his jaw. He pulled Annie into him and he laid down. He held her tightly. He was silent.

"Robbie... what is it? What did it say?" Annie said quietly, speaking into his chest. "And I know it's dangerous. But, Robbie, if we leave Jenny here, she'll be sacrificed if they can't find me. If anything, they'll do it to punish you." She lifted her head to look at him. His eyes were cold and his jaw was still set. He was thinking of a plan. He was angry. He had a dangerous, wild look about his face. I would not want to be the one to piss him off, Annie thought. She took a deep breath. "Even if it gets my caught. We can't leave her."
 
Robbie held Annie closely, he didn't know what else to say or do. He was thinking of something, but what, his thoughts were scrambled. Another text message arrives.

"You may as well sleep you two, good to know you are together, makes it easier to guard you that way - The Sheriff".

Robbie showed Annie the new text, these people wanted to make them suffer, wanted to make them stress.
 
"We have to leave tonight." Annie said. She sat up, breaking their embrace, but kept her hand in his. "We can't go right into their trap. We can't just SIT here and wait for them to get us." But Clarke's dad said they were guarded. But they had to try.

"We have to try, Robbie. What other choice do we have?" Her voice was strong but wavering. She was afraid. She was relying on him for a plan.
 
Robbie listened to her "Clarke himself is probably sitting right outside, if we leave the house we will be caught straight away. If we stay, the lottery gets you. But, if we wait until after the lottery or just before it, we need to pick a moment they won't suspect" he said to her, still holding her tight.
 
Annie balled her fist at her sides. Clarke.

"Robbie..." She whispered, keeping her voice low. "If it's ONLY Clarke outside... we can get passed him. There are two of us and there's only one of him." The thought of Clarke outside, watching them, gave her the chills. She had no idea how they were going to get out of this.

"They're going to come for me tomorrow." Annie said, staring out the window, not really looking at anything in particular. What would it feel like? She wondered. Man after man, taking turns ravishing her innocence. Robbie being forced to watch, forced to take part like everyone else. Annie didn't think she would survive it.
 
Robbie started thinking, "We have a cellar here, they say there is a tunnel under the house, it leads out to the river. We could try that, but really no one knows if it is safe or if it is still open. If we get caught we are seriously screwed though. But I think it is worth a shot" Robbie said to Annie.
 
Annie looked at Clark gravely. He had something in his eyes. Something like determination and dark passion. She was certain that he would do anything imaginable to keep her safe.

"It's our only option." Annie said. She cuddled up close to Robbie and nuzzled her face into his chest. His muscular, rigid arms locked around her shoulders and he rested his head in her hair. She felt him kiss her on the top of her head and she squeezed her eyes shut. She wanted to be with Robbie. She wanted to be with him always. What ever happened, she would never leave him.

"Robbie," She started, unsure on how to continue. "I love you." She said as she looked up to him and brought her face closer to his.
 
Robbie looked at Annie as she told him she loved him.

He held her closely "I love you too. OK, lets gather some things and we will make our way through the tunnel." he told her.

They got some clothes together, Annie would have to wear Robbies for now, and made their way down to the basement. He opened up a concrete slab door in the floor and handed her a torch.

"Here goes" he said waiting for her to go down first so he could replace the slab behind him.

They entered the tunnel, it was narrow and had been used to transport all kinds of things throughout history from slaves to booze and other illegal goods. It had also been used as a wine cellar and prison.

There were carvings on the walls and blood stains, everything seemed creepier and creepier.
 
Annie and Robbie were cautious as they packed a few things. Robbie grabbed a duffel bag and stuffed it with clothes, money, and he grabbed something from between the mattress of his bed, but Annie couldn't see what it was.

Annie stayed behind and Robbie scoped out his house, making sure that it was quiet and his father was sound asleep. He motioned for her to follow him and they made their way through the dark house. He held her down and led her down dark, dank basement steps. He lifted something on the floor and led her down, he handed her a torch from on the wall so he could close the trap door behind them. It was like a secret passageway from a mystery novel, Annie thought. She shivered. It was cold up there. Which meant it was even colder in the tunnels.

He grabbed her hand and held it tightly, they made their way around in the darkness, the small torch not doing a lot of good, it made the whole place seem much more ominous. It smelled like dust and water. Annie coughed, but tried to keep quiet. The tunnels weren't very big, narrow. She felt claustrophobic. Robbie had taken the torch back. As they continued, he would lean the light towards the tunnel walls, studying the markings and blood stains. Blood stains? Annie thought. She shivered. Everything echoed down here. It was silent. Apart from their footsteps and the sound of water dripping.

"Where are we going?" Annie whispered. Her heart was pounding and she prayed she would get out in time.
 
They followed the dark passages, even with torches it was creepy, maybe more so, the torch light reflecting off the walls, casting shadows. Their senses were alive with fear and tension.

Annie asked where they were going "We just have to follow our way through, or go back to the house, there is no other choice" he said to her.

"It should eventually lead out to the woods somewhere, but will be a while yet" he said to her as they kept following the tunnel.

Eventually the tunnel opened up and they found themselves in a room, "Never been down here, so it is surprising they have a room as well" he said to her.

There were shelves with books, film rolls, VHS and DVD's on them. There was a tv as well as DVD and VHS player and old reel to reel film player and movie screen to project it on. The books and tapes etc all had a year and a girl's name on it. Robbie took a book "Sally Anne Sanderson, 1785" it had written on it. He opened it up and started reading it, it was about the girl, about her sacrifice and what happened. Sally seemed to be one of the lucky ones who coped with it, she stayed in the town, married and raised a family.

Robbie looked at Annie "Looks like all of this is a record of the sacrifices. And when they were able to start filming them, they did that as well. They must hide the camera because I don't ever recall seeing one at the events" he told her.

They looked around at the shelves there was a VHS tape with the name "Melissa Marie Steenhausen, 1994" Robbie looked at Annie. "I think this is your mother" he said to her grimly.
 
The tunnels seemed ever ending to Annie. It was getting hard to breathe. She tried to calm herself and concentrate on the feel of Robbie's hand in hers.

When they finally reached a room, Annie's eyes went wide. Records. Records of all the girls that were sacrificed. There were books dating all the way back to the 1700s. This was bigger than they thought. Her hand grabbed his tighter, she wouldn't let go for anything. She was looking through one of the books, at the old photographs of the young girls. Her heart clenched in her chest.

"So many girls..." She whispered to nobody in particular. She was so concentrated in the book she was looking at that she almost didn't hear Robbie. "What?" She asked and turned to where he was looking. Her blood ran cold. It WAS her mother. It was a VHS tape. Robbie handed it to her. Annie let go of him and held the tape in both of her hands. She turned it around and studied it. Her face was blank. She couldn't let this sink in. They really had done it to her mother. She couldn't begin to imagine that was on the tape. She was getting angry. She shouted and threw the tape against the wall, with a loud crack, it shattered into pieces. She saw the grim expression on Robbie's face, he gave her a little distance, she could tell he didn't want to crowd her. Annie was breathing heavy and she grabbed her hair in her fists. She couldn't leave. She couldn't just run away from it. They would never stop. She has to make sure it stops for good.

They were so engrossed in the moment they never heard the footsteps. They whirled around when they heard the maniacal, mocking laughter. Clark stood alone in the doorway, lounged against the side with one foot against the wall and his arms crossed. He had an mean smirk on his face. He looked at them like a cat who's caught a mouse and was ready to play with it's food.
 
Clarke had been following them, he knew Robbie quite well from the bogus Resistance movement, he knew about the tunnel under his house, in fact unlike Robbie, Clarke had walked the full length of the tunnel and knew where it came up in the woods.

He watched from the shadows a while, observing Robbie & Annie going through the records of all the sacrifices. He started walking closer as Annie threw the tape of her mother, he appeared laughing as she looked distraught and confused.

"Oh, now, that was one of the best ones to watch too. Doesn't matter we have backed everything onto computers" he said composing himself.

He was holding a revolver, "No you don't Robbie" he said looking at Robbie who was about to pounce on him, showing him the gun.
 
Annie balled her fists at her side and glared at him. She felt a pang in her chest. She was hurt. She hadn't seen him since she realize that he had tricked her. Robbie went to charge at him, but Clarke had a gun. Annie didn't care. She was so angry that she couldn't stop to feel afraid.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Annie shouted to Clarke. There were tears of rage in her eyes and she stormed up to him. "How DARE you?" She yelled, poking her finger at his chest. Clarke looked surprised, he didn't expect her to handle it like that. She slightly glanced at Robbie who gave her a look of outrage, as if she were crazy. He gave her a look with his eyes that told her to get behind him immediately. She turned her attention back to Clarke. "What is your problem, huh? Do you get your rocks off by tricking little girls? What satisfaction do you get from this? What if it was your wife one day? Or your daughter?" Her face was getting red. "OR YOUR MOTHER?!" She shouted and punched him in the face. Clarke was taken aback. The moment her fist connected with his face, he stumbled back, his hand slack for a moment and Robbie seized his opportunity. He dove for the gun and it fell from Clarke's hand Annie jumped back as the boys wrestled on the ground for the gun.

Annie couldn't tell who was winning. Robbie was on top of Clarke, punching him in the face repeatedly. Clarke got a knee into Robbie's ribs and it knocked the wind out of him, just enough for Clarke to scramble around and get Robbie into a dangerous headlock. He grabbed the gun and put it to his head. He looked up at Annie, as if to give her a choice. She was frozen. Robbie tried to tell her to run. Of course she couldn't leave him. Her heart was pounding and she stood still, terrified of what would happen next.
 
The boys scrambled on the ground, a desperate fight to get the gun to win this fight. Clarke was surprised at Annie's response, she had obviously reached the point where fear was no longer a factor in her decision making process.

As they scrambled, Clarke finally got hold of the gun with his free hand, his other arm being around Robbie's neck.

He looked at Annie "Well, do you want me to? I could kill him right now and no one would ever find out down here" he yelled at her.

The another set of steps were heard. It was Clarke's father the Sheriff.

"Clarke. Let him go, give me the gun" he said, holding his own fire arm in this volatile environment.
 
Annie felt a new kind of fear. She had never felt this fear in all of her life, except on one occasion. When she found out that there had been an accident. She knew, by the sound of her teacher's voice, that her parents had died. It was a fire that ran through her body and suddenly the world disappeared, and she was alone. Looking at the gun against Robbie's head, and hearing Clarke tell her that he would kill him, gave her that same exactly feeling. Until Annie remembered something.

She heard Clarke's father approaching. She didn't have time. What did she need to remember? Something about packing. Robbie grabbed something from his mattress. Shit. What did he grab? Think, girl. Stop and think. She closed her eyes and tried to picture it. It was small. Black. It was long, curved? With a handle. Her brain cleared. It was a gun. Robbie had packed a gun in the duffel bag. She had to buy time.

Clarke and his father both had guns. They had Robbie. Her only chance was to get to the gun and level the playing field. The duffel bag was right below her feet, a few inches to the left. She tried to stall.

"Why are you doing this?" She looked from Clarke then to his father. "You are supposed to be an officer of the law. To serve and protect. Not to kidnap and murder and rape." Her voice was leveled, she wanted to keep his eyes on her face as she was speaking. She slowly inched over. "Do you have no conscience?" Her foot hit the duffel bag. How would she open it? She chanced a look down, and noticed it wasn't zipped all the way, maybe enough to get her foot in there and open it all of the way.

"So many girls. And why? To keep the women in the town in line? Yeah, I know. There is no sacrifice. There is no God that protects this town." Her foot weaseled inside and she slowly moved it, quietly opening the zipper. Sweat beaded down her face. She had never done anything like this in all of her life. "It's nothing but a conspiracy." She felt the gun against her shoe. "And to bring your son into this? What kind of father would do that?" She had to bend down. How could she do that without drawing attention to herself? She suddenly got an idea. Annie never liked gym class. She would always get a note to excuse her because of her "cramps." Suddenly she thanked herself for being so sneaky. She let out a little groan and clutched her side. She made a face of discomfort and bent down lower, as if clutching her side in pain. Robbie knew what she was doing, she peaked at him through her hair, he looked worried but hopeful. Clarke and his dad looked impatient, but not suspecting. Clarke still held the gun to Robbie, disobeying his fathers order to give him the gun. The Sheriff looked like he was going to take advantage of Annie being seemingly down for the moment, he stepped towards her. She quickly grabbed the gun and straightened herself. She pulled it up immediately and pointed it right at Clarke's father.

"Let Robbie go or I will shoot him in the face." Annie shouted angrily at Clarke. Robbie looked impressed. Clarke was furious. His dad looked around gravely, annoyed with the situation. His hand went to reach for his own gun in his belt but Annie cocked hers.
 
The Sheriff took a step back as if to get some distance from the problem of Annie's gun so he could think. He looked at his son still with Clarke's head in a lock.

"Robbie, let him go, nice and slow." he said to him, his gun in his hand but down.

"Listen little lady, don't make this worse then what it already is, you do not understand this ritual. You don't know how important for the town it is. Just settle down and lets talk about this, we don't want anyone getting hurt" he said to her.

Robbie released his lock on Clarke's head and got up, backing off.
 
Clark let Robbie go and stepped away. Robbie stood, unsure what to do. A weight lifted from her chest. Annie glanced and she saw the sheriffs hand reaching up with his gun, he pointed it at her. Everything after that happened very quickly. She didn't think, she only reacted. She squeezed the trigger and it echoed like lightening reverberating through the small room. Her heart stopped. The second the trigger was pulled, Robbie ran to Annie. He grabbed the gun from her and forced her behind him. He didn't want her to see.

The sheriff fell to the ground. Blood was seeping from his chest and Clarke screamed. He ran to his father and pressed his hand to the wound.

Annie was frozen. What had she done? But she had to, didn't she? Time seemed to have stop. Her senses weren't working. It wasn't until Robbie was shaking her that she heard his yelling, telling her they had to run. Robbie and Annie ran as fast as they could past them and back into the tunnels. Annie heard Clarke's screaming from behind, followed by gun shots. Robbie yelled out but he kept going. Oh my god. He was shot, Annie realized. But Robbie wouldn't stop until they made it out of the tunnels and were into the woods.
 
Clarke couldn't believe it when Annie pulled the trigger, shooting his father, she had now shot a law enforcement officer, she was doomed no matter what happened now.

Clarke checked on his father as Robbie ran to Annie taking the run from her, Clarke put pressure on his father's wound, his father was ok, and took the bit of material and applied the pressure himself, he would it appeared survive the gun shot wound.

Robbie and Annie ran into the tunnels "Chase them, don't let them get away" the sheriff said to his son.

Clarke stood in the tunnel and fired 3 shots, he heard Robbie yell and thought maybe he hit him, Clarke followed them, and stopped at one point seeing the fresh blood on the ground, probably Robbie's.

He went back to his father not wanting to leave him there.

"I think I hit Robbie, we know where the tunnel leads to, we'll get Ben to get a posse together and wait for them" he said referring to Annie's very own Uncle Ben.

Clarke got his dad on his feet and they went back through the tunnels, back to the house.
 
Annie and Robbie finally found a ladder and climbed up and into the woods. They couldn't stop there. But Robbie was bleeding. He tried to keep running but she stopped.

"You're hit." She said, her brain is fried. She couldn't think about what had just happened. Did she kill him? She felt dirty. She kept wiping her hands on her jeans, trying to get off the blood that wasn't really there. She looked at Robbie's wound. Clarke had got him in the upper arm. It wasn't an artery, or a fatal shot, but she bet it hurt like hell.

Despite the pain, Annie felt Robbie grab her and pull her into him hard. He used his good had to stroke the back of her hair. It seemed like he didn't think they would make it. Annie could tell he was proud of her.

"I couldn't let them kill you." Annie whispered. "I had to do it, didn't I? Clarke's dad would have shot me... Clarke would have shot you..." She started crying. This was all too much for her. Things had escalated. What would they do now?
 
Clarke had already contacted Annie's Uncle Ben, they all knew where the tunnel would come up and rushed to the place. They got there just as Robbie and Annie had left it. The tracker dogs they brought along though picked up on Robbie's scent quickly.

They started following the scent of blood, dogs growling and armed men in hot pursuit of the two kids.

Robbie turned to Annie "Annie, I won't cop it anywhere near as bad as you will, let me go, run, the dogs will stop at me, you can get away, please leave me and go" he pleaded to her.

"I am struggling anyway" he added.
 
Annie's face held a wild look. She looked at the path ahead and then back at Robbie. She shook her head furiously and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I won't leave you." She yelled at him. Her tears made her eyes red and she wiped them away angrily. "I don't care what happens. Nothing will make me leave you behind." She started at him hard. His eyes looked back at her, still and intense. She grabbed him at the same time as he grabbed at her. They kissed hard, passionate, and desperately. Grabbing at each others hair and face, smashing their mouths together as if they would never have another chance. No matter what happened, she would never leave him. She heard dogs in the distance and their kiss broke. They were breathing heavily and Robbie nodded. She knew he understood. He wouldn't leave her either. Annie had idea.

"Is there a river near her?" She felt hope as Robbie nodded her head. "If we can just get as far as the river and find a tree to hide in until they leave, it might throw the dogs off of our scent. Right?" She looked around and there was no time to waste. It was their only plan. His arm was hurt, but at least it wasn't his legs. He was still able to run, even if he was weak. Robbie was a fighter, if nothing else, Annie knew that.

The river wasn't far. The twisted and weaved past big trees, it was dark, hard to tell exactly where they were going. Annie looked back and noticed beams of flashlights, the dogs sounded closer. They had to move faster. Finally she heard the sound of rushing water. She looked around frantically for a tree. There was a large oak tree. The branches weren't terrible low to the ground, but there was one in reach, if they could jump. Annie was concerned about Robbie's arm. She ripped off the midsection of her shirt and tide it like a tourniquet around the bleeding wound.

Can you jump? She asked. Robbie looked at her and nodded confidently. Annie went first, so she could help him up. He jumped up after her and grabbed the branch with one hand. He lifted himself up as if he were doing chin ups, quite easily, she noticed. He lifted himself up and Annie helped pull him onto the branch. They climbed up the tree, which was much easier from there. Robbie still needed assistance from Annie, as he was really only working with one capable arm. They got as high as they could, out of sight. They heard the dogs getting closer.
 
Robbie managed with only one good arm to climb the tree. They waited catching their breath as the sound of dogs and men approached, they could see the flashlights, Robbie felt like he was inside a movie, how many times had he seen scenes like this in so many films, it was crazy and he was being hunted by Annie's own Uncle, not because he wanted to save her from Robbie but because he wanted her to be gang raped as some kind of bizarre and outdated ritual to ensure the town survived the winter.

If they could just make it too the river, but how, the dogs would still pick up their scent even in the tree, Robbie reached into his pocket and got his mobile phone, the only heavy thing he had, he pushed it into his wound, covering it with blood and then threw it some metres away to try and distract the dogs, as they got closer, he could see them turn away from the tree, heading towards the phone.

He looked at Annie and smiled, they climbed down the tree and went on to the river bank.
 
Annie was still, she tried to silence her breathing as best as she could. Robbie held onto her hand. He pulled away momentarily to reach into his pocket. Annie looked at him quizzically. He grabbed his cell phone and dug it into his wound. Annie cringed as she saw the pain in his eyes. Then she smiled. She loved him. Absolutely and proudly. He was her dark savior. He threw the phone and Annie heard them retreating the other way. When they were far enough in the distance, they climbed down and waded into the river.

It was freezing. It wasn't cold enough for it to ice over yet, but Annie's body felt numb. They had left the duffel bag with the clothes behind. The hunting party was far behind them. Annie wasn't sure where they were. She wasn't sure Robbie knew either. They walked for what seemed like an hour. Annie couldn't walk anymore. Her legs gave out and she fell into the water. He reached quickly and caught her. He picked her up and carried her bridal style, even with a wounded arm.

"W-w-we can't make it l-l-like this." Annie shivered. "W-we have t-to stop. For t-the night." Her lips were blue and she shook violently.
 
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