"The Last Sacrifice" by Kristin Mock

The Last Sacrifice

by Kristin Mock 

 

After the last cow was slaughtered, Ella-Rose had a choice to make. Silas and Jonah stood before her, awaiting their fates, and only one could be selected to ascend. By the dark of the new moon, beneath a diamond sky, Ella-Rose must choose. 

She looked upon Silas, her lover, her friend. Only just last night, he lay beside her in the waning moonlight, limbs intertwined. If she selected him, she couldn’t live with herself, but if she chose Jonah, Silas would curse her with his last breath. 

She looked upon Jonah, her twin, her other half. Only just a year ago, they bound through the forest hand-in-hand with fireflies lighting their way. Ella-Rose had never known a life without Jonah by her side, and she had no interest in one now. 

Wisps of shadow curled through the air, and glowing red eyes awaited her decision. She held the sharpened bone knife in her left hand and squished the moss between her toes. To ascend was the highest honor. It was to become one with the shadows—one with the powerful creatures of the earth they honored on this night. 

Ella-Rose hovered the knife over Silas. A proud smirk curled its way up one side of his face as he closed his eyes. But then Ella’s eyes met Jonah’s, pleading and full of fear. With Silas’ eyes no longer upon her, she moved the knife over Jonah and nodded to the glowing eyes before her. 

The shadow saturated the air around Jonah, permeating his pores. As the darkness entered him, Jonah gritted his teeth. He withheld the screams as long as he could bear, but the burning was too much to bear. His cries alerted Silas, who looked from Jonah to Ella-Rose. Hatred and jealousy flooded his soul, and then they were replaced with fear, for he knew what came next.

Tears forced their way from Jonah’s eyes as the shadow filled him. A long, stroking finger ran along the back of his mind as a voice broke through the sound of his own screams. “Let me in,” the voice whispered.

And when Jonah agreed, his screaming stopped. His body dropped to the moss-coated ground and lay still for a count of three. 

One for the moon, born anew. 

One for the earth, wild and true. 

And one for the shadow, claiming his due. 

While Silas and Ella-Rose looked on with anticipation, Jonah rose, his eyes flashing red in the black night. Jonah turned to Silas, no longer as himself, but one with the shadows. His piercing gaze pulsed with ancient power, and Silas froze in fear. Ella-Rose lifted her knife, holding it poised to plunge through his heart. 

“Ella, please, don’t,” Silas begged. “I love you.” 

Ella winced at his words. They were everything she wanted, yet meant nothing at all. Not anymore. She made her choice. Jonah would live, and that meant Silas had to die. Ella looked to her twin and met his red gaze. Despite the glow, she saw only a void. Where his eyes once carried sparkling blue life, they now held nothing, just darkness and death.  

“Jonah?” Ella choked. She searched for any sign of the brother she knew, but his face remained blank because her twin was long gone. 

Ella’s mind reeled. She thought choosing him to ascend was choosing him to live. She thought they would be together, running hand-in-hand through the woods once more. But now she saw the truth. Both the ascended and the sacrificed die in this ritual. Her choice meant Jonah’s body would remain, but he was gone, and it was all her fault. 

Ella-Rose dropped to her knees. 

The bone knife sliced through her throat like butter, and she was surprised it barely hurt. Beads of her blood took their time catching up, but once they did, they gushed from her neck all at once, spilling onto the forest floor. Ella-Rose collapsed to the ground, saturating the bright green moss with a deep crimson stain. 

The blemish spread quickly, but it didn’t stay long. Shadows seeped from every dark corner of the woods, flocking to the fresh scent of blood. They inhaled her vitality, and in return, flowers bloomed throughout the sacred grove.

The spirits of the Ozark forests thanked Ella-Rose for her sacrifice, and when she was drained, the moss softened around her. It swallowed her body whole, leaving nothing of her vibrant existence behind.

People from town would find only the drained carcasses of cattle lying in the woods, for there was no sign left of Ella-Rose, the last sacrifice to the hungry gods of the forest.