Another Fairytale - Sacrificed to the Beast ✓ (completed)

Prologue - The Perfect Imperfect

   It was always an honor to be a sacrifice in my town, to be selected as one of Chosen.

   Every year, the prettiest girl was sacrificed to the goddess, hoping to be blessed with a prosperous harvest.

   The Choosing was practically a rite of passage to adult hood. It was optional, you didn't have to enter but nearly every girl did. Those who didn't were considered insecure and seemed to be unwanted by most men. Almost all the girls who never entered never married. Women hardly ever manage to find jobs in our archaic town. The men consider women to be inferior and don't want to employ them. The women that never marry are forced to rely on their parents, burdens to the already meager income.

   Consequently, the vast majority of women and girls in my town put their name into the Choosing, hoping to be acclaimed the most beautiful and desirable girl, but fearing what it meant at the same time.

   A male was also Chosen every year as a sacrifice. The strongest and bravest men were sacrificed to the Beast.

   The Beast had terrorized us for as long as I could remember. Eventually, the men in charge of our town managed to make a deal with the thing. The elders in charge got him to agree that in return for him not bothering our villagers or livestock, we would tie up our strongest man and leave him as an offering. He could do whatever he please with the man.

   Only the elders have ever seen the beast. The Beast is said to have sworn them to secrecy under the threat of their and their families lives. No other person has seen the Beast, or if they have, they weren't allowed to live long enough to tell about it.

   We didn't know for sure that the Beast was a male, but from the carnage he left before the deal, everyone knew it was. The elders couldn't confirm what we all knew to be true, but they also weren't denying the rumor. No woman was capable of producing as much pain and suffering as the Beast did and, without a doubt, wouldn't hesitate to do again. He was ruthless.

   No one really knew what happened to the people that were Chosen. We always believed the girl was taken into the arms of our loving goddess, embraced and wrapped in love.

   We had an idea of what happened to the men. Many of them were either slaughtered where they stood and found the next day, leaving the families to mourn the loss, or the men were taken. Presumably, the men became slaves for the Beast and never seen again.

   That's the way things all ways were. One male and one female. Ages 12 to 20. Selected based on their beauty for the goddess or fierceness and strength for the Beast.

   I never put my name into the Choosing. I knew better than to do that, my family needed me. I was the only source of income for them. My father had died in a horse training accident two years ago. My mother was unable to find work. Not just because she's a woman in this archaic town. She was crippled in a fire that claimed the lives of her family when she was young. Her hands are gnarled and practically useless.

   The six people family barely stayed afloat with my steady income. Marla is only twelve and unable to help much at all. Then come the twins, Tray and Alex, who are only fourteen. Lee turns sixteen soon but the thought of him starting work so soon was nauseating.

   No one except my dad really knows how old my mother is. She never told us kids because she didn't want to be known by a number. She wanted us to see her as the person she is, not the age she is.

   When my father died, I was sixteen and had managed to snag a job with Larissa, the town doctor. She was always around when I was growing up and I quickly became interested in her method of natural healing. She started teaching me when I turned ten. It wasn't until I turned sixteen that I was officially taken on as her successor. She moved me into her two story home that doubled as a doctors office and started teaching me all she knew full time. The weekly pay became the only source of income for my family. Lee was only fourteen at the time and couldn't help as much as he wished he could. The town had an odd law that forbid any child younger than sixteen to start working.

   I'm not going to try and deny it, we were poor. My family was just barely surviving at times. Without my job, my family would have starved or even froze during the long, harsh winter.

   There was no way that I could have entered the Choosing without not only sacrificing myself, but my family also.

   Not that I would ever be selected. Definitely not. I wasn't beautiful with murky brown hair and dull green eyes. My looks could never compare to Bethany's. She always had the perfect figure, perfect silky blonde hair, perfect well respected families, perfect dresses that were never torn. It was a wonder she hadn't been Chosen, even more shocking was her still ever single status.

No. I would never have been Chosen.

   No matter what, my family would always have a steady income from me, even if it was barely enough to survive off. Just the six of us, we were doing just fine. My siblings weren't old enough to actually work, but they helped where ever they could. The boys became men overnight and the girls were wise way beyond their years.

   Even though they were young they were strong.

   We all were. We had to be. We had no choice! But I wouldn't have had it any other way.

   My life wasn't perfect. Not like Bethany's, not even close to it. Her clothing was only made from the highest quality material. Her family was so wealthy, they could have bought the town if they wanted too.

My life was better, though. I didn't have an abundance of food, or pets to keep me company. I rarely even had clothes without rips in them. But I would get to stay with my family while she would be sacrificed to the goddess so that my town's people could have enough food to eat.

   I was just fine with my non-perfect life.