Chapter Text
I never knew that faith was such a fragile thing, that it could simply crumble in an instant and leave a gaping black emptiness in it's wake.
But staring down that hollow, I’m left without a doubt.
Religion isn’t real, or at least mine isn’t. And Mother Miranda is not kind.
That’s what they said, when they took me from the quiet monotony of my breakfast table. "By the kindness of Mother Miranda you will be sacrificed..."
And I had thought numbly how strange it was hearing those words together.
How it was Mothers' grace, her kindness they relied on, not mine - me whose body was to come under the metaphorical axe.
I’d seen sacrifice before. Those young women who walked hand in hand up the hill to castle Dimitrescu knowing they would never return, they made a sacrifice.
Because they had a choice. I don’t.
I’m just an easy victim.
"Get off me! I won’t go!" I scream, thrashing in the grasp of a half dozen young men. Neighbours, people I thought I could trust.
"No one is asking you." Retorted a man, the owner of the hands binding mine behind my back.
"It isn’t fair! I haven’t done anything wrong…"
These 'sacrifices' were made from time to time, an offering to one of the Lords', in hope of receiving something - or in repentance for something the villagers had done. It kept the wrath of our gods' at bay. A practice of faith like any other.
But those sacrificed were outcasts, criminals. This was a punishment.
But I hadn’t done anything to warrant this. I’d committed no crime.
I just happened to be a woman living alone. My father died of disease several months ago, leaving me with no protection. And without a husband I had nobody to care when I go missing.
"We know..." A familiar hand caresses my cheek and the fight leaves me. I meet the eyes of an old friend. "You’re doing this village a great service."
"Yakub…." I whisper his name like a plea, hoping that somewhere deep down he still holds some tenderness for me. I once believed he would marry me, when my father died I was certain he would be my saving grace. After all, he had made me a promise - one sworn in the loss of my purity. But another girl, the butcher's daughter, had taken his fancy with her pale hair and soft, round features. He had turned me away but surely he must feel something for me, even if it’s only pity that saves me from what will surely be a fate to rival death. "Yakub, please…. Don’t let them do this to me."
He sighs, dropping onto one knee in the dirt so we can be level and wiping away my tears with the rough pad of his thumb. "We don’t have a choice, none of us wanted this to happen. We must appease the Lord of the reservoir. We polluted the water with our waste and he has taken our fish. If we don’t make this right good men will lose their jobs, their families will starve."
I shake my head frantically. "The village has never offered the reservoir Lord a sacrifice before. How do you know it’d even work?"
The Lord of the water is notoriously reclusive, if it wasn’t for the baskets of supplies sent weekly up to the mines we wouldn’t know of his existence at all.
"It has to work, ownership of a human life, well - it’s the most precious thing we have to offer."
I bristle, lip curling back into a snarl. "I’m not a thing to be given away!"
He sighs my name and it’s his turn to look pleading. "Think of this as an opportunity to do something of value for the village. This would be much better for you if you come willingly. You’ll be serving Mother Miranda with your bravery, isn’t that how you’d like to be remembered?" His voice is cloyingly sweet and for a second I almost consider his words.
But something In his eyes tears the religion right out of me.
And I realise in that moment I hate him.
Fuck them all if they think I’ll go down without a fight…
I lunge forward, taking the gaggle of men by surprise, managing to bloody Yakub's nose before I’m forced back down into the frozen dirt.
For a moment the man’s eyes go black with rage and he winds up as though he’s going to hit me, but the strike never comes. When I look toward him again he’s righting himself, wiping the blood from his face with the back of his hand.
"I think you’ve earned that one. Besides, don’t want to give our Lord his sacrifice all bruised." His voice is rough with conviction. "I’ll be the one to deliver her."
I kick against the weight pressing heavy on my back, knowing I’m running out of time. "You’re a murderer! If you do this you’ve all as good as killed me yourselves!"
Yakub huffs, hands grasping my upper arms hard enough to leave a line of little bruises beneath my torn dress. "Let’s get this over with."
"Fuck you! I’ll never forgive you for this! Fu-" my tirade of swearing is cut short as something is balled up and crammed into my mouth, silencing me before I can scream again.
"Mother help us…" Yakub growls as he starts to walk, tugging me along at his side. "You’ll wake the whole damned village with lungs like that..."
I stumble along beside him until we reach the pathway at the mouth of the forest and I start to calculate, looking for a way out.
He’s only one man, even with my hands bound I could have a shot at outrunning him if I made it into the trees.
But then what?
I eye the knife tucked into his belt, a fisherman’s blade, simple but sharp enough to free me from these ropes. Sharp enough to kill if that’s what it took.
Maybe if I pretended to fall, acted as though I was hurt enough for him to stop and tend to me then I could get ahold of it…
But I doubt he’d care even if I really was injured. He’d just keep dragging me.
And he overpowers me easily when it comes to primal strength so fighting him would do no good.
No, my best shot would still be to run. If I just-
"I know what you’re thinking. Don’t." His voice snaps me from my thoughts and I glare at him, almost eye to eye. He scoffs. "You’re not as cunning as you think. I know you want to run."
I make a sound of challenge through my gag as though to say 'and so what If I do?'
"I’m telling you, don’t. Where would you go? Back to the village?" He barks a laugh. "They’ve decided what you’re good for, no one will be welcoming you home."
That hurts, it really does but he’s only telling me what I already know. I can’t go back there. Not ever.
"Even if you do manage to get away, you’ll be food for the Lycans in hours." His lips thin down into a cruel line. "Look at it this way, it’ll be the first honourable thing you’ll have done in your lifetime."
And with those words something in me breaks. He’s right.
Defeat is heavy and overwhelming, drowning me in its haze.
I never thought id look on a world without a God. I believed in Mother Miranda like I believe in the very air I breathe.
And now that’s all gone.
As we reach the long abandoned stretch of waterlogged shacks that used to be the reservoir Yakub has lost his courage, unconsciously pulling me before him like a human shield as though he’s expecting something foul to leap from the dark water…
Just the thought has my skin crawling. But nothing happens.
"This is the spot…" Yakub huffs, seemingly looking for something at the very brink of a stretch of water so deep it seems impenetrable.
Whatever it is he can’t find it.
There’s no sacrificial altar, no cage or shackles. Nothing.
The wind shrieks through the bare trees and the hair on the back of my neck rises with the deep-seated, primal suspicion that something is watching us.
Kneel." Yakub hisses in my ear, the slight tremor in his voice giving away his nerves. He’s probably hoping to get the hell out of here before whatever it is I can feel lurking decides to eat him too.
He shoves me down, tying my wrists and calves together with a new length of rope just as I manage to push the balled up cloth out from between my teeth.
"Please…" I try one more time, louder than I’m sure my companion would like because he flinches hard. "You can’t do this..."
He ignores me , instead dropping his gaze to the still water. "My lord! Your people in the village have brought you a sacrifice! We hope she pleases you and that you would be gracious enough to forgive our transgressions…"
For a long moment he stands like he’s waiting for a response before he gives a half shrug and lifts me off my feet.
Panic setting deep into my bones, I thrash wildly in his grip… "No, no, no… Yakub, please! You can’t-"
With one hard shove he drops me and I hit the icy water with a splash.
My scream is swallowed by the mass of water filling my every orifice as I sink further and further from the light.
It must be a little under a minute but it feels like It could be hours.
My lungs burn, desperate for air I’m sure they’ll never taste again and my vision starts to darken.
My whole life, the culmination of everything I’ve ever done - it ends here…
Cold and dark and alone…
That’s when a wide black shape darts into my fleeting line of sight and enwraps me, pressing my face into its leathery bulk and obscuring my eyes with something like cloth. Moments from losing consciousness, I hardly register being pulled up toward the surface.
But whatever holds me like a vice breaks through into the air and I land gasping like a fish as my body is thrown onto solid ground.
I roll onto my front, vomiting bitter, icy water. Something thick still obscures my sight but I’m still bound and too weak to do anything about it.
"What the fuck…" Yakub’s voice, distorted but not too far away catches my attention but whatever else he was about to say dies in his throat as something heavy hauls itself from the lake, shaking the ground below. It takes a moment for me to recognise what must be footsteps - a lumbering gait that tells me whatever my saviour is, he isn’t human.
Somewhere nearby Yakub's silence stutters into a strangled shout and something almost like the word 'monster' falls from his lips before I hear him run.
He doesn’t get far because his next sound is unmistakably one of pain.
Several wet thuds echo nearby and my old friend releases one last high, wet gargle before all goes still.
Now the only noise is my breathing as I sob and gasp for air. Whatever this creature is, it killed him like it was nothing.
And I hear it grunt as it gets to it’s feet.
Thump, thump, thump… its steps grow louder as it approaches and I squeeze my eyes tight shut behind my makeshift blindfold.
I know even without sight that it’s right in front of me.
I can feel it’s hot breath on my face.
I wait for the inevitable, for the pain and blood and the darkness that’ll inevitably come.
But instead in a voice inhumanly deep and loud enough to tug a whimper from my throat, it speaks.
"They’ve forsaken you - haven’t they?"
When I don’t respond with anything but tears something damp and worn like old leather brushes my face and I scream, legs kicking desperately in the dirt. "Please don’t-"
The sentence isn’t worth finishing. When had begging ever helped me?
But to my shock the thing pulls away. "I’m sorry…" it’s voice croaks.
Lost to my delirium, it only succeeds in making me cry harder, the fear and confusion overwhelming my senses.
"Please don’t hurt me…"
The creature draws in a sharp breath. "I - I won’t. Never." We hang in an oppressive silence before something gives behind me and the rope around my limbs is cut loose. "You’ll be safe here."
I reach toward the cloth over my eyes but something catches my wrist - again, soft like an old leather coat and slightly wet, but now I can feel the press of blunt fingernails - his hand.
"Don’t." The command is sharp but the next words are soft. "I’ll take care of you, I won’t let you die - but I have one rule. You have to keep the blindfold on. You must not look at me, ever. Understand?"
Bewildered and slowly dropping from one hell of an adrenaline high, I nod, reaching around for something to steady myself on and finding his arm wrapped in some kind of cloak. "Wha-… who are you?"
"I’m Moreau, Lord of the reservoir." He huffs in amusement at the look that must cross my face. "And I’m going to take you inside before you die of the cold."
As I’m carried blindly forward in the arms of a stranger I let my shaking fingers fall from the edges of my blindfold.
Whatever he’s hiding can wait. Right now I’m just grateful I’m alive.
Something like hope flickers in my chest.
It’s not Miranda but maybe there is a god after all.