“The sacrifice is supposed to be someone who is pure and willing,” Reia stated, feeling a crawl of dread slipping down her spine like the ghastly cold finger of a ghost. Her eyes darted to the door while her feet remained rooted to the ground, not wanting to meet her death. “He will see through their lies.”

“You meet all the requirements. You are pure, since no man would dare lay with you. You are willing, as it is either this or the cell.” The Priestess opened the door to her home and held it open, waiting for Reia to leave. “And you will have greeted him knowing what he is and that you will become his bride. You are allowed to stay here and not greet him, other sacrifices have been prepared, but once he is gone, you will be taken underground to live the rest of your days.”

Once more, those flames ignited in her chest, spite-filled and hateful.

“Your hearts are all vacant,” Reia spat with venom in her words before stepping through the threshold.

Jingle bells that had been tied to the sides of her flower crown chimed with each step she took towards the town square – the balls inside them the song of her doom – where she would eventually meet her grim reaper.

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Reia’s dress was too long, and she had to lift the hem as she walked down the pathway that led from her outcast home to the town centre. Her white cloak dragged along the ground, weighted and heavy, but it did little to keep out the wintery chill as it sunk beneath her clothes. Goosebumps prickled along her skin before they danced throughout her body as light shivers.

Only those brave enough to lay eyes upon the Duskwalker dared to surround the centre, and they gave her a wide berth as she entered. They no longer seemed to fear looking upon her now that she was going to be taken away.

“Are you ready to go, angelus mortem?” the village chief asked, like them all, refusing to speak her very name as if even its mention would bring death.

Gilford was well into his life, at least forty, and sported an array of different wrinkles on his weathered face. He was strong, both in strength and in will, which was why he had been deemed the new chief when his predecessor died. He wasn’t very tall, but he still stood over Reia with his short brown hair, crooked nose, and full-fledged beard.

He had once been the town’s head guard and had protected the townspeople from many Demons. He was

trusted, and his position gave him the leadership skills required.

He waved his hand forward towards the path that would lead her to one of the gates on the side of the town. The gesture elicited a deep, confused frown from her blonde eyebrows.

She opened her mouth to speak, but as he looked upon her, his face changed from disturbed to nearly murderous behind his sharp, blue eyes.

Ah, so I’m still not allowed to speak even if I am about to be sacrificed to the fucking devil. Reia was only allowed to talk to the Priestess because the woman had been wearing a protection amulet somewhere beneath her robes.

She snapped her jaw shut, narrowing her eyes into a glare as she nodded. I don’t understand. I thought he was coming here. Then she noticed that none of the other back-up sacrifices were here like they were supposed to be.

A short distance behind Gilford, the crowd of people desiring to witness the event followed. Of course, they stayed far away from her.

There were no trees in the town, leaving no place for a Demon to hide or use as shelter in the day if it somehow made its way over the walls. There were no shrubs, no greenery bar a few patches of grass; only dirt and houses.

They passed home after home that Reia didn’t recognize as she’d never been allowed to visit anyone. She was taken to the border of the town where there was a large space between it and the protective walls.

There stood the two back-up sacrifices, their families crying and hugging the person who could possibly leave them.

“You better make sure he takes you, angelus mortem,”

the father of the girl similar in age to Reia demanded, narrowing his eyes over her head as he held her.

Clove was her name, and she had always been a strange child. Rather than being afraid of the monsters that

terrorised the village, she had been what most considered foolish, curious. Reia had no doubt the woman’s interest in the Veil was the reason she had chosen to step forward to be sacrificed.

She was a beautiful, red-headed woman. That redness made her stick out in the white dress, cloak, and flowery crown she wore.

Darren, on the other hand, was the oldest of six siblings.

He had jet black hair that was curly around the pale skin of his forehead and ears.

“Stop crying, Mother,” he sighed before bringing her in for a hug. “I’m doing this to make sure we are all protected if the monster won’t go with him.”

Monster. They believed Reia was just as evil as the Demons that haunted them.

“I want to make sure Sally, and Tara, and…”

Reia stopped listening, knowing he was listing all his siblings’ names as part of some grand speech claiming he was doing this to make sure they were all able to live long lives. Blah blah blah.

Noble. That was what Reia labelled him, but that was as much respect as she’d give him. He was one of the few people who often threw food at her from a distance in secret.

He had only recently reached his eighteenth birthday, and she would much prefer that he was taken rather than her.

He can go die a horrible death. He deserves it for being such a dick.

The wall of spikes around the gate doors loomed over everyone, creating just enough shade this late in the morning that the village people stood around it in the sun, not daring to stand underneath it. Only her, the chief, the other sacrifices, and their families braved the shade alongside the three Priests and two Priestesses that were here for additional protection. Not that they could do much against the Duskwalker.

The bells that were being rung above halted and tension shot through Reia, especially when she was told to stand in the very middle of the clearing. The five robe-covered humans stood in a small ring behind her. Darren and Clove were a few metres behind them, both clad in white cloaks and dresses, despite Darren being a man, while their families had stepped away into the sun.

The Priests were swinging incense canisters on chains, attempting to hide the worst of any smell of fear. Reia doubted it would help.

Gilford stepped forward when four men pushed up the long slab of timber they used to lock out the outside world.

Then they started pulling on the ropes connected to the gate doors to open them, allowing Reia, for the first time in twenty years, to peek at the world beyond the walls.

Her eyes should have wandered over the forest that was in the distance or taken in the beautiful sight of the snow-covered field where grass sprouted through the melting white. Her curiosity about the outside world should have taken her interest.

But her eyes immediately drew to the creature standing in the bright sunlight who had been waiting for the gates to be opened.

She clenched her jaw and swallowed thickly at the monster and his companions.

Even though many claimed he was human-shaped, his wolven-shaped, skulled face jutting out from the black cloak hood he wore didn’t allow for any thought other than inhuman.

Definitely not human.

However, he didn’t look like a Demon either.

He still appeared unholy and evil, especially with his floating, glowing, blue orbs that were more unsettling than they were pretty. But he truly appeared different to her vague memory of the Demons she’d seen in the flesh.

That did nothing to appease her wariness of him, of her uncertainty standing here in this wedding dress, of what was to come. But I can flee him. Once she was outside the boarders of this claustrophobic village, Reia could run.

She would pretend to play along, would pretend all the way to the Veil if she had to, but she would find a way to obtain her freedom. She would travel until she found a village that didn’t know who she was, didn’t know her as a harbinger of bad omens, and she would finally live.

Unfortunately, when he stepped forward, his trouser clad leg moving through the opening of his cloak, it brought to light just how large he was. The vast space between them allowed her to think he was smaller, but as he was granted access into the clearing and came through the gate, she saw just how much he towered over everyone.