Chapter 4

Writer's Note: Not much to say. Nanowrimo continues. I continue to try to write this story. Up to chapter 10 now.

“Please clear the way, Warrior,” I heard outside the tent flap and he walked in. I was still sitting on the floor staring passively at the wall.
“I like you in that position,” he said, and came to stand in front of me in a dominant posture, showing me who had the male parts who did not, “Until you bow down to the Orin, you need to denounce your belief that the Orin are bones and are truly a threat to you and your people. I suspect that should come sooner rather than later, after your Mentor died at the feet of one.”
“So you’re not content to only ruin my body, but you must also break my mind. I will never bow down to you or your Orin. They are nothing but dead to me,” I answered, deadpan. He drew back and slapped me, hard enough to whip my head to the side. The Warrior posted outside my door burst through and saw me sitting on the floor, Das standing over me with a handprint on my face.
“It is now time for you to leave, honored Priest,” he told him, gripping his bone axe.
“No, I will not be ordered around by some lowly brute with a few weapons. I have God on my side.”
“Honored Priest, you are fully aware that the Sacrifices are not to be harmed and I am to protect them at all costs. I, too, serve God.” Das swelled in his rage.
“Fine, she is to go on a bread –and - water diet until she admits she is wrong,” he ordered and stormed out of the hut.
“I’m sorry, Sacrifice, but that is a power he holds,” he said to me with an apologetic look on his face. I nodded to show my understanding and he nodded back, returning to his post outside my door.

“The Priest has ordered that you only be served by those who have already given over their lives and bodies to the God and to the Orin. He is of the belief that we’ll help change your mind,” she said as she poured the water.
“Did you love him? Mentor, I mean,” I asked, still not moving. She dropped her pitcher.
“Ri, he was a very nice man,” she answered, refusing to look at me.
“He never stopped loving you,” I told her. She fled the room, tears seeming to spring to her eyes. I silently rose and hid the food. I was still not hungry, but that could change once it became clearer to Das that I would not break. If he cut off food altogether I would need a stash to fall back on.

“Are you ready to take God and me as your master, or will you continue this foolish descent into hell?” he asked on the third day of my imprisonment. It had passed the most recent full moon for which to sacrifice me and Das was a little short on patience. The previous mark had disappeared and I still hadn’t eaten. Today would be the day I would have to start.
“You are nothing but a rapist, Das. I refuse to prostrate myself and spread my legs to you. If you want my body so much you’ll have to fight me for it properly, like a man. Especially because you don’t live in from day to day,” I told him, watching the fury radiate from his body. It still rubbed him raw that I knew his true name when he did not carry that power over me. Quick as a snake he grabbed me by both shoulders and squeezed, shaking me to and fro.
“You stupid girl, you will comply or you’ll die and I’ll be the one to put the knife through your beating heart,” he spat in my face and threw me to the ground. As I was wiping the saliva from my face and sitting up I heard the swish of the door being shoved aside and then his order to the Warrior outside the hut. I was to be put on a sleep restriction. I could only sleep three hours a night. Of all the tortures he could think of, he chose the worst. I would go insane in a week’s time, at the maximum. Four if I couldn’t keep it together.

Sama brought my food on the fourth day of my new sleep schedule and I saw Mentor follow her in. I law slack - jawed. No, there was no such thing as ghosts. But there he was, looking at her as if she were his sun.
“Sama, why did you bring Mentor with you? Tell him to go back to the other side. I don’t like seeing him while I’m stuck here. It’s somewhat his fault in the first place,” I told her, following his gestures with my eyes.
“Are you hallucinating?” she asked me, afraid.
“He’s telling me to ask your last name,” I told her. She visibly paled.
“M-my last name?” I nodded, “Well, it is…it is Reed,” she told me, trembling. I turned from ghost - Mentor to living - Sama. Sama Reed. My name is Reed. Her name is Reed.
“So you’re…” I asked, on the verge of passing out.
“I’m your mother.”

“So I wonder what you’ll say about me today. Probably a list of how stupid I am,” Das said to my prone body. I had been sleep and food starved for a week now and could not even move from the floor. I had taken to rambling incoherently and my insults at Das were less and less painful for him. A Warrior now had to watch me at all times to make sure I did not sleep when I was not supposed to.
“I’ll do it,” I croaked, watching the birds flap around the room. Periodically they would swoop down and peck me. I am deathly afraid of birds of all kinds. If only I could sleep, they would be gone. Being repeatedly raped had to be better.
“What?” he stopped in his tracks. It was the day he’d hoped would come and he hardly dared to believe it.“I’ll be a Sacrifice,” with that I fell into a deep sleep.