A thick fog covered the valleys of Tavern, a small town in Romania. The place is known for its Eerie like scenery with Ravens crowing especially at night. The clock strikes 12pm. A young girl looking like she is in her teens wearing a white Lacey night gown wakes up feeling thirsty and gets up to drink water. She finds her water jug empty and goes to fetch some. On the way she stumbles upon a cat. it was a Persian cat with black fur and blue eyes. it cried in agony as the girl steps on his tail, but does not harm her. The girl then apologies to the cat and goes downstairs.
When she reaches the ground floor she looks to the clock and realizes that the clock has stopped at 12:03pm and is not moving. The clock is an old antique piece gifted by the girl's grandmother which was passed on to her for generations. The girl finds it odd as the clock has never stopped for the last 100 years as per Grandma, she mumbled to herself.
As she was about to go upstairs with the jug of water she fetched from the kitchen, the girl hears a faint voice of a woman crying. She turned and then heard the same woman's voice saying "KILL HIM" over and over again. This startled the poor girl and she dropped the jug of water which made a huge noise as everyone was asleep. Hearing the loud noise, an old woman in green long lacy robe came out of one of the rooms from the same floor.
"What in the good heavens!!!" said the woman marching towards the girl.
" It's nothing mother!!!!" said the girl in a shrieking voice. "What are you doing out of bed at this hour, Isabella" said the woman angrily.
" I was just getting some water to drink as I was thirsty" said the girl.
"You know you are not supposed to be awake at this hour" said the mother. The mother snatched her by her elbows and took her to her room upstairs. She then took out a bottle containing red pills and gave three pills to Isabella forcing her to swallow it without water.
She then orders her to sleep and not to get up for anything else. Isabella's mother then goes out her room, barely closing the door on her way out. Isabella gets under her sheets and turns her head towards the direction of the door. Through the gap she sees her mother speaking to an old man in his pajamas asking the mother , what has happened and what was all the commotion about.
"Ooh… nothing dear, it's one of Isabella's yet another psychotic episode" said the woman by shooing away the man.
The man then notices Isabella peeking through her bed sheets. He says.. "go to sleep Isabella. It is for your own good. Listen to your mother".
"Yes papa", said the girl turning around still covering herself with the sheets up to her head.
Isabella's mother and father then goes downstairs to their room. The mother then closes the door and in a low voice scolds the father for being too kind to her.
"It's not her fault you know. You shouldn't treat her like this. You are going too far. I know you care about her but this is not the way", said the father.
"Do you think I want to treat her in such a manner, said the mother. You know if the Villagers knew she is of sound mind, they will take her," said the mother.
"I know. She is soon going to be fifteen, right? Only a month's time away. God help my little girl," said the father.
"She won't die too, right George?", asked the mother.
"No Veronica, we won't let it happen. We won't let her be the next sacrifice for Tavernodus. We will protect our child, even if it meant defying the village tradition and the Elders" said the father.
The girl laid in her bed dreaming about what just happened with her downstairs. The crying sound of the woman and her words telling her to kill someone. She opened her eyes laying flat on her back in her bed staring at the ceiling, that is old and moldy. Suddenly she saw some black stain growing on the ceiling. It looked as if a wormhole is emerging. Isabella's eyes were fixated on the ceiling which seemed leaking. Black liquid began to drip down to her cheeks, still her eyes were wide opened as if though it meant nothing.
Suddenly she felt like someone is breathing on to her neck from one side. Isabella didn't turn her head but her eyes did. She froze for a moment, her eyes widened. There was someone with her in the bed, breathing heavily near her. It was a woman wearing a white dirty and moldy dress. Her face was all filled with some kind of black liquid and her hair was long blond in color, but dirty. Her lips were dry and black. She didn't have any eye brows but her eyes were hazel green and beautiful. She had a flower crown around her head, where the flowers were all black and dried out and the branches that hold the crown were black and about to break.
"Kill him Isabell" Said the woman. "You are our only hope", the voice was coming from all over. As Isabell got up, she saw many young girls dressed exactly like the woman laying next to her. All had the flower crown and one of them moved her dress, exposing her chest.
There was something written on the girl's chest. It looked like some kind of unknown language. Isabella opened her blouse and saw the same markings on her chest as well. Every other girls in the room did the same and had the exact same markings on their chest. The woman next to her murmured in to her ear, "The Sacrifice"
End of chapter 1