[This chapter contains multiple mentions of gore and graphic imagery and incidents. Reader discretion is strictly advised.]
"The child is old enough, bring her in. She can't wait any longer. It is time."
"But she's just a teenager, she can't even conceive right now."
A sudden welp of anguish rang through the darkness corridors of the mansion. A heavy breathing is heard, after which there is silence for some time.
"Know your place, you animal! And get me the girl, alive!"
The attendants in red cloaks were dragged out of the dark room once the woman in the white robe dismissed them, and then she started walking over to a small cellar that was barely visible in the end of the dimly lit hallway.
"My child, have you completed your prayers?"
"Yes...the black lady, she came to visit me in my dreams."
A sudden look of shock and terror appeared across the face of the woman, and she held the cloth of the robe draped over her face to glare at the girl, who sat motionless in the cellar, shivering in fright and misery.
"If you speak of that woman again, I'll make sure you're not fed for the rest of the month!"
The shouts of the woman echoed through the hollows of the vast empty place, and the blood red glare in her eyes made the little girl almost cry.
"Wash her! She needs to be purified! And I'll do it myself!"
The women across the hall, although bowed down in obedience, but was extremely alarmed about what was going to happen. Their terrified gasps were very much audible in the quiet stillness of the place, and the white-clad woman glanced at them, which made them almost lose the colour of their faces. Everybody knew what "purification" was, and that was the most horrifying thought at this point. She is just a small child; the other women couldn't even bring themselves to imagine what was going to happen at the altar today.
The child was dragged to the altar by four robed men, and she was hit by the first ray of light she had probably seen in a very long time. It took some time for her to adjust her eyes to look at the altar. The mounted stone platform with a metallic pole at its end, the huge granite wall filled with carvings of demonic faces, and the huge red smears along the edges of the stone platform, seemed to glare down at the girl, pitifully. Her face showed very little emotion, maybe because she was barely conscious enough to comprehend what was going to happen to her, and it made the attendants much more uncomfortable.
The woman in the white robe, grabbed the hand of the girl, and slowly began to walk her up the steps towards the stone platform, while a figure, all naked except a face mask bearing an image of the snake, stood at the top of the platform, holding up a machete and a blind fold. After that, everything suddenly went dark, all the fires, the candles were extinguished, all the women in red robes gasped, and it felt like everything in the vicinity went dead silent.
A piercing scream of primal agony rang across the gloomy darkness that cloaked the agitations in the faces of the people in the vicinity of the alter, followed by muffled whimpers as a distinct strike of metal on the stone slab mounted up the altar was heard. All the attendants present started chanting and hitting their heads on the rugged, stone ground as the walls of the building echoed the malevolent verses of the people, mixed with the withering cries of pain from the child.
A few hours had passed when a burning flame at the center of the hall lit up the vicinity. The stone walls of the room looked damp, with wild moss growing out of its crevices. There are cracks from which, an occasional drop of water is dripping on the faces of the numerous people, kneeling down in prayer, and then, another fire starts burning at the top of the altar. Even though everyone knew what they had to witness, as they slowly and hesitantly lifted their gaze towards the woman draped in the white cloth, they felt terror creep into their hearts. The following few moments echoed numerous gasps from the preachers, and some fell unconscious on the cold, stone floor. The torso of the young girl was held up in the woman's hands, as she stood at the top, reciting unholy verses, as the scene turned chaotic with the woman wailing and some bawling their eyes out. the limbs still lay on the stone slab, and the pool of blood collected on its stop has started dripping from its sides, and streams of blood trickled down the steps.
The woman in white ushered one of the priestesses to join her on the top, and the others, through their tears, and sore voices, began chanting again. The hall trembled with the vigorous verses of the people, as the woman held the bloodied, lifeless torso of the girl, up in the air, swinging it around like a scrap rag doll, as blood still trickled down her hands, leaving crimson red stains in her robe. The fire burnt brighter, the intensity of the flames drove away the swarming preachers, and the woman in white slowly descended the platform, the hair of the now deceased child clutched in her unforgiving clasp. The body of the child was then tossed into the fire, the human skin, and the blood remaining in the corpse, crackling under the engulfing flames. The woman nonchalantly licked off the blood dripping from her wrists, and clasped her face with the bloodstained hands, letting out a hissed giggle that echoed throughout the mansion.
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Atreyee looked at her phone, not sure what to expect. She felt a weird set of emotions every time Anirudh came up in her thoughts. The damp smell of the rain filled the air, and the wild orchids on her windows intensified the rainbow of beautiful scents in her room. The wind chime danced in the wind's cadence, and she was lost in thoughts, thoughts of what she was, what Anirudh was to her, and she was supposed to do at this point. There were certain parts of her life that she had successfully kept from him, but she slowly realized that they'll gradually show themselves in front of him, and she wasn't sure what would happen as a result. Overwhelmed by these thoughts, she slowly passed out on her bed, exhausted from all the mental stress and a growing feeling of pain in her chest. Her tired eyes failed to notice the silhouette of a person in a flowing white gown, leaning against the kitchen counter, with the glossy marble eyes piercing into the sleeping figure of Atreyee.