Three relatively uneventful months passed and it was time for volunteer or selection of the sacrifice. Once the lucky female was chosen she would be sent to the well in the morning.
Stephanie watched Abigail as she cleaned. She had grown use to her stench a long time ago but she could still sense it. She moved forward and Abigail instantly froze. Stephanie smiled. She enjoyed the power she had over her. Abigail's fear brought her joy.
"Abigail. You are eighteen now and you can volunteer to be sacrificed. You can go after you finish the floors and volunteer. No. You will go, after you've finished the floors and volunteer. Do you understand?"
Abigail nodded without hesitation. She was traumatized and conditioned and she felt she had no choice. She felt that what the people of the house asked of her she had to do or she would be punished. At least as a sacrifice she could end her existence. She would no longer need to worry about making mistakes and being punished for it. And what would bullies mean to a dead person?
After she finished the floors and prepping the food she would cook for lunch she cleaned herself up and put on the clothes she wore when she went into the town. She walked down the long winding road and went straight to the community building where everyone had to go when it was time for a sacrifice.
Abigail had not talked in many years. She was able but she never had a reason and it seemed whenever she spoke she would be severely punished. So what was the point. So she wrote a letter. She had to practice writing all the time because her letters had to be perfect. She could not have any mistakes on the menus she made for the family or dinner parties. Or on the supply lists that would need to be verified and approved. The slightest mistake could lead to punishment. So she knew her letter saying she would volunteer would be easily understood.
The lady at the counter smiled at her. "Good morning Abigail. How can I help you?"
She merely looked at the woman and then handed her the letter. She continued to smile as she received it and began reading. Her smile slowly fell as she frowned in confusion. She looked up at Abigail with a frown and then back to the letter again. She did this a few times before she could speak.
"You want to volunteer to be sacrificed?" Abigail nodded as others in the office looked up. Relief on many of the faces. "Are you sure honey? You understand what this means right?" Abigail nodded a few times to show she was responding to both of her questions.
Okay. You are our only volunteer. You can not return home and must stay here until the ceremony in the morning. Her heart raced but she had prepared other notes.
She handed the first over.
"I know you have to cook for the family but you can not return once you volunteer, in case you change your mind." Others in the office nodded and large men moved to the door to make sure she would not run.
Abigail also anticipated this and gave the next letter. The woman read it and she frowned even more. "Stephanie ordered you to volunteer so you can not change your mind?" Everyone in the room seemed to loosen. Someone snatched the letter from the woman.
"She was voluntold?! Maybe it doesn't count."
Abigail panicked and gave another letter. The second woman read it. "well, if you are truly volunteering you can not go back." She sighed softly and gave a final note.
"Can you ask my friend Mary Zar to please go and cover for me just for today?"
The second woman read it allowed and then looked up. "Sure. I can do that for you Abigail."
Abigail was visibly relieved.
Abigail was waiting in a small room when she heard her friend Mary yelling.
"How would she volunteer! She is just a child. She has not lived yet."
"I know Mrs. Zar. Here are all the letters that she wrote us."
Mary snatched the letters and became even more upset as she read them all. When she was done her shoulders were drooping. "Can I see her?"
"Of course you can."
They just stood looking at each other. One no longer spoke the other at a loss for words for the first time in her life. Tears were in Mary's eyes but she would not let them fall. "Maybe now you will finally have some peace."
Abigail smiled at her and that made the tears begin to fall.
"I know you will. I better go finish the lunch." She smiled. "I will not let them take your recipes. I will keep them."
Abigail smiled and nodded then handed her friend a thick envelop. Mary left immediately.
Mary quickly, and furiously, prepared both lunch and dinner. She had already read Abigail's letter and she was going to make sure that someone who cared about her was at the ritual tonight.
"Mary? What are you doing here?"
"I am cooking since Abigail won't be able to. And I will not be able to work for you again Ms. Jennifer." Mary did not pause or look to Jennifer as she spoke.
Jennifer scoffed, Mary's words still not registering mentally. "Why would I hire you and where is Abigail?"
This time Mary scoffed. "Go and ask Stephanie."
Mary finished as quickly as possible. She took all of Abigail's cookbooks and whatever she found that the girl had made herself. She refused to leave anything for these horrible people.
Jennifer had ignored Mary's words and was still confused at dinner.
"Who cooked? This doesn't taste like Abigail's cooking."
The question jogged Jennifer's memory and she looked to her youngest daughter.
"Interesting that you would ask. Where is Abigail? Mary told me to ask you if I wanted to know."
Stephanie paused and just looked at her family. They all frowned at the same time.
"Well she was always so disrespectful and she never really cleaned well and she smelled so bad."
The frowns were getting deeper and deeper. Then her sister spoke.
"Most of what you said is either a lie or due to you and mom. What did you do?"
Stephanie sighed dramatically. "I just ordered her to volunteer to be the sacrifice. I didn't think she would abandon us like this."
Their parents shared startled looks. Sonya seemed upset, and David stared blankly like he could not understand.
Then they all looked at her. Sonya spoke first. "Are you truly that jealous? And she couldn't come back. Once she volunteered they would hold her there in case she changed her mind."
"Oh she doesn't need to change her mind. This nitwit is going to go tell them what happened and get her released."
"It won't work. A volunteer is a volunteer and look at how late it is. The sacrifice is a matter of hours away. There is no runner up." Sonya pushed her food away as if she had no appetite and set back in her seat.
"We can go speak to them. They may listen to reason."
"what's the big deal. We can hire real servants and things will be much better."
"The big deal is, without her money we can not even afford servants."
"Jennifer." Jennifer tried to calm herself, and failed. She raged at Stephanie, broke all the dishes on the table and told Stephanie to clean it all up.
An hour after her rage Jennifer and Chris were both at the community center and talking loudly at the same time. The people within the center were used to this behavior and looked at the two of them calmly. When they finished a calm "no" resonated around the center.
Abigail was led to the ancient, great, well. All of the community center workers were there, even those who did not have to be there. Mary was there and the few random curious people with morbid interests. She was dressed in her own "outside the house" clothes. She was ordered to enter the well and wait at the bottom for the dark serpent to come for her. She was told that there would be guards at the well for the next six days and if she tried to escape she would be cut down and thrown back down the well.
She looked down into the giant well and saw that an old staircase was spiraling down the walls of the well. She lowered herself into the well and began her long descent.
Michèle was a bit giddy with excitement. He had hyped himself up about this new plaything and he was now very excited about seeing it. He waited for as long as he could and now he was on his way, in his dark serpent form, down to the bottom of the ancient well. The closer he got the more he tasted an odd taste in the air. It was like dirty rags that should have been washed long ago.
He sighed to himself. They had sent him a reject plaything. One of those females that were somehow broken. All the excitement drained from him as he entered the vast cavern below the well. He definitely tasted her on the air before he ever saw her. When he saw her he narrowed his eyes. She had an odd glow. Not odd but a type he hadn't seen in centuries and never within a human. He adjusted his plans a bit. He would not eat her now. He would clean her up and see what she looks like under all that dirt and bad smell.
"Come here girl. How old are you?" As he spoke he shifted into his second favorite form but Abigail did not say anything and her eyes were wide. She had never expected him to speak or change forms. She thought she would just be eaten and that would be the end of it.
He looked at her curiously as he walked over to her. He frowned as she took out pen and paper from an inner pocket in her clothes. She wrote something quickly and he was taken aback when it was written in ancient Dragonese. He looked up from the note.
"You can't speak or you won't speak?"
She wrote another note. He read it and nodded.
"Come. You need a good bath. I need a good servant. I will warn you. I do expect to have sex with you and for you to never smell like you do now ever again. Are we understood."
He heard her swallow nervously and he smiled mischievously.