I advise everyone to read the Author's notes.
I just needed someone to blame.
Sacrifices
-----------
I appeared slowly in the temple, the lines of the pentagram dissolving
around me.
The first person I saw was Keiichi. Yes, I knew his name. I had been
watching for a while.
"Keiichi-san." He turned. I had made no noise with my appearance, and he
was shocked to see someone else in the house.
"Do you know where the others are?"
"No... they said they'd be gone for a day."
"Would you like to know what they're doing?"
"Well... hey, who are you?"
"That's not important right now. Come on." I grabbed him, and slapped my
hand on the ground.A pentagram formed, and blazed with light.
Suddenly we were elsewhere.
I whispered a quick spell, and looked up to see Keiichi looking at me.
"Where are we?"
"England. By the river Tweed. This year's site."
"What do you mean?"
"Just watch. We are intangible to everyone else here. Now look."
Keiichi turned to the direction I was pointing. There was a campsite,
and a little boy, about six years old, riding a tricycle along the
riverbank.
"I don't understand..."
"Hush. This happens every year."
Belldandy appeared in view, closely followed by Urd and Skuld. They were
between us and the boy. The tricycle stopped, and the boy got off,
walking towatds Belldandy.
"What's going on?"
"Just watch, Keiichi."
Belldandy reached out, and touched the boy on his forehead, leaving two
bruises, about the size of a ten-pence-piece each. Then She said
something, and the boy's expression went glazed.
Urd and Skuld also spoke, and Skuld handed the boy a large rock. The boy
took it, and gripped it tightly. A little blood seeped from his
fingertips.
"What are they _doing_?"
"Keiichi, just _watch_."
Belldandy took hold of the boy by his shoulders, and led him to the
water's edge. She said one word, and this we could hear.
"Go."
Keiichi screamed at what happened next.
The boy stepped off the bank, into the water. He waded out, until all
that could be seen was a patch of bubbles. The three goddesses watched
until the bubbles stopped.
"NO! NO! BELLDANDY, _WHY_?" Keiichi collapsed, sobbing.
"Let's go back."
***
It was eight o'clock when the three goddesses got back. They were very
surprised to see me sitting there, and even more so to see Keiichi dead
drunk. While Belldandy went straight to Keiichi, Urd and Skuld came over
to me.
"What have you _done_ to him? He doesn't do this normally!"
I looked them straight in the eye. "He knows."
"What?"
"He knows what it is you did today. What you do every year."
Belldandy gasped, and ran out of the room, her face in her hands.
Skuld went after her.
Urd sat beside me.
"How did you know? Why?"
"Daniel Oscar Harrison. 14th August, 1990."
"So?"
"My brother. And I want to know why."
It was Urd's turn to put her face in her hands. "Every year, four
sacrifices are needed. One by Air, one by Ground, one by Fire, one by
Water."
"And my brother was the water sacrifice?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what's happened to me since then? I've been through
counselling, I've had continuous nightmares, I've not wept once since,
and I've attempted suicide twice. I want to know _WHY_."
"There is an inherent instability in the world. It requires four deaths
at particular points to stabilise it."
"Children? Why them?"
"Because it is written into the world. It was a demonic influence while
Kami-sama created the world, and he didn't notice until it was too
late."
"I see." I got up from the chair. "I felt that Keiichi ought to know
that his wonderful Belldandy is a killer of children."
"I'm not proud of it either." Belldandy was standing in the doorway,
eyes red and puffy. "If it's any consolation, the spells make the vic..
sacrifice insensible to anything once cast. Your brother felt no pain."
I bowed to her. "For that, I thank you. But it is little help to me."
I walked to the centre of the room. "I don't believe you will ever see
me again." I placed my hand on the floor, and displaced myself home,
leaving Keiichi to deal with what he had seen.
---End---
I just needed something- someone- to blame.
It happens every year, around the same time. A young boy goes missing
for three days, and turns up drowned. It's always listed as
misadventure. After my Brother's death, my mother noticed that there was
a pattern to the deaths- the pattern that I have just described. You may
say that this happens during the summer, when it's more likely for this
sort of thing to happen. My mother said that it was "like a sacrifice,"
and that got me thinking.
I blamed myself, for a long while. If I hadn't stayed in the barge, and
gone out with him and my sister, he might have lived.
Thanks for reading.
In Memoriam:
Daniel Oscar Harrison.
29.6.1984-14.8.1990.
I miss you a lot.
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