Sacrifice

  The knocking continued as both Rei and Elizabeth went back inside.

  “That must be Maximus. With everything that happened last night, I forgot to go out to search for him when he didn’t return.”

  “I hope he’s not angry with you.”

  “I’m sure he’s fine, I needed to stay here and protect you.”

  Elizabeth smiled. “Oh, is that what you were doing last night? Protecting me?”

  Rei blushed. “In a way.”

  “I wouldn’t tell Maximus that.”

  “Of course not, I’ll just tell him you couldn’t sleep without me.”

  Elizabeth sighed. “That’s not much better.”

  The knocking grew louder until Elizabeth answered the door.

  Standing there wasn’t Maxwell, but a familiar red haired woman who Rei had seen before. She wore an all black attire that only made her fiery red hair stand out even more.

  “Morning ladies, took you long enough. Aren’t you even going to invite your own cousin in?”

  “Elaine? What are you doing here?”

  “What? Haven’t you missed me? I’ve certainly missed you, all those times we shared together. Did they all mean nothing to you?!”

  Elaine Had seemed different from the way she’d presented herself back in the palace. Gone was her kind demeanor.

  She seemed crazed and angry, almost as if she was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

  “Of course I’ve missed you, I just…”

  “Stop lying.”

  “I wasn’t…”

  “Stop pretending, you wench!”

  No matter what Elizabeth said, Elaine was only becoming more aggravated.

  “So why are you here?”

  Elaine turned her attention to Rei. “I didn’t know you still kept strays, so what’s this one’s name?”

  “I’m no stray, my name’s Rei and we’ve met.”

  Elaine put a finger to her chin. “Nope, I don’t remember ever meeting a filthy little nakomata, like you before.”

  Rei fought back the urge to claw her eyes out. “You still didn’t answer my question.”

  Elaine turned back to Elizabeth. “You should really teach your stray, not to talk back. If you want I could teach it for you.”

  “Just try it! I’ll…”

  “That’s enough, Elaine. Why did you come here?”

  A wicked grin had crept across Elaine’s face. “I came so that I could bring you home with me.”

  Elizabeth was petrified by fear. “H-home, you mean…Dulciena?” 

  “That’s the place, unless you know of another Dulciena?”

  It was clear that Elizabeth dreaded the idea of return to Dulciena. This fact almost seemed to give Elaine a twisted sense of joy.

  “Midas has ordered me to return you to the royal palace, I’d have come a lot sooner if I hadn’t got side tracked collecting these goblin’s heads.”

  Elaine retrieved a severed head from a sack she’d been carrying. The head was clearly fresh, as its blood was still dripping from where it had been severed from its body.

  “That’s a gremlin’s head, not a goblins.”

  “Really?”

  Elaine examined the gremlin’s head. “Eh, what’s the difference?”

  “Why are you collecting goblin’s heads, anyway?”

  Elaine dropped the head and tossed a knife at Rei. The blade was so fast and small, that she barely had time to dodge.

  “You’re pretty fast for a stray, but not fast enough.”

  Elaine pointed to a spot just beneath her right eye.

  Rei was confused at first, until she felt a warm wetness where Elaine had been pointing. She placed her finger on the spot and looked to see a few drops of blood had dripped onto her finger.

  “Carful now, or I’ll take your good eye.”

  “Stop it Elaine! Don’t hurt her!”

  Elaine took Elizabeth by the hands. “Don’t worry Elizabeth, I was only having a little fun.”

  Elaine wiped the tears from Elizabeth’s eyes. “I’d forgotten how much of a cry baby you were, living out here all by yourself, must have been hard.”

  “No, not really.”

  “Well, it’s over now. I’ve come to bring you home, everyone is waiting to see you.”

  “You get away from her! She doesn’t want to go with you!”

  “Elizabeth, I grow sick of hearing your stray hiss at me.”

  “I’ll show you a hiss!”

  Before Rei could even draw her blade, Elaine was already behind her.

  “It looks like I’ll have to teach you after all.”

  With a swift kick, Rei was sent flying through the kitchen table.

  “Rei!”

  Elizabeth ran over to where Rei was lying in what used to be the kitchen table.

  She lay unmoving, her body bruised and her bones broken.

  “See? I told you I could teach it not to talk back.”

  “You went too far Elaine! You always go too far!”

  Hearing this angered Elaine. “So you’re saying this is my fault?!”

  She picked Rei up by the neck and began to squeeze. “I warned it to stop talking, strays should know to obey their superiors.”

  “Stop Elaine! You’re killing her!”

  “Why?! It’s my fault right?! So I’ll just put it out of its misery, no point in letting it suffer!”

  Elaine knew there was no stopping Elaine, she’d seen her do this exact same thing to her beloved pets when she played too rough and one of them got injured.

  She didn’t have the courage to stop her before, but she couldn’t stand by and watch her kill Rei.

  “Stop it Elaine.”

  “I said don’t worry about it! It’s my mess, now let me clean it up.”

  “If you don’t stop, I’ll take my life.”

  Elizabeth’s threat cut through Elaine’s deranged mind. “You’ll what?”

  Elaine looked at Elizabeth who held a blade to her neck.

  “If you don’t let her go, I swear by the gods I’ll do it.”

  “Is that all?” Elaine dropped Rei like a piece of trash.

  “There, happy? Stop being so dramatic, put the blade down and let’s go home.”

  Elizabeth didn’t know what to do, she hadn’t planned that far ahead. She didn’t want to return to Dulciena but she didn’t Rei to die.

  “Come now, Elizabeth. I want to be back in Dulciena by nightfall, apparently there’s blood thirsty goblins lurking around.”

  “You know about the goblins?”

  “Oh, don’t you worry. Thanks to me, your favorite cousin, those goblins are no more.”

  “You mean you’ve slayed them?”

  “I showed you the heads didn’t I?”

  “But those were gremlin’s hands.”

  “Gremlins, goblins, who cares. Once Midas shows people these heads and tells them they’re all dead, we can all put this goblin business behind us.”

  “But what about the goblins attacking Dulciena?”

  “Elizabeth, I always thought you were a whore but never an idiot.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There were never goblins! That was just what Midas came up with to tell the royal guard and anyone who else who got too nosy.”

  “If that’s true then what’s been attacking Dulciena?”

  Elaine smiled. “You’ll see.”