Anybody But You

90

Chapter Ninety

Vibe: And You Evade Him / Born in the Blood by Joshua Burnside

As the carriage holding the cage suddenly began rolling forwards, George broke the heavy silence, "Why did you even come here?"

Opening her eyes as she held onto the cold bars within the hot and stuffy cage, Alice almost laughed, "To make my world bigger."

George quirked a brow up just as Ana spoke, "You came with the prince, right?" Her voice was still fearful as she pushed her long hair back with a forced gesture—trying to appear unshaken by Alice.

Alice nodded, "Yah. He's going to tear this town apart when he learns I've been sacrificed." She sighed, shaking her head.

"He will stop it though," Ana spoke hopefully, "He'll rescue you in time—isn't that what princes do? Rescue their princess before she's harmed?"

George snorted, "Those are stories, Ana. This is reality and this girl is no princess—that asshole probably won't notice until he's back home and looking to get laid. You're a mistress, right?"

Alice chuckled at the thought of Narcisse not noticing her disappearance, "I wonder..."

"You don't seem frightened at all." Ana mumbled, frowning worriedly.

Humming, Alice pulled her knees up to her chest—the shackles on her ankles clanging loudly, "Well, this whole thing is riding on the belief that there are some so-called man-eating gods that will 'reincarnate' us and take over our 'empty and purified bodies'." Alice shrugged, remembering the words from the sermon, "Doesn't that just mean they will drop us off in the trees and leave us there to supposedly die? As long as we can get unchained, we can just... go home."

Ana pursed her thin lips together, shaking her head with a disbelieving and saddened expression.

George smirked, letting out a humourless laugh, "If you grew up hearing the sacrificial screams almost every night, you wouldn't be so confident in your disbelief."

"So then I die by the hands of a monster... wouldn't be the first time." Alice exhaled, testing the strength of the two bars nearest to her nonchalantly—they weren't budging. "Or do you have some sort of plan you'd like to share?"

"Try to survive the night." George spoke, "Anyone still alive when day breaks, is assumed to be a bad vessel and released from the church's hold."

"How often does that happen?" Alice wondered.

Surely word would have gotten back to the Royal Family if terrified people commonly made it out of such a situation—even the royal family would have to put an end to human sacrifice after hearing about it.

"...never." George answered after a moment.

Snorting, Alice smiled, "So the odds are in our favour then." She spoke sarcastically. "You have strength magic, why don't you just break the chains and bars?"

"Try using your magic." George huffed, twisting their wrists to reveal the symbol branded on the metal cuffs.

Frowning, Alice looked at the identical engravings on hers—closing her eyes to try to pick up on the energies. It was like a frequency was playing over the warm hum of energy—making it all fuzzy and indistinguishable from one energy to the next. It hurt her head as she hissed in a breath; shaking her head as her ears rang painfully.

A blocking spell? How dirty.

Alice opened her eyes, her eyebrows knitting together in thought. "So... the church just... kills people off like this? Regularly?"

And she thought the palace and noblemen were corrupt. This was straight up murder by the handful. And it seemed like they didn't even hide it—from the gathering outside, it was as if it was celebrated even.

George nodded silently—their dark eyes hardening, "It's not uncommon to know someone who was sacrificed to the gods."

"And the church does it to everyone who is dying?" She shook her head—her heart stinging as she empathized, "What about patients? Don't doctors and other caretakers try to save people first?" Looking at George and Ana, they both fell quiet as they shook their heads.

Alice could feel the horror of the situation begin to trickle into her brain—her thoughts on the townspeople who were brutally slain.

Was reality really so terrifying everywhere?

~*~*~

A.N.

Can you imagine if the go-to/only available treatment was at the expense of being literally SACRIFICED. These people are E V I L. Imagine saving someone just to kill them later. Or seeing someone hurt and treating them only to say that their life in now yours because you saved it—gosh, I'm mad at my own brain for coming up with this lol. The *entitlement* and *corruption* I will smite them all.

Thank you for reading, as always! I very much appreciate all your support. I can't believe you've gotten me to 1k+ reads and 600 votes 🥺❤️