The Sacrifice

Chapter 1

I sat staring out the coach window holding my gloves tightly in my hand. There wasn't much to look at, just a vast prairie that by the amount of time I have been looking at it was endless. "Mandy" my mother breathed out a sigh. "Aren't you extatic?" I just ignored her and stared out the window some more.

Today is the day that Iam going to live with my grandmother to learn how to be a proper lady. I was the complete opposite of extatic. She was old, cranky and her house was dressed up in a drab burgundy colour. It looks dreadfull. The only joy I might find is in the lovely gardens, the only pretty and bright thing on the platough estate. I remember when I was little, playing hide and seek in the maze with my twin sister Lucy. At the thought of my sister I put my hand to my wrist where I wore two bracelets, one green and the other blue but otherwise identical. The blue one is mine and the green one was Lucys. She died exactly one year ago today. She was only fourteen when she died.

We were swimming in the lake near our house. We were splashing each other and laughing, when suddenly I didn't hear her laughs anymore, instead it was replaced with coughing and frantic splashing. I had finally realized what was happening so I swam toward her as fast as I could, but it was too late. She stopped moving and everything was quiet and still. The scream I had been holding in finally let loose earsplittingly loud when her body floated to the surface, face up, eyes toward the sky. I remember sobs rising in my throat as I looked at sister helplessly. Gingerly I had closed her eyelids and carried her out of the water, too shocked to realize that we were in shallow water, far too shallow to drown in.

A sharp "ahem" pulled me back into reality. My mother was looking at me expectantly. I mumbled a "yes" therefore answering her question. "Pardon" my mother asked. "Iam extatic". She put her hands together as if to clap and said "Oh how lovely" then she started rambling on about how fun this was going to be. Tuning her out I wiped my moist palms on the skirt of my dress, which is a pale blue with long sleeves, and turned away to look out the window again. Trees were starting to show so I decided to pass the time by counting them. One,two,three... I was so lost in counting that I didn't realize we were pulling up the long curved driveway to my grandmothers estate.

When the coach stopped in front of the house I started to exit, desperate to walk around, but my mother put a hand out in front of me stopping my escape. "Darling" she hissed through clenched teeth. "You must wait for the footman as it is proper". Sighing I sat down and waited for what felt like a decade for the footman to open the door. When he did I sat up so fast that I bumped my head on the roof. "Ouch!" I exclaimed loudly but continued my descent out of the coach anyways.