“All my life, I have never been touched by a man. I’ve remained clean and chaste” – Ava Goodchild

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Prologue

“Spread your legs, little Ava. Open it and let me devour you.”

I trembled at his tone of words used, with my hands clenched around my garment tightly.

His voice sounded like sin itself and his eyes held a lustful gaze, darkened with desire.

“P-Please, we don’t have to use this way.” I said.

“A-An insemination would w-work quite fine—”

A pissed growl configured the entire room. He pounced towards me, clearing everything in his way.

My eyes wandered to his fur springing out of his shoulders. I swallowed a gulp, in anxiousness.

“Do it or my guards would do it for you. You do not want to test a beast!!”

He growled powerfully. With his aura, holding a dangerous presence.

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The first thing I laid my eyes on when I woke up, was an old chest. Brownish, with strikes of rusted gold engraved on its body.

The room seemed like a small cubicle. With multiple engravings and paintings on the wall. It held a mysterious and ancient impression.

I stood, up rubbing the back of my forehead softly.

“Where am I?”

Those words, I asked myself. In the dimly lit room, I had a hard time seeing clearly.

Suddenly, a door creaked open.

Just at the entrance of the door lied a large shadow.

Since it was dark, I was really having a hard time seeing who it was.

“I see you’re awake, little Ava.”

Bulky steps begun to pound towards me.

It was like I was a prey being predated on.

“W-Who are you? A-And, w-where am I?”

I stammered, my voice breaking at each sentence.

Hands unexpectedly wrapped around my waist, drawing me closer.

My thighs clenched and I felt a little wet, just in between my legs. Something hard connected to me, giving me a totally weird feeling that left me confused.

“You seem to not remember anything.” His rough and husky tone constructed.

“N-not in d-detail. A l-little reminder might h-help please,”

Still in his arms, a timorous feeling occupied me.

“As my breeder, we’ll be christening every part of this castle, little one”

My eyes widened, in shock.

“W-what??”

My head recalled some scenes immediately. Memory begun to jeer from the previous day. . .

*Flashback*

“Ladies and gentlemen, as you all know, once in every 200 years, a virgin outcast is sacrificed to the beast.”

The speaker’s voice boomed through our community.

He was a male with a clownish expression. Dressed elegantly in one of the finest robes our village had to offer.

My eyes searched through the crowd, looking towards Moses. I looked up to him because he didn’t treat me like a weirdo like most of the villagers around.

I wondered what ran through his mind.

To escape the selection, we planned on running away today. I mean it had been announced that it was the next day.

But it seemed like they played on our intelligence. It was today.

And in a way, we were damned. So much damned, because it seemed like there was no escape.

“Lily, Tabitha, Rose…Enchantress…” Various names of girls who were marked out as being weird were listed out.

I knew this worked in different ways.

In our village, girls with eccentric opinion were marked out as witches.

Anomaly.

They were like a plague. An outcast to be avoided.

And I was one of them.

“Ava Goodchild,”

The announcer finally stated. I seemed to be the last on the list. Didn’t mean I was any different from the rest of them.

I held the hems of my gown, making my way towards the outskirts of where the girls were asked to stay.

“NO!! NO!!! Ava dear!!”

A voice beseeched from the crowd. I looked back hopelessly, only to see the woman that raised me, running towards me.

“COME BACK, AVA!! This is not for you!”

She was instantly held back by the guards, but she still fought furiously.

Walking towards her, I held the sides of her face with my both palms.

“I’m going to be okay, mum.”

I told her.

“OH SWEETIE. This is all my fault. I should have raised you better,” she choked out bitterly.

Her face was red all over and she shed tears like she had just lost someone on a battle field.

“Promise me to take care of mum,” I directed to Moses, who had maneuvered his way to calm her down.

“If things go haywire, promise to always be with her,”

He gave me a re-assuring look, and slowly I untangled my hands from mum’s face. Her eyes, misty, seemed lost. She was taken back slowly.

Quickly, I made my way to the stage stairs, climbing up to where the other girls were.

“Well, that was quite some unsettling drama,” The announcer commented.

He snapped his fingers.

“Bring the box of luck forward,”

Knowing exactly what to do, each of us picked a letter.

And one by one, stepped forward, passing it to the assigned speaker to read it out.

“You’re safe,”

That was all it took for him to say to every girl after he viewed their letter.

It was done turn by turn and there were numerous jeers from the crowd.

“Safe…Safe…. You’re safe,”

Turn by turn, he made it known to the girls.

For you to be safe from being chosen, you had to possess a number that was even. Once you got an odd, you would be carried to represent the beast’s breeder.

“Taken,”

A cry was let out and one of the girls trembled with so much fear. A gasp from the crowd was heard as the girl tried to flee from being chosen.

I recognized her from the library.

“Get her!!”

A shot was let out. I watched in shock as the girl fell down from the impact.

Crimson flowed out of her lifeless body. Immediately, she dropped dead right in front of us.

“This goes as a lesson to anyone who tries to escape her fate!”

The speaker fiercely announced.

“Clear her remains,” he ordered the ferocious guards.

They did as he said, and he commenced.

“Safe, safe, safe, taken,”

A few rounds to go. I yawned with tiredness as I handed my letter. It was forbidden to look inside without it being the speaker, that was why I hadn’t peeked in.

“Taken,”

A single word that I couldn’t believe hearing.

“NOOOOO!! Not my Ava? Not my pretty little Ava! She’s just a child! She’s just a little child!!”

Mum yelled through the crowd.

Moses dragged her to safety, knowing she could be gunned down anytime.

“Be safe, dear. Do as he says, so you would be let go,”

Everyone looked at us hopelessly as we were being taken.

No girl had ever survived in the beast’s hands.

On our way, some girls tried to escape to but it only led to their lives being ended.

We ended up remaining only two.

Mysteriously, we were tied to a tree, in the midst of a forest with large and tall trees. Left to the dangers that could come from anywhere.

And mostly, to be devoured by the beast.