Waiting For The Sacrifice

There are eight types of witches, each with their own sets of powers and weaknesses.

For example Mars witches gain power by taking people's life but feel compelled to murder people they love the most.

Earth witches can create, destroy or restore life on earth but are cursed to feel the pain of every living creature within 5 miles of where they are.

Venus witches gain immortality and beauty from being desired by men, but they can never have children or feel true love. They're the loneliest type of witch.

Thanks to modern technology, Venus witches don't have to go chasing for men anymore, they can gain power in little amounts by being desired on social media. Although this allows them to stay beautiful it doesn't keep them immortal, so they must renew their immortality once every year. Or else...

It was Halloween night. A blue full moon shined on a group of 4 women who were so pretty, describing them as "pretty" would be an insult. They were thick in the right places and thin where necessary. Large eyes, plump lips, silky smooth hair. 21st century goddesses. 

They were... Instagram models?

Their voices echoed in the forest.

'When's the sacrifice coming...?' Genevieve was an Irish ginger witch with a freckled face.

'10pm. We agreed on 10PM.' Responded Maddy.

'10pm was an hour ago.'

'Girls, what do you think about my makeup?' Priya, a witch from Mumbai, held a smartphone in front of her face, using the front camera like a mirror.

'It's terrible, as always,' laughed Genevieve.

'Come on, stop that,' Maddy lightly pushed Genevieve.

'But it's true...'

Priya looked at Genevieve and shouted, 'It's not! I've got the number one makeup channel in my country. You're nobody in your country.'

Genevieve pulled out her phone, tapped a couple times and showed Priya, 'See this? I've got 20million followers,' she tapped a couple times more and showed Priya again, 'Look, you got 17million!'

'Both of you, keep your voices low. Never know who's around here these days...'

'Can't let this ugly duckling disrespect me, can I?'

Priya dropped the phone in the pocket of her jeans, 'Ugly duckling? To ME?!' She made a gesture with her right hand, which made it glow pink.

Genevieve too made a gesture with her hand and it glowed green, ready to strike.

Maddy stood in between with her arms extended towards both of them, emitting blue sparks from her hands 'Stop this nonsense. Byeol's going to think we're crazy.'

They all turned to Byeol, who leaned against a tree, laughing at the girls and covering her mouth with both hands.

Maddy waved, 'You can come closer. They don't bite,' after giving a look at Priya and Genevieve, she added, '... I think...'

Byeol had porcelain white skin, big eyes and cherry-like lips. She wore a schoolgirl outfit with a skirt too short for school. Her pale skinny legs were long, but she couldn't be higher than 5.5 feet tall without her high heels.

She approached the crew and bowed a little when close enough.

'Who's this kid?'

Maddy stood next to Byeol facing the other two, 'She's the daughter of a friend of mine in Korea. Before she passed, she asked me to initiate her daughter, Byeol. This will be her first ritual, but she's already killing it on social media.' Maddy turned to Byeol and smiled, 'From today you'll be a Venus witch like us, isn't that exciting!'

Byeol nodded politely. 

Priya was back on the phone editing some of her swimsuit pictures. Before posting it, she showed Maddy, who, judged from the corner of her eye, 'Looks amazing'

Priya smiled, posted the picture and asked, 'If this sacrifice isn't coming, we should go find another pretty girl.'

'Give her some time, she'll come.'

Genevieve stared at Byeol, who stared back without saying a word. Genevieve broke the silence, 'So... How many followers do you have?'

Byeol pulled out her phone from a little purse hanging from her shoulder. Few seconds later she said, '22 Million.'

Maddy and Priya exclaimed, 'WOW!'

'Show me that!' Genevieve snatched the phone out of Byeol's hand and gasped when she saw the screen, 'You have brand deals with Gucci, Apple, Louis Vuitton! How the...'

'I am... Ehm...' Byeol took a second to think about how to say the word in English, '... Top 10 most followed... In Korea...'

'That's incredible! When we're done you've got to link me up with some of those brands...' Maddy tapped Byeol's shoulder.

Genevieve stood, staring at the phone for a while before throwing it back at Byeol, 'It doesn't matter. I'm a better witch anyway...'

'You can't just say that Ginny! She's going to receive the Dark Lord's blessing tonight. I bet she'll become very good.'

'Never as good as me! I've been practicing for over two centuries now. You girls have been around for just 70 years.' Genevieve faced Byeol, 'Do you even know the spell we'll use tonight?'

Before Byeol could answer Maddy did, 'I made her memorize it.'

Maddy looked at Byeol to confirm that she memorized it. Byeol nodded. 

In order to gain their attention again, Genevieve suddenly grabbed Maddy's shoulder, 'DM the sacrifice. Where is she?'

'Hey! Chill. Give me a sec.' Maddy messaged the sacrifice, whose name was Trish.

Trish responded after few minutes. Maddy sighed, 'She's stuck in traffic.'

'How long till she's here?'

'She says, 15 minutes max...'

Genevieve sighed, 'Told you. We should have gone to the other forest, it was closer to the city.'

'And I told you, they took the forest down to build skyscrapers.'

'If these stupid humans don't stop destroying nature, soon we'll have no place to do rituals.'

Maddy chuckled, 'When there are no more forests, we'll do rituals at the top of a skyscraper.'

Byeol interrupted, 'Maddy, how long have you done sacrifice?'

Genevieve answered before Maddy could, 'Ok, let me see,' she scratched her chin, 'We've been meeting up every Halloween since... 1980something.'

'Yeah,' continued Maddy, 'We were in the same coven, Ginny, Priya and I but the other members got slain by the witch hunters. Since then, it's only us.'

'AHHHHH!!!' Priya's scream echoed across the forest. She waved her hand in front of her face like a fan, 'Not now!'

'What's wrong?' Maddy ran to Priya.

'My makeup. It's breaking apart!'

'I'm sure it's not that-' Maddy stopped when Priya turned to her. Then she saw Priya's right eye melting out of its socket slowly, like ice cream that's been in the sun too long, '... bad...'

'This is terrible!' Her voice became crackly, like a crow's, 'TELL THE SACRIFICE TO COME HERE NOW!'

Maddy took a few steps back, 'She's in traffic.'

'Make a spell to get her here faster!'

'It's Halloween Priya. We're too weak to do random spells. All our power has to be used for the sacrifice.'

Right after Maddy said that, Priya's other eye popped out of its socket leaving both eyes hanging on her cheeks.

'AHHHHHH!' Byeol screamed.

Maddy turned and saw her staring at her hands, moving her fingers before they began falling, one by one. The blood which came out was gray, putrid.

Byeol was breathing heavily when she looked at Maddy.

'Don't worry. Your first time is the scariest. You'll be fine...' Maddy felt her legs getting light, as if her bones were made of soup.

'Hahahahaha!' Genevieve was nearly in tears with laughter, 'You weaklings are already going to pieces...'

Genevieve turned to Byeol, whose hands were gone, 'Didn't you know about this when you gave your soul to the Dark Lord?'

Byeol was trying to calm herself down by taking deep breaths, 'My mother help me give soul...'

Genevieve went to Maddy who sat on the ground because her legs wouldn't work anymore.

'How hot is this sacrifice?

'She's beautiful. Have a look...' Maddy handed the phone over to Genevieve.

Trish was an African American girl with a shaved head and a stunning body. Her profile was filled with topless pictures. She had flawless skin, flawless hair, flawless everything.

'The dark lord is definitely going to take her. Look at those thighs!'

Scrolling through the pictures, Genevieve said, 'Not bad... Not bad... Remember back in '23? The coven brought this lanky girl with braces. She was 25 but looked 15. The dark lord refused her, and we scrambled to find a replacement.'

'Oh, yeah. What a night...'

'Help! Help!' Priya's face was the very definition of a "jumbled mess." Her mouth was where her chin should have been and her chin was on her chest. She was touching her face trying to get things back in order but was only making things worse.

They heard footsteps and saw a torchlight among the trees.

'It's her,' whispered Maddy, 'Ginny, take care of it.'

'Don't tell me what to do,' Genevieve walked towards the light and said, 'Is that you, Trish?'

'Yeah.'

The torch was so strong on Genevieve's face that she couldn't see Trish's face or body.

'Why is y'all so far from the parking lot?'

Genevieve ignored the question 'Follow me, over here.' Genevieve walked back to the witches and saw the light behind follow her.

Trish arrived to the spot in the forest where there were no trees. She pointed the light of her phone to the other three girls.

Byeol swiftly hid her hands behind her back. Priya faced the other direction and Maddy smiled, 'Thanks for coming!'

'Mh... Don't y'all got a photo crew or something?'

'No, I told you. Just a couple photos for the 'gram and maybe some snaps. You tag us and we tag you.'

'Ok...' Trish's voice trembled, 'I... I needed to tell you... My photos online look a li'l different from what I look like IRL. You know, I used Photoshop...'

Maddy laughed, 'Don't we all?'

'I mean,' Trish turned off the torchlight of her smartphone and walked into the moonlight.

Maddy, Byeol and Genevieve gasped. Maddy pulled out her phone just to check whether her eyes had failed her. There was no way the bombshell on Instagram was the same creature in front of her.

Trish was a 6-foot tall mountain of lard with short thick arms. She had a quadruple chin, droopy breasts and thighs that seemed glued together.

Genevieve reached for Maddy's phone and took it. She looked at Trish in the photos and in front of her.

'Bullshit! This is BULLSHIT!' yelled Genevieve.

Priya cried, 'Is the sacrifice ready now?'

Byeol used her head to tap Maddy's shoulder because her arms were gone, 'Sacrifice has to be pretty... Devil only likes pretty... Yes?'

'I... I...'

'What's going on back there?!' Priya turned around, Trish screamed but not because of Priya.

'Tha fuk?!' she was staring at Genevieve's ginger hair, which fell all at once leaving her bald.

'Enough is enough! There's no time to get a replacement... We need to cast the spell and hope the Dark Lord takes her...'

Maddy escaped her trance state, 'Look at her Ginny, look at her!'

'Hold on... Are you fat shaming me?!' Trish didn't notice the faceless lady walking towards her.

'If he doesn't take her, we're all dead!' Maddy's tone was aggressive, angry.

'I, Genevieve, Daughter of Lord Edwin O'Shea will NOT die like this. Start the spell!'

Doubtful, all four of them chanted...

"Et resurrexit qui supra angelum respiciunt lapsum.

Dominus animarum, cujus vita mea. Nos tua gratia, suscipe sacrificium."

'This is some freaky shit,' Trish tried to turn around and walk away, but she couldn't. Her body wouldn't move.

A black cloud formed under her feet and made its way up her body.

Priya's mouth was sideways on her cheek and one eye was in place of an ear. She saw the cloud wrap around Trish's body, up to her head and said, 'It's working!'

The other's kept chanting, with smiles.

Genevieve said, in between chants, 'Maybe the Dark Lord has a fetish for-'

A deep dark voice, coming from the depths of the underworld, where souls of those who have done terrible deeds on earth resided. A voice so powerful, the ground trebled and the clouds above parted. It was the voice of Lucifer himself that emanated from the cloud around Trish's body...

'HELL NO!'

The cloud disappeared in a flash, freeing Trish. She looked around for a second and saw all 4 women staring back in disbelief. She ran for her life, screaming across the forest on her way back to the car, 'These people is crazy!'

Maddy cried, 'We're gonna die... And... It's my fault...'

Genevieve shook her head vigorously, 'No, I can't die here and now. There's no way...' She tried to cast a spell but her hands glowed green and suddenly stopped.

'W-We used all our magic for the sacrifice.'

'Help!' Priya's face finally melted entirely and her body followed suit. It was a matter of seconds before Priya's body was turned to blob on the forest floor.

Byeol said, in Korean, 'Mom, please forgive me. I'll see you sooner than expected...' Her body fell in pieces like a broken Lego toy. Then, she too melted.

Genevieve shook her head sideways, 'It's impossible. There has to be a way-' her teeth fell at once.

Maddy managed to smile, 'Ginny, you've never been prettier...'

She chuckled, 'See you in hell.' Her heart stopped. She passed out. 

Maddy watched the corpse turn to blob. Byeol and Priya's bodies had already melted and then evaporated in thin air within a few seconds.

Maddy's turn came soon after.