Samhain Sacrifice

Editor's Note: this submission contains horror movie style violent content, including non-sexualized cannibalism and human sacrifice.

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Two maidens were sacrificed each year in the community. They were slaves, taken as war captives when they were young or bought from pirates across the sea, and raised by the druids in the mountains until their eighteenth year.

Then they would be brought down from the mountains and chained naked inside a special hut built on the edge of the community. All who had reached manhood in the community were then free to deflower the maiden and fertilize her with their seed. This could take several months. When she had become pregnant and her menstrual cycle ceased, she would then be taken to the sacrificial mound outside the community, surrounded by the assembled community in the fields, and there sacrificed, and her blood drained into buckets which were then carried out across the planting fields and to water them, thereby fertilizing and re-fertilizing the earth.

The first sacrifice took place at the start of the spring planting season. This was called the May Day sacrifice. The second sacrifice took place in the autumn as the harvest ended. This was called the Samhain or Summer's End sacrifice.

The sacrifices did not always go as planned. Sometimes the maiden would not become pregnant, or sometimes other complications would get in the way. When they did, social strife and famine would sometimes result in the community, as that was a bad omen. This is the story of one Summer's End sacrifice.

Fer was far from the strongest or tallest young man in the community, and as he reached his eighteenth year, he became keenly aware of it. His old childhood friend, Aid, on the other hand had grown to be tall, strong, and lusty, and the girls favored him. Fer was short and scrawny by comparison, though he was deceptively strong and had a wiry frame.

His jealousy grew. A scarlet-haired girl Fer had long fancied had been bedded by Aid that spring, and when Fer found out, he had fallen into a quiet but intense rage. He felt sick and disgusted by everything and was too angry to even fuck the sacrificial maiden in the shed that spring for the May Day sacrifice and lose his virginity, as was his right now that he had reached manhood.

A thousand vengeful thoughts rushed through his mind, but he couldn't bring himself to go through with any of them. It was too risky. He wanted to kill Aid, but he didn't know how. The elders would not let them duel until they completed their warrior training over the next two summers, and even if they did, Aid was significantly taller and stronger and would probably win.

When not helping with the planting and harvesting or doing other work for his grandfather with whom he lived, Fer usually spent his days that summer alone and brooding on the moor. By the time the harvesting finished, and the summer came to an end, Fer's anger and jealousy had begun to cool.

It was then that he saw her. She was naked and being led in a procession by the druids coming down from the mountains with the maiden for the Summer's End sacrifice. She had a rope around her neck attached to a metal collar that she was being led by, but Fer was enraptured by her beauty and got as close as he could. Her hair was dark and her skin was pale, although as Fer got closer he could see it was smudged with dirt and mud as were her bare feet. As she passed him, he noticed the shape of her buttocks and hips and felt a hard throbbing beneath his tunic.

He followed her where the druids took her to the hut and waited outside when they took her in, barely even noticing who else was around.

"Fer," he suddenly heard a loud voice say from behind him. "We haven't seen you around in a while, have we? Off out in the moor all by yourself every chance you get these days, eh?"

Fer felt his face burn bright red and he flashed with rage. It was Aid. He didn't turn around, not trusting himself to keep his cool.

"Not talking to me anymore, is that it, Aid?" he heard the voice sneered. "Still sore about Maeve? Is that it?"

Still not turning around, Fer felt Aid approaching closer from behind him, and then he felt a hand on his shoulder. Suddenly Fer spun around and struck his fist at Aid who seemed to easily block him, while Fer immediately stepped back.

"Whoa, touchy, touchy, aren't we, Fer?" Aid sneered. "I might have to give you a beating one of these days if you keep lashing out like that."

"I'll kill you, Aid, if you ever touch me again," Fer replied through gritted teeth.

Aid merely laughed mockingly. Others were approaching to watch their scuffle now, including Aid's usual gang of companions and some girls. Maeve was even among them.

Fer breathed heavily and tried to control himself, remembering what his grandfather had always said. "Use what's in your skull now, and break their skull later, boy."

He walked away from Aid and the others but resolved to come back to the hut the first thing in the morning after the maiden had been ritually bathed and prepared for fertilization. He felt a strong desire to be the first in the community to deflower her.

That night, he couldn't sleep well and masturbated furiously. He thought of the maiden's naked body. Her breasts and her buttocks. Her dark hair and her pale skin. Even the dirt on her skin and the metal collar around her neck seemed somehow attractive to him. It made her different. It made her subservient, and under his power. This was a girl who wouldn't laugh and reject him like Maeve and the others. She was his... or at least would be for a while.

Finally, exhausted from masturbation and fantasy, Fer fell fast asleep. He knew it was already early in the morning, but he told himself he would awaken soon so he could be the first at the hut tomorrow. But he overslept. When he awoke, it was well past daylight and his own step-grandmother (his grandfather's second wife) was yelling at him to get up and feed the chickens.

His eyes shot open and he felt a burst of confusion, and then frustration and rage. He had forgotten about the maiden. He wouldn't be the first to deflower her now. Without feeding the chickens or even eating, he flew out of bed and ran across the settlement to the hut at the edge of the community.

Aid was already there, and Fer found himself behind six others in line. It was still early morning, but a lot of men liked being some of the first to deflower the maiden. Aid was already there too and had apparently already taken his turn. Aid probably suspected from yesterday that Fer would try to get there early.

"Poor Fer," one of Aid's lackeys taunted as Fer stood in line. "First Maeve, now the slave. Fer always gets second place." The others laughed loudly but Fer didn't look at them.

"Fer'll take what he can get," another added. "This'll be how he loses his virginity too I'll bet."

"Use what's in your skull now and break their skulls later," Fer told himself again. When it was finally his turn, a female druidess showed him into the hut where he was told to wash himself and his genitals in a tub.

Then he was led through a low doorway into the holding room lit dimly by an opening in the roof. The maiden was huddled in a corner atop what looked like a mat of animal skins. In the other corner was a chain bolted to the wall and a wash basin with buckets and rags nearby. It smelled like sweat and sex.

"Alright, you have a quarter of an hour with her, then it's the next man in line's turn," the druid woman said.

Fer nodded in reply and heard the druid woman shut and bolt the little door behind her as she left. Fer stood for a while in the doorway, unsure what to do. He felt excited but also nervous. Finally, he approached closer to the maiden across the dimly lit room and suddenly she sat up on the animal skins, exposing her pale breasts with her dark hair draped over them. Fer stopped again and hesitantly stood over her.

The maiden's face was somber as she looked up at him briefly, and then shifted her body to lie down again on the skins with her legs slightly spread toward him. Fer felt the throbbing hardness through his tunic and immediately pulled it off and bent down over her. He first caressed her soft, warm breasts, then the side of her face. The bolted metal collar around her neck looked hard and uncomfortable and he gripped it, for a moment wanting to take it off, and then drifted his hands down to her breasts again.

She up looked at him again with her sad, dark eyes and Fer felt an overpowering sense of longing as he, now on top of her, instinctively spread her legs wider and brought his member toward her hairy entrance. He tried to enter her but had some trouble getting in and reached down to massage her slit as he had seen others in the community do when he had occasionally watched them fuck.

He tried to widen her slit and lubricate her with spit from his hand as well, finally entering her. It felt great inside her and Fer fucked her vigorously, grunting, fondling her breasts, and kissing them and her cheeks and forehead and running his hands thorough her long dark hair.

She was so pretty. After a few minutes, unable and unwilling to stop himself, Fer came inside her and rested on top with his member still inside. The maiden still looked sad, which annoyed Fer. He had wanted her to like it, and he felt bad that she hadn't. Her eyes were downcast now and she wouldn't even look at him. Fer kissed her forehead tenderly, trying to reassure her.

"You're so beautiful," Fer whispered. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. More beautiful than Maeve or any woman in this community."

The maiden didn't reply, but in that moment, Fer meant it. There was something about the maiden that enraptured and intoxicated him beyond anything he had ever felt. He wanted her, and he wanted her all to himself. He felt angry for a moment that the rest of the men in the community would be able to fuck her and that she would have to be sacrificed once she became pregnant, but he knew it was inevitable.

Then, before he knew it, as these intense thoughts and feelings overcame him lying atop the maiden, he heard a sudden knock on the door. "Two more minute," the druidess said.

Fer hadn't realized how quickly the time had passed and felt dismayed. His member had grown soft and he had taken it out of the maiden but now it was hard again, and he began fucking her harder once more. She whimpered and grimaced beneath him, but Fer kept kissing her to reassure her.

"You're so beautiful," he said over and over. "Don't be sad. How can you be sad when you're so beautiful?"

He had only just finished cumming insider her again when the druid knocked again and began unbolting the door. Fer kissed the maiden's forehead once more and turned her face up to look him in the eyes, and smiled at her. Finally, she half-returned his smile as he softly kissed her lips.

Then he quickly pulled on his tunic as the druidess entered and followed her out.

Outside, Aid and his friends were still there and mockingly jeered at and congratulated him for losing his virginity, but Fer ignored them and returned to his grandfather's hut, lost in thoughts of the maiden and the encounter he had had with her.

His step-grandmother met him in front of the hut and looked furious.

"You ungrateful little shit, I told you to feed the chickens but instead you just went off to go fuck the sacrifice, eh?" she yelled at him.

"I'm sorry, I'll go do it now," Fer replied in sudden fear.

"I'm tired of your laziness and disrespect," she continued. "Niall, Niall!" she yelled to her husband, Fer's grandfather, and then she took a stick from the doorway and came toward Fer to beat him, something she had done countless times before but not in what seemed like a long time.

Fer felt fearful, then suddenly angry. He was eighteen summers old, a man now, would soon be a full warrior in a few years. How dare she continue to beat him like a child?

He flinched away from her first strike, but she struck his arm that he had put up to block. The rage in Fer boiled over and he suddenly surged forward and pushed his step-grandmother back hard and struck her in the face. She stumbled and fell to the ground in the mud in front of the doorway, and Fer stood over her panting.

"NIALL NIALL!" she shrieked more loudly than before for her husband after a moment.

Fer saw the stick lying beside her that she had dropped, and he imagined picking it up and beating his step-grandmother to death right there, but he managed to hold himself back. "Use what's in your skull now and break their skulls later," his grandfather's words echoed back to him.

Then his grandfather came into sight from the barn with a look of fury on his face when he saw his wife in the mud, now sobbing. He grabbed the stick on the ground and immediately began to beat Fer with it. Fer wanted to fight back or to run away, but instead he simply shielded himself from his grandfather's blows until the beating finally stopped, as he had done many times before.

"Use what's in your skull now and break their skulls later," he thought again to himself over and over.

For the next week, Fer nursed his wounds and bruises, did his chores for his step-grandmother, tried to avoid Aid and his friends as much as possible, and visited the maiden in the hut whenever he could.

The first time he visited the maiden again after his grandfather beat him, he suddenly hugged her and held her close to him in his arms, more to reassure himself than her. He cried in front of her, telling her what had happened and how angry he was at his grandparents and Aid. He talked to her the whole time in a low voice. He didn't even know if she spoke the community's language or understood him, but for some reason the maiden felt like the only person who he could safely talk to. He felt an irresistible connection to her, and kissed her, but didn't fuck her again that time.

The maiden seemed surprised at his changed demeanor and was mostly stiff and unresponsive, but did briefly return some of his affection when she kissed his bruised arm after he kissed her breasts.

The next day, Fer came to see her again and put his arms around her. This time the maiden returned his embrace more readily than before, even returning his kiss when he kissed her mouth.

As the days passed, their sex became more passionate and the maiden seemed to genuinely moan with pleasure after a while.

"Do you understand me when I speak to you," Fer asked one day.

"I understand a little," the maiden finally replied hesitantly in a strange accent.

"I love you," Fer said.

The maiden suddenly looked sad again and held her face in her hands.

"Please... will you help me?" she finally said as she looked up at him with a desperate expression on her face.

Fer was surprised at this request but looked deeply into her eyes and nodded.

"Yes, I will help you," he replied, kissing her face, and she smiled, and tears streamed from her face as she kissed him back and let out a moan of relief as she nestled into him.

She was so beautiful when she smiled, Fer thought. Then the female druid knocked on the door and he had to leave.

Once the idea was planted in Fer's mind, to help the maiden, to rescue her, he couldn't stop thinking about it. He didn't want to her to be sacrificed. He didn't want the entire community to keep fucking her. It filled him with homicidal rage to even think about it. There had to be a way he could stop it.

"Use what's in your skull now and break their skulls later," Fer whispered as he lay alone in his cot that night. "Later, later... but when is later?"

Soon he began making a plan. A violent and crazy plan. At first, he entertained this plan more as something to fantasize about, but soon it began to take shape, and the more he visited the maiden, the more he felt the desire the strong carry it out. He wanted the maiden to himself and he thought this was the only way he could ever get that. If he stayed here in the village and did nothing, he would always be mocked by Aid and he would never get a wife.

"Tonight," Fer finally said as he kneeled down in front of the maiden on one of his visits. "Tonight, something is going to happen, and I'm going to come back here and take you away. Be ready."

"I love you. I love you so much," the maiden replied, and they made love passionately, if briefly, before the druid interrupted them and Fer had to go. She was wetter now and moaned and shook quietly beneath him as he fucked her.

As Fer exited the hut for what he hoped would be the last time in this way, he saw Aid again standing some distance off and grinning mockingly at him. How Fer wished he could kill Aid too, but that wasn't part of his plan unless he got lucky.

Fer went into his grandfather's barn and checked on the weapons and goods he had hidden there near where he slept. Extra tunics, blankets, food, an axe and knives, bow and arrows, some javelins, and several kegs of beer.

Fer ate his bowl of porridge that his step-grandmother served him after doing his chores and Fer thanked her with a smile on his face. He would soon have his vengeance on that bitch, and his grandfather too who he also treated in an uncommonly friendly manner. "Use what's in your skull now and break their skulls later," he smirked and thought to himself as he turned his head away.

Fer then retreated to his place in the barn as soon as possible, strapped the goods he had stashed except for the beer onto the back of his grandfather's strongest pony, and waited. When it got dark, he stepped out into the cool night air with his cloak on and listened for the sounds of activity to die down in the community. As he did so, he rehearsed what he was going to do that night. He felt excited but jittery.

Finally, at about the middle of the night, Fer could no longer see any flashes of fires or hear any far-off noise or voices aside from the occasional dogs barking. This was it. He returned inside the barn and took a keg of beer and as quietly as he could crept with it into the hut where his grandfather and step-grandmother were sleeping. As quietly as possible, he slowly poured its contents onto the walls, and especially soaked a pile of old rags. He could hear his grandfather snoring in the bedroom.

Then he returned to the barn and returned quietly back to the hut with an axe. As he returned back into the pitch-black interior of the hut, he immediately felt a sense of unease. He could only just barely see in front of him by the light of the moonlight coming from the open door, and he saw the entrance to his grandfather's section of the hut in front, partitioned by a narrow doorway with a curtain.

His grandfather's snoring. It had stopped. "Shit," he thought to himself.

Fer dared not move forward and dared not move back and close the door from where the moonlight shone lest he be heard, though his grandfather may have already heard him open the door. Why had he spent all that time draining the beer in the house instead of killing his grandfather first? That was probably what woke him up, he cursed himself.

Fer stood for a long time, waiting, his heart racing and beating in his chest. The silence was deafening. "Shit," Fer thought again. He couldn't wait all night like this. He still had so much to do.

At last, he willed himself to take a quiet step forward and to the left, trying to get out of the beam from the doorway and not be directly in front of the curtain leading into the bedroom. Then suddenly as he stepped forward in the dark he ran into something that hit his thigh. It was the table. It made a noise.

There was another long silence as Fer didn't make another move.

"Who's there?" his grandfather's voice finally called out softly, breaking the silence.