Free Blue Sacrifice (Blue Davison) by Angela Horn

section better than me which I won’t hate you for
at all.”
    “You’re stacked.”
    “Oh, don’t I know it,” Lacey said, glancing down
at her boobs that were hidden by a thick jacket. “Carrying these chicks around
all day is tough on my back, but it’s so worth it. Anyway you’ll need shoes because
you have giant elf feet.”
    “Elf feet?”
    “Elves are pale and have huge feet. Didn’t you
know that?”
    “Nope.”
    “Learn about your heritage, will ya?”
    Laughing, I thought about what Aunt Penny said.
    “She’s full of stinking crap,” Lacey said, reading
my mind. “You can’t take advice from someone who screwed up her own suicide. Someone
who makes sure she can’t do it again, even though we both know if she wanted to
she could kill herself in the hospital. And finally someone who benefits from
dumping the responsibility on you. She got your mom to do it last time and now
it’s your turn. Next time, she’ll push the job on Rory or someone else. She’s
not trustworthy so whatever depressing crap she told you should be ignored.”
    “I guess.”
    “No, don’t guess. Just ignore her. You don’t
really think she meant to die that day in the town square, do you? Like
everyone was going to stand around and watch her blow her brains out. She
planned it that way so she wouldn’t have to die. She knew it would be your
mom,” Lacey said with a sneer. “She’s as bad as Rory, if you ask me. They let
their baby sister die. Penny didn’t even have kids, but she still let it be
Rhiannon. It is beyond me how you can trust her when she forced your mother to
leave you.”
    “She’s my family.”
    “Penny’s a selfish bitch. Your mom was too young
to die and she had you. It wasn’t fair. None of the sacrifice crap is fair, but
your mom dying was totally unfair.”
    When I said nothing, Lacey pushed on.
    “You know what’s even more unfair? You dying when
you’re sixteen. It makes no sense either. All of these years, each Davison
woman had three daughters who then had three daughters. There was a system
which allowed everyone to have a life before they had to die, but then Rory
screwed everyone over. Next Penny screwed over your mom and you. Now it’s all
on you at sixteen. No, it’s bullshit and I’m not letting that bitch Penny convince
you to take her place.”
    Smiling, I stared out of the window. “I did promise
Tyson I would go to the opera with him. Should I keep that promise?”
    “Do it. What is one more week or two or a month or
a year?”
    “You know the answer to that.”
    “Whatever. I’m not talking about this anymore. You
are going to live. If someone has to die, it’ll be Penny. Nuff said. Discussion
over.”
    Nodding, I felt better now with Lacey in her
feisty mood. I also felt better about resenting Penny for sending me to die
when she could choose to be the sacrifice instead. While I loved my aunt, I did
hate her a little all of these years.
    The Lily Ridge mall was between Lily Falls and Wicker Ridge. While Lily Falls was picturesque and transitory, Wicker Ridge was
bustling with new businesses and housing communities. Where the Lily Falls population varied from the very wealthy to the very poor, Wicker Ridge was
solidly middle class. No trailer parks, yet no mansions either.
    When I was a kid, Mom and I visited new
communities in Wicker Ridge and walked through the model homes. Now thinking
back, I suspected my mom wanted to do what Aunt Rory did. Move away from the
pull of Lily Falls and hope the darkness didn’t find us. Her job was in Lily Falls, but if we lived outside town, we might have a sliver of normalcy.
    Walking through those model homes, I fantasized about
living in them with my mom. We could have more in those cookie cutter communities
than we could afford in Lily Falls. The schools were new and the population moving
to Wicker Ridge stuck around. The whole vibe of the place was different and I
had liked that vibe a lot.
    Passing Wicker Ridge on the