“Eighteen thousand, six hundred ninety-four,” the announcer declared.

My mouth dried up and I brought my hand to my face. I knew the numbers branded on my right palm by heart. Eighteen thousand, six hundred ninety-four.

I dared a glance at my mother, whose mouth was wide-open in shock. “No,” she mouthed, “NO!” She grabbed my hand as if to make a run for it, but I knew it was pointless. If the guards didn’t drag me away first, the people around me would haul me to the Mirador gates themselves.

The Mirador Fortress. Fear filled my chest as I looked forward and up to where the monstrous structure loomed over the city, to where the King resided in the uppermost room. Every month, he demanded a Sacrifice to be sent into the tower, where he would supposedly kill them. And I had been chosen. Out of thousands of eligible people.

I took a deep breath. “Don’t. I’ll be fine,” I reassured my mother.

My lower lip wobbled as I gave her and my rosy-cheeked baby sister a kiss.

I didn’t fight as the guards took me away. It was over. I was doomed.

Fear thrummed in my blood as I was led through the gates. The dark hallways of the Mirador gleamed from constant polishing, and the flickering torches perched on the stone walls barely illuminated our path. While we walked further up, I became aware of some kind of strange energy in the air, ancient and unforgiving. I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t care. Every step I took sounded like a drum beat in the silent halls. So silent, and yet I knew there were servants behind every door, waiting for us to pass so they could resume their constant cleaning.

Finally, we reached the top floor. Tears filled my eyes as I beheld the huge door, hewn from black stone. This was the room that the King lived in. My hands shook.

“Please, no,” I pleaded. The two guards holding my arms didn’t respond as they pushed the door open and shoved me in.
The door closed behind me with a faint click.

It was so dimly lit inside and even more silent than the halls, somehow. I knew death awaited me. Curling up on the floor, I couldn’t prevent the sobs that erupted out of my throat. The King would come soon and kill me, and I could only hope that he made it quick.

A shadow passed over me, and I knew it was time. I tensed, not looking up, waiting for the killing blow.

There was nothing.

Then a soft, feminine laughter. Familiar laughter.

My head snapped up. “Beth?” I said incredulously. My eyes widened when I realized it was really her, with her chocolate eyes and dark locks, the opposite to my green eyes and light hair. My best friend, who’d been chosen as the Sacrifice two months earlier. I jumped up onto my feet, my breathing ragged, and enveloped her in a hug. She didn’t hug me back, and I recoiled. It was then that I saw the craziness in her eyes. Of course. Beth had been up here for two months all alone, and she’d probably gone mad.

“Morgyn. You were chosen to be a Sacrifice too, huh?” she said to me, her voice too loud.

“How are still you alive? What - why?” I stammered.
She smiled. “There’s a room up here. If you walk in, you die. That’s how it works. But I don’t want to die yet. Do you, Morgyn?” Beth chuckled to herself.

She had always been the brave, fearless one. Of course she wouldn’t give up. But I was afraid; in fact, I was terrified. If I didn’t walk in that room and Sacrifice myself, who knew what the King would do to my city and my family?

I walked into the dim hall, heading for the small, black door at the end. I pushed it open.

Immediately, darkness rushed out of the doorway. It pulsed with the same energy I’d felt in the hallways, purring wickedly at me to come in, enveloping my body with its sweet, poisonous smoke. I gave in willingly, knowing there was no other choice than death.
Then, a pair of hands latched onto my right foot and yanked me back out, my head hitting the hard floor. Stars filled my vision and I pulled myself into a sitting position.

“What are you doing?” I snarled at Beth. My voice cracked as I continued, “Don’t you understand? We have to do this for the good of the city.”

Beth grinned, the craziness in that expression evident. She truly had gone mad. Tears leaked out of my eyes. Losing Beth two months ago had been so hard, and I still hadn’t recovered from the pain. And now, she was in front of me, but completely lost in another way.

“Oh, my darling Morgyn,” Beth cooed, “you didn’t fight for me when I was taken away. You are docile, and afraid, and an utter coward.” The words hit me right in the chest. It was true. I was a coward, who was too afraid to fight for my future and the life of my best friend.

Beth’s expression turned hard. “Fight with me. We have to defeat the King.”

Fight the King, the one who kept a tight leash on my city, who demanded the life of an innocent citizen every month. I took a breath, blew it out.

“I’ll fight with you. We’ll kill the King together,” I said, the declaration burning in my lungs.

Beth grinned again. “Good.”

It was then that I realized something. In the hundreds of years the King had been ruling over the city, nobody had ever seen him. Nobody had even heard him speak, even the servants in the Mirador. Who was the King, really?

The realization knocked the breath out of my lungs. What if there was no King? I thought about the strange energy in the hallways, the pulsing I felt when I opened that door. Almost like a heartbeat.
I grabbed Beth’s arm. “Beth. What if there was never a King?”
She frowned, then grinned. “Oh, what a great idea! How fascinating!”

I wanted to shake her. I could tell Beth wasn’t really hearing what I was saying. “The tower is the King. The entire tower. That room over there is its heart. The strange pulsing I felt was its heartbeat! And the hallways - the hallways are the veins. Don’t you understand?” I pleaded, my epiphany becoming clearer every second. “When Sacrifices go into that room and get sucked in, they’re feeding the tower’s life-force.” I needed her to understand, to be my best friend again. Just once.

She just grinned.

Part of me wanted to sob in frustration, but the girl I used to be was gone. With or without Beth’s help, I would bring down this wretched tower. By opening the door at the end of the hall, I had stolen some of the tower’s life-force. Now, the energy was in my veins, coursing through my body. If I could channel that power, I could make the tower collapse.

I inhaled deeply, closed my eyes, and let my body relax.
Maybe it took minutes, or hours, or even days. Time lost its meaning as I continued to channel the power, my body sparking and glowing. I knew these were my last moments. When the power finally burst out of me, when the tower fell, I’d go down with it. But this death was different than a Sacrifice. It was a forging of a new world, a freeing of my people.

I was close now.

Then, a pair of warm hands closed around my own. My eyes popped open in shock and I saw Beth standing in front of me, holding my hands tight. The clarity in her eyes was like a punch to the gut. I had my best friend back, if only for a moment or two.
She gave me a sad smile, this one full of regret. “I’m sorry I was so wonky, Morgyn. It’s just - everything’s fuzzy, and I can’t really think straight, even now.”

I made a choked sound, and it could’ve been a laugh or a sob. Beth’s lucidity was a miracle, a last gift to me from the Gods. “I’m sorry I didn’t fight for you when you were taken away.”

“It’s fine. You’re here now, aren’t you?” she said, squeezing my hands.

“I love you,” I whispered, my heart mending and breaking at the same time. “I’m sorry it had to end like this.”

Beth smiled at me. “I love you too.”

And then the power burst out of me in a earsplitting explosion. The tower crumbled beneath our feet, the ceiling above us rumbling as it caved in. I blew one last kiss to my mother and sister before the world went black.

My mother and the townspeople looked for me in the rubble for hours. But there was nothing left except a faint whisper of “I love you” in the wind and a phantom kiss on the cheek.