Fear. It is fear that made me stop my movements. I don't know why I feel this fear. I just do.

Then, I can suddenly feel a hand tracing my shoulder from behind.

I was in the middle of standing up when I froze up. Although the hand doesn't press down at all, I feel the need to sit back down, since my legs don't support me anymore.

Then, another hand reaches out and starts to feel every inch of my body, while I can't even scream or fight back. I just sit there and let it do, because I do not have any choice. First, the second hand scans my lower body, then it strokes my head until it comes to my eyes, where it just settles down to block my vision.

Then out of nowhere the first hand, that was laying on my right shoulder so far, starts pressing against my upper back. The force behind the push increases, and increases, until it starts to hurt like hell!

The pain became unbearable, so much I almost fainted, but then the pain subsided a bit, and got less over time.

I don't know how long I was sitting there while trying to withstand the pain.

But somewhere in the middle, something started to feel different than before, something changed and I can't pin down what exactly.

Then the hand on my eyes releases its grip. I try as hard as I can to look down at my chest, where I feel some kind of pressure.

There was no "change" to my body, but instead, something went missing.

The place where my heart should be was replaced with a big and gaping hole in my chest.

Now I can pin down what changed, I can't feel my own heartbeat. I can't feel the heartbeat, that followed me through my whole life subconsciously.

But I just don't feel anything about it, there's just emptiness in my mind.

{Just go to sleep, all of this is just a very bad dream.}

I heard a voice saying.

"What do you mean?" I ask slowly while my mind gets slowed down more, and more.

{Just calm down and forget this whole thing, it won't be important anymore. Just... sleep.}

And just like that, with the guidance of this weird but soothing voice, I lose my consciousness and fall into a sweet sleep.

_________________________

"HEY YOU there, what are you doing here!?"

Is he calling me? Probably not, I just want to sleep a bit more. It's just so comfortable in my bed.

"Are you deaf? Stand up and tell me who you are, and what you are doing in this sacred place!"

Why is he so loud? "Annoying..." is all I manage to say while still half asleep.

"You dare?!" is all I hear from this voice, when suddenly something hard hits my cheat and sends me rolling over the floor, for a few metres.

"AHHH..., what the hell is wrong with you!?" I scream because of the pain in my chest and the shock of getting suddenly attacked.

"Oh, so you finally are clear enough to at least notice me? And I was already prepared to hit you a bit more!"

Just then I manage to look at the person in front of me and can see the thing that hit me just now, it was the foot of the person, which is still raised.

I do my best to think about what I should say now because I now can recognize, who he is.

He is the chief warrior of our town. Our strongest fighter isn't bound by any laws, because no one could enforce these against him.

"Oh, I am so sorry. I have been disrespectful, highest warrior Miles. I now am listening to you. I am incredibly sorry for not being in my right mind just now."

"Now, that's the right attitude. I'm gonna let that disrespect of yours slide because you are in much bigger trouble. First of all, tell me your name, age and current employment!"

"My name is Civitas, I am 17 years old, and I am currently in my last year of school.

And if I may ask, but what are the huge problems, I am in?"

"Oh, so you're still in school? That's pretty lucky, as your punishment will be a bit mitigated for that.

What you did, you ask? Do you even know where you are? This is a holy place, where no one is allowed to go!"

I'm still a bit confused because his reaction is too severe for something like this. Some people knew I was here, but they never cared so far.

"And that is the "huge" trouble I am in?"

"Yes, but also no. The problem is the huge commotion that went through the whole town, yesterday.

Many people think the fights are getting closer to us, so our existence is endangered. They think someone must have angered our Gods, so they are sending warnings to us. And now they sent me here to look for any trouble in the holy place because I am the only one who doesn't get bothered by the mana here due to my strength, which is really annoying because I do not want to waste my time here. Come to think of it, how do you even last here?"

"Wait, did you just say "yesterday"? You must be wrong, the commotion was just a few minutes ago!"

"What are you talking about? Did you hit your head or something? How could your sense of time be that messed up?

And now give me a god damn answer, how can you be here despite the mana? My patience for you, and this whole god damn situation is nearly exhausted!"

"Well, it's hard to describe as...."

"Did you find something!?" A voice could be heard from afar, and I fear, I know whose voice that is.

It's the mayor, the priest of our town!

Miles just shouts back "Yes, I found something, or rather someone quite interesting!"

Then he grabbed me and pulled me along out of the forest.

_______

As I get out of the forest I can see a lot of people. And they see me.

Their faces change in different ways, as they realize, what me being here signifies.

Some of their faces change into fearful grimaces, some of them furrow their brows, and one single of them makes a really disgusted grimace. And I know all too good who this one person is. He is my teacher, the priest.

As the warrior sees the priest he asks him,

"Do you know this child? He said he's in the last year of school."

The teacher looks at me for a split moment and I think I could see some evil, pretentious and disgusting smile on his face, that only showed for a split second.

Then he says,

"Of course I know him. He is the biggest shame of our holy city. He is defective! He didn't receive the holy power from our gods of mana! He wasn't worthy! And such an unholy person dirtied our holy place! As he is useless in any aspect, because he lacks the strength to do something, he would have lived a monotonous life, in which he wouldn't have been of any use to our society! But I just now noticed his true grand destiny! The gods gave us one single defective to mark a Sacrifice! He is destined to be sacrificed to please our gods! Like this, his life has the sense to it! He should be happy about being able to contribute something to our society! And I know the perfect occasion for his sacrifice!

The huge festival that will be held in 9 days!"

The people got convinced by his speech and started cheering for him, and weirdly enough, they even cheered for me.

But all I know is, that this is just a scheme to get rid of me. I know I always was a thorn in the eye of this teacher, but I didn't think he would be able to convince almost everyone, to sacrifice me! But I couldn't even say a single word. I was left speechless.

The only one who wanted to speak up against the teacher, to my surprise was the chief warrior Miles next to me.

"Don't you think it's wrong to sacrifice a child who didn't do anything evidently wrong?"

But the teacher just looked back at him with his most disgusting smile and just said back with a low voice,

"So you want to go against me? Just try to. As I taught almost every single one of these people they trust my every word, and even if you are respected by the people, I can at least guarantee you, that I will drag you down with me, as you also need the support of these people, ain't I right?" No one heard this except me, who is right next to Miles, and Miles himself.

With a deep frown on his face, the warrior just growled something incomprehensible and turned away to get out of here, all whilst looking back at me. He seems really concerned.

And me myself? I was just baffled, then got dragged to the cells by some warriors who threw me in there quite violently, even though I didn't even resist.

And now I'm here, in jail, waiting for my execution.

What did I do to deserve this much bad luck?