My teats are depleted, sucked dry by my sisters. Father opens the door and asks if Lizbeth and Mary are ready. In fairness to them none of us have done what this night brings. I tell Father my tears feel normal while Lizbeth and Mary wipe their mouths clean of my (his?) milk. I lounge in the bed as I listen to my sisters being bound. I wonder why he had to do that. Oh well, I need some sleep…
“Come on, Red, we have to do this before the sun comes up” Father says. He wakes me from a deep sleep as I feel the coarse rope cinch tight around my wrists bound behind my back. I remember him telling me he would be taking my head but after the day’s events I do not care. In a few hours I had lived a life that many could not dream of. He leads me down the steps and mother meets me there. Her face is streaked with tears as she tells me “Red, you are my baby as much as Lizbeth and Mary.”
I kiss Mother as I leave my home for the last time. “No, I’m not. I cannot produce the witches and werewolves you desire but I could have given you grandchildren. That might have complicated your life. Come, Father, you have a head to chop and I dare you to shed a tear.”
I walk naked across the grass in the yard between the house and the wood shop. Halfway across I see my sisters, their necks locked in pillories, naked, with their arms bound crossed tightly behind their backs.
“What is this about?” I demand.
“The beast is about to impregnate them” Father Replies.
“I offered myself to it. He is gentle.”
“Red, you are… were a vessel. The wolf would not hurt you until you had prepared your sisters for his offspring. He will not be as gentle breeding your sisters as he was with you.”
I glance at Lizbeth and Mary then to Father. Maybe if someone had told me what my role in this theater was to be I could accept what is happening. I walk up to my sisters. They don’t look happy. I ask “How long did you know?”
They don’t answer. “It doesn’t matter. We will meet in hell.”
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