The Final Offering

By Monica Millard

There is something sinister in the sleepy, hidden village of Haven. There is no war, no starvation, and no drought, but nothing good ever comes without a price.
Something evil stalks the teen girls of Haven, and every year one is chosen. An Offering, a gift, to appease the appetite of the beast, a creature who demands payment for the protections he claims to provide.
Everyone in the village knows who the real monster is. He has chosen seventeen year old Iliana Farali as this year’s Offering. She is not afraid. She has been dreaming of a beast since she was a child. She’s not certain he is real, but she remembers a promise made to her long ago. This year on the night of the Offering, she may not be the only one with something to fear.

The Final Offering is a 22k word novella.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monica Millard
• Release date: Sep 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310024436

Monica Millard

Monica was born and raised in Alaska. She doesn’t own a dog sled team, but has worked in a place where there are buildings with caged exterior doors to keep employees from being eaten by polar bears.She lives in Wasilla, Alaska with all her critters, some four legged and others that stand on two. She writes Science fiction, fantasy, and Paranormal for young adults.

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The Final Offering

By Monica Millard

Smashwords Edition

The Final Offering

Copyright 2014 Monica Millard

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter One

This year has been dry, and hot. There has been little rain. I hear things in the market. Words like drought and shortage. Such things are only spoken in whispers, and even then only after looking both ways and over their shoulder first.

No one wants to be the one to say what we’re all thinking. The Offering is supposed to ensure that these types of things don’t happen.

We have had prosperity for as long as I can remember. I may only be seventeen, but I can’t remember ever going hungry or wanting for much. Our needs have been supplied.

I cannot help wondering if maybe the beast has become disinterested with its normal meal. I can understand that. Sometimes I dream of meat in the morning, rather than bread. Father says Farali girls have nothing to worry about. The beast has an appetite for the flesh of sinners and delinquents.

What if the taste of their flesh has grown bitter?

Iliana, what are you doing up here? Mother sticks her head around the corner at the top of the winding staircase. It is me that has been caught doing something I should not, but she is the one who has rosy cheeks. And not from the steep climb.

Hiding from Nicholas Tettly. I know I shouldn’t say it, especially since I am aware her cheeks are such a lovely color because she has had to explain my bad behavior, but I cannot help myself. I never have been able to lie to her or hold my tongue.

Why ever would you want to hide from him? He has been your dearest friend since you were smaller than I care to think about, and he has been nothing but good to you in all of that time. Her head tilts to the side, her nose crinkles, and I can see that she really does believe that.

For her sake, I hold my tongue. I know I just said I never could when she is involved, but what I did not also say is that I could never cause my mother true heartache. She thinks Nicholas hung the moon and stars, and I will not tarnish him in her eyes.

She offers her hand and I take it, letting her lead me down the stairs and toward the sitting room where I know Nicholas awaits.

Iliana, he says, giving a small bow. Mother’s eyes flutter and we both dip slightly. The courtesy of it all is unbearable. I pull my hand free of hers and then just as quickly I kiss her cheek. She smiles, but it is uncertain. I kiss her other cheek and am rewarded for my efforts by a quick squeeze of my shoulders. It doesn’t lighten my guilt, but at least she is no longer troubled.

Nicholas waits patiently at the door. His lips turn up just slightly at the corners. Oh yes, he knows me well, just as I know him. I glare, now that Mother cannot see. Those lips turn up just a little more and he offers his hand. Ready for our walk?

I bite my lip. I don’t taste blood or anything, but it keeps me from saying the things that are waiting on my tongue. He will hear them soon enough. In the mean-time, I take his hand and act my part.

Nicholas squeezes my hand, and I am unsure if the gesture is one of affection or triumph. The notion of his affection softens me a little and I no longer relish the idea of wiping the dimples from his smile.

I would be lying if I claimed not to find him handsome. He is in fact, very attractive. Many of the girls from town would wish me ill if it meant that his affections were up for the catching. It isn’t his face that turns my interest away.

My mother is also right, he is kind and has been very good to us through the years. I really cannot ask for more.

I pull my hand from his, not with as much force as I had previously planned though. He smiles and clasps his hands behind his back.

This weather may not be good for the farmers, but it does make for a beautiful walk.

For the first time since we left my home, I notice where Nicholas is leading me. In spite of my irritation, I find I must agree with him. The sun is filtering through the trees, down onto our path, creating something of a magical corridor. It’s as if heaven is illuminating the path, and again I am plagued with doubts about my own convictions. Maybe I’m just a silly girl who has had life far too easy and as such, lives in a fantasy where joining with someone in marriage should be based on mutual love and respect, not what comforts and titles it will provide, or what safeties it will ensure.

Nicholas stops and turns toward me. Again, I fear I have spent more time in my own head than paying attention to the world going on around me, and I find we have arrived in a small clearing. It is one we used to play in often as children, not completely hidden from the path, but certainly not in clear view should someone happen passed.

Nicholas, I thought I made my feelings clear.

The Offering is coming soon, Iliana. There is real concern etched in the lines that wrinkle his brow and cause a slight pucker to his lips.