A Thanksgiving to Remember - 2
Posted by Raven
Date Posted: 11/17/2006

Part 1 posted 11/13

It had been a year since the colonist of Sanctuary had celebrated their first Thanksgiving holiday – when the sacrifice of a young native girl had saved them from certain starvation and death. Her death, the first of many, set a pattern for survival of the Sanctuary settlers.

The colony had prospered and forays into the woods to hunt natives for sustenance were no longer a matter of life or death for the colonists. The native people had retreated further into the wilderness to escape the hunting parties. It was better to leave the forest to these new invaders than to join the other hapless victims who had perished and disappeared behind the stockade walls of the colony.

As the people of Sanctuary prepared to celebrate their second Thanksgiving, their village elders questioned the necessity of another native sacrifice to mark the occasion. Some felt that the time had come to leave such practices behind, but others felt strongly that the sacrifices were still necessary to let their people know that their actions were not evil, but were simply a natural part of survival in this savage new world.

As the elders argued into the night, the rest of the colonists went to sleep, anticipating the great feast tomorrow. Sentries walked the parapets of the stockade wall, occasionally looking toward the darkness of the nearby forest. They saw the mist rising from the grass in the clearing, but thought nothing of it.

The mist slowly rose covered the clearing and rolled toward the colony. It crept across the ground like a living thing edging ever closer to the stockade that surrounded the colony. The mist seeped under the stockade gate, following the well-worn path toward Sanctuary’s large central meeting house, where the elders still argued the need for tomorrow’s hunt. The mist oozed under the meeting house doors and the loud voices of the elders within were silenced.

A sentry was the first to notice the fire in the windows of the meeting house. Quickly, he shouted the alarm, as the community rushed to put out the fire, but it was too late. They stood back and watched helplessly as the flames consumed the building that had sheltered them their first hard year in this new land. As rays of sunlight touched the tops of the trees in the nearby woods, the glow of dying embers faded.

The meeting house was gone. As the Sanctuary colonists began to slowly pick through the ruins, a woman’s scream pierced the air. Still in shock from the disaster, the other settles turned to see what had caused her alarm. At first, it was hard to tell what was what amidst the burnt rubble, but then it was clear for all to see. The great long table in the meeting house had been spared from total destruction. But to their horror, lying on top of the table, spread like meat prepared for a feast, were the charred bodies of the village elders. This year, a hunt would not be necessary.

All stories listed are submitted by guests. If you feel your story is listed without your permission, please contact us and we will remove it. EverythingScary.com does NOT endorse any information in the stories and will NOT be held responsible for the content of any story. Guests submit all stories. All stories express the views of the author.

Submit your story