Lions and Lambs
“Time to get up! I have no patience for your shenanigans,” Holly and Alex’s mother screamed in the hallway. The children followed protocol: get dressed in two minutes, run a brush through your hair, and get in the kitchen five minutes after the initial wake-up call.

“Mom, all of the kids at school eat Lucky Charms or bacon for breakfast. Can we ever have that? All we get are these nasty grits every morning.” Alex looked up into his mother’s eyes in the most pleading manner, once he was stationed at the kitchen table.

“No, and don’t bug me again, you swine.”

“But Mom!” Alex looked to be on the verge of tears.

“SHUT UP! It is against the rules and they will never allow it. Need to get you healthy and skinny…” Her voice began to trail off, as if she was thinking to herself.

Alex let the argument rest, not knowing whom his mom was referring to, and he would not know until some time later.

A soft breeze brushed past Holly’s face, ruffling her and her twin brother’s golden hair. She pulled the silver cigar cutter from her dress pocket, and handed it to Alex. He removed the smuggled cigar from his suit jacket pocket. Under the moonlit sky, in the woods in their grandparents’ yard, Alex lifted the shiny device, and chopped off the end of the cigar with a soft chink. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered, thinking “this will be the most rebellious action of our childhood. Too bad we’re only ten.”

Holly opened the palm of her hand to reveal the pack of matches that she had been hiding all night from the watchful eyes of their parents and elders. Alex lifted the cigar. “Light it,” was all he had to say. Holly pulled out the small tray holding the matches, lifted one of the tiny, wooden sticks, and struck the red end against the plate. Instantaneously, the match went ablaze, shooting a few wayward sparks off of the tip.

“Here goes everything,” Holly said, as an evil grin played across her face. She lifted the match and touched it to the end of the cigar. It began to lightly smoke, and released an unpleasant aroma.
“I go first, Holly.”

“Fine, but don’t complain if you don’t like it. This was your idea,” she replied with a sneer. Alex inserted the cylinder between his fingers. He took a small drag of the cigar, and coughed.

“What? Was it not what you expected? Let me have it before we get caught by anyone at this boring party.” Alex handed her the cigar and attempted to mask the watering of his hazel eyes and his incapability to stop coughing. Holly daintily lifted the cigar from her brother’s fingers. Without hesitation, she stuck it between her lips, inhaled, and let out a small puff of air. She hacked like cat trying to spit out a hairball.

He couldn’t help but releasing a short laugh. “Not as easy as it looks, is it?”

“Well at least it gave us something to do instead of being doted on by a bunch of old people that we don’t know.”
“Seriously, who needs a 50th wedding anniversary?” Alex complained.

“According to Mom, ‘this will be the last time that family and friends can get together.’ Even Mom and Dad skipped out halfway through. Way to be a role model,” Holly sneered, curling her lip in an unattractive manner.

“Yeah, whatever,” Alex mumbled. Holly ground the cigar into the ground, and turned around to go back inside.

“Wait.” Holly paused mid-stride, alarmed at her brother’s panicked voice.

“What’s going on?”

“Just casually turn around, keep talking to me quietly, and glance over to the street at the far-right corner of the property,” Alex casually said.

“Why are there people hiding? Who are they?” Holly rattled off questions rapidly. She tried to look calm and collected, so that she wouldn’t raise any suspicion, but her head began to whip around wildly. What if they were pedophiles or rapists?

“Just keep calm, I don’t really know what’s going on, but we need to get back to the house. The bad thing is that we’re far from any entrance.” Alex’s collected façade was beginning to dissipate. Slowly, they began to approach the house, getting out of the dank forest, and trying to return to the back door.

SANP! Pop pop pop. A twig behind them cracked in half. “Was that...” Holly’s voice trailed off. She looked over her shoulder, and screeched “RUN!” A man had been following behind them, and before Alex and Holly could sprint ten paces, five people in ancient, Native-American masks cupped strange-smelling cloths over their faces. The last things that Holly saw before losing consciousness were hazel eyes and a brown mask with a bright red, painted smile.


Her eyes were slightly stuck together, and grogginess was incapacitating all of her limbs. “Aaaaaaeeeees,” Holly attempted to murmur her brother’s name, but gave up with a sigh of exhaustion. She peeled her eyelids open, trying to search for her twin. Sadly, the world was still foggy, and she fell back asleep.

Alex woke soon after, and feeling straw under his fingers, he knew that something was not right. Feeling fully energized, he got up and began crawling around the itchy ground. His hands were feeling around for something familiar, when they made contact with fabric. He grabbed at it, and after his eyes adjusted to the infernal blackness, he could finally see a small, slender body. Holly! After a lot of shaking, she finally came to consciousness, and nearly leapt from the floor to throw her arms around her brother.

“We need to find a way out of here,” he urged, after she released her hold on him. “I think that the sun is starting to come up, but I can’t be sure.”

“Okay, well the best thing that we can do is to try and find the door or some weak area in the walls that we can get out of,” Holly replied as she wiped tears from her cheeks.

As the sun slowly rose, all they discovered was that there was a door that was heavily bolted down, and impossible to get out of. The wood, although it was old, was sturdy, and had no weak points in it. The walls were sturdily built, and finished off with a rusty shade of red. There were tiny cracks between the slats of wood, but they were only large enough for ants to crawl through. The kids figured it was a small barn without any animals, stalls for animals, supplies, or tools. There were no hooks that could’ve held tools at once, and there was minimal light streaming from a hole in the ceiling, slightly illuminating the small room. It was a torture chamber, not giving anyone hope that there was an escape. It was only one story, and about 20x20 feet, not even large enough for livestock, unless that livestock is human.

Alex and Holly remained in the barn for the rest of the day, not doing much, and just trying to keep a semblance of sanity. Finally, night rolled around. They were trying to stay awake, afraid that they could be slaughtered during the night. After an hour or so in the dark, Holly heard a voice. It was quiet at first, but soon, the noise began to distinguish into perceivable sounds, so she moved closer to the wall, and eavesdropped.

“It’ll be done tomorrow night. We can finally gain the power that our ancestors possessed. We won’t be the downtrodden anymore. We will finally be strong enough to do what we want, when we want, and to whomever we want to. The leeches won’t be able to monitor our movements, or make unwarranted arrests anymore on our people,” the first man said maliciously.

“I just want this to be quick. We’ve been raising them for years, and they’re fighters. This can’t be messed up again. Remember the last time that someone failed at this ritual? They were dead. It was the Dargason family. I still remember the stoning…”
another replied. His voice began to trail off in reminiscence.

“Don’t punk out now. Dargason got too attached to the kids. Trust me; if you do anything to stop this, like he did, we won’t hesitate. It will be your blood wetting the sand. Rank doesn’t matter. You may be leaders, and your parents before you, but protocol is protocol. Sacrificial offspring means nothing to us.”

“I know. I won’t fail you. They will be dead, and we will regain our powers tomorrow night. I promise,” the second man replied, void of any emotions.

Holly had been holding her breath the whole time that the men had been talking. She slowly exhaled some time later.

“Alex, are we going to die?” Holly’s voice quivered, attempting to remain calm.

“It sounds like it.” Alex’s voice was far too calm, and Holly finally burst.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE! This can’t be happening. What did we ever do to deserve this: to have awful people want to kill us?” Holly wailed and wailed, unable to contain her panic.

“Did you hear what that second person said though, the one with the deep voice? He said that he had been raising the kids for years, and the other guy was talking about sacrificial offspring. Do you think…he could be…I recognized his voice. It was Dad, I’m sure of it. Holly? Why would our parents do this? Why would they kidnap us, and kill us?” The panic began to creep back into Alex’s voice again, and tears were starting to form in the corners of his eyes.

“We’ll find a way out of here, or somehow escape when they come for us,” Holly reassured him. “I knew that I recognized those hazel eyes that I saw when we got knocked out. They were our eyes: Dad’s eyes, or should we even call him that. Murderer.”

“We haven’t eaten in almost two days. We’re weak, we’re thirsty, and we’re hungry. This won’t work. At this point, the only thing that we can hope for is a miracle, and since it’s our parents,” Alex spit, “I don’t think we have much hope.” He knew that they were defeated. There was barely any use in trying anymore. They just lay down, tried to get sleep, and waited for morning to come.

The following day took forever to pass. The barn was starting to get stuffy. The humidity was on the rise, and the temperatures were stifling, making it almost impossible to be comfortable. Alex reached out and brushed aside some of the hay to reveal a dirt ground. He and Holly played game after game of tic-tac-toe in the dirt. Lattice after lattice peppered the ground, providing a few hours of entertainment, even though the kids knew that it was just a distraction from the impending doom that would come in the night.

The barn grew dark, making figures once again indistinguishable. The tic-tac-toes had to be covered up; otherwise the kidnappers could find the marks. Alex was grave all day; he barely looked Holly in the eye once. Holly just stayed quiet, knowing that Alex needed time to think over the greatest betrayal of his life.

The barn door creaked open for the first time since they got there. Alex grabbed Holly instinctively, and pushed both of them into the furthest corner. Alex’s blood was pumping through his veins with ferocity that he had never felt before. His ears felt as if they were going to explode from bombs of fear metastasizing throughout his bloodstream. Buckets of sweat were dumping down his head, underarms, and spine. The man was coming closer, rope in hand, maliciously licking his lips, poised for the attack.

“When I tell you to, run,” Alex whispered in his sister’s ear. The man looked like he was going to lunge, and he was only about 10 feet away. “RUN!” They made their mad dash, but it was a failed attempt. Two other men entered through the only exit, grabbed them, and tied lengths of rope around their legs and arms. They were led out to a bonfire. Holsters were placed around the fire, creating a roasting spit. Now was the time. Holly and Alex looked into each other’s eyes, knowing it would be the last time. Destiny would take its course. They closed their eyes and waited. Dear God, if you exist, please.


“PUT THE CHILDREN ON THE GROUND! LIFT YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEADS!!!” Pandemonium broke. Alex wasn’t sure how long he blacked out, but he was tied around a long pole, and had two people supporting him on either end like a pig for roasting. As if on queue, the two men released him, and his body crashed to the ground. Those shouts were the best thing that he could’ve heard. Contorting his body so that he could find his sister, Alex was relieved to discover her right next to him.

Holly gave him a half-hearted smile, and mouthed “I love you” to her brother.

In the hour that followed, chaos broke out. Holly and Alex were released from their binds by the FBI agents. Some of the cult members were captured, but the majority escaped. The agents did the best that they could, but it was no use; the cult knew the land better than the FBI. Alex and Holly could see a couple running away into the distance. Just before their faces became engulfed in blackness, Holly realized that it was their parents. They looked back at the two children that they had been raising for ten years, sneered, and mouthed “we will find you,” with matching looks of rage dominating their features. Then the endless night consumed them.

The agents loaded the captured members in some of the sedans, and Holly and Alex in another. A tired-looking agent glanced back at the kids once the car began to pull away, and began to explain what was going to happen.

“I saw your parents before they disappeared. They’re going to hunt you two down and kill you once they form a new coven with enough power. A year ago, a man made an anonymous call to the Bureau saying that some cult was going to sacrifice his children. We tried to get more information out of him, but he seemed so frantic and afraid for his life, so we were unable to make any sense of his words.

“We traced the call to a mile radius of that barn that you were in. Since there was absolutely nothing in the area, we thought that it was a hoax, until one month later, when a man named Dargason and his wife were found stoned to death in the same area from which the call was made. We could conclude that it was the man that made the call. The kids were nowhere to be seen, so it was assumed that they got away from the human-roasting fire pit on account of their parents.” The agent paused for a second. He looked young, despite the worry-lines in his forehead, and a stressed look that always played across his face, but that was bound to happen with his job.

“Then how did you find us?” asked Alex.

“Do you know anyone named Jane Dargason?” the agent prompted.

“Yeah, the Dargasons were our next-door neighbors. Jane and Carl Dargason were one year older than us. They were twins also, and the only kids that our parents allowed us to be friends with,” Holly replied with reserve.

“Jane and Carl went missing a year ago, after their parents were killed by your parents’ cult because Mr. and Mrs. Dargason released the kids from being sacrificed in the ritual that you were going to be sacrificed in. We think that the cult needs boy-girl twins to unlock something that they want. Anyway, Jane came into our office one day. She said that her father told her that honest men worked here, and to come to them if her and Carl needed help. She said that two kids will be sacrificed in the second week of May, and told us whereabouts this would happen. We’ve been monitoring the area, and when we saw you two come out of the barn, we rushed in to save you.” The agent looked more tired than before, but relieved to get this information off of his chest.

“So what happens now?” Alex asked seriously.

“You’re going to have to be put into a witness protection program. It will be a form of foster home. The FBI will give you new identities and a host family in a remote part of the country far away from here. Everyone in this agency is saddened by what we are forced to do, but it is what is best for your safety.” He developed a hopeful face and ended with: “It’ll be a new start, and time to clear your heads. An FBI agent will check in periodically to see how you are doing, and we will provide counseling for the first few months after this incident.”

“It sounds so organized and simple,” Alex remarked.

“We have protocol in the Bureau. A handbook, if you will,” he replied simply.

For the first time since the time that the kidnapping took place, Alex looked at Holly and smiled. “Well I think that we can handle protocol.”

The car kept driving through the natural scenery, and over the rough terrain. Alex reached out and lightly clutched Holly’s hand. The two just gazed at each other. They knew that their lives would never be the same, but that there was a future ahead of them, which was better than what they could’ve said earlier that day. No matter what, they knew that one always had the other. No matter where they went, they had a future. No matter the bumpy road ahead, there would eventually be a smoother horizon.