Die for me, living dead girl

CHAPTER ONE —
living dead girl

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MAEVE WALTON was the girl everyone wanted to be and it wasn't a surprise. She, much like Lydia Martin, was at the top of the food chain. Gifted with grace and looks, her good grades and crowning achievement as head cheerleader, she was the definition of perfection. That wasn't mentioning the love that was thrown at her, not just from her wonderful grandparents but from everyone attending Beacon Hills High.

Living at the top wasn't easy but Maeve made it seem like it was. She was gorgeous in every way, beautiful black hair and ocean blue eyes, she had every boy wrapped around her finger—some girls too. She was also highly intelligent, the top of her class and while she filled the stereotypical queen bee cliche, there was one thing that made her different than everyone else.

Mexico was supposed to be a fun trip, she was supposed to be having fun, yet instead there she was in the back of someone's van and her mouth gagged. She had become the trope she hated, the girl in Taken, she had trusted someone she didn't know and landed in this mess. No one was with her in the back, the driver and his partner were in the front of the van while they assumed she was unconscious.

She wriggled around on the floor of the van and looked for something that could get the tape off of her hands, she found a rock and attempted to cut through it. The van screeched to a halt and before  Maeve could even begin to make a scratch in the duct tape, she fell back and thumped her head against the side door.

She almost fell out of the van itself when the door opened, but two hands gripped her by the arms and yanked her out. They guided her to a dark building, she could hear music thumping from the inside but couldn't see anything. She was placed into a chair and left alone, she wanted to try ripping the tape again but the rock she had earlier had fallen out of her grip.

Her hair was drenched in sweat, from the fun of dancing through the night or the fear the rattled her now—she had no idea which was the cause. After what felt like hours, the door behind her opened. Maeve held her breath as the person said nothing.

She heard the footsteps as they approached her, she felt the cloth being removed from her mouth and a second cloth being wrapped around her eyes. A hand gilded against the slope of her neck, it wasn't a male's as the fingers were too small, but they were calloused like a hard working man's. The hand pushed the hair sticking to her neck away, touched her shoulder and dipped towards the low cut of her top before it gripped her face rather roughly. The fingers touched her cheeks and mouth, preventing her from speaking, and tilted her head as if they looked in consideration.

They pushed her head back and Maeve felt the cool air touch her before she felt the touch of a cool blade press against her carotid. She didn't even breathe in fear of pushing against the knife.

The blade hovered for a mere moment then nicked her, drawing a thin trail of blood that dripped down to her shirt, Maeve flinched and gave a whimper. The knife was gone after that and the room was silent once more.

The woman from before finally spoke, "Beautiful." Her voice was nothing more than a whisper and then she moved to leave the room. As the door opened, she spoke once more but to someone else there, "She'll do just fine for him."

Those words sent a chill through Maeve's body and she felt her eyes burn with tears. Her mind automatically went to the worst scenarios after the door slammed shut.

She didn't know how long she stayed there in the quiet room but she was cold and her legs tingled with the lack of moment. The blood that dripped before was dry and cracking as she would breathe, the blindfold from before was still on as the woman from earlier left it when she left. She could faintly hear the music from before playing, it was the type used at clubs much like the one she was at before this had happened.

Some time later, the doors opened again and Maeve was taken from the chair but placed onto the ground where her leg was placed in a chain as if she were an animal. Inside she scoffed, she was not an animal, but she guessed they were just filling every box on their kidnapper checklist.

Leaning against the wall, she lifted a now unbound hand to feel where her neck had been cut. It was tender but nothing too dramatic, much like a deep cut from a cat. Sighing, she removed her blindfold for the first time; looking around, the room was nothing special. It was dark, the walls were cold, and a majority of the room was pretty empty. There were no walls, a single door, and something in another corner.

Squinting her eyes, she tried to see it more clearly. The shape was slumped, laying against the ground unmoving. Yanking the chain around her ankle, she noted that it was quite long, so taking a chance, she began moving towards the corner across the room. The chain made it and as she approached, she noticed that it was a body.

Stupidly, relief flooded her system, as bad as it was, there was someone else in here. She gently shook the person as if she were going to wake them up, but they remained unresponsive. She tried again and when the person rolled over, she finally saw that their front was covered in blood. It was all over the floors and their clothing, their eyes were wide and their mouth was open in a scream that never came out.

Maeve threw herself back away from the other girl and it was as if she took the scream that the dead body never gave. Shaking, she pushed herself back to the corner in a crawl as she screamed. Her eyes were burning with the tears that had finally begun to fall. Cramming into the corner near her chain, she wrapped her arms around her legs and put her head down to cry. She had no idea who these people were or what they wanted from her and she didn't want to know anything anymore.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Time had passed, she didn't know how many days went by as she couldn't see the sky changing. Someone brought her food every once in a while but it only seemed to happen while she was asleep.

One day, the door opened while she slept and the chain was finally removed. Hearing the clinking, Maeve blinked and her sight was bleary. In front of her, someone was grabbing her arms and guiding her up from the floor. The hands were once again small like a woman's, but not calloused like the ones before.

They guided and almost dragged her over to another room. It was dark again, she couldn't see anything but she was almost used to that feeling already. There was a tub in the room as well as another chain attached to the legs of the tub. Maeve may have had blurry sight but she could make out the chain and panicking, she tried to pull away. Before she even had a chance to react, another pair of hands grabbed her from behind; these hands were male, she knew that for a fact. She stopped moving the moment they touched her.

The girl from before grabbed Maeve's with a surprisingly gentle grip and pulled her away from the man behind her. The unnamed girl gave a nod to the man and after a few seconds, they heard retreating footsteps and the door was shut behind them.

"This will be easier for both of us if you were the one to remove your clothing." The girl had finally spoken up, her voice was tinged with a spanish accent and was as soft as her hands.

Maeve's eyes snapped to attention, "What?"

"You must bathe, and to bathe you must remove your clothing." The girl said nothing after that but moved to begin the water of the bathtub, it was clear that she was not going to look. So with a shaking hand, Maeve began to undress starting with her shirt.

When she was done, she cleared her throat awkwardly and the girl motioned her to enter the tub as she picked up the chain to attach to Maeve's wrist. After a moment's hesitation, she stepped into the water which was at a nice, warm temperature. Sitting with her knees bent to her chest and her body hunched forward, she almost flinched at the feeling of a rag dragging against her spine. The girl had taken a seat next to the tub and had begun bathing her with a rap and used a container to lift water to Maeve's hair.

They continued this pattern of awkwardness—well it was awkward for Maeve, it almost seemed as if the girl had been over this procedure a multitude of times.

"What's your name?" The girl asked her after a while.

"Maeve."

"I'm Anahí."

Maeve gulped and hesitated before asking a question but she asked anyways, "What do they want with me?"

Anahí sighed before answering, "I cannot tell you."

The girl in the tub let out a shuddering breath, "Why is this happening to me?"

"You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time preciosa."

Maeve finally turned to look at the girl directly; she was young but older than Maeve, her hair was red and her eyes were brown, but what stood out was the scar on her face right across her eye. Almost as if she knew what Maeve had been looking at, she spoke,"A side effect of this job."

Maeve's gaze shifted, almost guilty, and they spent another few minutes in the surprisingly peaceful silence surrounding them. Soon, a knock came at the door and it opened with a hand reaching in, the hand held something resembling clothes. Anahí stood up and retrieved them, she handed Maeve a towel and allowed her to dry herself off.

Anahí handed Maeve what the hand from earlier had brought, she assisted Maeve in getting dressed before she spoke again to get her attention. "Maeve," when Maeve was looking, she continued with a warning in her voice, "do not fight, I have seen what happens to those who try to fight back and it is not kind. Hold your ground, shy away from fear, and it will end quickly."

That was all Anahí said before the door opened again and this time, a man came and removed the chain from Maeve's wrist before gripping it tightly and dragging her back to the room before. Maeve watched the door shut and her view of Anahí disappeared.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

The music was playing again, loud as ever. Meals were coming and going, much like the time. The body from before was gone, evidence of it ever being there was in the form of the blood splattered on the floor.

She thought about her grandparents and cried. Her sweet grandparents who loved everything about her, their warm arms and inviting home; she wanted nothing more to be home. She wished they had never agreed to the trip, she should've stayed home for that break, she should've stayed to help her grandmother with her shop.

Maybe if she had stayed home or just not even gone out that night, she wouldn't be in a mess this terrifying. She wondered what they were doing right now, if they were sleeping peacefully in bed or if they were sitting, worried sick, by the phone.

Whatever happened soon, she knew it would kill them, and the mere thought made her cry harder. She clasped her hands in front of her, they were slightly bloody from the attempt she had made earlier at removing her chain.

"Please, whatever's out there, take care of them." She whispered, her voice filled with tears and pain was evident in the way it wobbled.

The door slammed open then, light flooding in and almost blinding her. A figure stalked towards her, it was a man judging by the burliness of his body. A hand reached down and unlocked the chain attached to her ankle, before another figure approached to lift her from the ground in which she sat upon. As they began to move her, she thought about fighting her way out of this, but Anahí's words rang in her head. 'Do not fight, I have seen what happens to those who try to fight back and it is not kind.'

Against her better judgement, she didn't fight back and allowed them to drag her away. She tripped over her feet and they led her outside towards the van from before. They were transporting her, she realized, based on what happens in movies, she knew that whatever was coming was not going to be good.

The ride in the van didn't last long and it didn't give her enough time to figure a way out of her predicament. She had seen the guns the men had in their jeans, she knew they wouldn't hesitate to kill her if she tried to run. They led her to an open field where an alter-like area was. There was a slab looking table that had restraints, that was clearly not good. Stopping, they waited on the words of the figure standing in black.

The figure before them stood in a black robe, their head was covered and their face was not able to be seen. "Levántala." Their voice rang out in the night and it was a woman speaking, the same woman who had cut her all those days ago. Maeve knew enough Spanish from her high school classes to know that the men were instructed to lift her as they followed their orders.

They placed her on the slab and began to restrain her, that's when the panic had really begun to shoot through her. Music was playing somewhere and she could see masked figures dancing around the altar.

The priestess moved around her and then four others followed suit, they were dressed in similar clothing. A long blade was brought forth and Maeve's eyes widened as they sliced the front of her  shirt open. Forgetting Anahí's warning, she cried out, "Wait, wait, wait. What are you doing?"

Her words were ignored as someone began lighting the candles that surrounded her area. "Para el dios, Tezcatlipoca, nuestro creador del destino y la noche." These words came from the main priestess with the dagger who sliced her own arm and wiped it with her own finger before smearing it along Maeve's forehead.

"What are you doing?" She asked again, "What do you want?"

"La sangre derramará hoy, sacrificio por nuestro dios, una mujer digna por nuestro salvador." The woman in black cut along the arms of the other four standing beside her and watched as they repeated what she had done with her own blood.

Maeve had begun to cry as thunder rang around them, the clouds had gathered and had begun to let water fall. "Please don't do this. I won't tell anyone, I promise!" She wasn't stupid, she had seen enough movies and read enough books to figure what they were doing. "My grandparents, please, they'll pay you anything you want, please don't do this." She had definitely become those tropes she hated, every word that came out of her mouth was something stereotypical she had heard on television, but it didn't matter right now.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute and she began to tug her arms against the restraints holding her down.

The rain was beginning to pour upon them, but the priestess moved with practiced ease as Maeve's cries fell upon deaf ears. Everyone watched as the priestess raised her hands with the dagger gripped tightly and then the piercing scream from Maeve's throat was released as the dagger stabbed her through the abdomen. The thunder clapped in unison with her scream, then her sobs became erratic as the knife began to drag in an upward motion, tearing through her diaphragm.

The priestess' hand reached within her open stomach cavity and wrapped around her heart. Maeve could feel the blood filling her mouth, she couldn't breathe anymore, and was beginning to suffocate. As the priestess began to pull her heart out, Maeve felt the excruciating pain and yearned to scream but could not.

In one fluid motion, the heart was removed and Maeve felt the weight of the world disappear. Her body shook for a moment before laying still on the slab, her eyes opened and her mouth wide. She was a carbon copy of the body she had found those days before.

The priestess wasted no time and brought the heart to her mouth, taking a bite as the men removed the restraints from Maeve's now dead body. The rain continued pouring on, washing the blood away, and Maeve was thrown down the steps of the altar as the music continued on, celebrating the sacrifice that had just taken place.

EDITED & REPUBLISHED : june 2023
A/N : i did lots of research on the aztec sacrifices for this scene, sorry it's all gross and yucky. my poor maeve was in pain this chapter but that's part of the fun for her character 😍