SACRIFICE ＊ CHAPTER ONE
gentle bloodshed

warnings: mentions of blood and fighting

Stuck in a loop, a vicious cycle of looking the other way. Of being made out to be some sort of sacrificial lamb. Like that wasn't her fate from the start.

A sacrifice was made on the day of her birth. Not one made by her mother or father; not even the older brother she loved so dear. No, it was she who was the sacrifice. It was forced upon her in a way that should not be expected of anyone: she was not given a choice in the matter.

Even now, as she is admiring the sapphire blue waves of the Atlantic Ocean, she knows she will be felled like a lamb to the slaughter. That truth is a permanent haunting in the back of her mind.

But she doesn't know how or when the final blood will be spilt. All she knows is that it will occur at the hands of someone. She still isn't sure if that implies that, not only is she the bleating lamb, she is also the haggard butcher. The sunlight igniting the water in front of her ripples in such a way she swears she could see a cleaver for but a moment. But the waves shift and the current tears the image apart.

Then she is slingshotted out of her head when there is suddenly a weight settling across her shoulders.

"Jules!" Pretty brown eyes stare at her. "Your husband will return from war soon. Now, come on!"

Sarah Cameron reaches for Jules's hand and drags her away from the shallow surf. She leads her towards their friends who are sharing a few bottles of beer atop a large, speckled gray rock.

Without a doubt, Sarah is Jules's best friend, and vice versa. They have known each other their entire lives. They went to the same schools, had a handful of classes together throughout the years, and shared a mutual friend: John B Routledge. But John B was the one to finally convince them to hang out and get to know each other, like he knew they would end up being inseparable someday. And they did, in fact, become joined at the hip. They are rarely ever seen apart anymore.

Jules dashes through the warm summer sand hand-in-hand with Sarah. Then they're in front of their friends and Jules is pulling JJ to his feet to run around with her and Sarah.

Jules loses her grip on Sarah as they twirl and dance on the beach. From the corner of her eye, through the strands of her long, wild brunette hair, Jules sees her reaching for John B. But then JJ has his arm around her shoulders and she slips her own arm around his torso.

They continue to twist and turn happily, their feet sliding through the grains of sand and their chests bellowing with laughter. The crashing waves and the golden hues of the oncoming sunset have Jules's senses singing. Her cheeks are beginning to hurt from smiling so much.

JJ seems to constantly have a hand on her. It's nice; his hands are hot against her body and they keep her steady as they keep on twirling.

JJ had just spun her around with a flourish. Their fingers slipped apart and Jules kept spinning until she lost her balance, falling down into the sand with a dizzy smile gracing her face. But JJ doesn't join her.

She can hear a bit of commotion not far from her. Jules pushes herself up onto her hands to see JJ getting swung at by another person. She sees it isn't any of her friends, and her stomach immediately drops.

Jules gets to her feet and rushes forward. As she gets closer JJ's head snaps to the side, a small trickle of blood emerging from one nostril. Anger flashes through her.

"Rafe!"

Everything seems to stop at her raised voice. JJ looks back at her with a hazy look in his eyes, the blood dripping down to his lips. His eyebrows are lowered and there's a crease in his forehead. Jules bites her tongue.

Behind JJ is Rafe Cameron. Rafe is two or so years older than his sister, so he was in middle school when Jules and Sarah became friends. The two girls spent time at Tannyhill, the historical home where the Camerons live. And then Jules met Rafe.

They developed the kind of relationship you'd expect: best friend's older brother teases you instead of his sister because he loves to see you squirm, thus making his sister miserable by proxy. It definitely annoyed Jules at first. Rafe was rude and mischievous and selfish.

But he was also sweet and kind and thoughtful when it came to Jules. It was always subtle in a way that only Jules noticed, or when Sarah wasn't around. She never saw Rafe act that way with any of Sarah's other friends.

It was only with her.

Then they became closer friends and started hanging out more without Sarah as a buffer. Jules felt safe around Rafe and wanted to share all sorts of things with him. There were things she wanted to tell him, but she always chose to stay quiet. He made her feel an amalgamation of emotions and feelings, certain wants and cravings that made her sick to her stomach.

Rafe Cameron is overprotective of her to a concerning level. In such a way that, apparently, seeing her have fun with one of her friends has him seeing red.

"What the fuck is going on?" she demands as she approaches, her voice oddly level as she stops beside JJ. Her gaze flicks between him and Rafe. Neither answer.

With a roll of her eyes Jules wraps her hand around JJ's forearm and pulls him away. They reach her bag that is sitting beside the gray rock, where she unties the bandana from the strap and grabs her water bottle. She moves over to where sand meets patchy grass, telling JJ to sit down across from her. She begins pouring the bottle's contents onto one corner of the yellow bandana, wrings it slightly, then begins gingerly dabbing at the blood on JJ's face.

They sit in silence for a bit. Jules can hear Sarah bitching at her brother, the sound of the ocean buzzing in her ears. Her chest is tight as she watches the bright yellow of the cloth in her hands turn a muddied orange-red.

"What happened?" she finally asks JJ. She makes sure her tone is soft and quiet, something she hates she has to do.

JJ keeps quiet for a few moments before saying, "I dunno. Sorry. He was saying some shit like always. And I reacted, like always. I didn't mean to, Jules, I swear. I'm sorry. I can't fuckin' stand the guy but I didn't mean to hit a nerve or anything, okay? I'm sorry."

Despite JJ's words, Jules knows he meant to strike a nerve on purpose. He will provoke Rafe whenever he gets the chance if it means hacking off a bit of his ego.

Jules doesn't reply. She just wipes away at the last drips of blood and rinses out her bandana. JJ quietly thanks her before heading back to join their friends.

As she's wringing out the excess water trapped in the bandana Rafe appears and plops down on the grass, right where JJ had been sitting. His legs are crisscrossed and he rests his hands atop his knees. Jules doesn't acknowledge his presence as she finishes her task.

Then she uses the last of her water bottle to repeat the same process from her time with JJ, now focused on Rafe's hand. She grasps his wrist and delicately pats the bright red skin of his knuckles. Bits of skin had split and there were tiny dashes of blood across his fingers and the back of his hand.

"What happened?" she asks. She uses the same tone when she had asked JJ the same question, hoping Rafe won't be an asshole and brush her off.

He shrugs. "I was coming to see if you were ready to go," he tells her, his voice low. "Then I saw JJ getting too handsy with you when I came over. Didn't plan on punching him."

A sliver of Jules believes him. She knows he wouldn't have approached their group just to punch JJ in the face. And she can't deny — to a degree — that she appreciates the fact that Rafe was defending her and protecting her. But the way he thought that JJ was getting too handsy with her when they were just having fun shouldn't have been so humorous. This was coming from the same guy who touches her like she's his girlfriend in public; considering all of the face caresses, the handholding, even the thigh grabbing that drives her fucking crazy.

But she swallows the laugh bubbling in her throat and finishes cleaning up Rafe's hand.

Jules wrings out her bandana one last time. She places it on the ground beside her to begin drying then turns to Rafe. She was going to say something but the words are quickly forgotten when she sees him already watching her intently. His eyelids are heavy and cover part of his lovely blue irises. There's a slight shadow to his eyelashes, a warm tangerine light stretching across his face. Jules's breath hitches.

Then Rafe leans forward. Jules finds herself suddenly drowning in panic, until Rafe pecks her cheek and is on his feet and walking away before she can react. She struggles to catch her breath, but pushes herself to her feet to walk back to her gathered friends.

She tells them what Rafe had explained to her, or really, his lack of an explanation. And their reactions were as expected: annoyed, angry, frustrated.

"Rafe thought JJ was getting too handsy with you?" Kie reiterates after Jules has recalled everything. The girl's face has scrunched up into a sour expression, something that almost seems permanent for her. Such a contrast to her beautiful features.

Jules nods with her lips pressed in a tight line for a brief second. "Yeah. Sometimes having him as a best friend is a little bit overwhelming," she says quietly.

"A little bit?" Pope repeats with a scoff. "Nothing that guy does is little, Jules."

"God, tell me about it." Jules reaches up and rubs at her face with her hand. "Uh, I think I'm gonna go now. Rafe's probably waiting for me anyways. I'll see you guys later."

Her friends mumble out a string of goodbyes as she stands once more to head back to the sparse parking lot, several yards past where she had sat on the ground with JJ and then Rafe. There, she finds Rafe in the driver's seat of his truck with his arm stretched out atop the windowsill, who then starts the engine when she comes into view. She silently slides into shotgun as he begins the drive towards her house.

The drive is quiet. Jules doesn't care much for it, as their car rides are usually filled with conversation and teasing and jokes. But she needs Rafe to know she isn't happy with him, that she didn't fully approve of his intervention, no matter how much he believes it was warranted.

When they finally arrive at the Sykes household, Rafe stops Jules before she gets out.

"Look, I'm sorry," he admits after a few seconds. "I don't like it when people who aren't me put their hands on you."

Jules scoffs. "Wow. You want to be possessive over me after that?" she scolds him. "Jesus fuck, Rafe."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Oh, but it was! I know you too well, Rafe. I know you would have beaten JJ half to death if I hadn't stepped in. I know you would have—"

Jules is suddenly cut off by Rafe gently placing his fingers over her lips. At the contact, she stills without hesitation. His hazy gaze is glued to her mouth as he slowly lowers his hand to her chin, his grip light. Then those dusty blue eyes dart up to hers.

"Can I come in?" he asks softly.

The girl clenches her jaw as she glances at the two cars in the driveway in front of them before looking back at Rafe. "Not tonight," Jules murmurs.

Rafe just keeps tracing Jules's skin instead of giving a verbal response or any sort of acknowledgement. After staring at her lips for what could have easily been a century, he finally draws back his hand from her chin. He leans back in his seat, propping the same arm up on the steering wheel.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Jules says, trying her best to make eye contact with him.

All he does is nod.

Jules bites her lip as she reaches out with her hand and lightly touches Rafe's cheek. She feels him go still at the soft sensation of her thumb against his cheekbone. With a small inhale, he turns his head to look at her. She's rubbing his skin ever so slightly as they stare at each other.

The dying light of day illuminates Jules's body, drowning her in the warmest, most beautiful colors. Her hair tumbles down her shoulders and chest and is outlined in an auburn light that Rafe swears looks just like a halo. Her face is darkening with shadows but her eyes are so bright, so full of life and love. And her hand is soft and kind against his blushing skin. Jules is so... breathtaking.

Jules finally pulls her hand away and gives Rafe the softest smile she can muster before she jumps out of the truck. She walks up to her front door, throws him a wave and heads inside, leaving Rafe burning up inside and out.

Once she is in her bedroom, Jules tosses her bag onto her armchair. With a heavy sigh, she settles her yellow bandana on her desk so it can finish drying. She makes a mental note to toss it in the laundry tomorrow. She sits down on her bed as she contemplates the events of the day.

It started with waking up in Sarah's room after a sleepover, who she laid in bed with most of the morning just talking and laughing with. Then getting ready to go to the beach with her friends, Rafe deciding to drive both Jules and Sarah to the beach. Jules hanging back in the truck with Rafe to check on him before joining her friends. Rafe telling her he would be back in a few hours to take her home. And then...

Jules covers her face with her hands. What a wreck of a day, she thinks to herself.

Today could have been so nice, a lovely break away from the worries of the world and the stresses of her everyday life. But no, something bad just had to happen. Jules can never seem to catch a break, especially when it comes to Rafe.

But even as she gets ready for bed later into the evening, she can't seem to get Rafe off of her mind. She can never seem to get him off her mind.