I turned sixteen today. A hundred years ago that was a day when a girl would throw a huge party and enjoy herself. Today, the ceremony is to kill your monster.

Every human has a monster. It terrorized you when you were little. It would jump out of a closet or kick the bottom of your bed. But it could never kill you. No one knows the reason why.

I finished tying my dark brown hair into a ponytail and looked at myself in the mirror. I was wearing the same black suit my mother wore at her ceremony.
My mother came into the room. She put her one arm around me. She had lost her right arm at her ceremony. I took a few deep breaths.

"You'll be fine Natalia." She said, but I could see tears pooling in her blue eyes.

I could die today. People have died at their ceremonies before. It doesn't happen that often though. Most people end up with scars, burns, or missing limbs like my mother. A lucky few kill their monster without getting any injuries.

A car door slammed shut. They were here to take me to the arena where my monster was waiting for me.

When we arrived my mother had to leave to sit in the audience with everyone else. Someone directed me to a room where I could choose a weapon. There were big doors on the other side of the room that lead outside into the arena.

There was a variety of axes, swords, bows, maces, javelins, and knives spread out on the table before me. My hands lingered on the bow for a moment. That was the weapon I was best with, but it wasn't very practical. A bow is better at attacks from a distance. I will be more close up because my monster doesn't fly.

I reached out and grabbed one of the swords. It was carefully crafted out of the finest metal. The handle was made of leather. This will work.

There was shouting and the crowd began to cheer. Big doors open and sunlight flooded the room. I began to tremble and took few more deep breaths to calm myself, then stepped outside. I walked into the center of the arena, suddenly feeling very self conscious with everyone watching me.

I searched the crowd and found my mom sitting in the special balcony reserved for family members. She looks almost as terrified as I do.
The cheers died down. I looked into the far corner of the arena. There was growling and hissing. It sounded like the combination of a wolf and a rattlesnake.

They had captured my monster a few days before and brought it here for me to kill.

Whoever was in charge of this pressed the button, and the cage door flew open.
It creeped out and slinked towards me. I could see the evil, the hate in its yellow eyes. It's long black body blended perfectly with the shadows. It hissed again, showing its sharp yellow fangs.

I gripped my sword tighter. I will not die. I will kill it. I have to. I am not going to die on my birthday.

The beast hissed again and snapped his teeth at me. I jumped back and pointed the sword at him. Then, I took a deep breath and made the first move and the battle began.

It easily dodged the sword and hit my leg with it's whip like tail. I winced at the pain and for a moment I regretted choosing the sword instead of the bow.

He tried to jump up and bite my arm and I barely managed to move out of the way in time.

All my childhood nightmares came flooding back at once. The memories of it haunting me at night. So many sleepless nights because of this thing. Once I kill it, it will never be able to hurt me again.

I sliced the sword through the air and it met the creature's shoulder. It winced and ignoring the deep cut, turned back to me and growled viciously.
The crowd roared, cheering me on. I made the mistake of glancing up at my family in the stands. The beast lunged and pinned me to the ground.

It looked down at me, it's head just inches away from mine. It's drool was dripping dangerously close to my face. His claws dug into my arms, I could feel warm blood running down my side. I frantically searched for my sword and found it to the right of me, just a few inches out of my reach.

This is it, I thought, this is how I go. I thought about my mother. She wouldn't want me to give up. I slowly extended my arm, reaching for the sword.
The beast was enjoying holding me down and toying with me. He will kill me slowly and painfully if I don't do something fast.

My fingers brushed against the hilt of my sword. I managed to grasp it and stabbed the beast in the side. It yowled and rolled off of me.

I looked down at the gash it had made in my arm and felt queasy at the sight of all the blood. I got up and brushed the dirt off of my face and watched the creature as it writhed on the ground in pain.

Even after all the pain it caused me, even after all those nights where it tortured and taunted me, I still felt pity for the beast. I don't know how, but somewhere in my heart I found the mercy to allow him a quick death.

I watched as some people came in and dragged his body away, then took a few deep breaths. I survived.

~
So this was a prompt from Pintrest. I hope you like it. I spent a long time perfecting it.