Prompt 344 - murder - Sacrifice - slashluv18 - original

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Title: Sacrifice
Fandom: original
Prompt: #344 – murder
Warnings: implied homosexuality
Pairings: papa/dad (relationship only implied)
Rating: PG
Word count: 821
Summary: Molly learns something and she doesn’t like it.
Notes: My sixth week. Also, everything about the gods in here is researched, so to the best of my knowledge, it is true.
Feedback: Yes, please!

Sixteen year old Molly’s eyes swam as she struggled to keep the tears from falling. She shoved her notebook away while throwing her pencil across the room.

Her golden retriever puppy Scarla decided the pencil would make a good chew toy and pounced on it.

“Scarla, no!” Her papa stated in a firm voice while bending down to take the pencil away.

Meanwhile, her dad watched in amusement before turning his eyes to Molly. “Is there a reason for your pencil becoming Scara’s new chew toy?”

“No,” Molly muttered, crossing her arms.

“Shouldn’t you be researching for your culture project?” Her papa joined in after getting his feel of Scarla.

Molly turned away. She couldn’t see it, but she knew her dad and papa were exchanging worried looks. They were sooo predictable!

She heard footsteps retreating.

A warm hand settled on her shoulder, forcing her to turn around. “Dad left us alone. He knows, despite hating it, that you’ll more likely to talk to me.” They held a staring contest. When he came to see that Molly wouldn’t back down, he sighed. “Talk. What’s bothering you?”

Silence.

“Did you get into a fight with Janie?”

Crickets.

“Did you get into a fight with your boyfriend, what’s he name, Ian?”

“It’s Ethan papa!” She huffed.

“Ha!” Molly’s papa yelled in triumph. “You talked.”

Molly rolled her eyes. Her papa might be corny, but it did bring a smile to her face.

“Sweetie, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s bothering you.”

Molly sighed. She might have been stubborn, but so was her papa. “Do you know what culture I chose to report on?”

“The Aztec of course.” Her papa said, sounding as if he was offended because she thought he wouldn’t know.

“They had some questionable practices.”

“Such as?” Her papa prompted.

She twiddled her thumbs, not meeting her papa’s eyes.

When he brushed her hair aside like when she was a little kid, something inside of her snapped. She threw her arms around his neck, hugging tightly. Her papa silently held her, peppering kisses on her forehead until she quieted.

“Sweetie, what did the Aztec practice?”

“They did human sacrifices…as in, they killed human beings, people just like them. Some of those sacrifices were young children, which is twice as bad.”

She pushed away from her papa, turning to her laptop where there were a bunch of reference pages open. “See? It says here that there was a rain god called Tlaloc. They believed that if sacrifices weren’t given to this particular god, there would b no rain and their crops would be ruined. The sacrifices used were children. Another god was Huitzilopochtli, the fire god. They would burn captives and before their deaths, they would be taken from the fire and their hearts would be cut out. The most powerful god, Tezcatlipoca, the god of night, sorcery, and destiny, received a sacrifice as well. Some were made to be in ritual gladiatorial combat where the victim was tethered in place and given a mock weapon and died fighting against up to four fully armed jaguar knights and eagle warriors. There is another god, Huitzilopochtli, but that one is too gruesome to even go into.” Molly shuddered.

Her papa smiled, but there was a sad tinge to it. “You did some good research. Proud of you Mol.”

“That’s all you’ve got to say?!” Molly demanded.

“Honey—”

“I tell you about some awful practices, and—”

“Molly!” Her papa raised his voice, shutting her up. He continued, quieter, “Molly, I know this bothers you, but human sacrifices aren’t out of the norm. A lot of cultures have a history of that particular practice.

“But why papa? How could they do something so awful?”

Papa smiled. “It’s what those cultures believed in. They gave sacrifices by murdering human beings because they believed their crops would flourish, or their people wouldn’t suffer from disease, or some other reason. It was good for their people overall in their minds. You like Harry Potter. Remember Dumbledore’s words, ‘the greater good.’ It can be applied to the Aztec and other cultures. They didn’t kill to be evil. It was just the tradition and what they believed in.”

“I don’t get it papa.”

“I know sweetie. I bet a lot of cultures wouldn’t understand some of our traditions, like trick-or-treating on Halloween. Some cultures believe that spirits can walk with the living on that day. It has nothing to do with candy and costumes for them.”

“Okay papa. All cultures are different and even if I don’t understand the reason behind something, it doesn’t make it any less valid.”

“Exactly. Do you feel better?”

Molly nodded.

“How about you continue working? I’m going to see what your dad wants to do for dinner.”

“Okay papa.”

He left the room and she continued to work, the act of human sacrifice in the back of her mind still.