Destined by Jessie Harrell

top of the bluff. I looked down from where I sat to see my mother racing up from behind the procession. She groped for my hand until she held it tight, but she was trembling. Her face was matted with dust and dirt that had caked on her tear-soaked face.  
     
    I looked back to the beautiful morning sky to steel my courage and then climbed down from the cart, careful not to drop my honey cake or coin. Mother wrapped me in her arms and began sobbing on my shoulder. I wanted to cry with her, but I was too numb for the tears to come.
     
    Eventually I pushed her away and passed her off to Maia. I knew she would hold Mother until the world ended if that’s what she needed.  
     
    I’m not sure I even knew where I was going, but I pressed forward through the crowd of mourners until I reached the head of the procession.  
     
    Father had just sacrificed the black bull. Its blood surged from the slit in its throat and spilled over the rocky ground, eventually pooling around my sandals. Reaching down, I stroked the dead animal’s massive head. I was sorry it had to give its life so that I could be properly buried — or whatever was about to happen.
     
    Father handed off his knife to one of the other mourners and turned to me. He cupped my face in both his hands. The tears he had worked so hard to hold back two days ago spilled freely down his face.
     
    His pain broke my numbness and hot tears of my own bubbled up and slipped down my cheeks.  
     
    “Goodbye, Father,” I whispered.
     
    “I’ll stay with you until it comes,” he answered. The pain in his voice was obvious.
     
    “No, please go. You don’t need to see this.”  
     
    My father dropped his head and shook it side to side in protest.  
     
    “Please,” I insisted. “I want you to have happier memories of me.”  
     
    Father looked into my eyes for the longest time. It was as if he were searching my soul to see if I could do this alone. At last, he pulled me into a tight embrace and covered my forehead and cheeks with kisses.
     
    “You’ll never know how sorry I am, Psyche. I wish I’d paid more attention; counseled you better. You don’t deserve to die for your mistakes.”
     
    “Don’t. Please don’t do this.” I shook his shoulders gently and squeezed. “You can’t blame yourself for my choices. And Mom needs you to be strong for her right now, okay?” Giving him a pep talk actually made me feel better somehow.
     
    His eyes scrunched closed and his forehead was wrinkled in anguish. “I love you,” he whispered.
     
    I stood up on my toes and kissed his cheek. “I love you too, Daddy. Now go. I need to meet my fate alone.”
     
    Slowly, he released my hands and backed away. When our fingertips fell apart, I knew that was the last time I would ever feel him again.  
     
    I watched him and the procession depart for only a moment before I turned my back on them all and looked out over the horizon.
     
    The sun had climbed higher in the sky and the red-orange hue was nearly faded away. In its place was a steely bluish-gray. Then the wind picked up, swirling my shroud around my legs. My hair whipped, slapping my face and sticking to my wet lashes.  
     
    As I pulled a strand of hair from my mouth, I saw what looked like a wet cloud descending on me. The cloud swooped behind me and caught me like a cushion as a gust of wind blew me backward. Suddenly, I was in the air and flying out over the edge of the hill. I hadn’t even had time to scoop up my coin or honey cake before being launched into the sky. I looked down as we flew and knew that if I fell, I’d be dead.
     
    I really wished I’d held on tighter to that coin and cake.
     
    The cloud swooped into the valley below. When we neared the ground, the cloud dropped me so quickly that I didn’t have time to get my feet planted. I fell face forward into the dirt and scrambled to roll over. Pushing myself up onto my elbows, my heart thundered as I readied myself for the monster’s