For Valentine's Day, my boyfriend said he was taking me back to his hometown to meet his family. Instead, the moment we arrived in his isolated backwoods village, he hogtied me and threw me to a mob of men. My boyfriend wrapped his arm around his childhood sweetheart, staring at me with cold indifference. "If I didn't trick you into coming here, Chloe would be the one going up the mountain to be sacrificed to the Old God." His little sweetheart gloated, parading in front of me. "Being chosen as the Forest God's bride is an honor! People beg for this blessing and never get it!" You want this blessing so bad? Take it! Staring at the painfully familiar statue inside the decaying chapel, I wailed like a broken siren. When I ran away from the altar a century ago, the God swore that if he ever caught me again, he would crush me to death! "Carter, even if you don't want to marry me, did you really have to kidnap me?" I was bound hand and foot, dumped on the freezing mud floor, surrounded by villagers glaring at me with malicious intent. A million possibilities raced through my mind. Was this a human trafficking ring? If he just needed cash, he could have asked! After all, the one thing I have an endless supply of is money. But Carter just held his childhood sweetheart, Chloe, looking at me without a shred of pity. "If I didn't trick you into coming here, Chloe would be the one going up the mountain to be sacrificed." "You always said you wanted to get married. Who cares who you marry? Just think of this as doing me a favor." I thought I had been kidnapped for ransom. I never expected it was a cult sacrifice. Without giving me another glance, he signaled the villagers to take over. "I brought her back. You can do whatever you want with her, but nobody touches Chloe again. We have a deal." Carter looked down at me, a twisted sense of self-righteousness on his face. "I treated you so well for two years. It's time for you to repay me." We had been together for two years. I truly thought Carter loved me. When he pursued me, he was incredibly attentive. Whenever I needed him, he was there. He even spent most of his meager paycheck on me. Different breakfasts every morning, cheap but thoughtful little gifts—I was so moved. I thought that was what true love looked like. I considered myself lucky to have found a good man. It wasn't until I saw the fiercely protective way he held Chloe that I realized what the look of true love actually was. "Don't worry, the Forest God only needs one bride. Carry her to the lodge." The town's mayor, an old man with rotting yellow teeth, puffed on his pipe. His greasy eyes scanned me up and down. "Tsk. She's definitely prettier than Chloe. The Old God will love her!" Like a prized pig prepped for slaughter, I was bound so tightly I couldn't move an inch. They forced me into a vintage crimson gown. They told me I had to be locked inside the unheated lodge for three days to fast and "purify" my body before being offered to the God. The Forest God's bride had to be a pure, untouched virgin, inside and out. In the dead of winter, tied to a wooden pillar in the freezing chapel, I shivered uncontrollably, starving and freezing. I had already gone through this exact routine once before. Doing it a second time didn't make it any less miserable. That night, when Carter came in carrying a wool blanket, I cried so hard I couldn't breathe. "I'm begging you, Carter, let me go! I have money, I can pay you!" "If you just let me leave, I'll give you whatever you want!" When Carter wrapped the blanket around my shoulders, I thought he had finally softened. Instead, his hands slid directly down to my waist. His face twisted into a greasy, greedy smirk. "Let me test the merchandise first. It's a damn shame to let someone else have you when I haven't even gotten a taste!" His hands slipped lower, grabbing my leg. For two years, he had completely respected my boundaries, claiming he wanted to wait until marriage because he cherished me so much. That was exactly why I trusted him so deeply, believing he was a decent, honorable man I could rely on. I never suspected that beneath his handsome exterior hid such a nauseating, vile monster. Terrified, I kicked my legs wildly. "What is it going to take for you to let me go?!" Carter's rough fingers dug into my skin. His eyes were full of calculation. "Give me the passcode to your safe. You're an orphan anyway, you can't spend all that wealth yourself." Staring at his greedy, venomous face, I suddenly calmed down. He wanted the money and my life! Even if I gave him the passcode, he would never let me walk out of here alive. During the honeymoon phase of our relationship, I had foolishly shown him all my cards. The contents of my private vault held enough wealth to last several lifetimes. Back then, I completely missed the flash of pure greed in his eyes. When he acted indifferent, I actually thought he was a man of high morals who didn't care about money. Turns out, he was worse than any criminal I had ever met! He just hid it better. But right now, begging was my only option. I had to play along. "I really don't want to be sacrificed. You just want the money, right? We can make a deal!" "I can give you more money than you could ever spend. Just let me go! With that cash, you and Chloe could move anywhere in the world!" Carter seemed tempted. He stroked my cheek, his hands getting bolder. "Such a great body, such a pretty face... Would that bullshit Forest God even know what to do with you?" "I might as well enjoy you first. If you're a good girl, maybe I really will take you with us!" Carter started rooting around my neck like a pig. Stripped of his disguise, his evil nature was on full display. He was vicious and rough, leaving dark bruises across my pale skin. Just as I was fighting back the urge to vomit and trying to break my bindings, Chloe ran into the lodge, crying hysterically. "You bastard!" Smack! Carter took a hard slap to the face, instantly snapping him out of it. Seeing Chloe's tear-streaked face, his demeanor flipped. He hugged her, frantically trying to soothe her. "Chloe, it's not what you think! I didn't touch her, I was just trying to scare the vault passcode out of her!" "She forced me to do it! Yes, she was trying to seduce me! I didn't touch her for two whole years, why would I want her now?!" Chloe glared at me with pure venom, acting like she was the ultimate victim, looking like she wanted to eat me alive. "You've been together for two years! The Mayor just said she's prettier than me, I don't believe you never had feelings for her!" Carter practically dropped to his knees. "I swear I didn't! She doesn't even compare to a single strand of your hair! I only dated her for you. She's a sacrifice for the God, I wouldn't dare touch her!" Hearing that, Chloe bought it. With a few whimpers, she leaned in, and they started aggressively making out right in front of me. The sick lust he had just directed at me was now being unleashed on Chloe. Watching them act like they were about to consummate things on the chapel floor, I quietly spat on the ground. Disgusting. Terrified they were actually going to put on a live show, I had to speak up. "Are you guys really not going to consider letting me go?" Chloe leaned against Carter, panting, glaring at me like a victorious queen. "Let you go? Then who goes to the God? Don't try any tricks. If you try to seduce Carter again, I won't hold back!" Seeing this toxic duo perfectly united in their delusion, I had to play my final card. "Let me tell you the truth. I actually know the Forest God. If you offer me to him, you are going to bring down a terrible curse on yourselves!" Chloe looked at me like I was a mental patient and burst out laughing. "That's hilarious! You know the Ancient God?" She pointed to the faded portraits hanging in the back of the lodge. "See those? Those are the women who actually met the God. Not a single one of them ever came back alive!" The portraits were of previous sacrificial brides. If they looked closely, one of the heavily faded, ancient portraits in the corner looked exactly like me. But it was covered in a century of dust, totally unnoticeable. Carter frowned, losing his patience. "You're going crazy because you can't have me, aren't you? Playing insane won't work. I have plenty of ways to make you spit out that passcode!" I kicked my legs out, adopting a "nothing left to lose" attitude. If they weren't going to let me go, they weren't getting a dime! I was dead either way! Seeing me turn hostile, Carter slammed his fist into my stomach. "You bitch! Tell me!" I curled in on myself, tasting copper in my mouth, but my glare remained fiercely defiant. Carter raised his fist again, but Chloe stopped him. "Carter, stop. If you bruise her up too badly, the Mayor won't accept the sacrifice. I have a way to make her talk." Carter’s face lit up. "Really?" Chloe smiled maliciously, pushing him toward the door. "Of course. Go get some sleep. I promise I'll get the code." Once Carter left, I looked at Chloe's wicked face, a deep sense of dread pooling in my gut. "What are you going to do?" Chloe swung her arm back and slapped me hard across the face, her acrylic nails leaving deep bloody scratches on my cheek. She gritted her teeth. "You really think you're prettier than me?" My head spun from the impact, my ears ringing. I struggled instinctively. "If you ruin my face, aren't you afraid you won't be able to deliver the sacrifice?" Chloe grabbed my jaw. Pulling out several long sewing needles from her pocket, she viciously jabbed them into my arms. "What do I have to be afraid of? Once I get your money, Billy is going to take me far away from here." "Even if the village investigates, the only ones taking the fall will be you and that cowardly loser, Carter!" "If Carter had just been man enough to protect me years ago, why would I have had to sell myself to all these disgusting men in the village?" "No woman who goes up that mountain comes back alive. You think you have a chance to fight me?" With that, she violently pinched my cheeks open and shoved a squirming, pitch-black insect into my mouth. Before I could spit it out, the bug slithered down my throat. As someone with a lifelong phobia of creepy crawlies, my entire world collapsed. If it wasn't for the fact that the Forest God's realm was full of bugs, I wouldn't have run away from my wedding a hundred years ago! Watching me gag and tear up, Chloe smiled with immense satisfaction. "That's a Veritas Parasite. Once you swallow it, you can only speak the truth. Now, give me the passcode to the vault!" If she had something this effective, why did she even bother torturing me first?! This evil witch did it on purpose! In the end, she got exactly what she wanted. The vault passcode slipped easily from my lips. The Veritas Parasite lived up to its name; my mouth was completely out of my control. Before Chloe left, she deliberately took a blade and sliced my cheek. The moment she stepped out, a hulking man stepped in. "Billy, didn't you say you wanted a taste of that bitch? Once you're done, we're leaving! You promised you'd take me away from this dump!" Billy looked absolutely thrilled. "Carter is such a coward, how could he hold back with a piece of meat this prime? More for me!" "Good job, babe! I'll reward you properly later. With that cash, leaving this town is gonna be a breeze!" Chloe left looking overjoyed, pulling the heavy lodge door shut behind her. Covered in blood and barely breathing, I watched the massive man approach, cursing every deity I knew. If I knew I was going to suffer this much in the human world, I would have just stayed on the mountain with the bugs! Terrified I would scream, Billy gagged me tightly with a dirty rag. Just as he was unbuckling his belt, Chloe's voice shrieked from outside: "Billy! Your dad is coming with the elders!" Billy panicked, yanking his pants back up. He spat on the floor in frustration and shoved a burlap sack over my head. "Damn it! Whatever, with millions of dollars, I can buy whatever woman I want." The door slammed shut. I heard voices talking outside. Billy, being the Mayor's son, corroborated Chloe's story, claiming he had already "inspected" the sacrifice, and shooed the elders away. Gagged and blindfolded, I whimpered as I listened to their footsteps fade away. It wasn't until the third day that they finally came for me. Starving and barely conscious, with the sack still over my head, I was tossed into a wicker palanquin. As they carried me up the bumpy mountain trail, I used every last ounce of my strength to push the rag out of my mouth with my tongue. If I could just let them see my ruined face, they wouldn't dare send me up the mountain! The Ancient God only accepted flawless brides. Even a single blemish was considered an insult. My tongue was completely numb by the time the rag finally popped out of my mouth. Using my remaining strength, I threw myself out of the palanquin, crashing onto the dirt trail, trying to scream with my hoarse voice. But all that came out was the metallic taste of blood. I couldn't form a single coherent word. Three days without food or water, raging with a fever from my infected wounds, my throat felt like it was lined with broken glass. The Mayor panicked. He ordered the men to grab me and shove me back inside. "Oh, please, Bride of the God, stop fighting! If you get bruised, the Old God will unleash his wrath!" "Just accept your fate! This is an honor people beg for!" I let out desperate, raspy hisses, but couldn't speak. I thrashed violently, and during the struggle, I managed to yank the burlap sack off my head. My heavily scarred, infected, and festering face was exposed to the daylight. The entire procession gasped in collective horror. Carter stared at Chloe in shock, but cowardly chose to keep his mouth shut. The Mayor turned pale. "Who did this?! Who the hell did this?! The God will destroy our town!" One of the villagers nervously suggested, "The damage is done! We have to swap the bride!" Instantly, every single pair of eyes locked onto Chloe. Carter instinctively jumped in front of her. "You promised you wouldn't touch Chloe!" The Mayor's face darkened. He brutally kicked Carter to the ground. "To hell with your promises! We're out of time. It has to be Chloe!" "Or what, are you going to die to appease the God's wrath?!" Carter, stunned and clutching his stomach, turned deathly pale and didn't dare make another sound. Seeing his cowardly submission, Chloe ground her teeth in fury and rolled her eyes. "I'm not pure anymore!" she shrieked. "I can't be the God's bride! You have to send Scarlett! At least she's never been touched by a man!" Carter's jaw dropped. His face flushed beet red with absolute fury. He grabbed Chloe's arm, shaking her. "What did you just say? I've been away working for two years and never laid a hand on you! You've been sleeping around behind my back?!" Chloe impatiently ripped her arm away and hid behind the Mayor. "You worthless loser. You disappeared for two years. Did you expect me to wait for you forever?" The surrounding men exchanged knowing, sleazy smirks. Carter's face burned with humiliation, his eyes looking like he wanted to murder her. "Today is the God's wedding day! Carter, are you really going to cause a scene?" The Mayor's eyes roamed over Chloe's body with a perverse glint, before making the final call. "Enough! We have no other choice. Send Scarlett up the mountain! Let's just finish the ritual and hope for the best!" I stared at the mob in pure disbelief, fighting with everything I had. But it only earned me a brutal beating. They aimed for my ribs and stomach—places where the bruises wouldn't be visible. I finally passed out from the pain, blindfolded once again, and tossed into the palanquin in utter despair. When I woke up, I was inside the familiar, ancient temple at the peak of the mountain, surrounded by the chanting of the villagers. Terrified to linger, the cultists quickly retreated and locked the heavy wooden doors. But the next second, I was magically violently hurled through the air, crashing hard onto the stone floor outside the doors. A freezing, booming voice echoed from within the temple: "I said no more women! Get out!" It was the Ancient God! The villagers outside fell to their knees, shivering in terror. Chloe was the first to react. She pulled out a hunting knife and lunged at my throat. "Please calm your wrath, O Great God! We will slaughter the imperfect sacrifice to appease you!" Wait, if he said he didn't want a woman, why are you killing me?! I frantically rolled to the side. The knife plunged into my shoulder instead. Chloe pounced on me like a rabid animal, tearing away the thin fabric of my crimson gown. On my shoulder, the divine mark the deity had branded me with a century ago was exposed to the freezing air. "You have to die! I am not spending the rest of my life trapped on this mountain with a monster!" Chloe screamed. As the knife came down for a second strike, I squeezed my eyes shut. But from within the dark temple, a voice echoed in pure, shocked disbelief: "Scarlett?!" A blast of gale-force wind erupted from the doors. Chloe was sent flying backward like a ragdoll. The next second, I fell into a freezing, iron-hard embrace, shivering uncontrollably. This terrifyingly familiar sensation... it felt exactly like being coiled up by a giant serpent. I don't know if it was my imagination, but the entity holding me seemed to be trembling slightly too. From above my head, Silas's voice spoke through gritted teeth: "You said you'd rather die than stay here. Why did you come back?" "I told you... if I ever saw your face again, I would not spare you!" Weakly, I parted my lips to speak, but all that came out was a mouthful of dark blood. Great. He doesn't even have to kill me. I'm already dying. I used to be so terrified of being caught by him again. But now, I didn't find him scary at all. In fact, his freezing cold, scale-like skin felt incredibly soothing against my feverish body. I thought that if I died, Silas would be thrilled. But there wasn't a trace of joy in him. Instead, his eyes turned blood-red. He gripped my neck, shaking me frantically. "Speak to me!" Even if he strangled me to death right now, I physically couldn't speak. My throat was agonizingly tight, and I felt like I was fading fast. But I wasn't afraid. I had lived a long, full life anyway. A hundred years ago, when I was originally offered as a sacrifice, I smashed a vase over the Serpent God's head, stole the bridal hoard of gold, and ran away. After that, I realized I no longer aged and couldn't die naturally. Like a freak of nature, I lived from the pioneer days all the way into the modern era. I had lost track of how old I actually was. I don't know if it was a near-death hallucination, but I felt a powerful, warm current flowing from Silas's body into mine. I couldn't seem to take my final breath, so I just closed my eyes and played dead. But that warm energy only grew stronger, knitting my bones back together. Outside, none of the villagers dared to step closer. Everyone knew that those who looked upon the Ancient God never returned. Except for Chloe. Gripping the stone wall, she furiously staggered back to finish me off. But the moment her eyes landed on Silas, she froze in her tracks, a suspicious blush spreading across her cheeks. In utter disbelief, she stammered, "You... you're the Forest God?" Silas was undeniably breathtaking. He had an otherworldly, razor-sharp beauty, his features completely flawless. Dressed in ancient, flowing black robes, he looked like an immortal god stepped out of a myth. He was gorgeous, sure, but he was literally a giant snake. His body was ice-cold and rock-hard. Not exactly ideal husband material. I was thinking practically, but Chloe was clearly blinded by lust. She had always assumed the Forest God was a grotesque monster. Who knew he was an insanely hot, ethereal being? If he didn't look like a bug, she was perfectly willing to be his bride. She twisted her body, acting coy and shy. "My Lord, I am actually your true bride! Scarlett dared to impersonate me and desecrate your presence. I'll throw her out for you right now!" Silas didn't even spare her a glance. He was too busy glaring down at me, his handsome face radiating immense, overflowing resentment. Seeing him ignore me, Chloe looked thrilled and took a step closer. "My Lord, she's an ugly monster! I am your destined bride! You must punish her severely!" Carter suddenly rushed forward and grabbed Chloe's arm. Even though he was wearing the ultimate horns, when push came to shove, he still cared about her.
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