{"id":5255,"date":"2026-09-05T11:25:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/?p=5255"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:25:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:25:02","slug":"the-sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/?p=5255","title":{"rendered":"The Sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The community had come to an agreement. One must be sacrificed for the good of the many.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That one was me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I donned a fine, white cloak and bravely approached the hilltop stone. The gathered community watched my every step. I reached the summit and turned. My mother was standing among the throng, a strong smile on her face but her eyes weeping. She caught my eye and gave me a small nod.  My father was nowhere to be seen.  I was certain he couldn&#8217;t bear to see his eldest daughter die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I laid myself on the granite slab, suddenly self-conscious about my modesty, careful to keep my cloak over my legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Don&#8217;t worry,&#8221; said the woman administering the poison.  &#8220;You won&#8217;t feel any pain.  It will be just like falling asleep.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wasn&#8217;t worried.  I knew, deep in my heart, I would live again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I just wished someone \u2014 anyone \u2014 would sit beside me and tightly hold my hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The community had come to an agreement. One must be sacrificed for the good of the many. That one was me. I donned a fine, white cloak and bravely approached the hilltop stone. The gathered community watched my every step. I reached the summit and turned. My mother was standing among the throng, a strong&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5256,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255\/revisions\/5256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}