“Two go in, and one comes out - every year without a doubt - two go in, and one comes out, no matter how you cry or pout - two go in, and one comes out - even if you scream or shout - two go in, and one comes out - two have to go, one never gets out!”

The school children danced in a tight circle, grinning, hand-in-hand. Their wide eyes and gleeful voices betrayed the truth of what they sang. There was no older nursery rhyme in Hattieville. It was a tight knit community of devout religious types, and everyone knew everyone.

Everyone had their own role to play. The mayor, the reverend and the mercantile owner played the town’s council, like three heads that spoke as one. The mayor’s wife played the town gossip and made sure everyone kept on their toes. The school teacher made certain the children played their roles, as dutifully studious and obedient to their elders.

The Scriptures and a thorough veneration of their pioneer ancestors was strictly Instructed. For discipline and allegiance in this community came before all other pursuits. To be disloyal to any of the towns customs meant certain punishment. And everyone knew that punishment was nothing to trifle with or tempt.

As children, none ever knew who would have to endure the springtime blood ceremony of life. At the solstice all would gather at the edge of the wood and perform their annual ritual upon a granite slab that looked as if it was cut from deep within the earth and thrust into the air, landing as one whole piece, flat and wide on its side. It was the perfect place to conduct a ceremony. But this was no celebration. This ancient religious ritual was a sacrifice.

The woods were dark and stretched for many miles over the hills and westward into the mountains. The solstice ritual demanded that a lottery be drawn, and two children be taken from their flock and sent into the woods alone, with only each other, to brave the natural wild for a quarter moon. No elder would be allowed to search for them or help them in anyway. They would have to fend for themselves.

The only rule the children had to obey was that, “two go in, but only one can come out.” The child who remained in the woods, so the legend goes, would become the sacrificial lamb to appease the fearful, evil entity lurking there since time immemorial - that which would blight the village if were not appeased with the yearly sacrifice. One child, everyone in town knew, would be lost forever. And it was believed, they would have to die.

This year would be no different. Except in one significant way…