Pumpkin Pie

Constance pushed the curtain aside and looked out. The children walked down the paved stoney road past the signs pointing toward the temple. The stones were polished smooth, reflecting the light of oil lamps carried and the moonlight, creating an almost perfect mirror. It was the only visible thing in the mist and dark. She released the curtain, took a deep breath, and turned. Forcing a smile onto her face, she chirped, "Alright, Sandra, it's time for you to go!"
The girl jumped up from where she sat on the wooden stool, picking up the giant package next to her. "Hooray!" she grinned and ran to the door. Constance gasped, rushing to stop her precious daughter.
"W-wait! You forgot your..." she turned around, frantically looking for something to keep her flesh and blood in the room for just a while longer. "...cloak!" She walked slowly to the room to search for Sandra's red cloak.
"Mummy, the other children are leaving..."
Constance tried to keep the tears from her eyes. She wanted to hug Sandra close, prevent her from leaving, tie her to a chair-- something, anything to keep her from going to the accursed Temple of the Princess. But it was Sandra...or everyone else. She could do nothing, not while they had their eyes in every house, and the guards which checked on every  household everyday...
She brought the cloak out and tied it around Sandra. She gave her daughter a kiss and opened the door. She watched the girl trot out happily, down the steps, across the road, through the mist---
I can't ....not this again.

Sandra wondered what was in the package. It was large and wrapped in brown paper and rather heavy, but she wasn't going to admit it to anyone! She was a big girl now, ready to participate in the Princess' Ceremony! She couldn't wait to get to the temple.
She saw Layla and Carrin with their packages too. Layla's looked longer, and Carrin's was flat and long. But Sandra didn't really like talking to Layla. Layla always seemed to treat her like she was some insect, just because Sandra didn't live on the Golden Road, and her father was...
Never mind. Sandra decided she didn't mind walking to the temple alone. She'd never walked to the temple...she'd never actually left her house. None of them had, not in the open like this. It was an interesting experience to not be knocked unconscious and tied up in a bag, carried out like a sack of potatoes to school, or to the Care centre.
Carried like a sack of potatoes. That's what she imagined herself to look like. She thought it was funny.
Sandra entertained herself with her own musings as she skipped down the smooth road through the misty darkness, led by the lamps of those who carried them. It was all fine until...
"Bloody--"
Sandra turned at the sound of such a vulgarity tearing through the mostly quiet night sky. The children along the road all turned to the source of the noise...and saw a boy, slightly older than most of them, lying motionless on the floor.
His head was gone.
All hell broke loose.
Sandra felt herself shoved around as children ran in all directions. Those who ran off the road disappeared from sight, but Sandra thought she heard them scream. Her heart started beating heavily, and she fell to the floor in a seating position. A girl, it looked like Layla?, ran in front of her, and tripped over her brown package. The package rolled in front of Sandra, and the girl fell flat on the floor. The top half of her body fell out of the road, and Sandra automatically pulled the girl back--
"Aah!" she released the girl's arm and pulled away, seeing the girl's arm having turned into a giant carrot, and her head was now a huge pumpkin. The girl's body, like a stuffed doll, fell onto the floor, and the pumpkin and carrot rolled off, leaving...a huge part of her body? Sandra picked up the brown package and hugged it close to herself. She felt like she was living in a nightmare. Around her she saw children running around dropping their lamps, which only served to make the place dimmer and more places exposed to the raw darkness. More and more children disappeared as they ran into the darkness and never returned. Five or so children sat around dumbly, as Sandra did.
She crawled forward and picked up the lamp that was previously held by the now-partially vegetabled girl. She pulled herself up and trotted toward the temple...
"Everyone, follow me!"
She started running forward, not caring to check if anyone was following her. It was awkward, holding the heavy package with one hand and the lamp in the other, but she managed. As the road went on further she encountered some children, walking along calmly. They heard her footsteps and turned, looking at her with puzzled expressions.
"Why are you running?" one asked.
"The darkness....it ate up the path behind!" Sandra turned, and with relief saw two children, panting. One held a brown package, the other appeared to have left it behind.
The children in front frowned. Sandra realised that they looked older than she was as they walked toward Sandra and the two children. They're bigger than us...and they have more people on their side... she stepped back just as two older girls lunged forward. Instinctively she crouched, and the girls grabbed onto the boy behind her holding his package. There was a cry, and Sandra knew what was going on without needing to look behind. She dropped her package and fell forward as the other older children reached for her.
"Ha! Stupid girl dropped her protection!" An older boy grabbed her package, and immediately Sandra cried out. She didn't know why, but she felt this great importance to keep that package...especially her package. She grabbed the older boy's leg, making him fall, and grabbed the brown package that he  held-- his was long and thin-- and with all her 8 year old might smashed it on his head.
"It's MINE!" she screamed, running forward to grab her parcel. She turned and ran past the older children, who immediately pursued. Fear and desperation drove her all the way to the gates of the silver temple at the end of the moonlit road. Three ladies in green robes stood at the end of the steps, with sceptres of gold.
"Halt!" Sandra stopped in her tracks, and she heard the older children around her stop too. They laid down their packages as were taught in school, and went down on one knee.
"We have arrived," they mumbled collectively.
A short woman with hair of silver walked down the steps, dressed in a loose pink dress. "It always amazes me to see how few actually reach these steps." She then raised up her hands and clapped twice. Sandra turned to the side, hearing a rumbling noise.
If not for the fact that the Princess stood right before her, she would probably have cried out. The blackness around the silver moonlit path had vanished, replaced by a floor that had risen from somewhere deep beneath.
And it was covered with vegetables.
The women walked forward and seized the packages out of every child's hand, unwrapping them with undisguised glee. Sandra looked at the unwrapped parcel in the lady's hands, and fell from her kneeling position, barely supporting herself.
In her hands was a girl's head.
It was Layla's head. Layla, who mocked her constantly, Layla whose parents were the officials of the Princess' Order, Layla, who fell in front of her, her head falling into the darkness.
"Well done, child. You passed." The lady threw the head on the floor, and it rolled toward Sandra. She screamed and crawled backwards.
The older children had unwrapped packages of various human parts, and were all congratulated. The boy who had followed her without a package was met with silence.
"Where is your package, boy?"
"I...I dropped it?"
The Princess sighed heavily. "It's such luck one of them got here. At least we get fresh meat then. We've been having a very fruitful harvest, so I guess we ought to change the ceremony to slaughter instead..."
Sandra felt her head feel heavy and her eyelids drooping just as she heard the boy screaming. She just knew that one moment she was on her elbows, and the next she felt the mirror-smooth cold stone floor against her cheek, and that the last thing she saw were the grey-green eyes of poor Layla whose head she thought was supposed to be a pumpkin?

Sandra climbed out of bed, got dressed, and walked into the kitchen.
"How are you feeling?" Constance asked. Had her brown hair turned greyer overnight? It seemed that way to Sandra. She looked twice her age. Poor mother. At least she only had one child.
"...." Sandra sank into the chair at the table. She felt twice as old too. Her mother sighed.
"You'll get used to it. Usually if you've survived it once, you'll survive the rest. The ones who pass are all those who will always know. Keeps the population in check, and keeps them fed." Her mother opened the metal door to the larder, and pulled out a brown bag. Sandra buried her head in her arms, refusing to relive the memories of the night before.
"It's a small sacrifice to make, but since you survived, I guess that means it was worth it." Sandra heard her mother take out the chopping board and put something heavy on it. "I wonder who you substituted, really. Guess I might as well cook this last one for dinner."

Sandra looked up to see her mother chopping up a giant pumpkin.