John had been a sacrifice to the star father cancer for as long as he can remember. He had been selected shortly after his birth and the death of his mother. They had prepared him all his life to be sacrificed to their god. He had gone through years of training in the traditions and history of the religion and the history of each sacrifice before him.

At the beginning of the new age the earth had exploded and was rebuilt by their god. His zodiac sign, cancer, was always in the sky all year now. Every 13 years a sacrifice was killed to honor their god. The next child born under his sign became the next sacrifice.

John Egbert happens to be turning 13 tomorrow. Tomorrow he would be sacrificed and that really scared him.

John sat at the bottom of the stairs in the temple of cancer, a huge circular room with large archways leading out into smaller room for each of the other zodiac gods. In the center of the room was a the largest archway with a statue of the star father cancer. Info round of that archway was a large alter and a stone bed where he would be sacrificed.

To the right of the large statue was a smaller arch with a statue of the subjugulating mirthful messiah, protector of cancer and Capricorn zodiac patron. On the star fathers other side stood the Gemini, the psionic.

John looked to the stone table where he would be sacrificed the next night.

He started to cry at the thought of his blood spilling across the table in the name of the god he was supposed to love. He hasn't even noticed the tears streaming down his face as he contemplated his fate.

"SO YOU'RE THE SACRIFICE?"

A voice echoes through the room.

John turns to see a figure clad in grey and red robes crossing the room.

He was short and pretty small you couldn't see much of him because he had his hood on but you could see his eyes. His eyes were breath taking grey and red surrounded by a bright yellow.

"Who are you?" John says between sobs.

"THAT DOSN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION FUCKASS. BUT OF YOU MUST KNOW, THE NAMES KARKAT VANTAS."

The guy, Karkat rolls his eyes.

"John, and yes I'm the sacrifice." John replies trying his best to look confident.

"MUST BE HARD KNOWING YOUR GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF A SILLY TRADITION." Karkat said sitting down by john.

John nodded and changed the subject.

"You know Karkats a weird name"

Karkat almost smiled. Now you could see that his skin was almost grey, that was weird. He didn't exactly look human to you.

"SHUT UP. I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU."

"Yeah?"

"DO YOU LOVE ANYONE? I MEAN YOUR GOING TO DIE TOMORROW, IS THERE ANYONE WHO YOU DON'T WANT TO LEAVE?"

John laughed.

"Other than my family, my dad and my sister Jade, and my best friend Dave I don't really know anyone else. In practitioner treated like royalty here so people are afraid of me."

Karkat contemplated this in science for a moment so you just continue talking.

"I'm afraid of being a failure, I mean what if I'm sacrificed and it's not accepted? I mean that all I've lived for. There's never been anything else in my life. I've never played a sport or had a birthday party... I've never kissed someone."

"IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT? A KISS."

John blushed and nodded.

"I used to think that once I was sacrificed someone I loved would kiss me before the star father cancer took my soul and stuff. It was silly."

"NO IT'S NOT."

"What?"

"I'VE LIVED MY ENTIRE LIFE WISHING SOMEONE WOULD LOVE ME, I MEAN THE DO BUT IT'S DIFFERENT, EVERYONE'S AFRAID OF ME. ONCE I FOUND THIS PERSON I HAD STRONG FEELINGS FOR. I SPENT A LOT OF TIME WATCHING THEM FROM THE DISTANCE, AND THEY… WELL I WON'T BE ABLE TO BE WITH THEM ANYWAY."

"Oh…" John glanced down away from Karkat feelings stare through his closed eyes.

John was getting sleepy. He should head home and go to bed.

"I should be going home"

Karkat nods and stands up.

"It was nice meeting you."

"SAME"

As john turned to look back at karkat when he got the door to find he was gone.