Wicked Feast

"Eat or die," said the captor.

Placed before the boy was a banquet. A most unpleasant banquet. The captor only smiled with malice from across the table. Set before the boy were platters of organs and limbs stripped from the human vessel. He picked up his knife and sliced into a bit of innards. The captor watched with joy as the boy ate. The boy wouldn't stop. He couldn't stop. The flesh was so delicious.

"That is your mother's arm," said the captor.

Mother never gave me what I wanted, thought the boy and ate his mother's arm.

"That is your father's foot," said the captor.

Father never approved of me in the first place, thought the boy and tore at the flesh.

"Those are your friends' eyes," said the captor.

My friends never really cared for me anyways, thought the boy and popped the eyeballs into his mouth like candy.

"That is your teacher's liver," said the captor.

My teacher had wronged me once, thought the boy and stabbed at the liver.

"Do you hate them very much?" asked the captor.

"Yes, I do," answered the boy.

"Will you ... forgive them?" asked the captor once more.

The boy stopped eating and paused.

"No, I will never forgive them," said the boy from the bottom of his heart.

The captor laughed loudly and delivered a flask of red liquid from across the table.

"Good, good. Drink, my boy, and you shall live!"

The boy emptied the flask and dropped it to the ground. He clutched his throat and fell out of his seat. His throat burned with flames. His stomach turned. His head exploded. His nerves shuddered and his skin crackled. The boy screamed in anguish and lashed out in pain on the floor. The captor laughed manically.

"You shall live, my boy, but as a monster," smiled the captor venomously. "This feast, the food, the wine, was nothing at all. It is the manifestation of your sins that will take over your body."

The captor and the table disappeared leaving the boy alone in the middle of a forest. A pack of hungry wolves were closing in but, the boy was not afraid. He gouged out his own eyes and grew a new pair. His teeth fell out and replaced them with fangs. His ears were pointed and his hair grew longer. His hands became claws and sprouted wings. The whimpering wolves began to retreat, but the newly born monster would not permit. He chased and ripped every wolf that was present into pieces. He had forgotten his namesake and the very crux of his human nature. The captor from afar watched and laughed.

"It was the darkness in your heart that led you to this, my boy. My, my, it was a grand feast."

#wickedfeast #shortstories