Page 58 of Starve
He looks at me, and as I watch, rips another strip of flesh off the man’s chest. Blood and viscera drip from it, then his tongue comes out to taste as he lets it slip into his mouth.
“Ask me again.”
I’m not sure what he means, so I just stare blankly until he gives a soft, frustrated chuff. “Ask mehow I becamethis. I’ll tell you this time, little bird.”
Oh.Confronted with the reality of a cursed Cairo, I’m not so sure I want the answer. My hands clench at my sides as the forgotten flashlight lies on the ground and lights up the macabre scene in front of me with garish, uneven light. The angle never lets his eyes go back to normal, giving Cairo even more of a feral look than I’ve ever seen on him before. But even if curiosity killed the cat, I know somehow this is my only chance to ask.
“How did you become what you are, Cairo?” I ask in a voice barely more than a whisper.
He’s silent for a moment, like he’s surprised I had the courage to open my mouth and say it. That makes two of us, really, and I give myself an imaginary pat on the back for the boldness I didn’t know I possessed.
“We used to go camping.” His words snap me out of my thoughts, and I drag my eyes up from the corpse under him to meet Cairo’s eyes. He licks his claws meticulously clean, sitting back with one hand still on the man’s chest. “It was a long time ago. Before you were born.” His grin is a flitting, flickering thing full of teeth and rueful amusement. “Before cellphones or GPS. We used to go camping in the mountains here. We weren’t always so smart.” He blinks, and I can finally take a breath when he looks away, his attention fixed somewhere in the past.
“I fell from a cliff on the north side of the mountain range. They looked for me, I think. But they couldn’t find a way down, and help was days off. It should’ve been impossible for anyone to survive the fall, so they all went home and told my family I was dead.” Here he lets out a snarl full of disgust. “I should’ve been dead, but I wasn’t, and I hurt so much. I crawled around in the dirt and the mud and themuckwith my legs broken and the cold gnawing away at me until I couldn’t feel my fingers.” Here his claws curl, sinking deep into the dead man’s skin that parts so easily.
“But how…?” To me, this sounds like a story of himdying.Not coming back as something else.
He turns his face to me, his eyes green-yellow and no pupil in sight. “Agatha was lonely back then. She was the only one who was a little bit different.” He clicks his teeth in frustration. “She found me nearly dead, and wholly desperate. I wasstarving, Fern. You can’t imagine what it’s like to be so hungry you’ll do anything. Not to mention the pain I was in from the fall and the cold.”
Unexpectedly, Cairo stands up, bloody and barely clothed. His movements are quick and jerky, and when he grins at me, his mouth seems to open unnaturally wide. “She knew what it was like. She knew how hungry I was and offered me relief. Then she told me she could kill me if I wanted. Or she could save me.” But there’s a snarl on the wordsave. Like he’s not sure that’s what really happened.
“You did what you had to do,” I offer, unsure, but knowing where this is heading.
“Yeah.” His grin widens. “She brought me that hiker and tore into him for me, as his blood steamed and she smeared it on my face…” Then Cairo is in front of me, and I gasp when he reaches up to grip my face in his bloody claws.
“I didexactlywhat I had to do in order to survive. And I’ve never regretted eating him, or Esther, or this man.” He gestures at the drunk behind him. “Because, Fern, like I’ve been trying to tell you?” He leans in suddenly and holds onto me while nuzzling his bloody mouth along my jaw.
“I’m a monster.”
Something breaks inside me. Some flight, prey-like reaction I hadn’t known existed in me, or maybe it didn’t until this moment. I stumble back from Cairo, seeing the surprise on his face. “Don’t—” he begins. But I can’t help it; I turn around and run.
My feet take me away from the clearing, away from the body cooling in the grass. I can feel the uncomfortable wetness of blood on my face, and I wipe it away as Cairo’s curses fall in the distance. When I look over my shoulder, I’m surprised to see he isn’t following me, but he’s picked up the body in one hand while glaring at me.
But that’s probably the best scenario for me. If I can get back to my house, I can lock the door against him, hide in the bathroom, and try to forget what I just saw. I don’t know what else to do.
Unfortunately, I absolutely don’t know where I am, and my flashlight is lying on the ground back beside the pool of blood from Cairo’s prey. It’s not quite dark enough that I’m running into trees, so I do my best to figure out where I came from, hoping to find some kind of trail or familiar landmark, even though I hadn’t paid attention to any on my way out. Not to mention, I’ve never been this far out in the woods behind my house before. All I know, thanks to Google Maps and my neighbor who’s a hiker, is that the trees extend for miles and miles, and there’s a creek back here somewhere, with a little waterfall where he likes to watch wildlife.
None of that helps me, especially when the moon-bleached trees around me all look the same. Plus, soon enough I’m panting and out of breath; my body is definitely not used to this level of physical exertion. I slow my pace to a walk, heaving for air with my hands on my hips. Maybe I’m being stupid, I reason. Cairo was clearly more interested in his food than in me.
“Okay,” I pant, finally coming to a stop and bending over to gasp and pant. “Okay, so, I fucked up.” I don’t know who I’m talking to, except maybe the trees that don’t answer back. “I admit it. It would’ve been better if I had just stayed ignorant. This time, curiosity didn’t kill the cat, but man, she feels almost dead right now.”
Still bent over, I feel the brush of a claw against my face as it pulls my hair back from my eyes as I pant, and the purring chuckle by my ear is unmistakable.
“You’re a very slow cat, little bird. Shouldn’t you still be running?” A shiver goes down my spine at the words and his low growl when I stand up straight.
Cairo is still a gory, terrifying mess. Blood drips from his jaws, drying on his chest, and his hands are more stained than clean. Fear rises in my throat, and as he tilts his head up, the moonlight catches his gaze again, giving him that feral, dangerous look I’m so afraid of tonight.
I can’t help myself. I bolt once more, adrenaline shooting through me and giving my legs the strength for another attempt at escape. This time when I turn, Cairo is nowhere in sight. He just seems to disappear into the shadows, until I see him between two trees, making me jolt in a different direction.
He does it twice more before I realize he’sherding melike a sheepdog. Indignant frustration rises in my chest, and when I see him again, I make an attemptnotto run in the direction he clearly wants me to go. But then he snarls, showing off all those teeth, and I stumble backward and trip, landing on my ass on the ground.
That brings a chuckle to Cairo’s lips, and he stalks forward until he’s standing over me, his head tilted in amusement. “You’re not very good at this game,” he informs me.
A jolt in my chest makes me realize he reallydoessee this as a game. It’s obvious in the way he’s chasing me, plus the fact he hasn’t taken me down and gutted me like a deer.
Like the man in the clearing.
“Fuck,” I hiss, stumbling to my feet. “You are so not touching me right now. Not when you’re this bloody.”
