53 | meat; sorrowful hunger

The candles die out in a sweep, plunging the room into darkness as laughter follows the airy words.

Then, green flames burst in the standing wicks, a melted pool of dark wax dripping down the sides slowly. The flames crept out, twisting in a dance only they knew the routine.

A wind brushes behind the seated children, like a hand ghosting against their back. Out of habit, they peer under the tablecloth as if searching for eyes that peered back.

Every face mirrored terror, after the incident of near death that occurred previously. They didn't dare salivate over the gourmet delicacies, desperately staring at the wall.

The sound of syrupy humming slithered from the end of the table as fire crackled, a low hymn playing in the distant background. Rome shivered, feeling goosebumps line his thin arms under the loose white sleeves.

Underneath, the chair creaked as it rocked against the spread rug, hiding the old wooden floorboards.

The humming grew louder, and Rome glanced sideways.

In a moment, the low flames from the candles snapped into silence, plunging them in darkness. A white face spun in the spot, snapping its tall neck in half as long strands of inky black air swayed.

Rome blinked, and the face was a seat closer to him.

The boy recoiled in horror and disgust, but was unable to leave his seat. He couldn't—no, the consequences for running away was likely to be fatal.

He blinked again, and the face was even closer. It continued to smile at him in the deep darkness, hidden and watching until his eyes strayed onto her figure.

Closer, and closer.

The crooked and white face smiled beside him.

Rome gasped, feeling cold sweat drip down his back as he opened his mouth, but no words came out. Not even a cry for help, only deep dread that buried itself inside his small body.

Reason told him to remain calm, to resist the urge to rush out of his chair. But his mind became a mess in the midst of the fear, and he clutched the underside of his chair to force himself to remain seated.

The child who disobeyed and tried to eat early almost died.

The woman's stare turned dangerous after Lucas forcefully switched seats.

With those events in mind, he concluded that staying put was the best option, even as the unblinking eyes crept toward him. The boy squeezed his eyes shut.

'Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic.'

He chanted in his mind, as another part of his desperate begged somebody to save him—anybody, whether it was a ghost or another child or—

'Lucas!'

A clatter of plates and utensils smashed against the wall, shattering the horror-filled illusion. Rome's eyes snapped wide again, and the warm orange flame was there again, illuminating the room in a dim light.

The boy turned his head to the left of the woman, still seated in a straight and unfaded posture, wearing a stretched out smile.

He saw a smudge of red in her teeth.

However, his eyes were focused on the blood dripping down Lucas' pale wrist, as the man in question stared irritably at the sight. His white-eyed flickered over to the smashed plate before he offered an offhand apology.

"Sorry, my hand slipped."

The woman's eyebrow seemed to twitch.

The man ignored it, and calmly wiped the wound with a cloth on the table. It was relatively shallow, nothing that would take too long to heal.

He'd used it to snap himself out of the strange nightmare early. Although Lucas hadn't been sure whether the upside down face intended to kill him, or instead lure him into running away, he resorted to extreme methods to snap out of it.

Because he wasn't sure how the other children would react to that terrible image he'd seen; if they had seen the same twisted image.

Thankfully, the objective was nothing dramatic. Straight to the point, an escape from the castle. Only, the more simple things seemed, the more deadly secrets they hid.

"I'll clean up my mess as an apology." said Lucas impassively. "Do I have permission?"

Since he wasn't certain if he could leave the table or not, he wanted the woman to confirm it first. Each Story had certain rules to follow, such as finishing the meal before eating, perhaps?

Expectedly, the woman shook her head statically.

"I see."

Lucas turned his head, expression souring as he counted the number of children. Originally, there should've been 24 humans filling the seats, including himself and Wren.

The reckless woman noticed his actions, and she mirrored his frown as she noticed. She counted the remaining children, falling silent.

To confirm that she was right and not under any influence, she mouthed a number. "20."

Lucas nodded, mouthing back the same number.

He stared heavily at the empty seats on his hald of the table, closing his eyes with shallow breaths.

There were 22 children, and 2 adults. Now there were only 20 children left, in the matter of mere moments. Whisked away, just out of his reach.

Lucas gritted his teeth, knitting his eyebrows together. Then, he turned back to the frightening lady—the Teller that sat at the end. She was likely either the Teller themselves, or a puppet under direct control.

"Tell us the rules that we have to follow. It wouldn't be an equal game otherwise." He stared deeply, recalling.

This was a Teller who might enjoy toying with humans.

"Don't you want it to be an exhilarating game?"

Wren raised her eyebrows across from him, before barking out a laugh of approval. "Isn't it more fun to destroy something after you've given them some hope of surviving? Well, it's your choice in the end."

The Teller's cold and wide gaze swept between the two of them. When she opened her mouth again, the distant voice in the air returned.

Lucas confirmed the rules he'd already determined. One was that they couldn't leave the dining table, nor could they rush to eat before the Teller did.

The second was that at night, it would be deadly to remain awake. Leaving the room was a death sentence in its own right, but perhaps by simply opening your eyes in the darkness would make you become known by the creatures roaming the hallway.

Despite not being anything crazy, he had to take into consideration that his teammates this time weren't intelligent adults, but naive children.

Children who often woke during the night, and scrambled out of their beds to scamper to the toilets. Children who disobeyed and acted before they thought.

Before that, they were also hospital patients that Kane had been helping.

Lucas couldn't be certain of any aliments to be aware of, or if there were any cases of sleep walking and other habits that could result in death.

"Do not eat before I eat." warned Lucas, deciding to take it step by step.

They wouldn't want to stare at the woman, whose permanent smile grew more eerier and deep the longer one looked. But they would watch him, and be more obedient as he grew more dependable in their eyes.

Subconsciously, his back straightened and he forced a mask of utter calm.

No matter how well adapted he was to death and horror, he couldn't remain completely impassive inside. He weighed each life heavily, marked to his core.

Several children noticed their missing friends, nodding tearfully. Most had survived by luck, rooted to their chair by sheer fear.

The Teller listened silently and stretched out a long, bony figure to point at the roasted chicken sitting in the center, bending and wagging it toward her.

On command, the knife, still with flickers of blood from the little boy's nail, floated in the air and cleanly sliced through the meat, dripping with a heavenly aroma. It hovered over her empty plate, landing neatly as roasted potatoes and carrots followed.

Her hand never once reached out towards the fork or knife.

Therefore, Lucas kept his hand at his side as well. The children gulped, starved and weakened, but the feeling of fear was now fresh in their mind, and they wouldn't act too recklessly.

Will, the gloomy teenager, kept a more careful eye on all the children after the previous incident. His pale pallor had already grown extremely poor.

He hardly blinked, scared of who else would disappear in the second he did.

He remembered every child in the room—including the ones that had disappeared. They were a pair of brothers close in age, who'd been sent to the hospital on the verge of death.

Their mother had tried to drown them in the sea, but ultimately failed as a passerby saved them. Against all odds, they had survived.

They struggled to keep living... only to die without even a cry for help.

Alone.

His fingers dug into his thighs painfully, pressing his lips together with a seething sorrow, anger at the misfortune.

There was a clink on a plate, and all small heads watched as the smiling Teller took a single bite of the meat. She chewed it slowly, before her neck bobbed with a swallow. One would assume that after she'd eaten, they could partake in the buffet.

Lucas stared at her deeply.

A Teller who liked to toy with humans, wasn't that right?

Wren frowned on the opposite side, waiting for Lucas to eat. Since the woman had taken the first bite, they should've been allowed to as well? She hesitated to speak out in the air of solemnity and grivience as a trickle of dark liquid ran down the Teller's lips.

That man, the foolish link of hers, wasn't an utter fool after calming down his inclinations for violence. He was waiting for something.

A little girl with curious eyes peered at her curiously, and she shook her head in response. Not yet...

...she would wait to see what Lucas had planned.

An invisible clock seemed to tick in the background, agonizingly slow.

The Teller's smile twitched, before her mouth moved and she chewed again, swallowing once more.

It was the same bite she had originally taken.

Lucas observed her, deciding that she had properly swallowed the food this time instead of trying to play tricks, and reached out to the food. No blades came flying at his hand as he scooped up a pile of scalloped potatoes.

The fork clinked on the plate as he lifted the utensil to his mouth, savouring the taste. If not for their predicament, he would deem it a 5-star dish.

Will watched with immense suspicion. "The food... is... safe...?"

Lucas took another bite, shrugging. "If it isn't, then we'll starve of death before being killed by that Teller."

In other words, it was up to them whether to eat or not. Lucas didn't believe a Story with no deadline would starve the humans inside—after all, they wanted to stir up discord and make them pathetically wail in fear.

It was possible, but unlikely.

Berry, watching Lucas tear into the meat with both elegance and an edge of roughness, grew hungry. He glanced over at the food, tempted to eat.

However, when he tried to reach out a stubby hand, he realized a catastrophic fact. His arms were too short! He couldn't reach the food on the table, and unlike the woman, he was too scared to rely on the floating knives.

The boy spun his head around, staring at Lucas with glistening, eager eyes.

Lucas stared back. "......"

He sighed, picking up the boy's plate gingerly and piling the foods closest to him on. He handed it to the boy beside him before opening his mouth to speak.

"Keep passing it along."

The boy nodded, passing it down the row as Lucas piled on plate after plate, taking the role of a food server as each children stared at him with drool on their lips.

Silently, the 22 people around the table formed a food train, passing plate after plate of food. It resembled the atmosphere in a large thanksgiving dinner, like a big family gathering to eat.

The Teller at the end watched the harmonious food train with an empty and dull look. Clearly, this wasn't the terror or gloominess that she intended to create!

The candles flickered wildly, threatening to cut off all lights, but nobody flinched.

Lucas, feeling especially kind and gracious, even offered her a plate. When she didn't make a move to grab it, he sweetly placed it in front of her, as a gentleman would. For some reason, her expression grew more strained and desolate, despite her wide-spread smile.

He snorted softly at her unwilling appearance that didn't move from the table. It seemed that even she was bound to the rules of this Story, and couldn't leave until the banquet ended.

Watching the ghostly woman smile spread more with discomfort, Lucas felt extremely pleased.

Even a person like him would feel joy when irritating others.

Across the table, a little girl shivered as she poked at the pile of food on her plate. Her fork indented into the juicy meat, eyes reflecting the liquid that pooled onto the plate. She ran it through the fatty tissue of the meat, along the distorted texture of flesh.

Her imagination was particularly wonderful, as the image of her hospital friends appeared before her eyes. Except, they were skinned and boiled, making up the table.

The dark juices of blood that trickled out when digging into the meat.

Her stomach lurched, and her body trembled terrible as she swallowed. Hunger called for her to eat, but her fear prevented her from daring to do so.

She jabbed at the food with a fork again, peeping her eyes up only to meet Lucas' still gaze. Her body immediately tensed. Although she came from a loving family, her mother would often scold her for picking at her food.

Don't eat too much, don't eat too little. Eat like a lady, don't play with your food. If she did any of those things, then she would be scolded for an hour.

She straightened in the seat, moving a trembling hand to the food. It made her stomach roll, with a mixture of hunger and disgust. The sight of her fellow patient's nail being slice off remained a burning sight in her young mind.

And how could she forget the missing brothers, gone before her eyes? Death was a difficult thing for the young her, who had never experienced such sorrows, to understand.

But they'd disappeared—they were gone— and she knew what gone meant.

Gone meant they weren't coming back.

While the concept of death wasn't entirely clear, she felt increasingly saddened.

However, as she gulped as looked up again, she felt that there was a rounded gentleness to the calm white eyes. There was no judgment in them.

"Not hungry?" he asked from across the table, attracting a few eyes.

The little girl didn't want to be scolded for her poor manners, but found herself nodding meekly. "...not hungry."

"That's fine. You won't get any food for the next 24 hours. If your stomach keeps growling, can you bear it? If you think you can't, then eat a little bit. If you can, then you don't have to."

The little girl pursed her lips, debating the options. Children, when treated as if they knew no better than to follow instructions, often held back their thoughts and relied on others to tell them what to do.

Given two options, to eat or to not eat, and also the consequences, the little girl was granted an opportunity to think for herself.

Finally, she muttered, "I'll eat a little bit."

Lucas nodded, and waved at Wren who swapped the plate of meat with an assortment of vegetables. The woman grinned at the girl who had been poking at the meat earlier.

"You can't stop thinking about what happened earlier right? Is it easier if it's just vegetables?"

The girl blinked slowly, then nodded with a small smile as she muttered a thanks. She nibbled at the carrots, then took a bite of the creamy potatoes.

The meaty flesh of the chicken had made her feel a little sick earlier, but the vegetables didn't have the same feeling. She ate the rest of the portion given to her, before patting her belly in satisfaction, not feeling pressured to eat any more or less.

She smiled softly at Lucas. "I'm finished."

The man glanced up from his half-eaten plate, nodding as he praised, "Good job."

Witnessing the scene, Berry opened his mouth and swallowed his plate with great fevour, and exclaimed, "I'm done!"

He stared at Lucas eagerly, waiting for praise.

Lucas stared back blankly. "......"

Berry's eyes shone, sparkling with starlight.

"...good job."

The little boy's face burst with a wide smile, and Lucas felt his head throb. Was it too late to regret entering the Story?

———xxx———

[ding! message from lukiyo]

I actually realized after reading through some of my notes that this will probably be ongoing for a decent while since there's a lot of things I still need to add in T^T

Good news? Bad news? For me, I find it hard to continue reading long stories so I like to end them sooner rather than later LOL but I'm imagining this will definitely surpass my previous novel!

Well anyway, I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Christmas is soon!!