Wicked Hunger

Wicked Hunger Chapter 3

Chapter 3

No Happy Endings

I watch as Van, my little sister who is always getting herself into trouble, climbs into the truck with her head hanging. She looks plenty ashamed already, but I’m not about to let this slide. “What were you thinking?” I demand through gritted teeth.

“You felt it,” she whispers.

She doesn’t say it in the form of a question, but I answer anyway. “Yeah, I felt it! Why on earth would you bring her around me if you knew I would react like that? I could have hurt her! I could have killed her, Van! I was this close,” I say, holding up my first two fingers bare millimeters apart from each other. “I was so close to grabbing her and tearing her into little pieces. You know better than to bring someone like that around me. Do you want me to end up like Oscar?”

“No!” Tears start dripping down her cheeks. “Of course I don’t want you to end up like Oscar. I’m sorry, Zander, but I had to. I had to know if you felt it, too.”

Another string of threats and fury are about to slip out of my mouth when her words sink in. “Too?” I ask slowly. “What do you mean you had to know if I felt it…too?”

Van sniffs and wipes her nose, still refusing to look at me when she talks. “When I met Ivy at lunch today I almost jumped over the table at her.”

My stomach churns at the mental image. Van has always had much bloodier tastes than I have. More dramatic, too. Her hunger craves blood and gore just as much as pain. The messier the better for her. I know all too well that the girl’s throat would have been removed with Van’s teeth, like a predatory animal. Van is predictable in that way, fast, adrenaline driven, and deadly. My hunger has a totally different taint to it. Just thinking about what I wanted to do to that girl makes the steering wheel crunch under my hands. My whole body is shaking with the desire to jump out of the truck and follow her. I can still see her walking away from me, the pink stripe in her hair bouncing lightly with each step.

I shake my head and try to clear my thoughts of the girl so I can focus on what Van is telling me. “Your hunger wanted that girl, and so did mine. It’s never worked like that before.”

Van trembles and hugs herself. “I know.”

“What made you even think to bring her to me then?” I ask, my body finally starting to relax.

“I’ve never felt such a strong desire to kill anyone before. That was the worst it’s ever been for me. She’s different. Something’s wrong with her. I thought I was losing it, but I thought that if you could feel me respond so much it would at least mean it was real. I never expected you to react to her. I’m so sorry, Zander.”

I manage to get one hand off the steering wheel and rub it against my forehead. Was seeing that girl, Ivy, a worse reaction for me than usual like it was for Van? I shiver at the mere memory of it. The hunger for her is going to stay with me for a very long time. Van is always looking for something more, something to explain what’s wrong with our family. She wants our problems to be bigger than us. She wants an explanation. I do too, but I came to face the reality that we are alone a while ago. There is no secret behind our disastrous existence. We’re freaks, mistakes, oddities. No one is going to come and explain the purpose behind our design. I understand that, but Van doesn’t. That’s why I’m not about to admit to her how much Ivy affected me.

“It’s probably just because you’re getting closer to your birthday. You know the hunger gets worse once you hit sixteen.”

“No,” Van says shaking her head, “this was different. I’ve felt it all day. She knows something, Zander. She’s been acting really strange. There’s something off about her.”