Random Short Stories/Written Ideas

One Parts Sane, Two Parts Hungry

WARNING!!! MENTIONS OF SELF HARM.

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A cry of agony tore through the forest, birds startled into taking flight.

A woman was clawing at her arms with sharp fingers, shrieking. Her large, off-white leathery wings were twitching. One was extended and wrapped loosely around her front, while the other was partially open. Her tall, thin frame was hunched over, and her empty sockets were wide with what appeared to be fear. Her white hair, nothing more than a tangled mess that seemed to have been chopped a bit haphazardly in some places, cascaded down her back, spilling onto the floor behind her bare feet.

"pLeAsE!" Begged her raspy voice. Hunger bit into her, her insides roiling angrily.

Blood dripped and slid along her arms. It stained her sharp fingers, standing out more against the bones of her one hand. It was warm, almost deliciously so. The injuries were already beginning to close up, but were quickly replaced by more.

"nOt hUnGrY..." She hissed. "dOn'T nEeD tO kIlL."

Her voice warbled, lifting and lowering an octave with ever syllable, as though she couldn't decide on how high or low she wanted to pitch her voice. Her mind was fraying under the demands of her starvation, and the creatures crouched within the darkest corners of her skull.

Her foot lurched forwards, her body fighting for control.

She screamed again.

She couldn't take another life, she couldn't give up or give in. She had to fight it, had to stay sane. She wasn't hungry. She wasn't hungry-

But she was. They were. All of them.

A growl rattled her bones, setting her fleshy cage vibrating from the pure malice laced within it.

"hUnGrY..." Her voice had dived to a near baritone level, a single scarlet orb flickering to life in one of her sockets.

"f-FoOoOoD," she moaned. A clawed hand suddenly leapt from her arms to her face, a finger sinking through the socket with the small pinprick of magic. This elicited a howl of pain, but also one of frustration.

"Stop it! Get out, get out, gEt oUt-"

She was desperate now. She needed to shut it up, keep it from taking control. She needed- needed to-

"eAt," came a hissed answer.

"No! I can't... I can't kIlL aNyMoRe-"

Another step forwards. She was losing.

" F O O D . "

Harpy wailed as she felt her consciousness overridden by the fury and hunger of her "companions." Her sensitive ears balked at the sound, complaining, but she couldn't care less. Any sort of pain grounded her...

To a point.

And she'd finally reached that point where the pain only tickled. It was a small nuisance compared to the jaws of hunger that yawned open beneath her.

Please, Harpy thought brokenly.

But it didn't matter. Nothing did in the face of two hungry beasts that wanted nothing more than to rip into another living being.

She was promptly shoved into the backseat, another piloting her body.

The hunt could finally begin.