Since when do cannibals fall in love with their food?

14. Since when do cannibals fall in love with their food?

CHARLIES POV

Food has been here for a month now and it terrifies me that I've gotten so attached. I don't think she has any plans to leave any time soon but I know that eventually she will. I'm not even keeping her captive anymore. I don't tie her wrist at night and we play games like hide n' seek where she could easily run away. She knows her way around the woods now and even though I haven't shown her the way out I feel like she could find it.

I've also started to wonder if she'll ever make me so hungry that I snap and try to eat her. I mean I've always had some sort of control over myself, but Food is always kissing me and she's always so close.

I have three main fears:

1) That she'll run away without saying goodbye and I'll be so crushed that all I can do is lay around and sulk.

2) That I'll try to eat her and be forced let her go for her own good and be so depressed that all I can do is sit around and sulk.

3) That she'll get injured really bad and when I'm forced to get her to the normals world to get her to a hospital I won't be able to convince her-or myself- to bring her back. Which of course would result in me unable to do anything other than lay around and sulk.

So all of my fears result in me sulking without Food.

Right now as I think all of this I'm laying in the field where Oliver and Love always come back too. Food is laying with me her head pressed into my chest. I let my fingers run through her hair and she sighs.

"Kat?" I say quietly.

She doesn't answer. One thing that's been different since I've learned her real name is that she refuses to answer to 'Kat' she'll only answer 'Food.' It makes it hard to get her attention because usually I forget that she won't answer to her real name so I stand there frustrated yelling her name. Until finally I catch on and call her the name I gave her.

I have no idea why she does this. You would think she would want to be called her real name instead of 'Food.' She's crazy.

"Food?" I sigh annoyed.

She immediately lifts her head to look at me, "Yes."

I roll my eyes and she fights a smile. She also knows that it annoys the hell out of me that she does this.

"Do you ever think about going back?"

Food frowns and I want to take my question back. It's one thing to think about it and it's another thing to voice it out loud.

"Not really. I mean I would like to know if my father was still alive but I wouldn't want to risk being seen by Jared."

I rub a thumb against her cheek; not meeting her eyes, "Is that why you stay here with me? Because if you go back then Jared will find you?"

She shakes her head, "I stay here because I like you. And if you didn't like me then I wouldn't have much choice on leaving."

"True I would have eaten you already. Or let you go if you disgusted me like Ronald did."

She laughs, and I love that she can do that. That she can find humor when I make comments about eating people. I'm pretty sure this girl is the only one that would ever except me for who I am.

"You're a very picky eater Charlie."

I smile, "Really? I thought I ate just about anything."

She shrugs, "Well yeah because you eat humans. But you're very picky about what ones you eat."