Title: The Hunger(1/1)
Author: Lore
Rating: Adult for cannibalism
Fandom:Highlander
Summary: Methos meets a kid at the railing of a bridge
Feedback: demonmother@hotmail.com
Notes: This was written for the Halloween Lyric wheel
Archive: sure no problem, just ask first
Methos looked at the boy standing at the railing. The kid wasn't doing
anything, just standing there, looking down on the dark muddled water
way down. He noticed the soaked state of the kids coat, the raindrops
falling in huge amounts of his dark hair. It seemed almost a sponge,
looking at the amount of liquid it had been holding.
The ancient stared at the kids back, the strained position of his
neck, the whiteness of his hands as they clutched the railing.
He just stood there, the ancient immortal just looked at him, removed
his dark red gloves and kept his eyes on his subject. His unmoving
subject. If the boy had eyes in the back of his neck, he didn't show
it, he just stood there. Was the dark coat some kind of Halloween
outfit? You never knew these days.
Methos stared at him, no ethics or concern about it being none of his
business, but not trying to help either. Neither involved nor out of
the way. Staring at the boy with an avid fascination.
"I killed her." The boy suddenly whispered in low even words, clear to
the ancients ears but spoken to no one in particular.
"She stood there in her pink princess dress, with a little aluminum
tiara on her golden curls. Her eyes were blue like river water, her
face unmarked. You could see the lace of her dress, it was homemade,
her mother probably worked days to get every pearl at the exact right
place. There were little slippers on her feet. Plastic with a blue
shard of glass, to give the idea they were embedded with diamonds."
Methos looked at the boy, his feet making circles in the dirt in front
of them.
"She knocked at the door, slow careful knocks at the door back home at
my dads place. I opened and saw her standing there, the light of the
lantern next to the door-pile shone over her. Bathing her in its
light. Her eyes shone at me in trust, a belief that the world is a
good place to be. She held her bag open to me, expecting to get a
treat....
"Trick or treat." she said, I invited her in.
She trusted me, not a bad bone in her body, I should know, I touched
them, every last one, as I ate her. She didn't even fight as I bound
her to the rack, stretching her little hands out over it. She was
barely big enough to fit on it. I had to use the longest set of
chains, just not to stretch her out too much. The ones the cops didn't
find.
She just looked at me, probably thought it was a game. Halloween.
Everyone wants to be scary on Halloween, don't they?"
The boy turned and faced Methos for the first time since the old man
had arrived. His dark hazel eyes gazed at the immortal. The same color
as all of Caspian's kids. Only now Methos noticed what he'd been
chewing on. A finger bone. A paper bag stuck out of his side pocket.
The immortal gazed at the boy impassionately.
"I couldn't stop. Once I saw her, once I began, it was as if it was
supposed to happen. I killed her and I liked it, I liked the sensation
of her flesh sliding down my throat. I just couldn't stop." The boy
let out a wry chuckle.
"I thought I was so much better than him, better than that bastard. I
hadn't even eaten any flesh in three years, yet when it came down to
it, I was just as bad, worse. I killed her."
The boy turned to the water again, only now Methos thought about the
dark splotches on the back, the smell surrounding him.
"Nothing can replace human I guess."
The words broke the silence between them. The cold weary wind,
enhanced by a white fog that made it appear as if the two of them were
the only living beings in the world.
"I never ate anything but human meat in my life. I just never thought
I would ever enjoy it. Back when I was a kid my father would pack my
lunchbox, I used to give it away, eating nothing but my apple.
The other children never even had a clue. They thought it was chicken.
Father saw them as lambs, prey, ready for the slaughter.
I thought I was different."
Methos shivered in the early morning cold. His mind
fading back to the past. To Caspian's crimes, to finding out his
grandson had taken the habit of eating human flesh. Then enjoying the
spoils of one of Caspian's barbecues. Seeing some of the boy's
children.
He'd been following this one for years. First the father, Caspian's
last son, then the boy. He'd held such high hopes for this one. Seeing him turn
his father in to the cops, leading a normal life. He'd hoped this one
would be different, but yet the cycle had gone on once again, turning
a perfectly good kid in a madman.
He could see the hunger in those dark brown eyes. The way the kid had
looked at him as if he were prey, something to put his teeth into
later. He held his hand on his knife, ready to protect himself.
Awaiting in silence.
"I know what this will lead to." the boy stated." The walls are
closing in on me and the colors fade to black. My eyes are falling
fast and deep into me and I follow the tracks that lead me down. Never
following what's right. And they wonder when they see all the sadness
and pain the truth begins to light. Cause I can't see no reason, I
want what is pleasing, yet all I will take should be free, alive.
What I'd rob from the innocent ones, what I steal from the womb. If I
cried me a river of all my confessions, would I drown in my shallow
regret.
Would I fall and say it isn't wrong, that I'm doing what comes to me.
What is my right.
And in the darkness all that I can see, the frightened and the weak,
are forced to cling to mistakes they know nothing of. Is there a
reason for it stranger?"
Methos looked at the last of Caspian's boys. The children turned into
psychopaths by the madman he'd once seen as his brother. He looked in
his eyes and saw himself. What he had been. Corrupted, tempted. Yet
this boy would not have the time needed to gain control over his dark
side. He was too young, to mortal. With time this boy too might
overcome the bloodlust, but not with the mortal time handed to him.
So he just stood there, silent, watching the kid as he made his move.
The boy didn't turn around, he didn't head for Methos, didn't even
consider it. Instead he climbed up the railing, looking at the deep
water below. Right now he should do something to stop him, yet Methos
didn't. He just stood there, watching as the boy fell.
Then he turned around and walked away.
the end