Chapter 2

A year and a half have passed, or so I think. I've known cold and hot, my clothes are now mere torn rags, so I just keep the pants, the rest gets in my way. Right now I'm nine, or so I think, I can't correctly keep track of the time that we've spent in here. The routine hasn't changed a bit, but we have changed. Right now the races do not get me as tired as they used to, we can use the training weapons with agility, weight doesn't bother us anymore. We have less hunger than what we used to, so we can go 2 days without eating without problems. My body has also changed. I'm taller, thinner, my hair now is at the height of my shoulder blades. In this time we've grown closer to each other, caring if one could not continue and trying to help without the adults seeing us. The adults have also changed. 2 weeks ago my dad and aunt Jeane left us, now we are being trained by uncle Morrison, but we don't care much about that. We thought that we'd keep doing what we have done until now.

I feel the sun's light in my skin as we run, still fast and trying to get to first position, but it's something we can handle. I no longer look at the ominous mountain, it's not important, just a distraction, as well as the rest of the things that surround me. Finally we reach our destination, I'm in second place and before we enter the building I glance at the sun and question myself why it is so low in the sky, normally when we finish our daily race it's higher. I simply shrug my shoulders for a second and go back to get my reward. And then I hear Keira screaming.

Before I can think about it I start sprinting, towards the direction of the scream. This is weird, I haven't heard her scream except when she's in true pain, and this scream wasn't like those. As I reach the yard and I'm no longer able to move. Eyes wide, watching something that any other human would have described as macabre. Keira is in her knees, covering her mouth, also unable to move, everybody watches as uncle Morrigan is ripping a man with a knife, he can't do a thing, for he is tied to a wood post as his organs fall to the floor, blood covering everything with crimson. He's twitching hard because of the pain, but his movements are restrained and are loosing force until he doesn't move, the only thing still in movement is his blood, dripping, covering more terrain.

This smell, that red… I've already seen this before and as a reaction of that my mouth starts to water, like a dog that smells it's food. Slowly and mechanically my brain starts to connect pieces before any word is said.

"You'll no longer be given rations, take whatever you wish." Says uncle Morrison, as if nothing had happened, calm and a bit distant from us.

"How can yo do this…?" Aknor says, horrified with the sudden change we're facing.

Uncle Morrison answers him, but I can no longer hear him, or anyone else. Something wakes inside me, a primal need, coming from the depths of my being, stronger than anything else. Hunger.

I start walking start walking slowly, approaching, feeling the still warm blood of the ground staining my feet . Hands reach to the corpse, getting inside, feeling the heat and moisture inside of it, until they find something firm inside of his chest, warmer than anything else. Fingers clasp around it and with a single motion I rip it away from it's place and watch as it comes out and into my vision. For a second I thought it still beated, trying to stay alive. The next thing I know is that I taste blood and flesh. I swallow and take another bite, feeling how my need starts to calm but it doesn't go away, asking for more.

I look back to the rest. Keira hasn't moved, Aknor is staring at me without believing his eyes, on the other hand my other 2 cousins, Dimitri and Elisa, have joined me, their little kid hands taking pieces of flesh while Morrison watches and smiles a bit, showing his razor sharp teeth. He's satisfied with this result.

"When you are done go back to training." He simply says before retiring of the yard.

I keep eating and look back at the corpse. It does no longer look like a person to me.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" Aknor screams as he grabs my shoulders. "YOU ARE EATING A PERSON!" I look at him and see anger in his eyes, all caused by this.

"And…? It's not as if we haven't done this before, you just didn't know." I simply say, surprising myself with the coldness of my words. I free myself of his hands and continue eating, taking more parts of the corpse. Behind me I can hear how Keria vomits. I don't care. I just need to calm the need.

After some time we're covered in blood, the corpse is bitten everywhere, bones showing, organs missing. For the first time since I'm in here I feel my belly full and I'm satisfied. Just Keira and Aknor have kept themselves from feeding, they left before so that they didn't watch us anymore, as if they hated and feared us. As if we were mindless monsters.

I don't understand them. We didn't kill this person, uncle Morrison did, we didn't know this person, this person was nothing more than an animal to us. Is it wrong to eat this "animal" if we don't have anything else? I think no. We have to survive.

I clean my lips licking them as I go back to training. I can hear flies coming to the corpse, attracted by the smell of death, just as we were before. I find Aknor already with his weapon, waiting for us, Keira is with him, paler than usual, still recovering from what she saw before. I take my weapon and the training continues. This time I'm sparring against Aknor.

In this time we've grown accustomed more to certain weapons, but still train with others. Keira, Dimitri and Elisa have been allowed to choose their main weapon, but Aknor and I couldn't. We were both given scythes and been forced to learn to use them correctly for combat. We are still learning though.

We try to reach to hit each other, turning, twisting, moving fast and still watching each other. I analyse his moves and he analyses mines. We're identical physically, but that's it. I feel the wrath of Aknor in his strikes, but he doesn't have the same energy as I do now. I wait and defend, receiving some hits. And then I see an aperture. I strike fast and hard, shoving the blunt blade of the scythe in his stomach with all of my strength. Aknor falls to the floor, clenching his jaw hard, grabbing his belly with both hands and curling into a ball as I point at him with my scythe.

"Face it, you can't fight well like this." I truly pity him, but it was his fault, he decided not to regain energy by eating. I watch as he gets up and grabs his own scythe, panting a bit and going back to fighting against me, his rage still guiding his strikes.

We may be identical, bu I just don't understand him.