Words

Twenty

Eat. Eat! You're hungry, right? Go on, EAT, voices of my corrupted thoughts whispered in the back of my mind. In the end that's all you're good for.

I clutched my head with trembling hands, shaking it to rid myself of their words. My arms pulled my knees close to my chest, as if they served as a shield from my inner demons.

"Are you okay?" Kyle, oblivious to this, asked with a layer of concern. His head tilted to the side again.

"Oh Kyle." I patted his head and forced a smile. Somehow, knowing he showed concern gave me a sense of tranquility. "Don't worry about me." After a few moments, I let go and exhaled. "I can tell you don't believe me, so I'll show you like I did Sophie and Abigail. If you get scared, I won't be offended." It was for the best, anyways.

He gave a weak smile while avoiding my gaze. "Sorry, I kinda thought you were joking." Still, he didn't let go. In fact, he moved closer. I could see his unoccupied fist tightening when he turned back to me. "But I won't be scared. I'm not that weak."

I only laughed in response before reaching for my bag. Once I dug out the notebook I used before, I flipped to a random blank page. I then took a pen out, handing it to him. "Write the first word you think of here."

"Okay...?" He brought the pen to his chin before writing 'pogo sticks'.

"That's two, but I guess it works." I took the pen from him and stabbed it onto the paper. "I'll explain while I write slowly. Pay close attention."

With that, I began. My cursive calligraphy captured the 'p' first. "Anything I write disappears. No one else can see it but me. I haven't figured out why, but I eat every word I write." By then, 'pogo' was finished. "You can't see them, right?"

His focus was on my porcelain-white hand as it wrote the next word when he uttered, "No, I...I can't."

I set the pen down, covering my mouth once the 'pogo-stick' lifted off the paper. "Figures. It's because I eat them. Well, normally."

He took the pen and wrote again, making sure to shake it just in case. After scribbling 'pogo-stick', he handed it back to me. "Why aren't you eating your...words now? Your stomach growled a while ago. You must be hungry."

My hand froze before I could repeat the action. Instead, I swatted away the word trying to slip in between my fingers. "No, I'm not."

"Obviously you are, otherwise your stomach wouldn't be growling." His scolding voice was laced with a hint of sarcasm.

The word flew back to the pile. A part of me wondered how they know where each other were. I glared at them, then slumped my shoulders. "I don't want to, okay?"

He pushed the notebook in front of me. "No, you need to eat."

A rush of frustration and disgust made me shiver when my stomach sank. I shut my eyes, snatching more grass from the ground. We both heard the plea emitting from my gut, but I refused to give in. "I can't."

"I don't know why you have this weird power, but if you're supposed to eat words then do it! What the hell are you starving yourself for?" his grip tightened as he yelled.

My hand pounded from the pressure. It started to tremble; whether it was from his hold or the fear of myself, I couldn't tell. "I don't want to starve. I don't want to die! But I have to, because..." I remembered Abigail's confused face and pulled my hand from his. "I stole your apples. I stole everyone's apples! Not only that, but I stole cosmos, chrysanthemums, math equations and a whole lot of other things. I don't want to do this anymore."

As I spoke, my chest tightened. It felt like my words―my heart's words―were choking me. They seeped into my mind until all I could think about was the inevitable. "I have to stop myself before I eat everything. The only way to solve this is to die."