Unwilling

Famine

The soft murmur of of a hundred voices greeted her as she stepped through the door.

It wasn't an expensive restaurant, but it was fairly high-class and certainly popular with the local residents.

A man dressed in a black tuxedo and a bow-tie greeted her. "Good evening Madam, will you be expecting company this evening?". She glanced around the room as she answered airily "No, it's just me tonight, but I'd like a large table if that isn't a problem". The man bowed his head as he replied "But of course, If you'd care to follow me Madam I think I have just the seat".

She followed the host through a sea of happy diners. She brushed against one man's arm and he began to gnaw ravenously at a leg of lamb.

She and the host arrived at a sizable table and she took a seat. "A waiter shall be with you shortly" said the host "if you would care to make a selection, there is a menu on your table" he indicated the menu and made his way back through the tables to the kitchen.

She glanced through the menu nodding quietly to herself. Her stomach growled.

She made her selection and placed the menu back on the table. She surveyed the room around her. It was rather large and old-fashioned, although if you looked closely you could see where wires ran along the skirting boards giving away the modern times in which the building found itself. 

She sighed. How times had changed.

She looked over to the man she had brushed past on the way in. She was pleased to see that the whole table was now rapidly consuming whatever came into sight. After all these years, she still occasionally marveled at how fast it sometimes spread.

Her stomach growled again and she was relieved to see the waiter on his way to her seat. He glanced oddly at the table with the ravenous customers before composing himself and approaching her table professionally.

"Are you ready to order Madam?" he asked. 

"Yes, I think I am" she replied. "I'd like one of those please" she said, handing him the menu.

"I- I'm sorry, I don't quite understand" the waiter replied, his professionalism rapidly giving way to confusion. "Your order, Madam?".

"Yes" she replied. "I'd like exactly what's listed". As she said this, she took a look past the waiter to the table she'd first brushed past. She was pleased to note that it had now spread to the tables either side and that food on the original table was running out.

"Perhaps you misunderstand Madam" attempted the waiter. He was quite perplexed by now. This had obviously never been something he'd had to deal with before now. "This is the menu" he stated. "You pick a meal from the options shown".

"Oh I understand perfectly" she responded. "I would like one of everything".

The waiter forced a nervous laugh and was about to try to explain that such a thing was ridiculous when he saw the look in her eye of absolute seriousness.

"Now" she said in a business-like tone. "How much will that cost?".

The waiter began to stammer out that he wasn't really sure when she interrupted him by holding up a cheque. "Will ten-thousand be sufficient?".

The waiter did his best to regain his composure. "I- I'll see what I can, ah... can arrange" he stammered as he took the cheque and then hurried off to the kitchen before she could change her mind.

She chuckled and looked around the room once again. The majority of the tables were now eating out of control. The people from the first few tables had now begun to snack on the flower arrangements or on the scraps from other tables.

Other tables not yet effected were beginning to realize that something wasn't right. One family had already left.

She chuckled again and her stomach growled. Her eyes swept past the entrance and she froze. There in the doorway, completely ignored by everyone else, stood a shadowy figure in a tattered cloak staring directly at her. It raised it's sickle to point at her. She slid deeper into her seat. "No" she muttered. "Please, not now". Then came it's voice. impossibly quiet over the length of the room yet perfectly clear. "I have come for you".