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Gaining Wings

"Do you wanna hear a story?"

Beta and Matrix had crawled into bed after the sky darkened. The windows, nevertheless, were only open during the day, so there was no way to tell. With the window shade pulled down, the room was pitch black.

Beta turned on his side to look at Matrix's shadow. "Sure."

Beta didn't see his shadow move, which led him to believe the Stak wasn't going to say anything. When Matrix spoke, it startled him. "About a year ago, I was with some friends—"

"You had friends?"

"Bite me," the man countered. "I was with some...people, and..." He took a dramatic breath. "Look, it's not something I'm proud of but the Staks do it so naturally I―" He cut himself off, realizing everything he added only made it sound worse. "We were hunting Ciders."

Beta seemed surprised. "Seriously?"

"Well we were never planning on eating anyone, we just thought it was all so...dumb. The Ciders live in the woods instead of the mansions, but even then they stop by and visit friends and family, and sometimes the family and friends go to see them. But for us...the Ciders avoid us. Everyone knew we were hated, we just wanted to finally figure out why?" Matrix bit his lip, the day coming back to him. The ceiling turned into a canvas that he shined memories on like a brand new projector. "Turns out there was a pretty good reason."

Beta awaited more, and Matrix gave him that.

"Their bodies—the way they're built, the way they smell, the way they taste...it's something that we can't resist by nature...it's something we have no control over." Matrix paused for a moment. "I wouldn't hurt a living human, but these creatures? They're addictive for a reason I still don't understand."

"So what I'm grasping here is you're Edward and Ciders are Bellas," Beta joked, but Matrix didn't find it funny.

"I'm serious. You really don't get it." The Stak turned over to look at Beta, and for the first time Beta saw a real darkness in the man. He was dull, yes, but never dark.

"We found one of them just sitting there against a tree trunk, writing or drawing maybe. She must've heard us coming, because when we got closer she got up and started to run. We caught up with her, dragging her back." The Stak got lost in the Perna's eyes, seeing every moment inside Beta's iris'. "We were laughing and...and then we smelled her. It was amazing. Like all your greatest desires wrapped up into one...helpless body. I didn't mean to do it, but she just smelled so good."

Beta's eyes narrowed. "You killed her."

Matrix chuckled, but it held no feeling. "I ate her. I ripped her flesh apart and swallowed it. I sucked out her blood like it was a Capri Sun. I went right through her, pulling chunks out so I could shove them back into my body. It felt like I was snorting heroin," Matrix paused and added, "And I loved it."

Beta was speechless, and he couldn't decide if it was out of disbelief or disgust. "Why didn't the other Staks do the same then?" was all he could think to ask.

Matrix sighed heavily from his bed, clearly afflicted. "That's the problem, I still don't know. There was no doubt that we all had that subtle craving in our guts but...mine was just...deeper. It felt like...I was trying to find something inside of her, and it was only when I didn't find it that I found I could stop myself." He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, trying to get the images out of his head. "Believe me when I say, after that incident I never reacted that way again...and I'm not sure if it was because of the trauma or something else entirely but God I'm just so glad that feeling in me is gone." The tension in his neck released as he softened back into the pillow. "And that's why I can never go back to those woods...not again." Matrix rolled back over. "End of story."