Bessa

Hard Hunger 3/4

I'm starving; he's starving.

We both starve

The last of the rodents are sizzling in the rendered fat of the seal. The Savage has taken out the first bag of bones to thaw on the countertop. He's stopped looking in the cupboards, finally realizing that there is nothing there.

Gusts of violent wind attack the structure of the house. It stands solid, stable under Nature's terrorizing fury. The cold tries to harbor it's way into the inside of the home, the wood stove prevents that intrusion - kept at bay by raging fire.

The Night is absolute now, nothing but a heavy darkness that makes your hair stand on end when looking outside. The Savage burns sage that has a layer of scent to coat our skin.

"Here," He hands me the two vermin that smell better than anything I think I have ever had in my life. I'm done before he finishes his one. He's chewing slow, drinking water between bites. He's carved out cups from the wood, two small cups he keeps filling with water for us to drink throughout the day.

I watch his mouth chew; I watch the swallow of his throat. He takes a drink and pauses before taking another slow bite.

"Here." He hands me the rest of the mouse which is the tail end of it.

"Aren't you hungry?" Taking the fried tail and dropping it in my mouth with a crunch of bones.

"Yes, I'm hungry, but I've had enough. I've been hungrier than this before." I swallow what's left in my mouth.

"You have?" Tone doubts in my words.

"I have starved before." The flickering flame of the candle ghosts the low light around his jawline.

"Tell me about the time you starved, was it with her?"

"Not everything in my life was about her." Those eyes turn, pupils catching the light. The length of my spine ignites with that traveling warmth that always settles itself deep in my belly.

"To me, it was. To me everything is about her."

Silence.

"There's no her, anymore." His voice tells me there will always be thoughts of her.

"She doesn't have to be here to live in here." The palm of my hand touches my chest. I can feel the bones so clearly now; each rib protrudes out with each exhaled breath I take.

"Does she still live inside there." Pointing to his chest, his heart.

"Yes," he doesn't look away from me. My stomach wants to retch up what I just ate.

"Then she's still inside here with us, sharing my space inside you."

Shadows of light ebb around the room, shifting with the current of air. The wind screeches out in a long drawn out howl.

"Will I always have to share my space with something that doesn't belong inside you?"

"I'm not sure." He tells me this, and I gag.

"I wish I had someone to share the space inside my chest beside you." The tone of his Nature protrudes out of a sternum that is vibrating into mine. Canines descend instantly, the Wild within him shifts out of the cocoon of skin. Teeth once again lock on the Mark the Wild made. He holds me there by the neck, delicate but with a firmness that can't be denied.

The tone of his chastising growl is not missed by the Wild within me. She makes her apologies for what I have just said in a whimpering tone to rectify the situation.