Hunger

Chapter 24 "Conflicts"

I surprisingly fell asleep, though it was after what felt like hours on hours of looking up news articles of the enraged guy and what made-up story Claudius had stirred up.

I'm almost certain that I stopped reading news articles about the guy, when I read the theory that the guy was pronounced dead way back in the days! "It is just a stupid troll" I thought as I placed my phone under my pillow, assuring myself that my gun was neatly placed on my nightstand beside me before I closed my eyes.

Maria abruptly woke me up the next morning by viscously shaking my door handle as she unlocked my door, checking to see if I was still alive or not.

"Good morning" she grunted and continued her way down the hallway to my grandmother's room, unlocking her door as well before she walked downstairs to start on her breakfast.

Grunting for each step I took, I slowly made my way over to the bathroom, sitting down onto the cold toilet seat before I rubbed my eyes.

"Breakfast is ready!" yelled Maria up the stairs as I pulled up my underwear, walking over to the bathroom mirror to see the scarily large bags I had gotten under my eyes from the lack of sleep.

"Jesus!" I uttered at the sight of my face, throwing palms with ice cold water onto my face as I let the water slowly drip off my face as I reached for a towel to wipe it off.

I turned the sink over to the warm water, letting the water run as I threw my hand under the stream, running my hand through my hair, styling it slightly before I walked back to my room to get dressed.

"A black t-shirt with a pair of skinny jeans will do" I mumbled before I walked downstairs to see that Maria had already eaten her breakfast, cleaning off her plate before she opened the secret bookshelf door and grabbing numerous weapons.

"Will I need those as well?" I asked in shock as she buckled up with a bunch of guns, loading them up before she closed and locked off the bookshelf for anyone to enter.

"No, but keep the silver knife from yesterday" said Maria as she cleaned off her new handgun, "Maybe bring your gun as well" she suggested before there was a knock on the front door.

Maria quickly discarded and hid the weapons she had brought up from the basement as I walked over to the door, slightly opening it to see that Lucas was on the other side, barely holding onto what was left of his clothes.

"Can we talk?" he asked as he tried to catch his breath, "Now?" I asked before I closed the door, seeing as how he shook his head to my question. I walked back upstairs to grab my gun and the silver knife. "Be careful out there!" said Maria before I ran back down the stairs, closing the door behind me as I left.

I walked out back of Maria's house, seeing how Lucas tried to stay behind a bush as his clothes were almost torn apart.

"Hey, what's going on?" I nervously asked, feeling the chilly breeze brush my face as I sat down on a rock close by. "I got some information..." said Lucas, vaguely introducing what we were going to talk about.

"What kind of information?" I asked as I handed Lucas my jacket, seeing how he started shaking from what seemed like the cold air. "No thank you" he said as he pushed my hand back, not wanting my jacket to warm himself.

"My father, he told me something yesterday" said Lucas as he walked over and grabbed my hand, walking with me along the edge of the forest, just out of view from the rest of the neighborhood.

Lucas continued to walk with me by the edge of the forest, stopping at one of the thickest bushes by the edge of the woods, and sat me down on an old tree stump.