Heart Pangs

Chapter 5 - Trust

Benji learns about consuming in a prey school surrounded by prey students and taught by prey teachers. It's a somber class, and the teacher tries to be as gentle as possible but there's still a shock wave that runs through the room at the news, most of all Benji.

Preds could really do that to prey? Could Felix? Would Felix?

No, of course not, Benji reasons with himself. Why in the world would Felix do something like that? He's like a brother to Benji and his siblings. There's no way he would even contemplate doing something like that to them. If their positions were reversed, Benji knows he would never do the something like that to Felix, so why would his oldest friend do it to him? The answer is— he wouldn't.

They learn about publicly and privately contracted prey and how alluring a contract can be, but how it's ultimately a sentence to a slow and painful death. They learn about the legality of consuming. Technically, only digestion is the big thing authorities are worried about. Consuming someone against their will but not digesting is still illegal but the consequences are a slap on the wrist by comparison.

Some prey allow themselves to be consumed without digestion for pleasure— whether for their benefit, the pred's, or both. In these cases, the pred would likely take stomach acid neutralizers, otherwise, though they may not start digestion, their natural stomach acids would cause minor burning for their prey. This is usually a very intimate and trusting act.

In some rare cases, a prey may be legally digested without a contract, as long as a consent form is signed by both parties with a witness. The reasons for a situation like this are generally unusual and often personal.

Benji's class is full of all kinds of warnings and cautionary tales. Don't walk alone in a pred neighborhood. Don't drink with a pred, most consuming accidents happen when one or more party is intoxicated. If you witness someone being consumed, call the authorities immediately. Be more wary around younger preds as they have the least control over their urges to consume.

Don't even fully trust strange prey. Some of them are collectors who steal vulnerable other prey and sell them to preds for illegal consuming. In exchange for selling out their own kind, collectors receive a wristband similar to privately contracted prey, but it protects them from all potential predators. After this lesson, Benji hears rumors from the other kids about three prey that went missing a few years back, supposedly at the hands of a collector.

The world suddenly seems like a very unsafe place.

After spending a day learning every horrifying thing Benji can stomach about consuming, he goes home with the intention of seeing Felix as soon as possible. He's not sure why he feels this is important. He's not even sure what he wants to say to his friend, but it seems important not to let this new knowledge fester while they are apart from one another.

"Did you have a nice day at school?" Benji's mom asks with a tired smile when he gets back.

Benji forces a smile back. He's sure his mom knows what he learned about but doesn't seem keen to pry. "Yeah," he responds. "I learned a lot." For the first time, he wonders what his mom has thought of his relationship with Felix for all these years. She must have known everything would come out one day.

"Did you learn?" Brandon asks Benji later when it's just the two of them.

"Yeah," Benji says quietly. "I learned."

"So you know why I don't trust Felix, why Mom doesn't trust Felix."

Benji looks at Brandon. "She doesn't trust him? Not even after all these years?"

Brandon simply shakes his head. "You can never fully trust a pred."

Benji doesn't want to think about it and quickly leaves.