Hunger by KiRa

Hunger
by KiRa

The steep, faded brick building was clear against the evening mist. A solitary man snapped the lock on the front door shut and shuffled onto the street. “Ah…” he muttered. “February is so dismal.” The man sighed, his massive pot belly rising and falling with fatigue. A crisp, black business suit adorned him, but the man’s face was anything but fresh. Withered with age and weary from work, his expression was dreary. The puddles along the street glistened while the gentleman desperately tried to avoid them. He winced as he felt his foot submerge into the murky water. The man glanced about, hoping for a taxi, but the street was deserted. Or was it?
The man heard a scuttling, beginning as soft as a pesky rodent and growing to a piercing still. He smiled, completely satisfied to be going home after a long day. Absently, the man kicked a hefty box out of the street. Suddenly the air turned stale, and the container began to rattle. A face peered out of the carton… the face of a peculiar little girl. The man stared in alarm at the horrendous sight of the child. Her faint blue eyes were like sinking ships, buried in sadness and nestled in the almost translucent skin that covered her face.
The girl’s lips, gray with cold, formed one word: “Food.” The man tried to take it all in… her limp blond hair… the flesh hanging off her bones.
“Yes, child. I have food. You may have my sandwich.” he declared, his voice very stiff, yet friendly.
“Food?” Her voice was raspy, like a middle-aged smoker. Air, an iceberg of air, puffed out of her mouth as though she were a young dragon. “Food…please.” He boisterously unwrapped a sandwich in wax paper, and it echoed in the dim street. The girl snatched it from his hands, stuffing the bread and cheese into her mouth ferociously. Surprised, the man nervously backed away.
“Well, I best be on my way!” he attempted, somewhat cheerfully. But the girl was possessed. Her eyes were now a stronger blue, the pupils practically filling them with a cold, eerie black.
“More food.” she demanded. The man felt a disturbance at the same time as a huge gust of wind blew the box away and the girl began to weep.
“Good day, child!” he bellowed, almost too upset to move. However, the girl was now a siren, wailing.
“I need food!” she shrieked, her frail body shuddering uncontrollably as she sobbed.
Drops of sweat from unease trailed down the man’s face as he anxiously gaped at the child’s tantrum: obviously a product of starvation. The puddles in the street grew to the size of a small pool, filled with the odd soup of sweat and tears. The man grimaced at the path of water down the girl’s cheeks. Finally, he could take it no more.
“Child! My goodness, where are your parents?”
“Parents? I live in a box!” she exclaimed, chuckling grimly at the misery of her life. “I lived in a grand house. It was deep in the countryside, surrounded by beauty and nature. Now I live in the city. Hah! My mother looked like an angel with golden locks and eyes like the sea. My father, well…he liked to hurt me and Momma.” She gingerly revealed her thigh, a canyon of scars. The worst was a long, inch-thick gash. “I ran away from home. I’m hungry, sir!” she pleaded.
The man’s jaw was hanging open, partly in shock that the girl was so eloquent, along with pity for her awful situation.
“I am so sorry. What have you been eating?” he asked tentatively.
“Mostly scraps I can find, sir. Last week I came across a banana!” She looked so genuinely excited that he had to inquire: “How long have you been out here?”
“I think I was eleven when I left home… so maybe a year? I’m about twelve!” She smiled through her pain. He offered her his hand.
“Would you like to come for tea?”
“Yes.” She took his hand. A new life was beginning.




Hope you like it! It's an original short story. :P Sorry about the paragraphing! :D