Page 59 of Eat Me Alive
Fuck.
“Do you want to see the other females?”My stomach wrenches at this. No, I do not want to see other humans, but it is for her. For Xiaoyu, I will rip a god’s balls out just to see her smile.
She nods immediately. “Yes, yes, please.”
Her anxiety stinks. It fills the air with poison that makes me wrinkle my nose. I want her to feel safe even if it means delaying another extraction. The humans can make do with the two canisters we have managed to collect.
“Very well, we shall prepare.”
“Thanks,” she breathes out a sigh of relief. “You’re a real stand-up guy, Datu.”
I stand straighter at her words. The way she says “stand-up guy”makes it sound like a compliment, and coming fromher? It feels more gratifying. It meansmore. Before I pull her up into my arms, she starts thumbing her toga. She needs more human clothes. I tug the toga off.
“Take it off and I will provide you with another.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “What—you gonna manifest some spiders so they start weaving silk or something?”
She is joking. I should laugh.
I laugh weakly.“How did you know?”
“Don’t take it too literally, I was fucking around.”
“I got that.”I call into the air—a miracle, forbearance, the earth to engulf me whole—but what it brings me is a dress. Made of braided leaves, and long violet masiterra petals that matches mine—it fits her body like second skin.
She dons it, stupefied. “This is beautiful, but not really ideal to wear when hiking.” She chuckles, spinning around to showcase the offering earth gifted her.
“I will carry you.”My voice in the air sounds rough. Restrained. I am uncertain how I find her. Beautiful is not the word for it. It sounds too…plain. A word toomenialfor her. No human word I can think of can uplift beauty enough to describe her.
She waves me away, but I catch her arm, pulling her until she is flush against me. I see her skin is starting to change. When she shifts, I see the webbing of vines underneath her skin. My mark on her.
“Datu, we’re kind of in a time-crunch right now.” She reminds me breathlessly. She smells very sweet like a trap. A ravenous, gaping trap.
I grin and lift her into my arms.
She clutches her bag to her chest while I internally sigh. I realize—the farther we trek—that Xiaoyu is not much of a talker. She shows nothing outside, a mask of apathy much like my mask of ease. How exhausting.
“We are close to a creek, you can fill your bottle.”
“I know I drank it already, but I have to ask…how do you know it’s safe straight from the source?”
“No human has died yet drinking our creek water,”I jest. The trees swing in joy to her responding laughter.
“I’ll take that as a yes, it should be safe since Ingar did the same the other day.” She mutters as I set her down. “I’ve been meaning to ask…do you know how many days it’s passed in the human world?” As water streams into her bottle, my world spins.
I am silent as I think of how to respond without alarming her. Birds screech, scattering through the sky, above the thin canopy of trees. The wind wails a warning much too late as a sporadicthumpthumpthumpraces.
There’s a scream in the distance—female, distinctly human. I straighten and toss Xiaoyu her bottle. Her eyes are wide, terrified.
“Stay here.”I order before she snatches my arm, digging those nails into me.
“No, that’s one of the girls. I go!” She hisses.
My authority has never been superseded so easily as she drags me into the treeline. I haul Xiaoyu up and sling her over my shoulder, sprinting toward the noise.
There are rippling sounds of a belly, and the more distance I cover, the greater my apprehension becomes. This is something that happens to me. The vicious carving of my insides. TheTerra are a peaceful folk, and yet, the humans have created this affliction—this disease of violence—among us.
A stench is in the air—sickly sweet—making me gag. Rotten fruits. Death. It smells of death.
