Hunger Eats

Hunger does strange things to a person.
When emptiness gnaws at your stomach like rats' teeth, you may find yourself scrubbing on the ground, hands purple with berry juice, black from brambles, red from cuts, green with grass stains.
you may find yourself sharpening your knife and seeking food in the wood. Pulling the rabbit from its hole and skinning it while it is still warm.
Hunger makes animals of us all.
There are some who are devoured by their hunger. They fall prey to it like a deer to its hunter. They become wraiths, ghosts of bloodlust and starvation, thin as the wind, and as ever present.
Their teeth grow longer, their nails sharper. Their eyes, gaunt.
Perhaps that is not the most terrifying thing about them, though. Perhaps it is because everyone has the potential to suffer the same fate.
For hunger eats, but it is never satisfied.
Yes; hunger does strange things to a person.

Art by Matt Barley

Text by Lucie MacAulay