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and systems. We were reborn in hunger, and we loved it. You
know that feeling you get when you’re starving and finally
take that first bite of your favorite food? Now imagine never
being full, and sitting down to an infinite buffet table filled
with all of your favorites, and just eating and eating and
eating. That first glorious bite lasts forever, and we were like
roaming voids, forever gnawing away at the world. Hell, I’d
have swallowed the whole damn planet if only I could’ve
opened my mouth wide enough.
“Eventually, I learned to detect all the empty mouths of
the world, glowing like fires burning on faraway shores.
I could see them below the earth, across the oceans, even
hiding behind dull, lifeless eyes, salivating from salty tear
ducts. I knew it was my job to fill them all up. Just by aiming
my hunger, I could transform their desires into a single
burning appetite for the soft whisper of sharp teeth gliding
through tender meat, and the sweet streams of blood that
slide along the tongue.
“I aimed my hunger at you. Sure, you tamped it down,
but it’s still there, smoldering. I can see it plain as day. It’s
never too late, you know. Go ahead and try me. I’m sure I’m
delicious. You know what they say—the only thing better
than raw is still screaming.
“No? Suit yourself, then.
“I’m surprised you haven’t gotten it by now. It’s hardly
my fault. I’ve been forthright with you all along. But my
life is only as long as my story, so I’m certainly not going to
spell it out for you.
“Now, I couldn’t make everyone hungry, mind you,
but you’d be surprised at just how many I converted to
dedicated carnivores. Funny thing, hunger. Everything
being equal, that’s all we really are—a collection of small,
hungry mouths. I have a knack at consolidating them, is all.
It feels like I’m making things right—putting all the teeth
in a row, so to speak, where they all belonged from the very
beginning.
144 | Mark Anzalone