Page 4 of The Last Feast
“Then…” Hana presses the knife harder against his back so he can feel the sting of the sharp blade piercing his skin without causing any irreversible damage—yet. “I push this into you, reach through the opening, and feel your heart beating.”
“Where have you gone?” the woman says, coating Hana’s tastebuds in the foul taste that makes her tongue feel furry.
But Auguste takes a step back, uncaring about the knife as he lowers his voice to prevent Odette from hearing their negotiations. “What happens if I do?”
Hana pokes her tongue out, needing more of that cake he carries in his vocal cords as she holds his shoulder and lifts onto her toes. He bends his knees, doing what she wants without her uttering a single word. She lightly flutters her tongue on the side of his neck, up to his ear. More goosebumps dot his skin as she whispers, “Then I chase you, sweet thief.” Dragging the knife up his spine with less pressure, allowing him to feel the sharp edge without it fully cutting him, she nips his earlobe with her teeth. “You took from me. Now it’s my turn.”
Odette’s light hair shines in the low emergency lights hidden high up on the trees. Hana couldn’t find the relevant switch to turn them off, but now, they work in her favor, allowing her to notice the woman getting closer. She pushes Auguste forward and then snatches Odette’s flowing strands in her fist, making the woman scream in pain.
He turns, finding Hana in the dark now that his sight has adjusted as she asks, “Do you accept my offer?”
With one swift nod of his head, he seals all three of their fates. Then, he slowly steps back before he breaks out into a full run through the maze while Odette screams, “Get off me, you bitch.”
Hana rolls her eyes and punches the butt of the hunting knife into her temple. The screams reduce, but Odette is still awake, and she doesn’t like that. Even more so, she doesn’t like the fact Odette touched what’s hers and made him uncomfortable when that’s her job as part of the feast. In her eighteen years of existence, Hana has never been allowed the freedom of choice. Auguste represents that, but Odette? Being educated, having friendships, thick clothes—any clothes...Odette is every luxury Hana wasn’t allowed, so it makes her rougher as she drags her through the maze by her hair.
Odette attempts to fight her, but she’s no match for someone who has been fighting their entire life. Each step is met with another hard slam of the knife handle into her face as Hana feels a new emotion warm her lower stomach. But the woman doesn’t stop fighting, so she punches her again, in the back of the head this time to daze her enough to drag her through the trees to the thick wire frame supporting the roof.
She’s felt excitement before. It made her erratic, and she couldn’t focus on anything else. This is different, though. It’s more than excitement as she hears Auguste’s heavy steps pounding through the maze. Even though he didn’t share his real name with her, he’s following her commands, and Hana has never believed the notion that names hold significance. Devil child, whore, orphan, filthy: those are a few of the names she’s been called, and she never agreed with any of them. Instead, she focuses on the new emotion as she drags the unconscious woman through the space.
Want?No. She doesn’t believe it’s that, since she has wanted many things in her life despite never receiving them.Satisfaction?Not that either, as she hasn’t made him scream—yet.
The frustration of not being able to name the emotion makes her lash out. She punches into Odette’s face, bloodying herperfect features until they resemble the same disgust Hana’s auditory-gustatory synesthesia forced her to feel.
When she reaches the ladder attached to the metal side panels closing in the man-made woodland, she drags Odette onto her shoulder then climbs up. She gets distracted halfway up as she spots a figure in the middle of the maze. Hana holds the wrung near her head with one hand and watches Auguste. His steps slow as he turns in a circle, waiting for her, but her social limitations lead her to mistake his stillness as a refusal of her offer rather than the truth that he’s questioning why he’s running from a woman who isn’t chasing him.
He looks up, searching for her while she continues climbing, half-tempted to push Odette over her shoulder so she splatters onto the floor.
“This will be better,”she thinks as she steps onto the next wrung.“She’ll see he belongs to me.”
When she reaches the top of the structure, she lays Odette on the metal grid below the pitched roof. Then, she takes the sharp fishing wire she was meant to use on the deer to secure the woman to the thick metal poles before carefully sliding her around them so Odette is suspended above the maze.
Hana crawls over the unconscious body to secure each arm to the crisscrossing poles then moves onto her ankles. Once she’s finished, she perches on the section the ladder is hooked to, assessing her masterpiece.
Odette’s skin parts, gravity pulling her body into the sharp wire, but Hana can’t help laughing at the shape her body makes.
A cross.
“It really is a feast,” she mutters to herself as she drags spare electrical wiring closer to make sure Odette doesn’t die from blood loss too soon. She carefully threads the plastic-coated wires through the sharp metal fishing wire to create intricate patterns over her wrists, neck, and arms. Then, she removes thewoman’s shoes and socks. Balling the socks, she stuffs them into her mouth. The excess electrical wire reaches Odette’s face, so she wraps it over the impromptu gag to keep it in place before patting the back of her head.
“Don’t touch my things,” she whispers into Odette’s ear, as though the warning will be understood.
The muted crack of a twig snapping below her has her looking down to see Auguste slowly making his way through the maze. She can’t see his face or anything other than the faint silhouette of his outstretched arms as he attempts to find his way back, yet she sits on the structural pole Odette is attached to and swings her legs to observe him.
He’s lost in the dark, his mind and his bearings, because Hana has no intention of allowing him to renege on the offer he accepted. Still, he continues walking through the maze, searching for a way to leave, because he’s more embarrassed at the fact she didn’t immediately follow him than his darkest desires being piqued.
As Hana noisily makes her way down the ladder, she knows the emotions stirring in her veins—anger and insult, two things she promised she wouldn’t feel once she turned eighteen. But here he is, a sweet thief who tastes like cake, making her a liar.
4
PRAY TO ME
AUGUSTE
Why the fuck did I run?
I’m not some pathetic little bitch a stranger can control. I don’t even like people. But I want to feel her tongue on more parts of my body. There wasn’t the discomfort there usually is, despite the literal knife pressed to my back.
But now? Now, I’m stuck in a pitch-black maze I can’t find my way out of. Outside the hedged walls, I could at least make sense of the shapes around me.
