Chapter 33 Hunger Makes Monsters
Panic ripped through the grand estate like a living thing.
Shouts and screams echoed down marble corridors as survivors discovered the bodies. People who had been listlessly eating and pretending at conversation only moments ago now scrambled desperately through the dead, tearing at clothes and pockets in search of hidden food.
“They’re dead! They just… stopped living!”
“More for us! Get out of my way!”
A nobleman violently shoved an elderly servant to the ground to reach a half-eaten plate of roasted meat. Two finely dressed women fought viciously over a single loaf of bread, nails digging into skin, hair being pulled. A guard drew his sword over a jug of wine, threatening anyone who came close.
Darius stood firmly in the middle of the growing chaos with Solis at his side. Her elegant composure was visibly cracking. Her hands trembled slightly at her sides as she watched the scene unfold.
Veth stepped forward aggressively, axe already in hand. "This is spiraling out of control. We contain her. Now. Before the entire estate turns into a slaughterhouse."
Mara’s voice was ice-cold. "Isolation. We take her far away from these people. Before her hunger consumes every soul here."
Darius did not move. "No."
Both women stared at him in disbelief.
Solis looked at him, her beautiful face showing raw vulnerability for the first time. "Darius… they are right to fear me. Look at what I do when I lose even the smallest amount of control. Look at what I have already done."
Around them, desperation escalated into outright violence. A merchant stabbed another man over a basket of apples. Someone screamed as they were trampled by the crowd trying to reach the kitchens. The survivors were no longer pretending at civility. The hunger had stripped away every layer of pretense, revealing the monsters beneath.
Darius stayed right beside Solis, standing publicly with her in the center of the courtyard where everyone could see. People stared at them with pure terror and madness in their eyes. Some pointed accusing fingers. Some whispered frantic curses. But Darius refused to step away from her.
"You are not a monster to be locked away or contained," he said to her quietly, but loud enough for the others to hear. "You are here. With us. And I am not leaving."
Solis’s breath hitched. Her eyes widened with disbelief and something deeper. "Nobody stays," she whispered, her voice breaking. "When my hunger grows too strong, nobody ever stays. They run. They curse my name. They die screaming. But you… you are still standing here. Right beside me."
Veth growled in frustration. "This is insane. The longer she stays, the worse this gets. I can feel it pulling at me too, trying to make me hollow."
Mara remained completely silent, but the tension radiating from her was unmistakable.
A noblewoman crawled toward them on her hands and knees, eyes wild with desperation. "Please… you have power. Make it stop. Make the hunger stop eating us from the inside!"
More people began turning toward Solis. Their desperation twisted into something darker and more primal. A starving merchant shouted hoarsely, "It’s her! She is the source of it all! If we take her… maybe we can take the hunger with her!"
The crowd shifted dangerously. Hunger-maddened eyes locked onto Solis with horrifying intensity. Not with intent to kill her.
With intent to consume her.
"They want to devour me," Solis said, her voice trembling. "They always do in the end. They see me as food for their emptiness."
Darius stepped slightly in front of her, not aggressively, but protectively. "Stay behind me."
Veth raised her axe high. "Now we fight?"
"Not yet," Darius said firmly.
The crowd surged forward like a tidal wave of desperation. Dozens of hollow-eyed people rushed toward Solis with grasping hands and open mouths, driven by an insane, all-consuming need to take something, anything, from the source of their endless emptiness.
Solis’s control slipped further. The air grew heavier around them. The emotional famine intensified dramatically, pulling at everyone’s minds and souls. Even Veth’s movements slowed slightly, her usual fiery rage turning into something closer to hollow, directionless anger.
Darius stood his ground, refusing to suppress Solis or run away from her.
Because nobody ever stayed.
And for the first time in centuries, someone was choosing to remain right beside her as the world turned monstrous with hunger.