Once the family's tranquillity settled, Keith asked Reis to come back fishing, and begged to come back see the market. Show taught him fear could make a man step back. So with determination, he could brave such enemy and continue on his quest.
His hopes of finding his father diminished every time he thought about time passing. The man could go farther. He may also go haywire. If Kodra had treated Keith's mother the way she looked only, how could a gigantic city treat his father?
Alas, pain in his stomach woke him up in the middle of the night. Peaceful times happened only when he was full.
"It hurts... ow..."
He rolled on the bed, left, right for what seemed to last for days.
"...Why?"
Keith asked. He was in dire need of answer. Every day he could feel the crawling ideas deep in his mind, merging with his thoughts. He saw blood everywhere.
'Must be just like the linings.'
He was right. The aches messed up with his brand new brain, he could see what wasn't here. Hallucinations, present at daytime. People acted normally even though Keith saw undetermined elements around him.
The next day he would see things from the corner of his eye.
'Show?'
The great shadow most of the time.
But the one he called remained hidden the whole time.
Show could hear what the kid thought, but he couldn't see the same things. His investment going crazy wasn't on the planning. He chose to observe a little more before intervening.
Hunger tortured Keith's mind more and more. But he was curious. He wanted to see where was his limit. He endured the pain every night. Creeping on the floor. Scratching it, breaking every of his nails. No scream came out. Only whining in despair.
Deep inside he wanted to hunt at night. But he knew, there were more people in this village. More danger to be aware of. The fact he had to look out for danger anytime made a new seed grow. Paranoia.
The things he saw in the corner of his eye began to grow in number.
Aside of this, Reis and Tiya would always feed the boy. Meat, fruits, veggies. They would always treat him well, to not observe any improvement in the boy's condition regardless of the energy he spent fishing, eating, walking every day. His mood and talkativeness worsened by the day.
Things had texture to him. The main issue was his stomach, asking for more, not in quantity. Keith refused this idea despite the blood he saw on people. More and more escaping every orifices.
If their behaviour hadn't changed in weeks, Keith's had. His mind converged toward the idea he had to eat disgusting things only.
Once he passed next to some shit. He snarled. No way.
His tummy was cramped. The sharp aching contracted his muscles and made him slightly bow forward with time.
Half a moon passed. Time passed without Keith noticing at all. He couldn't care about such thing such as time when he was in pain. Telling his host how he felt was no option. He first asked the so called 'magic healer' when he had the occasion to and got no answer.
A day, under a bright sun and a rising heat, he swore he saw her anew.
'Mother? This can't be!'
Her crooked silhouette striding among the crowd. Keith Jumped over the counter and cut through the crowd.
"Wait for me ! Mother ! Do not abandon me!"
His screams scared a few passers-by, and Reis, agape.
The thing he ran after vanished, appeared on different places. But the despair kept him immersed in his new race. His heart beating loudly, he ran.
It led the kid to a remote place where no one was: the forest. He had exited the village without noticing.
Four hands grabbed Keith's ankles and wrists, they stuck him to the ground, spread like water on a rock. His head orientated where he could only glare at the top of trees, balancing to the wind gusts.
"She isn't here."
Show said to the boy, he was breathing loudly, still nervously looking around.
"She is gone. You should find something to calm yourself, you aren't rational."
The monster's voice became deep, the deeper it became, the better Keith could hear the growling that usually sparkled his voice. Show was annoyed.
"Why don't you feed in the trash? Looks like you are testing your limits. You sure can blame me for the hunger, but myself I am not sure what you have become. No one can eat this much and remain this frail. I think the fact you were born from a curse attracts misfortunes. Yet you keep surprising me every time we find a new source of problem, you eat it as a solution. Why don't you continue?"
"Can't believe I don't consider myself as a person either. I keep imagining things. The itch here is unbearable. But when we eat. When we go together outside and have something bare handedly... What a bliss. The warmth, the tiny bits of...? NO! No!"
He kept repeating it, lifting his head a few centimeters to slam it on the ground as hard as possible while the hands grabbed harder, leaving light shackles marks on his scarred skin.
"No! No! Not doing sick fucker things!"
'No bad words.' Show let go in Keith's mind.
His resolution was brave, for sure, but he couldn't fight against it for too long. He cried, laying on the ground for a few minutes until Reis found him.
"By the gods what are you doing? Come on, I know you've suffered but you can't just vanish like that, my wife would kill me, she likes you a lot you know! Hey, come on..."
He took the kid in his arms and brought him back in his home. While they were still in the forest, he whispered to him.
"You can talk to me okay? I won't bite."
Keith had trusted the man for much more time he could remember properly. He could speak, yes. But not with an empty stomach. He said.
"I want to go out. Every nights."
"And why is it?"
"Let me go out at night. Just once. You remember the time I stank so much you had to throw me in the river? I couldn't sleep. Please let me out."
Reis nodded.
"Only if you don't steal."
'Heh!' Both thought in unison.
"I won't, I promise."
By the time night arrived, Keith was still wide eyed. His excitation grew by the second while Reis was troubled of his attitude, but it the kid was relieved of his torment, so was he.
The moon was at its highest point in the sky and silent surrounded him. He walked a few hundred meters deep in the village where he had never been before, a smile on his face. What his eyes saw was the thickest strand he had ever seen. It was so big he could distinguish its grey shiny color. but no thinner side.
'Why is it here?'
His shirt got suddenly colder as Show came back from his scouting and Keith heard the second voice saying.
'Pick left or right. You will have a surprise anyway.'
Intrigued, he went to the side directing to a small house. He escalated a window on the side and found his lining.
There, a naked body laid on the ground, a middle-aged woman visibly. But he couldn't tell who she was. She was sleeping in a weird position, her legs wide spread and her breast leaning forward.
The lining touched her neck, so he silently approached her body and his eyes changed colour. Her shapes where gracious, Her position weird, and her head missing. With nothing dictating his movement, he feasted on the body. The layer of fat she had made her limbs heavier to move around before bits of it vanished.
Munching, chomping, chewing on something new, finally! A new ecstasy. Ripping apart the skin, just to plunge his head in its guts the second later felt incredible. Albeit the warmth was amiss it was fresh.
The bone-crushing noises covered Show's laughing. The shadow was astonished by Keith's appetite. He had a specimen, maybe something that could evolve differently than him, a shadow in the night. The boy was a monster, unlike him, he could be seen under bright light.
From the neck to toe, the corpse was eaten. When there was no more to eat, the boy 'woke' up, licking his fingers.
"We need a bath, boy."
The boy soaked his whole body in the river for a few minutes, before going back to the house. He saw no lining around and entered. He fell asleep the moment he touched his bed.
On the next morning, Reis' eyes were scanning the boy in his bed.
'Wake up.'
His eyes opened at once and he was now staring back at Reis.
"Thanks. Shall we go?"
Reis threw a few tissues on Keith's face.
"Here, put these on, you can't spend your day in wet clothes. I'll go tell my wife to change the bedsheet as well."
Everything was still wet. He didn't sleep long and the air humidity didn't help it dry. Keith asked.
"No details?"
And Reis sighed.
"No details."
---
Next village, things moved too.
A tall man, built like a bear walked toward the biggest house. The man was tired and tripped on his way down. His mouth was so dry his lips were covered in cuts and white deposit. His gaze was very glassy.
A woman, cleaning a store front saw him face to face, she was petrified. The man's eyes fell on her the same moment she was about to yelp. He mumbled.
"Billage shief?"
She did hear that. But she did not listen. She was just scared. And the most suited thing that could deal with a tall man, was another tall man.
"Th.. this way please."
She walked a fast pace and knocked rapidly on the ornated wood. Not daring to look back behind her.
And so Leton opened the door.