Fat Off Sex and Violence by Shane McKenzie

was snoring in seconds.
                Gary turned on Mary Jane. “Listen to me.”
                “Yes, Master?”
                “I am your master, and I tell you when you eat, you understand?”
                “Why are you upset? I—”
                “That was my mother you were feeding on back there! I should make you starve. I should—”
                The soft, friendly face of the feedling unfolded into a snarling display of teeth. As she stepped up to Gary, her orange eyes burned brighter. Her tongue slithered out, coated the cone-shaped teeth in saliva.
                “Don’t forget what I told you,” she said. Her voice lost its gleeful squeakiness. “You are only my master for as long as I’m fed. You let me starve, you won’t like what happens next.” She snapped her teeth at him, giggled. “My brother’s appetite is much bigger than mine. Much bigger.”
                Gary’s lip trembled. Whatever bravery had filled him a second ago disintegrated. He plopped down on the ground, ripped a handful of grass from the dirt.
                Mary Jane sat beside him, rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m getting hungry.”
      
    ***
     
    Gary had drifted off to sleep at some point. In his dream, he was pinned to the rowan tree by his wrists and ankles, naked. Sheila was there, smiling up at him. Kronos and Mary Jane skipped around her, arm in arm, chuckling. Chester emerged from the trees, samurai sword in hand, blood pouring from his knuckles.
                “Sheila? Let me down.”
                She only smiled at him, stepped toward Gary—groin-level—and opened her mouth.
                “What are you doing?” Gary struggled against the spikes driving him into the wood, but couldn’t budge. He squeezed his eyes shut as his mother took him in.
                “Take that, bitch.” Chester’s voice.
                Gary’s eyes popped open just in time to see the blade of the sword split Sheila’s head in two. A hurricane of yellow and black rushed from her head and into the air, and the feedlings fed until they towered above the forest.
                Laughing all the while.
                Gary burst into consciousness and yelped, gasped for breath. Light blinded him at once.
                But it was the surrounding forest that caught his attention.
                The trees were splashed with blood, some splintered and broken, some fallen over. Littering the ground were the bodies of animals, piled on top of each other, strewn about like discarded plush toys. Their fur was soaked with red and only a few moved, slow and twitchy. Tiny squeaks and grunts were barely audible over the giggling of the feedlings.
                Mary Jane and Kronos sat in front of him, chins resting in the palms of their hands. They looked like demonic pre-schoolers. The sun had begun its sink into the horizon, splashing the sky with pinks and purples. But the orange and red light aimed at Gary’s face had his full attention. He squinted, held a hand up to block it out.
                “You’re awake, Master,” Mary Jane said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
                “Yes, and I’m anxious to feed,” Kronos said. “These animals did nothing for my appetite. And it’s been way too long since the world has tasted my influence.”
                Gary winced as he sat up, hissed between bared teeth. “I don’t know, guys. I’m hurt,” he said. “I don’t know if I can do much tonight.”
                Kronos let out a rattling growl. “Did you tell him what happens when we’re not fed, Sister?”
                “I sure did. He understands perfectly.”
                Their eyes burned a hole into him. “Okay, just let me collect myself,” Gary