Fly On The Wall: Fairy Tales From A Misanthropic Universe, Vol. I by Alfy Dade Page A

in
the doorway. Like most of her people, they have heavily wrinkled
and sunken eyes, but they move with speed and youthful vigor. Their
height is half her's, and three-quarters that of the one called
Hugo's. They slink in from the corridor soon after with laden
plates. Each platter bears a thick chunk of flesh, an intoxicating
aroma coaxes the men and fills the jeweled room. The meat is a
plain gray color, and next to it are two small pink towers of mush.
She'd thought of offering them some wine, but then decided against
it, it was much too earlier, and a little inappropriate. The
creature watches them eat and smirks.
    Benjamin's
sour expression warms fast when faced with proffered delicacies.
Aromas waft through the air with incessant urgency, inviting him to
eat, inviting him to turn into a vicious beast and sink his sharp
teeth into the flesh, as so many years of evolution had made him
capable of. The meat calls him ever closer. He knows not what it is
but his rumbling stomach is unconcerned. His saliva flows freely,
he swallows it with an audible gulp and sets to work on the
place.
    Maybe he was
wrong to have been upset, after all, they had provided lodging to
them, and they were mere strangers. If the creature intended harm
to them, then both he and Hugo would already be dead. A bemused
Benjamin smiles between bites. Who would ever have thought the
center of earth inhabited? His mind spun, the fame they'd gain
would be a hundredfold what he'd thought. It didn't matter that
they'd got rid of his suit. Not one bit, they were cheap, at least
compared to the profits he would reap from his
discovery!
    With each
bite, Benjamin becomes more and more enthralled by the creature in
front of him and the shimmering room in which he now shamelessly
dined. Everything around him seems foreign, almost alien in nature.
He simply has to know what this place is, and how they'd come upon
it. He still can not wrap his head around the fact that they are at
the centre of it all. It's impossible. It violates the very laws of
physics which he'd held in such esteem. His stomach rumbles one
final time as his bites slow.
    Hugo
meanwhile tears into his own chunk like a wolverine. Suddenly he
pauses and sighs at the very thought of meat. He can remember the
purge to this day. Countless zoos of animals put to death to
prevent infection. Their carcasses burned in great piles whose
black smoke fogged the air. Now so many strips of brown murdered
earth lay bare. He remembered how hard it had been as a child in
the putrid scent saturated air. To this day, Hugo still sees and
hears the burning, sizzling, and popping of burning carcasses.
Grilled meat to him now resembles more a horrid funerary perfume
than anything else. Despite vivid and varied mental pictures of
mutilated giraffes, chopped up elephants & lifeless chimps,
Hugo chews away, famished.
    The meat in front
of him is unlike anything he has ever tasted. Its flavor is sweet,
just sweet enough to cast honeyed phantoms on his tongue. Tender
too, so much so that it resembles a petal in its delicate texture
and bite. It was cooked to a medium rare perfection, still slightly
pink in the center, beneath the gray. He always preferred his meat
well done, it helped to shield his mind. But this, this is not meat...this is art. Hugo finds the mush exquisite too, airier than passing Sunday
morning clouds, it floats down into his gullet. With each bite, he
is more and more enchanted by the beautiful creature and her
beautiful world. Aside from the lack of natural lights, and the
busy walls, he quite likes it here. So he eats in time with
Benjamin. They eat, and eat, and eat, having servants bring more
helpings, much to the creature's delight. As their food babies
reach maturity they can finally eat no more.
    “ Wow, y'all were hungry,” says the
creature. The creature beckons the men with her finger, so they
go.
    “ We haven't been very gracious
guests,” blurts Benjamin as they walk down the orange