Ravenous

Sam was hungry. Her hunger was a sentient being clawing at the inside of her stomach, demanding its liberation. Hunger is a delicate thing, something that should be treated with the same amount of care as a box with breakable contents. The measly apple and stale piece of bread she had eaten that morning for breakfast were nowhere near enough to tide her over until noon. Using the last bit of money she had left, she bought another apple and loaf of stale bread, accepting her fate with resignation. Sam was doomed to live on one measly penny each day, until the day she married her betrothed, Mikell, who she had no desire of coming within a mile of, let alone spending the rest of her life with. Luckily, Sam came from humble beginnings and was used to living without much more than the clothes on her back. Sam had many things that keeping her going each day; the fragrant field of flowers she passed each morning on her way to the market, the shopkeepers who knew her by name and surreptitiously slipped her rolls or lumps of soft cheese when no one was looking, the boisterous young children darting around her, and most importantly, her best friend, Lara. Everyone called Sam crazy for speaking to her, but Sam could never figure out why. Sure, Lara didn’t have any distinguishing facial features, or much of a face at all after her house burned down with her in it, but what she lacked in beauty, she more than made up for in personality. Sam could talk to Lara for hours, about the strangest things, like what would happen if the Sun stopped shining, if the stars could talk, if trees felt pain when they were cut down, what would happen if animals could talk, and so on. As long as Lara kept on asking questions and offering her insight on what their answers should be, Sam felt like she was wanted, and a part of something. These things made her remember how good life was, no matter how ravenous she felt.