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How Not To Become Lunch: 63 - Care
“Um, I’ve gotta make a stop at the restroom before class…” Jack said awkwardly, gesturing to the door just ahead of them in the hallway. Sarabeth resisted the urge to sneer, but didn’t quite manage to keep the expression entirely from her face.
“Very well. Be quick about it,” she replied rather sternly. How did I allow myself into such an undignified chore? she asked herself, irritated. Fiona’s words echoed through her mind to remind her of the answer: ‘You have math with Jack next, right? Do you think you could walk him there for me? Keep an eye on him? It would really mean a lot.’
Jack drew his wand as he cautiously pushed open the bathroom door. It did seem clear that he was attempting to hurry, he could pick up on the vampire’s displeasure loud and clear, but he also wanted to make sure he wasn’t about to be caught with his pants down. He crept inside and out of her sight.
Escort for a marked human!? Standing outside a males’ lavatory like some kind of attendant!? This is no task for a Beatricia! She told herself. If it were not for Fiona’s request… She thought of just how sad the werewolf had looked when she’d asked. It pained Sarabeth to see her in such a state, like a blade pressed to her chest, threatening to strike. It would have been heartless and inexcusably rude to decline such a favor.
Still, that didn’t mean she had to be seen standing around the boys’ facilities. She took a few steps away, into the crowd of flowing students, becoming rather inconspicuous.
*guuuurgle*
Or, at least as inconspicuous as a predator with a freshly filled belly could be. At least her stomach had quieted down a touch now that her meal had gone silent.
Perhaps she was being a tad too pessimistic. A task like this did offer her a golden opportunity. With Jack away from Fiona, all she needed to do was ‘fail’ in her little assignment, and the boy would be out of her path forever. A small blow to her honor, admittedly, but really what predator would be judged on their ability to keep a human un-eaten?
Her face stern and unreadable, she contemplated for a time as students passed and Jack presumably attended to his business. But as she plotted, something caught her eye. Or rather, someone.
She spotted Ozzy approaching, undoubtably on his way to the math class he shared with Jack and herself. He appeared quite solemn and out of sorts, his attention absorbed in his thoughts. From her perspective, it was far too easy to also notice something else. There was a lion behind him. The neko looked perfectly innocent, but that’s what caught her attention. That, and the fact that he happened to be ‘innocently’ getting closer and closer to Ozzy.
She watched the boy continue to walk. He passed almost within arm’s reach of her, without even looking up. She considered that he might have recognized her earlier, or at least recognized her full belly, and so didn’t consider her a threat, but she sincerely doubted it. The inattentive human was going to give someone a pleasant late lu-
“Ozma.”
He stopped and looked up, startled out of his thoughts.
“Now is not the time to dwell on Zachary’s fate, unless you want to share it prematurely.”
Quickly gathering her meaning, he glanced around and noticed the nearby, flat-bellied lion boy. “Oh! Um, thank you, Sarabeth.” He continued on, a healthy bit of fear now keeping him much more alert.
Wha… why had she done that? She’d spoken almost without meaning to, as if his sullen expression had pulled the words from her lungs. What… what a strange aberration.
The door to the boy’s room opened, and Jack carefully and attentively stepped out. Sarabeth noticed and made her way back over to him.
“Thanks for waiting,” he said as un-awkwardly as he could.
She nodded, but didn’t speak, her eyes drifted over the passing lion boy. That neko is on the prowl. She looked back to Jack. She had a clear opening. …But she hesitated.
Jack noticed the wheels turning in the vampire’s head, and was just working up the courage to ask her about it, when a sudden sound caught both their attention.
“I might as well just shout it out: ‘I’m marked’!”
Several heads turned in the direction of the voice, shouting above the base din of the hallway, Jack’s and Sarabeth’s included. The kid who had yelled, a boy about their age, was actually rather close by. Close enough that even Jack, with his human ears, could pick out the following conversation now that it had his attention.
“Pierre, stop!” came a second voice in a whisper-shout. “Someone will hear you!” It was another boy, presumably the marked kid’s friend.
“Why should I care? Every pred in the building can already smell me,” poor Pierre replied.
“So you want to make it easier for them to find you?”
“What’s the point, man? I’ll be a bulge in some hungry kid’s gut by the end of the day.”
“Come on, just cause you’re marked doesn’t mean you’re dead! Isn’t there that one marked kid that’s been coming here for like a month now?”
“No way. Come on dude, stop trying to get my hopes up.”
“Well someone has to! You can’t just stop caring.”
“Why not? I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.”
“What about your dreams of becoming a dancer?”
“Don’t care. Don’t care.”
“So you wouldn’t care if a pred heard you right now and walked up and swallowed you?”
“Honestly, might as well,” the marked Pierre replied, dejectedly.
“N-not even a big, scary lion kid?” There was a fresh note of fear in the friend’s voice, which seemed to go unnoticed.
“Seriously, why would I care? What difference does it make what species of belly I end up in if-”
Pierre was interrupted when two furry hands gripped his shoulders and spun him around, putting him face to face with the prowling neko who had almost gotten Ozzy a few moments earlier. The hungry cat boy opened his greedy jaws, lined with saliva in anticipation of a nice, big lunch.
“Oh-”
*NOM*
And so the lion ate Pierre.
Purrs and hums of delight could be heard as the lion boy wrapped his muzzle around his marked schoolmate’s body, his tail flicking and wiggling joyously. His tongue rushed eagerly across his meal’s chest, avidly soaking in as much of that delectable taste as he could. He stretched his tongue to the limit, and when he finally could stretch no more, he brought his prey in closer with a big, voracious:
*GULP*
Jack watched uncomfortably at how happy and eager the lion was to devour his human classmate. He could see the lofty heights of pleasure that that marked taste brought. He’d seen glimpses of it in other predators’ faces before when they’d tasted him, even in Fiona’s face.
*GULP*
*GULP*
*GULP*
The hungry feline swallowed ravenously, huge sections of the boy’s body disappearing in big, squelching lurches, filling out bulges in the furry neck and down into the predator’s growing stomach.
*GULP*
*GULP*
“Ahhhhhh~” The neko let out a blissful, satisfied sigh, interrupted at the end by a huge *UUUUURP*. The predator smiled widely, running his tongue all up and down his lips and around his maw, soaking in every last bit of flavor. He wrapped his arms around his newly squirming belly and gave it a squeeze. His tail flicked wildly for a moment and his eyelids fluttered. The pressure released a touch more air from his hastily consumed meal. *BRROURP*
That immaculately satisfied, blissful expression on his face; Jack couldn’t help but wonder if Fiona had looked that way, after she’d swallowed him. He couldn’t imagine that lion- or any other pred- giving up a meal that obviously gave them such joy. He couldn’t even really imagine Fiona doing it. And yet she had, and he was still there.
The neko looked down at the other boy: the friend of the human formerly known as Pierre, now known as lunch. The kid had just been standing there, stunned at the sight of his companion being devoured so speedily before his very eyes.
“Don’t worry,” the lion said, “you heard him. He said he didn’t care. I certainly do, though.” He gave his belly another tight squeeze, and then continued on his merry way toward his next class.
The boy continued to stare at the blank space that wriggling belly had just occupied, before gathering his senses with the grim words: “If I care about not following him down a gullet, I better not stand around.”
“Neither should we,” Sarabeth said.
“Um, right,” Jack agreed, and followed the vampire as she started walking. He took a moment to appreciate just how lucky he was. Lucky that he had friends who not only cared about him, but could protect him. Without that encouragement, would he have ended up like Pierre? A marked human, utterly resigned to their fate, having given up on life? “Um, Sarabeth?”
The elegant predator turned her head to him in response as she continued to walk, her eyes cold and stern, but receptive.
“Thank you, again, for helping me. I really appreciate it,” he told her. “It’s really nice to know I have friends like you and Fiona… and Ozzy, I hope.” Sarabeth stared at the boy for another few moments, her expression unchanged, before she replied.
“You are welcome, Jack,” she said. And for a moment, just before she turned away, her expression seemed to soften just a touch.
Perhaps I will dispose of Jack another time… Fiona has been through enough today.