Man Eater - 1. Man Eater

Bitter January wind slapped against his bare body. His feet, sore on the bottom from walking across the rocky costal shoreline, felt like they could stop working at any moment. For only a second his eyes, which he held tightly shut to keep the dust and debris out, opened. There was a house in the distance.

Onward he stumbled, praying that a warm meal would await him. His thoughts raced back to when he was a child. Homemade biscuits, his mother's stuffing, brown gravy, a leg of lamb. This was not the meal he longed for now.

Even though he did so lightly, his knuckles cracked and bled when he knocked. As expected, the man who answered was nude also. There was no need in getting dressed these days. Without a word, he entered and collapsed on his knees. The man fed him.

Back on the move, his chest ached. He imagined a different life. One in solitude, or perhaps with one other- a companion he could lay in the sand with as the ocean waves tickled their feet. The thought made him smile and so he opened his eyes. There was a house in the distance.