The Need

See if you can guess who the narrators are. Yes, there are two.

 

I walk.

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Someone once told me, as I was wading, just wading through the deep, just underneath the whites and grays of the above, that there are things that you must tell yourself are for the better.

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I lumber.

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I don’t know why the things we eat can’t talk to us. It seems that they have so much to say. I feel a connection…almost, to them. Those things that wade just as I do, as I can. Why can’t I ask them these questions that flood my mind every day, every time I go in for a kill. But a kill is a kill.

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Almost aimlessly.

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And I have to eat just as much as the others.

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But I am aiming.

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Yes. I have to eat. Just like the others.

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Aiming for a target.

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I can feel my lungs starting to shrink. I need another thing now. No more thinking of food. I need to go up.

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A target that I need.

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Where is that damned hole? I know momma dug one around here. But the colors. They all mix. Mix together in a world of need.

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Need that suffocates.

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This need is so consuming. So blinding. I don’t understand why this need takes so much energy. Why it dictates everything else that I have to…that we have to think about.

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Need that pleads.

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My eyesight is glazing over. I need that hole. But my mind just can’t process that certain memory, from that certain swim, that that certain seal showed me when I first found my grounds. I don’t want this to be the end.

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I smell.

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Racing. Racing towards that light. Light that could be a trap. It could just be thinning there, allowing the white light to shine through deceptively. I don’t want this to be the end.

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I’m getting closer, as it draws closer.

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AhHA! YES! It’s here, it’s here!

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My throat aches with the dryness.

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I can’t believe I found it! I must have some…some thing watching over me. Because I found it! Even when my mind was telling me to go the other way.

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My lips smack with the anticipation.

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Huh.

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But I must be silent.

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Why…why did I tell myself to go the other way?

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Patient.

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Oh well. I don’t need to think. I need this hole! And I found it. It’s not the end for me! No sir’ree!

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Here. It comes.

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Just gotta…oh.

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YES.

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Oh no. Not this.

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Grab it. GRAB IT!

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Why did it come to this hole. My face feels hot.

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Sweet. Oh, it’s sweet.

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My neck feels heavy and broken. My feet won’t carry me across this ground fast enough. He dropped me on the unforgivable surface.

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I must get to the inside. That’s where the need is.

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Got to get away. Back to the hole. The hole that was supposed to keep me from the end.

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Rip. Tear. Crush. Kill.

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My body is leaking. Leaking some sort of color that is not…I’m not used to that color. I don’t like that color.

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Die. Die, so I can eat.

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It feels…it feels. No. I can’t feel. I can’t see. Some things…some things are…

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There. It’s dead.

After I finish, so sweet it was, I wonder why we can’t talk to the one’s we eat. Why we can’t ask them questions. Questions that rack my brain so adamantly.

Oh well.

Some things…some things are just for the better.

Author's Note

This is my first piece. So it's not going to be great.
It's about a hungry polar bear and a seal in need of air. Interpret how you wish. :}

Reviews

[Farrah Grahm]

Wow!
Soo...is it a predator and its prey? Like a wolf and a groundhog, or is it like, a human and its food like, a chicken, well, it lives in a hole, so like...a rabbit?
I thought that was a very original format, the two different narratives and the way they meet in the end. That was so interesting. And I like the message, it's like you're saying we need to question what we strive for, and the people we hurt when we get what we want. I know its not the vegetarian message it seems like, cause im almost certain you've eaten meat before. Still, I really like this, :))

[LSS]

You're very captivating. This story is riveting in its simplicity and novel approach to a narrative. I got the image of a seal looking for air and a polar bear waiting at the hole for food, about mid way into the story. And even without having any idea the direction, to that point, I still found the story to be enticing and wanted to find out what the ending would be (though once I got the image of the arctic drama, I had the sense of the inevitable outcome). Without a doubt, if you continue to write with as much talent you will grow rapidly beyond this very good first beginning. I'll be interested to see more of your work, so don't let those unfinished pieces die in the 'waste of time'.
LSS

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Really cool for a first write