Hunger

by Brigitte Winter

They crowd around the Storyteller’s fire, as if stories will soothe their aching bellies, fill their sunken cheeks. I’m hungry, too. So I join them.

“Not the creature story again,” a girl whimpers.

“You’re safe,” says the Storyteller. “Everyone knows the creature fears flames.”

“What’s it look like?” I ask.

“Hungry. All teeth and fur and foul breath.”

I transform, and the Storyteller’s eyes get big. The fire glints off the white parts. “You got it right,” I say. “Mostly.”

Then I eat him. I eat all of them, except the girl.

“Dangerous to believe in stories,” I tell her.



Author bio: Brigitte Winter is a storyteller, a jewellery-maker, a convener of artists and art-lovers, and the Executive Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater (yptdc.org), a Washington, DC nonprofit that inspires young people to realize the power of their voices through creative writing. Brigitte’s short fiction is featured in Columbia Writers’ 2014 anthology, Trapped Tales (http://goo.gl/Bkdvnu), and the upcoming October 2016 City of Weird: 30 Otherworldly Portland Tales anthology by Forest Avenue Press. Her micro fiction has been published in 101Fiction, Nail Polish Stories, and Alban Lake Publishing’s November 2014 Drabble Harvest journal, Tourism on Other Worlds. All of her celebrity crushes are on authors. Hang out with Brigitte on Twitter @bwinterose and at brigittewinter.com, and stay tuned for her latest project: a pre-apocalyptic coming-of-age adventure novel.

Hunger is part of 101 Fiction issue 10.