Hunger

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 Previous chapter

"Hunger" is the twenty-fourth chapter of Into the Forest. It is the fourth chapter to be narrated by Xanther Ibrahim.

## Summary

The chapter opens up on Sunday, June 1, 2014 at 19:06:07 in Los Angeles, California. All through Sunday night, Xanther has different dreams that are focused on locations that get further and further away from the area she lives in. On Monday morning, when she goes to school, she feels the same burning sensation she has been feeling lately. She is starting to find the pain more tolerable now, though. When she goes to her Robotics class, an elective, she is paired up with another student named Desie. The two are assigned with building small farm animals. Their teacher warns that the students will not be able to complete the project within the class time, but Xanther is able to complete the assignment easily. This surprises Desie, who helps less and less as Xanther focuses on assembling the parts on her own. Even she is surprised, saying that she has never been able to do something like this before. The Narcons are also unsure of how she managed to do it.

That night, Xanther is able to get only a little bit of sleep. She eventually gives up trying to sleep, and when morning comes she feels hungrier than usual. She ignores her hunger and decides to feed the cat first. After feeding it, she uses a small cotton ball to clean the cat. Astair showed her how to properly feed and clean the cat, which Xanther is happy about since she knows Astair does not care for it but chooses to help anyway. They bought toys for it but it never plays with them. They also bought a pee pad for the cat but they have yet to see it be put to use. After cleaning it, Xanther brushes its fur with a comb. Xanther runs out of time to take care of her own morning rituals when Mrs. Fischer (Brigitte's mother) pulls up and honks for her.

The school day on Tuesday goes by faster than it did on Mondayj. Xanther embarrasses herself during PE class by falling while she is playing badminton. She begins to notice that she hasn't seen Dendish, Mary Ellen, or anyone else in his group of friends lately. She hopes that they were all kicked out of school over that post Dendish made on Parcel Thoughts, which has since been removed. Her friend Kle is also absent. Xanther and her friends all take different electives, except for Cogs, who she takes Environmental Space Management with. Mayumi, Bayard, and Josh are all in the Gifted Ability Track, and Kle takes Film Arts Media.

Xanther wonders why Kle is absent. He enjoys school and is rarely ever absent. She speculates that it could have something to do with his plan of opening all of the lockers in the school, which have all been locked shut because of "legal stuff" such as "kids selling pot in them." Kle's prank would involve opening all of the lockers, planting small speakers in them, closing the lockers again, and remotely playing loud music using those speakers. Mayumi provides suggestions of what kind of music to play because she apparently has the most amount of musical knowledge.

On Wednesday, Xanther sees Kle in school again. He explains that he was absent yesterday because he was working on the latest installment of his "Enlightenment Series" project. The rest of the day goes normally, except Xanther is still seeing stones in people's eyes. She tries her best to ignore it. Later that afternoon, she has an appointment with Dr. Potts. Instead of going to his office, this time he goes to the Ibrahim household. She tries to look right into Dr. Potts' eyes, hoping to "lighten" the stones. However, when she tries, it seems the reverse begins to happen: the stones only become heavier. She wants to talk to Dr. Potts about the situation but the time of their session runs out. Instead, Xanther tells Dr. Potts that whenever she is around the cat, she has never felt better. She doesn't worry about seizures. Anwar puts on the movie "2001" and as Xanther watches it, Freya and Shasti attempt to take the cat from her. Xanther stops them and becomes angry, and Astair comes in and tells them that the cat belongs to Xanther and they should not try that again.

On Thursday morning, Xanther feels hungrier than she usually does again. Anwar prepares a large breakfast but it is not enough. Xanther looks at her sisters and realizes that the stones in their eyes are particularly heavy. Right before walking out of the front door, she prepares herself for the usual burning sensation. At school, she takes all of her final tests for the year. When the school day is almost over and she has only PE left, she finds herself in an almost completely empty hallway. The only other person there besides her is Dendish. When Xanther faces Dendish, nails begin flying off of the nearby lockers. Locker doors begin to swing open. Dendish continues walking over to her. Xanther wants to run but she just stands still. Soon enough, all of the lockers in the hallway are wide open. This leaves Dendish confused. He stops walking toward Xanther and observes the lockers. Xanther uses the opportunity to slip away and go to PE class, which she is now late for, but she offers no excuse to the teacher. Her teacher sees that she looks sick and figures she should be sent home. However, when she feels Xanther's forehead, it feels cold. Once class is over, Xanther learns that Dendish is in trouble. The school principal is demanding to know how he opened all of the lockers. Mary Ellen and Trin Sisikado are nearby, watching him. As Dendish gets yelled at by the principal and the various teachers that are there, he, Mary, and Trin all see Xanther. She runs away from them.

The chapter ends on Thursday, June 5, 2014 at 14:59:07.