“I think you’ve had quite enough to eat, Luke,” mother smiled gently and wiped his mouth.

He looked around at the dinner table and saw that she hadn’t eaten anything yet. He was still trying not to think about it too much, but she was trying so hard to keep him awake. After all, he had been sleeping all morning and was just laying down for the last hour before the sun came up.

Now he looked at me in desperation as she continued on. “Lyra,” she said with a laugh, “here we go again with your brother not wanting to eat the intestines I prepared.”We both knew that the only way he could get out was if I tried to stop her and that wasn’t going well.

“Oh no,” I replied. “Is that why our friend, Tom is not here? I wasn’t able to find him in the library today where he normally tutors Luke, but he didn’t come back to us until yesterday afternoon. I think he told the town doctor he was concerned for us because he noticed we were only eating raw meat.”

“Ah, yes don’t worry about Tom. We talked before lunch today and I think he was just trying to make sure we weren’t getting sick with bloody Kuru.”

“What is kuru?” Luke finally spoke up. His eyes darting back and forth as if we were discussing forbidden treasure that had been discovered.

“A brain disorder from eating raw meat, but don’t worry we should be safe… I added a new ingredient- ginger to the recipe.”Mother picked the ginger hair out of her meat that looked strangely familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“After all, we have Tom to thank for this lovely meal.” She did not seem phased at all by her own admission. I looked down to see Tom’s empty black eyes bobbing in my champagne glass. My heart pounded in my chest.

Immediately the fowl stench of death wafted toward my nose. I gasped and felt the room suddenly spin with the realization hitting me like a freight train. Poor Tom was too trusting of my family and unfortunately for him he would never get the chance to see Luke nor I again.