[ He hadn't noticed it, at first. He'd been too busy being haunted by the shadow double of himself, too lost in his own misery and anger and keeping everyone away — he hadn't noticed. But with a clearer head and the turn of a new month, he feels it — more poignant than ever: hunger.

He feels, but doesn't feel. And... not this. Hunger has never been something he's felt since he was medicated, now that he's more than the simple primal drive of being a rabid. But when the hunger comes, it frightens him. He doesn't know if this is the end, if these are the signs that he won't be himself any more. If he's going rabid. If he's just going to turn into that monster again, and be nothing more but killing and consuming.

But he's still the same, even if the hunger remains and grows.

Instead, he tries to ignore it. Push it down. He doesn't eat, he can't. And he won't eat the one thing he knows he can. His stomach aches in protest, and he's sure it's just all his head but he feels the pain of it. If it still worked, he'd be sure it were eating itself now. Something tight and angry and desperate, wrenching itself for some kind of sustenance. As the days pass into February, Kieren tries to go about his business: remaining small and unnoticeable, trying to blend in as much as he can — even considering... last month's stint 'au naturale'. He tries, and fails.

Out in the open, whenever Kieren can be found. There's a noticeable... difference to him. He struggles with carrying firewood, dropping and spilling the load in his arms as he slips and stumbles in the snow — dizzy and weak as he drops to his knees. Other days, he might just be walking and his legs give out from underneath him, causing him to fall face-first into the snow — slow to stir, too exhausted to barely lift his head from the white. Sometimes, he can be found fast asleep in places he shouldn't, slumped on porches where he only meant to sit down and rest for a moment or slumped over a chopping block as he works on cutting firewood.

So much for keeping his head down. ]