The skinny girl, barely 12 years in age, ingested several thousand calories a day but hardly showed it. Her stomach was taut and at times her face almost looked gaunt. It scared the hell out of her mother. The child was hardly in the midst of a growth spurt, standing well below her mother’s height and not having budged much since a summer ago. No, she simply burned through the calories at an alarming rate despite her almost sedentary lifestyle.

 *In more ways than one, her mother Natasha was her lifeline. The sleepy girl trudged down the hall toward her, nearly crashing into a wall in the dim hallway despite its intimate familiarity. A faint buzzing emanated from somewhere at the end, causing the child’s heart to thud. It was an entrancing, mechanical whirring that she knew all too well.*

*Dallas picked up her pace, taking actual steps as her feet now left the ground and she strode more purposefully toward the kitchen. Her lips curled into a slight grin, ignoring the resurgent growling in her tummy. She rounded the corner and turned to face the kitchen. Some 80s rock played on the radio, barely playing loud enough to be heard over the rhythmic mechanical droning. The girl’s grin grew wider as the source at last came into view.*

 “Good morning, baby,” *her mother Nat greeted, turning her own sleepy eyes up to smile at her daughter.*