The carnivorous castle

The castle was hungry
Yes, wine was spilled down grates and crumbs fell behind walls and sometimes mice rotted beneath floorboards
But that wasn't enough because
The castle was hungry
Every day there was more decadence
Another ball, another dance, another visiting merchant, another kingdom
The castle grew strained with the weight of hundreds of new slippers and boots
While the people inside rested and loved, the castle remained bleary-eyed and alone
While the people inside gorged themselves
The castle starved
But the castle wasn't stupid 
No
The castle wasn't dull
And the people inside had grown rounded and slow on cream sauces and good ambassadors
So the castle did what castles are not meant to do
It moved
Slowly at first, but steadily still
It hunted
At midnight the floors would creak
As centimeter by centimeter, walls shifted and rearranged
Doors would spring up in larders where there never had been before
Dead-end closets now opened up to sprawling new hallways
And the castle lay in wait for a maid or a drunken prince or a duke to wander by these doorways
It would muster up all of its energy to light a candle
Shift a rug
Open a door
And like a moth drawn to a candle, the people would step inside the stomach of the castle
Never to return
And now the castle was sated
But soon again
It grew hungry