Dusk

Dusk-Chapter Four

CHAPTER 4: HUNTED

Since it was Saturday the next day, Elle said she wanted to go hunting with me. I was shocked. Elle was never one for the outdoors.

"Hunting? Are you sure?" I ask.

"Definitely, I want to try something new. Why don't you invite Carlos?" She suggests.

I nod and grab my cellphone and punch in Carlos' number.

"Hello?" He answers.

"Hi Carlos! Elle's taking me hunting in the woods. Want to come?" I ask.

"Hunting? I don't think you should go," he says.

"What? Why?" I ask curiously.

"Because...it could be dangerous. You don't know what you're hunting," he says.

"I know what I'm doing. Thanks for the concern. Would you like to come?" I repeat.

"No thanks. I have some things to do. Call you later?"

I frown. "Sure. Bye."

We hang up and I go tell Elle the news.

"That's too bad. Well, let's go," she says.

Before we climb into her SUV, I inspect her tires. They look like they were made by a knife, but I've got no idea who did it. I shrug and get in the passenger seat.

"So what do you want to hunt with?" Elle asks me.

"I want to try a bow. What about you?" I tell her

"I might as well try a gun.We're going to go to the weaponry shop near the forest. They got knives and bows and guns and spears, it's pretty exciting," she replies.

"What are we hunting?" I ask.

"They've got deer, moose and bears," she says.

When we get to the weaponry shop, the man behind the counter shows us where the guns were. Elle checks out them out while I go to the bow and arrows section.

I find a big one that was silver and steel. It had curves at the end and black leather around the middle for comfort. There were fifteen arrows that were steel as well and were perfectly shaped.

"That one's cool." I hear Elle's voice behind me.

"Yeah. Can I get it?" I ask.

"Sure, just remember you'll be using it from now on when we hunt," she says.

I nod and we pay for her shotgun and my new bow. I was actually pretty excited to use it for hunting.

When we got to the forest, I grab my bow and head right into the woods, as quiet as possible. Elle followed and told me that she had to get a phone call first but to let me go ahead and be careful.

I nod and head deeper into the dark woods. I practiced shooting some arrows into a tree and found I had good aim. I smile a little and walk soundlessly to find any animals to shoot.

I remember Aaron used to love hunting. Sometimes he went with his friends and brought home some meat with us. He also once took me hunting and I had a lot of fun, but mostly scared away the animals. I would give anything to spend that day with him one last time.

When I hear a branch crack, I freeze. I hear more branches cracking and immediately my bow goes up with an arrow locked in it. I turn around 360 degrees to inspect the area; make sure it wasn't Elle.

Just as I'm lowering my bow, I see some shadows darting out of a cluster of trees. I was almost sure they were deers trying to escape from me when I see that they are much too big; that they look like gigantic bears with different colored rich fur. They all seem to be studying me cautiously. One of them, a smaller one with a rough grey coat, growls at me, and I immediately take a step back, again and again. The bears keep coming, though. I tell myself to breathe, relax. But I'm again starting to doubt that these are bears, they look more like wolves. One of them, that has dark fur and eyes that look almost too familiar to me, steps forward closer to me. One of his paws goes up about to rush at me when I shriek and lift my bow up and fire at the wolf's face. It moves out of the way, but it punctures his arm. The wolf howls in pain and runs away while the rest of the pack chases after him.