Hunted

It was cold.

See your breath and the moisture on your nose freezes cold.

There’s a quiet that comes with a winter like this, where the silence hangs like fog and the crunching snow underfoot is the entire world.

The lake froze this morning. Before I saw the lake, I heard my brother snort in disappointment as I was stirring from my sleep – and he was usually the quiet one. Our father had made the same noise when he was tense. I knew what it meant.

The two of us had moved to the lakeshore about a year ago. No explanation was offered to me – I was a child, of course – ever since we left home, I just followed my brother.

I stood up and stretched and yawned. I should find some food.

There wasn’t much to be had here. At least the snow gave us an endless supply of water, now that the lake wasn’t much use.

Of course, my brother didn’t think the lake was ever much use, beyond the utilitarian. Not safe, I suppose. We were exposed by it, and it limited our movement if we needed a quick exit. I liked it. Liked watching the fish, there was food everywhere, it smelled clean.

Our lake was surrounded by pine trees, rich with that sap that smelled like dark green and trampled grass and old mountains. Today, the surface was polished marble, and –

CRACK!

The hair on my neck stood up. I look up, look around, scan the meadow. Thunder? The sky was clear. A tree breaking under the weight of the snow? Where was my brother?

CRACK!

Adrenaline. The world came into focus, I couldn’t smell anything. I felt my heartbeat from my legs to my eyeballs.

I ran. No time to pick a direction. I was moving towards the lake. The snow drifting down from the branches around me blew past like comets and I was hurtling into unknown space.

Sharp winter air burned my lungs. Over the lake or around it? Over it. My feet hit it hard, my knees two rocks smashing together. I slide, couldn’t keep my momentum. I’m tripping over myself and on the approaching other side of the lake I see my brother, matted red with so, so much blood. Lifeless, steam coming from the pooling blood beneath him.

I slid into his body and fell. Red and white, blood and snow, in my eyes and on my face. My brother. We were supposed to be here alone. My brother. I’m sticky and cold and the blood is freezing on my body. My brother’s blood.

Noise. A roar? I’m stunned on the ground, but I have to get up. I have to move. My feet slip beneath me as I try to rise. A howl. Not a wolf, not a bear. Something else. At my lake, at my home. My brother.

I get my feet right and stand. I run.

Around the lake, to the other side. Away from my brother. Blood on the lake. My brother. I run.

The noise from the animal changes. They’ve seen me. I can feel eyes on me. I’m sprinting, bounding over the snow and roots and rocks. I round the far edge of the lake, pointed at the thick woods beyond. I’ll be safe there.

My brother.

He made me feel safe.

My face is smeared with his blood.

The trees are close now, a few more strides and –

The world explodes. Snow and dirt spray around me, thrown into the air by what? The invisible hooves of the animal roaring at me?

I dart left and then right and make it to the tree line. One of my legs feels loose, slow to respond.

I pause behind a tree. Blood on my shoulder. Is it mine?

Heart is beating like a butterfly and there’s not enough air in the woods and my brother is dead and I have to keep moving.

The creature roars again. There’s more than one of them. They roar together. They’re close.

My leg isn’t working. I cry out in pain. I want my lake, I want my fish, I want to smell the sap and I want my brother and my brother is dead.

Snow is shaking from the branches as I try to force myself up again. Why?

*

Panting, Ted makes it to the tree.

“Jim! Found ‘im!”

Jim walks up and rests his rifle on his shoulder.

“Damn Ted, butchered that shot, eh?”

Ted coughs and rubs his hands together.

“Did alright. Let’s get outta here, it’s cold as hell.”

Ted points his rifle at the deer’s head and pulls the trigger.

CRACK!

It was cold.