The Voices Within

Chapter 5

Alex just stared at me.

"Isn't it obvious? We have to go hunting." I stated.

"Oh yeah, obviously." Alex scoffed.

Glaring at him, I picked up my weapon of choice, pocket throwing knifes.

'Like you'll hit anything.'

Ignore it.

Alex just lifted up a crossbow and some arrows. I scoffed. How mainstream could you get?

"Let's go." He huffed and trudged past the trees with me trying to keep up behind him.

"Slow down will you?" I asked.

"Keep up will you?" Alex mocked me.

'Told you. You just can't do anything right can you?'

I just put on a blank expression and ran up to him.

"Shhh." He shushed me as I glared at him.

I rolled my eyes, clearly seeing the deer right in front of me. Alex signaled that he would go around back and we could trap the deer. I just nodded and moved slowly into position.

As he made his decent to the other side of the large brown deer, I noticed a branch he was about to step on. I flailed my arms to silently warn him, but-

~Snap~

The deer whipped his head around and right before it was about to run, I threw my knife at lightning speed and caught it in its major artery- critically wounding it. Then Alex finally got himself together enough to shoot it too, finally killing the poor creature.

Shocked at the adrenaline, excitement, and sorrow of killing such a defenseless creature, I stood frozen. I watched, slightly open mouthed as Alex just strolled over and picked out the arrow and knife.

Noticing my shocked expression, he walked over to me.

"It's okay, come on. Let's go." He said softly.

Snapping out of my daze, I helped him tie up the deer and drag it back to camp.

"You throw pretty accurate for someone who's never killed anything before." Alex suddenly stated.

"We had a dart board at the orphanage without any darts, so we used small knifes." I replied.

Admittedly, it was a weird conversation to have while carrying a deer carcass, but it was pretty interesting.

"Why'd you run away?" I blurted out suddenly.

I looked down.

"Sorry, you don't have to say if you don't want to." I quickly reassured.

"No, don't apologize, it's fine." He assured me. "It was my parents. They had an image of what I was supposed to be. And I just can't be that person."

"Couldn't you just tell them?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"They are.....pretty determined. When they really want something." He replied slowly. "They always get what they want."

"So you actually are privileged?" I asked.

"If by privileged you mean rich, then yes. Anything otherwise, no." He responded. "Money can only give you so much."

"Well, you can only say that once you've had it." I muttered.

I kept looking back and making sure we weren't leaving too many trials.

"That's true." Alex replied.

He looked over at me.

"Can I ask you something now?" He asked hesitantly.

"Sure." I replied as though I wasn't scared at all at what he would ask.

"What happened to your parents?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. They left me on the doorstep of the orphanage when I was only 2 months old." I replied, looking straight ahead.

"Have you tried to find them?" He asked.

"No. If they wanted to see me again, they would have just come to the orphanage." I said. "Granted it might be more complicated than that but it's not good to hold onto false hope."

"I'm sorry- We're here!" He stated, trudging the deer up to the camp and starting a fire.