☽︎ [ How to Kill Your Friends ] ☾︎

Chapter Ten | Deer

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Warnings: Animal death, animal skinned and gutted

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I walked away into the forest. I wanted to try to find something in the woods to eat. I was bored of the old school food we'd saved and a lot of it had been ruined by the water. It was still only the afternoon so if I could find an animal, maybe someone could figure out how to prepare it for dinner.

I got deeper into the woods so that all I could see of the camp was some smoke peeking over the trees. I stopped and stood as still as I could, trying to hear the sound of movement. I was good at listening, not so much talking. It's always been that way for me. My family used to try to force me to make friends but it never worked. Almost everyone made fun of me for my stutter and I was too scared to talk to people anyway, even if they seemed nice.

I quietly listened for the sound of leaves rustling or sticks breaking. I closed my eyes to move my focus closer to my ears. Then I heard something. I heard a small snap and I quickly turned my head in the direction of the sound. A deer caught my eye. It was a doe. It had a soft gingery-brown coat with white spots peppering its back. It was a good size to feed us all, if I could stay quiet and kill it, everyone would be happy.

I looked at the deer and it looked back at me. I channelled my power into wrapping vines around the deer. I watched as the vines quietly slid out of the undergrowth and around the deer, and before it realised what was happening, it was tugged to the ground. The vines began to tighten around the deer's throat. It was a horrible way to kill an animal but it was all I knew how to do. I watched as the deer writhed in agony while it struggled to breathe, and then I remembered how Freyja had died this way too. I started to feel worse about what I was doing and you'd think the vines would release the deer, but no. My worry and guilt only made the vines stronger but thankfully, killed the deer faster and put it out of its misery.

When the deer was dead, the vines recoiled into the ground. I approached the carcase and put my hand on its side. I felt myself start to breathe faster and faster but I had to try to stay calm. No one could save me from myself and if I screamed, they probably wouldn't hear as the camp was close to the river. I held the deer by its hind legs and tried dragging it. It wasn't too heavy so I'd probably be fine taking it back to the others by myself.

I arrived back at the camp and everyone seemed shocked by what I'd brought with me.

"What the hell is that!?" Larkia shrieked.

"Food," I shrugged.

"Jesus Christ, Aspen," Elijah said. "When you said you were going to find food we didn't think you meant an entire deer! Who's even going to prepare it?!"

I'd hoped everyone would've been more grateful. I'd brought them a lot of food but none of them cared that I was trying to help. Lark and Elijah yelled at me while Quinn just stared in disbelief.

"Don't worry about it," Saaghan said. "I can sort it out for us, then we'll have something other than apples and granola bars for dinner."

Saaghan stood up and came over to the deer. He heaved it up off of the ground and over his shoulder.

"My appa used to take me hunting as a kid," he said to me. "He taught me to skin a deer."

I followed Saaghan as he carried the deer away from the camp.

"Are you sure you want to watch this?" He asked me, raising an eyebrow. "It won't be pretty."

"I'm fine," I said. "I'd rather not be with the others, they don't care about me like you do. They wouldn't even notice if I suddenly disappeared."