Honors English 11 Narrative

Honors English 11 Narrative
Sarah Xiang

The hunter stands on a rock in the forest, uses his telescope to seek animals. The light in the sky slowly disappears, takes away the heat in the air. He wasn't a hunter back then, he use to has his own company, his family was living in good condition. But he lost his wealth and honor since he began to use drugs several years ago. Soon he became heavily in debt, but instead of pay for them he escaped into a forest, far away from his family and people asks for payment. He started hunting, but as soon as he gets a little bit of money he uses them on getting drugs. Sometimes he feels guilty for what he has done to his family, but every time he uses drugs, everything else in his life becomes unimportant to him.

"Something gets caught by our trap near the lake!" the hunter's assistant, a young man the hunter hired from a nearby village shouts at him, "Sir, we should go take a look." The hunter puts down his telescope, gets on his horse and follows his assistant.

The forest gets darker, the yellow sky slowly turns to blue and purple. The hunter’s twelve-year-old son suddenly comes to his mind, it has been almost two years since the last time they were together. How is he doing? Does he hate me? The hunter wonders. When his son was young, he always wants to go camping in a forest. "I like the sky in the forest, it's so beautiful. I wish I can live in the forest." His son once told him. But before the hunter had a chance to bring his son to a forest, drugs drove him crazy. The hunter sighs, he knows he owes too much to his family. Why are drugs so attractive?

The heavy wind starts to become weaker, the hunter hears the sound of money jingling in his pocket. A smile appears on his face as he thinks about the drugs he’s going to get with this week’s harvest, soon the hunter forgets about his son.

As the horse walks closer to the lake, they see a figure of a boy instead of an animal lying on the ground. The trap hurt the boy's leg badly, he probably crawled to the lake, but the boy’s blood must have attracted carnivorous animals. The sign of animal makes the hunter become excited, was that a bear? A wolf? Whatever it is, it means money.

"He might be still alive!" The hunter's assistant gets off his horse and reaches the boy quickly, "Sir, let's take him…"

"No." The hunter says to his assistant, there's no shock or sad or any other emotions on his face, "Leave him here. Let's go hunt down the beast first. The wound caused by the beast's teeth is still fresh, it must be somewhere around this area."

"But the boy is dying!" The hunter's assistant looks at the hunter surprisingly, he doesn't understand why the hunter can just leave someone dying in a forest.

"We need to go kill the beast before it escapes!" The hunter yells at his assistant madly. Money and drugs filled the hunter’s head, the beast could escape when they are still arguing at here. "If we take the boy to the hospital we cannot save him, It's almost a 3 hours' drive. Let’s focus on the beast now.”

More money means more drugs. The image of drugs reappears in his head, the hunter starts losing his mind. He cannot feel the low temperature anymore, the dark, mystery forest doesn't seem dreadful anymore, the boy's body doesn't seem to be here anymore. There's only one thing in the hunter's head -- drug. He turns away from the lake, without a look on the boy’s body.

The boy's dead eyes stare at the quiet lake and the reflection of the beautiful sky. But the boy cannot see the blue sky in the last few minutes of his life, the image of the sky in the lake is stained by the red of his blood. Stay in the forest was his dream, and now he is going to stay in the forest forever. The boy's body slowly drifts into the lake, no one is going to figure out why he is here and what’s the cost for him to come here. He's going to lie in the bottom of the lake forever, along with a happy birthday card to his drug-addicted father who hides in the forest, escaped from his family two years ago. The boy was going to give his father a surprise and ask him to give up drugs and join his family again.

In the last minute of the boy’s life, he hears his father’s mad voice. They are so close, yet so far away from each other.