Ghost From The Past

B.S. 9yo

2 years after our first meeting. I'd spend as much time with them as possible.

Daryl would bring food that we'd hunt to school for lunch and we'd sit in a corner somewhere and eat it together.

They taught me everything they knew for hunting game. And Merle would even teach me how to get out of bigger guys grip.

We basically became each other's family.

I finally don't look like a bean sprout anymore. With how much Merle and Daryl make me eat. I'm finally at a healthy weight.

Even tho life has gotten better the beatings from my father are still on a daily.

After the barbed wire incident I've snuck down to the living room every night and took the things that would hurt the worse to be hit with and through them out.

Luckily with my father being drunk and or high all the time he never noticed.

Merle had given me my own hunting knife the other day and I keep it hidden in on of the floor boards of my closet that I was able to pry up.

He even put 'RH' on the case to match Daryl's (DD) and his (MD) on their own first hunting knives.

To anyone it may seem stupid but it was special to me. Made me really feel like they cared for me, and was one of them.

My hunting skills are on a professional level now. And my steps have gotten so quiet and invisible that you couldn't hear me nor track me if I were to be hunted.

They taught me to use a bow and arrow as well. So we had our own weapon of choice.

Merle uses a hunting rifle. Daryl has a crossbow. And me, a bow and arrow.

As we hunt together we form a spread out line.

Merle on the left, Daryl in the middle, and me on the right.

Spread out enough so we are just in eye sight of the one next to us but far enough to collect our own game.

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Tracking through the woods. While alert for any movement or tracks on the ground.

I glance down and some deer tracks catch my attention.

I let of a soft whistle to signal I'm going off to follow the tracks.

As I start to follow them I hear two soft daul-toned whistles telling me they heard and will kept going straight.

I keep following the tracks and can tell I'm getting closer because the tracks are getting fresher.

I creep around a tree slowly and spot a massive buck grazing in a clearing just ahead.

Sneaking to the edge of the clearing I place the arrow on the string and pull back so my fingers are touching the side of my mouth.