Found in Winter (Sergei Dragunov x OC)

Rematch and Escape

An eleven-year-old Claudia was hiding behind a fallen log, lying on her front while her head was slightly up, peaking behind the tree with a rifle between her arms, ready in position. Next to her was her father, guiding her breathing and aim.

She aims her rifle's muzzle at an unknowing deer that stands idly in the winter woods. "Easy now, Claudia. Fix your breathing and your mind, don't let this chance slip through." Her father whispered. She lets out a soft breath of fog, positioning her index to the trigger. The deer senses a presence, it looks directly at where Claudia is.

This was her chance, Claudia could not mess this up. And swiftly she pulled the trigger, resounding a loud bang through the woods. It was a direct hit and the deer fell as it was hit. Her father grinned and ruffled her daughter's winter hat, "Great job!"

He swung his own rifle to his back and ran to the deer and she did the same. The deer was still conscious and breathed small gasps, lying on its pool of blood that had already soaked the white snow. Claudia stood in silence, it was her first kill and she felt completely sorry for the creature. Her father noticed this and grasped on her shoulder, "The first kill is always the hardest."

"I just wondered, if she had any children. A family waiting for her." She spoke.

"Oh? Well for that, she doesn't. I've been keeping track of her, but she has no one. It's okay to feel things, we're all human after all. But we would be the ones left starving if you haven't dealt the shot." His statement was correct, and Claudia had only just realized. Was it wrong to choose who to kill for their own survival, would it be more honorable if she had not pulled the trigger?

There was no right and wrong as Claudia understood. It was only acceptable to shoot if it meant it was for survival. But what if your opponent was human?

...

"You get off our property!!" Claudia's father says sternly while aiming his armed shotgun to the middle-aged man.

"Dad..."

"Honey! Don't do anything stupid!" A brunette woman in her lingerie begged him on her knees, tugging his shirt but he could not even look at his wife because of disgust. Claudia was trying to process the situation. Her mother was half-naked on the floor, crying and begging to her angered husband whose eyes were filled with hate, fury, and disgust, aiming his gun at a stranger who was scared to death with no shirt on.

"I'mma fucking kill you, you fucker!"

The stranger was raising his hands, visibly shaking, and backed away slowly to the porch, "I-I I'll leave, I won't come back." He says repeatedly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." The mother murmurs, her eyes and tears meeting the floor. Her husband could not take it, he was bothered by her voice and snapped, "Tell me, why'd you, do it? Huh? Why'd you, do it?"

The mother perks up, thinking of ways to explain. But she knew whatever she would say would not help lighten the situation. "Do... Do you love him?" He asks, his voice cracking from sadness.

"No no. Not at all, no." She shakes her head repeatedly.

"Dad..." Claudia's voice reached the two and they looked at her differently. Her mother's eyes were in fear, and her fathers were in sadness. They did not notice her from the start, witnessing everything that had happened when they thought she was sound asleep.

"Claudia." Her father spoke. The stranger took the opportunity to run away in the cold while half naked, not looking back to the house, and cried for his life. Her father lowered his gun and approached his daughter. The sound of his boots clacking on the wooden floor echoed through the silent night, and then kneels and caresses the cheek of the young maiden.