Untitled Part 1

Chapter 5: Loneliness

I woke up to the bright morning sun and the cool air of fall, watching at the trees change into the familiar reds and oranges. I slowly got up from my spot, making sure I was alone.

'Good,' I thought sheepishly. 'I can be at peace.' I rose to my feet very slowly, not fully awake yet. I needed to find food and soon, the gentle reminder of my stomach growling made it very clear. I got out some traps I had made as I had traveled and set them up, patiently waiting and hoping to get a good catch. What felt like forever was more like fifteen minutes, and boy was I thankful for the easy catch. I got up to check my traps, and saw that only a few had the animals I had caught. 'Some might've escaped,' I thought logically, gathering my breakfast and taking it back to my make-shift campsite.

After doing all the dirty, disgusting work of removing the insides of each carcass, I began to cook them over the small, contained fire. Little by little, the meat started to cook, and just the smell made my mouth water. I rotated the rabbit meat over the fire, hoping that I could get it cooked all the way through. It took a while to do this, but I had to make sure the food wasn't raw, and I learned that the hard way.

It didn't take too long to cook the meat, but it wasn't a lot because of it's size. I devoured the muscles of the dead rabbit, occasionally spitting out the bones as I chewed the meat. I had also gathered a few berries that I knew were good, so this was going to be a filling meal. However, thanks to me and my VERY high metabolism, I knew I'd have to eat again within the next two to three hours. But that didn't bother me, I knew what I had to do. But listening to the sounds of the forest was starting to make me feel something I haven't felt for years; Lonely.

I mean, yeah, sure I was alone and I kinda liked it. But it was different this time. I was used to watching the baby deer and the doe be together, however it brought painful memories back. Ones I wish never came about in my life, or in anyone else's. I got out the small stuffed animal that I had managed to keep and stay together, and I cuddled with it. It was the only thing that comforted me when I got to feeling this way. The last and only thing I ever inherited from my deceased family.

I couldn't help but tear up and cry as I started to remember more of the things in my past. It hurt. It hurt so bad. 'Mom... Dad... Tommy... Why couldn't you take me with you to the afterlife,' I had asked a few times now. I was now crying, my shoulders shaking slightly as I cried onto the wolf plushie. Only the wind responded to my question, giving me the same, cold reminder I always got; I was truly alone.