The Hunter

Chapter 4

"It's not important," Andrew snarled as he stood up and shoved his way out of the room knocking me out of my chair and onto the hard floor.

"What the hell?" I muttered under my breath. The rest of my family got up and walked out not bothering to even spare me a glance. My brothers friends following as well. I pushed my self off of the floor and walked straight out of the house and over to Thomas.

"What?" He grumbled at me not even bothering to look up. CRACK! My fist hit him straight in the side of the head knocking him over.

"Hey! What was that for?" He screamed at me. I gave him a look that told him that he knew what he did.

"What is wrong with you people?" I hissed at him, pissed off to the max.

"Nothing." He said going back to ignoring me. I hit him in the face again but this time he stood up and tackled me to the ground swinging. The faint shouting telling us to stop wasn't heard in my head over the pounding of my heart and my heavy breathing. I felt Thomas being pulled away from me and I being yanked to my feet. I noticed how bruised and bloody the both of us were. Nobody spoke they just stood there. I didn't understand how they could do this to me after all we'd been through together.

"Put her in the barn," My father ordered and the next thing I knew was that I was locked in the empty barn. I tried to get out shouting words I could've been beaten for. When my hand started bleeding and my side was sore I gave up on trying to get out. I sat down leaning against the door. The barn was an old building on the property that wasn't really used yet. Or that would've been the case before today. It held a few supplies and had enough room for pigs, cows, horses, sheep, goats, and chickens. It had room for lots of each. 

I was taken from my thoughts by the sound of something moving in the back by the stalls for the horses. I stood and walked over to the stalls. I saw eight heads peaking at me from over the stalls. I could pick them a part easily. I saw two Friesian horses, one black and one white. I saw four Clydesdale's and four Quarter horses one black, a chestnut, a palomino, and a buckskin. A gasp escaped me. They bought horses. I whipped around facing my family who came in the barn behind me. I smiled at them and they all gave me cheesy grins.

"We were hoping that if you got angry at us that you would just come in here and stumble across them." Said my father.

"Yep that didn't work as planned." I replied giving him a hug.

"No it did not." Thomas said giving me a look.

"Sorry, not sorry," I said giving him a hug before moving to my other brothers and giving them hugs too. I even gave Julia a hug because she was in on it too, apparently. I then went back to the horses and gave them each a quick pat.

"Come on then, we've got chores to do." Father said making us all leave the barn to get to work.

Later that night as we were all sitting down and eating dinner all of us kids noticed how our parents kept looking at each other. None of us wanted to say anything and tried to leave it alone but our curiosity was getting the best of us.

"Okay, whats going on?" Isaac questioned under the pressure of his curiosity.

Julia grinned at us but my father didn't look up from his food. "We're moving." And with those two words everyone froze.

"What do you mean we're moving?" Ruben shouted standing up glaring at his mother as though he was trying to kill her with a look. I looked to my siblings(including step-siblings) with a worried look. I didn't want to move. I have always lived here. Also why would we move from the farm especially after they just bought horses.

"Oh, don't give us that look," she said, "I didn't mean all of us."

"Then what did you mean?" Ruben said.

"I meant a few of us."

"What few and why?"

"Like John, Lillian, Jacob, and Marcus."

"No!" Marcus shouted, "I'm not moving."

"Okay we can switch you for Ruben."

"No, I'm not leaving either," Ruben said, "Why are you even doing this?"

"This place isn't big enough for all of us to stay here forever. And some of ya'll need to get married and live on your own and this is the easiest way for us to ensure that." My father interrupted finally looking up at us. He met my eyes and his face softened. Tears started to slip silently down my face due to me realizing he was leaving us. My rock. My father. He was leaving.

"Sweetheart-"

"No, don't say anything, you're going to leave either way, so just leave, but don't talk to me." I sobbed before getting up and making a break for my bedroom. As I ran past my father he grabbed me and pulled me in for a hug.

"No." I cried hitting him to get away. When I saw that I was getting no where I stopped hitting him and let him hold me. We stayed like that for a while before I felt him pull away to look me in the eyes. I tried not to make eye contact to avoid crying again but I failed when his sea green eyes met my stormy grey ones.

"Everything will be okay."

The next day I woke up to see the sun just rising. I slept in. I jumped up and got ready for the day. As I walked down the stairs I noticed that the house was empty and looked out side. My father, Julia, Lillian, and Jacob were saying good-bye to the rest of the family. Anger coursed through me. I ran outside and to the group. A sad smile crossed my dads face when he saw me.

"You were gonna leave without saying good-bye?" I asked my eyes watering as I held by my crying.

"I just wanted you to get a good nights sleep."

"I don't care about a good nights sleep, I care about saying good-bye to my father for the last time."

"I know," He sighed and pulled me into a tight hug. I took in his smell of ash and pine for the last time. As we pulled away I studied his face knowing that I was never going to see it again.

"Remember that everything will be okay." He told me and I just nodded and gave him one last quick hug before he turned around and walked away with his shortened family. Without me. I stood there and watched him with my brothers until he disappeared and they all gave me a pat on the shoulder and went to do their chores. I stood there a little longer watching where they disappeared. Tears slowly sliding down my face.

"Everything will be okay."