~(Y/n)’s POV~

Hey, my name is (Y/n) (L/n), I'm 16 years old, it's coming towards the end of winter, and I am currently following my step-father through a forest.

Yeah, yeah, not the best way to introduce myself, I know, but I have my reasons.

I have had suspicions about him for the past few weeks. You see, after my mother's recent passing a few months back, my father has been different. Most of the time, he ignores me. I would understand if he was ignoring me as a result of grief for my mother's death, but that isn't the way he's been acting, no, he seems somewhat... happier? More free? Also, he's been leaving the house more often, and I'm getting worried. He leaves for hours, sometimes days, and I won't know whether or not he will be coming back.

I'm not saying that I didn't have my suspicions from the start, they have just increased from a few weeks back.

I was just looking out of the window in my room, I was bored out of my mind, when I saw my dad walking out towards the car. I had never paid attention to it before, but I did this time. He had a dozen case of beer, I assume he was just hanging out with friends, I mean, friends are meant to help you get over your problems, right? So I guess I was kind of happy for him, but then I saw a black duffle bag in his other hand, it was still a bit open, but I still couldn't see anything inside, I had never seen before. Anyway, as he was walking towards his car, he accidentally dropped the bag on the ground and something fell out. It was a gun, a pistol to be exact. He panicked and quickly put the beer in the boot of his car and rapidly turned around to pick up the gun, inspected it for damage, opened the bag more, and counted several more. I was extremely shocked to see this, it wasn't just pistols, there were also shotguns and hunting knives. I could only imagine what he does with those. Does he hurt people? Does he hurt animals? Is he going to kill anyone? Has he done this before? How many times has he done this? How long has he been doing this for?

After that he quickly packed the bag into the car and left. It took me a few weeks to build enough courage to do it, but, I finally decided to do it. I finally decided to follow him.

I didn't actually know where he was going at first, so I had to look around while he was out. After a while, I did find something, a map, of a forest. To be blatantly honest, I actually found it by accident, and by accident, I mean I was running across the hallway from the kitchen to the lounge room, the front door a bit away from my left... and I slipped on it and fell... that was embarrassing... Anyway, I went upstairs to my room and opened my laptop to search the location and... it was in the middle of nowhere... HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO GET THERE?!

That was a week back, I had to find a time when I could walk around a forest to find out what he has been up to. Lucky for me, I had a very kind neighbour that agreed to take me there when I told them that I had an important assignment for school at the moment and I needed to go there.

My neighbour dropped me off about a kilometre from my destination. They asked me to understand that  they had lots of things to do, and that they were very busy. Of course, I completely understood, I mean, most people wouldn't even think about my request and just turn me down, and my neighbour was already generous enough to drive me this far. So I thanked them and stepped out of the car, into the cool air, waving them off as they drove away.

When I got to my destination, I saw my step-father's car and a few others, they looked like they had been there for a while with the amount of snow that was on them. I looked around to see if there was any sign of a trail on the ground. Lucky for me, I could still see some faint footprints left on the slightly snow-covered ground. My father's and only who I could assume to be his friends.

And that brings us to where I am now, I had lost sight of the entrance a while ago.

It was easy to walk, as there was only a thin layer of snow.

As I was following the trail of footprints, it started lightly snowing again, so I decided to hurry up a bit.

Suddenly I heard voices and slowed down a bit so I could hear them. One of them I could tell that it was my step-father's, the others sounded male and about his age. I was a bit mixed up with who's voice belongs to who but they were speaking as if they were hunting, and I didn't like it. It was as if they were toying with whatever animal it was.

The men were saying things like:
"Get it! Get it!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Did you get it?!"
"We got it! We got it!"
"We cornered it! It can't escape!"
"It's trapped!"

When I reached an open area, my eyes widened as I silently gasped and quickly hid behind a tree. Peeking around it, I saw a group of men crowding around something.

"What do you think we should do to it?"
"What part of it would cost the most?"
"I'm not sure"
"Do you think we could sell it as it is?"
"Yeah, that might just make us thousands!"
"I know, right? who wouldn't want one?!"

At this, I couldn't take it anymore. I had enough!

Quietly walking into the open, I called out to my step-father, "Dad!"

The group of men jumped in shock and turned to face me.

Dad held the look of shock for a second before he replied, "Hello, sweetheart."

~(Y/n)'s POV~

"Hello, sweetheart." He smirked, as he started to walk closer to me, stopping a few paces in front of me.

Not knowing what to say, I was silent for a moment, until I managed to speak, "So this is what you've been up to all this time?"

"Hmm?" He questioned, finger on his chin as his eyebrows slightly creasing in mock confusion, "Oh! This? This has actually been one of my hobbies for a while. Since before I met your mother."

I looked down, my fist clenched, knuckles whitening, at the mention of my mother.

My step-father seemed to notice, as he carried on talking, his smirk widening, "You know..."

I looked back up towards him, "What?"

He chuckled slightly under his breath before he continued, "I've noticed, at home, that you haven't been leaving your room much. You're probably still grieving about you mother's death..." he mocked a sad, understanding look as he laid one of his hands on my shoulder, "I think that, maybe, to help you get over you're grief, we could spend some quality time together, father and daughter, and in doing so, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to my hobby..."

As he finished speaking, he grabbed my wrist ,tighter than I would find comfortable, and pulled me towards his group. They parted a bit to make space for us. My eyes widened as I saw the poor, scared, little animal...

... it was a Polar Bear cub...


~??? POV~

I had been tracking this bunch of poachers for a while now, and I knew I was close. I heard they're despicable yelling and laughing in the distance. All of a sudden, they was a female yell something. I couldn't understand what it was, but all the men went silent.

When they went silent, I stopped at the edge of the clearing, hiding behind one of the trees. I slightly poked my head around to see what made all the men silent.

What I saw surprised me. It was a teenage girl, probably a couple of years younger than me. She was beautiful, with her (h/l), (h/c) hair, blowing in the soft breeze, and her (e/c) eyes, shining with what appeared to be determination.

One of the men, who I could only assume to be the leader, stepped forward, towards the girl and started talking to her.

I tuned out for a moment, my head cast down, deep in thought.

Who was this girl?
What is her connection with them?
Is she one of them?
No, she can't be, she looks so innocent...

When I looked back up and around, I saw that the leader had grabbed her wrist, and was pulling her towards the group. The group parted to make a space for them.

That settles it, she must be one of them...

I was about to attack them, when I heard a gunshot...


~(Y/n)'s POV~

When I saw the Polar Bear cub, I was aghast.

Yes, I was expecting something like this, and I thought I was prepared...

... but apparently I wasn't...

... I was shocked for words...

While I was gawking at the poor baby animal, my step-father slightly loosened his grip on my wrist, but still held it tight enough to be able to pull it higher towards him. I felt something metal being placed in my hand. My head snapped towards my step-father, before looking to my hand. He had placed a pistol in it. He wrapped my fingers around it and aimed my arm towards the cub.

"Now we can finally have some family bonding time. All you have to do is shoot it..." he smiled wickedly.

He slowly let go of me. I didn't even realise that I was shaking until he released his grip.

I looked towards him, before looking back at the meagre mammal. It looked so scared. My eyes started to water, as I held the gun with both hands, slightly trembling.

I closed my eye and held a proper, steady aim and...

BANG!


~3rd Person POV~

After the loud gunshot, all that was temporarily heard, was the sound of crows squawking and the flapping of their wings, as they flew away, leaving the forest silent...