Hunted


The man stared out the window with a pained look casted over his face as the drops of rain cascaded down the glass. This man’s name was Vince Landwrith; he was a very wealthy man who had made a living and a name of himself as an avid hunter. Many people who knew him expressed that he was a cold man who hunted with no feeling at all. But, to his wife Maureen, he was a loving husband, but many people just believed she was married to him for his unending fortune.

Today, Vince was supposed to go out hunting, but it had been sabotaged by the rain. Maureen entered the room from behind Vince and glanced at him.
“It’s really coming down out there,” she said while letting her long jagged fingernails slide across the fireplace mantel. Maureen was a fake woman, but a lot of her friends were fake, too. She and her friends had blinded rich men into believing that they were in love with them.
Vince seemed to be unresponsive to Maureen, and she began to get aggravated, so instead, she changed the subject. “Our anniversary is coming up. Are you going to get me something beautiful? Something maybe I can wear around my neck?” she questioned Vince, trying to get an idea of what to expect.
“I will buy you whatever you desire, my dear,” he uttered out coldly, not tearing his eyes away from the window.
Vince was a tall man with very dark features. He had brown hair and dark brown eyes, and when people looked into them, they would get lost. All Vince’s life, he had hunted. From the ripe age of seven, he and his father would travel deep into the woods and only would come out if they were lucky enough to kill an animal. Now, his father was long gone and Vince was into a different type of hunting game. Vince hunted big game, like bears and lions and wild animals that were uncommon to a regular hunter. He was very proud of his work and it showed, for he had an entire room full of animals that had been stuffed and mounted onto his walls, for everyone to see.
Later on in the evening, before it was dark, the rain had ceased and Vince wanted his daily satisfaction of a kill. Maureen had gone to a party with her friends, so she was long gone by now. Vince went down his long, crooked, creepy stairs to put on his hunting gear. He slipped his colossal boots on with a large thud. He found his gun and cleaned it off like always before he ventured out into the woods. Finally, he got out the door and made his way towards the forty acres of land he had bought only for the purpose of hunting. The air was still thick and humid from the rain that had now passed, and the ground was wet below him. Every step he took, the noise of crunching leaves filled the air, but the woods themselves were as quiet as church.
After a few hours of walking around and looking into the wet mud to try and trace down animals, Vince was about to give up. Vince didn’t like the idea of going back to the house empty handed, for he needed something to kill as a gift for Maureen for their anniversary tomorrow. Just as he started to tread back to his enormous house, he heard something rustle in the distance. He immediately stopped and listened. It was a small animal; he could tell that. He made his way towards the sound, being careful not to frighten the animal.
Vince finally saw the animal, and it was a fox as brown as chocolate. Vince didn’t waste a moment more thinking about the color of the animal. He just wanted it dead. He shot the fox and it died, he threw the fox over his shoulder and headed back to his house. Once he got inside, he went to his office where he would clean and stuff animals. Vince did his work cleaning it and making it into a shawl for his wife to wear. He was highly proud of himself looking down at the dead achievement he had created. Vince took his long silver tools to his sink and cleaned them until they were pristine and shined, seeing his reflection he just grimaced and put away the rest of his tools.
The next evening, Maureen and Vince had gathered in their sitting room where the fireplace roared and the mounted animals were hung. Maureen was much more excited than Vince because it was their anniversary, and she knew that she was going to get a nice gift that she could show off to the other wives. “Here’s my gift to you,” she said, looking at him brightly, waiting on the edge of her chair for him to open it. His present meant she was closer to opening her own.
Vince unhappily opened up the box, and it was a Rolex watch. He had a plethora of watches already, but he forced out a crooked smile towards Maureen. “Oh come on, you love it!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, it’s a very nice gift. Thank you,” he responded stiffly. But Maureen could not have cared less; it took her only five seconds to pick out his gift. Vince pulled out a box from underneath his old antique wooden and brass chair. Before he could say anything, Maureen had ripped the box out of his hand and opened it, exposing the shawl to the dark light of the fire. “I love it!” she yelled, hugging Vince quickly and recoiling so that she could try on the shawl. Maureen knew that the other wives would be extremely jealous of her.
“Since it’s our anniversary, I’m going to go get some wine to celebrate!” Maureen laughed out, gliding her way to the kitchen. After Maureen was gone, Vince sighed to himself. He wasn’t the happiest man alive, but he was happy that he didn’t have to live alone in his huge house. Vince kept running different thoughts through his head, about Maureen and, of course, about hunting.

But, his thoughts were interrupted by an ugly sound. The sound was a screeching noise, and at first he had thought it was Maureen in the kitchen. But, then he knew it was not Maureen as he looked up on his wall. The head of a deer he had once killed was alive and moving! He couldn’t believe his eyes. He even rubbed them a few times, thinking it was just a dream. It wasn’t. All the animals upon his wall that were mounted, that he had once killed, were coming to life.

Vince couldn’t make out words through his lips to say. He was watching the magic unfold right in front of his eyes, until the bear that he had mounted on a piece of wood came to life, “Maureen!” he screamed in horror. But Maureen wasn’t close by and couldn’t hear his screams. The bear growled at him and attacked. Vince tried to fight back, but he couldn’t for the bear weighed over five or six hundred pounds. The bear growled again loudly and dug his long sharp claws into Vince’s face and body. The bear stopped suddenly, and it was clear that Vince was dead.

All the animals made their ways their positions on the wall, even the bear. Vince lay dead on the carpet in front of the fire place, blood all over his body. However, not a trace of that blood was leading to the bear that was now once again stuffed and dead.

Maureen made her way back into the sitting room with glasses of wine. As soon as she saw Vince’s body on the ground and all the blood she screamed and instantly dropped the glass of wine, shattering it as it hit the ground. “Oh my God, Vince! What happened!” she screamed, but no one could hear her. Maureen was completely shocked, and she felt the shawl around her neck begin to move. She looked down and screamed. The fox around her neck had come back alive, biting Maureen’s neck repeatedly until she also fell to the ground, dead.

Both Vince and Maureen Landwrith would be found many days later in their sitting room with dried pools of blood surrounding them. The police and investigators couldn’t come up with a reason they had been brutally murdered.