The Bear
Laurel Lee, Group 3: Fiction, Shatin College
ushes rustled around me. Strange shadows flickered around the trees nearby. I heard a gust of wind
behind me. I turned back…nothing. Strange. I thought I heard something. My son, Mark did too. With
a cry of terror, he leaped into my arms.
“
Thump!” This time, everyone heard it. Terrified, Mark ran into the woods, putting himself
into more danger. I chased after him, but he was out of sight. Then I realized the small stains of blood.
Was it..? No, I believed it was not him, and started to investigate. There were so many stains of blood, or was it
strawberry juice? I followed and followed. It felt like my whole lifetime has been used to follow that blood trail.
Suddenly, I stopped. There was a small cottage. In the middle of the forest? Strange, I thought, who would live
in a cottage in the middle of the forest? Maybe, it was a hunter. Yes! With a solution filtering through my mind,
I dashed towards the door and pushed it open.
“
Excuse me! You do not just jump in a house like that, people have privacy!” yelled a familiar voice. That
voice… I heard it before. The shadow, it also looked familiar. I gasped. It, was my long, lost brother.
I wanted to run, I don’t know why, but my legs felt as numb as it could get. “Joseph?” I squeaked, “Is that
really you?” I asked.
He put down his weapons, a knife and a gun, and asked “Who are you?”
“
It is me, John.”
“
John?”
“
Yes.”
“
Oh, brother! Is it really you?” asked Joseph. He came towards me and start examining me. “Oh yes it is
you!” ”I am so glad you’re here! I missed you so much.”
“
What are you doing here? How did you get here? Where is this place? Why did you leave me and mom?
How-“
“
Haha, you haven’t changed a bit, have you, John? Still full of wonders. I ran away from home 10 years ago.
Mom favoured you so much, makes it so obvious you know?”
“
Joseph, you know that’s not-“
“
Yes, it is.”
“
Come on, we just met each other in 10 years and not this again.”
“
Fine.”
We went on a walk around a ravishing lake, oh how shiny it was! He told me the whole story.
“
After I ran away from home, I had nowhere to go. I came to this strange forest. Chopped some wood. How?
Luckily, some people left their axes here. Lucky, aren’t I? Built this house myself, quite proud, but missed you
quite a lot after that.”
Wait, something was wrong here, something was missing… My son! “Joseph, did you see a 10 year old boy
running around?”
“
I think so. Saw a boy screaming his head off going towards that direction. Why?”
“
That is my son.” I said. Joseph didn’t say anything. We went towards that direction and started searching for
Mark. We called his name out several times but no luck. For a second I thought I had lost him, I thought he was
never going to come back. I thought he was dead. I was wrong, which was a good thing. Running as fast as he
could, I saw my son. Why was he running? I wondered. A bear, I grabbed by gun and shot it. Maybe I was a bit
too urgent to save my son, giving him even more trouble, I missed the shot. I killed him.
“
NO!” I ran to his side. I saw the blood on his chest. This was impossible, how can I kill my own son?
Hatred raging through my heart, I shook him and shook him, and shook him again but it was no use. No matter
how much I shook him, he was still there, with his eyes closed, without a breath. I was angry at myself. I wanted
to kill myself. I aimed the knife at my stomach but my brother stopped me from doing it.
“
What are you doing?! Can’t you see what I’ve done to my own son?!”
“
Yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to suicide, imagine what your son would think in heaven if u did that.
Would he want you to do it? No.” said Joseph
“
Well, ok.”
I forgot about the bear, and it was rushing towards us. A chill went down my spine, I wanted to run but my
legs were way too numb. So I just stood there like a scarecrow, waiting for the bear to tear me into parts.
* * *
B