A Detailed Step by Step Guide on How to Hunt
1. Grab a rifle
2. Make sure it's Mother's. Not to make her proud, but to show someone else: Look.
You can do it too.
2b. (You can do it better.)
3. Dirty your hands.
3b. (Cleanliness is wasted where you're going.)
4. Pick a night when the sky is clear. When the moon is bright and full, resting like a
hibernating beast.
5. Make sure the stars aren't looking.
5b. (This is not for them to see.)
6. Aim.
6.b (Make sure it's good.)
7. Admire her one last time as she is.
6.b (Make sure it's good.)
9. Shoot the moon down.
9b. (Watch it fall. Feel pride swell in your chest. Let it
overwhelm you.)
2b. (You can do it better.)
10. The weight of her body crashing to the earth will shake the ground. It will knock you
off your feet. It will be heard for miles.
10a. (Her skin splinters and the grass is suddenly powder
white
. A thousand whisker ghosts wailing before you, reaching for the hole she left in the sky.
The trees are skeletons before the grave.)
10b. (You may grow afraid. Let your pride protect you.)
11. Approach your trophy.
11a. (Show no reverence for it. The reverence is yours, and yours alone.)
11b. (The ground will look like it is covered in snow. Your boots will be warmed by the blood.)
2b. (You can do it better.)
12. Gut it until it's hollow. Scrape the bones clean with your nails, if you must.
13. Craft a rifle from the bone.
6b. (Make sure it's good.)
13c. (Make sure it's better.)
14. Marvel at your creation.
14a. (You did it better.)
15. The stars will notice it is gone. They will start to scream.
15b. (They will sound like cicadas from destruction itself. Some will sing, wherein their voices will never escape your head. I cannot tell you what they will sound like.)
15c. (They're falling. They're soaring through a dark sky that will stay dark without her.)
15d. (People will be making wishes on their bodies. Try to tell yourself this is beneficial. Their grief has made them beautiful.)
15e. (Try to let your pride protect you.)
15f. (You will fail.)
16. Regret it.
16. Regret it.
16a. (Regret it.)
16b. (Regret it. Regret it.)
16. Regret it.
16c. (There is nothing left to do.)
14a. (You did it better.)
17. Grieve until 16c. (There is nothing left to do.)
18. Find something to replace it.
18a. (Like a seed, a hope, a silver lining.)
18b. (Anything to fix your mistake.)
13c. (You can make it better.)
19. Bury it in the corpse.
20. Wait for something to happen.
20a. (Nothing will.)
20b. (Death has already run too deep into the ground.)
20c. (The stars have almost completely fallen away. You can still hear their cries. You're starting to worry your ears might bleed. You can't be certain silence will ever be a part of your life ever again.)
16c. (There is nothing left to do.)
21. Wonder what she would think. What either of them would think.
21a. (She was always so soft. She would start weeping.)
21b. (The idea of this will hurt more than any of the stars.)
5b. (This is not for them to see.)
22. Give up.
23. It's getting cold.
24. Is it because of what you did?
25. Something has to replace it.
26. Crawl inside the body you massacred. Leave your new rifle behind.
27. Curl up. Become as small as you can in the carnage of your achievement. Let it overwhelm you.
26a. (It's still warm. You wonder what its pulse sounded like.)
26b. (Was it human?)
23. It's getting cold.
28. Realize how pathetic you really are.
29. Think of how the sun will feel.
30. Try not to think about how the sun will feel.
31. Tell yourself the truth.
31a. (Your pride can't protect you.)
31b. (It never could.)
5b. (This is not for them to see.)
3b. (Cleanliness is wasted where you're going.)
26b. (Was it human?)
13c. (You can make it better.)
15f. (You will fail.)
16c. (There is nothing left to do.)
32. Realize this is where you were always meant to be.
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