Charity's Short Story Essay: The Haunted House

With the barrel of her musket propped firmly on the limb of a tree, Charity took steady aim at the deer. The medium-sized buck was grazing at the edge of a thicket of wax myrtles, near where she saw the deer tracks the day before. John and Uriah were squatting in the bushes behind her. She had brought them along to help with the bleeding out of the deer, should she kill one, and to help carry it back to camp. They could then dress it out and help her prepare the meat for making jerky and so forth. She also hoped to can some of the meat so that it would last a lot longer. She was glad that Nancy had shown her how and taught her how to preserve food in glass jars- it was much better than having to dry it all into tough leather strips… Taking careful aim, Charity squeezed the trigger, while saying a quick prayer that the bullet would hit its mark. She was worried that she wasn't close enough to the deer, but if she had tried to get any closer, it would have seen her and ran off into the woods.
The old musket was not very accurate at far distances, and she really needed this kill in order to keep her children fed. The meat would last them a good while, if she could preserve it.
It took the black smoke a good minute to clear.
She dreamed that she was running from the river, but the water kept catching up to her and pulling her under. It was so real that she could feel the water burning her nostrils and filling her ears and lungs. As she fought against the rising water, a giant eagle suddenly scooped her up out of the water. In its talons, she hung as limp as a rag doll. The tree tops, brushed against her body, tearing at her flesh and her clothes as he flew- Suddenly, he dove downward and she thought that he might land, but then he flew upward, higher and higher into the sky he went, carrying her along with