I’m running after him slowly and silently. I step on a branch and CRACK! The person whisked away like a ninja. I stop running and listen closely in the quiet, midnight, howling wind. All I could hear is my dumb breath. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Then, suddenly, I hear a tree branch fall. With full speed, an arrow whistles in the oak forest and hit the tree that was closest to me. All I can do to react is to sit down on the rocky forest floor and start sobbing. All I want is a family, yet I’m stuck in this terrible forest. I’m starving, and I have no parents, so why is this person bothering to try to kill me? The leaves rustle, and the man finally emerges.
He speaks in a demonic voice, taunting me by calling me “little girl”. He says he wants to make a deal with me, and that I better accept it. I looked up with a tiny bit of hope, and my eyes gleam at him as they reflect the shining moon, but I immediately refuse to let the hope stay.
I worriedly ask him what his deal would be. He explains that he is a poacher, and that if I help to guard him while he hunts, he would make sure I had all the food I wanted. He tells me his name is Cyrus, and I told my name and we shake on the deal. What he didn’t know is that I wasn’t going to do the deal as I promised because poaching is against the laws. Tomorrow is the day where I leave to go to the highway, hitchhike for a car and go to the police station. Although I could’ve gone to the highway long ago, I was too scared when I was 10 right after my mom died, but I think I’m ready now.

“Come with me, Joanne,” he says in a quiet voice while looking around as if someone’s here. I get up from where I was sitting, wipe my tears from my droopy face, and clumsily start walking with Cyrus. It is a quiet and long walk but I am ready for it. We went to their camp and the fire was a scorching sun. He gives me a sandwich from Subway which tasted so good that I could literally describe the food without looking at it. There was olives, lettuce, meat and those red circles with all the juice in them. After I’m done eating, I go to a nearby tent that was available to use and drag myself to sleep. I close my eyelids and try to sleep while the wolf howls and the guys snore, but my eyelids are too heavy that I fall asleep.

My eyes blink and I saw the skies aflame with the rising sun. I tiptoe across the temporary camp and quickly rinse my face in the cold, icy water. The sun was slowly rising so I swiftly steal a stash of food and take off in my supersonic feet. I see a couple of monkeys here and there. “Probably getting some breakfast,” I think open-mindedly. I reach the highway and sit on a big, flat rock. I stick out my hand and symbolized it into a thumbs-up sign. Almost immediately, my stomach starts growling, so I take a slice of peanut butter and jelly sandwich and swallow it whole like a snake. Suddenly, a flash comes toward the curve of the highway and my mouth is gaping open. I quickly stand up and put up the thumbs-up sign. The car immediately slows down and flashes their lights. When I squint my eyes it was a she and she slowly comes to a full stop. The window comes down and motions her hand for me to talk.

“I need to go to the police. It’s urgent,” I say.

“Umm, ok hon, why don’t you hop into my car,” she replies.

“Thank you so much!” I answer. The ride to the police station is quiet until I’m tired of the dead air.

“ Life is not what I expected. It’s always with twists and turns. One problem after the next,” I say while I moan like Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter. Either way, she still didn’t reply to me. I arrive at my destination 20-30 minutes later and get out of the car to head into the police station.

I run to the station, and I declare,” There is a group of people who are poaching in the woods. I’m also a child with no parents and stuck in the forest for 1 year, so could I get a bit of help here?” The officer pulls down his shades and looks at me instead of the paper in his hand. The other police officers are staring at me too.

“So you’re telling me that there is a group of people poaching animals in the woods?” he asks. I nod slowly while he is telling his people to check it out.

“And you don’t have any parents?” I bob again to this question and he goes out and came back about 10 minutes later. “You have a parent,” he says. I was so happy that my brain is going to explode. It is the woman who helped me. Well, at least it is better to have a mom than no mom. Her name is Ramey and she’s going to be taking me home. The officer gives her a couple of sheets of paper to sign for me for my adoption. At last, she was done and we leave out of the police station and race to the car. Mom and I  get out of the parking lot in the car and start to go home. When she puts on the radio in the Honda vehicle the police officers report that the poacher men have been captured so the animals are saved. I think it’s safe for me to say finally home sweet home. Or is it?