The Campfire
Jul 30, 2012 13:27:53 GMT -8
Post by Penny Royals on Jul 30, 2012 13:27:53 GMT -8
“Tell us a story!”
“Yeah Fred! Tell us a story!”
It was nearly midnight. It had been a long and exciting day for the boys of ‘Troupe Radical’ as they called it. They were boy scouts, out on a camping trip together with no adult supervision. The oldest members were the ‘parents’ for this entire weekend.
The Fred mentioned was a seventeen year old with a shock of black hair, messily handing every which way. He was one of the oldest members, but definitely not the leader. Fred was quiet, shy, even around the boys he’d practically changed the diapers of. But all these kids knew how to make Fred come out. They knew how to make him light up, grin, and get that mischievous, devilish glint in his eye. They knew how to make Fred come alive.
Upon being asked to tell a story, however, Fred modestly declined. This was always part of the game. The boys groaned, feigning disappointment. That was where T.J came in. He’d been the ringleader and chief boy scout since God-Knows-When. At the age of eighteen, he’d been gaining badges for fourteen years now and wasn’t about to stop- but his greatest achievement, all the boys agreed, was his leading role in Fred’s Inspiration.
“Come on, Fred,” he said, putting his hand on his shoulder, “Do you really want to let these kids go to sleep so calm?”
“Maybe so.” The spark was starting to gleam.
“How about having them bug you for the rest of the night?”
“Oh… oh, alright!” He sounded annoyed… but the boys knew he was bluffing. His face gave that away.
“Tell us the one about the hitchhiker!”
“No, the one about the lake monster!”
“No,” he finally ceded, giving a rather dark giggle, “I’ve got a perfect one for you. You guys ready?”
“One hundred percent!”
“Alright.” That smile came out now. “You all know I’ve been coming here since I was pretty much able to walk, right? With T.J over here, and that was a LONG time before Grayson’s mom was our Den Mother. Our older boys were Jason and… what was his name?”
“Harvey.” T.J’s voice was miraculously still. “Harvey Day.”
“Yeah… Harvey. They were kinda like us-“ he motioned to himself, T.J, and the redheaded boy named Grayson. “Our age, that sorta thing.” He took a deep breath in, letting a wave of calm wash over him before he went on. “It was a long night. Late fall, early winter. 1978. I was five. I was only five years old…” Another breath. “It was a full moon that night… full size of a fifty cent piece on top of Racquebury Hill! Shone off the water well enough to blind a kid. And we…. We were camped right there.” He motioned off to the distance, way past other campsites. “Campsite 12. You’ve never seen it.”
“I thought it all skipped straight to 30?” This was from a bespectacled little seven year old named Randy.
“It does NOW,” Grayson gave a half-hearted moan as a response, trying to fix another marshmallow for a Smore.
"There was a fire," Fred explained, "Spread through half the area until it was finally ended by the lake and the fire department. That was in 1979, actually... April. But that's for another time."
"Maybe you should tell that story instead," T.J's voice was hurried, almost panicked. This wasn't like him, and this scared several kids.
"NO." Fred's voice was stiff. "They NEED to know. If nothing else, then to learn to be more careful... More careful than us..."
A wave of silence fell. The kids inched closer to the fire as a wolf or coyote howled far away. For a few fleeting seconds, they felt safer that close.
"There were seven of us. Harvey, Jason, Grayson, T.J, me, Eric, and his twin brother Ray. It was the start of this troupe, I mean. We stayed up late, and it all happened at midnight. That was when the older boys decided to play some games. They seemed harmless, at first. Then they brought out a Ouija board. I don't even know how they got it! And that's when the night just... stopped." Not even the fire crackled in the circle. It's light seemed snuffed out, smoldering embers resting in the pit, but no one moved to start it back up. "There were no sounds, no moon, no fire, no nothing. And we sat on that picnic table, and all put our hands on that thingy-"
"Planchett-"
"-Planchett, and tihngs got bad..."
"Please, let's stop now," T.J insisted.
"We started off with simple questions. Anybody there, what's your name, your age, how you died. And it came up pretty quickly that this thing was real. We were talking to a real spirit. So we got to the more heavy-duty things. Like... what it wanted to do to u-"
"-Please stop-"
"Take." This single word, uttered by Grayson, sent shivers down everyone's spines, more than there could have been if it were 'Kill' or 'Hurt'. Fred began again, steady but ginger:
"We put it away, tried to go to bed- but it was too freaky. So we came back out, got it all out, and with a bible this time."
"Eric never should have brought that..." T.J whined, "That just made it mad!"
"Definitely. But we didn't think of that then. We thought we ewre making ourselves safe when we weren't... we weren't at all. It... it got knocked out of Harvey's hands. We ran screaming after that, down to the lake. We slept down on the docks, or tried to. Back at that time there were a few houses down there, so we felt safe. I remember falling asleep..."
"Same."
"Same."
"And when we woke up... well... it was still nighttime. And there were only six of us. We looked around until morning, but... he was gone."
"Who?"
"Harvey."
"They STILL haven't figured out where he is. They searched the woods, the lake... he never came home."
"But," T.J came in again, very, very quietly, "There... there was something I never did tell you guys."
"What?"
"The night of that fire. I'd snuck out and gone back. Our campsite was still intact, which even then I thoguht was just... weird. I'd gone searching aroudn in there. I'd found that damned bible and that fucking ouija board. And... oh God.... SOMETHING was watching me. It was huge... bigger than a bear. Dark... fast as lightening. I remember not even waiting, just... running. And soon it disappeeared and I was being chased by the fire."
"How did you get out?"
"Who said I did?"
“Yeah Fred! Tell us a story!”
It was nearly midnight. It had been a long and exciting day for the boys of ‘Troupe Radical’ as they called it. They were boy scouts, out on a camping trip together with no adult supervision. The oldest members were the ‘parents’ for this entire weekend.
The Fred mentioned was a seventeen year old with a shock of black hair, messily handing every which way. He was one of the oldest members, but definitely not the leader. Fred was quiet, shy, even around the boys he’d practically changed the diapers of. But all these kids knew how to make Fred come out. They knew how to make him light up, grin, and get that mischievous, devilish glint in his eye. They knew how to make Fred come alive.
Upon being asked to tell a story, however, Fred modestly declined. This was always part of the game. The boys groaned, feigning disappointment. That was where T.J came in. He’d been the ringleader and chief boy scout since God-Knows-When. At the age of eighteen, he’d been gaining badges for fourteen years now and wasn’t about to stop- but his greatest achievement, all the boys agreed, was his leading role in Fred’s Inspiration.
“Come on, Fred,” he said, putting his hand on his shoulder, “Do you really want to let these kids go to sleep so calm?”
“Maybe so.” The spark was starting to gleam.
“How about having them bug you for the rest of the night?”
“Oh… oh, alright!” He sounded annoyed… but the boys knew he was bluffing. His face gave that away.
“Tell us the one about the hitchhiker!”
“No, the one about the lake monster!”
“No,” he finally ceded, giving a rather dark giggle, “I’ve got a perfect one for you. You guys ready?”
“One hundred percent!”
“Alright.” That smile came out now. “You all know I’ve been coming here since I was pretty much able to walk, right? With T.J over here, and that was a LONG time before Grayson’s mom was our Den Mother. Our older boys were Jason and… what was his name?”
“Harvey.” T.J’s voice was miraculously still. “Harvey Day.”
“Yeah… Harvey. They were kinda like us-“ he motioned to himself, T.J, and the redheaded boy named Grayson. “Our age, that sorta thing.” He took a deep breath in, letting a wave of calm wash over him before he went on. “It was a long night. Late fall, early winter. 1978. I was five. I was only five years old…” Another breath. “It was a full moon that night… full size of a fifty cent piece on top of Racquebury Hill! Shone off the water well enough to blind a kid. And we…. We were camped right there.” He motioned off to the distance, way past other campsites. “Campsite 12. You’ve never seen it.”
“I thought it all skipped straight to 30?” This was from a bespectacled little seven year old named Randy.
“It does NOW,” Grayson gave a half-hearted moan as a response, trying to fix another marshmallow for a Smore.
"There was a fire," Fred explained, "Spread through half the area until it was finally ended by the lake and the fire department. That was in 1979, actually... April. But that's for another time."
"Maybe you should tell that story instead," T.J's voice was hurried, almost panicked. This wasn't like him, and this scared several kids.
"NO." Fred's voice was stiff. "They NEED to know. If nothing else, then to learn to be more careful... More careful than us..."
A wave of silence fell. The kids inched closer to the fire as a wolf or coyote howled far away. For a few fleeting seconds, they felt safer that close.
"There were seven of us. Harvey, Jason, Grayson, T.J, me, Eric, and his twin brother Ray. It was the start of this troupe, I mean. We stayed up late, and it all happened at midnight. That was when the older boys decided to play some games. They seemed harmless, at first. Then they brought out a Ouija board. I don't even know how they got it! And that's when the night just... stopped." Not even the fire crackled in the circle. It's light seemed snuffed out, smoldering embers resting in the pit, but no one moved to start it back up. "There were no sounds, no moon, no fire, no nothing. And we sat on that picnic table, and all put our hands on that thingy-"
"Planchett-"
"-Planchett, and tihngs got bad..."
"Please, let's stop now," T.J insisted.
"We started off with simple questions. Anybody there, what's your name, your age, how you died. And it came up pretty quickly that this thing was real. We were talking to a real spirit. So we got to the more heavy-duty things. Like... what it wanted to do to u-"
"-Please stop-"
"Take." This single word, uttered by Grayson, sent shivers down everyone's spines, more than there could have been if it were 'Kill' or 'Hurt'. Fred began again, steady but ginger:
"We put it away, tried to go to bed- but it was too freaky. So we came back out, got it all out, and with a bible this time."
"Eric never should have brought that..." T.J whined, "That just made it mad!"
"Definitely. But we didn't think of that then. We thought we ewre making ourselves safe when we weren't... we weren't at all. It... it got knocked out of Harvey's hands. We ran screaming after that, down to the lake. We slept down on the docks, or tried to. Back at that time there were a few houses down there, so we felt safe. I remember falling asleep..."
"Same."
"Same."
"And when we woke up... well... it was still nighttime. And there were only six of us. We looked around until morning, but... he was gone."
"Who?"
"Harvey."
"They STILL haven't figured out where he is. They searched the woods, the lake... he never came home."
"But," T.J came in again, very, very quietly, "There... there was something I never did tell you guys."
"What?"
"The night of that fire. I'd snuck out and gone back. Our campsite was still intact, which even then I thoguht was just... weird. I'd gone searching aroudn in there. I'd found that damned bible and that fucking ouija board. And... oh God.... SOMETHING was watching me. It was huge... bigger than a bear. Dark... fast as lightening. I remember not even waiting, just... running. And soon it disappeeared and I was being chased by the fire."
"How did you get out?"
"Who said I did?"