Contents
Part 1
Campfire Stories
Ricky, the camp counsellor, walked backwards out of the canteen, keeping an eye on the group of twenty teenagers that followed in his wake. Once they were all huddled outside the doors, he put a finger and thumb in his mouth and whistled. The chatter died down.
"Listen up everyone!" He shouted, running a hand through his mop of blonde hair. "We're heading back to the cabins via the wood shed. It's a clear night tonight so let's set up a fire and roast some marshmallows."
With that, he spun on his heels and strode into the darkness.
"Keep up everyone!"
When they arrived at the woodshed, the other two counsellors, Diane and Paula, unlocked the door and grabbed an armful of firewood each.
"Everyone take some logs with you," Diane called out, "that way we'll have plenty for the night."
She dumped her armful into the arms of Eric. Eric was a slight boy of seventeen, with a head of short brown curls, and a pair of wire-frame glasses balanced on a long, thin nose. As the logs were dropped into his arms, he buckled a little under the weight, and his glasses slipped down to the end of his nose.
Sydney made a motion to catch him. "You okay?"
Eric laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, my glasses aren't though."
She smiled and helped him push them back up. Sydney has been Eric's best friend since they were small. She was a tomboy, wearing almost exlusively trainers, faded blue jeans, and a baggy Iron Maiden t-shirt that used to be her Dad's. Her hair was thick and dark and always tied up in a ponytail.
Ricky barged in between the pair, dumping a pile of logs into Sydney's arms. He smirked at them. "Sorry to break up a beautiful moment, lovebirds, but there's work to do."
Sydney pulled a face at him as he walked away.
"Ignore him, Syd." Jamie said, appearing between Eric and Sydney, carrying double the amount of logs as everyone else. Jamie wasn't the tallest boy, but he was broad. He was an avid rugby player, with cropped sandy hair, wearing a rugby shirt and cargo short combo.
"I know, I ought to be used to the jokes by now. Butthead Ricky just caught me off guard." Sydney laughed.
---
Once everyone was back at the cabins, they went out onto the grass and constructed a large fire in the pit. They all gathered around and Paula handed out skewers with marshmallows on. Eric, Sydney, and Jamie sat huddled together for warmth, an autumnal chill whipping at their faces.
Diane stood on a crate by the fire, pulled her brown hair into a bun, and adjusted her khaki shirt and shorts. "Alright everyone," she called out, "it's time for some ghost stories!"
Everyone continued to chatter and giggle.
"Did you know," Diane bellowed, "that there are werewolves in these woods."
Silence slowly spread across the campers. Eric and Sydney leaned in, wide eyed. Jamie scoffed and shook his head.
"It's true, Jamie." Diane declared dramatically. "Three summers ago, on the night a full moon. Two girls slipped out of their cabins and went exploring in the woods to impress the boys. They trekked for hours and soon realised that they were lost, and it was getting cold. As they stressed and fretted in the darkness trying to figure out how to find their way back, they heard a howling in the distance. The hair stood up on the back's of their necks. One of the girls backed away from the direction of the sound, and reached out for her friend's hand. When their fingers interlaced she immediately knew something was wrong. These hands were far too large and hairy, and her friend definitely didn't have claws."
At that moment, there was roar from behind the campers and a hairy beast launched itself from the woods onto the group of nearest girls who screamed in terror. Eric and Sydney leapt to their feet startled. That was, until they heard the beast laughing.
The werewolf removed it's head, revealing Ricky underneath, and the screaming slowly turned into laughter.
Eric turned to Jamie. "They nearly had me for a second."
"Come on, Eric, you don't believe in werewolves do you?"
Ricky sauntered over to Jamie. "Oo, looks like we've got ourselves a tough guy. I doubt you'd be acting so tough if Terry got a hold of you."
Paula punched Ricky in the shoulder. "Ricky! You know we're not supposed to talk about Terry."
Sydney raised an eyebrow. "Why? Who's Terry?"
Paula shot Ricky a glare, but he shrugged. "Come on, the cat's out of the bag now. Might as well clue them in."
"Fine", Paula threw up her arms and stormed off to help hand out more marshmellows, "you can deal with management if the parent's lose their shit."
"Who's Terry?" Sydney pressed.
Ricky suddenly looked uncharacteristically serious, and spoke in a hushed voice. "Some nut. Some war vet who lives out in the woods. Got his face all mangled by an IED so he wears a bag over his head. He stalks around at night kidnapping anyone he comes across. Believes they're out to get him, poor bastard. Police have tried to hunt for him, but he moves around a lot. Some folks who went looking for him even disappeared."
Jamie scoffed again. "Bullshit, there's no way."
"I wish it was, man. I wish it was." Ricky smiled, though his brow was still furrowed. "Don't sweat it though. Terry never comes up to the cabins. You're safe there."
"Have you ever seen him?" Eric asked.
"Nope, and I hope I never do."
Paula and Diane whistled to get everyone's attention and began directing everyone to their cabins.
---
After the curfew check, Eric and Jamie were ready for bed and settling down to sleep. It was about 11PM when there was a gentle knock on the cabin door.
Jamie clambered out of bed, and padded across the room.
"Wait!" Eric whispered, scrambling to put his glasses in. "They already did the curfew check."
"So?"
"Well, who would it be? What if it's Terry?"
Jamie rolled his eyes. "Give it a rest, Eric. Ricky said we were safe in the cabins."
"No, wait -", Jamie swung open the door before Eric could say another word, but the doorway was empty.
The cold breeze blew in as Jamie stared silently into the dark.
"Argh!!" A figure jumped into the doorway and Jamie tumbled onto his back as Eric screamed and pulled the covers over his head.
"You dorks! Its just me!"
"Syd?" Jamie squinted into the darkness. "Jeez, you got me good. Happy now?"
"Well, kinda. I'm wigging out in that cabin with Chrissy. I think she's got a crush on you and I'm getting the cold shoulder because we're friends."
Jamie blushed a little. "Well, what are we supposed to do about it?"
"Let's get out of here." Sydney gestured to the woodland behind her. "Go exploring."
Eric popped out from under the covers. "No way, Syd. No way. Didn't you hear the stories?!"
"Duh, obviously. It'll be exciting."
Jamie sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "I think getting murdered by a psychopath is a bit beyond exciting, Syd."
"Oh dear, is the tough guy scared?"
Jamie puffed up a little. "No!"
"Well, come on then."
Jamie sighed and got to his feet, putting on his t-shirt, jeans, boots, and coat.
Eric scrambled out of bed and began putting on clothes too.
"You're coming?" Jamie asked.
"Obviously!" Eric whispered, struggling to get his t-shirt over his head. "I'm not going to be left here alone to be gobbled up by some ghosties and goblins."
Sydney laughed, and helped him pull his t-shirt down. "You dork! Come on, let's go."
The three of them ran stealthily to the edge of the woods, keeping an eye out for the counsellors.
"Jamie!"
They turned around.
Running through the darkness came Chrissy and Evie, both wearing big duffel coats over their nighties and big Wellington boots on their feet.
They came to a stop in front of the three. Chrissy began to twirl her thick red hair around her finger, fluttering her eyelashes slightly. "We're coming with you."
Sydney's eyes rolled so hard they almost popped out. "Give me a break."
Evie flicked her bleach blonde ponytail over her shoulder. "No one asked you, Sydney."
"Yeah, Sydney", Chrissy sneered, "we're here to help Jaime, not you."
"Actually, I don't think that's a great idea." Jamie butted in, before Sydney had a chance to retort. "The bigger the group the harder it's going to be to sneak around. We're a full party. Sorry."
"Oh." The girls looked hurt, until they caught sight of Sydney's poorly hidden grin. "Well, we're going exploring anyway, we don't need to be part of any party, right Evie?"
"Right!"
And with that, they stormed off into the woods.
"They won't last five minutes in there on their own." Eric fretted, wringing his hands.
Sydney grinned at him, as they took their first steps into the woods. "Here's hoping."
---
They wandered aimlessly for an hour or so, ducking behind some bushes whenever Eric was alarmed by the rustling in a nearby brush, which always ended up being hedgehogs or rabbits or badgers snuffling around, much to Sydney and Jamie's amusement (...and relief).
Sydney sighed and put her hands on her hips. "I'm getting pretty tired; we should call it a night?"
Then, as if on cue, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the trees, and the three spun around, frozen in shock.
