Heather's eyes widened. She looked frightened already. Flash leaned forward, took a burning stick from the fire, and lit a cigar. Benny turned to face Karen.
"We don't want to give the kids nightmares," Scott told her, smiling.
"I'd better not tell it."
"Come on," Nick said.
"Yeah," Julie said. "You can't quit now."
"Well. they were camping in the mountains not far from here. It was a cold night, with the wind howling and moaning through the trees. Sandy — that was her name — sat close to the campfire with her two friends, Audrey and Doreen. I would've been along, but I'd sprained my ankle a few days earlier and had to stay home. Lucky for me, as it turned out."
"Is this really a true story?" Benny asked.
"Let her talk," Julie said.
Karen leaned closer to the fire. She felt its heat on her face, the cold on her back. "The three of them huddled close around the fire to keep the cold away. They sang and told ghost stories, none of them wanting to leave the fire's cheery warmth. Slowly the flames dwindled. Sandy put on the last piece of firewood. Soon, that, too, was nearly gone. 'Well,' Sandy said, 'why don't we hit the sack?' The others were against it, though. They'd frightened themselves so much with the ghost stories that the tent, off in the darkness, looked like a creepy shadow.
" 'What if someone's hiding inside?' Doreen asked.
" 'Oh, that's ridiculous,' Sandy said."
Karen glanced at Benny. He was staring, wide-eyed, at his tent across the clearing.
"Well, they decided to stay up for a while longer. But the fire was nearly dead, only a few flickers still lapping around the charred remains of wood. If they were going to stay up till their jitters passed, they would have to replenish the supply of firewood. Since nobody wanted to go alone into the dark woods around the campsite, they decided to all go together.
"But they had no flashlight. The flashlight was in the tent. 'I'm not going in there,' Doreen said.
" 'Me either,' Audrey said.
"Sandy was frightened, too, by this time, but she told herself it was silly. So she volunteered to get the flashlight. She left Audrey and Doreen sitting by the fire, and crossed the dark clearing toward the tent. She crouched in front of it. Her heart was pounding like crazy, but she wasn't about to let herself be scared off. Then she got an idea that made her grin. She almost laughed, but kept quiet and lifted the tent flap. Inside, it was as black as a cave. She almost lost her nerve, but took a deep breath and crawled in.
"Suddenly, she screamed. She screamed again, a piercing shriek of terror so loud it made her ears hurt. 'No!' she cried out. 'No! Please! NOT And then she let out a howl of horror and agony that made her own flesh crawl."
"What was it?" Benny whispered. "What got her?"
"Not a thing," Karen answered. "This was Sandy's idea of a practical joke. Like lots of practical jokes, though, this one backfired. Once she was done screaming, she found the flashlight. She crawled out of the tent, all set to yuck it up about the great gag she'd pulled on her friends. But they were gone."
"She scared 'em off," Nick said.
"That's what Sandy thought. She walked around the clearing, calling out to them. 'Hey you guys!' she yelled. 'I was kidding! Come on back!' But they didn't come back.
"Sandy sat by the campfire. Only a glow remained, by now, and she was cold. 'Come on,' she finally called. 'Enough is enough.' But Audrey and Doreen still didn't return.
"At last, she left the campsite and walked into the dark woods, calling out for her friends. With each step, she half expected the girls to leap out at her screaming, to pay her back for the scare. But they didn't. She kept searching, wandering farther and farther from the camp.
"Finally, she spotted them in a moonlit clearing. They stood motionless as she hurried toward them. 'What're you doing way out here?' she asked. They didn't answer. They didn't speak a word. When she reached them, she stared. She began to whimper.
"The two figures wore the clothes of Doreen and Audrey, but the arms and legs were made of sticks. They were scarecrows with heads of bloody fur.''
"Yuck," Rose muttered.
"Somehow, Sandy found her way back to the camp.
She sat by the dead fire. The wind moaned around her. She stared into the darkness. She waited and waited. Audrey and Doreen never returned."
"Never?" Benny asked.
"Never. Some hikers wandered into camp a couple of days later and found Sandy still sitting there, her wide eyes gazing into the woods as if looking for her lost friends."
"What did happen?" Nick asked. "To Audrey and Doreen?"
"Search parties looked everywhere for them. They were never found. Nobody will ever know what became of them after they ran out into the woods that night. Maybe it's best that way."
There was silence. Heather peered over her shoulder. Rose leaned closer to the fire.
"On that cheerful note," Flash said, "I think it's about time to call it a night."
Chapter Nine
Hey," Nick said. "I'm gonna sleep under the stars tonight. You want to?" "That'd be neat. I'll have to ask Dad first." Turning around, Julie spotted him with Karen and Benny. The three were heading away from the campsite, apparently on their way to the stream. "Wait up!" she called, and ran after them. She quickly caught up with her father. "Can I sleep outside tonight?" she asked.
"Do you have a choice?"
"I mean by the fire. Instead of in the tent. Nick's gonna sleep out, too."
"Just the two of you?"
"I don't know." She sighed. "Jeez, Dad, we're not gonna do anything. I hardly even know the guy."
"I wasn't thinking about that. Now that you mention it, though…"
"Dad."
He laughed softly. "No, it's fine with me."
"Great!" She whirled away and rushed to tell Nick. She found him crouching over his backpack, pulling out his sleeping bag. "It's okay," she told him.
"Fantastic."
"Meet you by the fire."
Well away from the campsite, in the woods beyond her tent, she brushed her teeth and washed her face using water from her plastic bottle. As she capped the bottle, she heard a quiet crunching sound. Not far away. A footstep?
Holding her breath, she stared through the trees. She saw only black trunks, bushes, a few dim clusters of stone.
Nobody's there, she told herself.
Still, she felt exposed standing in a bright patch of moonlight. With a sidestep, she moved into the dark. She listened. She heard only the breeze in the treetops, the quiet lapping sound of the lake, a few indistinct voices from the camp.
"Damn story," she muttered. Karen's story, and nothing more, was responsible for her jitters. "Wasn't even scary," she said.
But as she lowered her pants and squatted, she scanned the darkness. Ridiculous. Dumb story. She was a jerk to let it bother her.
Here I am, a jerk. Staring into the woods like a fool, half expecting Audrey and Doreen to dash by. Dumb.
She stared and shivered. This was taking forever. Why the hell had she drunk so much coffee?
Finally, she finished. She hurried back to camp. Nick, in his sleeping bag near the fire, waved at her. "Right with you," she called.
In the darkness of her tent, she changed into the hooded warm-up suit she'd brought along for sleepwear. She put on clean wool socks, then slipped into her sneakers. She rolled her mummy bag into a loose bundle, grabbed her foam-rubber mat, and crawled outside.
Nick watched her approach. She felt self-conscious, naked under her snug jacket and pants. He can't tell, she thought. Besides, she was holding the bulky bag in front of herself.