Ghostly Campfire

Against tradition, the three of them agreed to let children come. Only because Katie had begged. She begged because her Mom begged. Some grown up emergency. Some crisis with Uncle Mike. No details were given. She had tried to ague. Uncle Mike was always going through a crises, how was this any different? A desperate look from her mother backed her down, and then she begged Patrick and Juliana.

Both were fairly agreeable and she thought Patrick was happy that she hadn’t invited Drake. Although she had wanted to she knew better than to push her luck.

They traded in their beers for marshmallows. Patrick promised a ghost story, but only if the boys were good. Being an only child, he seemed to enjoy acting the part of big brother.

“Don’t you think they’re too young for ghost stories?” Katie whispered to Patrick when the boys were off collecting sticks to build the fire with.

“Nah.’ I’ll try and tone it down a bit. They are boys ya know. Just play along.”

Before the ghostly stories could begin a fire had to be made. Patrick, the forest ranger, gave a stern lecture about not playing with matches and always keeping water near an outside fire. With a nice size campfire going, the boys ordered up a good ghost story.

“First," Patrick began, "We have to make goblin-like noises while we dance around the fire” He stood up and the girls followed suit. “Bllluuueeeaaaaahhh! They all chanted.

“Okay. Good.” Patrick began

“Once upon a time. A long time ago. There was-“

“How long ago?” Scottie asked

“A very long time ago. Like before you born time ago.” Patrick replied, a trace of annoyance in his tone. He cleared his throat and began again.

“Once upon a time, a very long, time ago, there was this girl. Who-“

What girls? What was her name? Scottie interrupted again.

“Dude! Look. Stop interrupting me” He reached down and tussled Scottie’s hair, Scottie scrambled into Katie’s lap.

“Like I was saying, A girl, with long dark black hair, and fair skin. She let her fingernails grow to several inches long and painted them black. She wore dark black clothing and liked to walk the streets at night. During the day, she slept in her house by the woods. She had lots of cats. Tons of cats. Cats that didn’t belong to her would visit her house because she was nice to them. The town didn’t like her; they called her the Cat Girl. Some wondered why she lived alone, with all her cats. Others didn’t even like to think about her, leaving the wondering aside, they avoided all conversations with her.

“Well, one day, two curious young boys, a little older than you guys, Bobby and Stephen, decided they would sneak into her house during the day to see what all the fuss was about. For two weeks, they planned their invasion. They even enlisted the help of some of their friends. The group decided the best way to get the girl to open her door would be to make cat-like noises, similar to an injured cat. Hearing a wounded cat just outside her house, the girl was sure to come outside and have a look. That’s when Bobby and Stephen would dash into her house. Look around, and then hide out until nighttime, when she left again to roam the streets. The boys would make their escape, dart back home, sneak into their rooms and climb into their beds. Simple as that. Right?”

Both Scottie and Skyler shook their heads in agreement. Kids are so easy, Patrick thought.

“And it was. At least at first.” Patrick continued. He walked in small circles on one side of the fire, while the boys sat on the other. He looked at Juliana and gave a quick nod and she slowly, inconspicuously moved further away from the group.

“Bobby and Stephan’s friends made the wounded cat noise.” Patrick produced a loud sickly meowing noise. He dragged the noise on for one full minute.

“”Bobby and Stephen could see her peeking through the window. And signaled to their friends to keep it up. The cat wailing got even louder.” Again, Patrick made the wailing noise.

“The girl runs out of her back door. It almost looked like she was wearing a black cape. The boys seized their opportunity and dashed inside Cat Girl’s house.” He paused for a moment. Patrick was running back and forth and breathing heavily when he continued.
They thought everything was working according to planned. What they hadn’t known was Cat Girl discovered their friends. With her long fingernails she drew deep scratches into their clothing and hissed at them to leave and never come back.

“Once inside, they began snooping around. The rooms were dark and dusty. Everything looked old. Really old,
”Hey,” Bobby said, "this looks like one of those old timey record players that we learned about in history. You know, with the RCA dog?”

It wasn’t just the strange objects they saw, it was the lack of appliances they didn’t see. Like a radio, or a refrigerator. The place was creepy.

Then they saw them, Very old photographs faded yellow. Pictures of Cat Girl in a dresses when she was smaller and then, a picture of her just as she was today, but in old-fashioned clothes” Stephen stopped cold and dropped the picture. “It’s her. The girl in the picture. It’s Cat Girl. She’s a ggg ghost.”

Without worrying about being caught, Bobby and Stephen ran as fast as they could out the front door.

Katie shivered, mostly for effect but she really liked how Patrick told the story, moving his body around, and his arms.

Everyone froze for a second when they heard a rustling in the trees. “What was that?” Scottie asked

“Ssshhhh. Patrick said. “Afterwards, on cold dark nights in the deep of winter, and on warm June summer nights, much like tonight, Cat Girl howls like a cat in pain."

Suddenly, they heard an awful sounding wounded animal noise coming from within the near by trees. Skyler and Stephen hugged Katie even tighter. Trembling with fear.

“It’s just Juliana," Katie said. Trying to comfort the boys. But when she looked over at Patrick, Juliana was standing right beside him.