Despite Cleo being a part of the equation dinner was pretty good. Everyone teased her and she crossed her arms in a pout. Ethan kissed her temple and told her he’d eat her burnt food for the rest of his life if that meant she was there everyday to cook it.
When the sun started setting Derek pulled out his acoustic guitar and began playing some cheesy songs that everyone could sing along to. He really was in his element here. He was almost pleasant. I was going to miss this version of him. I made a note to consider making this an annual thing. Maybe it would help tolerate him the rest of the year.
Taking a break from entertaining he went to blow up his bed and grab his blankets. He returned with more marshmallows. I swear he had brought an entire suitcase of them, and another with cookies, crackers, and various chocolates to go with them.
Ethan took the opportunity to grab the guitar from his seat and reach for his wife’s hand. She looked up at him with such admiration. He excused them and they started walking down the road towards the woods. I looked around and saw Adrian waving the baby monitor.
“He mentioned something earlier. We’ve got both the babies in our camper.”
I ate my final s'more for the week and leaned back in my chair. I felt so bloated, I was sure that I was going to look like I had a baby bump for a week or so.
When Derek returned to the group he looked around for his guitar and swore when he heard what happened.
“Damn Andrews and his romantic gestures,” he mumbled. He slumped for a minute and then shot up excitedly. He looked over at the twins who were waiting for him to do something else fun. He was definitely winning lots of best uncle points this week.
“Do you guys want to hear a ghost story?” He whispered to them. His eyes wide and smile even wider. He looked like a psychopath. The kids nodded excitedly and sat up straighter in their seats.
“Derek,” I started but he waved me away.
“Calm down, they’ll be fine.” He jumped back up and hurried into the camper, returning with a flashlight. He flicked it on and put it under his chin.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine Aunt Renee. We’re old enough,” Jimmy defended. I sighed and said nothing else.
“Okay, this story is about some campers just like yourselves many years ago. In this very campsite, on this very evening. A group of boys and girls much like yourself were staying overnight in tents scattered all around the ground.” He waved his arms around. Their eyes grew wide, all of their attention on him.
“There was only one adult to watch over all of them, and it became hard to keep track of everyone. When night fell, he decided to do roll call. He called out everyone’s name and they’d come forward. He called out for Harry, Donna, Penny, Carl, Randy, Lloyd, and finally Tony.” He stopped and let the words settle in with the kids. They gasped and reached for the others hand.
My heart melted a little. They spent so much time fighting with each other, when they needed it the most they reached out for their twin. A cold breeze ran through the camp and I shivered.
“Are you cold? You want me to grab your sweater?” Mark asked me. I nodded and he stood up to get it.
“Aw you’re gonna miss the rest of the story,” Derek whined. The twins whipped their heads around in sync and shot identical nasty glares at him. Mark shot his hands up in innocence.
“I’ll be right back, just go on without me.”
They turned back to Derek and told him to keep going. With a big sigh he started back up.
“Tony was the only one that hadn’t answered roll call. So, he asked all the children to start looking around the area for him. Everyone started calling his name. “Tony!” But he didn’t call back.
Starting to worry, the counselor decided to take roll call again and found that Lloyd and Randy were missing now too. Everyone began to get frightened. They had just seen them. Where did they go?
The counselor decided to call the police, but it was too late. They’d be there first thing in the morning. When he turned back around Carl, Penny, and Donna were all gone too!
He looked down at the only boy left. Little Harry. He asked him where they went and he said Tony took them. He asked Harry where and he pointed to the forest.”
Derek stopped to take a breath and pointed to the forest we had gone into that afternoon. The twins were so entranced I wasn’t sure they were breathing. With a large inhale he picked up the story again.
“He took little Harry’s hand and went into the dark forest to look for all the missing children.” Derek leaned forward to whisper to them. “The next morning when the police came, they found all of the children, including Tony, but no counselor. They were crying and holding on to each other. They couldn’t explain how they got back to the campsite, but they all said that they could hear the counselor screaming in the woods all night, still looking for Tony. They say if little kids are back where Tony went missing, the counselor will come back for them and take them into the woods with him. If you hear him screaming, you know it’s too late.”
As if on cue we heard a loud earsplitting screech come from the woods.
“Tony! Tony!”
The twins screamed bloody murder and reached for each other. My mouth fell open in horror as Derek burst into laughter as Mark continued to scream for the lost boy. Adrian and Chase were slapping their thighs and holding their stomachs laughing and I reached out to smack both of them.
Mark walked out of the woods with a huge grin on his face. The twins screamed again, not recognizing him right away. They leapt out of their seats and ran to me. I held them tightly and told them it wasn’t real.
“Shh… it’s just Uncle Mark. Uncle Derek was just telling a spooky story. It was fake.” I repeated over and over until they stopped shaking.
