Under the Stars is a round-robin Frozen!AU Fanfiction being written by multiple bloggers over on Tumblr. MinnoTheBunny has the master post, so check out her blog.
The AU: It's the summer of 1985. 22yo Kristoff is back for another season working as a counselor at Wandering Oaken's summer camp. 19yo Anna is also returning and looking forward to getting her own cabin of girls to mentor. They worked together last summer but didn't really talk much. Besides the campers, Kristoff mostly kept to himself. Anna is excited to see him again but worries that maybe he doesn't like her. Will Kristoff open up to Anna? Hans works on the other side of the lake at affluent Camp Victory. The two camps share a healthy dose of competition (and hi-jinks) but after a couple of miserable dates last year Anna would be happy to never see those sideburns again.
Other counselors who have showed up so far: Sven, who also has a cabin of boys. Kairi, a brunette who has a cabin of girls. Merida, who teaches Archery.
Ghost Stories is Chapter 8. Go see MinnoTheBunny's blog to read the rest of the chapters.
As always, we own nothing.
It was a balmy night. No breeze, no moon, plenty of stars, and not too buggy. It was perfect campfire weather.
Anna's Sunflowers sat with Merida's Archers and Kairi's Butterflies. Kristoff had his Reindeers and Sven had his Ice Pirates. ("Ice Pirates? Seriously?" "Shut up, dude, that movie was rad!") All fifty kids sat in a circle around the cheery campfire, eagerly waiting their turn to roast marshmallows.
"Let's do stories instead of skits tonight!" Amber suggested.
"Yeah! Ghost stories!" Jake agreed.
"Not too scary," John fretted.
"Nah, the scarier the better!" Matt crowed.
"It'll be scary if we don't get to do s'mores!" Jessica groused.
"Don't worry, kids, we gotcha covered!" Kristoff reassured them, passing out marshmallows and sharpened roasting sticks.
"Oooh! Did you bring extra chocolate?!"
"I'm hurt you even asked that, Brianna!" Anna pouted, hefting a bag full of chocolate bars.
All five leaders helped their kids with their s'mores. Once everyone had their stuff, they gathered 'round the campfire to try and scare each other with ghost stories.
Meg sat at the end of the row of Sunflowers while Ryan sat at the end of the Reindeers herd. The only empty spots left were between them. Both kids simultaneously patted the log next to them and smiled innocently up at their leaders. Anna and Kristoff looked at each other and blushed shyly, but then Sven snorted with laughter and pushed the two of them over to the proffered seats. They sat side-by-side and did their best to focus on their campers and not on how the firelight made her skin glow, or the way his t-shirt strained over his arms, or how their knees kept brushing up against each.
After a few kids told their ghost stories, they convinced their leaders to tell some real bone-chilling ones!
"…From out of nowhere came the biggest bear you've ever seen!" Merida said, flinging her arms wide. "His hide littered with the weapons of fallen hunters — his face scarred… with one dead eye! Fergus drew his hunting knife, and… WHOOOSH!"
Several campers jumped.
"One swipe," Merida continued, "and his knife shattered, then, CHOMP! Fergus's leg was clean off! Down the monster's throat it went.
"Mor'du the demon bear has never been seen since. And he's roaming this very forest, awaiting his chance for… REVENGE!" she roared, jumping and snarling at the circle of campers.
They all shrieked with delight. Of course they've heard this story from Merida several times before, but they still loved it.
Well, almost everyone loved it.
"Boooooooring!" Matt whined.
"Ach, mind yer manners!" Merida snapped.
"I'm 11 now! I want a real scary story! Not these stupid baby stories!" he pouted.
"So you want a real story?" Kairi asked softly. All eyes turned to her as she rose gracefully from her seat next to Sven. "Alright then." The firelight danced in her dark brown hair, her bangs casting her eyes in shadows.
"As you know, Wandering Oaken's Summer Camp has been here for a very long time. My grandparents used to come here when they were kids. My Nana told me about what really happened in the old supply shed."
"Th-the what?" Jessica asked timidly.
"The old supply shed around back," Chris explained.
"There's no supply shed around back!" Clara argued.
"Sure there is!" Ryan countered.
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yah-huh!"
"Is there?" several campers asked Kairi.
The brunette leader shrugged. "Some say it's still there, others say it burned down after the murders."
"….M-m-m-murders?!" Jennifer squeaked.
"Murders. What, you never heard about them?" Kairi smiled a very unpleasant smile. All the kids shook their heads, completely caught up in the story now.
"Back when my Nana was a girl, two cabins were known for being bullies and rulebreakers. The Braves and the Magpies. They slacked off on their camp chores. They made fun of other kids. They pulled pranks. They even tampered with the spirit world.
"Some say that on a moonless night, kinda like tonight, the Braves and the Magpies sacrificed a chicken in exact center of the old supply shed, and used its blood to summon a Demon Trickster to help them with their shenanigans. The Demon Trickster agreed, in exchange for something in return later on. Foolishly, the children agreed."
Kairi's voice rose and fell in a cadence that was downright creepy. Anna was as hooked as her Sunflowers, and started to get a bit nervous. Without realizing it, her slender hand creeped over and hid in Kristoff's big palm. He blushed, but squeezed her hand and rubbed his thumb along her knuckles, trying to reassure her.
"The Demon Trickster kept his part of the bargain, and their pranks and tricks got more elaborate," Kairi explained. "Furniture ended up in trees, hiking boots filled with mud, Cherry-flavored Kool-aid that was bright green instead of red, stuff like that. The Braves and Magpies loved their new pranks. But the Demon Trickster wasn't satisfied."
The campfire popped. Anna jumped and huddled closer to Kristoff. He couldn't help it, he leaned in closer to her too.
"Soon, the pranks got vicious. Campers' clothes turned up in the latrine pits. Favorite stuffed animals were torn to pieces. Pillow cases were filled with spiders…"
Several kids squeaked and shivered.
"But the Demon Trickster still wasn't satisfied. It demanded more. The Braves and the Magpies did their best to appease it. All of the best food was stolen from the kitchen hall. Money and jewelry disappeared from the leaders' bunks. Even medicines were taken from the First Aid Tent.
"And then one night, the Demon Trickster gathered the Braves and Magpies in the old supply shed. It told them it was now time to collect its price from the children. It demanded their souls, each and every last one of them!"
Anna was getting really freaked out. She clutched Kristoff's hand tighter and leaned against his arm.
"Nobody knows for sure exactly how it happened, but they could guess. The next day the old supply shed was empty, except for several streaks of dried blood leading to a circle burned into the floor in the exact center of the shed, as if several little people were dragged screaming into a hole straight to Hell. And all the arrows and javelins and tomahawks from the field day supplies were caked with crusts of blood.
"Nobody saw any of the Braves or the Magpies ever again."
The campers were deathly silent, several of them clinging to each other in horror. Anna was trembling and thoroughly wrapped around Kristoff's arm.
"But it wasn't enough. Years later the Demon Trickster wanted more souls. So it came back to Wandering Oaken's, looking for more naughty children to trick. Some say it's still here, searching for souls to steal…"
CTHUNK! CTHUNK! Two tomahawks suddenly sprouted from the woodpile next to the campfire!
The campers shrieked, yelling at the top of their lungs as they bolted from the campfire ring and out of the clearing, screaming all the way back to their cabins.
Sven and Merida howled with laughter, standing up from where they threw the tomahawks from the shadows. "Oh geez that never gets old!" Merida cackled.
"Guess we better go chase them down and get them to bed," Kairi giggled.
"In a minute," Sven smiled, elbowing her in the side and pointing. There, still on the log, were Anna and Kristoff. Anna had completely wound herself around Kristoff, her face buried in his chest. He had his arms wrapped tightly around her and his face pressed to the top of her head.
Kristoff noticed the silence and looked up to see the three other leaders with huge knowing grins on their faces. Kristoff looked down at the trembling Anna in his lap and blushed a hundred different shades of red.
But he didn't let go.