Campfire Tales

by esdiferente

A quick, silly one shot about the gang returning to Gobblers End for a Hallowe'en 2009 camp out. Sort of AU, set between s3 and 4 I guess and probably very silly. Written to have a bit of fun for the witching hour and a bit differente -:

"Campfire Tales."

Disclaimer – I still own nothing but a large amount of debt and an unquestionable lack of anything resembling talent. Certainly nothing to do with Skins, (shame, 'cause I really wish I did!)

Premise – Just an excuse to recount some old campfire stories for Hallowe'en really, focussing on Naomi and Emily (or no one would read this lol) but it's really a quick short story about the gang returning to Gobblers End for a Hallowe'en campout!

Rating – M+ I doubt I'll use it but what the heck better safe than complained at yes?

Warnings – Hey it's still set in the Skins universe so there are might well be adult themes and acts as well as bad language from the start and throughout. If you're offended by these then don't read.

Authors Note – OK so here goes, a bit of silly fun for the witching hour, not part of my Dragons saga, (though I couldn't resist giving it a bit of a mention) and fiddles a bit with the S4 timing, (so get over it already!). Basically an imagining what could have happened if bits of S4 happened after the Hallowe'en Weekend 2009 - though as you'll see at least one bit happened before. If you want to think of it as a prequel to Dragons, because you're not bothered about the canon breaks, then I for one won't be bothered, after all they're the same characters aren't they?

Hell Es, call it AU and quit worrying (-: BTW, trying writing in the third person here, not sure if I like it or even if I've done it any justice...feel free to tell me if it's rubbish. I do know it's bloody hard work!

All the 'scary' stories are legendary ones, apart from one which I've wrote myself, (it's probably the least scary therefore and should be obvious).

Hope you find it fun anyway, I'll shut up now. Joyous Samhain my brethren, may Winter treat you kindly and may Spring find you well and whole. Happy New Year!

.

.

.

"I don't know what I'm doing here," Naomi complained to her girlfriend as they trudged through the fallen leaves; their damp brown shapes sticking to her boots. It was a lie, she knew why she was there; but it didn't stop her wanting to complain about it.

"It'll be fun, come on," Emily replied tugging on her sleeve and dragging her down the muddy path.

Naomi wasn't convinced, it was freezing cold, winter having arrived earlier than ever this year, and she was losing the feeling of her toes in the purple Doc Martins she was wearing. If she was going to be honest about the whole thing she'd rather have spent her Saturday curled up in bed with Emily, perhaps poking her head out of the duvet occasionally to smoke a cigarette…hopefully a well earned one.

Instead, she thought glumly, she was trudging through a dark wood towards a familiar little glade, one where they had camped out before, on a night where many things had gone wrong.

"I just want you to know I'm not having fun Ems, it's fucking freezing today. I may never forgive you for dragging me out of bed for this."

Emily grinned as she pulled Naomi along, she was used to her girlfriends grumbling reluctance, she knew for a fact that she'd enjoy herself once they got settled, she just needed a bit of encouragement that was all. Ignoring the knowing looks from their friends she dragged Naomi behind a convenient tree and wrapped her arms around the taller girl.

"Aw babe, do you need me to warm you up?" she said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss the frown from the blonde's face.

"I was warm enough this morning Em, I didn't really want to move."

"So why did you then?"

"Because you made me Ems," Naomi replied to the question, "as you very well know. I don't think I'll forgive you for the emotional blackmail as well."

Emily smiled, she knew exactly how to make Naomi do the things she wanted her to do; in fact she knew precisely what tone of voice to use and what facial expression to put on to make Naomi forgive her anything almost immediately. This wasn't the time for that though, not a time for making her feel guilty, they were supposed to be having fun.

"I'm sure I can get you to forgive me babe," she said, nuzzling into Naomi's neck, "once I've got you all warmed up anyway."

She slipped her hands under the bottom of Naomi's padded jacket, and slid them up her back; her fingers tracing the route of her spine as she did so. Her girlfriend shivered as she dragged her nails further up her back, exposing her to the cold Autumn air; but she didn't pull away, in fact Naomi just held her tighter.

"For fucks sake you two, put a fucking stopper in it. I would like to get to the campsite before it gets fucking dark!"

The raspy voice of an angry Katie Fitch echoed off the tall trees as she disappeared down the path without them. Naomi just rolled her eyes and pulled Emily in even closer to her.

"If she thinks I'm sharing a tent with her tonight, she's got another thing coming. I'll probably suffocate her in her sleep!"

"She's sharing with Effy and Panda for some reason babe so don't worry. I've got you all to myself."

"Katie's sharing with Effy, are you fucking serious? I thought they hated each other."

Emily just laughed at that, "They do babe, but I pointed out to Katie that it was bunk up with you and me, Thomas and JJ, Effy and Panda or the boys. I'm not sure she fancied sleeping with Cook and JJ though she probably thought about making another play for Freds. Effy didn't seem bothered, I thought she'd want to share with Freddie, but apparently not."

"Well after last time I hope that she clears away any rocks, just in case."

"Not funny babe."

"I wasn't trying to be funny."

Emily looked up at her girl and pulled a face, her hands slipping from Naomi's back to intertwine themselves in her fingers.

"Come on you, I guess we need to go and catch them up."

"One second hun," Naomi said prising her fingers from Emily's vice like grip and wrapping them into her hair, preventing her movement. "I thought you were supposed to be warming me up."

She leaned her head down to Emily's and their lips met eagerly, their tongues dancing as they kissed.

"Nice one girls, need someone to join in?" the coarse voice of Cook interrupted them causing them to break apart smiling and shaking their heads at the untimely interruption.

"Fuck off Cook," they said in tandem, well used to his comments. It had actually been good for them Emily reflected as they both flipped him off and he wandered way laughing. Cook's constant comments whenever they were together had actually helped strengthen Naomi's resolve around others. The looks and comments they received occasionally from their more ignorant or unkind college 'mates' were nothing to the crude obscenities that Cook often threw at them, albeit good naturedly, and Naomi and even Emily herself had learned to allow them all to just wash over them.

Cook, despite being a lewd twat, had actually done them both some good. Who would have thought it?

"Come on then, if I've got to stay here tonight then we should set up the tent before it gets dark."

"Yes Ma'am," Emily replied, grinning and pulling herself up to her full height and saluting smartly.

"Oh stop that stumpy, let's go, everything once...or twice in this case."

o+o+o

The campsite was almost exactly as they remembered it. The circle of rocks in the centre of the glade was dark and scorched, barren of the life that usually filled woodland clearings; a legacy of the many people that had, like them, ignored the 'No Fires' warning on the entrance to Gobblers End.

"Right," Katie shouted over the sounds of playing about as the gang dropped their rucksacks and started messing about, "we need to get set up and find some dry wood for the fire."

She looked about at the madcap antics, Cook had rugby tackled JJ and was attempting to stuff the damp leaves into his jumper. Naomi and Emily were spinning around in circles, their arms crossed before letting go of each other, falling to the floor dizzy and giggling, crawling on top each other and rolling around like lovesick teenagers. Effy was stood to one side watching everyone, her cigarette fixed to her lips. Katie put her hands on her hips to show her frustration.

"Is anyone listening to me?" she shouted angrily.

"I don't think so Katiekins," Naomi said as Emily threw herself onto her, "does anyone ever listen to you?"

"Fuck off Campbell, just because you're shagging my sister it doesn't give you any special privileges, anything but in fact. Get off your fat arse and get your tent up before we lose the light. COOK, stop twatting about and put your tent up, then go and find us some dry wood for the fire. JJ, Freddie go with him and make sure he does it. Effy give me a hand putting our tent up ok? Panda, just...I don't know, help Thomas and then the pair of you can go and find some wood as well. "

It didn't take long for their makeshift camp to be erected, the only point of argument was how far apart the tents should be. Katie wanted her tent to be far away from her sisters because she didn't want to;

"Spend the night with my fingers in my ears to drown out the sound of you two shagging."

Cook had wanted to put his tent right next to the girls for quite the opposite reason. Eventually they settled on arranging their tents around the fire in a circle and within half an hour everything was done.

Despite Katie's urging Cook had ignored the order to find dry wood and as the evening drew on the gang wandered around dragging back as much wood as they could in order to get their campfire lit. Back in the camp Katie was running around like a Queen Bee, barking out orders as the wood came back. She busied herself stacking up the wood into a pile and lighting matches in order to light the pyre.

"I don't think you light a fire like that Katie, "Effy said from the gloom, the red tip of her cigarette the only thing that was visible.

"I know how to light a fire Effy, thank you very much, I was in the Guides you know."

"Just saying," came the reply. Despite their time together in Venice the wounds hadn't healed between them. Physically there were no marks left on Katie, but psychologically both girls were still bleeding. Part of Katie was sorry that Effy had ever come back."

"Fucking thing," Katie exclaimed as her tenth match flickered and went out with not even a glimpse of fire, "The wood's too fucking wet, stupid bastards keep bringing me wet wood."

"It is ok Katie, I shall sort it," Thomas said, appearing by her side and startling her. "There is a knack to lighting fires like this."

"Fine," Katie snapped, walking away from the fire and back to her tent, "You sort it out then smart arse, I tell you the wood is too wet."

Thomas smiled at her retreating back and began removing the wood from the cleared ground and piling it up next to him. Carefully he began reconstructing the firewood, covering some dry leaves and paper with small dry twigs. By the time the gang had reappeared the fire was burning brightly and the logs that he had placed next to the small fire were steaming slightly and starting to catch.

"Nice one Thomas, it's freezing out there." Freddie said dragging a folding chair out of his bag and placing it next to the fire.

"Don't just sit there Freddie, give me a hand with these," Katie called, hovering over the portable barbeques that they had brought with them to cook on. "Let's get these burgers going or it'll be midnight before we eat."

Their little camp descended into a scene of domesticity, Thomas gently building the fire up until it's light penetrated to the very edges of the glade; it's yellow warmth making the place feel more homely. Katie and Freddie were hovering over the food, flipping the burgers and drinking from the bottles of booze they had brought with them. Cook and JJ chiding them over their cooking as they did so. Overall it was a happy little scene, so different from last time.

Finally, the last two members of their gang reappeared from the darkness of the woods.

"Where the fuck have you two been?" Katie shouted on seeing the girls huddling by the fire.

"Er, getting wood," Naomi offered holding up a single, pathetic branch as an offering.

"I bet Naomikins," Cook yelled, across the fire. "I'm getting wood just thinking about it."

"We got lost," Emily exclaimed as everyone looked across at her dishevelled state and laughed, Katie specifically looking her up and down disgustedly; obviously not believing her explanation for their tardiness.

"I fell over!" she said weakly in an attempt to explain why they both looked like they had been dragged through a hedge backwards; the gang just laughed knowingly at her, well everyone except Katie. Even Naomi started sniggering at her excuse before sniffing, tossing her branch onto the fire and running her hands through Emily's hair as she wandered to their tent, smoothing it down. She grabbed a bottle of cheap vodka from her bag and took a swig on her way back to the fire, handing it over to a grateful redhead as she sat down again.

"Kind of takes you back eh Ems?" she asked quietly as they sat warming their feet by the fire. "You know, drinking vodka by an open fire."

"Yeah," Emily replied, snuggling into the side of the blonde, screwing the cap on the bottle and passing it back. "This fire's better than ours was…and we kind of got the order the wrong way round this time you know?"

Naomi just raised her eyebrows at her causing them to smile uncontrollably.

"What order was that Emily?" Panda asked loudly from her spot next to Thomas.

"It's not important Panda," Naomi said hurriedly, wiping the stupid grin from her face; "it's just a private joke."

"Oh right," Pandora said, changing subject in an instant, "this is whizzer fun isn't it? Great fire Tommo."

"Thank you Panda," he replied adding yet another of the steaming logs to the pile, "If we tend it carefully it will keep us warm well into the night."

"I don't need a fire for that Tommo, I've got you to keep me warm, until bedtime that is. Then I've got Effy and Katie to do that," she finished brightly.

"Well, can this conversation get any more cloying?" Effy said appearing behind Panda, a spliff dangling from her fingers. "What are we planning to do this evening anyway. Sit around the fire and get pissed?"

"It's Hallowe'en Eff, we should tell scary stories, you know like they do in the movies; it'll be well wicked here in the dark."

"Fucking hell Panda if that isn't the best thing to come out of your mouth since my dick; fucking great idea. Booze, drugs and scary stories, first one to scream has to strip naked and run around the fire."

"Fuck Off Cook," every girl in the camp shouted simultaneously.

"That's decided then," said Freddie taking a hit from his joint. "We'll have some food, then sit around and tell scary stories until the witches come and get us."

"Or the poachers," Katie added sliding a burger onto a bun. "Who wants a burger then?"

The gang descended on the barbeques like a hoard of locusts and within seconds the coals were bare. Cook had to be forcibly restrained from stealing more than his share with Katie complaining that he hadn't subbed in for the purchases anyway.

"Yeah babe, but I brought the dessert didn't I?" He said holding up a plastic wrapper filled with white powder. "Uncle Keith scores again, fucking great this stuff. Guaranteed to get a party started, none for you though Jaykins; not suitable for the loony brigade…perhaps you should avoid it too Effy."

The last bit was delivered with a bitter barb in his voice and the rest of the gang winced and waited for the response.

"It's ok Cook, I've got enough of my own to keep me amused, haven't I Freddie babes?"

The air was thick with tension as the ex-lovers faced off, before Freddie wrapped his arms around Effy's waist and led her away gently.

"Do you have to be a prick all the time Cook?" Naomi said, scowling at him.

"She picked the funsponge over the Cookiemonster babe, she's got to be fucking loopy. Who the fuck would want to downgrade that far."

"Jesus Cook, fucks sake."

Naomi shook her head and headed back to the fire, Emily tagging along behind her. Cook shook his head at her retreating back and stuffed his burger into his mouth in one go, resulting in a retching sound from Katie.

"Jesus Cook, you're a fucking animal," she spat, "Don't fucking ruin this evening Cook, not a-fucking-gain."

He grinned at her and gave a thumbs up, Cook didn't care what Katie "prissy knickers" Fitch thought about him; and he didn't really care if he ruined their fucking evening. Cookie didn't care about anything and he didn't care about anyone, not any more anyway. That's just how it was.

Eventually though that would have to change, even he knew that; but that was a thought for another day, certainly not a thought for a gloomy Hallowe'en in an allegedly haunted wood. Now all he needed were these people, some booze and some drugs and the night would start with a bang.

o+o+o

The night drew in around the woodland and the moon rose brightly, bathing the glade in an eerie silver light. Coupled with the torches that the gang held and the flickering of the firelight it made for a perfect Hallowe'en. All of the gang had happily taken Cook's drugs and they were dancing and screaming and howling at the moon as the initial buzz of Uncle Keith's pharmaceutical products carried them into that endless euphoria that was a chemical high. All the gang that was except for Naomi Campbell, who had passed on the powder and found herself alone and isolated by the drugged up people she was with. She wondered if she should have joined in, even Emily had happily ingested the powder, but for one very good reason she didn't want to get high tonight; Naomi Campbell had a secret that she couldn't share with anyone, not this time. This time she wouldn't let it slip out in a drink and drug fuelled bout of honesty, she wouldn't make another slip of the tongue because Cook pissed her off.

'Hallow-fucking-e'en', Naomi thought to herself later, as she sat by the fire with a 'coming-down' Emily curled up against her. 'Could we get any more clichéd? Sitting around a fire planning to tell scary stories. What are we fucking American?'

Hallowe'en, she knew, was a festival that went back into antiquity; back into the pagan times before Christianity was even dreamt up. Samhain it was called back then, the Summers End Festival, the end of light and the beginning of the darkness that was to come. A time to take stock, celebrate the gifts that Summer had brought and prepare for the darkness that was Winter; hoping that they would survive the Winter cold. Well it felt to Naomi like Winter now, not fucking Autumn; and more often than not Naomi wondered if she would survive her Winter as well.

Ever since they'd gone back to college it had felt like Winter to her, a Winters cold that was warmed only by the red head that snuggled next to her. Emily had the ability to shine like the sun and melt her heart, and take away her fears; but she also had the ability to drive a shard of ice as big as she was into it as well.

The early days had been good, both of them still loved up and able to deal with the looks and the laughter; neither of them bothered as they walked through the halls of college hand in hand. As time went on, however it had begun to fall apart. Not because of the comments, Naomi was surprised to find, well not the comments from others anyway.

No, it was the things that Emily said and Emily did that was causing her the problems. Talk about gap years, trips away to exotic places and plans to work all year to raise the money to fund it. It was stifling, constrictive and it was killing her.

It wasn't the thought of being with Emily that was the problem, it was the thought of giving up all of her dreams for Emily. It was the thought of what she would do or say when Naomi told her that a gap year wasn't what she wanted, or at least told her that she wanted the ability to choose what she wanted to do, to have a say in Emily's carefully mapped out idea of what they were supposed to be.

She loved her, she knew that; despite everything that she had ever done she knew that she had always loved Emily Fitch, but actually being with Emily and what that was doing to her, well it was tearing her apart.

'Hallow-fucking-e'en,' she thought again; watching as the others still cavorted around the fire. Perhaps that was it, her dark thoughts were nothing but manifestations of the time of year; the presence of the closeness of the witching hour.

The fact that she felt like Emily was shovelling dirt onto her coffin had nothing to do with it; the thought that she had been burying her alive ever since that night in Keith's pub, the quiz where Emily had stopped her going to an open day with a broken voice and a tear in her eye.

'I don't know what I'm doing here,' she thought to herself; remembering her words from before. 'I really fucking don't'; but for the second time that night, she knew it was a lie

"Trick or treat babe?" Emily said from beside her, her voice cutting through the gloom like a spotlight, her eyes still dilated from the drugs she had taken.

"I guess it'll have to be a then trick hun, I think we did treat before." Emily blushed in the firelight and then giggled and pulled herself tighter into Naomi's arm.

"You called my bluff then babe; I don't have any tricks for you Naoms, only treats."

"What makes you think I want either Emily Fitch," she joked back desperate to lift her mood. "Besides, trick or treat is an appalling travesty of ancient rituals you know?"

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," she said warming to her subject, not realising that some of the gang were listening in. "In the middle ages and even into the later centuries children used to knock on doors and offer to say prayers for the dead on All Hallows Day to ease their pain in the afterlife, begging for food in return for their prayers. All the masks and dressing up is even older, that's pagan," she sniffed, "Celtic, if I remember rightly, people used to dress as evil spirits to copy them, or to placate them so they would be left alone on the day when the two worlds collided; the real world and the other world that is. Fucks sake, even the pumpkins people carve is based on something ancient, something that's long forgotten; the ancients used to carve turnips on Samhain to ward off evil spirits. Everything now is so false, so commercialised" she paused in her rant and sniffed contemptuously. "We've lost our fucking history in the name of plastic throwaway toys created in sweatshops in the Far East; and big fucking business making millions. It's so fucking sad to see, and no-one gets it...they're all just caught up in the commercialisation."

"Fucks sake Campbell, how is it you even know that shit? You're such a fucking dyke loser." Katie yelled from where she had been listening on the other side of the fire.

"Because I read, Katie…books and stuff." Naomi reacted angrily to her taunt. "You might have heard of them, but if you want; one day I'll introduce you to them properly."

"Fuck you Campbell, I've read books!"

"Yes hun, but seeing as you graduated from 'Run Spot Run' to fucking gossip magazines about two-bit talentless slappers like Jordan; I'm sure your education is distinctly lacking Katiekins," she said, still riled by the original insult, and Katie's attitude towards her when they were supposed to be holding a truce for Emily's sake. Just because she knew things, she reasoned, didn't make her a loser; and just because she was sleeping with Emily didn't make her a dyke. Naomi Campbell hated labels, especially ones that served no purpose other than to insult and hurt.

"Easy babe, calm down. Don't let her wind you up." Emily said softly squeezing her arm. "I'm impressed Naoms," she said a lot louder, her voice carrying even over to Freddie and Effy on the opposite side of the fire. "You know an awful lot don't you?"

Naomi smiled involuntarily, both at the praise from her girlfriend and the fact that, once again, she was standing up for her, for them, in front of her sister. Emily had travelled a long and dangerous road in the last few months of her young life; travelled a lot further than Naomi herself had.

"It's what you get growing up with a bunch of New Agers Ems," she said taking a swig from their bottle. "You get your head filled with a whole host of unnecessary shit. You think coming here is radical, seriously hun, you haven't seen Hallowe'en until you've seen a hundred drugged up aging hippies dancing naked around a bonfire in Wiltshire!"

"Dancing naked around the fire! Nice one Blondie, I told you I'm well up for that." Cook shouted, standing up and pulling off his jacket and shirt; throwing them to the floor with a burlesque flourish. "Come on you losers, let's get naked."

He ended his impromptu striptease by howling into the sky at the moon and beating his hands against his chest as everyone looked at him in amusement.

"Cook," Effy drawled from her seat on Freddie's lap, "No-one wants to see your tiny cock tonight, and we told you before, no-one is dancing naked around the fire; least of all, any of the girls here. Now put your clothes on before someone is sick; there's a good boy."

He made as if he was going to say something, before uncharacteristically biting his lip and turning away. Naomi watched it all with interest and said nothing. She liked Cook, they'd gotten close over the summer, during the indeterminable weeks that had passed while Emily was away with her family. Sure he was a tit, but he meant well, and once you got past his barriers, got past the false bravado that ruled his life, he was actually quite a loyal and sensitive guy; one she was sort of proud to call a friend, even if he did annoy the tits off her at times.

It was a shame that the whole love triangles thing he had gotten involved in had isolated him so much. Effy and Panda, best friends and he had fucked both of them, fucked them and fucked them over; casting himself in the middle of them and Freddie and Thomas. Five out of the nine of them were trapped in bitterness and rivalry, and Naomi was glad she had stopped herself from getting caught up in it all, just to spite Emily; just to fuck one more boy to see if it would take her feelings for her away.

It was a mess; a giant, terrible mess he couldn't seem to stop stirring. Naomi had spotted Thomas' murderous look earlier when he'd spoken to Panda, she just hoped that the night wouldn't become a sad mirror of the last time they'd been here; the last thing they needed was someone else ending up in hospital.

o+o+o

The darkness was now total as ominous clouds filled the sky, the threat of rain looming. The once bright moon was now obscured in the sky, it's last vestiges of light little more than a shimmering halo to the dark clouds as they rolled past. All in all it was the perfect night for telling tall tales around the roaring fire, the copious quantities of alcohol being consumed was definitely helping as well.

"So who's going first?" Panda asked the group.

"Who's going first what Panda?" Emily asked from where she was laying, feet by the fire, head firmly planted on Naomi's lap.

"Scary stories Em remember? It'll be brilliant, totally bonkers."

"I don't know any scary stories Panda," the redhead replied sitting up to look at the excited girl, her pigtails jiggling as she bounced where she sat. "I don't even like them!"

"Well then you don't have to tell one then do you, but come on. Someone must have a story to tell."

"I've got one", drawled Effy laconically from her spot by the fireside, "I'll go first."

"Nice one Eff, whizzer!" Pandora said enthusiastically, "go on then tell us!"

"Well," Effy started; sitting up and staring across the fire, her blue eyes intense. "This is a story I heard when I was a small girl; my grandfather told me it and he swore blind that it was true. It was about a girl called Jane that used to live in the next village along from his when he was a boy.

This girl, Jane, well she wore a yellow ribbon around her neck every day; and I mean every single day, rain or shine, whether it matched her outfit or not. Wherever she went, school, church, everywhere she wore that yellow ribbon and no one ever saw her without it."

She paused for a second, taking a draw of her cigarette before continuing, making sure the gang were listening. She knew it wasn't a true story but that wasn't the point, it was all in the delivery and Effy knew how to make things mysterious; knew how to keep people hanging on her every word.

"Now the yellow ribbon Jane wore began to annoy her best friend James after a while. He was her next door neighbour and had known Jane since she was three. When he was young, he had barely noticed the yellow ribbon, but now they were in middle school together, it bothered him.

"Why do you wear that yellow ribbon around your neck, Jane?" he'd ask her; he'd ask her the same question each and every day, over and over again. But every time he asked she would just smile mysteriously and refuse to tell him.

Still, in spite of this aggravation, James thought she was cute, he'd fancied her for years and he was beginning to get the urges that come with growing up. One day James plucked up the courage to ask Jane out on a date and to his surprise she agreed, despite the fact that she was obviously out of his league…if it wasn't for the mysterious yellow ribbon. Their first date was simple, he asked her to the local café for tea and cakes and then they went for a walk in the local woods. Then he asked her to watch him play for the village football team in their annual game against my grandfathers village. When spring finally arrived, he asked her to the village fete and the traditional spring dance that followed. Jane always said yes when he asked her out; and she always wore a yellow dress to match the yellow ribbon around her neck.

It finally occurred to James that he and Jane were no longer just dating; that they were serious about each other. They had been dating for months, seeing no one else but each other, and he still didn't know why she wore the yellow ribbon around her neck. So he asked her about it yet again, and yet again she refused to tell him. "Maybe someday I'll tell you about it," she'd reply. Someday! That answer annoyed James, but he shrugged it off, because Jane was so cute and fun to be with.

Well, time flew past, as it has a habit of doing, and one summers day James proposed to Jane and was stunned when she said yes. They planned a big wedding, and Jane hinted that she might tell him about the yellow ribbon around her neck on their wedding day. But somehow, what with the preparations and his beautiful bride, and the lovely reception, James never got around to asking Jane about the yellow ribbon, and when he did remember, she got a bit teary-eyed, and said: "We are so happy together, what difference does it make?" and James decided she was right.

James and Jane raised a family of four beautiful children, three girls and a boy. They had the usual family ups and downs; and they shared both laughter and tears. Many years later when their golden anniversary rolled around, James once again asked Jane about the yellow ribbon around her neck. It was the first time he'd brought it up since the week before their wedding. Whenever their children asked him about it, he'd always hushed them, and somehow none of the kids had dared ask their mother about it. When he asked, Jane gave Johnny a sad look and said: "James, you've waited this long. You can wait a while longer."

It was not until Jane was on her death bed a year later that James, seeing his last chance slip away, asked Jane one final time about the yellow ribbon she wore around her neck. She shook her head a bit at his persistence, and then said with a sad smile: "Okay James, you can go ahead and untie it."

Effy paused at the critical moment, holding the rapt attention of the little group. You could hear nothing but the cracking of the fire in the little glade and Effy knew that she'd succeeded; that everyone, even Cook, was hanging on her every word. She took one more drag on her cigarette, holding the suspense before she tossed the butt into the fire and began again.

"With shaking hands," she said, lowering her voice so the others had to strain to hear her, "James fumbled for the knot and slowly and carefully untied the yellow ribbon from around his wife's neck and slipped it free…

…and Jane's head fell off."

It was at that moment that a log in the fire decided to give off a loud bang causing everyone to jump, and there was a loud squeal from the other side of the fire. Effy looked up to see a terrified looking Emily, pounding on her girlfriends arm as she giggled away at her.

"Fucking nice story Effy, head fell off…fucking brilliant that is."

There was a general round of agreement from the gang and Effy allowed herself a brief feeling of satisfaction before lighting up another cigarette and slumping back against Freddie.

o+o+o

"I have a story," Thomas spoke up. As everyone turned to look at him he drew himself up in his chair and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders dramatically; pulling it across his chest and holding it like a robe.

"I have a story," he said, "one that has been passed down for generations in my tribe in the Congo and I swear that it is true. In my village there is a tale of an evil creature that lives in the woods, it is called the Dodo by my people and it is nothing like the extinct bird that you may have heard of.

The dodo is the spirit of a dead man that needs to feed on the flesh of the living in order to sustain its cursed existence. Legend says that the dodo is a shape shifter being able to change from the shape of a man to any animal it wants, but it hunts in the form of a snake because as everyone knows the snake has the best sense of smell.

One day in my village, long ago, two boys called Mani and Lumumba were practicing the hunt. Their one goal in life was to be accepted as warriors and to hunt and fight for the village; not for them was the life of peace, cultivating the crops and tending the goats. Mani and Lumumba were bold adventurers and they wanted nothing more than to be seen as the brightest and best amongst their peers by their chief.

Now on this fateful day, Mani and Lumumba were in the forest that bordered their village perfecting their hunting skills ready for their tribes selection day, when the young boys would be chosen for their roles in society. They were carefully tracking the spoor of a giant forest hog when they heard the noise of a Kudu behind them. "What was that?" said Mani softly, turning and holding up his bow to see a pair of eyes staring back at him. "It was nothing worthy of our hunt," replied his friend hefting his spears. "Come, let us continue."

The two friends tracked their way through the forest, going deeper and deeper until they were lost in the darkness. The trail of their prey was fresh and they knew that they were close to their prize. Mani though, was nervous; he had never been so far into the forest before and his imagination was running wild. All of the tales that his grandmother had told him about the evil spirits that lived in the forest were running through his head; and as they got deeper and deeper into the forest his bravery fled from him like a cheetah, and his fear took a grip of his soul.

Wherever he turned he saw the eyes of animals staring back at him, first as a bushbuck who stared at him before bounding away into the trees; next he noticed a wood dove, staring down at him from the branches of a tree, but it too flew away as soon as he looked at it. Finally, he saw the eyes of a snake boring into his as it wrapped itself around a nearby tree, its tongue tasting the air hungrily.

His fear consumed him and he dropped his bow, hands fumbling for the haft of the knife he kept in his belt. He ran from the spot where he stood, not knowing where he ran to, just knowing that he needed to run from the shape shifter that was hunting him. As he ran he failed to see the tree root that caught his foot and he was sent sprawling onto the forest floor. He struggled to his feet and to his horror he felt cold hands upon him and, panicking, he drew his knife and struck.

To his horror he realised his mistake as he stared into the accusing eyes of his friend as he died; in the blink of an eye and the swift moment of a hand, Lumumba was no more.

Mani had realised his mistake as soon as he had struck, he was not being stalked by the Dodo, he was just young and scared and now he had killed his best friend. Carefully he laid the body onto the floor and thought of a way to hide his mistake forever.

Mani returned to his village late that night, he claimed that he knew nothing of Lumumba's whereabouts, telling everyone that they had gone their separate ways in the forest during their hunt; and that he had returned expecting to see him by the fire, his bright eyes shining as he would regale him with the story of his success. For days he kept his silence as the village elders fretted and searched the forest. Mani went with them, carefully steering them in the opposite direction to the one they had really taken; steering them away from the leaf covered body he had left for the forest animals to dispose of.

It was weeks later when Lumumba's body was found, barely a skeleton, the flesh stripped by the creatures that lived in the darkness. The consensus was that he had been killed by one of the forest cats, an ignoble death for a hunter; taken by the prey he sought.

Lumumba's body was carried back to the village and he was buried alongside his family, so his spirit could rest with that of his ancestors. Mani cried and wailed with the rest of the tribe as they laid the body to rest, but secretly he was relieved that his secret shame was finally buried.

It was a month later when Mani was selected to join the tribes warriors, his pride knew no bounds as they marked him with the paint signifying his rank of apprentice warrior and he began his initiation to prove his worth. Mani was sent far into the dark forest to perform the ritual of the hunt on his own and bring back the greatest prize he could to prove that he deserved the honour; forbidden from returning until he had succeeded in his quest.

It was after the first night that he spent in the forest he realised that he was in trouble. When he woke in the morning he found his long lost bow lying next to him, the feather of a wood dove wrapped in the string. Involuntarily his fear began to rise again.

When he awoke after the second night he found one of Lumumba's spears propped next to him, driven into the ground between his feet; and his fear consumed him. He forgot about the hunt and watched the forests carefully for the hunter that stalked him, playing with him like a cat. The third night of his ordeal Mani could not sleep, he lay in his makeshift bed and shivered, waiting for whatever was stalking him, hunting him, to appear; his hand cradling his knife

That was how the hunters found him a week later, his body propped up against a tree his lifeless eyes staring into space as they had when he died; the flesh chewed from his bones apart from his head which was left inviolate.

The curious thing, the hunters concluded, was that his body showed no evidence of being eaten by animals, "it was as if he had eaten the flesh from his own body," they reported to their elders, who nodded knowingly and asked no more.

The elders were not even surprised when Mani was buried, at their family's requests next to that of his boyhood friend, that when Lumumba's cloth covered body was exposed they found Mani's knife resting over the corpse's chest. The elders knew the truth and dreaded what was likely to come and what it would mean for their people.

Trying to avert disaster they made warding signs against evil and placed them on top of the bodies, and buried them both with many gifts to placate their vengeful spirits. They then closed the grave and never spoke of what they had seen again. Relenting only that one person would carry the story forward, so that later generations knew the dangers of the Dodo that stalked their hunters in those woods.

It is said amongst my people that Mani still hunts with Lumumba, in the depths of the forest where both of them died at the hands of one another. It is said that they wait there still, hunting a different prey; hiding in the shapes of the creatures they killed, waiting for the unwary hunter to fall into their trap and feed their unearthly hunger.

'Chasseurs de diable' they are known as in my village to this day; devil hunters, and still we are scared of them.

That is my story, and I believe it to be true."

Thomas released the blanket and relaxed back into his seat to be smothered in kisses by his enthusiastic girlfriend.

"Great story Tommo, really scary," she said before whispering, "it isn't true is it?"

"I do not know, my Panda," he replied smiling, "It is perhaps just a story, a legend that has been passed through my tribe for years. It may be true, but I am not sure.

What I do know is, even now, when my family venture into the woods that are near to our home we never do so alone; and we are always wary. Some stories may well be true and it does not pay to be careless."

Panda looked up at him with doubt in her eyes and he leaned down and kissed her on the tip of her nose.

"Do not worry about it Panda, Mani and Lumumba, if they ever existed, are far, far from here. I think that these woods will be safe, even for us, tonight."

o+o+o

Katie sat by the fire and looked across at Emily and the blonde girl that had taken her sister from her. She'd come to terms with it a little over the summer, but it still hurt that there was someone else in Emily's life. It wasn't right, Emily was hers, that's just the way it was; or the way it had been before Naomi.

As she looked across at them she barely acknowledged the joy in her sisters eyes, didn't really note how self assured and happy she was; she only really noticed that she was over there, with the lezzer, instead of being here with her.

In truth Katie was lonely; it wasn't a feeling that she was used to and she didn't like it and she still resented Naomi for instigating this feeling. As she looked across at her rival for Emily's affections she dragged up a memory of something she had read, something that she knew she could use; a scary story that would work in her favour instead of just being something to laugh at.

"I've got a story," she said, causing the gang to quieten down and focus on her. Katie loved being the centre of attention and consciously she preened herself as she puffed herself up to begin; holding her torch under her face to light it up.

"This is something I read on the internet, I think it was on the BBC or something, but it was about a girl in America. Something terrible happened to a 17-year-old girl who had braids, braids that wrapped around her head tightly."

She couldn't help a knowing glance at Naomi, and smiled to herself as she noticed everyone else do the same, Emily included.

"The girl wasn't very clean, she dressed like a pauper and she came from a broken home and a mother that cared more for her friends than she did for her daughter. From what I read the braids the girl habitually wore were old, she'd had them in for at least 2 to 3 months and the girl never took them down to wash them or let them air out or anything. She just left them in, her hair getting dirtier and dirtier and greasier and greasier along with her scruffy, charity shop clothes."

Naomi fidgeted where she sat, staring daggers across at her; Katie smiled sweetly and continued.

"Anyway, the scruffy little girl began to complain to her mother about having a headache. She complained and complained for about two weeks, but her mother just brushed it off, assuming that she had just hit her head against the wall or something; or that she'd been hit by one of the people she went to school with for being a tramp. She didn't really care because her daughter was always complaining about something; 'she was a bit of a whiner', her mother thought.

Well, one morning the girl complained to her mother again about her head hurting when she was having breakfast and getting ready for school. Again, the mother ignored her, because she was on the phone to one of her cronies and she was far more interested in others than in the complaints of her own daughter. When the girl got to school, she told one of her classmates, because she didn't really have any friends, that her head was hurting. She told her that it was itching badly and she couldn't stop scratching; scratching and scratching at the pain that she had, that wouldn't go away."

Katie smiled evilly as Naomi's hand involuntarily went to her own braids and began scratching; she was amused that a few of the others around the fireside, Freddie included, were doing the same, scratching their heads from the itch that they imagined was there.

"Anyway," she continued in her best, most serious voice, "her classmate assumed that the braids were too tight in the scruffy girl's hair and attempted to let the braids down. When she removed the hair piece and finally let the braids loose, she found a large spider nestled in the girl's dirty hair. From what I read, it turns out that the spider had laid her eggs in the girl's hair and the thousands of baby spiders, starving for food, were eating away at her scalp. The pain she had been suffering for all those weeks was the pain of the spiders eating away at her dirty flesh, getting bigger and bigger as they fed on her skull. Well the girls classmate screamed and fled from the horror; but she found a teacher and finally she told the story. The teacher rushed to find the girl, but she'd run away. They found her two days later lying unconscious in a local wood, her head bleeding from the thousands and thousands of bites that had stripped her skull almost to the bone. She was rushed to the hospital, where later she died."

Katie sat back and revelled in the silence, watching as the gang sat slack mouthed and horrified, still scratching at their heads.

"Urban legend," sniffed Naomi, ignoring the look of horror Emily was giving her, her eyes fixed on her hair. "Spiders don't eat live flesh like that, so it can't be true. You've been had Katie."

"Well that's what I read on the BBC website Campbell; how long have you had those braids in by the way?"

"Fuck you Katiekins."

"No chance lezzer, I've got better taste than my sister."

Naomi's angry retort was swiftly diverted by Emily whispering in her ear before kissing her on the lips. To Katie's disgust, as they broke apart, Naomi just grinned and winked over at her; taking a swig from her bottle of vodka and passing it to Emily. 'Sometimes,' Katie thought, 'the best laid plans do go astray;' and she made a note to interrogate Emily as to what she had said to the lezzer about her as soon as she could.

o+o+o

Thomas interrupted the story telling to get up and rebuild the fire that had begun to die, lending a cold chill to the night air. Sensing his opportunity JJ decided to take a moment in the spotlight, a spotlight he normally neither sought out or wanted.

"There's a story I heard when I was on holiday in Yorkshire," he said watching as Thomas carefully fed logs onto the fire. "Well I say I was in Yorkshire, but really we were on a trip around the North of England and it just happened to be in Yorkshire when I heard this story; but you don't need to know that do you but I was simply trying to be honest when I introduced what I was going to say but..."

"JJ, JJ! Mate, you're locking on again," Freddie said looking over at the curly headed boy that, rather obtusely, had become one of his best friends. "Calm down and tell the story mate ok? Take a breath."

JJ breathed carefully, lowering the beating of his racing heart and stared into the flames of the fire, dredging up the tale from the depths of his capacious memory.

"A couple of years ago," he said, "there was a young couple that were returning home from a trip to Scotland in the dead of winter. They were driving home in their car, and were somewhere near York when the weather closed in and there was a mighty storm. They got caught in a blizzard and the roads became so treacherous they knew they would have to seek shelter for the night or risk crashing in the driving snow.

The husband spotted a light through the trees and turned their car into a small lane leading up a hill. A pleasant little house stood at the crest, lit up by the lights in the windows that could only be seen through gaps in the blizzard. As they pulled up to the house they were met by an old man and his wife who were waiting at the door, presumably having seen their lights as they had driven up the narrow lane.

They were dressed in their nightclothes and it was obvious that they about to turn in, but they welcomed the travellers and offered them the use of their spare room for the night. The old woman bustled about, insisting on making tea and offering freshly-baked cakes whiles the old man stoked up the fire to warm them after their wintery ordeal. Finally, with their new guests warm and fed, the old couple showed their visitors up to their room. The husband wanted to pay the old couple for their lodgings, but the old lady shook her head and the old man refused any payment for such a small service to the beleaguered couple."

JJ Paused and looked up from the fire at the people he called his friends, "Is this any good, he asked the gang. "I'm not sure if this is what's meant by a scary story."

"JJ it's fine," Emily said from her spot. "Carry on with the story already will you?"

JJ took comfort at Emily's words, she had always been nice to him, even when they'd, well...especially then. With one more set of breathing exercises to steady his nerves he continued his tale.

"So, this couple, they spent a quiet night in the large soft bed and woke up early feeling fantastically rested. Noticing that the storm had died in the night they tiptoed out of the house through the fresh snow, not wanting to wake their hosts having already disturbed them once. Before they left the wife placed two crisp twenty pound notes in the centre of the kitchen table; underneath a salt cellar where the old couple could not miss it when they came down for breakfast. The husband cleaned the snow from the car, and they set off again; driving slowly and carefully on the snow covered roads. They had only travelled a few miles before they drove into a village called Shipton where they decided to stop and have breakfast.

The husband mentioned the nice old couple to the owner of the restaurant and the man turned deathly pale as if he had seen a ghost walk in through the front door.

"Where did you say that house was?" he asked. Patiently the husband described what he remembered of the location in detail.

"You must be mistaken," said the restaurant owner. "That house was destroyed five years ago today by a fire that killed the Brown family. The Fire Brigade said that they had built up their fire too high during the night and a log had fallen from the hearth sometime in the morning setting the place alight."

"I don't believe it," the husband said flatly. "Mr. and Mrs. Brown were alive and well last night, and we have only just left their house and it was fine when we left, a lovely little house it was as well."

After debating for a few more minutes, the couple and the restaurant owner drove back out of town towards the old Brown place. They turned into the lane, which was overgrown with weeds, and climbed the snow covered hill to the crest. There they found the burned out shell of a house that had obviously not sheltered anyone for a long time, the nights snow piled up in all the burnt out rooms, open to the elements.

"I must have missed the track," said the husband. "We've obviously come to the wrong house that's all."

At his words his wife gave a terrified scream and fainted dead away into his arms. As he caught her, the husband looked into the ruin and saw a burnt kitchen table with a crisp twenty pound note, unblemished by fire, sitting underneath a smoke damaged salt cellar."

There was a short bout of silence before Cook's raucous laugh echoed around the silent woods.

"Fucking JJ, you call that scary man, that's fucking lame."

"Shut up Cook," Effy responded quickly, "Haven't seen you try to tell a story yet."

"Yeah, it was a good one JJ," Freddie said, causing Cook to scoff. "No come on Cook it was a good story, you sat there and listened to it so it can't have been bad. Anyway, it's my turn to tell a story."

The gang looked across at Freddie, he wasn't usually one to speak up. He wasn't shy, far from that; but he was taciturn, preferring the company of small groups, like the three musketeers, as they called themselves, rather than crowds. He, for example, would never have run for student president; Freddie simply didn't see the point.

However tonight he was here with his friends in a place he knew all too well. It was a little embarrassing really and he had been cagily avoiding Katie all evening, remembering what he did here that last time, and how much it had hurt her. Physically and emotionally. He avoided her searching eyes even now as he raised his voice to speak, focusing on Cook and JJ; aiming his story at them.

"I heard this story about a guy called Tom, Tom was a good-looking guy who liked the ladies, like really liked the ladies; and the ladies really liked Tom. Once he'd shagged all the available girls where he lived, and a few that strictly weren't available, he started seeing a girl in the next town. What Tom didn't know was that she was married, very, very married in fact.

They had been carrying on for a few weeks when eventually her husband got wind of what was going on and vowed revenge on the two of them. He told his wife he was going out of town for a few days on business, driving away in his company car like he had done so often before. This time though, the husband turned his car around on the outskirts of town and drove back towards his house by a different route. He parked his car far down the street and waited to see if his suspicions were true.

As he'd suspected, that evening Tom showed up to take the lady out; and the husband followed Tom and his wife to the nearby Lovers' Lane, a quiet little wood that everyone knew was where you went if you wanted some privacy.

Things were getting pretty hot and heavy, if you know what I mean, in the car; when all of a sudden, to the surprise of the cheating couple, the door was jerked open and Tom came face-to-face with one very huge, very angry-looking dude wielding a huge, wicked looking hunting knife.

"Oh no!" screamed the girl who had started all the trouble in the first place by not telling him the truth about her relationship. "It's my husband!""

Freddie felt his face flush as he caught a glimpse of Katie's eyes boring into his.

'fucking typical' he thought, 'the only fucking story I can think of right now and it's the lame one about a couple cheating on someone in the woods, fuck I'm a loser'

He felt a delicate hand grab his arm and continued his story, Effy's subtle hint all he needed to forget about Katie...again.

""That's right, you cheating bitch!" yelled her husband. "And I'm about to teach you a lesson you'll never forget!" He dragged her off Tom, rammed the knife into her stomach once, twice, three times and tossed her aside, leaving her to die from her wounds. Then he turned back to Tom, grinning maniacally.

"Don't hurt me!" Tom begged. "I swear to God I didn't know she was married!" But the wronged husband didn't listen; or if he did he no longer cared. He dragged Tom out of the car and beat him until he could no longer stand; and when Tom finally collapsed to his knees he took a careful grip on his hunting knife and slowly, and methodically, skinned Tom alive.

When it was over, and Tom's screams were no more than distant echoes in the deserted woods, the husband walked back to his car, drove back into town and turned himself in to the Police; still covered in blood and bits of Tom's flesh. When the Police arrived at the crime scene, however, they found the woman, who was miraculously clinging to life despite her wounds. But Tom was nowhere to be found.

They say he's still hanging around Lovers' Lane; lurking around in the woods waiting to catch an unmarried couple and 'teach' them the same lesson his girlfriend's husband taught him. He's described as a bloody skeleton in '80s clothes, carrying the knife he himself was skinned with. All the teenagers around there grow up hearing "Don't go to Lovers' Lane if you don't want to be Skinned Tom's next victim!"

"Nice one Freds," Effy said as he finished his story and sat back; ignoring the muttered comment from Katie that sounded suspiciously like "got what he deserved."

"Yeah, nice one Fredster," Cook agreed, "Hey Naomi, if you and Emily want to slip off into the woods again; I can always come along and watch your back, or your front if you'd like...you know keep Skinned Tom away."

Naomi responded with a delicate finger raised in Cooks general direction. Cook just laughed and clicked his finger attempting to down his can of warm lager in one go, spilling most of it down his shirt.

"What time is it babe?" a small voice from Naomi's lap asked. Emily had been quiet for the last hour or so, booze, some MDMA, a shared spliff and a crackling fire seeming to take it out of the usually active red head.

"It's a little after ten hun, still early. You ok?" she asked, getting a nod and a questioning look as a response.

"You've been quiet hun, I'm not used to it." she joked, gaining her no reply from her girlfriend.

"What's up Ems, she asked quietly, running her fingers gently across the small girls face; enjoying the feeling as Emily pushed her cheek into her hand as she stroked.

"Fucking Cook and Katie have pissed me off, that's all," she replied; but her eyes told Naomi of the lie; her eyes were so expressive, Naomi thought, they told her everything Emily was feeling. Holding her lovers hand, Naomi stared down into the deep brown eyes she loved so much, but scared her to the depths of her soul.

"Come on Ems, tell me the truth, no one can hear you."

Emily stared up at her before responding; taking a quick breath she said, "I hate fucking scary stories ok? Fucking Katie used to make me watch horror films and shit like that when we were younger and I'd always have nightmares and end up screaming the house down; and then she'd laugh at me and call me a baby for being scared."

"Well I assure you of this Emily," Naomi said, stroking her girlfriends face, before allowing her hand to run down her body; smiling as she felt her shiver under her touch, "if you scream the place down tonight it will be for all the right reasons. I'm here and I won't let anything harm you, not even a nightmare. I'll scare them away simply with my presence."

"Promise," Emily asked holding out her right hand with her little finger crooked out.

"Promise," Naomi replied, hooking Emily's outstretched finger with her own. "and if I lie I will eat a thousand needles."

"Katie will probably make you the soup hun," Emily replied breaking the hold and stroking Naomi's face with the back of her hand.

"Probably."

o+o+o

Apart from Emily, who had decided not to participate, and Cook who had simply laughed at the idea; there were only two people left around the fire that hadn't told a story yet. Panda and Naomi; Naomi was engrossed in chat with Emily and Pandora didn't need telling twice. She'd been patiently memorising her story ever since she'd heard they were going to do Hallowe'en camping, because telling scary stories seemed the perfect thing to do. She was practically bouncing on her blanket with anticipation when Thomas nudged her in the side.

"Go on Pandora, tell your story. You are obviously dying to tell us something."

Yeah, I will, thanks Tommo." She replied, stroking his face as he grinned at her. With a serious face Panda held her torch up, bathing her face in the white light, and began to speak. Surprisingly, to all of them in the glade, there were none of the usual mannerisms, not one outrageous expression passed her lips as she began her oration; this was a Pandora Moon that very few had seen before, the one that she usually kept under wraps.

"There were two best friends who shared a flat when they were studying in University. As well as being best friends they were study mates as well, both taking the same science class. The lecturer had just told them about a surprise examination the very next day when one of the girls, let's call her Katie, got asked to the big end of term bash by the hottest guy in their year."

"Naturally," Katie smirked, "goes without saying doesn't it. It's all in the name, I bet she was the best looking one as well."

"The other girl, let's call her Emily just for fun; sorry Ems. Well Emily had pretty much no interest in going to the bash and, being an extremely diligent student, she took notes on what the lecturer said that the exam was likely to be about. After the entire lesson spent flirting and planning her date in her head, Katie was totally unprepared for her test, while Emily was completely prepared for a major study evening with her books.

At the end of the University day, Katie spent hours and hours getting ready for the party, while Emily started studying; scattering her notes and text books all over her bed. Katie tried to get Emily to go to the ball, but Emily was insistent that all she wanted to do was study and pass the exam. The girls were rather close and Katie didn't like leaving Emily alone to be bored while she was out having fun."

"Yeah right," interrupted a sneering voice from the far side of the fire, Emily obviously not agreeing with the parallels being drawn by Pandora's story.

"Anyway," continued Panda relentlessly, not allowing the twins to put her off, "Katie finally gave up, justifying her lack of studious behaviour by saying that she would just cram what she needed to learn in the morning before the exam in the afternoon.

Katie went to the party and had the time of her life with her date, it was perfect. He was hot, she was hot and everyone in the room was pig sick with jealousy. All in all a fabulous night. She headed back to the room she shared around 2 a.m. and decided not to wake Emily. She went to bed still excited about her date, but becoming more nervous about the exam and decided she would wake up early to ask Emily for help.

When the morning came and Katie's alarm clock went off, she got out of bed and went to wake Emily. Emily was lying on her stomach, apparently sound asleep. With a surge of fear at the thought of getting no help with her cramming, Katie rolled Emily over to reveal her terrified face. Katie, concerned, turned on the desk lamp and pulled back the covers that lay on her friend. Emily's study stuff was still open and had blood all over it. Emily had been slaughtered, gutted from chest to crotch and all her insides were missing.

Katie, in horror, fell to the floor; landing in a pool of her best friends blood and looked up to see, written on the wall in dark red blood: "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?"

Panda paused dramatically before switching off her torch, allowing herself to fade dramatically into the darkness. Her pleasure was interrupted by an angry sounding shout from the darkness.

"Fucking hell Panda," Emily complained, her voice slurring as tiredness crept in; "why is it me that has to be the one that gets killed?"

Panda was a bit bemused by her friends protest; "Sorry Emily, it's just a story, I thought it would be more involving if I used you and Katie. You know, you kind of fitted the characters I read about; I thought it would make it totally bonkers if it sounded like you two were in the story."

"Yeah Emsy, what's the problem. Scared of Panda's little story are you? You big baby."

"Enough Katiekins," Naomi interrupted, holding her girlfriend and casually stroking her hair. "It's my turn now, and I've got a great story for you all, especially for you Katie."

Naomi sat up as straight as she could and took a long swig of her vodka, passing the bottle down to Emily when she was done. She was used to public speaking; she never had a problem standing in front of a crowdand giving a speech, with or without a megaphone.

This was different though, this wasn't a speech, this was a story; and as good as she was at one, she was lousy at the other. Lots of people had told her that when she was growing up. Still, she was determined to give them a good story to round off the evening; and she knew just the one. The one that had scared her when she was younger; and one, that with a bit of tweaking could fit a certain twin she despised. This one would be payback for the 'braids' story she knew had been filled with hidden insults about her, her mum, and her somewhat esoteric upbringing.

Clearing her throat she rearranged her thoughts into a cogent story and began.

"A couple of years ago there was a young woman was serving a life sentence in prison for murder. She'd attacked a friend in a secluded wood and had strangled her to death in a fit of jealousy. She never meant it to go that far, but at her trial she had explained that what she had done was perfectly acceptable because of what her friend had done to her. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in a prison far from anywhere, with no benefits, no visitors and no chance of parole. The ultimate punishment for the ultimate crime. As the years drew on and the woman became more and more angry and resentful about her situation, she decided that she couldn't spend her whole life in prison; she would have to escape. She was desperate for freedom, and the little luxuries she missed from her old life like good clothes, expensive shoes and rich men to pay for them all.

She was selfish and shallow and because she thought that her being in prison was a travesty, because she couldn't understand that what she'd done was wrong, she began plotting ways to escape from her incarceration.

The woman saw her opportunity to grasp freedom one day when she was exercising in the prison yard, and decided upon a cunning plan to put her escape attempt into action. Firstly she became good friends with one of the prison caretakers. He was an old man, and well trusted by the guards, having worked at the prison for decades. His job was to bury any prisoners who died, without family to claim them, in a small graveyard just outside the prison walls. Whenever a prisoner died, the old caretaker rang a bell, which was heard by all of the prison inmates.

The caretaker would then get the body and put it into one of the cheap caskets that the prisoners made in their workshops, closing the lid so that none could see the prisoners dead features."

Naomi was warming to her story now, she could feel Emily's tight grip on her hand and could see Katie's angry eyes staring at her, furious at the parallels that she was carefully and deliberately drawing.

"Next, he would go back into his office to fill out the paperwork with the Prison Doctor before returning to the casket to nail the lid shut." she said miming the action of a hammer striking nails as she did so.

Finally, he would put the casket on a small wagon he used to wheel it out to the graveyard and bury it in the cold, dark earth.

Knowing this routine, the woman devised an escape plan and shared it with her new friend the old caretaker. The next time the bell rang, the woman would leave her cell and sneak into the dark room where the coffins were kept. She would slip into the coffin with the dead body while the caretaker was filling out the paperwork; and when the caretaker returned, he would nail the lid shut and take the coffin outside the prison with the woman locked inside with the dead body.

He would then bury the coffin as normal with the woman sealed inside. The woman knew there would be enough air in the coffin for her to breathe, until later in the evening when the caretaker would return to the graveyard under cover of darkness, dig up the coffin, and set her free.

The caretaker was, as you would expect, very reluctant to go along with this plan; but the young woman was very persuasive and was very anxious to escape. She also had very little in the way of morals and the old caretaker spent the next several weeks, while they waited for one of the other prison inmates to die, with a very happy grin on his face from his secret visits to her cell after lights out."

Naomi winked across at Katie, she didn't know if the twin had seen her, but a faint slap on her wrist told her that, without a doubt, Emily had; despite the fact that she thought she had fallen asleep already. She freed her hand from Emily's grasp and took the vodka bottle, unscrewing the cap and taking a swig, as much for dramatic effect as for anything else. Letting out a satisfied sigh, as the cold liquid burned its way down her throat, she capped the bottle once more and reached down to grasp her dozing girlfriends hand once again.

"Then one night," she continued, trying desperately to make her voice as husky as Emily's; "the prisoner was falling asleep in her cell, not long after the caretaker had left, when she heard the death bell ringing. She got up, picked the lock of her cell door, and walked slowly down the hallway. She was nearly caught a couple of times by the guards on patrol and she was terrified that the sound of her heart beating away would draw them to her as she hid.

Eventually she opened the door to the darkened room where the coffins were kept. Quietly, fumbling around in the dark, she found the coffin that contained the dead body and she climbed into it; trying not to scream as the cold, clammy flesh of the corpse pressed against her. Carefully the woman pulled the lid shut to wait for the caretaker to come and nail the lid down.

Sure enough it wasn't long before she heard footsteps and the pounding of the hammer and nails. Even though she was very uncomfortable in the coffin with the dead body beneath her, she knew that as each nail was driven home, she was one step closer to freedom.

The coffin was lifted onto the wagon and taken outside to the graveyard. She could feel the coffin being lowered into the ground. She didn't make a sound as the coffin hit the bottom of the grave with a thud."

Naomi smacked her free hand onto the floor making a dull thud, making more than one person around the fire jump in surprise. She was amused to see both Katie and Cook jump at the sudden noise and pleased to see Emily looking up at her with a faint smirk on her tired face and pride in her heavy eyes.

"Finally," Naomi said, anxious now to end the story and see everyone's reaction, "the woman heard the dirt dropping onto the top of the wooden coffin, and she knew that it was only a matter of time until she would be free at last. After several minutes of absolute silence, she began to chuckle quietly to herself.

Feeling curious, she decided to light a match to find out the identity of the dead prisoner beside her. To her horror, she discovered that she was lying on top of the dead caretaker, his post orgasmic grin fixed firmly on his face."

She finished her story with her eyes fixed on a pair of brown ones, not the ones that she loved, but the ones that she despised. So many years of hurt and pain flashed through her memory as she willed Katie Fitch to understand the point of her story. 'That's right Katie, what goes around comes around, karma in this lifetime, revenge of the Gods.'

Finally, Katie blanched and looked away and into the fire, Naomi saw Effy smirk out of the corner of her eye, but kept her focus firmly on the now cowed Fitch; savouring this smallest of all victories.

Reluctantly dragging her gaze from the defeated Fitch to the one she loved, she smiled and nudged the, once again, dozing girl. "Come on Ems," she said, the love in her voice apparent for all to hear; "wake up, time for bed."

"I'm not sleeping," came the reply, the voice thick and drowsy. "I'm just resting my eyes; I was listening to your story Naoms, honest."

"I know hun," she said, not mentioning the cute little snores her girlfriend had been emitting as she finished her story. Instead she tossed their, nearly empty, bottle of vodka over towards Effy; who grabbed it mid flight and raised it in salute. "But you know it wouldn't bother me if you hadn't, ok?"

Smiling involuntarily she looked up at the rest of the gang.

"Right you lot, I think it's time for me to get this one," she said shuffling her legs to lift Emily slightly, "to bed, before she falls asleep with her feet in the fire. Good night everyone, see you in the morning. Oh and Cook, stay the fuck away from our tent ok, if I hear you sniffing around I'll come out and cut your fucking balls off. It'll be 'Bollockless James', not 'Skinned Tom' generations of teenagers will be scared of if I catch you."

They murmured their goodnights, Cook just laughing at her comment, as Naomi half lifted half dragged Emily to her feet.

"You might as well carry her Campbell, you'll never fucking wake her if she's asleep. Emily could sleep through a fucking earthquake."

"I'm not asleep," came the tired protest, "I just feel like being carried," she whispered to Naomi as she wrapped her arms around her neck. "No one ever carried me to bed when I was tired; they always carried Katie when she asked. I never got a look in, and I always wanted to be carried to bed and tucked up."

Emily's voice tailed off as she spoke, her head lolling against Naomi's shoulder.

Well I'll carry you hun; I'll take you to bed and tuck you in," Naomi said quietly, feeling the twist of her heart at Emily's honest confession.

She meant it as well, and she lifted her girlfriends feet in order to cradle her in her arms. Carefully, as if she were carrying a precious cargo - which in effect she was - Naomi carried Emily the short distance to their tent. She took a moment to smile genuinely at Freddie who had, anticipating their need, leapt up from his space next to Effy and opened the tent door for her.

Carefully she placed the sleeping girl onto their sleeping bags and closed the zipper on the door behind them, isolating them in their nylon cocoon, and trapping those that could hurt them outside. She slowly pulled Emily's outer clothes off her and slipped her into the warmth of her bag, tucking her in carefully. Moving quickly against the cold air of the tent, she removed her own clothes and jumping into her sleeping bag, before zipping the two of them together as they had planned.

"Naomi?" A faint voice murmured as she wrapped her arms around the red headed figure that lay to her left, snuggling up tightly to her lover.

"Yes hun?"

"Will you do me a favour before you go to sleep?" the slurred voice asked

"If I can love, what do you need?"

"Will you take out your braids, please, just in case. For me?"

The response brought a smile to Naomi's face and she sat herself up in the tent, braving the cold air. She put her hands to her head and unpicked the loose braids that she knew Emily normally loved her wearing. Absently, as she did so, she wondered if Katie's little story would change that; thinking it would be sad if the nasty little story affected them in any way.

"All done hun, all out now and nothing to report. All clean here." Naomi smiled as she shook out her hair and snuggled back down with Emily again; savouring the warmth that their two bodies shared.

"Good, thanks babe, sorry for being a baby," the voice, dulled with sleep, replied. Emily was almost gone. But, being as stubborn as she was; she wanted to get everything on her mind said before she succumbed to sleeps embrace. After nearly four months together, nearly four months of stolen nights shared only when Emily could escape the madness that was the Fitch house, Naomi was pretty much used to it.

"I'm going to miss you in collage on Monday," she continued, "it's a shame that your mum couldn't have gone to visit her friends in London on her own."

"I know hun, I'll miss you too, but it's only for a day. I'll see you on Tuesday morning as usual."

The words almost stuck in her throat; she hated lying to Emily but she was caught up in a tangled web of evasions. Ever since that pub quiz, the one where Emily had pressured her into not going to the open day for Yale, she felt trapped. Naomi felt caged by Emily's love for her, as well as being freed by it. She was a different person now, she knew that; Emily had changed her. She had become the kind of person that would go on camping trips with 'friends', tell horror stories around a campfire; and the kind of person that would carry her sleeping girlfriend to bed.

Oh yes, she was a different person all right, nothing could change that; but she was also the same. The same scared little girl that she'd always been; the one that became selfish and unfeeling because she had to, because she needed to in order to survive the emotional turmoil that was her life.

"Goodnight Naoms, I love you."

The final surrender to sleep, the very last words Emily ever said to Naomi when they were together in bed. Words that echoed ones that she had said to Naomi on a blanket beside a lake, when she had finally succumbed to sleep. Words that then had gnawed at Naomi, sparking her fear, causing her to run when the morning light finally came.

Goodnight Ems, I love you too," she said, this time not needing to run, but instead needing more than anything to explain why fear was consuming her again. Instead she placed a soft kiss on the back of Emily's neck, just where it met her skull, and spoke again, knowing she was really asleep.

"I love you more than anything hun, don't forget it will you?"

An apology for the lie, the lie that Emily was convinced was true. Naomi loved Emily, she knew that she truly loved her with everything she had; so much so she was losing her own identity in this strange conjoined creation that was "them" or "us".

In truth, Naomi knew that she loved her too much.

She got no response to her heartfelt plea, no response but the soft, familiar breathing of a sleeping Emily. Naomi just lay there and listened; she heard the comforting sound of her girlfriends breathing, she heard the sounds of the gang teasing each other as they separated and headed for their own tents, and she heard the inner roar of her dragons, hammering away at her soul.

'I don't know what I'm doing here' she thought for the third and final time that day; and this time when she thought it, it was the truth. She really didn't know what she was doing, or why she had lied about what she had planned for Monday.

As she drifted off to sleep, her head buried in the thick red blanket of Emily's hair; Naomi Campbell dreamed of the open day she had repeatedly lied to her girlfriend about. She dreamt about her longing for the wonders of University life, for studying in London and everything that would symbolise for her future. Her promising future, the one where she would make a difference in this sad, pathetic little world.

As she slept with a contented smile on her face, Saturday night turned inexorably into Sunday morning; and, as the sun rose on the little collection of tents and the now dying embers of their fire, Naomi slept on content. She was totally unaware of what Monday would bring, and the true horror story her life was about to descend into.

.

.

.

fin