True to his word, there were only a few songs – and luckily for Ian's sanity, they were fairly short and not repeated over and over and over. When the last chorus of Coming Around the Mountain died out, Gary stood up again, and took the place in front of the fire while the guitar players left to put their instruments back in their cases.
"Okay, campers!" Gary told them. "You have ten minutes to run down to your cabins and get ready for bed – make sure you go to the bathroom now, because we don't want any accidents in the middle of the night."
The kids all laughed, and with the counselors leading the way with flashlights in the dark field, they all went down to their cabins, where they brushed their teeth and changed into their pajamas – although River told their boys to keep their sweatshirts, since he didn't want any of them to catch a chill. After making sure everyone went to the bathroom – whether they needed to or not – they headed back up to the fire, talking excitedly, but more silently than before. Obviously the day was beginning to catch up with them, because they weren't nearly as energetic as before. Which was the whole idea, right?
Once they were all gathered together again and sitting in the grass around one side of the fire, Gary went back to the front of them.
"Okay, kids! Time for a story…"
He didn't give them an option to listen or not, but Hines knew it wasn't going to be a spooky one so he wasn't worried about any of them not liking it.
"Out in the middle of nowhere, on this dark deserted road there was a hotel. Everyone that lived in the area said that the hotel was haunted…"
A couple of the kids drew their sweatshirts up over their eyes – as if that was going to make it any less scary. Gary smiled, and continued.
"No matter what those people said, though, there was always someone – some poor soul out traveling – that would have to stop for the night. And they'd end up staying at that hotel."
Ian felt Sammy scoot just a little closer to him, until the two were hip to hip, but when he looked down, the boy was watching Gary with an excited grin, not at all worried about being frightened.
"So one night, a guy comes in. And he tells the innkeeper he'd like a room. The innkeeper says, 'all we have left is the attic, and it's haunted.' But the guy doesn't care. He's tired and really wants to get some sleep. 'I'll take it,' he says. So he goes up to the attic, and gets ready for bed, and is juuust about to sleep, when he hears this deep scary voice. 'I am the ghost with the one black eye…' The guy get so scared, he jumps out of bed, pulls on his clothes and gets in his car and drives off."
The kids grinned at that, but Gary wasn't finished with the story. He went on to tell how two more salesmen came to the same hotel the next two nights, and they too, were forced to stay in the haunted attic. And each time they would hear 'I am the ghost with the one black eye…' and they become sacred and leave the hotel that very night.
"So then, the next night, this old woman comes into the hotel," Gary said. "She was at least 90, and had a cane and everything, and she told the innkeeper she needed a room for the night. And the innkeeper said that all he had was the attic – and it was haunted. But the old woman shrugged, and said she was tired and needed some sleep – she'd take it. So she goes upstairs, gets ready for bed, and is juuuust about asleep when she hears a deep voice; 'I am the ghost with the one black eye…' Instead of getting scared like the others, she sits up in bed, and reaches for her cane, and yells back 'Hush up and let me sleep, or you're going to be the ghost with two black eyes'."
The kids loved it. They giggled at the image and those that had been afraid of hearing a scary story realized that it wasn't so bad, after all. Gary gave them a minute or two to laugh, and then held up his hands for silence – which he received instantly.
"Now it's a counselor's turn. Hank?"
Surprised at being called up, Hank nonetheless stood – to the cheers of his boys – and went up to the front of the 'fire'.
"Okay, I got one," he said. The campers hushed, immediately, watching eagerly. "There was a lone cabin in the center of a dark and deserted wood. And everyone just knew it was haunted, because they said you could hear a voice in the middle of the night coming from the cabin – and nobody lived there…"
The kids leaned forward, enthralled.
"So these three boys were bragging to their friends about just how brave they were, and they said that they were going to spend the night there – just to prove it."
Ian heard Chance take a sharp breath at that from the other side of him.
"So, one night – on a dark moonless night like tonight – the three boys went to the little cabin and opened the door and went inside. The first boy went into the kitchen, and just as he was about to turn on the light, he heard a voice… 'When I get you I'm going to eat you…' He got so scared, he jumped out the window and ran home without even telling his friends he was leaving."
The kids laughed, a little nervously, since some of them weren't all that sure that this was going to be a funny story like Gary's had been.
"So the second boy says that he wonders where their friend is, and he goes into the kitchen. Just as he was ready to turn on the light, he hears 'When I get you, I'm going to eat you…' He gets scared, and jumps out the window and runs home – without telling his friend he was leaving."
The kids were silent, caught up in the story.
"So the third boy starts wondering where his friends are, and he, too, heads into the kitchen. Just as he's about to turn on the light, he hears 'When I get you I'm going to eat you…' and he turns on the light and sees a little kid sitting there, picking his nose."
There was a slight pause as they figure it out, and then a lot of ewwwws and grosses and groans at the awful ending. Hank grinned.
"I never said it was a good one," he told them, and he sat back down in his vacated spot, while the kids around him pretended to throw up.
Smiling, Gary stood up once more.
"All right. Ian?"
Surprised, Ian looked up.
"Yeah?"
"Your turn."
Ian frowned.
"I don't know any scary stories."
The campers closest to him start pushing on him, encouraging him to get up and tell them a story, too. Even those who hadn't been enthusiastic about stories instead of singing were all getting into the swing of things, now, and they were eager for Ian to tell them another funny scary story.
"Come on, Ian," Hank said from close by. "I did it. You can, too."
"No, really…" Ian said. "I don't-"
"Come on, Ian," Ann said, a challenge in her expression. "Scare us."
The kids roared their agreement. They wanted to hear another story.
Reluctantly, Ian stood up, and the kids cheered – especially the ones from Australia. Moving to the front of the group, Ian was well aware that he was poorly equipped for this assignment, and tried once more, looking at Gary.
"I don't know any-"
"Just do your best," Gary said, smiling. He started to slap him on the back, remembered Ian's sunburn at the last minute and didn't. Instead, he sat down, and the kids all watched Ian expectantly.
He racked his brains, thinking of something scary, and finally shrugged.
"A long time ago, in another gala- in this very area… there was an ancie- old race of people."
His voice wasn't the best for story telling. He didn't change pitch or tone like the others had, he just told the story. But his voice was level and his dark gaze in te light of the fake campfire gave him a slightly sinister look that added to the story he was telling.
"These people were great folks. Peaceful when they could be, and friendly to those around them. They lived and prospered for several millennium."
The kids were silent, watching.
"Then… all of the sudden, a new enemy came into being. These beings weren't human. They weren't friendly and they weren't peaceful. They were pale, with horrible faces, and when they attacked, they came at those people in the night, sending shadows through the forest to distract them so they could come right up to them without being seen. These creatures called themselves the Wraith, and the people believed them to be ghosts, because they only saw the specters in the forest – and none of those who first came in contact with them lived to say otherwise."
Now the silence around the imaginary fire was deafening. The kids were watching with wide, terrified eyes, but Ian didn't notice the difference from how they'd been watching before.
"The Wraith didn't eat what normal people eat," Ian said. "They fed on people – but not like you and I eat meat. Instead, they'd take their hand, and press it against their victims' chest-" he gestured with his own hand against his chest, showing them what he meant. "It would suck the life out of a person, leaving them a dried, empty husk, and that person would die – painfully, and horribly. The humans didn't have any defense against the Wraith. They'd never seen anything like them before, and the shadows that they sent through the forests to distract their prey always fooled them. The Wraith fed on the humans for several years, and then suddenly vanished without a trace. The humans that were left thought the Wraith had left for good, but they were wrong. They weren't gone. They were just hibernating for a while. They were waiting for the humans to forget about them, and for the humans to reproduce and grow in numbers once more so they could wake and feed on them again."
There was absolute silence when Ian finished this story. None of the kids cheered, or laughed, or giggled. All of them were watching him in various degrees of horror as they waited for the happy ending that they were sure was to come. And they weren't the only ones. The counselors, too, were waiting.
Ian went back over to his spot and sat down, and Gary, pale and a little wild-eyed himself, stood up and cleared his throat.
"Um… bedtime, I think."
There weren't any protests. The kids had had more than enough stories for the night, and there wasn't a sound as they all got up and headed for their tents, many of them casting fearful glances at the dark woods around them and then moving to walk closer to their counselors.