A/N: A little thing for Halloween. I hope you all like it!

Title: Ghost Story
Summary: Anna tells a horror story while the party is camping in the Graveyard.
Rating: K+
Warnings: People turning into trees
Genre: Friendship/Horror/Humor
World: EBF4


A small campfire crackled in between the leafless branches of the Graveyard. Four long shadows stretched away, dancing in the flickering light. Shapes flitted in the darkness beyond the glowing circle. Occasionally, a pair of gleaming eyes would pause to observe the four friends sitting around the fire, but nothing dared approach them.

"And that was it: no more meat," Matt said in a low creepy voice.

Lance snorted from across the fire, "That had to be the least frightening ghost-story I have ever heard."

"Natz said nothing too scary," Matt said defensively.

"Natz is a wuss," Lance scoffed, "Although I guess at least yours was original. Her tale was about our Beholder fight last adventure." He ducked a small rock the mage threw his way.

"That fight was scary!" Natalie exclaimed with a pout, "Besides, you didn't tell a tale at all!"

"I am going last," Lance said in a superior tone, "My story is guaranteed to make everyone here too scared to sleep.

Matt glanced over at Anna with an excited grin, "Then I guess it's your turn, Anna!"

The ranger grinned and opened her mouth only to be cut off by Lance. "I don't want to hear about littering giving rise to evil shrubs," the gunner griped, "Anna's story is going to bore me to sleep before I can tell mine, I just know it."

"Like I would tell a stupid thing like that," Anna snapped. She looked around the campfire at her three friends, "I don't even need to make up some terrifying monster to make you all too scared to shut your eyes. I have a true story about the disappearance of a large group of people in this very graveyard."

Lance and Matt grinned in interest as Natalie whimpered and hid her face in her hands. Anna pitched her voice to a low rasp and began her tale.

"Once, a large party of adventurers came to this graveyard seeking access to an ancient crypt. Legends told of an undead monster that guarded a trove of treasure and they had come to slay the creature and loot the tomb. They entered the graveyard at dawn armed with gleaming weapons and armor and carrying many torches to light the way. The people of Whitefall begged them not to enter, saying that no-one who went in ever came back out. The party leader scoffed at their warnings, boasting that nothing in here could ever defeat all of them."

Matt interrupted the ranger to ask, "Did they ever get the loot? Is it still here for us to nab?"

"She said they disappeared, remember?" Natalie reminded him, "It's probably still here if there was ever actually any treasure to begin with."

Lance barely spared the pair a glance as he asked Anna, "How many were actually in this 'large party'?"

The ranger huffed, "It was like twenty guys or something. Can I get back to my story now?" She eyed the other three and continued when they nodded with sheepish grins.

"Anyway, it seemed at first that their boasts were true. All day, nothing they fought could even scratch their armor. When night fell they opted to keep walking, reasoning that with all of their torches they had no need to fear the darkness. They walked single file with three torches lit; one for the leader to hold, one for a man in the middle, and one for the man at the end. They trekked through the darkness, only stopping when a fog rose up, obscuring their sight too much to continue." The ranger's voice fell ominously, "When they gathered together again, it was discovered that two of their party had vanished."

"They probably got lost in the fog," Lance scoffed.

Anna glanced over at him with a slight nod, "That was exactly what the others thought. They figured that when the sun rose and burned away the fog, they could search for the missing members. The next morning, they gathered up their supplies and made a brief search of the area, but couldn't find the missing men. The leader urged his party on, stating that they must have gotten turned around and heading back. The trail through the graveyard is almost completely straight, after all. Reluctantly, the others agreed and the quest continued. They followed the same pattern the next day and night; traveling until a fog rose at night and sleeping until dawn. Another two men were lost that day and it was discovered that it was always the men in the darkest parts of the line. They decided that they would light more torches during the night to be safe."

Matt frowned, "So what? Were they actually getting lost, or was there something here picking them off?"

"Never mind that," Lance snorted, "Why didn't they just decide to travel by daylight? Seems like the obvious solution to me."

Natalie gave a small laugh, "That wasn't the tune you were singing when we decided to stop for the night. It took Anna commenting on the weird trees to get you to agree."

"Hey, those trees were staring at me," Lance exclaimed defensively, "I don't want to walk through this place wasting ammo on stumps!"

"Guys!" Anna border-line shouted in irritation, "Can I please finish my story sometime tonight?" The other three shut up and she gave an irate huff.

"Thank you. Now then, the next night everyone in the party got one torch and it was discovered that the next day that the light kept their members from getting lost. Elated that they had found a solution, the party traveled even longer the next night. Unfortunately, their supply of torches began to dwindle as they passed the turn to enter Greenwood. Some members began to request they leave while they still had light, but their leader said no. He told them that if they wanted to go back, they could make the journey on their own, but he wasn't sparing any torches for them. Five members chose to try and make it home on their own. With their party reduced to eleven members, the leader claimed that they could travel even further each day because of the diminished cost of torches required to light their way. The very next day, they came across the turn leading to Greenwood Village. Puzzled, the party stopped. They had passed this very spot they day before and were baffled trying to figure out how they had looped around on a straight path. They looked around the area to be sure and the only difference was a cluster of five new trees."

Lance and Matt gaped at the ranger with wide eyes while Natalie let out a pathetic whimper. Anna's teeth flashed in the firelight as she gave them an evil grin.

"I can see you're beginning to see where this is going," Anna said in a darkly amused tone, "Some of the remaining party members came to the same conclusion—their friends had turned into twisted trees with eerie holes resembling faces. Their leader scoffed and claimed that people turning into stumps was ridiculous. He cajoled the others into continuing on, saying that as long as they stuck together, nothing would happen. That night, while they walked, their attention was so focused on the darkness around them that they didn't notice they were burning their last torches. It was only when the center man's torch spluttered out that they realized the danger they were in. The man huddled close to another person's torch and they carried on walking; they couldn't stop without any light after all. A few hours later, when nothing happened to the man with the dead torch, he began to walk slightly further away from the group." Anna paused and inwardly grinned as the other three leaned closer, begging silently for her to continue. "Suddenly, the man gave a gasp and scratched at his arm. He claimed he felt something itching under his skin and no matter how hard he scratched, it wouldn't go away. The others scoffed at him, claiming he must be feeling a nervous sweat breaking out. The man gave another choked gasp and froze in place. Before the others' horrified eyes, his arms and legs began to twist and extend. His skin became rough brown bark and his feet grew into the ground as roots. The man's mouth gaped wide in a silent scream of terror. In a few terrifying seconds, a tree stood where once there had been a human."

Lance and Matt felt their throats go dry and they glanced at a nearby tree marked with a frozen face of horror. Natalie buried her head in her knees and gave a muffled cry of terror. Lance began to scratch nervously at an itch on his arm and sweat beaded on his brow as he wondered if he was turning into a tree.

Anna's voice was barely more than a whisper as she continued her tale, "The other's panicked and began to run. Even the leader fled from the sight. They raced through the darkness and one by one their torches went out and another man was claimed by the graveyard. Soon the sky began to lighten as sunrise drew near, only two members of the party were left—the leader and a mage. Just before the sun broke the tree line, the leader's torch went out. Immediately, his body twisted and became another lost soul trapped forever in wood. The mage screamed and ran faster and faster. He blurred through the rest of the graveyard, seeing dozens of trees with fixed expressions of horror, and knew exactly what happened to people who went in and why they never came out. He kept sprinting throughout the whole day and just as night began to fall, he spied the snow drifts of Whitefall Town. Sobbing with relief and joy, the man dove through the snow, slipping and sliding all the way to the inn. He told his tale and from that point on, people knew why none ever returned from the graveyard. The captured souls of the lost remain trapped in the trees forever; unable to rest, unable to be cured or saved."

A large branch in the campfire snapped and collapsed, sending up a shower of sparks at the story's conclusion.

Matt shivered and glanced at the nearby tree again. He licked his dry lips a few times to wet them before asking, "So, uh, why are we here if we're at risk of turning into trees?"

Anna grinned, "You wanted to loot the tombs, didn't you? Don't tell me my story scared you so much you want to quit?"

"I think I'm transforming," Lance moaned, "My arm itches and it won't stop."

Natalie began breathing rapidly and Matt stared at the gunner in horror.

The ranger burst out laughing, "You aren't turning into a tree, Lance; it's all in your head."

"How do you know? You've never turned into a tree before!" Lance cried scratching at his arm furiously.

"Stop that, you're going to rub your skin clean off," Anna scolded him, reaching over and grabbing the gunner's wrist. "First off, I know because it's a fairly common thing to have happen around Greenwood and I know what the causes are." She grinned as Lance stopped twitching to stare at her with hope in his eyes. "You have to be lost and have no light source for it to happen. That's why I insisted we stop as soon as the sun started setting and made sure we have plenty of wood to burn for the whole night."

Matt heaved a massive sigh of relief and relaxed only to jump as Natalie suddenly passed out. He laughed at the mage and gathered her up to lay on her bedroll by the fire. The swordsman turned to Lance with a grin, "So, do you want to top her story?"

"I can't," Lance admitted, "I've never heard anything as terrifying as that; especially since it's true. I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight."

"Or any other night while we're here," Matt agreed.

The ranger beamed, "Score! I win the ghost-story contest! Natalie passed out, Lance thought he was turning into a tree, and Matt is too scared to sleep." She grinned evilly, "I have more for next time, too." She turned and crawled into her own bedroll.

"Next time, Anna doesn't get a turn," Lance muttered to Matt. The swordsman nodded vigorously and the pair resigned themselves to a long, sleepless night of constant vigilance.


A/N: And there you go! I don't know how many of you find this sort of thing terrifying, but I for one would hate to suddenly turn into a tree. Happy early Halloween/All Hallow's Eve/Hollantide/Oiche Samhain!