After all the stress of the past few weeks, it was now time for Dollface to let off some steam. It was mid-June and they hadn't even had a chance to get together like this since last August!
She checked her alarm clock in the dark, the glowing red numbers telling her it was just past midnight. The snoring down the short hallway said that Gramma and Grampa were asleep. Dollface smirked, the shine behind her eyes a silent nod of approval as she sat up in bed, fully dressed.
She tiptoed in socked feet past a sleeping Regina on the bottom bunk of a hurriedly built bunk bed, across the carpet and onto the floorboards, boots tied and hanging around her neck by the laces. She pulled her black cami up and made sure her baggie cast-off fatigues from Grampa were still tight around her waist as she pulled the bag of snacks bought from Dairy Park out of their hiding place in the closet.
She shouldered them, her copy of the house key in her back pocket attached to a teddy bear keyring, along with tonight's good luck charm, a pack of gum from Germany.
She checked her bag, firestarters and flashlight secured with a bag of Backer's potato chips.
Dollface tiptoed down the hall, house settling under her feet. She looked at the closed door behind her, wishing she could bring her upright bass.
She was soon outside and put her boots on, tightly tying her laces as fireflies rose from the grass around her.
Ready Dollie-Gurl?
Dollface cracked her knuckles, drawstring bag on her back and front door securely locked behind her.
Ready as ever.
Dollface flew on her feet, feeling light as a feather as she ran past buildings, soon out of range of the few streetlights Elmore had to guide travelers.
She stopped, unable to adjust to the dark and fished a mag-light out of her bag, treading lighter as Michael played lookout.
And finally, she was at the clearing in the woods, the lonely midnight train blaring past somewhere near the river.
The highway was further away now, far from where she'd met Michael, but somewhere just as important and familiar.
"Dollface!" She could hear a hiss, "Ya made it!"
"Ya know I wouldn't!" Dollface hissed back, crouching through the bushes and grabbing some sticks.
"Ya got th'starters?"
"Yeah!" Dollface dropped her bag to the ground, already digging out the firestarters she'd made in the basement from sawdust and wax the week before.
"Hell yeah!" Dolli Mae, the whisperer, took it and tossed it on the beginnings of a beautiful bonfire. Dollface slapped the matches into the dwarf's tanned hand.
And soon the faces of all the guests were illuminated in the blaze, all grinning.
Wolfie looked to all the faces, Dolli Mae, Vinnie, Princess, Lily, Izzy, Dollface, as well as Thorne and String Bean, respectively, and howled, "Let's fuckin' Party!"
And after eating junk food and drinking sodas, (except for Dollface, who hated the taste of soda most of the time) and getting rowdy with guitars, Lily's banjo and Wolfie's hand drums, they settled down around the dying embers of the bonfire.
Dollface cleaned a stick with a pocket knife once there was silence, stars and ashes glimmering in the velvet night, and began, "Y'all ever heard o'Mr. Widemouth?"
Princess groaned, "Dollllfaaaace!"
"C'mon, what'll it hurt?" Dollface teased, "Do ya have any better?"
"I got one." Thorne finally spoke up, "Long Horse."
"He's just a big snake with a funny head." Wolfie dismissed, "That's nothin' on Jeff th'Killer!"
"Well, I think ya guys suck!" Dolli Mae butted in from where she was sitting in Vinnie's lap, "Everyone knows that Joey Drews is still locked up in there! I bet he'd been livin' off'o beans and ink."
"Dude, he'd be like, a million years old!" String Bean shot back, "C'mon, lemme talk 'bout th'Smile Room. I saw it once!"
"How? If ya did, ya'd be dead!" Dollface retorted, "'Sides, it's MY turn, my birthday's comin' up! An'I wanna tell th'stories this time."
Soon, the girls were fighting over what story to recount around the fire, Michael silently rolling his eyes at all of them.
"I bet nothing can top the tale of La Llorona." Vinnie quietly interjected.
They all turned to look at him, "It's kinda basic and everyone knows it, but it's easy to remember."
"I-is it scary?" Izzy asked, the only one to not have put her two-cents in.
"Yeah."
"I think I've heard of it." Dollface said. A train rumbled past in the silence.
Dollface handed the first stick to Izzy, who had the marshmallows and chocolate. She grabbed the next stick and began prepping it with her knife.
"La Llorona was a woman who fell in love with a rich ranchero." Vinnie started, accent becoming just a little more prominent when he realized he had an audience, "And she was as foolish as she was, uh, what's the word?"
"Pretty?"
"Yeah, we'll go with that." Vinnie said, the two languages often getting mixed up, "And the ranchero had an affair with her, and she thought he loved her. Again, not the brightest girl in the world."
Wolfie nodded, watching Dolli Mae settle in. She pecked Vinnie on the cheek.
She tried not to clench her fists at the small gesture, but was handed a marshmallow stick.
"After years of the secret affair, the ranchero's wife discovered them, and in a rage, la Llorona ran from her village with her two children."
Thorne rested her head against String Bean with a sigh, watching her marshmallow. Princess put an arm around Lily, something that made Dollface feel something unusual. Lily mindlessly strummed on the mini-banjo, settling into Princess.
Michael told her to focus on making Princess's stick. She usually shared with her girlfriend, like Thorne did.
"In a panic, she came to the river and drowned her children. No one really knows why, maybe for revenge, maybe in hopes he'd take her back, but whatever the reason, it didn't quite work."
Dollface looked into the fire and could see a double of some sort. In the bed of coals, her weary mind conjured images of a girl with a square face and almond eyes and the same, bumpy nose as hers. But she wasn't Dollface, certainly not, for she had what appeared to be dreadlocks and fuller lips.
Dollface looked at Vinnie, his dark eyes turning bright gold in the embers, hair almost blue under the moon.
She thought his profile was interesting as he spoke, and metally took notes, deciding she'd draw it tomorrow morning if she had time and could remember.
"Anyone else need a stick?"
"We're good."
Dollface looked around the circle, sorry to interrupt, realizing that she was the only one left.
She looked into her hands as Vinnie finished his story, feeling the chilly night air set in, even next to the coals, early summer.
"Anyway, I'm done rambling. I'd like to hear some new stories. I've never heard of 'Long Horse' before."
Before anyone could speak up in the silence, Dollface said in a low voice, black eyes hard and face sharp in the harsh lights, looking less human as she asked, "Y'all ever heard o'Camp Blood?"
Everyone looked around the fire, suddenly getting chills. Dollface silently smirked, reveling in the attention she held. She tried to make her voice low and gravelly, not it's usual light cantor.
Even when telling scary stories in the moonlight, she had a jovial air about her, but now, there seemed to be teeth.
"There's somethin' that in th'lake o'camp Crystal Lake two counties over, you kin hear it at night. No one knows what it really is." Dollface began, "But we know it's there 'cause stuff 'n kids keep dissapearin'."
"L-like what?" Izzy ventured, "Kids?"
"Starts small, just lil thangs no one'll think twice 'bout, like squirrels or frogs, maybe even fish." Dollface said, "But m'grampa, when he was a kid spent a summer at Camp Blood. He said th'lake was haunted."
Dollface skewered a marshmallow, deciding to make a s'more afterall.
Michael helped her think through what Grampa had told her as she put the sugary treat over the coals, "He woke up 'cause he heard tappin' on the roof one night."
"Squirrels?" Princess asked.
"Not squirrels." Dollface said, "But I'll tell y'all what he told me. Th'roof started drippin, an'creakin'."
"Rain. It was rain." Princess rolled her eyes, Lily scooting closer.
"Impossible. It was a cloudless night in th'woods, just like this one."
Vinnie was listening closely, eyes burning gold in the firelight.
"Said that cabin was th'scariest thing he'd ever set foot in, all rickety an'not a person fer miles." Dollface said, "There was a tornado shelter, just two metal tubes in the ground, a latrine and miles of forest all around them."
"Get on with it!" Princess snapped. Lily shushed her for being impatient.
"Said he wouldn't've been surprised if Siren Head didn't try t'lure him outta there. It was almost maddenin' t'stay th'night." Dollface said, "Well, first he heard th'tappin' on the tin roof an'heard scratchin' inside th'walls. Thought maybe it was mice, so he set some traps he found in the nearby shed 'round, since th'kids were asleep and th'parents wouldn't come for pickup 'til August."
Dollface lifted the toasted treat from the fire, "Izzy, can y'all dress me up?"
"Sure!" Izzy was glad for a break from the story. This flavor of Dollface was a little too intense.
Dollface watched Izzy intently, then took her treat. String Bean began roasting her marshmallow.
Dollface studied her s'more, "So Grampa's out here, kids sleepin' in th'surroundin' cabins, laying on a cot donated by th'local asylum, an'starts hearin' more noises. Quiet, more normal noises, like th'cabins were settlin' fer th'night. But somethin' feels wrong."
"What's wrong?" String Bean asked, blowing out the flaming marshmallow. She'd gotten too close to the fire again, damn.
"Can't tell. Kids start cryin', says somethin's bad. Grampa finally gives in an'lets some kids sleep in th'cabin, more annoyed than scared 'cause they wouldn't stop cryin'. But that's when they all heard it."
"Hear what?"
"Princess!" The Lily groaned. String Bean and Thorne snickered.
Princess blushed as Vinnie stayed silent, eyes narrowing on Dollface.
"Ya wanna know why they call it 'Camp Blood' instead of Crystal Lake?" Dollface asked, leaning in and getting a mouthful of gooey marshmallow and chocolate in one, crunchy bite.
"No, why?" Lily asked, holding Princess's hand.
"There was a loud thump on the roof, an'Grampa had t'see what it was so everyone would go back t'sleep." Dollface said, Michael arranging the words for her carefully, "So he went outside with a flashlight and started swingin' 'round. He can see something swingin' in th'trees, but th'light's too dim t'see."
"Hurry it up dude," Wolfie commanded, putting another marshmellow to the flame. She liked her s'mores burnt to a sticky lump of coal, "We don't got all night."
Dollface squinted her eyes and searched the faces of her audience. Vinnie squinted back.
"He hears more scratchin' from behind." Dollface bit her lip, smirking. Dolli Mae and Wolfie, despite themselves, were on the edge of their seats. "That's when he sees it."
She paused, waiting for the perfect moment to drop the final detail.
"W-what did he see?" String Bean nervously asked, holding onto Thorne a little bit tighter than before.
"A dead body."
"That's dumb!" Wolfie snapped, "How do y'all believe this?"
"But that's not th'end!" Dollface snapped out of the funk she'd been in, "When Grampa found th'bodies, he turned an'saw all the swingin' stuff in the trees were bodies of other couselors!"
"Bullshit!" Wolfie said, "How would no one notice a bunch'a missin' teens?"
"I told ya! The lake starts out small! Th'bodies had even been gutted and drained like deer!"
"Yeah, where's ya proof?" Wolfie snapped, standing abruptly, "A lake can't clean and butcher someone! It's a lake!"
"Grunkle Barney." Dollface said, also standing, "He was there too!"
"Barney runs a tourist trap near Brason!"
"Stop it y'all, I just wanted a nice bonfire!" Dolli Mae spoke up, stopping both girls without even standing. "Princess, how 'bout'cha play some more."
Grumbling to herself, Princess released Lily and grabbed her pawn shop banjo and began the opening.
Dollface, across from the fire, made contact with Princess, and began singing along, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do..."
Lily and Princess hummed along, the three voices harsh as the coals crackled.
"I'm half crazy, all for th'love of you!"
Everyone knew this song, and their harmonies, everyone's voices, rose over the trees and rolled into town, so even travelers could hear the tale of Daisy Bell's proposal.
And once the song ended on a dying chord, nothing but silence and cicadas were left.
The group disbanded to carry on with their nights, whether it be sneaking back into bedrooms, wandering the town, or stargazing in a deer stand, tomorrow seeming all too soon.