"…Unable to see, she wandered about into the street, where she was struck down by a passing car." the little girl whispered softly for dramatic effect as she shined the flashlight under her face, "And some say, to this very day, Sarah Wilson's ghost still wanders the town at night, searching about blindly with her bloody sockets for the madman who gouged out her eyeballs, crying out …"

The child then started to moan, "'My eyes….where are my eyes…where? Oooooooh, where are my eyes?' Just like that! Not only that… but some people say, if you happen to be unlucky enough to run into her…then she'll-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know, we know." Bloo blurted out, clearly unimpressed as indicated by the fact that not a trace of fear found be found in his expression. "You tell us that she'll steal our eyes, we all wet our pants from fright, blah, blah, blah…bra-vo, Miss Storyteller Extraordinaire."

As the little blob gave her a sarcastic round of applause, Goo immediately hurled the flashlight down in a fit of frustration and shot him a furious glower.

"Thanks a lot for ruinin' it!" the pajama-garbed child snapped huffily. "You…you…you big dumb stinky rotten-faced super-jerk!"

"Yeah Bloo, that really was kinda mean." Mac chimed in from where he sat atop his sleeping bag on the other side of the small dome-shaped tent. The child's unrepetent creation just rolled his eyes.

"Oh c'mon, I'm just saying what we're both thinking." Bloo replied nonchalantly. "Seriously, you call that story scary? Pffft! I've found old leftovers in the back of the fridge that were scarier than the bore-tastic tale she almost put me to sleep with. C'mon Goo, everyone's heard the Sarah Wilson story."

"Nuh-uh! Nuh-uh!" Goo erupted into shrill peals of protest, and started shaking her head so furiously her pigtails whipped about like a trio of flails. "It's not 'just a story', it's true! It's true! It's true!"

"I…to be honest, I dunno…" Mac interrupted as his expression distorted into a skeptical grimace. "I-"

"No, it's true! Honest!" the little girl whined stubbornly. "My aunt says she remembers reading about it in the papers and stuff, and how it was all over the news when she was just a kid! Plus, she says that her friend's cousin had a girlfriend whose brother saw Sarah Wilson's ghost, wandering around near the-"

"Either your aunt's a little cuckoo, or she's just messing with you." Bloo muttered with a bored yawn. "Either way, it's still one lame-o story."

"It's not a story!" Goo argued fervently. "It really happened, it did! Who do you think they named Wilson Way after, huh? Whadya think? Hmm?"

"Goo, I'm sorry, but 'Wilson' is a pretty common name." Mac reluctantly countered. "I seriously don't think the street is named after a girl who had her eyes gouged out."

"But it really did happen!" the little girl stubbornly resisted. "It just happened so long ago, people don't remember anymore, and they only think its just some dumb campfire story some weirdo made up, but it's not! Sarah Wilson did exist-"

"It's a good story, but I'm pretty sure it's just an urban legend." Mac replied honestly, while Goo was clearly growing more frustrated by the moment over her friends' unwillingness to believe.

"But I'm telling you, it's not just a legend, it really did happen! My aunt said so! It did, it did, it honestly seriously actually did!"

"I say she's just pulling your leg." Bloo commented as he dug into an opened bag of cookies.

"Aunt Maggie's not lying!" Goo whined defensively.

The little imaginary friend just rolled his eyes as he stuffed his face. "Your Aunt Maggie's full of baloney, it's a stupid story and that's that. "

"You leave her alone!" Goo jabbered angrily. "She's not a liar, she just knows way more then you ever will, you stupid-"

"Hey, calm down!" Mac yelped as the little girl appeared to be ready to try and lunge at the skeptical blob. "Goo, just relax-"

"Yeah, what's the big deal? I just said the story's stupid-"

"Nuh-uh! You're just stupid! Dumber than a bag of rocks! No, I take that back, 'cuz that's not fair to the rocks! You're dumber than a-"

"At least I don't believe in lame fairy tales about-"

"Bloo, knock it off! And Goo-"

"For the last time, Sarah Wilson really-"

"Yeah, right! As if you had any proof besides -"

Just when it seemed like their fierce bickering was about to escalate into an all-out brawl, in almost perfect synchronization, all three were abruptly spooked into silence as their ears collectively detected a most peculiar noise. For a few near-agonizingly tense moments, the trio sat in dead quiet as they passed each other befuddled glances.

"…Wh-what was that?" Mac finally broke the hush with a breathless whisper. Bloo whimpered softly with a forced grin,

"Maybe…m-maybe th-that was just the wind…"

Suddenly, all their hearts skipped a beat as soon as the night air was rent again by the unmistakable sound of a low, drawn-out moan.

"Ohhhhhhhh…."

Even though they had been at each others throats only minutes before, the children and imaginary blob instinctively huddled close to one another with pitiful squeaks of fright.

"That wasn't any gust of wind!" Goo whined as she grimly hugged Mac in her brazen terror.

"Maybe…" Bloo suggested, "Maybe that was…j-just an owl…"

Without warning, the horrible moaning suddenly escalated into a hideous, spine-chilling shriek that forced the blood in their veins to run cold.

"AAAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

"M-maybe i-i-it's j-j-just one o-of th-those s-screaming owls!" Bloo yelped through uncontrollably chattering teeth as the little group clung so tightly together their could feel each other's hearts pounding away like a band of kettledrums. "Y-y'know, th-the k-kind that-"

"My eyes…." The mysterious intruder outside reverted to deep, hoarse moans, and finally spoke. "My eyes…ohhhh….where are my eyes? My eyes…"

As much as it frightened the little ones half to death to admit the awful truth, there was absolutely no denying it at this point; someone was outside nearby, and by the sound of the erratic footsteps, he or she was stumbling straight towards the small tent.

For what felt like an eternity, the children and the imaginary friend found themselves hopelessly trapped in the grip of a sense of fear the likes of which they had never experience before, one which paralyzed them all in place and forced them to go as pale as freshly-fallen snow. Neither Mac, his imaginary creation, or their usually unstoppably chatty pigtailed friend could say emit beyond the most pathetic whimpers or do more than quiver like mad in blind terror as their wraith grew closer and closer, almost crying as she bumbled about.

"Can't see…I can't see…my eyes, where'd they go? My eyes…my eyes….ohhhh, my…eyes…"

Convinced that they were about to be attacked by a true specter, the hopelessly trapped campers sharply held their breaths, hugged each other tightly…

And a full minute later, realized with surprise that they were completely unharmed. Just as mysteriously as she had appeared, in an instant their phantom appeared to have vanished clean into thin air. There was no more moaning, no bloodcurdling shrieks, not even the crunch of grass beneath the feet of an approaching ghoul. All that could be heard was the chirp of the crickets, the rustling of the leaves in the wind, and everyone's rasping gasps.

As soon as they all began to silently wonder whether it had all been a cruel trick played upon them by their overactive imaginations, all of a sudden, to their shared horror the tent flap began to open up as someone…or something outside slowly undid the zipper.

"My eyes…." Came the low, raspy moan. "Where are my eyes?" Where are they…"

As the little ones became nearly paralyzed with blind fear the likes of which was beyond comparison, an almost deathly pale Bloo barely managed to gasp, "Qu-quick, who h-has a cell phone? Either y-you guys?"

While he could feel his heart pound so hard in his chest it felt like it was about ready to burst in his ribcage, Mac whispered, "Why w-would-"

Without warning, Goo suddenly managing to overcome her crippling terror long enough to release herself from the group huddle and scrabble about frantically for a few moments, and the instant she wrapped her tiny fingers around the flashlight handle, she raised it above her head, yelled hoarsely, and with strength borne of deep desperation,

THWACK!

"OW!"

The little girl's heroic effort was rewarded with a roar pain as the improvised club scored a direct hit. Immediately they could hear their mysterious attacker hastily back away and swiftly flee, wailing as she stumbled off. "My eye! My eye! Right in my eye! Oh, for the love of…"

While their "ghoul" fled into the night in a hasty retreat, it didn't take long for the little ones to to trade in their their gut-twisting fright in exchange for pained bewilderment as they all stared at one another blankly, searching desperately for even the tiniest clue to help clear their overwhelming confusion over what in the world just happened.

Finally, after a few seconds of this, Bloo whimpered as he still quavered uncontrollably, "I-I….I was gonna suggest we call the Ghostbusters, but…well, nevermind now…."

"G'night, Frankie!" the towering scarlet imaginary friend said cheerily as he poked his head into the resident caretaker's bedroom. "See you in the mor-"

Wilt stopped cold in mid-sentence, clearly surprised by the considerable amount of company the redhead had with her. As Frankie flipped idly through the channels on her small television, no less than three little ones lay curled up tightly against her, with one child draped under each arm and one blob settled upon her stomach. Even odder, all of them appeared extremely tense and quite shaken as they whimpered and fidgeted about in uneasy slumber, as if they had just fallen back asleep after waking up from some hideous nightmare.

"Um…." Wilt grunted confusedly. "Wait…Frankie, I thought Goo was spending the night with Mac and Bloo out back in-"

"They were." Frankie affirmed laconically with a heavy sigh she hugged Mac close with one arm. Wilt mulled over this terse answer for a few moments before he decided that he understood perfectly what had happened.

"Oh….ohhhh, I get it." he declared with a sympathetic frown. "They got a little spooked out there all by themselves, huh?"

"Yeah…kinda…" the young woman answered with a guilty grimace, which thankfully the gangly imaginary friend failed to notice.

"I guess we can't blame them." Wilt shrugged it off. "I mean…sorry, I don't mean anything bad when I say that, it's just that they are still pretty young, so it's still probably tough for them to handle things like spending a night outside, especially after telling ghost stories or anything like that. Anyway, it's really nice that you're letting them spend the rest of the night with you. When did they all come inside? Was it after you went out to check on them an hour ag-WHOA!"

He yelped in horror as he finally spotted the hideous anomaly marring the redhead's features. In an instant he had darted over to her bedside, fretting over her worriedly like an overprotective mother. "Frankie, are you okay? Does it hurt? Do you want me to get some ice or anything for it? Seriously, are you all right? What happened? Oh jeez, what happened?"

Even though her over-compassionate imaginary friend seemed to be ready to dial 911 in his panic, Frankie didn't appear to be concerned at all by the hideously swollen black eye she was sporting. Frowning guiltily, she simply answered with groan, "Let's just say when it comes to spur-of-the-moment pranks, 'Sarah Wilson' isn't exactly a mastermind…"

The End