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The fire crackled, casting wisps of smoke that launched a thick fog across the forest floor. It was the most absolutely perfect night for a camp fire. And even more absolutely amazingly perfect for scary spooky stories.
Chase adjusted himself on the log he was sitting on moving close to Nox—for Nox’s sake! Obviously. Scary stories after dark were sure to terrify his boyfriend. Chase could just feel the fear sifting through Nox’s aura. It showed up in the way he zoned out, exchanging skeptical glances with Deacon. Yeah, he was totally scared. He had a s’more in each hand so he was definitely stress eating or something.
“Okay!” Chase said dramatically shining a flashlight under his chin to boost the creepy atmosphere. “I’ll start. I had a dream once that no one knew who ‘Chase Hollow like and follow’ was, then I realized it’s my crushing reality. The last time I checked my social media account I only got one like. And it was from my mom. If that isn’t scary I don’t know what it.”
Chaz clapped his hands, impressed with Chase's story. Chase flashed him a grin which prompted Nox to kick his shin.
“Hey stop it Buddyboo, you are so jelly today! I wasn’t even checking him out. I pinky promise.” Chase held out his hand but Nox just glared at.
Deacon almost choked on his spit, trying to divert the attention by turning away to grab a stick for his marshmallows.
“Anyway…who wants to go next?”
Prunella stood up so fast, almost tripping over Chaz’s legs in the process.
“ME! ME! ME! PICK ME!”
Chase gazed around the campfire. “Anyone else?” He asked. He did not want to hear about that time where Sir Badcat almost tricked Lady Lovalorn into giving him her number. That episode was sooo overrated. And it wasn’t even scary.
Prunella walked forward, ripping the flashlight out of Chase's hand. “Okay are you all ready? This is going to be very scary so make sure you remember it’s just a story. Also hold hands if you need to. You might cry.”
Chase took the opportunity to reach for Nox’s hand but both still contained s’mores. Chase settled with grabbing onto Nox’s arm. His boyfriend didn’t mind.
Deacon added a marshmallow to his stick, barely even listening to Pru. “It’s scary. Got it.” He murmured back.
“If you want to hold my hand it’s open.” Chaz said, waving his hand. Deacon sighed, shoving another marshmallow onto his stick.
“So the story begins with Lady Lovalorn preparing to be part of the friendship festival—“
“OMG not this again!”
“Chase! Shut up! All the Kittizens of Lovaland will be attending the festival. Except all the bad guys since they weren’t invited. Sir Badcat was upset he wasn’t invited though, not because he wanted to go but because he wanted some of the free chocolate lovalollies. So he shows up hissing at everyone and stealing a whole trucks worth of them because he’s a big meanie zucchini and has no friends—”
“Or because he’s resourceful and efficient.” Nox added cutting in, as he shoved his s’more into his mouth.
“Buddy! What the heck! Don’t be a butt head and let me finish!”
Typically Chase would intervene although Nox was acting like a butt head.
“Anyway—Lady Lovalorn shows up and says she will put an end to all of the bad guy stuff Sir Badcat is doing. She uses her fire breath to try and scare him away but all that does is make a big chocolate mess. And she and Sir Badcat are so full of chocolate that the rest of the Kittizens are really scared thinking Lady got turned into a chocolate monster because they are oblivious and babies. Sir Badcat starts to cry because he wanted to eat the chocolate.”
“Relatable.” Deacon said.
“So Lady gives him a HUG because she feels bad. Which is terrifying! Don’t hug your enemies! And they decide to become friends which is a terrible mistake! Yeah that’s the scary part! The end!”
Chaz starts clapping awkwardly but no one else joins him.
“How was that scary?” Chase asked. He thought she was going to do the phone story for sure. “Thats just a rom-com.”
“Any story involving Lady Lovalorn is terrifying” Deacon whispered to Chaz. Chaz nodded in agreement.
“I can’t believe they became friends just because of a hug!” Nox said in between bites. “That’s ridiculous.”
“You're ridiculous!” Pru shot back. “And they didn’t become friends! Lady Lovalorn started falling for him, so they became more-than-friends! The writers of the show ruined the whole thing! I don’t want to hear some sappy love story!”
“Soooo…” Chase interrupted her before Pru could explain the current season of Lady Lovalorn. “Who wants to go next?”
Crickets.
Everyone looked around in awkward silence as Pru pouted.
“I guess I can go,” Chaz offered. “I don’t know but the time I was trapped with that old man was pretty scary. At least Rose was there and I could occasionally call my family and girlfriend but it was not fun. I wish instead I was just trapped in a room with a friend or something. Like on that TV show where they do a monthly lock-in with the friend of your choice. I was pretty lonely before I realized I could talk to Rose.”
“Buddyboo, imagine if you and me got locked in a room together and—-”
“Chase, OMG. Shut up!” Deacon said, already covering Prus' ears.
“Thank you,” Nox said gruffly. “I’m literally trying to eat.”
“Who wants to go next?” Chaz asked. “Buddy?”
…..
“No. It’s Freckle's turn.”
“Once I pulled an all nighter um…studying. Then I looked up and realized that I have been reading…um I mean studying the same paragraph— uh problem for four hours. Truly horrifying.”
Chaz started clapping again. This time a little louder than the last.
“Boooooooooooooooooo!” Chase whined. Pru ended up joining him halfway through carrying both of them.
“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“Thank you.” Deacon responded, unbothered.
Everyone turned to Nox, he was halfway through on his fifth s’more. “…No.”
“Yes!” Pru said. “Story now!”
Nox sighed, shoving the last few bites into his mouth.
“So once there was a young woman with a child. They went into the woods—similar to these woods, to escape fate. The woman’s husband had sold his soul for indulgence, but with no soul he never left the natural world. He was tied to the earth searching for another soul to be used for his vessel. He and his wife had a feud, they never loved each other, bound together through their families. To be able to ascend the man needed to harvest a soul from his own bloodline but his family had passed and the only way to ascend was through his son—”
“OMG Buddy! Are you saying that…”
“Little idiot, if you would let me finish you would know what is to come… To escape the cruel fate placed on her son, the woman takes him to a forest. The forest is said to be haunted by spirits, some good others with poor morals. But children are safe in the woods. The spirits do not harm children. The woman however loses her footing and is—well lost forever. However the spirits guide the child to an enchanted tree. They tell him if he crawls inside they will protect him till his father leaves the forest.”
“Oh so when did the man leave the forest?” Deacon asks.
“He didn’t. What remains of the child is still in the enchanted tree, and some say the man still haunts this forest looking for his son's soul, but the son fortunately moved on after his death. He is in a better place now.”
Chaz whistles and starts clapping again, but Nox’s eyes are fixated on Chase who was clinging to his arm, shaking.
“Buddy! Prunella is still here! You're going to give her nightmares!”
“Wasn’t that the point of this gathering?” Buddy asked. “Aren’t we trying to scare each other?"
“Buddy’s story is a lot better than yours Chase, so be nice! Yours was soooo stupid and wasn’t scary. This is cool. Like in season one of Lady Lovalorn when she finds out that Poppy had been lying to her mother about—”
“Deacon is going to have nightmares. So we should all stay awake and eat snacks while watching children’s cartoons to make him feel better.” Chase said defending his cousin's dreams and sanity. Deacon just sighed, as Chaz gave him a supportive thumbs up.
“Can we watch Lady Lovalorn?”