Prompt 24 - Scary Stories Around the Campfire

It was a moonless night. The type of night even the most hardy outdoorsman would start sweating out of nervousness. It was dark, so chokingly dark that it threatened to swallow every light source brought to it. A void nobody could do but wait for it to pass. And pass they did by setting up a small camp in a clearing they had found in the evening, where they had enough light left of the day to prepare their horses and the tents, as well as the campfire.

There the group sat around the fire, with each of their horses tied to a rope hanging between two thick trees. Caspian; a blue Loshenka that could almost blend in with the darkness, Silva; a silvery-looking Loshenka who was busy grazing and occasionally looking back at the group sitting around the camp, and finally, Striker; the gelding Loshenka who was already laying down on the ground and resting. There was an extra Loshenka with them, however not a working one but a guest; Macchiare. She was tied next to Caspian and compared to the stallion, stuck out from the darkness with her mostly white body. Both horses were being lovey-dovey while none of the humans were watching.

The other two ponies that had accompanied them were not Loshenka, but maxed out Teddy Cobs. One named Elizabeth; a pretty palomino mare with white markings, and Scout; a dark bay that, similarly to Caspian, could almost blend in with the surrounding darkness. Both mares were lovingly grooming each other.

The riders were chatting lightly with each other about… well, what was there to chat about other than work? Except for Jackson and Valentino, they were talking about something else entirely. Lee mostly sat around in silence, poking at the fire and making sure it did not grow too weak. Maria was talking to Raymond and Max about work but Max, seemingly bored of the conversation, suddenly turned to face Lee and said,

”Tell us a scary story, Lee. The night is perfect for that!”

Lee, caught off guard by the sudden request from the younger man, stopped what he was doing and watched him with a confused look. Everyone else had stopped talking after hearing Max’s words, now interested in hearing what Lee had in mind. Maria, his daughter, seemed rather eager to hear a story from her father. A scary one at that!

”Oh, please tell us! I know you have encountered strange folk from time to time. I bet you have especially scary ones!” She said excitedly with a wide smile.

Lee looked at everyone around him and stopped at Raymond, who sat closest to him. The man had his eyes closed, as if in deep thought over… something. Still, Lee gently bumped him with his elbow and caused the man to open his eyelids, dark brown eyes shifting their focus to Lee. Lee gave him a brief smile through the thick beard and mustache.

”Interested in a spooky story?”

Raymond gently lifted his hat with the tip of his finger to have a better look at Lee, eyebrow raised and his lips forming the tiniest smile. It was not often Lee told stories for everyone but when he did, it was always something fascinating. And unsettling to some extent. Raymond definitely did not want to miss the story telling, so he shifted his position to sit more upright and kept his attention on the man next to him.

”Of course,” he spoke after a short moment of thinking, nodding to the man’s question. ”I am always interested.”

”Jackson? Valentino?” Lee asked, making sure they were also up for it and seeing as they nodded to him, Lee took it as his chance to put himself in ’story telling mode’.

His eyes shifted briefly to the horses nearby, seeing that most of them were resting and a few grooming each other. He noticed Caspian and Valentino’s horse… Macchiare?… now resting on each other; with Macchiare’s neck around Caspian’s. Cute. He wondered how that happened to begin with, seeing as Caspian — like Jackson — was relatively shy.

Then Striker suddenly stood up from his position in a hurry, with his ears pinned back and tail swishing around in an aggressive manner. It caught the attention of everyone, including the horses who were now watching the angry gelding – alerted from his movement. Striker stomped on the ground once, twice, before Silva reached over to check on him. This seemingly calmed the gelding down, but it was not enough as Striker snorted loudly. Something had agitated the gelding enough for Raymond to stand up and walk over to check on his horse.

Lee waited for Raymond to calm Striker down, watching the man speak to his horse calmly while patting his neck. It did not take long for the horse to calm down, returning to his usual state of laziness although more cautious this time. Once Raymond returned to the group, Lee found it was time to continue.

”Okay, I think I got a story for you,” Lee added, adjusting his seat on the log and began the story he had in mind.

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This happened a long time ago when I was a small child, my sister was not yet born, and my father and mother were much younger. They had been to town to buy food and resources for the ranch and had thrown everything into a cart — the same one I own — which was pulled by a strong horse. A Belgian, I think, if I remember correctly. He was quite mean towards everyone but my mother. Still, he was a good work horse and did his job for many, many years.

Anyway, my father was in front leading the horse while my mother sat in the cart with me, keeping an eye out for anything or anyone that would have the grand idea of approaching them. It was not the first time they had been bothered by folk who were more or less nefarious. I saw those with my own eyes and it was never a pleasant situation. Luckily, nothing serious ever happened but… well… they did not want to keep their guard down.

While my parents did their duty of watching for people, I was busy daydreaming of chasing wild horses around and catching my dream horse. Not quite productive, but I was a child and a dangerously bored one at that.

The path we had taken was the same we always took; wide open grassy landscapes for the longest time, rolling hills occupied by white tail and pronghorn, with the forest a distance away and visible from the horizon. We were nearing the forest at that point and everything appeared calm, with only a lone red fox chasing after prey among the grass.

I found myself staring into the distance and not truly paying attention to what was happening around me. I could hear my parents speaking about something, but I do not remember what exactly it was. Too busy thinking, too busy being distracted to register the increased panic in my mother’s voice. It was not until she pulled me closer to her body that I was brought back to reality.

’It’s them!’ I heard her shout to my father. ’It’s them! They are coming!’

It was at that moment I could feel the cart move faster, much faster than I have seen before with the horse galloping. The cart shook from each bump threatening to throw me off if it were not for my mother holding me tight. I could hear my father shout something before handing my mother a rifle. She then proceeded to tell me to hide behind one of the boxes and stay quiet. I did as I was told, watching my mother load the weapon and point it towards something. My father’s back was visible, urging the horse to run faster.

To say that I was confused was an understatement; I had no idea what was happening and I could not hear anything approach us. Yet, I did as I was told and waited, watching my parents with baited breath and fearful eyes. My mother… I have never seen her so focused and afraid at the same time. My father, he was normally a quiet man but he talked more than usual and asked mother what was happening.

It was then when a gunshot was fired off the rifle and, at the same time, a loud screeching sound that I have never heard before. It did not sound like any animal I have heard. It was piercing, loud, and horrifying. I covered my ears in pain and hoped that would be the only time I heard it, but no. My mother shot again, and again, and again. The noises grew more painful and louder as she kept shooting at whatever those creatures were.

And she did not stop until the sounds grew weaker, more distant. I watched her point the rifle towards whatever she had seen for a long while until there was nothing to be heard. It was then when she lowered it and let out a heavy sigh, telling my father they were gone. I peeked out of my hiding spot, hoping to see what they were but… there was nothing. No trace of anything and no marks on the ground to indicate something had followed us.

I tried to ask my parents for the longest time about what they had seen, but they never gave me any proper answers. Apparently it happened again soon after my sister was born, but after that encounter we have never seen or heard anything like it again. I still do not know what they were, what my parents saw and why they appeared only three times before disappearing for good.

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And so, the story was over and Lee looked around him to see his group’s reactions. Raymond looked more curious than scared, possibly thinking up explanations behind what those creatures were. Max was visibly uncomfortable and Maria was… giggling?

”Why are you laughing?” Lee asked with a smile, wondering what his daughter found so amusing.

She stopped giggling but held her mouth shut and glanced towards Jackson and Valentino. There, Jackson appeared to be in pain and the source was easy to find; Valentino had a death grip around the man’s arm. Jackson slowly raised a hand and patted it on Valentino’s, hoping that would be enough for the man to ease his grip.

”Interesting story,” Raymond finally commented, leaning back and slowly shutting his eyes. ”I wonder what could have chased you. No animal in mind fits the description.”

”Well, whatever it was, I don’t want to ever encounter that!” Max said before hugging himself. ”Yuck…”

While the humans were discussing, and Jackson trying to convince Valentino to not kill his arm, the horses had instead found the story boring enough to feel sleepy. All of them were resting, occasionally snorting from whatever had irritated their nostrils. Silva was half-asleep and adjusting which hoof to put his weight to, gently swishing his tail and flicking his ears from the tiny insects still flying around at night. Striker had fallen asleep a long time ago, his neck curled around with his head resting on the ground. He looked like a bird with the way his neck was bent and did not appear to react much to the insects, other than his ears twitching from time to time.

The lovebirds; Macchiare and Caspian, were still cuddling with each other, with Caspian grooming the smaller mare and this time resting his neck above hers. She nickered gently to the blue stallion and groomed him as well, occasionally extending her upper lip towards his face which was reciprocated by the darker horse.

The night was long and dark. It would be a while until sunlight would pierce the void.