I walked down the sidewalk. Rain was pouring down from the heavens. The sky was dark except for the occasional burst of lightning. I was walking to meet my friends down at the old creek bed. They had decided we were going to spend the night there on Halloween night, and tonight was the night. There was a sudden stop to the sidewalk and I followed a small dirt path through some tall grass. I could hear the crickets and the small stream that the creek had turned into. I was getting close when I heard a rustling to my right. I backed away only to run into my friend, David. I screamed loudly and he laughed at me.
"Why did you do that, David?!" I said in hushed tones.
He just kept on laughing and pushed me down the path towards the creek. My boots were caked with a half-inch layer of mud on the bottom. I sighed, I hated having to come down to this creepy creek. The only reason I did was because I didn't want to be considered the chicken of the group. Stacey and Katarina had showed up already and were giggling at the pathetic jokes of the boys who were there.
I recognized only three of the five boys who were there, not counting David. There was James, he had light brown disheveled hair and was wearing his usual jeans and hoodie. Kade had straightened pale blonde hair and was dressed for the cold, he had a winter coat, boots, and some sturdy jeans on. The third boy that I knew was Stefan and he had short black hair and was dressed like he was ready to go to the beach. He always wore shorts and a t-shirt no matter the weather. The other two boys were mysterious to me for some reason and one was staring at me. The other was effortlessly flirting with Katarina, a blonde with plumped red lips. She always tried to go for the sultry look, but overshot it by a lot.
There was a huge fire burning in the middle of the circle the group had created. There were logs that they had dragged over for them to sit on. I was wearing a long black coat and a pair of black skinny jeans with my boots over them. I realized I may have overdressed for the occasion. The girls were wearing simple hoodies, even though they were soaked, and blue jeans with sneakers. I had my hood up because my hair was straightened. David and I decided to join the group as he told them how he had scared me and the epicness of my expression. His short, spiked, blue hair bobbed as he mimmicked me jumping up and screaming. They all laughed about it and were in slight amazement considering how difficult it was to scare me.
I sat down on a log that nobody else had decided to sit on. I am, by choice, a loner. They had set up a few small tents in the grassy area away from much of the mud. A truck I didn't recognize was parked near them. It was probably one of the new boys'. David got into an effortless conversation with Kade while I listened and watched as I always do. The rain was starting to slow down, but the thunder and lightning did not. The boy who was staring at me stood up from his seat, even though Stacey had been trying to flirt with him, and walked over to me.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked me, not taking his eyes away from me for a second.
I looked up at him and did a quick look over, "No I don't mind, but be careful. I bite."
A half-smile played on his lips and he chuckled softly. "I'll bite back," he said playfully.
He sat down next to me and I stared into the fire. The flames were slowly hypnotising me and putting me in a calmer state of mind when all of a sudden he grabbed a lock of my hair and inspected it. I turned towards him and was about to ask him what he was doing when he pulled a small bug out of the strands. He flicked it away and smiled gently at me.
"Thank you. That was very kind of you." I said, although I was in a slight stage of shock.
"You know, you have a gorgeous color of hair. I love redheads." he was flirting with me.
I smiled slightly and thanked him. Not many people commented on my hair anymore. I wasn't used to the admiration of my unique color. In a small town of only about 500 inhabitants, everyone had already commented on my hair as a child.
"What's your name? I've never seen you around here, which is unusual because it's such a small town." I asked casually.
"I'm Matthew, but you can call me Matt, and that," he pointed to the other boy I didn't know," is my brother Jared."
I watched Jared flirt with Stacey, her brown hair shined in the light of the fire. She was having a good time, but she kept looking in my direction; specifically she was looking at Matt. She had been deserted by him, and she didn't take lightly to other girls stealing the attention from her.
"He's flirting pretty hardcore with Stacey. I think she prefers he were you, though. So what brought you to our dinky little town?" I said while still staring in Stacey's direction.
He paused for a bit while thinking. "Our parents died in a car crash about three months ago and we decided that we would move here. Our parents had driven through on their way to camp nearby and loved the town. They would talk about it all the time, so we checked out house prices and they were reasonable. We decided that we would buy the little house on the top of the hill and fix it up."
I was stunned. They had bought the supposedly haunted house on the outskirts of town. Nobody went on that hill since the supposed murder of crazy Joe's wife. Crazy Joe was the man who had lived in the house, but it had been long before any of us were born. Now the stories were just town legends.
"What made you buy that house? Supposedly it's haunted, you know." I told him, matter-of-factly.
"Well it looked like it needed help. I love fixing up old places and making them look beautiful again. My brother likes to tag along." he looked away from me, the first time since he'd sat down.
There was a flash of lightning and a burst of loud thunder. I jumped in my seat and Matt grabbed my arm. The conversations started to quiet down and Matt's hand moved to my knee. Everyone faced towards the fire and I could feel a scary story brewing. Finally James ran his fingers through his already messy hair and sighed loudly.
"You all know that it's Halloween night, but do you know what happened by this very creek ten years ago?" he looked around at all of us. Our eyes were glued to him.
"I'll take that as a no. Well, I'm about to tell you. There was a group of campers, about 7 of them. They decided to spend the night by the creek, just like we are, on Halloween night. They were just joking around and drinking and having fun, when one of them decided to leave to go to the bathroom. He went a little ways into the woods surrounding their site and was doing his buisness when he heard someone walking towards him.
"He yelled, 'Hey dude! I'm takin' a piss. Git outta here!'
"When nobody answered he looked around and saw a wolf standing not ten feet from him. He slowly backed away, but the wolf pounced. Another one came right out of the bushes and they started attacking him. They heard his screams at camp and started running towards where he was, but when they got there he was already dead and blood and guts were everywhere. The wolves, which the campers didn't know were the culprits, were nowhere to be seen. Since cell phone's weren't really out at that time, they had to send a few of them to the police station in town.
"The others stayed near the body to make sure whatever had killed him didn't come back. When the cops finally get there, the girls are nowhere to be found, there are three dead bodies, and there are a mix of wolf, barefoot man, and shoe tracks all around. There was a case about it and a whole bunch of detectives come to check it out, but they never found the real cause of the deaths. There was a theory," he paused for suspense, "they think it was shape shifters."
There was silence and out of nowhere David and Kade jumped out of the woods and screamed "BOO!" Kat, Stacey, and I all screamed at the same time. Obviously the guys were in on it because none of them screamed, they all just laughed hysterically at us. I glared at David and stood up.
"I'm going to bed. Which tent am I in?" I asked.
"The red one in the middle," said Jared, "there's a sleeping bag and some pillows on an air mattress for you."
"Thank you." I said and stalked towards the tents.
I got in my tent and stripped down to just my undershirt and underwear then crawled into the double sleeping bag that they had set up for me. I was slowly falling asleep to the light raindrops falling on the top of the tent when I heard the door unzip and someone walk in. I figured it was Stacey or Kat so I kept my eyes closed and continued trying to sleep. Whoever was in the tent with me curled up next to me in the sleeping bag and got comfortable. I finally fell asleep and drifted off into dreamland.
