The Halloween Bonfire

This night was going to be perfect.

Tonight was the annual senior Halloween bonfire, and I was actually invited. I wasn’t usually invited to these sorts of things, so you could see why I was excited. I was going with a few girls from history class: Amy, Clare, and Emily.

They picked me up around five o’clock and drove me to a secluded clearing in the woods where the bonfire would take place, giving us time to get settled before nightfall. It took about half an hour to get there. By the time we arrived, it was starting to get dark, and the main fire was blazing brightly, with smaller fires arranged in a wide circle around the perimeter.

Music played from one of the surrounding vehicles, and coolers were brimming with ice and drinks. The sky was turning dusky blue, and the stars were beginning to appear.

There were way more people than I’d expected. Near one fire, people were smoking and drinking. By another, couples were grotesquely making out. Football players and cheerleaders were hanging out with beers near a third. And by the last fire, members of the drama club were animatedly telling scary stories. Even though I didn’t care much for scary stories, their group seemed the most interesting to hang out with. They had bowls of candy being passed around, with soda and other drinks nearby.

Kadin, one of the seniors, was theatrically retelling the story of the Headless Horseman as I walked over. It was nice and toasty by the fire, despite the cold breeze. The sky was now completely pitch-black except for the sparkling stars.

“Hey, has anyone seen Emily?” a girl whose name I couldn’t remember asked.

“Last I saw her, she went that way with John,” I replied.

“But John’s right over there.” She pointed toward one of the other fires.

“I’m not sure, then, but I could’ve sworn I saw her go into the woods with him,” I insisted.

Kadin’s rendition of the Headless Horseman ended, and another student stepped up. I thought his name was Luke.

“We all know the rumors about the Wendigo and how they came to be: starving hunters lost in the woods during the dead of winter, driven to cannibalism.” He began, launching into his story with even more flourish and exaggeration. “They have a never-ending hunger that can never be satiated. They tear their victims limb from limb.”

I grabbed some candy and a drink and walked around to see if Emily was near another fire, catching bits and pieces of the story here and there. But there was no sign of her.

I asked John if he’d seen her, and he told me that they’d had a fight yesterday and weren’t talking.

“I could’ve sworn I saw her go into the woods with you,” I protested, confused about where she’d gone.

“Oh, so she’s playing that game, is she?” he muttered bitterly as he walked into the woods.

“Okay,” I muttered, mostly to myself.

“They can imitate the voices of loved ones, calling their names or crying for help to lure victims away from safety,” Luke continued.

I walked around, talking to some familiar faces, and realized that tonight wasn’t turning out to be as great as I’d thought it would be.

I spotted James from one of my classes.

“Hey, James, have you seen Clare?”

He looked at me, his eyes glassy, as if he were trying to recognize me.

“Heeey, youuu. Are youuu haaaving fun?” he slurred.

He reeked of beer and whatever he’d been smoking.

“Who arre you lookking forrr?” he asked.

“Ugh, never mind. I think I hear her,” I lied, using it as an excuse to escape.

“Bye, seeee youuu Monnday!” he called after me.

I walked over to the fire where the football players and cheerleaders were gathered.

“Clare, hey! I’ve been looking for you. How much longer do you want to stay?”

“But no matter how much flesh they consume, they’ll never be satisfied,” Luke’s voice rose before quieting again.

“Aw, come on, don’t be a party pooper!” Clare replied.

Now I was annoyed.

“Are you drunk? You said you were going to be the designated driver!”

The guy she was dancing with looked at me.

“Ease up. Have a drink.” He shoved a liquor bottle toward me.

I rolled my eyes. “Give me your keys, Clare.”

She ignored me and continued dancing with the dumb football player. I walked away, knowing I probably wouldn’t get anywhere with either of them while they were intoxicated.

I checked my phone.

No reception. Just great.

“One of the only ways a Wendigo can be killed is by fire,” Luke stated, wrapping up his story as I passed by.

I spotted Amy sitting with the soccer team just as John came stumbling out of the woods. He ran into me, his eyes wide as saucers.

“Gone… gone. Arms, legs gone,” he mumbled. He looked like he’d seen a crime scene.

Before I could question what he meant, he backed away, running past me.

“Lilly!”

I turned at the sound of my name.

“Lilly!”

The voice was coming from the direction John had just come from. I squinted into the darkness, but with the light of the fire contrasting against the abyss of the forest, I couldn’t see anything.

A hand came down on my shoulder, and I jumped and screamed loudly. I turned to find Amy.

“You scared the crap out of me!”

“Lilly, have you seen Clare?”

I looked at Amy, then back toward where I’d heard my name coming from.

“Yeah… she’s over with the football players, drunk. She called me a party pooper.”

Amy rolled her eyes and set her drink down.

“I guess my fun’s done unless you or Em want to drive.” She grabbed a bottle of water from a nearby cooler.

“I already tried getting Clare’s keys, but no luck. And I can’t find Emily.”

As we were talking, James came stumbling past us and went into the woods.

“I’mmm coomming,” he muttered.

We both just watched as he clumsily made his way past us.

“Well, let’s both stay sober. Two against two is a little more fair, agreed?”

“Agreed.”

We parted ways, and I continued walking around. I wanted to go home, but now I’d told Amy I would help if Clare and Emily were too drunk to drive. I guessed I couldn’t leave.

“Lilly… Lilly.”

I looked around.

“Emily?”

I didn’t see her anywhere.

“Lilly.”

Luke’s story popped into my head about the Wendigo mimicking voices, and I backed away from the woods. The night was growing colder, much colder than it usually got this time of year. I moved closer to the fires.

I saw Amy waving and holding Clare’s car keys.

“Well, at least there’s that.”

I was making my way over to her when I heard my name again.

“Lilly!… Amy!”

We both looked up at the same time.

“Was that Clare?” I asked.

“It sounded like her, but she’s…”

Amy started to point toward where she’d last seen Clare, but she wasn’t there.

“AAAAHHHH!”

We turned, as did many others, just as Clare came running out of the woods.

She collided with the guy she’d been dancing with earlier.

“Blood. So much blood everywhere.”

He looked at her as if she had two heads.

“What are you talking about? What happened?”

“Emily! She’s… she’s gone! She was torn apart…”

“Haha. Yeah, okay. Did you let Luke’s story get to your head?”

Some people were laughing at Clare, while others were just staring. Some were completely ignoring what was going on.

“But… but…” Clare stammered.

The football player said to her, “Either you’re wasted or you smoked something bad.”

The music, which had died when Clare came running out, was now playing loudly again, and people were going back to what they’d been doing.

Amy and I went over to Clare to check on her, but the football player just brushed us off and said he’d take care of her.

“Luke!… Luke!”

The voice calling Luke sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

Amy looked at me oddly.

“What?”

“That sounded like you.”

“But I’m standing right here.”

“I know.”

“LUKE!”

We looked up at Luke, who was standing by the same fire he’d been at all night. He was looking around for whoever had called his name. When he spotted me, he walked over.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I didn’t call for you.”

“I just heard you.”

“I told you that it sounded like you. It wasn’t her, though. I was right here.”

I hadn’t realized until then that the music had died down again and some people were watching us.

“AAAAAHHH!”

Another shrill scream came from one of the fires. Everyone looked over just as Emily came limping out of the woods, covered in blood and carrying a leg behind her.

Screams rang out all around us as people ran to their cars or anywhere else they could.

Amy and I started running toward Emily when John came out of the woods behind her, carrying a speaker. He was laughing, and Emily started laughing, too, as he hit a button.

Emily’s voice came through the speaker.

“Clare… Lilly… LUKE!”

People stopped running and screaming, and an eerie silence fell over everyone as they stared in shock.

The whole drama club started laughing and then took a bow. Clare, Emily, and John bowed with them.

The football player yelled, “Nice one! Best Halloween ever!”

Some people were laughing, others were angry, and some didn’t care.

I looked at Emily as she came over, smiling and laughing.

“How did you get my voice calling Luke?” I asked.

“Oh, that was kind of hard. I had to get you to talk about him while recording you without you knowing. Sorry!” She grinned. “Then John cleared it up so we could make it loud. He’s my audio nerd.” She hugged him.

“Wow. Okay. But where’s James?”

“Who?” Luke asked.

“And how did you guys make it so cold? I can see my breath now!”

“James wasn’t part of the prank,” Luke said.

“AAAAAAHHH!”

A horrible scream rang out in the distance.

Everyone turned to look toward the woods.

And what we all saw was a terrifying sight.