The campfire

The campfire

         The moon starts to shine all over the woods. It still is not so late but tall trees are making a feeling that it is a way darker than it should be on that hour. Most of them are conifer ones. Pines and spruces are definitely everywhere.
The forest is nearly silent. Only few noises are breaking this perfect moment of completely relaxing silence. One of them is being made by a little squirrel trying to eat its last acorn before the bed time. The second source of sound comes from the ground area. It is repetitive and it reminds a bit of breaking small wooden sticks. Also the footsteps are hearable.
A man and a woman are heading towards a small glade. They are camping there.
Their tent can be considered as a big one for sure. It is mostly blue but some parts are also yellow. In front of it, there is a simple campfire. Stones around some wooden pieces and of course a fire. The most important element.
The couple makes it to their place. They are talking and laughing a lot. They have a reason. In fact, they are just married and they are celebrating it now.
But why here, in the middle of nowhere? Nobody knows, maybe even them. It might be this way because of that man. His name is Scott and he works as park ranger. Love to nature is a thing, which brought those two to each other. Scottâs wife â Mary, works at the local primary school teaching the youngest students natural studies. She likes her job, even if sometimes it can be very hard and demanding. Nowadays kids are difficult to cope with.
One time she took her pupils for a trip to the forest to look on plants in their natural habitat. When children were having fun collecting acorns and other stuff like that, a park ranger showed up. He was tall and medium-well built. It was Scott. He volunteered to show kids a place where the family of deer was hanging out not far away.
She remembers the passion in his eyes. From the way he talked she could easily say that he loves what he is doing. Currently that passion seems to be disappearing in Maryâs opinion. Now when she is looking at her husbandâs face, she sees a face of a tired man. How it was possible to happen? Only 3 years passed from that moment when they met for the first time. That's not so long.
She wonders where the yesterday went and lowers her sight into the fire...

*

In the meantime, Scott comes back from their tent. He notices his wife's sadness. He tries to cheer her up, at least slightly, but unfortunately nothing helps, so he decides to stay silent. Time might do that on its own.
He opens a beer, which he took from the tent. The sound of gas bubbles makes him comfortable, like when they are home, not in the woods. Then Mary says to him that she will be right back and goes behind the tent to their toilet place. Scott hears that and as soon as he lost his wife from the sight he decides to grab headphones and listen to music. He turns it on and immediately he feels even more comfortable and calm. Now it is his turn to look directly into the campfire.

*

At the same moment, Mary arrives to the toilet. Suddenly the light from deeper parts of the forest scares her. After a bad first impression, a phenomenon of broken darkness makes her feel intrigued. She forgets about she was about to do and goes straight in direction of the light. She thinks that such a light can only come from a car lamps. Who normal would drive into woods at the middle of the night? It has to be something illegal! Maybe some bad guy is burring a corpse? She is here and she can help catch a murderer! Good that she has her mobile phone with her. In case it is necessary it will be way faster to call 911.
Mary tries to sneak upon the source of light undetected. In fact, she is getting closer and closer to it. With each step she feels the adrenaline pulsing in her veins. At any time, she can find what she excepts to find. Then the unexpected happens...
The light starts moving and it does it really fast. The woman stands up. She is confused and tries to track down this light once again. Mary is scared and unfortunately, she is also too far away from the safety of the camp. Even if she was closer, Scott wouldnât hear her. Currently he is too busy with his music to notice any other sound surrounding him. Probably the whole gang of thieves could come and steal all valuables and Scott wouldn't notice them, unless she looks around, but it is not going to happen for sure.

*

Suddenly, a strange noise comes from behind of Mary's back. It is something like between a growling dog and an engine. She is more panicked than she had never been in her 29 years of living.
And then she feels something warm on her shoulder.
She slowly moves her head down to see what it is.
The light is coming from behind.
She sees a weird glowing substance on her sleeve. It is falling down her blouse.
She is paralyzed with her fear. She wants to run but her body cannot move a single inch.
Next, she feels the indescribable pain in her back. An extremely sharp object pierced her through.
She wants to scream, but there is no sound coming out of her mouth. Only the warm fresh blood. It is falling down on the ground. All of her clothes are now soaked with it. She starts to feel weaker. She knows that she is dying. Her only one wish is to see her husbandâs face for that very last time.
The feeling of agony continues. Mary feels blood coming out from her mouth. It has a weird, but in some odd way even a bit sweet taste. Soon the same object which gave her this first wound attacks again. It strikes through her headâ¦
Brain damage turns out to be deadly and ends the life of Mary Ann Shelby, the 29 years old primary school teacher instantly. She always wanted to have kids on her own. Now it is too late for that.

*

When all of that happened, Scott notices a long absence of his wife. He starts to call her by name, but there is no response at all. He starts to worry. Something might have happened and she needs his help right now. Even with a perfect health, you can for example faint for no reason. She should have been back by now!
Scott decides to search for her. He stands up and looks in the sky. There is not a single cloud on it and the moon is glowing. It is a full moon and it looks a bit like a silver round cheese. Unfortunately, there is no time for admiring such a view. There might be his damsel in distress to save and he would not forget if something bad happened to her only because he lost himself in the stars.
Searching in complete darkness does not seem to be the best idea. Gladly, Scott has a flashlight app in his phone. Modern devices are multifunctional nowadays, are not they?
He launches it. Suddenly, he hears something in the bushes. It scares him and causes to drop phone on the ground. He kneels to pick it upâ¦
Of course, it hit the ground by screen side and there is a small crack on it now. Why it always has to be this way? Are smartphones programmed to fall down like that every time you drop them? Angry with himself and whatever scared him Scott stands up. Currently services of his flashlight are no longer requiredâ¦

*

It is bright nearly like it was a day and for worse for him, a source of this light is coming from in front of his face.
Indescribable horror, an abomination which should not even exist on this world, a thing impossible to name is probably looking in Scott's eyes right now.
On first impression, one could say it looks like a man, but it is clearly wrong. This creature is glowing and in place of facial elements like nose or mouth there is nothing. Just a glowing, empty surface.
One of its arms is sharp and pointy, the second one is human-like. From both of them, visibly leftovers of a red liquid are slowly falling down. One crimson drop after another.
Sharp arm moves with a speed of light in Scott's direction.
He has no chance to evade this attack.
It goes straight through his neck.
Strength of this blow makes his head fall off.
Body of Scott Shelby hits the ground, but his head keeps rolling and it stops on the campfire.
It quickly starts burning. Few more seconds and the skull and disgusting smell of burnt human flesh will become the only remains of what really happened. Bloodstains are going to vanish. Sooner or later it will happen.
In the meantime, the glowing monster has already disappeared.

*

Maybe one day somebody will come here and find those dead bodies. It can be anyone. Even you, me or our friends or family. Who knows where the crossroads of life will lead us next?
Anyway, what really happened here is going to be an another unsolved mystery. Most likely, people are going to say that some psycho came and murdered this poor couple. They do not want to believe in paranormal stuff.
Only one witness knows the truth. The campfire, which saw everything. Too bad it cannot warn others about the deadly threat living in this forest.
Sooner or later it will strike again.

The end.