Andy's Apple Farm: Dolce's Game

CHAPTER 6: LOOMING DARKNESS

A warm fire crackled brightly within the firewood that kept it burning. The soothing sounds of crickets chirping resonated through the surrounding woodlands and the smell of roasted marshmallows, baked sweets, and cooked meat wafted deliciously through the air.

Dolce, Andy, and his friends had planned this camp-out for some time now. The weather was good and the sky was clear enough to see the stars twinkling overhead.

Felix was situated low to the ground using the dramatic lighting cast by the flames to his advantage, giving him an ominous appearance.

"The group then noticed bubbles rising from the still waters of the lake...One of the friends stepped closer towards the water's edge...The bubbles suddenly stopped rising...He stepped away from the edge...one step...then two...three...he almost made it up the embankment then 'WHAM!''

Felix sharply rose up, hands over his head in a menacing manner imitating the stature of a monster. "The beast shot out of the water and dragged him straight into the murky depths as the others tried to escape the beast's wraith! Their forsaken friend was pulled under, leaving no trace of him behind..." He concluded dramatically.

Everyone around him had different reactions to his story: Dolce had a blank, bored, look on her face. Melody was clutching tightly on her arm for comfort. Andy was shaking in fear. Margret seemed to enjoyed it. And Claus...Well...

Claus wasn't even paying attention, merely taking a sip of tea from his thermos.

"...That's it...?" Dolce asked plainly. "That's like the most anti-climatic ending to every poorly 'B-Rated' movie ever made. And why is it always something that comes out of the water? Or the ground? This isn't anything I've already heard. Now it'd be different if it came out of the kitchen sink, or a toilet, that'd be an interesting twist...~" She thought aloud in slight amusement.

"I thought it was pretty scary..." Andy shuttered.

"Oh Andy, you find a lot of things scary. No surprises there~." Margret lightly teased with a smile.

"You really didn't think it was scary Dolce?" Melody looked up at her, still clinging onto the dog-girl.

"Come on, this is kindergarten levels of scary stories. Mere surface levels of 'scary.' But if you really want to be creeped out, you gotta make it 'unsettling~.'" Dolce explained smugly. "No cheap scares or monsters."

"Like you could do one better?" Felix dared her as he sat back down.

"Actually yeah I can. I may not remember much about my old life but I do recall this one instance that was in the paper."

"Is it some lame conspiracy theory?" Felix rolled his eyes, unimpressed.

"No." Dolce's tone turned hard. "It was an actual murder investigation conducted by the police."

All eyes were on her now. Even Claus looked up and was focused on her. They all kept quiet, eager to hear her story.

"The details are still a little hazy, but when I was younger, word spread of a murder had occurred in the woods not too far from the town I lived in." she started. "It wasn't a large town—kinda like the one Andy drove into when he made his deliveries---so things quickly spread with this news. Nothing serious ever happened in the town so this came as a big shock. Really made people want to lock their doors at night."

"What exactly happened?" Margret asked.

"The authorities were originally called in regards to some sort of house fire. The house had already burned down when they arrived. But while they were investigating what could've caused it, they noticed a car parked not too far from the residence. What's more, there were two sets of footprints at the scene. Mind you this happened in Winter and snow was still present so it wasn't that hard to see the prints. They ran the plates on the car and determined the car's owner was one of the residents of the home. Concerned, they began following the footprints that led towards the woods. From the way the footprints were spaced apart, it looked like someone was being chased. At the end of the trail, they discovered a huge pile of blood...and an axe that laid nearby."