Short Stories

3. In the light of the campfire

As soon as Cora’s purple sleeping bag was rolled out next to Zander’s blue one they headed to the living area to see how the others were doing.

The others had unpacked the food and necessities from the cars and put everything away in the cabinets.
Cora considered pointing out that it might be better to just leave the food on the floor in their bags and baskets considering the state of the cabin. But everything was in packages and dead bugs wouldn’t crawl in to anything anyway, so she didn’t bother.

“Tonight we shall have a barbecue out by the woods”, Sam said and clapped his hands together with a huge smile.

Cora felt relived she wouldn’t have to eat anything on the dusty table and hoped they would take some time to clean the cabin the next morning.

By the side of the cabin, someone had made a ring of large logs with a fire pit in the middle. They spent the last hours of daylight collecting firewood and making a campfire in the pit.
When the sun set, they sat gathered around the fire with beer cans in their hands while filling the quiet woods with their chatter.

Cora sat with a bottle of water in her hand, looking at the dancing flames in the pit while listening to the babble. Zander sat next to her, glancing at the darkening shadows growing in the woods. Sam had made clear Zander would not be allowed to drink any beer, which Zander didn’t seem to mind.

The others talked about nonsense that Cora didn’t bother to keep up with. Gossip about people she barely knew and speculations that hardly contained any facts.

Zander scooted a bit closer when darkness seemed to swallow the surrounfing woods. He didn’t sit so close that he touched her, but it was clear he tried to get as close as possible.

Alder surprised them when he jumped up and held his hands out as if to ask them to be quiet. Cora raised her eyebrows when she gazed at him.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we shall not forget the traditional stories to be told when gathered around a campfire”, he said with a dramatic tone. His blond hair got an orange tone in the light of the fire.

“Tell us something good”, said Chandra and raised her beer at him.

Alder did a silly little gesture and sat down again. “Let me tell you the story about the little girl, Pia, who walked out in to the woods to pick flowers to her mother”, he started.

“Did she wear a red hood and carried a basket on her arm?” Cora teased.

Adler rolled his eyes at her. “No. She did not. She had a green jacket and a white ribbon in her hair.” His voice took a more dramatic tone when he continued.
“She wanted to pick flowers for her mother on Mother’s Day and decided to pick a large bouquet. She started picking flowers by the edge of the woods, but thought the flowers further in looked larger and prettier. For each flower she picked, she moved further in to the woods. Behind her, she left a trail of trampled flowers. That is all we know. Her mother noticed that she was missing after about twenty minutes. It didn’t take long before she stood by the edge of the woods, calling for her daughter, but all she heard were silence. Distraught, the mother started running around, looking for her little girl, but she couldn’t find Pia anywhere. Pia’s mother called the authorities, and they came as quickly as they could, but Pia was nowhere to be found. They found the trails of trampled flowers, but the track ended in the middle of a clearing and not even the dogs could find her tracks. It was as if Pia had been engulfed by the earth. The search went on for days, but with no result. After four days, they found Pia’s jacket. It was in a location they had already been searched and in a spot they doubted Pia would be able to reach on her own. It was placed on a cliff in the middle of a steep slope, but Pia was still nowhere to be found.
A few days later, they found her ribbon stuck in a shrub, several kilometers from the place where the jacket was found. Pia is still missing today, and it is said that if you walk in the area during late nights, you can still hear her voice. A distant humming, or just a little girl talking, but you can’t hear what she’s saying. People calls out to her and start looking for a child in the woods, but there is no one to be found.”