Of Dark Things & Purple Eyes ~A Short Story~

Part 1

The midsummer night's sky is clear & cloudless. A huge bonfire is crackling merely by the middle of meadow though the air is pleasantly cool. A dozen or so young people were sitting around it, roasting sausages & marshmallows, drinking beer in cans. They were marveling at the black sky showing millions of stars that they hardly see from the city.

These group were composed of young professionals, friends from college & still since they graduated. They organized this camping as a sort of get-together reunion. As they sit & eat & drink, they reminisce of the old times at the University & trading experiences from the working world. A while later, their conversation turned on sharing stories & because they're camping in the middle of nowhere, it's bound that some of it were weird. Most of them were recounting stories that they've heard from someone. Only a few shared their own & afterwards they were also using other people's experiences because it's not that common for someone to have that many weird happenings in their young lives. The group were happily going on with this, except for a young woman.

She sits a little far back, well removed from the circle around the bonfire. She has black hair cropped short & her eyes trained at the fire, listening silently at her companions' talk. The group didn't need to ask her to participate; they knew full well that she's more of a listener.

So they were quite surprised when the young woman suddenly spoke up after a lengthy, funny & highly explicit tale from one of the men.

"I have one..." she told the group simply.

As it rarely happens, this was welcomed happily by the group. They urged her to move a bit forward & then fell silent as they wait for her to start. The young woman seems to be mulling her words. Then as if she decides on something, said: "Once there was a little girl."

Some of them chuckled at this & another young woman with long, auburn hair, asked her cheekily, "Is this some sort of a fairy tale?"

"Well, I think so too," the young woman answered. Then eyes crinkled in amusement, she added: "But fairy tales' were weird stories too, right?"

"Yes!" one of the young men said. "Just give her break & let her start whichever way she wanted. I bet it's a curious one since she doesn't talk normally of boring stuff."

The group their assent to this & once again, they went silent & give the young woman their full attention. The young woman then proceeded to do so. This is how her story goes.