Campfire Horror Stories Vol. 2

The Tale of the Midnight Bear

A full moon. Another clear night that allows the full moon to shine ever so brightly on our village. Not a cloud in sight. I can already hear his mighty roars echoing from the forest. Those terrible sounds no longer terrify me as much as they used to...

"What should we do, Zoey?" my younger brother, Todd, asked me.

As we sat huddled by the fire, I thought about how we should handle this ancient beast. "We have oil, torches, silver swords, and axes. There must be some way to lure it into a trap," I answered.

Todd pounded his fist into the dirt out of pure frustration. "Fuck this stupid bear! Why must it be so difficult to kill?!"

I put my finger to my lips. "Shhh! It'll hear us."

Another roar came out from the woods.

Todd hung his head low. "Sorry."

"AAAAARRRGGHH!"

"That sounded like...Rebecca," I said in a low voice. A tear streamed down my face. I was not all that sad since, I've gotten used to death but, still. Rebecca was a good friend of mine. "We will not be next."

Judging from where the scream came from, I decided to lay an oil trap in that direction for when the bear comes to try and kill us. I even put pointed sticks into the ground where the bushes are; it tends to love rampaging everywhere, not caring about it's own surroundings. All of this won't be good enough to kill it, which is why it's so careless, but these traps will slow it down at the very least.

Todd and I both jumped up as we suddenly heard someone running in the forest. The midnight bear is probably chasing that person. Naturally, my brother and I assumed defensive positions in a timely fashion. Surprisingly, we only heard the person running for a while.

Eventually, the runner came into view in nearby clearing; it was Jared Parlons. An expert hunter that always wanted to kill the midnight bear. He had a stern look on his face, and his body seemed calm. Did he have a solid plan for killing the beast?

Just then, Jared stopped running as soon as he got to the middle of the clearing, and placed the torch he was running with into the ground. He picked up his shield, put the shield on his back, then picked up a crossbow, and stood in a ready position for, what I assume, the midnight bear. There is definitely a trap somewhere in or around that clearing. This might be it.

A deafening roar came from close by. It's time. The hunter now has his chance to face the mighty beast.

A tall, black bear came rampaging out of the shadows to attack the hunter. Jared spun around and immediately went on the defensive attack by firing arrows at the beast. A good way to keep distance while still maintaining offensive pressure. Unluckily, the bear managed to easily dodge arrow.

There were no more arrows in his crossbow. The hunter was not finished yet, as he soon picked up a nearby axe. He quickly got to slashing away at the beast. Then, the bear took one wrong step, and fell into a pit. Jared quickly grabbed the torched he had placed in the dirt not too long ago, and threw it into the pit. As a finisher, he swung his axe at the trapped midnight bear.

A loud cry ushered out from the pit. Yes! The hunter slayed the beast!

"NOOO!"

What's this? Why is Jared screaming no? What happened?

That's when I saw that his axe was not dripping with blood. It was a shadow illusion. The midnight bear knew the clearing was a trap. Sneaky bastard.

Jared frantically spun around to see if the bear was nearby. Even though the bear was not in the area, he still had his guard up. Astonishingly, he was right to have his guard up, as a tree came flying out of the forest, aimed right for him.

Or so I thought.

Instead, the tree was going right over Jared's head. But why? Well, apparently it was used as a way of transportation, because the midnight bear came right out of the tree's shadow. The hunter saw this coming and quickly swung his axe at the beast. The bear caught the handle with it's bare teeth.

In one simple slash, the midnight bear had defeated the hunter. Half of Jared's face came clean off. While he howled in pain, I saw for my very own eyes a man being eaten alive. I ended up puking.

We were definitely not ready to face the Midnight Bear.