Ghosts Around the Campfire by Schwab Ron

Author:Schwab, Ron [Schwab, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Leafcutter Publishing Group, Inc.
Published: 2015-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

Girl Possessed

CINDY RANDEAU’S HYSTERICAL screaming brought the camp to life. Some of the other girls shrieked and others squirmed deeper into the security of their sleeping bags. Julie Wilson, the girls’ attractive, young Scout leader, scurried to Cindy’s side.

“Cindy! What is it?” she asked.

Cindy, a rather fragile-looking girl of thirteen was sitting upright on top of her sleeping bag, staring with wide, glazed eyes into the blackness of the surrounding woods, apparently oblivious to Julie’s inquiry. Beads of sweat dotted her cheeks and forehead although the mid-August night was unusually cool. The girl had all of the classic symptoms of shock, Julie noted, instinctively placing her hand on the petite girl’s clammy forehead.

“Cindy, are you sick?” Julie asked. “Don’t you feel well?”

Cindy, her lips trembling, but uttering no sound, continued to stare silently as though some scene invisible to everyone else was unfolding on the fringes of the camp. Most of the other girls were gathered around Cindy and Julie now, gaping with fear and puzzlement at their friend.

Suddenly, Cindy began to speak—or at least a voice came from her lips . . . a voice unrecognizable to Julie and the girls. “I have to get help for Cathy,” the voice said. “She’s bleeding terribly . . . and Ralph, he’s unconscious, and hurt badly, too. We have to get to them . . . now!”

It was the voice of a mature woman with a rather low, almost mellow tone, in sharp contrast to Cindy’s normally high-pitched voice. The words were precisely articulated, again absent of Cindy’s youthful mumbling and contractions.

Julie grasped Cindy’s shoulders and shook her roughly. “Cindy, wake up! You’re having a nightmare. Wake up! Do you hear me?”

“I am going to help Cathy,” Cindy said determinedly in the strange voice. She rose slowly and started walking toward the woods.

Julie grabbed her wrists and pulled her back momentarily. Cindy resisted with the force of a much stronger person. Julie, realizing she could not stop the girl, said, “Wait, Cindy, let me get your coat. I’ll go with you.”

Cindy paused and turned to Julie, her eyes acknowledging the latter’s presence for the first time. “My name is Ruth,” she said. “Ruth Weston. Yes, please come with me. I need your help.” Tears streamed down the girl’s cheeks.

Julie whirled to the other girls who were terrified and awe-stricken now, speechless, every one of them, for the first time Julie could recall. “Susan, get Cindy’s jacket will you? And mine, too. It’s rolled up on my sleeping bag.” The wide-eyed girl nodded her head uncertainly and dashed away.

Singling out one of the older girls, Julie said, “Anne, I’m going with Cindy. I don’t know what this is all about, but we can’t hold her here. You’re in charge while I’m gone. If I’m not back by sunrise, you send someone to the farmhouse down the road for help.”

Anne, a tall, slender girl of sixteen, anxiously brushed back her short, honey-colored hair. “I’ll do the best I can, Julie, but the girls are all scared to death.

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