The Beast – A Spooky Story

There was a dark, crisp night, with a consistent chilly breeze. The stars glistened like glitter across the midnight sky, far from civilization. There sits a quaint little campfire beside an arrangement of tents, and the laughter of children fills the air. The teenage supervisor hushes them, and the group sits criss-cross applesauce around the confined flame. 

The group was made up of five children and a teenager, with no adults. A perfect recipe for disaster. It’s almost time for bed, and it’s time for a scary story to end the night. The counselor claims to have an exciting tale, a story so terrifying that the children will never sleep again. Once everyone has gathered around, he starts to tell the story.

“It was a dark and stormy night,” the human life form in charge known as Andy begins. “The beast hides in the shadows and creeps around the corners, seeking out their next victim.” He makes exaggerated motions with his hands toward the children, but they seem to be unimpressed.

One of the children, Kayden, let out an obnoxious sigh. “This is super boring,” they complained. “You said it was gonna be scary. Tell us a better story!” The other children nodded vigorously in agreement.

“I haven’t even started yet,” Andy insists, slightly annoyed with the campers’ short attention spans. He continues from where he left off before he was interrupted so disrespectfully. “The monster searches for weak humans to devour, which it must do to sustain itself. Anyone will do,” Andy says while lowering his voice mysteriously. He is getting too into the story. “But young mischievous children who disrespect their elders are its favorite thing to eat.”

The children yawn and wish they could watch their Tok-Toks or whatever popular app is consuming their attention spans and souls instead, or simply go to bed already. “You’re just saying all this to scare us into behaving!” Young Charlotte exclaims. Even I’m getting annoyed, these kids have no respect for good storytelling, or at least the fact that poor Andy is trying his best. 

“A long time ago, the beast came across a lone cabin in the woods,” Andy attempts to salvage this story, but it is futile. The children are pretending to be asleep, and the campfire has dimmed to only a small flicker. He gives up, exclaiming “Oh, forget it! You don’t care anyway. Let’s just go to bed, I guess. Everyone go to your tents.”

The kids that were pretending to be asleep have gotten up and walked to their tents, discussing with each other not so quietly about how awful the story was and that they supposedly could have done better. Andy puts out the dying fire before sitting alone and watching to make sure all of the children are safely inside their tents. He sighed and went inside his tent to sleep disappointed.

Shame, I was curious where his story was going. I crept out from my hiding place behind the trees. It’s too bad for the kids that they ended the story so soon, I was considering hunting something easier instead. Andy was right about one thing, young mischievous children who disrespect their elders are my favorite.