by Rob Keeley
“Tell you what,” he said awkwardly. “Let’s get into our sleeping bags now.” It would be cosier, and more reassuring, to be in the sleeping bags’ warmth and comfort. It would probably be better for Sam as well. “Then…” he went on reluctantly. “You can tell us a story if you want.”
A minute or so later, they were ready, sitting up in their sleeping bags. Sam sat there rather anxiously, surrounded by his bunnies. Jack had given his little brother his teddy, for extra comfort, and Sam was hugging it tightly.
Jack and Sam looked on expectantly.
Elliott was ready.
He hesitated for a moment before he began, enjoying their attention. Elliott loved an audience.
“It was a night just like this,” he began quietly. “Dark…and spooky…and mysterious. And there was a group of people…out on a camping trip…”
Jack and Sam looked uneasy.
“Yeah,” Elliott agreed. “Just like us. Out in a tent… with no one else near for miles around. Or…” He adopted his frightening look, and stared at Sam. “Was there?”
Sam squeezed the teddy tightly.
After a pause, Elliott went on with his story.
“They made themselves a meal. Cooked it over the campfire. Then, darkness fell. A terrible darkness. So dark, they couldn’t see a thing. They settled down for the night.”
Sam and Jack looked back at him.
“An hour passed,” Elliott went on. “Maybe two. Then, one of the campers…the youngest one…” He looked straight at Sam, who shrank down into the sleeping bag. “He woke up…to hear…something… approaching the tent.”
Sam’s eyes widened.
“Something…” Elliott went on, “…big. He heard the sound as it came…slowly…and menacingly… towards him.” He opened his mouth wide to increase the dramatic effect. “This was no human being. This was something altogether…” He allowed a scary expression to enter his eyes. “Different!”
Sam swallowed.
“He lay there,” Elliott went on, “for what seemed like forever, until the beast, whatever it was, was right outside the tent. Then!”
He gasped.
Sam was starting to shake.
“He saw…” Elliott’s voice shrank to a whisper. “The tent-flap starting to open!”
Sam blinked wildly.
“And suddenly…” Elliott continued. “Suddenly…”
All at once, he shot out a hand and grabbed Sam. “ROAR!”
Sam shrieked and disappeared into the sleeping bag.
Elliott burst out laughing.
“Elliott!” Annoyed, Jack aimed a swipe at Elliott, who dodged, laughing all the while.
“Had you going!” Elliott’s face was red from laughing so hard.
Jack looked concernedly at Sam, who was emerging from his hiding place, also looking rather red in the face.
“Right, that’s it!” Jack had had enough of all this talk about ghosts and monsters. It wasn’t making him feel much better than Sam. “We’re going to sleep!” He flung himself down into a sleeping position.
“Suit yourself,” Elliott said, rather grumpily. He’d thought it was quite a good joke. He couldn’t see why Jack and Sam didn’t want to share it. This camping trip was no fun.
“Hey.” The voice was Sam’s.
Jack sat up again, and he and Elliott looked at Sam.
“Isn’t it…” Sam gulped. “Isn’t it getting darker in here?”
Jack and Elliott exchanged glances.
Then they looked around the tent.
Sam was right.
It was.
Slowly, they all looked at the lantern, their only source of light.
The light was starting to fade.
All around them, the tent was being cast into shadows. The farthest corners, which had been brightly lit a short time before, were now dark and gloomy. The centre, where they sat, was shrouded in a dimmer, yellow light, a less powerful light – a light that was flickering.
And shadows were beginning to creep across their faces.
“It’s happening!” Sam’s voice was quiet, but terrified. “Darkness falling! Just like Elliott said!”
“Don’t be stupid!” Jack came back sharply.
“It is!” Sam cried desperately. “Just like in the story!”
Jack looked around the tent in sudden fear.
He had already had to face the darkness falling outside the tent.
Now, there was darkness to face within.
For a moment, they stared at one another in horror.
Then, Jack looked at the lantern, and realised.
He made a sudden grab for it.
“You didn’t change the batteries!” He glared at Elliott. “I thought you said you were going to put new ones in!”
“I thought you did!” Elliott snapped back.
“Oh, well, that’s great, that is!” Jack glowered. “Out here in the dark, you getting us all spooked, and now we’re going to have no light!”
“I thought you said you weren’t scared!” Elliott retorted.
For a moment, they continued to stare at the fading light.
“We’ll have to put it out,” Elliott said eventually. He had quickly reassumed his position as the one who always knew what to do. “Put it out before we go to sleep. In case we need it in the night. We can’t risk leaving it on and having it go out on us when we need it.”
Jack frowned. This was brilliant. All of them shaken up by Elliott’s stupid clowning…and now no light.
But Elliott was right…unfortunately.
They’d have to put the light out.
“Better get on with it then,” he said reluctantly.
Slowly, the three of them settled down into their sleeping bags. Jack was the last.
He reached for the flickering lantern.
“Ready?” he asked.
After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out and flicked the switch.
The tent was plunged into total darkness.
It was later. How much later, Jack didn’t know. He couldn’t see his watch in the dark.
He couldn’t get to sleep.
Elliott had gone off some time ago. Jack knew that, because Elliott snored. That was something else to annoy Jack.
He wasn’t sure about Sam.
It was an odd feeling, lying there in the dark. Not knowing for sure how far the darkness extended around you, how far it was to the canvas walls of the tent.
And not knowing what might be lurking in the darkness outside.
Jack scowled to himself. Elliott and his stupid stories, getting them all nervous! Monsters lurking out in the night! What rubbish.
“Jack!”
Jack jumped.
Then he breathed a sigh of relief.
It was only Sam.
“What?” he asked, rather irritably.
“I can’t sleep!” Sam’s voice came plaintively out of the darkness.
Jack groaned inwardly.
“I keep thinking…” Sam went on. “About us lying here in the tent…and what could be out there…”
“Oh…” Jack was really annoyed now. “That’s just Elliott winding you up…that’s what he’s like. Take no notice. Just go to sleep.”
“I can’t!” Sam insisted.
Jack took a deep breath. He couldn’t very well tell Sam off for not being able to sleep, when neither could he.
He had to calm them both down…so they could get some rest.
Then he had a brainwave.
“Hang on, Sam,” he said gently. “Look, tell you what. Lie back. Lie down. And get hold of Teddy. OK?”
“Yeah…” Sam’s puzzled voice came back.
“OK.” Jack paused. “Now…I’m going to tell you a story.”
“I don’t want another one!” Sam howled. Elliott’s had been quite enough.
“You will,” Jack replied, quite firmly. “Now…listen.”
There was silence. Sam was listening.
Jack paused momentarily. Then
he began his story.
“When I was your age…bit younger I suppose, I used to have this nightmare. This bad dream. In the dream, I was lying in bed, in the darkness…pretty much like we are now…when I heard this whining sound…coming from outside the window.”
There was a rustling sound as Sam shrank down into the sleeping bag.
“And, in the dream…” Jack continued, “…I got up out of bed…and went to the window. The curtains were drawn…and I reached out…and pulled them back. And there…outside the window…was a face. A big, white, terrifying face!”
Sam gasped. Jack quickly moved on. Unlike Elliott, he wasn’t trying to scare Sam.
“So…” Jack went on. “I used to lie awake every night…looking at the curtains…which were closed, just like they were in my dream…and be really, really scared. Because I thought the face was really there… outside the window…waiting for me to pull back the curtains. So it could get me.
‘It went on…oh, must have been for weeks. I never mentioned it to Mum or Dad. You’re the first one I’ve ever told.
‘Then one night…I’d had enough. I was lying there…and suddenly I wasn’t scared any more. Suddenly, I was going to see it…whatever might be outside the window.
‘I got out of bed…just like in the dream…and went over to the curtains. And I grabbed them, and pulled them open. And do you know what I saw?”
There was silence from Sam.
“I saw this great view!” Jack explained. “Right across the town! All the houses, the church and everything… all lit up by the moon. It looked brilliant. And there was no sign of the face. Course there wasn’t. It was all in my mind! Just a nasty dream. None of it was real at all.”
He paused. He couldn’t see Sam…yet he was sure his little brother was smiling.
“And it’s the same with Elliott’s stories,” Jack finished. “All this stuff about things out there in the dark…it’s just stupid. It only goes on inside our heads. And Elliott knows that too. That’s why his daft stories worked…and why we were scared. It’s all in our heads. And that’s just stupid.”
He paused for breath.
“Are you OK now?” he asked gently.
“Yeah,” Sam’s voice came back. He sounded quite happy. “Thanks, Jack.”
“That’s all right,” Jack answered. “Now,” he said quietly. “Let’s go to sleep.”
There was a rustling sound as the two of them settled down in their sleeping bags once more.
Jack smiled to himself in the darkness.
It had worked, just as he had hoped. The story had calmed them both down.
Now Jack was going to sleep, in case Sam realised that Jack had just made the whole tale up on the spur of the moment.
Elliott had been wrong. He wasn’t the best storyteller in the tent.
Jack snuggled down in the sleeping bag, happy and relaxed once more, and ready to sleep.
Then he gave a yell, as something big and furry shot through the darkness and landed hard on his face.
Jack sat bolt upright in his sleeping bag.
Whatever had been on his face was suddenly gone…yet he could still feel the tingling that its fur had brought.
“What’s happening?” Elliott was awake, shouting in the darkness.
There was another scream, from Sam.
“Sam?” Jack shouted. “What’s going on?”
“Jack!” the small boy shrieked. “Jack, where are you?”
“What’s going on?” Elliott bawled.
“There’s something in here with us!” Jack was shaking. “I felt it…on my face!”
“It’s here!” For the first time since they had entered the tent, Elliott sounded really afraid. “It’s next to me – ah!” He gave a sudden cry.
“What’s happened?” Jack shouted.
“Oh!” Elliott gasped. “It’s here! It’s by me!”
“Where’s the light?” Jack cried. “We’ve got to find the light!”
He felt round in the darkness frantically. His hands met the rucksack, the remains of their picnic…even the pack of cards…but no lantern.
Where was it?
He gasped.
The creature…whatever it was…had just brushed his hand with its fur.
He leapt back.
“It’s there!” he shouted.
“Where is the light?” Elliott yelled back.
“I don’t know!” Jack cried. “Help me find it!”
“I’m not!” Elliott sounded really scared now. “It’s got me once already!”
“It’s the monster!” A cry came from Sam. “Just like in the story! It’s happening just like Elliott said!”
“Shut up!” Elliott cried. This was bad enough… without it being his fault. Actually, he had an awful feeling that it was. His story did seem to be coming true.
“Find that lantern!” Jack insisted. “Come on, help me!”
“Oh…” Elliott started to feel round the tent. His hand met whatever it was once more and he gave another cry.
“The lantern’s not here!”
“It must be!” Jack retorted.
“Jack, I want to go home!” Sam’s voice came. “Let me go home!”
“Be quiet!” Jack shouted. “And help us find it!”
There was silence as Sam started to help in the search for the lantern.
Then, the silence was broken.
A horrible, hissing sound filled the air. It grew louder…
There were two more cries of fear, one from Sam – and one from Elliott.
“What is it?” Elliott howled. “What is it? Oh!”
He cried out again. There was a pause, and then a crash. It sounded as if he had fallen backwards onto the tent floor.
“It’s on me!” he shouted. “Get off me!” He addressed the unseen creature. “Get off me, get off!”
There was a loud hissing again, and then a scurrying sound as whatever it was came back across the tent.
“Keep it away from Sam!” Jack cried. He wasn’t having his little brother in danger.
“Oh, I’m frightened!” Elliott’s terrified voice came again. The tough guy of earlier, full of confidence and jokes, seemed to have vanished. “I want to get out of here! Where’s the door?” There was the sound of him fumbling around the tent, trying to find the exit.
“Keep still!” Jack yelled. “Whatever it is, we don’t want to get it angry! Now help me find that light!”
In desperation, the three of them tried to find the lantern. They found the carton from Sam’s drink, his teddy – which made them all yell again - and the cards, several times – but no lantern.
“Oh, I’ve had enough!” Elliott wailed. To hear his voice, you would have thought that he was younger than Sam. “I want to go home too!”
“Hang on!” Sam yelled. “I’ve got it!”
“Got it?” Elliott made a grab for the lantern in the darkness. There was a sudden crash.
“What’s happened?” Jack shouted.
“I’ve dropped it!”
“Oh!” Jack exclaimed in fury. He reached down and found the lantern, rolling around the tent floor at his feet. He flicked the switch.
Nothing happened.
“Oh, Elliott!” Jack bellowed. “You’ve broken it!”
“Oh, I want to go!” Sam howled.
“Well, that’s it!” Jack yelled. “That’s our light gone!”
“Oh, I’m getting out of here!” The tent rocked as Elliott tried again to find the way out.
“Wait!” Sam cried. “I’ve just remembered something…before we came out…Mum gave me another torch!”
“What?” Jack cried.
“For emergencies!” Sam remembered. “The little torch of Dad’s!”
“Well, where is it?” Jack asked.
“In the rucksack!”
All three of them made a grab for the rucksack.
The creature in the darkness was hissing again – and as Elliott tried to find the rucksack, it brushed again
st him once more. He yelped.
“Hang on! I’ve found it!” Jack seized the rucksack and rummaged in it frantically. He found sandwich wrappers, apple cores, the wallet that still had the change from his school dinner money in it… “Where is it?”
“In the front!” Sam shouted. “The front pocket!”
Jack unzipped it quickly.
And there was the torch!
He flicked it on.
All three of them turned slowly as light filled the tent once more, to see what the creature was.
As one, the three boys cried out.
“A cat!”
A black and white cat looked back at them, hissing, tense and obviously just as frightened as they were.
“Go on! Shoo!” Jack could see the tent flap now. It was very slightly open. That was how the cat must have got in. He opened it wide. “Get out!”
Its escape route open, the cat fled.
The three boys paused.
Then they looked at one another.
Elliott stared at Jack and Sam.
Then he went bright red.
“Well…” he said defensively. “I didn’t know what it was, did I?”
“No,” Jack admitted. “Weird, though.”
He gave a sudden grin, which Sam shared.
“I thought you were the one who was never scared.” Morning came – to the relief of all three of them. And perhaps also, to the relief of the cat.
Jack, Sam and Elliott sat up dozily, and struggled out of their sleeping bags. They yawned and stretched.
It was no longer dark, inside or outside the tent. The morning was fine, and brilliant sunshine gleamed its way through the tent flap.
Elliott was unusually quiet. Jack and Sam felt oddly cheerful.
“Sleep well?” Jack asked Sam.
“Fine.” Sam smiled happily.
“Right then.” Jack scrambled to his feet. “Let’s go in. Mum said you could stay for breakfast, Ell.”
Elliott cheered up at the mention of this.
Contentedly, the three campers stepped out of the tent, crossed Jack and Sam’s garden and headed for the house.