Fun Campfire Ghost Stories (7 page)

The damp fern covered ground barely made a
sound as Will walked and walked. The trees took on a look like he
had seen last year in a swamp monster movie. Rising out of the
swamp water, the trees, hanging with moss, occasionally blocked
some of the bright moonlight shinning down through the thickening
mist. An owl’s howl was the only thing that broke the silence all
around him.

Will started to become disappointed since he
was really hoping to see the headless horseman. He knew that he was
going to have to turn back soon.

Suddenly, in the distance ahead of him, Will
heard the clopity clop sound of a hoofed animal heading toward him.
As it got closer, he could hear a snorting sound of an animal
breathing hard. Will stood there staining his eyes when, coming out
of the mist at a full gallop was a horse snorting mist out of its
nose. The rider wore a dark flowing cloak, held the reins with
black gloves and appeared to be headless. Will could not believe
his eyes. “How cool,” he said. Just as the horse was almost in arms
length, a dark cloud moved in front of the moon and darkness fell
over the swamp. Will could feel the movement of the air as the
horse and rider rushed by.

The cloud moved away from the moon making the
swamp visible again. Will remained silent hoping to hear the sound
of the running horse, but all was quite. Even the owl’s howl had
stopped. Moments later, the horse and headless rider appeared from
a different direction heading toward Will. Will just stood there
and called out, “WOW this is so cool. I wish my cousin was here to
see this!” The headless horseman came again from another direction
and rushed by Will, the horse snorting and hoofs clanking. Will was
having such a great time that he sat on the fern covered ground and
yelled out into the dark, “Do it again.”

The horse and headless rider charged again
and again, going by Will with just inches to spare. About an hour
later the horse and rider made one last charge. Will just sat there
clapping. As the horse got closer it started to slow until it
finally stopped right next to Will. It just stood there pawing the
ground with one leg and breathing hard while the headless rider sat
there kind of slumped over like he was tired. Will stood up and
said that he enjoyed seeing them, but it was late and he had to get
back to the Halloween party. The only thing was that, in all the
excitement, he had forgotten the way back. Will thought for a
moment and then said, “Can you give me a ride?” If a horse can make
an expression than it appeared to Will to say, you’ve got to be
kidding me! The horse looked back at the headless rider shook his
head once and in a moment the headless rider reached out his gloved
hand toward Will. Will grabbed the glove and was pulled up onto the
horse. Sitting behind the headless rider, the horse reared up and
started running like the wind. Within a couple of minutes the horse
stopped just outside of the building where the Halloween party was
being held. Will jumped off, thanked the headless horseman and
waved as the horse and rider disappeared down the road.

Will rushed into the party and told his
cousin and his friends all about it. He even took them outside to
show them the hoof marks in the dirt road. They initially did not
believe him, but after a few years of no headless horseman
sightings, everyone began to believe the story of the boy with no
fear. He became known as the only person who could give a headless
horseman a headache.

*****

M
ark was walking home
from school with his best friend David. David was telling Mark
about a scary movie he had seen last weekend that had made the hair
stand up on the back of his neck and gave him the willies. Mark
said that he had seen that movie also, but it did not give him the
willies. As a matter of fact, he had never had the “willies” before
and would really like to have them.

That night at dinner, Mark told his parents
that he had never had the willies and would really like to have
them. His dad told him to wait for Halloween and he was sure that
Mark would get the willies then.

Halloween came and Mark waited with
anticipation of getting the willies. His dad even dressed up as a
zombie and jumped out from behind the basement door, but Mark still
did not get the willies. As the years went by Mark thought for sure
he would never get the willies.

One day, Mark’s girlfriend Sara, told him
about two witches that lived near the city dump in an old
dilapidated house with a rusty roof. Sara said that the witches
were identical twins and that one was good and one was evil. “The
evil one should be able to tell you how to get the willies,” Sara
said.

On the weekend, Mark told his parents that he
was going camping with David and would be back in a couple of days.
When he left his house with his sleeping bag and gear, he headed
straight for the dump. He arrived at the witches’ house, opened the
broken gate, headed up onto the rotting porch and knocked on the
cracked front door. The door slowly opened with a creeeek, pulling
cobwebs from the frame. Mark stepped into the entrance hall. There,
at the top of the stairs, was a pair of women, dressed identically
in black robes. They had long finger nails, bonny hands, long noses
with warts and black pointy hats. The witches pointed their long
fingers at Mark and in unison asked him what he wanted. Mark said
he needed to ask the evil witch a question. The witches, in unison,
said that he had to decide which witch to ask the question. If he
chose the wrong one, they would be forced by witch law to cook him
for dinner. Mark knew he had to choose, but which witch was which?
All of a sudden, Mark remembered the Wizard of Oz story and he got
an idea. He remembered an old rusty bucket in the front yard and an
old well. He said, “Hold on, I’ll be right back.” Mark turned and
rushed out the front door and filled up the rusty bucket with old
well water. He returned to the front entrance of the house with his
bucket full of water. He told the witches that he was going to
throw the water on them and he knew that the water would melt the
evil witch if she did not tell him what he wanted to know. The
witch on the left shook her head and said, “What do you want?”

Mark said that he wanted to get the willies.
The witches looked at each other with a bewildered look on their
faces. Mark told them that he had never had the willies and wanted
to have them. The good witch looked at Mark and asked him if he had
ever seen a ghost? Mark told her that ghosts were cowards, because
they had no guts! The evil witch told Mark that if he did a favor
for her than she was sure that he would get the willies.

The witch told Mark about a ghoul that had
escaped from their basement. He was last seen in an old overgrown
rocky gorge just beyond the old dump. The ghoul was a meat eater
and could not be killed. The witches explained that the ghoul did
some odd jobs for them at times and they wanted him back. Mark
agreed to bring the ghoul home.

Mark headed for the hardware store. He
purchased a bear trap, a long chain, some duct tape and some spicy
beef jerky.

It was late afternoon when Mark arrived at
the edge of the old gorge. He saw a dead end canyon, off the main
gorge, that had no way out except the way in. Mark climbed down
into the gorge and walked into the dead end canyon dropping pieces
of beef jerky along the way. Close to the end of the canyon, Mark
set the bear trap on the trail and covered it over with sticks and
leaves. He attached the chain to the trap and wrapped the other end
around a nearby tree. Mark put out his sleeping bag, started a fire
and had his dinner.

About an hour later, Mark could hear
something moving up the trail. He decided to make sure the ghoul
would know he was there so he started yelling, “What position does
a ghoul play on the soccer team? The ghoulie.” Then he yelled out,
“Want some ghoul scout cookies?” and “You’re no ghoul friend of
mine!” Suddenly, the ghoul appeared on the trail about three feet
in front of the trap. It stopped and just stared at Mark. Mark
noticed that the creature had eight hairy arms. (He could see how
this ghoul could be handy working for the witches.) Mark stared
back, slowing raising his open hands to the sides of his head. He
put the thumbs of his hands up to his ears and started waving his
hands as he stuck his tongue out at the ghoul.

The monster’s eyes turned blood red and it
began to run straight for Mark. CLAP went the bear trap catching
the ghouls left leg. The ghoul fell over and hit its head on the
tree. Mark saw that this was his chance before the creature
regained its senses. He ran over to the ghoul with the duct tape
and quickly wrapped up the creatures arms, legs and mouth.

Mark laughed as he finished wrapping up. He
remembered an old saying he had heard…“There are a thousand
different things you can do with duct tape.” Well he had just come
up with another.

It was the next morning before Mark arrived
back at the witches’ house. Dragging that big hairy ghoul all night
had put Mark in a foul mood. He kicked open the door and pulled the
creature into the entrance hall. The witches appeared at the top of
the stairs staring in amazement. “Here is your ghoul, now how about
my willies?” He said.

The witch on the left made an incantation and
then threw a fireball toward Mark. Mark rolled to dodge the
fireball and ended up right next to the bucket of water he had left
the day before. Mark stood up grabbed the bucket and threw the
water on the witches. The witches started screaming, smoking and
melting. I guess they both were evil, Mark thought to himself. He
looked at the ghoul, which appeared to be giggling at the sight of
the witches melting down to a pile of gooo.

Mark never gave up! He knew that someday he
would get the willies.

Years later he married his girlfriend, Sara.
They ended up having triplets, three boys that Mark and Sara named
Willie, Willie and Willie. Mark finally got his willies.

*****

I
had spent the day
getting ready for our camping trip. My Dad and I were heading to
Squirrel Hills Camp Grounds and Buster, my dog, was going with us.
I had gathered my sleeping bag, canteen, flashlight and comic books
into my backpack. Mom packed our food, while Dad loaded the car. As
we jumped into the car for the hour trip to the campgrounds, we
waved goodbye to Mom as she told Dad not to let me eat too much
chocolate before bed. “Too much sugar before bed can play havoc on
your restful sleep,” she said.

The drive to Squirrel Hills seemed like a
short one. As we went down the road passing forests, hills, valleys
and creeks, I spotted all sorts of wildlife from the car window. I
saw deer in the valley and a bear by the creek---this was going to
be the best trip ever!

We pulled into the camping area at Squirrel
Hills and parked at our spot. There was hardly anybody else there.
Dad said that it was the off season, so we might even have the
whole place to ourselves that night.

We set up our tents, gathered firewood and
laid out our sleeping bags. I had never seen so many squirrels in
one place before. They were running all over, chasing each other
and making all sorts of chatter while flicking their tales. They
seemed either excited or agitated that we were there. Buster sure
that a great time chasing them around.

As the sun started to set behind the tree
covered hills, Dad started a fire and we prepared the dinner that
Mom packed for us. “Nothing better than hotdogs and hamburgers
cooked over an open fire,” Dad said.

I ate more than I think I have ever eaten
before. I thought that I would never have to eat again. Dad said,
“Ready for desert? Mom has packed us a chocolate cake and some
marshmallows and chocolate bars.” I told Dad that I was too full
and could not eat another thing.