Campfire Ghost E-Book

Foxglove Lee

• Herausgeber: Rainbow Crush
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Meet Theresa, an imaginative young girl spending an ordinary day alone at her family's idyllic lakeside cottage. Her older sister is meant to be in charge while their parents are in town, but Maxine goes off to the beach with her teenage friends, leaving little Theresa all to her lonesome.

Enter Hailey, a spirited new companion whose family has rented a cottage nearby. A fast bond forms between the solitary children, kindling a friendship that is sorely needed for both.

Yet, beneath the laughter and camaraderie, an unsettling aura lurks, casting shadows that dance in the corners of perception. As Theresa and Hailey's friendship blossoms, a chilling puzzle unfolds, leading to a hair-raising revelation that will leave you spellbound.

"Campfire Ghost" weaves a web of intrigue that keeps readers mesmerized until the very end. Read it today and find yourself entangled in a tale where reality blurs with the supernatural and mysterious encounters are only a flame's flicker away.

Leseprobe

Campfire Ghost © 2023 by Foxglove Lee

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design © 2023 Foxglove Lee

First Edition August 2023

Table of Contents

Copyright Page

Campfire Ghost

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Campfire Ghost

from the

Queer Ghost Stories

series

By Foxglove Lee

Chapter One

Theresa stood at the edge of the dock, watching the sunfish form an underwater semi-circle that reminded her of Cousin Jonathan's army men. 

One summer, when Jonathan and Auntie Susie and Uncle Stanley came up to the cottage, Theresa and her cousin invented a game: they lined up Jonathan's army men in formation to see who could knock the most down.  For that part of the game, they used the plastic bowling ball from the set Gramma had given them. 

Gramma loved five-pin bowling, and she had talent.  She even got the trophies to prove it. 

Before Gramma started bowling, her hobbies included playing bingo at the Lions' Club hall and gambling on slot machines. 

Auntie Susie wanted her to take up a more active pastime. 

Gramma said she chose bowling because she could smoke on the sidelines.  Not just that, but the bowling alley served her all-time favourite meal, which was french fries drenched in brown gravy.

As soon as Theresa started thinking about playing Army Man Bowling with Cousin Jonathan, she realized she hadn't seen that plastic bowling ball, not to mention the pins that came with it, in quite some time. 

“Wait right there,” she told the sunfish. 

The sunfish didn't answer.  They didn't even go “glub-glub” like her goldfish did, back home.

Racing toward shore, Theresa leapt the small gap between the dock and dry land.  Her mother had placed a wooden plank between the two, but Theresa preferred to run real fast and then jump.  She never fell in the water.  Not even once.  Her father said it was because she'd built up so much forward momentum.

Her father liked to run and jump, too.

The only thing that separated the little lake from her family's property was a small strip of grassy shoreline and a gravel road.  It wasn't a road like the streets in town.  Those ones were paved and had stoplights and all those things.  The gravel road only had one lane, which meant cars had to drive real slow in case another car was coming in the opposite direction. 

Theresa's older sister, Maxine, just got her learner's permit in May.  When they first came up to the cottage at the start of the summer, Daddy let Maxine take the wheel.  She freaked out when another car appeared on the gravel road.

“Daddy!” she screamed.  “I'm gonna crash!  We're all gonna die!”

Their father had responded calmly, as always.  Daddy never got upset about anything.  He gently said, “Nobody's going to die, Maxine.  Just put it in reverse and we'll back up to the end of the road.”

“That's too far!” Maxine cried.

“It's not that far,” Daddy assured her.  “We'll let the other car go first, and then we'll take our turn.  You've seen me do it a hundred times.  You can do it, too.  I know you can.”

Maxine whined a whole bunch, but Daddy gave her simple instructions to guide her all the way back, and then all the way forward again. 

Even though the whole family arrived at the cottage unscathed, Theresa's mother decided it would be for the best if Maxine only drove when it was just she and her father alone in the car.  At least until she developed a bit more confidence.

That was all the way back at the start of summer.  Maxine had gone out in the car a whole bunch since then.  Daddy said she was getting more relaxed and screaming considerably less.

Theresa raced across the gravel road, past the place where the flowers were, and up the path on their property.  The cottage was recessed in from the road, which meant it was far back, not that it was on break in the schoolyard.  Theresa thought it was funny how the same word could mean different things, like how steer could be the way you move a car, but it could also be a boy cow.

Nobody was home inside the cottage, so Theresa darted to the left of the single-storey structure, moving ably through the sand that surrounded it.  She stopped to look at the canoe, which was overturned and sitting on two big logs. 

When Theresa was little, her mother and father used to walk the canoe down to the end of the gravel road and put it in the water.  The mouth of the big lake gave way to a river that had lots of reeds and lily pads and birds like the great blue heron, which was the biggest bird Theresa had ever seen.  It had long legs and a long neck and a long beak, and also it was blue. 

The heron was Theresa's favourite bird.  Every time she spotted one on the floating dock in the centre of the little lake, she made everybody stop just to look at it.  Sometimes Maxine would get bored and annoyed, and she'd throw pinecones at the water to try to scare the heron away.  Then Theresa would get angry with her sister, and sometimes even smack her, and the heron would fly away, and their mother would say, “You see what happens when you girls fight?”

Maxine would cross her arms in front of her chest and say, “Good!  I never asked for a sister, anyway!”

Their mother would scowl and get very flustered.  “That's a horrible thing to say, Maxine.  A horrible, horrible thing.”

It had been a long time since they'd gone out in the canoe.  Why so long, she wondered?

Theresa made her way to the yard behind the cottage, where she and her cousin often left their toys strewn about.  The cottage was different from home, that way.  At home, Theresa wasn't supposed to leave things out in the yard.  She had to put her bicycle in the garage and her skipping rope in the shed and bring her Jem doll inside before dinnertime. 

At the cottage, she was allowed to leave things outside because nobody stole stuff, and even if kids did borrow your toys for a while, they'd either bring them back or you'd find them by the side of the road later on.

Except, what had happened to the plastic bowling ball and the set of pins from Gramma?  They used to be out in the yard, but now Theresa couldn't find them anywhere. 

Maybe some other kids had borrowed them, and she'd find them if she walked to the big lake. 

She started off in that direction, but stopped abruptly when she remembered what Maxine had told her: “Don't even think about showing your stupid face on the beach today.  I'm hanging out with my friends, and I don't want some snot-nosed brat cramping my style.”

Theresa had learned not to cry when Maxine hurt her feelings. 

When she cried, Maxine just hurt them more.

So she did as she was told and stayed close to the cottage.