Having finally had enough of the silence (and being sick of keeping her frightened thoughts inside), Jess finally broke the tension.

"Should we have stayed down there and dug up under the scarecrow? I mean, what if there really is a body under there?"

"I know what it looks like but there can't be a body there. It wouldn't make any sense." Kyle assured her.

"He's right," Katie agreed. "Why would they go to so much effort of throwing a body down there, and then just go and bury another one? Especially when Cameron just left the first one lying around like a dirty sock!"

"Did you just compare a dead child to a dirty sock?" Kyle laughed, but Katie simply shrugged. Ignoring the rather disturbing conversation, Matt gave Jess another answer.

"I looked at the ground where the cross was planted. I know it was dark but there's no way that's freshly dug. It isn't like soil or whatever; it's just grass with a cross stuck into it. Like Kyle last night with that stick!" He became a lot more animated when he thought of a suitable example. "But we can still check it out tomorrow."

"You know, seeing as you're so scared, maybe you and Kyle can share a tent and cuddle each other to sleep?" Katie jokingly suggested. Not taking the joke lightly at all, Jess gave her the finger.

"Come on Katie," Kyle sighed, looking across the fire at her. The tents were once again in a circle and this time Kyle was determined to fall asleep inside his. "We were all scared. Including you."

"Fine. Sorry Jess," Katie groaned. "Makes you feel a little bit stupid though, doesn't it? That we were afraid of a straw-man! If I wasn't so scared I would have laughed. I bet we looked like the kids from Scooby Doo!"

"Yeah. In hindsight it wasn't scary at all," Kyle sighed. "Speaking of scary, have you guys heard of the haunted place up-state, Malvern Manor?"

"I have!" Matt cried excitedly. "I listened to a podcast about it not long ago!"

"Of course you listen to podcasts." You could almost hear Katie's eyes rolling.

"They're very informative, I'll have you know!" He said defensively.

"I know I'm going to regret asking this," Jess whispered before asking louder, "But what makes it so haunted?"

Before any of the boys could answer, Katie yelled for them to wait. She briefly dug around in her bag before pulling out four bottles of beer.

"If we're gonna be telling ghost stories for our Saturday night then we're gonna need these. They're warm as hell but they'll do. I stole them from my brother's stash," She said, handing them out to her companions.

"You've been carrying these the whole time? No wonder you're always so far behind!" Kyle laughed.

"I have four more so any more comments like that and you don't get one." She warned.

Kyle surrendered and they all settled down before he began his story.

"Ok so there's this place in Malvern, that used to be used as like a mental hospital or something, and its soooo haunted. Apparently a lot of the patients were treated so horribly that their ghosts have stayed in the building for all these years and still haunt it to this day!"

"Sounds like something straight off of the TV." Katie rolled her eyes, though the others remained intrigued.

"Well it's all true," Kyle assured her. "One of the most famous ghosts there is that of a woman simply known as Grace. She was a patient who spent her whole life there, suffering from all kinds of mental issues. And at nights, the staff claimed that they heard a man's voice coming from her room, saying "The Devil is coming to get me!" over and over again. But when they opened her door to see who it was . . . she was the only one there." He finished his story and soaked in the silence of his audience.

"That is far too freaky to be real." Jess gulped.

"You can even go and visit the place if you really wanted." Kyle replied.

"Why would anyone do that?" Jess asked.

"Why would anyone go camping in the woods when there's a gang of murderers hanging around?" Katie asked her, her sarcasm highlighting the irony of their situation.

"You know, apart from the obvious creep factor, I've actually had fun," Kyle told them, his surprise clear to hear.

"As weird as it sounds, I know what you mean." Jess nodded. "It's been a pretty good distraction from all the shit that's going on right now." She sighed.

"Ok, seriously Jess, what shit could you possibly have going on?" Katie groaned. "You're pretty, you're one of the most popular girls in school and guys would literally kiss the ground you walk on. What's so bad about that?"

"Everything!" Jess shouted back, finally fed up with Katie's snide comments. "Do you know I get asked those questions by everyone I meet? Literally, everyone. It's like no one in this whole town has any ambition! As far as they were concerned, I'd completed my life as soon as I started dating the football player. Where I don't think it's even really begun yet, everybody kept telling me I'd made it. No one ever asks me what I want to do with my life, where I want to go to college, if I even want to go to college. I'm pretty smart but because I'm popular that gets forgotten. Like staying in this place is a reward for who I'm dating. I want to get out of here, see the world, and get a job in a big city, even an office job that I hate! I just want to have an adventure. Is that too much to ask?" She asked her final question to the group, but more specifically, to Katie.

"I guess not," Katie sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry I just assumed that about you."

"It's fine. You aren't the only one."

"If it helps, I know exactly how you feel." Kyle smiled at Jess.

"You do?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, what have you got to be so sad about?" Matt asked. "Everyone loves you. You're like the next World Cup winner or something aren't you?"

"I wish!" Laughed Kyle. "I mean people say that. I guess I'm pretty good at soccer but I'm not stupid enough to bet my future on it. College level would be my peak but I seem to be the only one who realises it. Falls Peak is such a tiny town that there's no way there's gonna be a scholarship for two soccer players and I know for a fact that they'd choose Danny over me any day of the week."

"Because nice guys finish last?" Katie offered.

"Because he's better than me!" He corrected. "Sure he's the coach's son and a major asshole but he's got talent. And besides, he's happy enough to try his hand at making it to the top but I don't want to. I don't want to end up like every single guy in town who's still living on their glory days from when they were in high school. I especially don't want to be one of those people who pressure their kids to achieve something only because they never could." Kyle turned his attention to the raging fire now before speaking again. "You know sometimes I just wish I could tell this to my dad . . . you know? Just like Jess, I wanna get out of here. I can be a success at something else, without being a failed soccer player. That's the real dream for me."

"Wow!" Matt said, loudly condescending.

"What?" Jess asked.

"You two. Spilling your hearts out like your problems are real."

"They are real." Kyle growled.

"At least you two have a future! Your own future. As much as you think other people are controlling you, you're still free. I'm not! You know my parents are gonna move away? Once we get things sorted with Cameron and the prison, we're going to move to the other side of the state where nobody knows us. You think people judge you? You have no idea what that's really like!" Matt was now shouting at the top of his lungs. "I could give away all of my possessions to the homeless and save a baby from drowning and people around here would still see me as the devil! I might not even get to finish the school year here! That's the real reason I want to find the Gorgoya. Before I have to leave forever."

"You're being unfair Matt." Katie told him, surprising Kyle and Jess. "Your situation sucks and we do understand. But you have to admit that you're in a pretty unique situation. It might be for a shitty reason but at least you can leave".

"I know," He sighed. "I'm sorry." Jess and Kyle both waved their hands to say it was alright. "The truth is, I'm actually really jealous. I just wish that those problems were mine, you know?"

"I get it." Kyle smiled warmly.

"Wait a second," Jess changed the subject rather drastically. "What do you mean by, at least we can leave? Can't you?" She asked.

Katie didn't say anything.

"Come on Katie, we all told our stories. It's only fair that you do too." Kyle told her off.

"Fine! God damn campfire moment," She whispered under her breath before beginning. "I used to be like you guys. My biggest concern was what I wanted to do with my life. My parents were always telling me that I could be anything that I wanted to be," Her eyes glistened as she spoke. "You know, I always used to hate it when they said it. Now I'd give anything to hear it again from somebody. My dad suffered from epilepsy all of his life. He was mostly fine but sometimes he'd have seizures and stuff but growing up with it, I always knew what to do. He was on pills all the time too to manage it. He couldn't drive or drink but he was ok. We were a family."

"Were?" Matt asked nervously, fearing the inevitable bad ending to her story.

"One day he went to the bathroom to take a piss. Just something as simple and stupid as that. He had another seizure when he was standing there and he fell. He hit his head on the sink and then the bathtub."

"Oh my god!" Gasped Jess.

"My brother had to break the damn door down but it was too late. The doctors say his brain is permanently damaged. He's never going to walk again".

"Katie, I'm so sorry." Kyle whispered.

"So basically, my mom, brother, sister and me all need to take turns to take care of him so none of us are ever getting out. If we do, it'll be after he's dead." She was ignoring the group now and telling her story to the campfire too, hiding her tears, although her sobbing was easily heard. " That's why I'm always hanging out with losers and dropouts and doing all this stupid shit like getting high in the woods at night. Getting it all out of my system before I have to act mature full time I guess. Pretty lame, huh?"

"No. Not lame at all." Jess smiled at her holding her bottle out for Katie to click her own one against, which she graciously accepted.

"Guess we've had that campfire moment, huh?" Matt laughed.

The others laughed too, shaking their heads, disbelieving that they'd all been able to reveal their personal struggles to each other and not be judged like they thought they would.

It wasn't long before the trend started to continue.

Katie announced that she had one last surprise for the group before taking out a set of speakers from her backpack.

"I remembered that Kyle wanted some music the last time that we were all in the forest like this so I decided to bring some!" She smiled.

"You are a legend!" Kyle cried excitedly.

"Is there anything that you didn't pack?" Jess laughed.

"Frozen Foods." Katie shrugged back before turning her attention to the speakers. "Now my original idea was to just use Spotify or something but seeing as we have no internet signal, I'll be taking some very limited requests."

"Well the only music I've been listening to lately is like Baby Metal and stuff so I'll let you guys choose." Matt laughed.

"What the hell is Baby Metal?" Jess chuckled.

"It's garbage," Katie answered before Matt could defend its honour. "But I guess I can't say much. Somehow don't think you guys will want to listen to Master of Puppets on repeat."

"You're right," Agreed Kyle. "The early stuff is way too heavy for my liking but songs like Enter Sandman? I'm all for that."

"You like Metallica?" Katie gasped.

"Why are you so surprised?" He laughed.

"I don't know. I just assumed that people like you wouldn't have good taste like that."

"People like me?"

"Yeah, like you and Jess. I thought all the popular kids just listened to that dance-y shit?"

"Because I'm not covered in tattoos and haven't got jet black, long hair?" Kyle joked.

"Well . . . yeah!" Katie shrugged.

"Sorry to disappoint," Jess smiled.

"You like them too!?" Although she'd joked about being in Oz before, now Katie was really starting to believe she was there.

"Not quite," Jess answered, much to Katie's relief. "I'm more into pretty mellow stuff, you know? Lady Antebellum, Sam Hunt, those kinds of stuff."

"Huh." Was all Katie could think to say now.

"Guess we're not as different as you thought, huh?" Kyle laughed.

Thinking he was right, Katie couldn't believe how truly surprised she was at these musical revelations.

Perhaps the most surprising thing though, was that they all had more personal struggles that the others didn't know about, but now all sympathised with.

Perhaps this wasn't a wasted trip after all.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Where do I even begin with this chapter? It took forever to write, forever to post and forever for me to finally be satisfied with it. I hope you are too.

So this is probably my favourite chapter so far as I was finally able to let loose and reveal a lot of the characters deeper thoughts and feelings that until now had been pretty hidden, and I felt that given their fright after the scarecrow encounter, this was the perfect place for it.

The Malvern Manor story is technically a true one, though I deliberately left bits out and put some down incorrectly so that it could have even more of an urban legend type feel. I, like Matt, heard about it from a podcast called Beyond The Darkness (Cheap plug for them). As I've stated countless times, I am super into anything paranormal and am a regular listener of the show, and when I heard of this mysterious place that was in the same state that my current story was set in, I had to include it in somewhere. If you guys want to check out the full story or any more of the creepy tales from there then I'll encourage you to look into it yourself, rather than me telling you.

As for the music conversation, I was once told that I couldn't possibly be into rock music because I didn't look the part. I  dare you to name a more nonsensical statement.

I'm waiting.

All in all, not much plot developed in this story, yet I personally feel like more happened than in any other chapter. Isn't writing magical?