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Chapter 9: Campfire tales

"Fine, but don\'t say I didn\'t warn you." Luna made a pause and then continued. "It happened to a man on his twenties, he was out with his friends, camping in a pretty popular spot near the creek up north. They were having a good time near a campfire, just like we\'re doing tonight and everything was well until..." The young men and women hurdled together, even some of the ones who didn\'t form part of the conversation were paying close attention to her words. Only the sounds of nature could be heard in the distance and the fire danced in front of the group. Inadvertently, even one of the soldiers was listening to Luna\'s tale.

"A man appeared behind them, he was dressed in a suit and seemed to be completely harmless and they thought \'hey, let\'s invite him over\', and so they did, but it proved to be a grave mistake. The man, who seemed to be normal in the distance started treading towards them at an incredible speed and then it stopped a few steps from the campfire." Luna\'s drowsy manner of speech only added up to the fear crawling up on everyone\'s heart. A creaking sound echoed in the distance and everyone was startled by this, even the soldier that had joined them to listen to the story. Then another sound followed by yet another one. It was as if twigs were being stepped on by something heavy, one by one in an orderly fashion. Sam shivered and cowered behind Uriel who seemed to be completely unfazed by the eerie sounds that came closer and closer.

"The slender creature stood still and the group of friends stared at it in horror." Luna mercilessly continued the tale. "Yet it didn\'t come near the fire, instead, it opened its maw wide as a snake and emitted a growl that sent them off running wildly into the darkness and as soon as they stepped out of the campfire light, one by one they were all slain by its long claws, ripped apart in a way that it would have been impossible for the police to recognize the bodies, or what was left of them for any case."

"Hey, are you serious!? that can\'t possibly be true! you\'re just making this up." Sam cried loudly.

"Am I? The only survivor was the one who didn\'t run away and kept close to the fire the whole time. When he made it back to the city he ended up committing suicide, not even a month after his return. He said that keeping close to the fire saved him, but the creature remained nearby until sunrise showing him all kinds of unsightly horrors and trying to scare him out of the campfire." When Luna\'s tale was finished another sound came out from the darkness, only this time was a lot closer and louder. They yelped in fear and the soldier gripped his weapon.

"Lower your weapon corporal!" The female lieutenant said, surprised by the cold reception she got after coming back from performing her watch duty.

"I\'m sorry ma\'am, I\'m just watching the kids as you commanded." Much to everyone\'s surprise, the voice that came from behind the mask of the armed soldier was feminine and sweet. No one would have imagined the soldier carrying so much weight in between equipment, ammo and weapons was a woman.

"Wait! there\'s something wrong with her!" Sam shouted in fright just before the soldier lowered his weapon. The soldier woman hesitated briefly, but then did as commanded by the lieutenant.

"What do you mean there\'s something wrong with her? she looks the same to me." Uriel asked Sam who clung to his back as if his life depended on it.

"Can\'t you see she came back without the other soldier?"

"That\'s because someone needs to stand watch, you moron!" The pretty girl with heavy make up replied and Sam heaved a sigh of relief.

The lieutenant took a spot in the campfire near the students, while the soldier was ordered to watch the perimeter.

"So, what are you kids up to?" She asked after taking a gulp from her canteen.

"Nothing much, apparently we\'re telling horror stories." The cute girl replied, trying to hide the fact that she too was scared out of her wits just a few seconds ago.

"I would love to hear one of those, it\'s been a long while since the last time I heard a proper horror tale. Hang on a second, now that I think about it I read them all the time, only they\'re called casualty reports." She gazed up at the sky and fell silent.

"Casualty reports?" Sam gulped for the umpteenth time that night.

"Yes, most of them are nothing but accidents or people who fall in the line of duty, but some of those reports are quite unsettling. Actually, when you doubted my identity you just reminded me one of those tales."

"Come on Miss, don\'t leave us hanging!" when it became clear that she wasn\'t going to share any of the stories, the pretty girl begged.

"Uhm, sure, but don\'t blame me if you have trouble falling asleep afterwards. As you may have guessed, I get lots of battle reports all the time, the sheer amount of paperwork I have to fill would scare you even more than the story!" She chuckled. "Anyway, among those battle reports there\'s one I couldn\'t shake off my head for a long time. One of the units stationed in the rim of the city came back with half of its members, they either dead or badly wounded, the strange thing about it was that none of them was hurt by neither claws or fangs, they were hurt by bullets and by the traits of their own team mates." The lieutenant\'s voice was serious and she took a pause here and then as if remembering the facts. "You see, it\'s not rare for soldiers to come back wounded or in body bags, but not when they\'ve been stationed so close to the city. When debriefed they said that a couple of them went out their outpost to patrol, but then only one of them came and, when they let him in, he acted just like always and said that his partner was delayed and they didn\'t think much of it.

Of course they tried to contact him with their radio, but it wasn\'t working. Fearing the presence of a cryptid nearby, they headed out leaving the one who came back along with another soldier inside the outpost. Oddly enough, as soon as they stepped out of the building their radio began working and they were able to make contact, but the one who replied was the same soldier that was supposedly inside!" Some of the listeners gasped in surprise, Sam was particularly affected, yet the lieutenant continued her tale.

They went back inside as quickly as they could, only to find out a trail of blood and guts leading nowhere, along with a splatter of blood on the wall. Being the professionals they were, they proceeded to secure the area and wait until the ones patrolling around came back. Not even five minutes passed when the same soldier that had supposedly come back before and then vanished, appeared in front of them covered in blood. Fearing they were facing a cryptid with strange powers they shot him down, but that was the real soldier."

"No way!" Sam cried out loudly, clinging so hard to Uriel it actually hurt.

"Calm down, it\'s just a tale." Uriel complained.

"Just a tale you said? This is an army report, it actually happened!" The lieutenant replied with a cold glare.

"What happened then?" Luna asked, intrigued by the possibility of a new cryptid she knew nothing about.

"Well, apparently the creature liked to play mind games and they spent the whole night fighting each other, that\'s why most of them were hurt by human weapons or traits. Eventually, they just gave up and retreated."

"Do you know a way to identify the creature?" Luna insisted.

"As a matter of fact I do. The creature could mimic human speech and we suspect it was actually able to obtain its victim\'s memories, it even behave just like the real person. But you see, there was something about it that gave it away in the end, humans have round pupils..."

"And...?" Several people asked at the same time.

"Well, the creature had vertical ones, like this." She said as she blinked revealing a pair of yellowy vertical pupils to everyone\'s horror.