Suzi/logs/Campfire Tale
Who: Russell & Suzi
When: Jun 12, 2531 (IC)
Where: A valley some ways distant from the main city on Paquin, at a camp site near a river.
What: After sunset, despite the growing chill, Russell decided to take a plunge in the cold river, with the expectation that Suzi would reward him with a story or two by the fire afterward. He may have gotten more (or less) than he bargained for.
By the time Russell climbs out of the water, Suzi has reached the bank and stands there patiently holding the towel for him. The moon hasn't risen yet so it's actually quite dark over here now that the sun has finished setting. "Yes, you hare-brained fool of a man." she replies, though her tone is warm with amusement. The towel is tossed in his direction. "I hope you have another pair of pants, your jeans probably aren't dry yet." she feels compelled to point out.
"Ahh, thank you." Russell replies when the towel is tossed to him. He rubs at his face and hair first, enjoying the convenience of how easy it is to take care of his short short hair. Then he starts walking back to the fire, a wide grin on his face. "It's a swimsuit. It should dry out fast. Otherwise I'll just don the towel instead. A toga, like the ancient Greeks and Romans. I would fit right in on Osiris." He muses. Yep, beer is definitely hitting him. It doesn't take much with the way it conflicts with his meds. He really shouldn't be drinking at all.
As he gets nearer to the fire, she'll probably see all the goosebumps spread over him as the cool evening air hits his wet skin. "I hope you were thinking about stories."
"Riiight, because togas are all the rage on Osiris." Suzi observes, with a chuckle, as she walks back to the campsite with her drippy companion. "Mostly I was thinking about pneumonia," she says, "but I'll see what I can do." Observing the goose bumps, she ducks into the tent briefly, returning with a blanket to wrap around his shoulders. "Here, Tarzan." she teases, as she does so. "What kind of story do you want? I only know scary ones with lots of blood and brain-eating insects."
Russell laughs, "Well, they might be. You never know." He says, snickering as he shrugs. When she goes to fetch a blanket, he grins. "Thanks..." He pulls it around his shoulders and wraps the towel around his waist. Then he sits down on the log, only shivering a tiny bit. "You can pick. I'm not too picky where a good story is concerned. Nothing with bears, though."
"What? No bears? All the best stories have bears." Suzi says, settling beside Russell on the log and holding her hands out toward the fire to warm them a bit. "I'm not sure this can be properly done without a flashlight, but let me see... it was a dark and stormy night... no, wait, not storming. Belay that. It was a dark and NOT stormy night. Tom and Sue were out camping. They'd picked a nice spot by a river with lots of trees around.. kind of like this one now that I think about it. And you know how campfires are.. everything around them is nicely lit but just outside the ring it fades to blackness. You can't see very far around it, but you can hear... and that's what they did, while they were innocently roasting marshmallows, they both heard the sound of something rustling in the trees." She gestures with her hands while she speaks, doing her best to convey spookiness even as she pauses, letting silence fall, then going, "Rustle-rustle." Which is only slightly less dramatic since it sounds like 'Russell-Russell' but... work with me here.
Russell's smile grows into a wide grin as Suzi starts telling the story, only laughing a little bit when she stumbles through the beginning. He reaches for his beer, having another sip and doing his best to not think about how much he wants a cigarette right now. Damnit. He even glances around, noting just how *black* the woods are past the light of the fire. Then he looks back at Suzi, that grin still on his face as he huddles in the blanket. "Tom and Sue? At least it's not Russ and Sue." He says. "One of us will survive that way."
"Hey, the strong female always prevails, didn't you know that? Anyway, shush." Suzi answers, then goes on with her tale, "'Did you hear that?' Sue asked Tom, frowning. 'Hear what?' he replied. Did I say they both heard something? Only Sue heard something. But before Sue could reply something rose up out of the darkness and pounced on Tom! At first, Sue thought it was a bear! But it wasn't a bear, because this story--being inferior to other stories of the spooky campfire genre," She pauses here, eyeing Russell with playful disdain, "doesn't have any bears in it. Anyway... Tom's cry of surprise was cut short by a flash of steel and then he was just making gurgling noises... Sue couldn't see past the hulking figure that was crouched over Tom, blocking her view. Now.. any sane woman would go screaming into the woods at this point but Sue--being a resourceful sort--grabbed her folding camp chair--which by the by I totally recommend over logs, if for no other reason than they are easier to swing as improvised weapons. Where was I? Oh, right, Sue's ill-conceived heroics!"
Russell snickers again when she shushes him and contents himself with filling his mouth with beer while she goes on. Then he chokes on the beer, laughing openly while she criticizes his preference against bears. He continues laughing while she tells the tale, thoroughly entertained. If she expected him to actually be afraid, she's failing miserably. "I'll add that to the list for next time. Forks, salt, soda, and folding chairs. Oh, and extra pants."
"So Sue grabs the camp chair, and after a brief bit of fumbling with the lock to get it folded up--she decided to skip putting it into the carrying case because she was kind of in a rush--and swung it at the back of the as-of-yet-indistinct thing murderizing her boyfriend. It was like hitting a brick wall, or so Sue imagined as she tossed away the newly bent and useless chair. She cast her gaze about the camp for something else to use as a weapon... finally remembering the knife that Tom had used earlier to gut a fish they had caught for dinner..." See what she did there? "...and she turned to make a dash for it but in that moment something cold wrapped around her ankle and she tripped! Falling down, skinning her elbows and knees, the whole bit. The wind got knocked out of her, which was good because she was about to scream and it was against her feminist principles, and she kicked her leg to try and get free but whatever it was held fast!"
Russell laughs more when she elaborates about how Sue was in a rush and skips the carrying case, shaking his head. He drains the last of the beer and sets the can aside, leaning forward now and watching Suzi with an admiring grin on his face still as he waits to see where the story will go next. He props his elbows on his knees, listening with amused interest. "Sometimes feminism is overrated where scary stories are concerned." He jokes. "I hope she gets some antiseptic on those skinned elbows and knees, though. Infection..." He did mention med school.
"Really, I think infection at that point was the last of her worries! But I digress." Suzi makes clawing motions with her hand, raking the air in front of her to mimic Sue's frantic scrambling, "Sue scrambled for something, anything, she could hold onto or use as a weapon. But it was to no avail, and she was dragged out of the circle of light and into the darkness that rose up around her like death shroud..." Ok, now she's actually starting to get a little spooky. "...and that circle of light got farther and farther away as she was dragged off into the woods, over leaves and rocks and tree roots until her hands finally managed to catch one of those tree roots and she held on for dear life! Whatever had a hold of her ankle kept pulling, though, and she thought she might get torn right in half if her fingers didn't give out first. But then as abruptly as her ankle had been captured it was released from that ironlike grip and she scrambled forward, not daring to look back, and just. Started. To. Run." She pauses there between the words for emphasis, her voice growing quiet, the last word barely more than a whisper.
"It'll be a worry later!" Russell points out, "If she survives! Infection is a killer!" Then he shuts up, the grin still wide on his face, "Ooooh.." He says at the 'death shroud' comment, obviously impressed. The grin fades to a smaller smile as things get serious in the story. He watches Suzi, blue eyes reflecting the flames in the campfire. He doesn't interrupt now, and just waits, still leaning forward on his knees, his earlier chills forgotten.
"Sue ran and ran. She was trying to run toward the campfire, but she'd gotten so turned around while she was being dragged that she wasn't sure what direction it was anymore. So she just ran, not sure what she was running from but knowing that if she didn't run she was as good as dead. Or worse." Suzi manufactures a shiver and rubs her arms a bit. "She stumbled a few times, grinding dirt into her skinned knees and scraping her palms too. She got slapped in the face with more than a few tree branches and leaves, and all the while she could hear sounds of pursuit. So focused was she on what was behind her that she didn't notice when her path was suddenly obstructed until she ran right into the solid trunk of another human--or so she assumed--but when she looked up it was a fearsome mask that looked down at her, but with very human eyes peering out through the eye holes. She kneed the surprise guest in the groin and grabbed the knife he dropped when he fell, whirling to meet her other assailant, that fell on her like a slavering wild beast, all flashing teeth and clawing hands. She drove the knife upward, repeatedly, until it stopped fighting her and pushed it off, its form still indistinct in the darkness. Gripping the knife tightly, she resumed running, this time calling out to Tom in the vain hope of an answer. She kept running until she could run no more, and then she jogged. Walked. Stumbled. Eventually, she came across a ranger's station where a startled ranger came immediately to her aid. Her ordeal was over. She made it. They never found Tom's body, or the two attackers that Sue disabled in the woods, and she was tormented by nightmares the rest of her life. And some nights, when the moon is new and the sky is clear, campers in these woods say they can hear the sound of a man's wheezing voice on the wind, gasping 'Sue...' as his breath whistles moistly through his severed windpipe." Her dark eyes glitter in the firelight as she ends this oft-amusing tale on a sinister note, but a moment later she smiles and says, "But at least they aren't mauled by bears!"
