Shadows Vanish From the Night

Callie and her family had often loved visiting the Old Growth of Blue River, and it was a beautiful place where she often felt free to bask in the beauty of bright blue skies and summers that seemed to last forever.

That summer wasn't unlike the rest, and as the season for camping and outdoor recreational activities commenced, Callie was eager to have fun. The camp spot that she and her family chose happened to be the most popular spot in the park, and Callie was stoked right along with her party when they were all the first ones to pull up and find it completely secluded,

"Wow!"

"I know! But, I'm not so sure you can handle all of that." Came Callie's cousin, Carter's snarky retort.

"Um, says who?" Callie's mother, Susana, interjected.

"Me." Carter spat.

"I say you better check yourself before you wreck yourself, boy; because I raised her and she ain't afraid of anything, but your cockiness could use some knocking down. Didn't your mama raise you right?" Susana fired back. Justina chuckled as if challenged immediately,

"Oh, he was raised, but if he gets his ass handed to him for disrespecting a female he knows my rules on that."

"See, what did I say, Carter?" Susana asked.

"Oh, geeze. I was kidding." Carter murmured, turning on his heels and fleeing toward the end of his mom's Suburban.

"Mom, I don't need you two to do that anymore." Callie sighed.

"What do you mean?" Justina questioned, "You don't need him starting out on that foot. Call it a favor."

"No, you don't get it." Callie's head dropped and she let out a loud sigh before disappearing in the opposite direction as her cousin had gone.

***

"I sat on the log for five hours and he never budged." Justina stated, stoking the fire with a stick as she brought a beer toward her lips, "I begun to think he'd died but then I saw the Fireball stashed up beneath his camp chair. I swear, that man can drink and sleep beside a freight train track and never know it."

"Ha, I bet." Callie chuckled, pulling the blanket up over her shoulder as she stood beside the campfire.

Whoosh

"Ugh!" Callie's knees bowed and she buckled forward falling toward the fire pit, "who pushed me? Carter? That isn't funny!"

"Huh?" The sound of a zipper broke through the silence and Carter peeked his head out with accusing eyes, "what the hell are you yelling at me for? God damn, I was damn near sleepin!"

"What?" Callie's eyebrows furrowed immediately as she turned to peer around the mostly empty camp.

Whack!

Callie spun around and suddenly felt pressure leaning into her chest as her feet slid from beneath her.

"What the hell?"

"Stop!" Susana's arms instantly wrapped about her daughter and she pulled her into her embrace.

"What's going on?" Justina cried out, and Susana doubled down over her daughter just as Justina peered their direction...

"What is that?" she shrieked, her eyes widening as the translucent form of a strange shadowed figure began to take shape just above Susana's body. The glow of the fire seemed to cause the being to shift, and as it loomed above her family, Justina lifted her stoke stick and prodded at the top log, "be gone! Be gone from our camp where you do not belong and flee from the boughs of our circular song! Flee from this place and never be seen again for if you do not, impede you do upon the light and know you'll be forever bound in the night."