Grinch Night Surprises

Big and Loud

"And as it waded through the carnage it had wrought, the vampire smashed their skulls! Just for the fun of it!" Axl shouted, smashing a jelly doughnut which squirted red jelly. It was already dark out and he and his friends were sitting around a campfire ten feet away from Cindy-Lou's house. "And after a moment, the vampire hunched over its victims and breathed their vaporized blood mist! Ooooooooohhhh!"

Cindy-Lou, Izzy, Ozzy, and Groopert were giving him either confused or bored looks.

"I think I liked the guy with the jack-in-the-box for a hand better." Ozzy commented.

"Come on, that was one of my best stories!" Axl retorted.

"Hey where's Euchariah?" Groopert pointed out.

"Yeah, he's missing out." Izzy replied.

"Guys, guys, guys, guys!" Euchariah cried as he ran up to his friends; he was carrying a sleeping bag, a pillow, and a flashlight.

"There you are, Euchariah!" Cindy-Lou happily exclaimed.

"Where were you, dude? We already started telling scary stories." Axl said.

"Sorry, I got held up. But I really need to tell you guys somethi—"

"Hey, wait! Why don't we let Cindy-Lou tell a story next? This campout was her idea." Groopert said.

"But guys, it's really important!" Euchariah whined.

"You can tell us after. Why don't you join us?" Izzy chimed in.

Euchariah sighed in defeat and sat down in between Ozzy and Groopert. "Okay."

"Cindy? Do you have a story?" Ozzy asked.

"I sure do. And this is a true story." Cindy said, grabbing her flashlight and turning it on under her chin.

"Really? Is this one of those 'a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to' stories?" Euchariah asked.

"No. It happened to my dad." Cindy said in a serious tone.

Her friends' expressions quickly turned just as serious before Cindy began her story.

"One winter, when my dad was about our age, a huge snowstorm buried the whole town for weeks." She started. "A month later, dad realized he hadn't seen his friend Jimmy since the storm, so dad and some others went to check on Jimmy's family. When they got there, no one was home, just a fire flickering in the fireplace. While the adults went out to search, dad stayed in the house. When he was alone, he heard a voice. 'It's so cold, and I can't get warm.'"

Cindy's friends tensed up as she continued.

"Dad turned and saw Jimmy standing by the fire; he was blue, like he was frozen. Dad ran outside for help, but when they came back, Jimmy was gone."

They gasped and backed away.

"Where'd he go?" Axl nervously asked.

"No one knows. Jimmy's house still stands empty to this day, but sometimes people see smoke coming up from the chimney, like little Jimmy is still trying to get warm."

"And, uh... where exactly is this house?" Euchariah asked, adjusting his glasses.

"It's not too far from here, actually. But hardly anyone goes near it anymore"

Cindy turned and pointed to the silhouette of a house a little ways away from her own house, but it was too dark to see any details. Euchariah paused and stood up.

"Let's go check it out." He said.

"What?!" Cindy and her friends cried.

"Let's go check out that house. I've always enjoyed a good ghost hunt."