Campfire Story: The Whistle

The Whistle

By Tim Harkleroad

“The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The three boys crept closer, all the time trying to keep hidden behind trees, they had a sense that whatever entity that dwell inside the cabin, was peering out into the darkness. Possibly looking for a… uhh victim, or… uhh victims, just, like those three boys, that I just mentioned, before, just now.”

”This sucks,” said Braynor. “You can’t even tell the story right. Let’s get to the marshmallows already.”

Erwood looked at his roster to remind himself of the child’s name. “Braynor, quit interrupting, some of the boys were enjoying my story, weren’t you boys?”

Silence greeted the Scoutmaster’s question.

“Yeah, hands up who was enjoying that drivel he calls a story?” said Braynor. “It’s all made up, same old story’s been told around campfires for years. Too bad no Scoutmaster, in the history of Scoutmasting, has been creative enough to come up with something new, or even remotely original. So, let’s see them, hands up who liked this crap?”

Three scouts raised their hands, turns out that one of them was scratching his underarm and seemed embarrassed to have been seen raising his hand.

Erwood stood up, “Wellll, for starters, I’m not your real Scoutmaster, thankfully. I was gracious enough to fill in for Mr. Selby who got sick at the last minute. Now I can see why he got ill ‘all of the sudden’.”

“What did you mean by that?” said the smaller boy named Eamonn.

“Uhhhhh, I meant I’m sorry he got ill,” Erwood managed. “Now do you boys want to hear a story or not?”

“Not from you!” Braynor interjected while giggling. “Maybe I should tell a story!”

“And maybe you shouldn’t!” said Lesley Leonard. “If you told a story, we’d have to be in our sleeping bags, ‘cause ten seconds in, we’d all be asleep, snoring! Haha!”

All the boys in the group started laughing, high-fiving, and making snoring sounds. All except for two, Braynor, and the new kid Marcus, sat in silence. Braynor was quiet with embarrassment, while Marcus quietly stared off into the woods.

The rest grew quiet and stared in the same direction. They saw nothing, but then Marcus spoke up.

“I’ll tell you a story. A true story that happened not far from here. In these woods as a matter of fact,” Marcus intoned dramatically.

Erwood spoke up finally and said, “Now I think we’ve had enough excitement…”

All the scouts turned toward Erwood and all shushed him at once.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!” they then looked back at Marcus.

“It had been almost a year after the incident,” he began.

“Families had been shocked by the news. A boy had gone missing during a camping trip. The boys said they woke up and he was just gone, wandered off into the woods, most likely,” he continued.

“The counselor had been cleared of any suspicion, but there were still no signs of the boy, even after massive searches had come and gone. The body was never recovered, it was as if he had vanished into thin air,” the boy said as he looked down.

“Legend has it that he still wanders here. All the time crying for help and vainly blowing his scout whistle on the night air.” The boy paused for a minute as if waiting for the whistle to sound, “still roaming those woods… in the night… in the dark.”

His last words escaped his mouth as barely a whisper. He slowly turned and looked each frightened scout in the eye, letting it all sink in.

“OK, THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” Erwood shouted as he stood up and looked around at the group. “I have heard enough of this! Now everyone get to your tents and get in your sleeping bags… NOW!”

He looked at Marcus, “I need to speak to you… uh.”

“Marcus. My name is Marcus,” the boy said.

The other boys all rushed into one tent and were watching through the mesh tent flap.

Erwood started, “Well, whatever your name is, I sure don’t need you getting all the other boys all rattled and scared to death right before bedtime.”

“I thought that was the idea of scary campfire stories?” Marcus replied.

“The idea of scary campfire stories is to keep boys in their tents, and keep them from wandering out into the woods,” Erwood said in a lecturing tone.

“Yeah, well that didn’t work so well for the kid in my story. That really happened you know!!” Marcus replied.

About the time the words left the boy’s mouth, a huge jagged rock came hurling through the air striking the Scoutmaster in the head. The force knocked his hat off and sent him hurtling to the ground in a spray of blood mist.

“What the hell!!!” Braynor exclaimed. All of a sudden every scout in the tent started screaming. Marcus ran over to the tent trying to shush them.

Their screams were soon overpowered by a roar coming from the darkness of the forest. A roar so deep, guttural, and primitive that all of the scouts looked toward the dark at once, as their blood ran cold.

Marcus fumbled in his pocket for a second and finally retrieved a small, but very bright and powerful, LED flashlight. He switched it on while holding it backwards, temporarily blinding himself and everyone else in the small tent.

Lesley whispered “Dangit, you ‘bout put my eyes out!”

“It’s the only thing that scares those things, wards them off,” Marcus said.

“What things, what the hell was that, what the hell are you talking about… demons?”

“Bigfoot!” Marcus said sternly.

“What, are you kidding me? You mean the smoked-meat-stick guy? Besides, you just now said them, what “them” are you talking about?” Braynor exclaimed.

Marcus spun around, “Bigfoot is not just a monster roaming around the country, it’s a species of animal. A species that has somehow survived extinction from 700,000 years ago. It’s a relic. They exist.”

“They are all over North America, living in packs, or families. I believe these are the ones that took my brother, Matthias,” Marcus looked down.

“Your brother? That story you told was true? That was your brother?” Denzel said as he looked him in the eye.

“Not just my brother, but my twin brother. A few months ago I started having visions of him, telling me where he was. Matthias is trying to contact me, wherever he is he’s trying to lead me to him, I hear him in my head,” Marcus said quietly.

Marcus continued, “I came out here purposely to try to find him. I believe they took him, but I know he’s alive. The police gave up searching for him. My parents wouldn’t let me come out here to look for him. They don’t know I’m here now. I have to go after him, this is the only chance I’ll get.”

Just then something entered their camp. The footfalls were so heavy, the ground actually shook as it walked. Looking through the mesh window the boys could make out a dark silhouette against the campfire. It had to be at least eight to nine foot tall, covered in dark fur and very muscular. You could not make out a face, but you could see that this thing was huge, gigantic even.

One boy whispered, “Was that what threw that rock at Erwood?”

Marcus nodded in affirmation.

The animal stopped and sniffed the air several times. It looked at Erwood’s tent first, then it looked at the tent with all the boys inside. As it started to make its way over to their tent, something odd happened.

From out of the darkness, a whistle was heard, faint, but distinct. It blew several times, then stopped.

The animal looked towards the woods, then it looked back at the boys’ tent. It turned and took off into the woods in the direction of the sound of the whistle.

Once the animal was out of sight and sound, one of the boys spoke up. “What the hell was that?”

Marcus looked at him and said, “You heard that? That whistle, you did hear it, right? I heard it, and the animal heard it. That was Matthias.”

“Braynor, you need to check on Erwood, see if he is alive. If he is, attend to his wound, make sure he doesn’t go to sleep. Go, hurry, he’s lying over behind his tent, try to drag him into it.”

Marcus turned toward the remainder of the scouts. “You two, try to find our cell phones that he confiscated at the first of the trip.”

“I remember seeing him put our phones in a bag in his car. Maybe we can find his cell phone,” a boy named C.J. said.

“I have a cell phone,” Lesley held his phone up. “I bought a burner, exactly for this reason.”

“What’s a burner?” Marcus asked.

“It’s what police call those cell phones you buy at a convenience store, you have to buy a card to load minutes,” Denzel said.

“You have to buy a card to load minutes?” Lesley asked.

“Awwwwwww CRAP, it figures!” moaned Braynor.

Getting anxious, Marcus said, “I’m going to find my brother, be back in 15 minutes. I will meet everyone at the old house in the clearing, about a quarter mile north. I’ll leave the light on in the window if I am there.”

“Now we’re going to meet in a haunted house? Great! Ghosts, Bigfoot, what’s next, zombies, werewolves, the Loch Ness-friggin-Monster?” Braynor complained.

Lesley looked at Marcus. “How are you going to find your brother out there in the dark?”

“Well, we’re twins, we have a special connection. I can find him, I can feel him around me. Besides, I have this.” He holds up his scout whistle.

“When we joined the scouts, our parents gave us each a whistle. They told us never to remove it. Don’t you see, that was him blowing his whistle just now. He drew the bigfoot away from us.”

He looked around at each boy, “I have to take this opportunity to find him. Denzel, you go in the tent with Erwood, and see if you can find any type of weapon.”

“The rest of you start gathering up anything you can use as a weapon. Everyone have your flashlights?”

A boy named Landon said nervously, “I lost my flashlight, what am I gonna do?”

“Use your flint striker, it will scare them,” Marcus assured him.

“When I get further into the woods, I’m going to start blowing my whistle periodically. Matthias will hear it, I know he’s out there, he will respond. You can also track me that way. See you guys soon, be careful.” Marcus took off into the dark woods in the same direction as the Bigfoot.

“That’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen,” said one boy.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Braynor.

The boys started gathering up anything that could be used as a weapon. Braynor said, “Well, I’m not going in those woods. I’ll stay here and look after Elwood.”

“Erwood,” said one boy.

“Whatever.” Braynor mumbled.

That said, Braynor popped into the scout counselors tent, as Denzel was coming out carrying a cloth bag about the size of a gym bag.

Denzel said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to follow Marcus. C’mon, we need to all stay together.”

The boys huddled together for a moment, looked at each other, and nodded. They all headed into the woods with Denzel leading the way.

It hadn’t been a minute until they heard Marcus’ whistle cut through the night air.

Then, there was a second whistle, at a slightly lower pitch, that began to blow as well. The boys all looked at each other confirming what they all just heard.

As they arrived in the clearing, they came upon an unbelievable situation.

There, in the clearing, stood Marcus brandishing his flashlight. He was surrounded by eight or ten of the Bigfoot creatures, each breathing heavily.

The animals edged closer to Marcus. He stood with the flashlight starting to dim as the batteries waned. They all glared at each other.

All of the sudden, Denzel runs in front of Marcus brandishing a 44 magnum.

“Get the hell outta here you beef jerky eatin’ sons of bitches!!!” With that he aimed the gun straight up and fired three times.

Blam, blam, blam. After which Denzel holstered the firearm in his shorts pocket triumphantly.

When the smoke cleared, all the Bigfoot creatures were still surrounding them, still glaring at them.

“Ahhhhh CRAP, that didn’t even phase them, I swear to God they didn’t even flinch!” Denzel so eloquently observed.

As the Bigfoot started to advance, suddenly a shrill noise bent everyone’s ear. Everyone scanned the area trying to locate the source of the noise.

It was then everyone seemed to notice at the same time. There on the other side of the clearing, backed up against the woods, stood another boy. It was evidently Matthias, Marcus’ brother.

Matthias was blowing his whistle. Soon, the creatures started to back away. Marcus noticed this and joined in with his whistle.

Soon, one by one, all the boys blew their Scout whistles. All the Bigfoot animals held their ears and collectively ran off into the woods, some howling in pain.

Soon, there were only Boy Scouts left in the clearing. All were looking at Marcus and Matthias. Marcus looked at his brother and spoke.

“Matthias, are you ok?” He started to run toward his brother.

Matthias, held up his hands to shun his brother’s hug. He said, “Wait Marcus, you can’t. You can’t hug me.”

“What do you mean? Are you hurt? Why can’t I hug you?” Marcus pleaded.

“I was hurt, I’m OK now, now that you’re here.” Matthias said softly.

“I’m here to bring you home, Mom and Dad will be so happy…”

“No Marcus I can’t go home. Here, take this, you’ll see what I mean.” Matthias offered Marcus his Scout whistle, as he was handing it over, the chain just passed through the boy’s fingers and the whistle fell to the ground.

Marcus looked up, starting to cry. “Matthias, what’s happening, what’s going on?”

“I am starting to fade Marcus, I’m starting to pass on. You found me, my rescue is over. I can go now.”

“But wait, you didn’t die.”

“Yes I did, and the Bigfoot had nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, they rescued me.”

“They what? Rescued you?”

Matthias continued, “That night on the camping trip, I had to… go really bad. I went out further into the woods than I should have. I got lost, and it was so dark. I fell into a ravine and apparently broke my neck. Two of them found me and took me to the old cabin.”

“They didn’t know what else to do. They held me like a child until I finally closed my eyes. From then, it’s all very sketchy, I’ve lost track of time. I stayed in the cabin for a while.” Matthias paused and then remembered, “I did get to scare some people off, that was fun!” he smiled.

“Then I just started thinking of you and wanted you to come get me. Those Bigfoot had buried me out back of the cabin.”

Denzel is the first scout to speak, “Then… you’re a ghost?”

Matthias nodded, “Yep, like Casper, friendly.” Matthias smiled.

“Aww man this is screwed up” Denzel said.

“So I can’t take you home?” Marcus said.

“You need to have them come and find my body, take it so I can truly rest.” Matthias said smiling. He was starting to glow by this time.

Marcus said, “Can you come visit me?”

Matthias said, “Are you sure you want that?”

Marcus smiled a bit through the tears, “Just don’t wear a sheet or anything like that. Don’t scare me.”

“I make no promises, except promise you that I’ll be waiting for you on this side Marcus, I love you.” Matthias began to fade.

“Wait, I love you too! Bye, please come visit.” Marcus looked down and started to cry. The boys surrounded him and put their arms around him.

“Come on. Let’s go home.” said Denzel. “I can’t believe they didn’t even flinch, that friggin' 44 magnum cannon!”

As the boys walked out of the woods they began to talk a bit.

“Where’d you get that thing?” asked Marcus.

“Out of Erwood’s gym bag.” Denzel said.

“You think he’s alright?” Marcus said.

“Hell, I hope so, I sure don’t wanna see his damn ghost out here flappin’ around.” Denzel waved his arms upon saying the word flappin.

“Yeah, I’ve had enough of all that for a while.” Marcus said.

The boys all gave a collective sigh upon seeing the lights of their camp, and the glow of the campfire, the campfire they would never forget.