“And the true killer… Was capitalism.”

There was a hushed silence in the circle, only the pop of the crackling fire filling the air. With a huff, Violet shoved her brother, laughing, “That story was terrible! How was that supposed to be scary?”

Virgil rolled his eyes as he glanced away, “You’d be scared if you paid attention to the government.”

There was an annoyed squeak, followed by a thoughtful hum as Vregory tapped his chin, “Eugene says ca….cap… caterpillarism isn’t so bad because it gives us lots of leftover goodies.”

“Exactly my point. The amount of waste produced under the machine of capitalism while workers are left starving is-"

With a faint laugh, Vivienne quickly cut into the angry rant, waving her hands towards the group sitting comfortably around the firepit, “I… I thought it was a very interesting story! But Violet, do you have one you think is scarier?” She smiled insistently.

Giving a mischievous smile, Violet slid a puffy marshmallow onto the end of a sharpened stick, holding it over the firepit between them all, “Oh absolutely, but are you sure you can handle this?” When the group nodded she sighed, and began to tell her tale.

“They say there is a foul creature that stalks these very woods… A large, unseemly beast who’s hunger can never be sated. Countless times, lone travellers looking for a hike enter the treeline and yet are never seen again. But no matter how many hapless wanderers it captures, it’s always stalking, looking for more. Hm…” She paused her story, eyebrows furrowing as if met with frustration as she shook her head, “Now… I’m struggling to remember what it looked like… Mnn…. What kind of monster was it…?”

“A… A werewolf?” Vivienne offered, earning a shake of Violet’s head, “A vampire? M-Maybe a bigfoot?”

“Ah!” Violet’s eyes lit up, holding up her finger with a huge grin, “Of course! This monster… was a goblin!” Waiting for the response, she was only met with three sets of eyes with varying degrees of confusion, laughing as he pressed her hands to her cheeks, “Get it? A gobblin’?”

Letting out a long sigh of annoyance Virgil rubbing the bridge of his nose, “You wasted our time. Why am I not surprised?” Pulling a gooey marshmallow off his stick, he turned to his friend, “Vreg, don’t let her go again. Tell one.”

After a long, thoughtful pause, the rat man tilted his head, “Scary story… Oh one time me and Eugene were walking through this woods and we ran into a bear that was pretty scary.”

“A bear? H-Here?!” Vivienne gulped audibly, looking around worriedly, “You don’t think there’s a bear out there right now d-do you?” She looked to her friends for comfort, earning a pat on her shoulder from Violet as she gave her a smile.

“That would be beary unfortunate, but don’t worry. I’m sure all our noise would scare away any animals out here.”

Vregory nodded, “Mhm when I saw him coming out here he didn’t seem interested in camping so we’re okay.”

The group went silent as all eyes landed on Vregory, who absentmindedly shared a marshmallow with his nearest rat companion. He seemed to miss the heavy atmosphere until Virgil let out an annoyed cough, “You mean this just happened?”

“Yeah was right before I found you guys, I know the city better than the woods so I got lost and-”

Vivienne hopped up onto her feet, laughing nervously, “O-Oh! Look at the time! I… I promised Vanora I’d help… Uh… H-Her wash Timberland! Yeah! Sorry!” She continued to laugh, eyes wide with fear as she hurriedly gathered her belongings.

Meanwhile, Virgil was moving to stand as well, helping his sister up into her chair, “You don’t been to make excuses. We’re all leaving. Screw this.”

“Aw…” Violet laughed as she held onto Virgil for support, turning to Vregory with a wink and a grin, “Congratulations on telling the scariest story of the night. You gave everyone paws for concern! Talk about a grizzly tale!”

Vregory nodded, not really sure why it was time to leave but scooping up the rats as he smiled, “Yeah... I think is a grizzly bear.”

Vivienne was already halfway across the woods, praying under her breath that she never had to find out.