All thirty students and chaperones huddled around the bonfire, roasting marshmallows and making s’mores. The teachers and Pine Ridge employees took turns entertaining the kids. Mr. Foster and Ms. Pliska sang a duet of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice Baby.” It was purely coincidence that both knew the entire song and the dance moves that went with it. “There was no rehearsal here,” Mr. Foster bragged. The group of eighth graders laughed hysterically. All of them except Zach. He isolated himself, sitting alone on one of the wooden benches, not wanting to take part.
Mr. Foster gradually made his way through the crowd toward him. Zach knew what was coming. “Hey, Zach. What’s up?” he said, sitting next to him on the bench.
“Nothing, Mr. Foster.” He just wanted to be left alone.
“I heard that Lomeier called your mom. You know, she didn’t have much choice. That was a real dangerous thing you did out there.”
“I know.”
“Well, if it means anything to you, I am proud of how you helped Tristan. I bet he’ll remember that for a very long time.”
“Yeah, we’ll see. Maybe he won’t remember it at all. Maybe everything we do right now is pointless. Because it’s all going to end anyway.”
Mr. Foster’s upbeat, positive demeanor disappeared. He put his hand on Zach’s right shoulder. Zach still stared straight ahead. “Why do you say that?” he asked.
Zach shrugged his shoulders.
Mr. Foster sat with Zach for a few more minutes. “You want to come up and join the group?” he asked. “Maybe have a s’more or something?”
“No, thanks.”
“Okay. Well, you hang in there. And remember, if you ever need someone to talk to, you know where to find me. Okay?”
Zach nodded.
Mr. Foster stood up and walked back to the rowdy group of students.
Logan and Jenny were busy roasting marshmallows around the fire. They laughed as they tried to dodge the smoke that attacked them from all angles.
Logan stopped laughing. The glow of the fire illuminated his face. He looked through the crowd at Zach, whispered something to Jenny and then made his way over to him. Sitting next to him on the wooden bench, he asked, “You all right?”
“I’m fine. I just don’t know what my mom is gonna do when I get home. But honestly, I’m not sure if I care anymore either.”
“What do you mean? You want to go live with your dad?”
“Well, I don’t want to move away from you guys, that I know. But the more I think about it, the more I understand why my dad moved. To escape everything. I kind of get it.”
Logan nodded, listening.
“I don’t know. We’ll see what happens, I guess,” Zach said. He quickly changed the subject. “You don’t believe me about the stuff I saw in the woods, do you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you saw something, but it could be anything.”
“What about the truck? What about the figure I saw when we first got here? They can’t all be figments of my imagination.”
“You’re pretty stressed out. Maybe that’s part of it.”
Zach just shook his head. “So, you and Jenny are moving along nicely, huh?” he said, nudging Logan in the gut with his elbow.
“I like her. She’s cool.”
“She’s a little more than cool, don’t you think?” Zach said, grinning. “You shouldn’t be back here hanging out with me when your girlfriend is up there roasting marshmallows for you. Get outta here!”
“She isn’t my girlfriend.” Logan smiled. “But okay, I’ll go back. I could use another s’more.”
Zach grinned as Logan made his way through the crowd, searching for Jenny. He found her close to the fire talking to Tanya, Adam and Mitch.
Zach watched as his best friend captured the attention of one of the cutest girls in the eighth grade. He watched proudly, feeling somewhat responsible for the connection the two had made.
But his brief happiness quickly vanished.
A light touch tickled the back of his neck. He turned around to see the culprit, but nothing was there. Only darkness. It must have been the wind.
He got up, ready to make his way to the fire to join the festivities. But before he could take a step, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Zach spun all the way around, searching for the source, but again, nothing.
He glanced at the leaves on the trees. They were as still as a calm lake at dusk. No wind. He stepped away from the benches surrounding the campfire circle. He crept toward the dormitories across the gravel path, searching for answers. Other than the lights lining the path, there was only darkness.
Zach put his right hand in his coat pocket and clutched Chris’s stone. He turned back toward the campfire.
Waiting for him at the edge of the campfire circle was Miranda. She was dressed in her civilian clothes instead of her white kitchen uniform. Her face was dark, hidden by the blackness of the night. “You never told me your name,” she said.
“It’s … Zach,” he said nervously.
“So, Zach … You say you saw an old truck in the woods?”
Zach was suddenly interested. “Yeah, I did. Do you know something about it?”
Miranda stared deeply into Zach’s eyes. “I think it’s time for ghost stories around the fire,” she said. “The Pine Ridge teachers always tell some good ones, but I have a story you may be more interested in. Come with me.” She grabbed Zach’s hand, looked around carefully, making sure no one had seen them, and then led him across the gravel path to a bench, partially hidden by trees.
Zach sat at the edge of the bench, the glow of the campfire in the distance. He waited impatiently for Miranda to begin.
Miranda inched toward the middle of the seat. She stuck her short, wide neck out as far as she could, trying to get Zach’s attention. Then she began. “For a long time, rumors have circulated throughout Pine Ridge of a haunting.”
Zach scooted up to the edge of his seat. He gazed into her solemn eyes.
“I have been working at Pine Ridge ever since it opened. Close to thirty years now. The stories have flown around here in different forms for as long as I can remember, but to most people, that’s all they are—stories. Until tonight. You’re the first person I’ve met who has seen the truth.”
“What is the truth? What’s out there?” Zach asked.
“Son, I’ll get there. Don’t you worry.” Miranda breathed in the fresh, cool air and patted Zach on the knee. She continued. “Well over one-hundred years ago, long before Pine Ridge existed, this area was settled and the main industry was logging. As more people came to take advantage of the trees, the town of Finland was created, which is right down the road from here. The town did pretty well.
“In the 1920s, two of the more powerful families in Finland were the Sutinens and the Lepplas. Both families owned their own logging businesses and became peaceful rivals because of that.” Miranda scooted closer to Zach. “But the peace didn’t last.”
Zach’s eyes widened.
“Fredrik Sutinen, who was the head of the Sutinen logging ‘empire’, was elected mayor of Finland. People really liked him. He was like royalty around these parts. Plus, many of the townspeople worked for him, which took workers away from the Leppla business. The Sutinen Company thrived. This made Victor Leppla, the head of the logging company, very angry. He was jealous. Insanely jealous, some say.
“The rivalry between the two became heated. They started recruiting each other’s workers, offering higher pay and benefits. Anything to stifle the other’s business.”
“What does this have to do with the old truck and all this ghost stuff I’ve been seeing?” Zach asked.
“Patience, son. Patience,” Miranda said calmly before returning to her story. “Even though the rivalry had become ugly, the real drama began on the day of the fire. It was early in the morning and Victor Leppla’s son, Kristian, drove to the logging plant in his family’s old pickup truck. Kristian handled many of the day-to-day operations of the business and he was almost always the first one to work in the morning. “Unfortunately for him, while he was working, a fire broke out. Keep in mind, this was a logging plant, so the fire had plenty of fuel. It spread quickly. Kristian had no chance. He was tragically killed that day.”
“So, is it Kristian out there haunting these woods?” Zach asked.
“Just hold on now,” Miranda said. “To this day no one knows how that fire got started, but Victor Leppla was certain Fredrik Sutinen had something to do with it. But here’s where the story really gets interesting. Rumor has it that Victor was more than just a businessman. Some say he had certain powers.”
“What kind of powers?”
“Are you sure you want to know?” Miranda asked.
“Yes, you gotta tell me now!”
Miranda moved closer to Zach, putting her face close to his. She looked into his eyes. “Witch powers,” she said.
Zach scooted away from Miranda.
“People used to see him doing all sorts of strange things on his land. Things that couldn’t be explained. There were claims of strange lights glowing from within his home. He put an addition on his wood cabin. Some say it was used for some pretty creepy stuff. Neighbors complained of the strange smell emitted from the smoke in his chimney. Who knows what he was doing in there?”
Zach remembered the odd smell that had been following him.
“But the story doesn’t end there.”
“Why? What happened next?” Zach asked eagerly.
“When Kristian was killed, Victor placed a curse on the Sutinen family.”
“A curse? You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no such thing.”
“Think about it, Zach. Do you really believe that? If so, then why did you come to me in the cafeteria today?”
Zach looked down at his feet.
“Victor didn’t just put a curse on the Sutinen family. The legend has it that Mr. Leppla stood in the middle of the town square, with hundreds of people watching, and vowed to haunt this area for eternity … even after his own death.”
“So, is this a legend, or is this true?”
“What do you think?” asked Miranda.
Zach ran through all the images in his head: the truck, the mysterious figure in the woods, the glowing, the smell. “Ok, so let’s say this is all true. Victor is out there haunting these woods. He put a curse on the Sutinens. How do you know so much about it if everyone else thinks it’s just a story?”
Miranda stared silently at Zach for a moment. Speaking softly, she said, “Like I said before, this story has had life around these parts for a long time.”
“Yeah, but how do you know it isn’t just an old ghost story, used to scare kids like me when they come up to Pine Ridge?”
“Because I heard this story long before I came to work at Pine Ridge.”
“What do you mean?” Zach asked.
“The Sutinen and Leppla families have been telling this story for many, many years, Zach.”
“Okay, so …”
“My name is Miranda, Zach. Miranda … Leppla.”