"Cool," Mason grins, passing you the bottle of alcohol.


You take a long drink, downing much of the bottle. Ant is right, it does taste like piss. Still, you manage to gulp down half the can, before passing it on.


"Shit. The new girl can drink," Ant smiles.


You continue sitting around the campfire, which is really a lot closer to a glorified candle sitting in a pile of leaves. Mason grabs the bottle of vodka and sits down next to you and your heart flutters. A large part of you knows that this is just infatuation and a childhood crush, mixed in with a fair bit of hormonal lust, but still… he's really, really cute. The others seem bored, with Kyle downing what seems like more than his weight in booze.


"Well, this is boring," Lucy complains, tossing a bottle in the middle. "Let's play spin the bottle."


"No way!" Ant complains. "I'm the odd guy out. Kyle and Becca go together, you and Carter and then Mason and the new girl."


You blush at that comment as Carter nods in agreement.


"I agree. I d-don't w-want to play spin the bo-bottle," Carter says.


Briefly glancing at the indifferent Mason, you feel a twinge of annoyance of all possibilities of spin the bottle disappears as Ant suggests a new game.


"Truth or Dare!" Ant suggests, to the groans of Kyle and Becca.


"Remember what happened last time?" Becca points out.


"That's not fair! That wasn't my fault! You should've protected your dad's stuff. How was I do know that that painting was worth a fortune?"


"You shouldn't have been drawing over paintings in the first place, Ant!"


"It wasn't skin off your dad's nose! That rich bastard can handle a loss! Jesus, we all know his ancestors made his money off the backs of Kyle's ancestors!"


"Fuck you, Ant!" Kyle shouts, slurring from his drink.


"Gentlemen, gentlemen, calm down," Mason says. "There ain't no issues! We're all friends here! I say a game of truth and dare would calm us all down."


"Fine," Becca says.


Mason downs the rest of his drink, and tosses the glass bottle in the middle. He drops to his knees and spins it, landing on Carter, who lies in the back of the pick-up.


"Truth or dare, Carter?"


"If I p-pick dare, will you… will you make me st-stand up?" Carter says lazily.


"Maybe," Mason says slyly.


"Truth, t-then."


Mason grins, glancing at him and Lucy.


"Have you ever kissed Lucy?" he asks.


"Nope. Sorry to disa-disa-disappoint."


"Damn. I was certain," Mason sighs, pulling out his wallet and tossing Kyle a crumpled bill. "You just cost me twenty bucks, Carter."


Ant leans over, spinning the bottle. It slows to a stop, pointing off into the woods.


"Is that closer to Becca or Hazel?" he asks.


"Becca," Carter says.


"Oh, fantastic. Truth or dare?"


"Truth."


"Dammit, Becca. Fine, I'll make this awkward. How far has Kyle got with you?"


"Shut up, Ant!" Becca hisses.


"Hey, you gotta answer!" Lucy says.


"Oh come on! That's private!"


"We're all friends here," Mason says.


"Fine! We've… you know. Done it."


"Respect, Kyle," Ant smiles, holding back a giggle.


Becca goes red, grabbing the bottle and twirling it. Through pure luck or skill, it points directly at Ant.


"Shit," Ant sighs.


"Truth or dare. I have a lot of embarrassing questions to ask."


"Dare," Ant grimaces.


"Well, you have a lot more balls than I though. You'll suffer from it. I dare you to go into Herr Eichel's basement."


"No!" Ant replies.


"Come on, Becca! Herr Eichel's tear out his throat if he caught him!" Lucy complains.


"Who's Herr EIchel?" you ask.


"Oh, I'll tell her. I've been practicing this story for my little brother," Mason says, before clearing his throat. "During World War II, a young soldier rose through the ranks of the SS. He had a habit of hunting Jews and personally escorting them to the Camps. He would hunt men, women, children, and torture them all for information. He showed no mercy. Eventually, when the Russians invaded, he escaped by pretending to be a civilian, fleeing from Berlin to France to Britain to the US. He hid right here in Dawnwood, hunting down any Jews he could find. His name is Herr Eichel."


"That's the biggest load of shit!" Lucy complains. "Everyone knows that any Jew in Dawnwood would be scared off by Carter Sr. and his white power bullshit."


"He doesn't w-w-want white pow-power!" Carter says. "He wants white p-pride. There's… a difference."


"No there isn't, Carter, now stop ruining the story. Where was I?" Mason asks.


"You just finished," you point out.


"Oh. Well, now Herr Eichel's going to kill Ant."


"Becca, I'm sorry! Please change the dare!"


"Fine. You have to go into the Dead Man's Barn and go up to the attic."


"That's even worse!" Ant complains.


"Nah, that ain't bad," Mason says. "Nazis are real and will kill you. Ghosts aren't."


You raise an eyebrow, and Mason smiles.


"OK, story time. Once, there was a Sheriff back in the Western times who used his power to wipe out any competition of the big ranchers of the town. One of the small time ranchers, Daniel Edwards, stood up and told the Sheriff he wouldn't sell his farm to his competition despite threats. The Sheriff led a posse to bring him down, and Edwards tried to fight back. He killed two dozen men and took near a hundred bullets before he went down. They tortured him for a few days, even cutting his face wide open to give him... what'd ya call it, a Glasgow Grin. Eventually, you just hung him to finish him off. Rumor is he still haunts the barn where they strung him up. It's a historical building so it can't be torn down, so the owner just leaves it vacant."


"I'm not going!"


"Don't pussy out, Ant."


"Will one of you go with me?" Ant pleads.


"Spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on has to go with you," Lucy suggests. "I hope it's Becca. That'd be ironic."


"Sure," Carter says. "Let's do that."


Ant thanks Lucy and spins the bottle. It wobbles and slows to a halt, pointing directly at you.


"Well, I guess Hazel's going to Dead Man's Barn," Mason says.


"No, she can go to Herr Eichel's if she wants. Eichel's just an old, slow dude. The Dead Man's a supernatural murderer," Lucy says.


"Let Hazel pick," Kyle says, trying to stand before stumbling and leaning back on the truck.


"Yeah. Go ahead Hazel. Ghost or Nazi."

You go with Ant to Herr Eichel's Basement

"Fine, we'll go to the Nazis."


Ant nods nervously as Mason winces.


"If... if you think so," Mason says.


You nod. The group begins to stand, and starts walking towards Herr Eichel's house.


"I'll... I'll stay here!" Kyle slurs, collapsing into the back of the pick-up truck.


Lucy shrugs, and continues leading the group out of the forest. The group drops the various empty cans among the shrubs as you emerge in yet another one of the bland, boring suburbs that make up Dawnwood. The sun's fallen, so Lucy brings out her phone and turns on the flashlight. She leads you to a house that looks identical to every single house on the street.


"Is this it?" you ask.


"Yeah," Lucy says.


"Well. I expected swastika banners hanging from the roof or something."


"The closest thing to a swastika here is the one on Carter's dad's arm."


"Fuck you!" Carter says, "H-he's not a naz-naz-nazi!"


"Yes he is, Carter."


"We're not arguing now. Quiet down, we don't want to wake Herr Eichel. Ant, take Hazel 'round back, there's always an open window to the basement. We'll stay here. The ruckus of half a dozen kids 'round back would wake the Nazi," Mason says.


"Probably to air out the smell," Becca says. "You know, of his victims."


You begin to sweat nervously, and you follow Ant around the back. Like Mason said, the basement window is wide open. Ant looks at you, nodding.


"Uh... ladies first," he says nervously.


"Coward," you spit, before dropping to your knees.


You crawl forward on your hands and knees, turning around and sliding through the window. You wiggle, taking a good minute to squeeze through, before dropping into the darkness of the basement. You lose sight of everything, and are left in complete and utter darkness that even the light of the moon can not penetrate. You listen, and the silence is broken by the quiet yelp and thud of Ant falling through the window.


"Ssssh!" you hiss.


"Fine," Ant says.


You hear him fumble around in the darkness, before silence resumes. A tiny light flickers as Ant lights his cigarette lighter, his face being the only thing illuminated in the darkness. You draw your phone, turning on the flashlight, a more modern solution to the darkness. A workshop table is illuminated, with several... pieces of bone and flesh covering the tables.


"What the fuck...?" Ant says, stepping back. "It was only supposed to be a rumor. I was nervous, but I didn't actually... I..."


"What the hell is this place?"


"We need to get out of here," Ant hisses.


You stare at the table in pure horror. You turn your phone over, making out several more of these workshop tables covered in gristle and pieces of former victims. A large tool rack covered in blood stained knives, some deadly sharp, some serrated, some large enough to easily carve through bone as if through butter.


"Hazel, snap out of it!"


"OK, OK," you say, shaking your head. "I'll boost you out the window, you pull me up afterwards, got it?" you say.


Ant nods, and you hurry to the basement window. He puts his foot in your cupped hands and you give him a boost. He grabs the window frame, and begins to pull himself through the door. You push him as he wiggles through the door. It takes a good two minutes for him to squeeze back through, before turning to grab your hand.


"Come on, let's go!" you say.


You hear a creaking. You turn off your phone as a beam of light from an opening door bursts in.


"Hide!" Ant whisper loudly. "He's coming!"


You look around. In the darkness, you see only two eligible options for hiding place: Under the workshop table or behind the "tool" rack. Then again, you could always try to squeeze through the window, although even with Ant's help, Herr Eichel might get you first.

You hide behind the tool rack

You drop to your knees and quickly crawl behind the tool rack, curling up as you wrap your arms around your knees and curl up in a ball, trying not to move or make a noise. You hear an old voice begin to hum as the stairs begin to creak.


"Muss i denn, Muss i denn, zum stadtele hinaus..." the old man sings. "...stadtele hinaus..."


You wince as you hear him draw near.


"Und du, mein schatz, bleibst hier?" he sings, as you hear the clank of metal as he grabs a blade from the tool rack, right in front of you. "Wenn i komm', wenn i komm', wenn i wiedrum komm'..."


You let out a sigh of relief as he walks away, heading to the workshop. You hear the squelch as blades slicken as they slice through flesh. There's a thud and you gasp, before another thud, before a thud and a crack as Herr Eichel breaks open a bone with a hammer. Herr Eichel stops, pausing for a second.


"Is there someone there?" he asks, his eery sing-song voice giving way to an elderly' grandfather's with a thick German accent. "I promise, if you come out now, there... won't be a problem."

You continue hiding

You stay hidden, trying not to breath as Herr Eichel begins moving around the room, singing all the while.


"Kehr' i ein, mein Schatz, bei dir. Kann i glei net allweil bei dir sein..." he sings.


You hear a chime as the doorbell rings, and the room falls silent as Herr Eichel stops singing.


"Ah. Guests," he says.


You hear his boots thud away as the stairs begin to creak as he climbs them. You hear the door shut, and immediately get out of your hiding place. You head to the window, and leap up through it. You grab the window pane and begin to pull yourself through, wiggling to help you move on through. You pull yourself through and collapse onto the grass, and begin running around to the front. You freeze as you notice Herr Eichel standing directly in front of you.


"Hello," he says in a thick German accent. "I am Mr Eichel."


"I know."


"Ah, so you've heard of me. Tell me, what are the current rumors. Am I said to be the assistant to Josef Mengele? The personal aid of Adolf Hitler? A camp doctor as the Concentration Camp?"


You stare at him in silence.


"Well, the rumors are completely untrue. I am simply an immigrant and a taxidermist. I came here when I was a boy. Sure, I served my country during the war in the Werhmacht, but I surrendered first chance I got. It's simple fear of foreigners that makes children think I'm so terrible boogeyman, not any real facts. Did you take any... souvenirs from my basement?"


You shake yor head.


"Good, although I warn you, my dear, that if you and your friends break into my house again I will be calling the Sheriff. And tell... give me a sec, my vision isn't great... Mason, Rebecca, Anthony and Carter that there's better things to waste your time on then bothering old men. Quite ironic that Carter's here to see a nazi with the family he has... Now, please leave me alone to my work, dear."


You nod, and run out towards the trees. You find the group, with Mason standing terrified, waiting for you.


"What happened? Why'd he just let you go? Carter says he was carving up a body!"


"He said he's just an old immigrant and a taxidermist, and to leave him alone or he'd call the sheriff."


"He was cutting up a person!" Ant shrieks.


"That was probably a deer!" Lucy says. "You're drunk as fuck, Ant."


"It was a person," Ant says, stubbornly.


"Well, we probably just annoyed an old man. Let's get the fuck out of here and go find Kyle."

You head back into the woods

You walk back through the woods, heading towards the trucks.


"S-s-so, this w-was a bad id-idea," Carter says.


"Yeah, it was. I risked my life to annoy a harmless old man," you say.


"We risked our lives to annoy what could have been a harmless old man," Ant says.


You arrive at the camp, and Mason swears loudly.


"FUCK! Where the hell is Kyle?" he asks.


The camp is empty, with no one in sight.


"R-r-remember last time we lost Kyle when he was drunk?"


"Oh dear God, he ended up pissing in my garden. He wasn't pissing into the garden. He was standing in the garden, pissing on my house," Becca says. 


"We need to find him. Is anyone not sober enough to find this place again?" Mason says.


There's silence.


"Good. We'll split up and try find him. Ant, you head towards the Rotten Trees, Lucy, go towards our old tree house, Becca, towards the old drinking point, Carter, back towards town. Hazel, you're new here. There's a stream just over there," Mason says, pointing. "Just walk along there, and keep your phone on. If you can't find him, follow the stream back here."


You nod. Time to find Kyle.