Please be made up

We were all sitting around a dying campfire in the dark; I think we'd set up somewhere near Jervis Bay. We were on our way to visit our grandparents in Sydney. Our parents had gone to "bed", though in retrospect it's incredibly obvious they were all sharing a joint in one of the tents, and my oldest cousin Jack, who at fifteen called all the shots had decided we all had to tell the scariest story we possibly could, or he got the rest of the bag of marshmallows.

There were four of us. Me, Jack and Harry started to tell our stories at once, fighting over who got to hold the torch under their face and talking over each other and loudly butting in to tell the others their story sucked. The only one of us who didn't say anything was Adam. He was the middle cousin at thirteen, and usually the loudest of all of us. He'd been quiet and acting strangely for the whole trip.

When I finally got a word in, I told my story which was essentially a very poor rehash of the plot of 'When a stranger Calls', and was ready to claim my marshmallow, when I realised Adam was yet to tell his story. We all looked at him. He was looking down at his shoes, hands in his lap.

'Adam it's your turn' Jack said, but Adam shook his head. 'I don't want to do this, it's stupid' he quietly. 'Fine, no marshmallow for you. You're obviously too scared to do this' Jack said harshly. Adam looked up, eyes wide, and I saw he was scared.

'Look' he said. 'I don't want to tell my story because it's way too scary, and... look, I just... it's better if I don't. I've never told anybody this'. We all immediately started arguing that we'd seen scary movies at sleepovers which were bound to be ten times more terrifying than Adams' story.

'Seriously' Adam said, poking at the fire with a stick 'I don't want to tell you guys'. After all of us practically begging him, he finally sighed. He turned to Jack. 'Look. If I tell you this, you have to swear you won't tell mum and dad. Or your parents' he said, turning to me and Harry. 'They won't believe this, and I'll get in massive trouble. We all will, okay? So please, I'm only telling you if you swear on my life not to tell them.'

Something about how serious he sounded made even Jack shut up and nod. Adam cleared his throat, and we sat, entranced, as he began the story. 'This happened a month ago. You're not going to believe me, but I swear it's true' he said. 'You know Mr Jeffries?' he said, turning to Jack. Mr Jeffries was their neighbour up until very recently. He was about 50, lived alone with his cat, and they used to tell us all about how weird he was, randomly leaving the house at strange times, boarding up all his windows and having a TV constantly blaring in what sounded like every room of his house.

'Well. One time, Greg and I decided to sneak into his house. I know you guys aren't going to believe me, so shut up before you interrupt and just let me explain. We figured out he always left his house at like 6 am for a couple of hours each Saturday, and we decided to sneak in to see if he was like a kidnapper or something. We climbed over the fence using the step ladder, and crawled through the cat flap of his back door'.

He cleared his throat. Even though he was prone to exaggerating stories, this sounded very real. 'We started looking around and it was really weird in there. Super dark because of the window thing, and he had like three TV's and all of them were on. We started to get really freaked out, but Greg insisted we go upstairs and look around. Not even halfway up, we heard a key in the door and he caught us. As soon as he saw people in his house he pulled a knife out of his pocket, wielding it at us until he realised we were kids.' he said.

'I thought we were going to die, but then he kind of calmed down and asked us what the hell we were doing there. He was shaking, it was weird like he was scared of us. Greg's big mouth told him we thought he was kidnapping people or something, and that our parents knew where we were, and if he did anything to us the police would come, and Mr Jeffries started laughing'.

'He laughed for a while, and then stopped and kind of went quiet, and suddenly he just looked tired and old and sad, and I wasn't scared of him anymore. He said "you kids are stupid. I don't kidnap people and I'm not going to hurt you. Get out of my house, and you're lucky I'm not going to tell your goddamn parents because I was just as bad at your age". He moved out of the doorway and gestured for us to leave. We walked outside, and Greg immediately bolted, but for some reason, I don't know why, I turned around and asked him why his windows were boarded up, why the TV was on. I guess I just wanted to know.' Adam kicked at a rock by the fire. This was the longest any of us had ever listened to a story without butting in or making a joke.

'He said "Because I'm scared, son. When I was a kid, something happened, kind of like this. Thing is, the person I thought was the bad guy ended up being a very bad guy, and I saw something I shouldn't have. Since then, since I was twelve years old, I've been terrified he would come after me". Then he shut the door.'

Adam sighed. 'I guess I couldn't forget what he said, or how messed up about it he sounded. I mean, so scared he boarded up all his windows? It was crazy. I decided to go back without Greg and ask him to tell me the story. A couple of days later, when I knew he was home, I knocked on the door. I told him I wanted to know the story, and he said to go home, but I kept coming back and pestering him about it. That Friday, I saw him drinking beer on his verandah, and I went up and sat on the steps and said he had to tell me the story, and maybe because of the beer he finally did.'

'When Mr Jeffries was twelve, he hung around with two other guys from school. They were best friends, and they used to go exploring down by the river near where they lived. They used to have to sneak off to go there though because around that time two women from their neighbourhood had gone missing. A couple of times, they noticed a strange guy kind of lurking around a particular bend of the river, always appearing just as they were heading home when the sun went down. One of his friends got the idea this guy might be responsible for the missing women and decided they should spy on him. They came back the next day with binoculars, a notebook and Mr Jeffries' dad's camera that he took without asking. They lied to their parents that they were having a sleepover, and hid in the reeds near that river bend. Apparently, they were five minutes away from leaving when the guy appeared, checking his watch. They started taking photos.

Maybe ten minutes later, a young woman arrived, and well... they were right about the man. He hurt her, the woman, when she wouldn't do what he asked. They were freaking out about what to do but as this woman was screaming, they decided to jump out from their hiding and try and help her, but this guy, he was young and strong, and pushed the woman down and started chasing Mr Jeffries and his friends. Mr Jeffries dropped the camera as he ran. They all ran for their lives, but the only one who did cross country was Mr Jeffries, and the others couldn't keep up.'

'He kept running all the way without looking back. He told his mum, they called the police, and everyone went out looking for the boys and this man, but they found nothing. Mr Jeffries took the police to the river bend but there was nothing there, no camera, no woman, no friends. They never found the guy, and Mr Jeffries' family moved to a different town within a couple of weeks.'

Adam scratched his leg. 'He told me not to tell mum and dad that he'd told me the story, that he was crazy for even telling me. Part of me thought it was too crazy to believe, but I looked it up online and it really happened. I felt sorry for Mr Jeffries, so I went over a couple of times after that, and mum and dad caught on that I was visiting him. They thought it was really nice of me to spend time with him, and they invited him over for dinner, probably to check he wasn't some creep. It was when you were on camp Jack, before you ask why you weren't invited'.

'I couldn't believe it when he actually agreed, and on the day, he was there on time, and he'd even brought a bottle of wine and looked like he'd tried to clean himself up. Everything was going really well, and he was getting along pretty okay with mum and dad until he and dad started talking about some book and he walked over to the bookcase next to the kitchen. He immediately went white, and started shaking, and said he had to go; he wasn't feeling well. He practically ran out the door. Mum and dad felt super sorry for him. Mum said he must have social anxiety.'

'Really early the next morning, I heard noises outside and looked out the window. It must have been before 5 am or something. I saw him out the front of his house, packing up all his stuff into his car'.

'I snuck downstairs as quietly as I could, headed outside and walked over to him. He jumped when he saw me and seemed almost scared of me. I asked what was wrong. He kept packing and didn't respond, but as he got into his car to leave, he looked at me right in the eyes and said. 'Son, I may be old, and I don't know if I can trust you, but you have no way of knowing where I'm heading to, so here goes nothing. That man I saw in the photograph on your bookcase, that was the man who killed those girls and my friends, that's the man I'm hiding from.'

Adam swallowed, voice trembling. 'It was a photo of Grandpa'.