Damp. That was pretty much the only word that could describe the atmosphere of that night. It had rained in the morning, and everything was just beginning to dry off, so it gave more of a swampy feeling than a forest. The grass was damp, the trees were damp, hell, even the air around us felt damp. It was a miracle the fire stayed lit.

My name's Charlie. I'm 14, and this was the summer after my class's freshman year. It was the 20th of June if I recall correctly, I'm not very good at keeping up with dates.  I live in a small town known as Honeydale, and by a small town, I mean a really small town.  Pretty much everyone knows everyone else and their extended family, which honestly makes it nice around here.

Anyways, it was getting dark, but I knew most of everyone would be awake. Tonight was one of the town's annual Bonfire Nights. I'm not exactly sure where and how it originated, but the whole concept is that everyone in your class gets a night all to themselves, where they can do almost whatever they want while keeping a bonfire lit the whole night. The tradition takes one night for every class after 4th grade, and pretty much just keeps going even for the people that have already graduated. Yeah, that means our parents go too. But thankfully not on the same night.  We all get separate nights to ourselves, and it lasts for the whole summer.

I was walking down the gravel roads of our town, heading over to Thomas's house.  I had a bag full of snacks I prepared for the night.  Usually we'd have Colleen bring them, but she got pneumonia and had to stay in sick, so I got the honors of taking the time to bake everything for the whole day.  I didn't mind, though, it's what I'd usually do to pass the time anyway.

I knocked on the front door and patiently waited for my best friend. Thomas and I have known each other since elementary school, so we're pretty close. I don't exactly know what's up with him, I always assumed it was Tourettes syndrome or something like that, but he's really spastic and jittery all of the time.  He twitches every once and a while, and to top it all off he's extremely paranoid about things he's never seen or heard from before.  I guess that's kind of why he lives here, that and the best therapist his mom could find for him was here.  Nonetheless, we hang out a lot together, and even though he can be a handful at times, you kinda get used to it after a few years.  Jeez, with the way I say that I might as well be his dad.  Or more like an older sibling.

I could here the door creak open and a small lock slid aside.  Thomas opened the door, a nervous smile plastered on his face.  "You ready to go?"  I asked him.

"I guess so."  He said, stepping down from his porch. He was only a little bit shorter than me, and his eyes were two different colors. One was yellow and the other was a yellowish green. It was kinda pretty, but of course I can't say it out loud. I don't want everyone thinking I'm gay, at least not while I'm only considering the fact. "Did Kees say anything about going?"

"Yeah, he said he was waiting for us by the dirt path." I answered. Kees was another good friend of ours, though he only moved in around middle school. He's pretty laid back and chill most of the time, and he doesn't really care about the unimportant stuff. Pretty much the exact opposite of Thomas, so being in a friend group with the two of them is kind of like getting to experience the best of both worlds.

With the pace we were going at, it only took us about 15 minutes to get to the entrance of the woods. As promised, Kees was leaning against a tree, but he was also standing with Ally and Jo.  Jo was the shortest out of all of us, but to be fair, Ally and Kees were about 6 feet tall already, and she hasn't even hit her growth spurt yet.  She had light brown hair, sunset yellow eyes, and was surprisingly shy.  She's lived here all her life, but none of us have seen her until middle school because she was apparently homeschooled. We never knew why though.

Ally, like I said before, was way too tall for her own good.  She's only a year older than us and was a foot taller, not even mentioning the fact that she likes to wear boots all the time.  She had a large duffel bag slung over her shoulder, which I assumed to hold the tent we would be using that night. Her eyes were a bright, beautiful teal, and her hair was the perfect darkened shade of brown.  She was really brave and outgoing, just the type of person that anyone would love and- ok, too obvious?  Fine, I'll admit I've kinda had a crush on her since 4th grade.  I'd seen her around before then, but the first Bonfire night I ever went to was where we really talked and, y'know, hit it off as friends.  Thomas is still a little nervous around her since he used to be scared about getting replaced, though.  Nonetheless, we all get along great with no trouble at all now.

"Sup guys."  Kees greeted with a small wave, getting his back off the tree and standing up straight.  "You gonna walk the path with us or you gonna wait for a couple of dorks like we did?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"  Thomas questioned.

Kees chuckled.  "Chill, I'm just joking.  Besides, there are still a couple of people everyone else is waiting for."

"Who?"  I asked, tilting my head slightly like a curious dog.  It was a weird habit I picked up from somewhere, even though I don't remember where.

"I think Ash, Kai and Lukey are still on their way."  Jo said, her voice in a more hushed tone.  "I could be wrong."

"It doesn't matter much anyways."  Ally said, shrugging.  "If they'll get here, they'll get here."

We all followed down the long, dirt path to the area we all knew so vividly. It was deep into the forest, so it was completely surrounded with trees, but right in the middle of this clearing stood the bonfire. Everyone there before us had already filled the metal container with sticks and dead leaves, and I could see Sabrina sitting close to it with her lighter, waiting for everyone else to show up so she could set it ablaze like every other year. There were a few tents scattered around, but I doubted anyone was asleep yet. Veronica and Lara were chatting with Sabrina while they waited, Jojo was flipping coins with Mason, John and Dan were playing with a deck of casino cards, and I'm sure there were plenty of other people that I couldn't spot just yet. After taking a few moments to look around, I noticed Austin and Trey sitting together near the middle, a box of drinks near their seats. Austin looked up at me and smiled, lazily waving at the bunch of us. 

"Whatcha got there?"  Kees asked, pointing to the box.

"Well," Austin said, "Trey and I found my dad's old beer basement-"

"It's called a wine cellar, Austin."  Trey corrected, though Austin ignored him and continued anyway.

"-so we stole some of the smaller bottles and filled them with Kool-Aid." 

"Wow."  I said, slightly surprised. "I was actually kinda expecting you guys to call me last minute and tell me I'd have to do it."

"We were considering that.  But, y'know, found the beer basement-"

"Wine cellar."  Trey corrected him again.  "And we only did it because you forgot to grab the plastic cups after your shift."

"I was busy helping Lara find the party poppers in the back, give me a break!"

"It's a 7/11 dude, it couldn't have taken you that long!"

"Please don't fight, you two."  Jo interrupted them.

"Alright, fine." Austin said. Trey just sighed and rolled his eyes. "So you guys gonna grab a bottle or not?"

Kees shrugged and took one, the rest of us doing the same. Around a half hour later, the rest of us showed up, which meant we could finally start.  Like I said before, Sabrina always lit the fire every year, and this year was no different.  For that, at least.

"Alright everyone!  Listen up!"  Sabrina clapped, drawing everyone's attention to her as she stood in front of all the loose twigs and leaves.  "You all managed to survive another year, and that's great and all, but there are pros and cons to everything and basically what I'm trying to say is that you all suck."

With that, she set the pile aflame as we all watched with awe.  She usually said stuff like that these nights, so no one was really phased by it.  It was the fire we were fixated on.  It was really beautiful, something that would catch your attention even if you looked at it every day.  Or maybe that was just me.  I'm not sure. 

It was already dark when we got there, but at this point it was practically midnight.  It had been a few hours since the lighting, everyone was just hanging out, playing and eating a few snacks here and there.  I was laying down on the grass with Ally, just looking up at the night sky.  It wasn't cloudy at all that night, so we could see all of the bright and shining stars up there.  Yet just another odd type of beauty. 

"And those three extra bright ones, right up there-"  Ally pointed upwards to a trio of stars, formed neatly into a triangular shape, "-together they call those the Summer Triangle.  I always forgot what the star's names were."

"I never remembered either."  I shrugged.

"You never remember anything."  Ally chuckled.

"I remember the time you jumped off the roof of your house and broke your arm trying to fly."

"Yeah, but everyone remembers that.  Just like everyone remembers when you blew up your dad's microwave because you thought it would kill the germs on the metal utensils you had."

"I think we can still see the paint we used to cover up the hole in the wall."

"You were 8, what do you mean 'we'?  Your dad probably did it all himself while little baby Charles sat in the back and waited for the 'loud noises'."

"Ok you got me there."

We both laughed our butts off about the rest of our random situations. I tried to drink paint, Ally used to eat sunflower seeds with their shells.  Life gets really crazy really early on here, doesn't it?

I know this sounds cheesy and all, but at the moment I started thinking, and I figured maybe it would've been the perfect time to confess my feeling towards her. We were at one of our finest moments, you know, that high point in life where it seems like nothing could ever go wrong.  One of those nicer moments.  I turn my head to look at her.

"Hey Ally?" I asked. She turned to look at me, her eyes shining in the moonlight.

"What's up?"

Before I could say anything there was a loud bang in the distance.  I jumped, and I heard Thomas scream.  Everyone turned to look in the direction of the sound, and after a long minute of stunned silence, someone spoke up.

"What the hell was that?"  Mason asked.

"It sounded like gunfire." Jo commented.

"How do you know what gunfire sounds like?!" Thomas asked, though his question was completely ignored.

Annie groaned. "I swear to god, if another group o' city people came around just to hunt the fuckin' ducks again-"

"People don't usually hunt at night, though."  John said.  "Ducks aren't even nocturnal, it's wouldn't be a good strategy."

"I'll go check it out." Ally stood up. "Does anyone have a flashlight?"

"Jackson brought one." Vinny pointed out as the blonde took out his flashlight and tossed it to Ally. She flicked it on.

"Wait," Jo piped up, "you really want to go out there alone?"

"Don't worry about me, Joey." Ally said. "It's not like we have any wolves or bears out there. Besides, like Annie said, it's probably just someone out hunting again. I won't be gone for that long."

And with that, she left towards the direction of the sound.  Most of us, including me, were still doubtful about the idea, but we all know what she's like.  She has an idea, she's sticking to it.

What made the rest of us nervous was when she didn't come back almost half an hour later. 

"Uh, guys," Jojo said, "I don't think she came back."

"You think?"  Kai asked rhetorically, Lukey sitting on top of their shoulders.

"Should we go look for her?"  Dan asked.

"Maybe we-" Lara started to speak, until there was a sudden click. A click a little too familiar to the ear.

The click of a loading gun.

A few seconds of silence pass by, and someone screams out, "RUN!"

After that, all hell broke loose. There was gunfire coming from all directions, unfamiliar people suddenly appearing just to knock us out. I couldn't see much, as a sharp pain stung the back of my head. I fell to the ground, feeling some kind of warm liquid pour down the side of my face as my vision began to blur. Before I could even think of screaming for help, I was hit again, this time blacking out for good.

I woke up on some kind of bed, staring up at a ceiling I didn't recognize.