spooky story

> It all began in the small town of Fallbrook, Michigan. Two young boys were walking through the woods when they spotted a fox in the distance.
The fox glared at them, a mysterious look in its eyes.

It seemed to know something about them and it was watching them intently.
The two boys tried to get closer, but as they approached it ran off into the trees. They followed after it for quite some time until they eventually lost sight of it completely.

> The boys realized that they didn't know where they were. They were lost! They looked around, but all they could see were trees for miles in every direction.

The sun had set long ago and there was no sign of civilization anywhere nearby.
Tired and hungry, they began to panic a bit. They looked for anything that could be a marker or something to orient themselves by.

> Eventually one of them spotted a tiny light in the far-off distance, so they decided to head in that direction.
It was a good ways off, but after a while they came across a signpost with a lantern hanging from it. The words had long been weathered away, but they could see the face of some kind of animal etched into the old wood.

They approached the sign cautiously and examined the curious carving. It showed a bizarre creature with a lot of sharp teeth and even stranger, glowing green eyes. The boys had never seen anything like it before.
Turning, they looked up at the posted trail. It seemed to lead in two different directions. They didn't know where either would lead, but they had little choice but to follow one of them.

> The only thing they could think of was to follow the trail heading left, where the lantern seemed to burn the brightest.

As they walked down the lonely, night-time trail, they could hear a loud ringing echoing from somewhere up ahead. It sounded like the noise of a broken bell.
As they got closer they saw yet another strange carving at the base of what appeared to be a huge, ancient tree.

> It was the same animal as before, this time showing its entire body. To the boys it somewhat resembled a huge, lumbering skunk, and neither of them knew what to make of it.
But clearly they were headed towards something, and that was better than nothing. They continued to follow the sound of the bell.

They soon came across a collapsed, neck-high stone wall and an old broken sign declaring the presence of a "CLOSED" campground.

> They looked up and saw what was clearly an old bell-tower, probably used to signal the campers, back when it was still in use. That must be where the ringing was coming from, they thought.

As they looked up, yet another carving appeared before their eyes, showing a strange, spooky face, this one in the rock itself. The weird glowing eyes of the skunk glared back at them, daring them to proceed forward.

> But curiosity got the best of them. They simply had to know who was ringing that bell.
They clambered over a collapsed part of the stone wall and entered the campground, heading towards the bell tower.

As they drew closer they heard the bell toll. It was a deep, reverberating sound that seemed to echo throughout the whole camp. It made the hairs stand up on the back of their necks, but it also seemed to reassure them in some strange way.

> Finally they reached the bell tower and slowly opened the door. The door creaked on its rusty hinges, and opened to near-complete darkness.
There, standing in the center of the room, was a huge, dark figure holding the bell-pull. It stopped and stood there, silently gazing at them with its huge green eyes.

It didn't move, and didn't make a sound. The boys froze in their steps, in complete awe of this thing.
The thing finally spoke, a low, mournful sound escaping its lips.
"Do you wish to hear more?"

> Suddenly a part of the wooden ceiling fell away, a silvery shaft of moonlight pouring into the room. The eerie glow revealed the mysterious figure, and the boys saw before them a great skunk with shaggy fur, standing on two legs. Its eyes shone with an equally eerie green light, and they knew it was the creature they saw in the carvings.

It held the bell-pull tightly in its paw-like hands, and seemed to stare directly at the boys without blinking. The thing before them was clearly unnatural, yet neither of them could take their eyes off it.
"Do you wish to hear more?" the creature repeated in a monotone voice.

> Without thinking, both of them found themselves nodding.
The skunk resumed pulling hard on the rope, and the broken bell rang out once more. The clanging was even louder than before, but the sound didn't hurt their ears one bit. Instead it seemed to hold them to the spot.

"Listen," the strange being commanded in a soothing yet gravelly voice.
The boys found themselves unable to move, even if they wanted to, as they couldn't even break free of the trance cast upon them.

> "Isn't it beautiful?" the skunk continued, the sound of the bell relentless.

"It's calling others to listen, to join in the song. This is a song of celebration, a song of new life."
The bell tolled on endlessly, and the boys were powerless to stop it. In unison with the bell, they felt their hearts beat in time, as if the sound were somehow keeping them alive.

> "It's a brand new day for you both," it said.
Suddenly everything went black.

The boys were able to see nothing, even though they could still hear the bell. They could feel cold, shivery chills running down their spine, and they felt lost and alone in the darkness.

> And then, they were gone too.
They say you can still sometimes hear the bell, ringing out from the abandoned campground deep in the woods. And they also say you can see, if you search carefully, a pair of young skunks walking side by side among the trees, neither leaving the other for one moment.