Chereads / SHATTERED REFLECTIONS: The temptations of beauty / Chapter 23 - 23_Campfire Party 2

Chapter 23 - 23_Campfire Party 2

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"Ok! Truth and Dare VC?" Cassie asked when the bottle landed on VC.

"Truth," VC replied.

"What do you love most about my body?" Cassie asked, grinning like a cat.

"Uhm, your hair?" VC replied after blinking twice.

"Thanks, I have great hair. He complimented my hair!" Cassie said with a screech, then turned to Danielle, causing VC to roll his eyes.

Danielle spun the bottle again and it landed on Liam." Truth or dare Liam?" She asked with dreamy eyes, hoping to hell he would choose the latter.

"Dare!" He said and as if her lifelong dream had come true she didn't waste a moment.

" I dare you to kiss me, a French kiss, a five-minute kiss," Danielle said without feeling embarrassed.

Liam stood up from his seat, walking over to Danielle but Charlotte grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"I'm the only one who can dare him!" Charlotte said with a smirk playing on her lips. She wrapped her arms around him possessively again, causing the rest of them to roll their eyes.

"I have a dare for you?" Charlotte said, using her fingers to trail Liam's jawlines. He had a confused countenance on his face while he let Charlotte be touchy with him. 

~~~

Back at the conflagration, Bea, Ranel, Alex, and Ed along with other pupils sat on logs placed in a circle.

Bea was telling a campfire story and she was great at it. "The Legend of the Ghostly Woods, where brave explorers encounter restless spirits, mysterious disappearances, and a haunting secret that lies hidden within the heart of the forest,"

As the story unfolds, the crackling fire casts eerie shadows on the surrounding trees. Imaginations run wild as the tale takes unexpected twists and turns, leaving the listeners on the edge of their seats. The storyteller, Bea, skillfully weaves suspense and mystery into the narrative, gradually building to a climactic ending that leaves everyone shivering with both fear and excitement.

As the tale unravels, the listeners are left pondering the nature of the unexplained, questioning their own beliefs, and perhaps even looking over their shoulders, half-expecting something paranormal to materialize in the shadows. The story ends on an enigmatic note, leaving the campers to ponder the mysteries of the night.

"That was so scary, where'd you learn how to tell horror stories like that?" Ed asked in awe.

"I felt the shivers in my spine, and I could see ghosts!" Mia, the necromancer who was paired up with Ed during Teacher Wayne's class said.

"It was thrilling!" Alex said, he was hanging out with them instead of his friends and he had not left Ranella's side since they arrived. Which made the students perplexed. 

"I love writing, it's just a talent I was born with," Bea said, roasting the marshmallows on the flames until they turned golden brown, then she distributed them among those sitting around the fire.

~~~

"What!?" Liam asked in bewilderment.

"Yes, you heard me right," Charlotte said.

.

"I--I can't do that to her, it's so cruel?" the dare Charlotte divulged him to was just so cruel, even a villain wouldn't be able to do something like that.

"Yeah Charlotte, that's a little too much," Leo commented and VC agreed with him.

"I would not do something as dreadful as that!" Liam said, shaking his head in disapproval.

"You will if you want our friendship to persist. Who knows, we might even become a couple," Charlotte said whispering into his ear.

Liam had liked Charlotte for some years, he would do anything to become her official boyfriend. But what she was asking of him was just too brutal. 

He glanced at Ranella, she was smiling and laughing hard like she finally fit in somewhere. She looked so happy with Alex also sitting next to her and supplying her with a bunch of Alcohol.

"What's with that face, you claim to like me but you don't even look like you do!" Charlotte blurted out.

"It's easy, she already has a crush on you, it shouldn't be too hard for you to accomplish it!" She said again.

"You are so full of..."

"... I'll do it," He said, causing everyone to turn to him in awe.

"Yo man..."

"You'll do it?" Charlotte asked, a smile finally gracing her frown face. Liam nodded and turned his attention back to them.

"Whatever we do, Alex must not know of any of this," Liam said and Charlotte nodded in approval, with a smirk on her face.

"He's a telepath, how are we gonna hide this from him?" Cassie asked.

"yeah, he could take a peek into our brains and find out about this, and the result would not be pretty seeing how attached he's gotten to her!" VC said.

"I've been with Alex long enough to know that whenever he tries to read your mind, you think of another thing, something to distract yourself from what you were currently thinking," Charlotte said, she knew Liam already knew this but she was relaying the message to the others who were present at that moment.

"This is going to be so Fun!!" Charlotte shrieked excitedly with a wicked smirk on her face, while VC and Leo shaked their head in disappointment.

"What are you still doing here, go begin with the task," Charlotte said with a smirk.

"I--I need to have a drink," Ranella said drunkenly, she stood up from among the dancing group and walked towards the punch, putting some in her cup.

"You shouldn't have more of that, you're drunk," 

"I'm not dru...nk," Ranella turned to the person and was shocked to find Liam, shirtless and standing right next to her with a smile.

"Am...am I hallucinating, does being drunk make people hallucinate?" Ranel asked, touching his face.

"You look cute in that dress," He said and she quickly withdrew her hand, knowing he was real and she was not imagining things.

(Hiccup) "..."

"Here, have this instead," Liam said giving her a chilled bottle of water.

"Th...thanks," She said, collecting it from him, he laid back on the punch table with his arms folded as he watched her drink up the water.

"Ah, that was nice," She said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

"So..." Liam said, looking for a conversation starter.

"So?"

"Hey Ranel, what's taking you so long?" Bea called.

"Uhm, excuse me," She said, walking back to the conflagration but she kept staggering, which made Liam chuckle as he watched her depart.