Beyond The Veil - Volume 1

Night-time Chronicles

KITARA'S POV

“Thank you, that is a good idea.” I say as I sit there still hoping someone changes the subject and bring the attention away from me.

"Do you need water? Are you hungry?” As soon as she asked, I smelled the aroma of the chili and my stomach immediately started growling like a bear. “Yes please!”

I rushed up and could hear my family laughing behind me. Over the years they have learned about me and my love of food. Soon we all went in an assembly line, making our plates and heading to the table to sit. Lucky for us that it’s a family campsite, so the campsite does have their own tables and bathroom throughout the area. Thank goodness for that.

As soon as we sat down, we said thanks and started to devour my mom's delicious cooking. You’d think my brother hadn’t eaten anything all day with the way he was wolfing down his food. The sight made us all laugh, and we were back to normal again.

5-10 minutes later we all sat there holding our stomachs, taking deep breaths as it was only the second thing we had eaten all day, and we all ended up eating way too fast.

“Thank you, baby, that was so wonderful. You take such good care of us,” my dad said to my mom as he kissed her forehead. The way they looked into each other’s eyes was sweet, you could tell just by looking at them that they really loved each other.

“Come on Kyle, Kitara, let's build the fire really quick, and we can sit around it and make some s'mores.” My dad called us and my mom got up at the same time to start cleaning up and putting everything away.

“Are you sure? Do you need help cleaning?” I asked her, to which she replied, “No you guys, go ahead, I should be done by the time you get back.”

With that, I followed my dad and Kyle to where they had stashed the wood they had cut earlier after they finished setting up, and they were showing me how to build the perfect fire to last.

“Here put these on the bottom, and then we will stack on top.” My dad said as he tried to show me his favorite way to put everything together.

It took less than 5 minutes to finish and if I do say so myself, it was a perfect wooden triangle with a base at the bottom and some facing a point at the top. We lit the fire, and all gathered in our chairs as my parents started to tell stories of the past times they had camped here. Apparently, one time my brother Kyle had eaten way too many s'mores when he was smaller, and they told him one day that he would turn into an actual marshmallow. He believed them.

I guess a 7-year-old Kyle believed them and was afraid to eat them for a while. One time, they came with his cousins and they were all around the same age at the time, and the little ones chased Kyle with marshmallows and Kyle ran away screaming, saying “Help me! They’ll turn into marshmallows too!” We were all laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe. It was nice to be with them this way. I don’t think I have ever felt so happy in my life. We stayed out a little while longer just enjoying each others company and of course, the beautiful forest views.

“Well, let's all head to bed. We have an early start if we want to get some good catches in the morning,” my dad said.

It took us all only a few minutes to put out the fire and put everything away, and then we all said goodnight. I saw my parents already starting to make their way to their tents. However, before my mom fully went inside, she turned to me and asked, “Are you sure your okay?”

I knew right away she was referring to my earlier episode and I knew I still couldn’t tell her, so I said, “Yes, I promise I am okay.” She nodded and said goodnight once more before going in and turning off their little light. Then it was just Kyle and I left.

“Goodnight sis, don’t stay up too late reading okay?” Kyle said. I gave him a look because at our age he and I were smarter than most, and he knew I always stayed up late reading no matter where we were.

“Thanks, just don’t tell on me, okay?” I said as I thought about how our parents would probably scold me in the morning for staying up late.

I giggled a little, thinking about how I had a brother now who could get on my nerves, tell on me, play with me, most likely get each other into trouble, you know, all the things siblings do; and parents to scold me when im wrong and still tell me to sleep better at night because they genuinely cared.

Kyle laughed and goes, “Yeah, Yeah” because he knew I wouldn’t listen.

As soon as I see him go into his tent, I reopen my Beastly novel and continue reading where I left off. Right now, the main character Kyle, is talking to Linda, a classmate of his, and he gives her a white rose because his girlfriend Sloane hated it. It was the only kind of thing he had ever done purely out of kindness in his life without ridicule or expecting something in return.

I continued to read another hour and finally checked the time on my little wrist watch and it said 11:07pm. I guess i could read a little longer and made a mental note that midnight was my cut off. It was a little chilly so I went to grab a blanket out of my tent and continued where i left off.