"Food!" the small boy wailed, fat tears rolling down his cheeks. He gulped loudly and sniffled before crying out once more. "Food!"
"Don't cry, Sweetie," Charisse murmured, keeping her voice calm and soothing. "We have plenty of stuff to eat, don't we, Ty?"
"Yeah," her boyfriend replied. He frowned as he looked around at the thick forest surrounding them. "But where'd this little guy come from, Hon? I'd say he can't be more than four years old. Five at the most."
"These campgrounds are pretty well known so I assume his family must've come to use them and brought him along. I bet they're in one of the lots closest to us. He probably just wandered away and they didn't notice."
They searched for several minutes, taking turns going in different directions. However, despite their calling out for other people again and again, they didn't get even one response. And the boy began to cry again, demanding food.
"We can search more later, but in the meantime…" Ty grabbed one of the hot dogs he'd grilled and slapped it in a bun, along with relish, mustard, chili, and cheese, then held it out.
The child inhaled it, then wolfed down two more in quick succession which Charisse prepared for him.
"Wow," she exclaimed, glancing at Ty. "Are you watching this, Babe? He's really packing the food away, isn't he? Where do you think it's going? Those toothpick legs?"
"Could be." He grinned at her. "My mother used to say mine were hollow. But that's enough for him. We've gotta eat, too."
He eyed their unexpected visitor, who looked expectantly from one of them to the other, then back at the food. "I don't know how it's possible for you to still be hungry after all the things you've gobbled down but that's it for now. I wish I had some candy for you, but I don't. I didn't think to bring any along. I'm got the fixings for s'mores, though, and we'll make them later. If your parents have shown up and gotten you by then, they can bring you back for some."
The boy ignored him. Eyes on the remaining hot dogs, he ran and snatched them up, cramming them into his mouth raw. He grabbed the bag of buns next and started doing the same. When Charisse tried to take the bag from him, he bared his teeth and hissed at her.
"Stop that right now!" Ty snapped, voice stern. "It's not nice, especially considering how good she'd been to you."
Snarling in reply, the child glared at him, eyes changing into a dark red. Body becoming larger, his teeth changed, growing sharp and jagged, and his hands lengthened, morphing into paws tipped with long claws.
"That's no child," Charisse blurted out. "Run!"
Ty positioned himself between her and the nightmarish creature, but it leaped over him as if he wasn't even there, and ripped out Charisse's jugular. Eyes wide and staring, Ty scrambled away. Before he could get far, though, the creature was on him and slashed his head from his shoulders.
The end.

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