“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Reagan got out a cigarette, lighting up and taking a long drag as he stared out into the middle distance, like he was looking into a memory. He let out a long plume of smoke before speaking again.
“I don’t know if you can really even call this a ghost story, but it’s chilling nonetheless. So.. I’m old, I fought in the second world war as a medic. And the sick and injured? They tell you stuff when they think they’re going to die. Tell you stuff you never wanted to hear in the first place.
“In this case, we had some British soldiers in our medical tent. They’d just been in the Alps for a while and were short on medical supplies and a lot of the soldiers were sick when they crossed paths with our battalion. They all looked like they’d seen hell and no one was talking. Which, I’m not gonna ask that sort of thing, this was war, we’d all seen hell. I went about my business and helped who I could.
“Of course, I found out eventually. There was one soldier who had pneumonia with a really nasty fever, so I stayed up with him through the night to make sure he stayed cool and stable. And really late into the night, he grabbed my arm, looking scared as hell and asked me if Private Reginald was dead. I’d scanned their list of the dead earlier that day so I knew he was so that’s what I told him.
“The man looked so relieved, which isn’t what you expect, you know? Usually it’s rough when you lose a buddy out there. But no, he shook his head when I offered him condolences. He told me he was grateful.”
Reagan sniffed, taking another drag from his cigarette before continuing.
“He then started telling me what happened. Apparently, while they were traveling through the Alps, they stopped at this one little town to restock and rejuvenate. Most of the troops spoke English and most of the townsfolk spoke German but they were accepted nonetheless because they were there to end the war, you know? The locals shared their food, and supplies without a hitch. The troops had to be posted there for a little because there’s been a landslide along the patch, but the town was more than happy to help them.
“So they stay there, go to the local pubs and socialize with the locals until one night, one of the locals comes running in shouting something in German. Eventually they calm him down and get a translator and apparently two of the children from the town have gone missing.
“The soldiers ask if anything else is gone and find out that a tarp, some rope, some firewood and also a hatchet had gone missing. But this isn’t as odd as the missing children. At first the soldiers just think two kids got lost in the woods, you know? Maybe they were trying to build a fort out there. So they help out and look for the missing kids. Never find them though.”
Reagan sighed, rubbing his arm, eyes still far away.
“More kids start going missing. The soldiers start putting patrols out at night. They start searching the woods for packs of wolves or anything that could possibly be causing this. The towns people start suspecting the battalion of taking children and tensions grow. Fights start breaking out.
“Then one of the Privates goes missing too. Private Reginald, the one that this man had asked if he was dead. The troops start suspecting that the townsfolk killed him in retaliation, while the townsfolk start spreading rumors that a monster must be coming down from the mountains to eat them.
“But.. before things get worse, one night, one of the patrols caught sight of a figure peering into a window and they gave chase. He led them through the forest until he darted into a cave. It was a ways off so no one had found it before then.
“So the troops race after the figure and start getting shit at, the figure apparently had a gun. Eventually they shot him dead, though and came inside, only to find that the man they shot was Private Reginald himself.
Reagan finally looked up, looking the woman right in the eye.
“Around his corpse, they found seven, hacked apart and half-eaten children.”