They all listened to the old man's footsteps crunch into the distance before breaking the silence.
"So what would you all wish for?" Steve's jovial demeanor showing he wasn't at all affected by the story or scared by the dark forest. "For me it would be teleportation. I could ski Aspen in the morning, have coffee in Switzerland, lunch in Paris, then a dinner out in Madrid. Nice!" Nina was glaring at him just a little, and he added, "of course I'd have to be able to take a date too." That brought her into the fold and she laid a small kiss on him.
"Me? Vampire totally." Brad's choice was no surprise to any of them. He was always wrapped up in the vampire stories. Campy movie, teen drama, it didn't matter. If there were vampires in it, Brad was all over it. "That way I could live forever, and make a following of hot vampirettes." At that his girlfriend Keri did more than glare, she punched him clear in the shoulder. "What?!?" Brad didn't seem to understand her response.
"And I would wish for telepathy. That way I'd know if this pig was cheating on me, and maybe make him stop." They all laughed.
"My wish would be shape-shifting." They were not even paying attention when Nina shared her thought, but all eyes turned to her. "What? I've never been the prettiest girl. For once, just once I'd like to be." Brad and Keri laughed, while Steve tried to whisper to her. "And I'd like to have boobs." She turned her attention to Daniel, who had been typically silent most of the night. "What about you Daniel? What would you want?"
Brad chimed in, never missing a chance to poke fun, "ya nerd, what would you wish for? A life?"
"Whatever, it's just a stupid story." Daniel knew exactly what he would want. Looking at the two couples flirt, and feeling like a lost soul as he so often did. He'd want to make women want him. "Fine. I'd wish to be superman."
"So cliche, geek boy, but you do already have the perfect Clark Kent cover." Keri hit Brad again, this time for making fun of Daniel.
Daniel defended himself verbally, "You think stones grant wishes, and you're making fun of me?" Even as he did, it seemed like nobody was listening. Steve and Nina were already making out. Brad and Keri hardly heard his answer as they followed suit. Daniel slinked off into his lonely tent and tried ineffectually to sleep through the sounds of couples rustling in their tents.
---
"Watch out there, that's poison oak," Daniel shared as he stepped carefully past it. Halfway through the next day, hiking through the woods, Steve and Nina still hadn't stopped making out. They straggled behind the other three.
Brad wished he and Keri were doing the same, while she tried to help Daniel not feel forgotten. "Thanks for coming along on this trip. It's good to have one person who knows something about the woods along with us." She looked carefully at the plant as she stepped by it, and somewhere in the brush behind it a flickering light caught her eye. She stopped and looked again, moving carefully towards the shiny black, green, and purple flicker. "Guy, oh my god, get over here."
The old man's story was fresh in her mind as she approached the rock. Could it really be? "Steve, Nina, save it for the tent and come look at this." Brad hadn't moved from the path, his shoulders shrugged in impatience. As if he had somewhere to be. Daniel followed her off the path, more for fear she would dive into some more poison oak than anything else. When he too saw the rock, he had to admit it bore a striking resemblance to the old man's story.
"That looks like Black Quartz. It's a quite common." He pulled the fleece from around his waist, using it to wipe the rock clean. The part poking out of the dirt was a couple feet square, and more of it appeared to be buried beneath. Cleaned off, it shimmered with a moving translucent glow that seemed almost alive. Certainly unlike any Quartz he'd ever seen.
Steve, Nina, and Brad finally made their way off the path. Nina spoke up first. "Is that what I think it is?" All of them thought of the same answer, but nobody voiced it. Then, just seconds later, Brad slumped to his knees and began to scream in agony.
"Ahhh! Fucking hell, it burns." He was looking at his hands, each of which were smoldering in the light peaking through the tree cover. "Ahh, do something?! Help me." A moment later he was lying on the ground, as small flames erupted from under his collar and wrist cuffs. They all stood silently, partly in amazement, partly in shock, as Brad proceeded to spontaneously catch flame and burn right there on the ground. Less than a minute after it started his flesh was ghost white, and a few seconds later, his entire body seemed to deflate into dust and he was gone.
Steve spoke up first. "What the fuck just happened?" He was moving now, visibly agitated as he stomped his foot down on the white ash that used to be his friend Brad. "What the -fuck- just happened?"
"Don't you see." Nina hurried to him. "It's the stone. He wished to be a vampire, and the sun," she briefly looked up to the sky, "the sun kills vampires." They each looked at each other in disbelief.
"No fucking way. No fucking way. If that happened this guy would be superman," he said, accusingly pointing at Daniel. He gently punched him, easily knocking him to the ground. "And I'd be able to teleport." With that he disappeared, appearing across and behind where Keri now lay weeping over the pile of ashed she realized was her now dead boyfriend. His shouted a bit from his new location, "No fucking way! I can teleport!" With that, he began blinking around them playfully, shouting each time. "here I am. Nope, here I am."
Nina was instantly concerned. "Steve, stop. Be careful. Steve, stop!"