Staring into the Brink: A Collection of Abysmal Tales

Heed the Mourning Lights

             There exists a whisper here in The Yukon Territories, a whisper that tells of a place that no longer exists.  The whisper travels through cities and towns, warning of a dreadful fate for those who don’t listen and those who show no respect for the land.  It became a rumor that none can confirm, but it brings with it curiosity regarding its legitimacy.  This place was known as Kwanlin Falls, and I can confirm that it did indeed exist, because that was my hometown.

            Kwanlin Falls was a small community roughly a hundred kilometers outside of Whitehorse, and there were no more than five thousand residents that called it home.  It was a generational town where everyone knew everyone else; where it was rare to get a new resident, and even rarer for one to leave.  I was the first person to leave the town in over fifty years, something that was still talked about as town gossip.  My parents lived there their entire lives, as did my grandparents and their parents before them.  As I said, it was a generational town, and the only reason I’m alive today was because I chose to leave, and because I chose to respect the ground upon which we stand.

            In order to understand what happened, you need to go back a year, back to when Dominion Fuel Inc. came to Kwanlin Falls.  No one from the town summoned them, and not a single person wanted them in their home; they came suddenly and fully uninvited.  The giant oil company rolled into town in their corporate vehicles with big promises of a better year ahead and a brighter future for the town.  Sure, the town wasn’t the most profitable, and there wasn’t much to do, but for most of the residents, that’s exactly how they liked it.  I wasn’t living there at the time; an old friend called me when Dominion came to town, and when he told me what was happening, I came right away.

            It wasn’t right what Dominion was doing to the inhabitants.  They came to the town, talking about how there was a “giant opportunity” for those who lived there.  These men in their fancy suits began to offer bribes and payouts to the citizens of my birthplace.  You see, allegedly there was a recent discovery that the town was surrounded by numerous oil wells, and Dominion wanted to drill into them; they insisted that they needed to.  This is why they were offering payouts to the citizens.  They claimed that they didn’t need to relocate anyone, but implied they wanted everyone who lived there to turn a blind eye to Dominion’s operations and to how they were essentially about to slaughter the natural beauty that surrounded the town.

            I left Kwanlin Falls for multiple reasons, most of them being for personal growth.  I wanted to experience other parts of Canada, and eventually I wanted to see the world.  I was also tired of the interpersonal politics of small-town living and dreamed of moving to a location where no one knew my business.  But regardless of my reasons for leaving, not one was related to the location itself.  Kwanlin Falls was a beautiful place.

The town was surrounded by lush greenery and a forest of magnificent pines.  There was a sparkling stream that cut through the town that lead to a nearby lake that reflected the sunrise like a mirror that saw into the spirit realm.  But my favourite aspect of Kwanlin Falls was the Northern Lights that would appear every winter night.  The brilliant greens danced upon the sky like ethereal spirits celebrating life itself.  Seeing the lights after a fresh snowfall was the most breathtaking sight I have ever seen, and probably ever will see.

            I arrived as soon as I possibly could, much to everyone’s surprise; most people didn’t expect to see me ever again.  I left close to a decade ago, after I lost my parents in an ice fishing accident.  They were the only things holding me to this location and once they were gone, so was I.  So, my return was the talk of the town, especially when I called a town meeting to find out any detail I could.  While I did leave, my parents loved this town, and if I could do anything to help it, I would, and I assumed everyone else would think the same way.  Unfortunately, I was wrong, as everyone had taken the payout, and the construction of the pumpjacks in the surrounding area were set for construction and set up within the following days.