The Disillusion Mountains

Chapter 14

"Are you going to read that whole thing?" Grant asked as he poked the fire. Mercifully the rain had stopped and they managed to find wood dry enough for a fire. They were warm for the first time in days but the sky overhead still ominously held storm clouds. As dusk approached, both wondered if tonight would be another evening accompanied by the horrible screaming.

"No, just the parts that apply to our journey. This Conor Ascella agreed to take a Joshua Towers into the mountains for a huge sum of money once they got back to town." Nimma said while turning a page. "I've never heard of a Joshua Towers that went missing. Have you?"

Grant shook his head. "I'm pretty well versed in local history but no. I don't know of a Towers named Joshua at that time."

"What are you doing with that?"

Grant was punching numbers into his GPS. "I'm marking our course. Since Conor came up here with someone else who probably died too I'm expecting that we'll find another body somewhere. If we don't though I want to have our positions well marked in case the Rangers want to do another search for this Joshua."

"Mmmmm," Nimma said in response.

"You disapprove?"

"I wouldn't go out of my way to help any of those green haired bastards," Nimma said coldly. "No matter if it's one that's been dead for hundreds of years."

"I don't like the larger family either but they're not all bad. Do you have something against green hair?"

"No," Nimma laughed. "I just find it funny that green is the color of greed, jealously, and envy and most of them have that hair shade. They may not be all bad but the ones that have been critical of the ways of their family haven't stopped profiting from it." Grant was silent for a while and Nimma looked up to see if he'd fallen asleep. The sun had now set completely and the light of the fire bounced off Grant's face and purple hair. He wasn't asleep but he poked the fire with a brooding look. "What?"

"I grew up with some of the Towers. Well one really. He wasn't so bad."

"Where is he now?"

"He left the family. He saw that they were doing bad things like aggressive tactics to get small business owners to sell to them and other things that were unsavory to expand their assets. For a while he went with what they were doing but it got to be too much so he left. Cost him more than he realized it would but he's happy now. And has a clean conscience."

"That's exactly what I mean," Nimma said passionately. "That family has a unique ability to spin any action that reflects badly on them and turn it into a story about how it benefits the town. And that's just the stuff we know about. They hire the best lawyers and PR people money can buy so when someone is courageous enough to try and stand against them, they make sure those people are squashed like bugs. If he really cared he'd use his influence to change things and show people that support them what they really are."

Grant rubbed at a pain on the back of his neck. "You wouldn't have any sympathy for that man at all? He loves his family or at least some them. Can't you understand why he wouldn't want to hurt them?"

Nimma narrowed her eyes. "It takes a lot more courage to stand up to someone you care about rather than someone you hate. I thought you agreed with Regina that they shouldn't be able to get away with things like that."

"I do but–"

"Grant stop."

"Nimma I just–"

"No, stop." Nimma pleaded as the Ascella journal fell from her hands and her blood ran cold. "Grant." Nimma jumped up and pulled her pistol.

"Are you going to shoot me?"

"No. Get up and get behind me." Nimma ordered in a voice she hadn't used since leaving the military. The firelight bounced off Grant's purple hair as he tried to turn around. "Don't look just get behind me. Now!"

Clearly startled by how worked up Nimma was Grant did as she asked and gasped in horror as he saw what was rapidly approaching behind him. Grant and Nimma took several steps back as she advanced on them.

"What do we do?" Grant's voice quivered with fear that Nimma felt.

"I don't know. Oh God. She looks so pissed." The woman with glowing purple eyes had a look so menacing that Nimma imagined it would make a legion of hardened soldiers turn and run. The scars on her face seemed to stick out from her mean countenance. Her wild blue hair and clothes whipped around her moved by an unfelt wind. Though she had just a few seconds to process it, this was clearly a heavily pregnant woman. Regina opened her mouth and the horrible scream that had haunted their nights rung in their ears.

"Say something, she's your ancestor!" Grant grabbed a stick off the ground. In his other hand he held the GPS in a death grip though he barely felt it.

"Regina stop." Nimma held her pistol ready to shoot but then the ghostly woman walked through their camp fire extinguishing it. "Run!"