The Mountain

Chapter 1

Eight years earlier....

April was enjoying high school this year. She had just turned thirteen, she liked most of her classes except maths, but what normal person liked maths anyway, and she had friends, good friends. They hung out together on weekends by going shopping at the town's small shopping mall, swimming at the town pool in summer, meeting at their favourite café for milkshakes, or just hanging out at each other's houses. All the normal things teenagers do.

On a few occasions one of their parents would drive them out to the national park where they would have a picnic lunch and go on a hike on one of the walking trails. 

It was called the Northern Wilderness National Park which covered a large area of wild looking mountains and forests. Actually most of the mountains were not very high or formidable looking, more like large hills, but there was one mountain which stood out from the rest. It was higher and more rugged with rocky slopes near the top. Maybe it was the remnant of some ancient volcano. It even had a spooky sounding name. The official maps showed it as Mount Despair, although the townspeople usually just called it 'The Mountain' since it was clearly visible on the skyline from the town.

The last time April went to the park she looked at the large information board at the entrance to the park. It showed a map of a number of walking trails, some of them winding up to lookouts with panoramic views over the surrounding countryside, but she had noted with some surprise that there were no trails on 'The Mountain'. 

April's family lived in a nice single story brick house on the northern edge of the town. Her bedroom looked out over the mountains to the north. She loved that view from her window. When she was supposed to be doing her homework she sometimes just sat at her desk looking out towards the horizon. On some days the mountains looked blue and hazy, probably from fires burning somewhere off in the distance in the forests. On other days they were grey and misty with the upper peaks shrouded in fog and low clouds.

One Friday night in late summer she had arrived home from visiting her friend Sarah who lived only a couple of blocks away. They had shared a pizza while watching movies. April said goodnight to her parents and retired to her bedroom where she sat at her desk checking her Facebook account on her laptop.

It was a warm night so she had the window open, but soon the sound of moths buzzing at the insect screen attracted by her light, were starting to annoy her. She closed her laptop, turned off the light and looked out the window. There were no lights to see, their house was right on the edge of town, so there was only darkness except for a few white pinpricks of stars in the sky.

After a few minutes as her eyes adjusted to the darkness she tried to make out the skyline of the national park. By looking closely at where the stars stopped being visible she thought she could see roughly where the horizon was. She was even able to make out the shape of 'The Mountain'. She stared at it for a couple of minutes, wondering what it would be like to try and climb it all the way to the top. The view from up there would be awesome.

Then something strange happened. Just for a brief second she saw it. April rubbed her eyes and watched as it came again. What she saw was two quick flashes of light coming from somewhere on the mountain. Not a very bright light, but then it came again for a third time. Two quick flashes.

Must be hikers or campers up on the mountain with a bright torch she thought, but then as the flashes came again for a fourth time she noticed the light was pale blue, not white as you would expect from a torch. She kept watching for another twenty minutes but the light didn't come again.

She closed the window and lay on her bed thinking about what she had seen. She knew there were no houses or buildings or radio towers on the mountain that would show any lights at night. It was a wilderness area in a national park. There was nothing up there but trees and rocks.