The Mountain

Chapter 6

       After lunch of ham and salad sandwiches, the group thoroughly explored the large clearing. At the far side of the clearing April was certain she had found the location of the cabin.

"It's flatter just here than anywhere else," she pointed out to the others, "and see this little row of small rocks here? This could have been the border for their vegetable garden."

She and Sarah used the small spades they had brought with them to dig just below the surface in random spots around the cabin site. They were rewarded by finding several man-made items including pieces of broken glass and crockery, an old metal spoon, and even the rusted shaft of a screwdriver.

After finishing their examination of the cabin site they walked a short distance to the western end of the clearing where they stood and looked over the edge of a thirty metre cliff.

"This must have been where those three poor men fell or jumped to their deaths," Sarah murmured in a hushed tone.

They looked silently down at the rocks at the base of the cliff trying to imagine what might have happened one hundred and forty years ago to have driven the men over the edge onto the rocks below.

After some more exploring the shadows started to lengthen as the sun dropped towards the horizon.

"We should eat before it gets too dark," Cody suggested, "So April, you're the food person. What did you bring us for dinner?"

April opened her backpack. "Well I thought we should travel light, a portable barbeque would be bulky to carry up the mountain, so I brought lots of cold meat, salad and bread."

They found a nice grassy spot and set up a ground sheet where they sat and munched on chicken and ham with tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber and buttered bread rolls.

As it started to get dark Kaitlin suggested they light a fire to keep warm, and also to keep wild animals away.

"You mean like Bengal tigers?" Cody laughed.

As Kaitlin and Cody gathered twigs and branches and prepared the fire, Sarah turned to her friend.

"April you said you saw the lights last night as usual?"

"Yes, at eleven o'clock like always."

"So tonight at eleven o'clock we......" she paused.

April finished her sentence, "We watch and see if that light is coming from anywhere around here, and if it is we'll investigate it."

Later after the sun had set they sat around the fire toasting marshmallows on sticks and telling ghost stories. Below them in the distance twinkled the lights of Eden Vale while above them shimmered a beautiful carpet of cold white stars.

They unpacked their sleeping bags and lay down in them while talking to each other. Kaitlin happily discovered she had mobile phone reception so made a lengthy call to someone who she claimed was not her boyfriend!

The fire gradually burned down to a few glowing embers while April kept checking her watch as the time slowly approached ten o'clock, then then thirty. Finally it was eleven o'clock. They all sat up looking around for the lights, but there was nothing.

"Well that's disappointing," Cody said after a few minutes, "We came all this way to see the ghost lights and...."

He stopped as the clearing was bathed in a blue light which gradually became brighter.

April looked around. Where was it coming from? She couldn't tell. She jumped up, grabbed her torch and ran to the far side of the clearing to the site of the cabin. There on the ground she saw an old fashioned kerosene lantern with its flame flickering in a bright blue light.

"Over here," she called to the others, "I found the light. Over here."

She took a couple of steps towards the lantern to have a closer look at it, but she tripped on a rock and went sprawling onto the ground.

As she sat up the clearing was back in darkness, the glowing embers of the fire were in front of her, and she was in her sleeping bag. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs from her brain as she realised that she had fallen asleep. What time was it? She looked at the glowing face of her watch. It read eleven thirteen. Oh no, she had missed the vital eleven o'clock deadline. She looked around at her companions. They had fallen asleep too. They were all tired from the climb and had been unable to stay awake.

She picked up her torch and made her way to the far side of the clearing, but there was no lantern on the ground. She had dreamed it of course. Feeling bitterly disappointed she went back to her sleeping bag. She debated whether to wake up her friends and tell them how they had all fallen asleep, but decided against it. She lay down in her sleeping bag, and five minutes later she was sound asleep.

Six hours later April awoke. It was starting to get light, but something didn't look right. Everything was a grey-white colour. Then she realised what it was. A dense fog had settled over the clearing. It was so thick she could barely see her friends lying in their sleeping bags. Then she had an uneasy thought. Jeff Goldman had told them how he and his wife had experienced the same thing when they camped here. He said there was a thick fog, and then through fog he had seen....

"Wake up, wake up," April shook each of her companions awake.

"What's happening?" Cody mumbled, "Is it morning already?"

"Yes, get up. Look, it's a fog just like what Mr Goldman saw when he was up here."

Sarah and Kaitlin stirred, and sat up in their sleeping bags.

"Oh, we slept through the eleven o'clock light," Sarah said. She looked around at the fog, then said in a hushed voice, "A fog. Mr Goldman saw a fog in the morning, and then he and his wife saw....."

She stopped as all four of them stared in the direction of the cabin site through the white mist which started to swirl gently as a shape gradually appeared.

April and Sarah both screamed.

*****

They practically ran down the mountain out of the fog and into the early morning rays of the sun. They were panting from exertion by the time they reached the walking trail. Forty minutes later they had reached Kaitlin's car. She backed it out of the parking area and they sped back to town, none of them saying a word to each other during the drive.

It was just before nine o'clock when the car pulled up outside April's house. Kaitlin turned to look seriously at the others.

"Guys, we can't tell anyone what happened. No one would believe us, they would think we are insane. We don't speak of this....ever. We'll just say we saw nothing on the mountain. We forget anything happened up there, and we never go back. Promise me, Cody, Sarah, April, promise me."

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