PROLOGUE
BLACKWOOD MOUNTAIN
Close to the British Columbia and Alberta border in Canada, located among the Canadian Rockies, a large mountain lies. Blackwood Mountain is a beautiful work of nature, unharmed by mankind for the longest time. Home to thick, wooded areas; streams, waterfalls, and rivers; tin and radium; and a plethora of wildlife, the mountain itself is home to the native tribe Cree.
For a long time, the Cree live in harmony with the mountain, holding the belief that not disturbing the wildlife and not harming the mountain is the key to that harmony. In 1893, however, when a man named Jefferson Bragg establishes a mine to dig out all of the mountain's resources, the Cree are eventually left with no choice. The miners wreak havoc on the mountain, and it screams in protest every day. The damage and havoc drive the Cree away to live elsewhere, for they cannot stand to see their home tortured so greatly.
In January of 1952, it is believed that the mountain paid its own form of revenge to the miners and to Jefferson Bragg. A structural collapse in the mine traps thirty miners inside, void of food or light. The men are trapped for twenty-four days. They satisfy their thirst with an underground spring, but water only does so much for the body, and no man can survive twenty-four days without food. Somewhere between day one and day twenty-four, twelve miners turn on the others, killing and eating them for their own survival.
And as the first miner of the twelve sinks his teeth into the meat of one of his buddies, somewhere in the mountain, a loud scream is heard, and a spirit is released.
Actions have consequences, and even something as soft and peaceful as a butterfly flapping its wings can one day lead to a typhoon.