The Curse of Hidden Hollow

The Tale Of Hidden Hollow

"What do you mean the wrong town?" Ash's father asked with uncertainty creeping into his voice. The clerk said, "Folks don't usually go out of their way to visit our town. Especially not after all of the... incidents." Ash's mother piped up. "What kind of incidents?" She asked. The clerk replied, "Some people went into the old gold mines, and they never came back out. It's been 4 months, an nothing." Ash looked up, "Gold mines?" He asked curiously. The clerk sighed, and said, "perhaps I should tell you the story of this town. The tale of Hidden Hollow. Pull up a chair, son." Ash went over to the foyer, and brought over an old rickety chair. He sat down in it, and it collapsed, dumping him onto the floor. He scrambled to get up, and sheepishly apologized. The clerk only laughed, "Don't worry, that's the third one that's broke like that." Ash sat indian style on the floor. His parents took a seat on the couch in the foyer. The clerk began, "It all started in the year of 1862, when a young man by the name of Jed Anderson came north looking for gold. He traveled on for months, until he came into a canyon. At this time it was winter, and he and his men were looking for any place to find shelter. They came to this place, and they started setting up. They'd stayed for about a month. That's when the trouble started. The Native Americans who lived in the area came and asked Jed and his men to leave, for they had settled on sacred burial ground of their ancestors. Jed looked at his camp, and saw how much they had done, how far they'd come. He turned back to the indians, and told them that he wouldn't go. The indians left, and they returned, Time and time again. During this time, he and his men had struck it rich. They had found a vein of gold in the side of the mountain. They had dug a couple miles into the mountain, when the indians came again. Jed had had enough of them, so he had his men hide in the bushes with their rifles. When Jed went up to negotiate with them, he shouted out, then he dropped to the ground. His men jumped out of the bushes, and completely massacred the indians. Jed got up off the ground, and called for his men to bury the indians somewhere in the mine that they had started. In the indian chiefs dying breath, he put a curse on anyone who would settle there, and said that anybody who entered the mine would die a horrible death. Jed thought nothing of it, but a few weeks later, some of his men were trying to drill a tunnel, running off from the main tunnel. The tunnel collapsed, crushing all of the men working. Jed forbade anybody to go into the mine shaft after that, but they had gathered enough to start a small town, more and more people came, and more and more buildings were made, but the mine remained untouched. Jed Anderson was older now, and he said to everyone, "we will call this town, Hidden Hollow." And thus, Hidden Hollow was founded. A few years after the town was founded, Jed went crazy, and ran into the mine shaft, screaming that something was gonna get him. He never came out. He was remembered as the man who founded the town then went crazy in the mine, and a statue was built in the town square in his honor, and that's the story of Hidden Hollow."