Legend of Dark Mountain - Sample Chapter

Prologue

             The campfire felt comfortable as the temperature began to drop on a weekend trip. Paul and his three closest friends were hiking across the mountains that the Abenaki Indians called ‘Ndakinna’ which notoriously means “our land.” The one mountain that they chose to climb was the hidden one stuck in the middle of the White Mountains region, known as Dark Mountain. The peak got its name from the Indians long ago because the sun never shines on the northern side of the mountain. It’s surrounded by two mountains that stretch high into the sky. Some say if you look down at the way the mountains are shaped, they look like a baby in its mother’s arms. The dark side of the mountain is said to hold the most vicious curse imaginable….So I’m told.

            The curse had been cast upon any white man who would put their hands on the Ancient Emeralds. He would die a frightening death. Who knows how the curse was made, or why the curse was done, or if it’s even real? The newer generations of the town’s people are unaware of the curse, but some of the older townies remember. They fear it will once again be awakened, as it did twenty five years ago on April Fools Day.

            Paul’s mother told him about the story of the curse, how the Indian’s owned the land, and how the emerald’s were the eyes of the evil devil. He never believed his mother, but he always remembered the tale, and how he wanted to explore the mountain anyway. She told him many have hiked the mountain, and many have never returned. The eerie feeling Paul got every time he thought about the mountain made him more and more anxious to go up there and find out for himself.

            Finally, high school was over, and college in the western part of the country was just a couple of months away. Paul wanted to take that weekend trip he’d been dreaming about, and explore Dark Mountain to see if all the stories were really true, or was it just….superstition.

            When Paul and his friends were dropped off by Shauna’s Mom on the south side of the mountain, they headed up with everything they could possibly think of, and then some. Paul remembered his mother saying she didn’t want him to go, then remembered her also saying, “You’re a grown man now,” as a tear filled her eye. “Just be careful.” He walked out of the house with every intention on coming back in two days hoping he’ll find what he’s been dreaming about, or just having one last good time with his best friends before real life got in the way.

            They listened to the birds and the strange sounds of the perpetual wild as they walked from the car. Paul remembered when he was young a black man in his eighties telling him on a warm quiet day when the wind blew across the mountain just right, you can hear a chain saw a hundred miles away. Paul never understood why the black man told him that, but he always admired the way he said it.

            He pressed his hand against a tree trunk, looked back at his friends with a smile, and thought about his future and what his life will bring him, money, knowledge, experience, happiness, or maybe nothing at all. “There’s only one way to find out.” he thought to himself, and looked high up towards the peak of the mountain. Strangely enough, he saw an old rusted sign nailed to a tree that read. ‘Stay on the trail’. He looked down at the ground and noticed there was no trail, or even any resemblance of one.