Nightmare Mountain

Nightmare Mountain











Professor Colton groaned with the effort of cutting off the hand of the man he had just killed.Twelve years of searching finally led him to this remote cavern in a mountain range far from his home to find the necromancer . He stuffed the hand in his back pack and headed back towards civilization. The signet ring was half the spell that would give him powers beyond even his own imagination but it was impossible to get off the swollen finger. He took the whole hand so as to give him time to keep from scratching the ring in his efforts to get it off. He had the rest of the incantations and protocol written in code in the manuscript he was working on.He left the cavern and stopped to gaze up at the huge thunder clouds gathering on the horizon. Still the day seemed wonderful to the old man as he was on the verge of completing his life's work.He patted his dog Rusty on the head and started off into the forest.


"What an amazing sky," the girl in a tree over the trail had been thinking while chewing on pine nuts and hoping for rain. The smell of it was on the wind that ruffled her raven hair.She loved being high enough to see all the way to the river.Now the peaceful mood was changed by an old man passing below her with blood dripping from his back pack. She stayed still in hopes that she would go unseen.


A loud clap of thunder made the man look up at the sky and spot the girl. They locked eyes and he began to turn towards her tree when another sound broke the silence. A growling bear burst forth from the woods and rushed the shocked hiker.


Missy started throwing pine cones at the raging bear with no effect. She yelled and screamed while the bear tore at the hiker. A thunder clap split the sky again, drowning out the gunshot that caught the bear right between the eyes.
Missy gasped and stared at the shooter who stood mostly hidden in bushes off the pathway.


Torrential rain began to fall,running in bloody rivulets from the bodies of the man and bear . Missy shivered violently and held on tightly to the tree limb. From the cover of the bushes came a tall figure dressed in a long black coat. A wide brimmed hat hid the face and eyes from where Missy sat high above. There was no doubt that Missy had been seen because of her screams and throwing the pine cones but the person did not look up. She shivered again and not from the icy rain. Suddenly her foot slipped and she felt herself falling.


Missy woke to find herself wrapped in furs in front of a pleasantly snapping fireplace. Her head hurt and her vision was a little blurry but nothing was broken. Lucky, she thought ,that was pretty high to fall from. She tried to tamp down the rising fear in her heart when she did not recognize where she was or the view out of the window.


Rusty padded softly over to his new owner and settled down to be petted. The dark man stroked the mutt absently as he pondered his options. He opened the hiker's back pack caked with blood. A pale hand fell out onto the table still adorned with a signet ring.
"Ah,so you couldn't get the ring off Dawson. Well you never were one to give up easily now were you?" True, Dawson Colton never stopped searching for the ancient necromancer with his powerful Ring of Eternal Peace. He had saved Stark years of work and travel and in the end had died not by Stark's hand but by accident. Was that the Eternal Peace of the ring? Stark pondered the fact that anyone who had been in possession of the ring was now dead.


The dark man pulled out a sheaf of papers knowing instantly that it was the next chapter in the professor's "novel" which was really a cryptic message concerning the use of the ring . He ruffled through the bloody pages to find the beginning and began to read.
"You stand watching in the rain.No umbrella,no coat,are you insane? Who are you? A flash of lightning shows the caverns of your face.You smile and walk away.I am suddenly so cold,I turn off all the lights and sit staring out the window in the dark.


The old house creaks in the wind and the empty room is full of shadows.There is no furniture to soften the stark outlines. The uncurtained windows are like lidless eyes open to the night.You have found me again,much quicker this time.


"Whose house was this before I came?"I wonder out loud.

"It was mine," a voice whispers in my ear.


The dark man chuckled whispering,"Brilliant as always my old friend but unfortunately it is the last thing you will ever write."
He turned to examine the severed hand when he heard a noise from the other room."Ah,it sounds like our little visitor has awakened.Come along pup and let's formally make her acquaintance"


Missy sat shivering from fear in front of the fire.The embers glow flickered sending eerie shadows dancing . As she pondered her situation, the dark man strode into the room with the dog at his back.he knelt down beside the frightened girl and quietly said,"My name is Ebon Stark. I brought you to my cabin after you fell.Are you feeling alright?"


A crack of lightning lit up the room and Missy cried out in terror. Stark reached out and pulled her trembling body against his chest,"Shhh,it's only the storm," he whispered as he stroked her damp hair,"You are safe now. Nothing can harm you as long as you are with me."
Somehow Missy knew that was not true but she said nothing.


Missy pulled back to look into silver blue eyes that nearly took her breath away with their coldness.However, Ebon Stark was taken by the forest green pools before him. He touched her cheek gently and said,"I am going to hypnotize you now my dear so that I may let you live. Please don't fight me. I don't want to hurt you but you have seen too much."
Missy tried to tear herself away but the man was very powerful and held her still.
"Please," she begged," All I saw was you killing a bear that killed a hiker. There's nothing wrong with what you did."
The dark man ignored her words and with one hand grabbed her chin , turning her face up towards him. His silvery eyes seemed to flash in the gloom and he began to chant a sing song mantra.


Outside the cabin, the raging storm caught another camper off guard. David Raintree hunkered down half way beneath a fallen tree and thought about his options. "Just stupid!" he muttered to himself,"stupid and reckless ". This trip was supposed to help him forget. For months all he could think about was the accident that killed his wife and daughter. He hoped the time with nature would have cleared his head a bit but it didn't help and now he was in danger of being caught in a landslide . A bolt of lightning showed him the terrain. In the stark white glare he was stunned to see the dark shape of a cabin. It was the same kind of cabin he and his wife and daughter stayed in just before the accident. They had gone out for food to make a cook out when they were hit by a drunk driver. He held his wife as she breathed her last breath ,telling him to find their daughter. The girl was thrown from the car but when he found her she was already dead. He nearly lost his mind in grief. This trip was a last resort to quiet the demons in his mind asking why didn't he die too.

Inside the cabin , a strange thing was taking place...
"Your name is Jade Snow and we are engaged to be married," the voice droned." We are both writers and have come here to work. You are an orphan. You will have no other questions about your life previous to this day."Missy held perfectly still as though she was completely under his spell. He would need to think she had succumbed to his hypnosis for her to plan an escape. Deep inside her mind she put up a barrier learned from her Grandmother many years ago. Her last name was Brimstone for good reason. A young Spellbinder with little experience it was true but she was not without some basic skills.

Ebon Stark spent an hour reinforcing the hypnotic induction of the young woman. She was very beautiful and could be an asset in his overall plan and if not she could always be eliminated.The family that had lived in the cabin was buried out back in the forest. A husband and wife and a daughter ,choked and tortured then buried in a shallow grave. Stark needed a place to work . It didn't matter who had to die. Fortunately the dead daughter's clothes would only be a bit large on his new companion. He applauded himself for his genius at turning a problem into a serendipity.
He pulled the girl in for a gentle kiss and it took every bit of will power she could muster to return it.


David Raintree pushed the wet hair out of his eyes and made a dash for the cabin. Halfway there he tripped over an obstruction and fell face down in the mud. Laying there half stunned ,he raised his head up to find a bloated face staring back at him. His scream was lost in the rolling thunder.Shaking wildly,he got to his feet but stood there in the downpour not knowing what to do. A corpse without a coffin? who and why? Now he was afraid to approach the cabin.


David's teeth chattered and he shook violently. In his fear, the bloated face became the visage of his dead wife who smiled at him sweetly. "Where is our daughter?" she whispered hoarsely over the roar of the wind,"Where is Gina?"
David shook his head back and forth slinging mud and water as he tried to rise.
"You're dead! She's dead!" he screamed but his scrambling only uncovered more of the corpse from its muddy grave.
"Find Gina,Davy,"the dead lips begged,"Please find our daughter."
A mudslide swirled the living and the dead together so that David wound up wrapped in a rotting embrace at the bottom of a gully.


Inside the old house Missy tried to keep it together and play along until she could figure a way out. Missy really hated being different, but maybe that difference would save her now. She spent her whole young life avoiding the things her family cherished,like mind probes and thought control. She believed it all to be immoral and wrong. When she was five years old she accidentally fell into a mind touch with her kindergarten teacher which nearly destroyed her.The man was a pedophile and the visions in his head were devastating. Missy was in therapy for a long time after that. When her parents tried to introduce her to her inherited abilities, she was terrified and so they reluctantly left her alone about it. Still she knew it was there just waiting as it would always be. Now she had come face to face with evil and she was frightened enough to try anything.


Ebon Stark held Missy out at arm's length and said,"You don't look well my dear. Why don't you go lie down until dinner?I'll just make us a nice stew."
Missy nodded and Stark walked her to a back bedroom ."I think that fall addled your brain a bit darling. Here let me get you some pajamas and a robe and you can rest for awhile."
Missy smiled up at him and watched as he went to the chest of drawers and selected a few articles of clothing .
As he had his back turned,the dog came sniffing around into the room and made his way over to Missy. The girl reached over and scratched the hound behind the ears and nuzzled his snout.
"What's the dog's name ?"she asked.
"Rusty," came the faint reply through her mind waves.Somehow because of her hypersensitive state and the fall she sustained,her mental powers were activated.The dog looked at her with big brown eyes and licked her hand.She grabbed her head with both hands and nearly fainted . She was mind linked with a dog!


Stark half turned to look at the animal with a quizzical look on his face,"Umm,oh, his name is Duke," he mumbled ,wondering why he had let the dog follow him home at all. He never liked dogs but this animal did not effect him like most . It had an almost human expression in its eyes. It reminded him somehow of a young man who used to live with the old professor named Larry Hobbs. Yes, now that he thought about it, the fellow was always babbling about metamorphosis . Oh well ,it might prove to be a good watch dog in case of prowlers,he thought.


Stark left the dog with the girl and closed the door. He made his way back to examine the gruesome appendage from the back pack. He took everything and went into the other bedroom and locked the door.Taking out his pocket knife,he cut the signet ring off the swollen finger.He wiped it off and slid it onto his own hand.


A hot surge if power went up Stark's ring finger to his spine and settled in his brain. Colors and sounds sent his mind reeling and he fell into a nearby chair.He groaned as his vision blurred and then showed him a scene from his childhood. Delirious happiness engulfed his being as his grandfather swung him 'round and 'round by his arms. It was snowing and they were celebrating having finished their biggest snowman ever. A shot rang out and Grandfather fell, slinging the child off into a snowbank. Stunned, the young Stark stumbled to his feet and ran to see Grandfather lying face down in the bloody snow.The vision faded and Stark rubbed his eyes to find them wet with tears. He had not cried since that fateful day. The ring was trying to reach what was left of that young innocent soul but it was too late.


David Raintree smiled and kissed his wife, gently wiping the rain out of her very puffy eyes. "Don't you fret Darling," he told her over the sound of the wind,"I will find Gina and bring her right back here to you."
A puff of putrid essence escaped the woman's dead mouth with David's parting kiss as he leaned into the wind . The light from the cabin beckoned to him and he seemed to hear his daughter's voice calling,"Daddy,here I am.Please Daddy,please come get me out of here."
David laughed and called out,"Daddy's coming Sweetheart! Daddy's coming!"


Missy lay stunned in bed with Rusty by her side. She pulled the covers up over them both and just stayed still. The dog sent her a thought of playing outside in a sunny meadow with a bright red ball. It made her smile in spite of everything. Here she was kidnapped in a horrendous storm and all of a sudden her telepathic powers decide to kick in with a dog! It would be funny if it wasn't so frightening.The dog raised his furry head and licked her cheek. He sent her a vision of a big juicy bone and then she did laugh.


Ebon Stark shook his head and found the manuscript. Somewhere within it was hidden the secret of how to use the ring. He knew the dark forces controlling those powers would require a blood sacrifice.Finding the girl was pure luck.With fresh exuberance he began reading again.
"You stand watching in the rain.No umbrella,no coat,are you insane? Who are you? A flash of lightning shows the caverns of your face.You smile and walk away.I am suddenly so cold,I turn off all the lights and sit staring out the window in the dark.


The old house creaks in the wind and the empty room is full of shadows.There is no furniture to soften the stark outlines. The uncurtained windows are like lidless eyes open to the night.You have found me again,much quicker this time.


"Whose house was this before I came?"I wonder out loud.

"It was mine," a voice whispers in my ear."

A chill went up the dark man's spine as he began to fear that he was living this scene.


For outside the window a horrible face stared back at him through the rain.Stark cried out and dropped the papers. His first instinct was to pull his pistol out of his shoulder holster and fire at the monster. The bullet shattered the window and let in the raging wind and rain.The face disappeared leaving Stark standing amidst a whirlwind of manuscript pages .
Outside, David ran from one window to the next until he spotted
Missy and the dog. On hearing the gunshot, Missy had jumped out of bed and Rusty began to bark. David beat wildly on the window
yelling,"Gina,let me in! I'm here to save you!"
Stark nor Missy knew that a fallen tree was blocking the front door causing David to try the windows.


Stark heard the commotion in the bedroom and rushed to check it out. He was again shocked by the gruesome visage at the window and once again shot at it with his pistol.This time he hit David square in the face knocking him backwards into the flowing mud. Missy screamed and tried to grab the gun away from Stark who hit her across the face with it. Lightning struck a tree above the cabin causing it to fall and tear a massive hole in the roof. All was chaos as Rusty barked,thunder rolled and rain poured down on the bloody face of the fallen girl.


Stark was certain all of this was happening because of the ring he was wearing.The ancient scrolls warned that anyone gaining the use of the ring unjustly would be punished harshly. His suspicion about the meaning of Eternal Peace suddenly overwhelmed him. Screaming in rage and frustration,Stark ripped the ring from his hand and threw it down. He could still escape this fate. He would leave it all behind and start over. He would just need to eliminate all evidence first.
He would simply shoot the dog and the girl to rid himself of any loose ends .Then he found he needed to reload his gun.


He hurried back to the kitchen and that was when Missy regained consciousness. She moaned and held her head as Rusty whined and licked the blood off her face. Terrified and dazed, Missy groped outward with her mind in search of anyone to help her.On the floor beside her the Ring of Eternal Peace began to glow brightly in the gloom.
She picked it up and put it on her finger. A powerful jolt zinged through her whole body and her telepathic message found its mark.


Outside, in the mud filled gully, a shape rose up in response to the cry for help.The corpse of the woman turned towards the broken cabin and began a slow inexorable journey home.
She drug herself across the dead body of David Raintree as pieces of her face tore free on fallen limbs.It mattered not,she knew nothing but the need to reach her goal.
Stark finished loading his gun and returned to find Missy sitting on the floor with the dog beside her. Missy looked up at Stark and smiled . Briefly touching his mind told her all she needed to know about the ring. The wind whipped her hair around her face and howled through the broken cabin but inside she was calm. "Put the gun down and I will let you live," she said to Stark. All the man knew was that he needed to eliminate everything connecting him to the ring and then he would be safe again.
Rusty sent her a vision of a rattlesnake he had torn to shreds but Missy sent back a view of Rusty sleeping quietly in a meadow. He whimpered but stood down.
Stark raised a shaking hand and pointed the pistol at the girl, "You!,It's all your fault! You are a witch or something! My plan was going fine until you came along. You have to die and that mutt with you."
Missy wrapped her arms around Rusty's neck and watched as the corpse of the dead woman surged onto Stark's back. He screamed and shot the gun over and over until he died. She tore him apart and then fell to the flooded floor. Missy heard the woman laughing before she cut the dangerous connection with the dead.


Of course Missy Brimstone was a witch but she had chosen long ago to forego that path. This time it saved her life and perhaps the lives of many others who would have been Stark's victims. Her telepathy proved to be invaluable but as she disposed of the ring and the writings she made a vow to the Universe. "I will never choose the path of Darkness for my heart belongs to the Light." With that she tossed the ring into the flowing river of mud that held the bodies Stark killed.
Two days later the weather cleared and she made it down the mountainside with Rusty . She sent Rusty a scene of a big bag of gourmet dog food and he sent her back a vision of his true form...Prince Charming or rather Larry Hobbs the third. So they lived happily ever after she found out how to morph him back. Sometimes being a witch is a good thing!