Short The Long Dark Inspired Horror Story

[theisaactrain]

Hello everyone, this is a little sneak peak/rough draft to a short horror story that I am writing that loosely takes place in the universe of The Long Dark, the story focuses on our unnamed main character who lives in Thompson's Crossing with his mother and father, hope you enjoy.

Feedback/constructive criticism is greatly appreciated

There is no name for the story yet.

          My dad worked in a gold mine back in the 70's, it was nestled into the mountains, far from most civilization. From what I know there was a crew out there every summer for years, and they just kept going deeper, and deeper. Mother would always express her concerns, "Please be safe my dear." she'd say. My dad was never around much during the summer, as he just worked, and worked at the mine. Not hearing from him made mother worry even more. All he could think about was that damn mine. When he was home, he would speak of "Unimaginable riches" and he would say that they were inches from hitting the motherload. They never did hit the motherload though.

          One winter, father never returned home, none of the crew from that mine returned. Being as isolated as we were, word spread quickly among our small population. Being as it was the winter, it was much too dangerous to try to make the days trek to the mine. We prayed, almost every day it felt like. We held meetings in our community hall, sang songs in the church, came together as the group of people we were. This wasn't enough for me, I needed to get to that mine, I needed some sort of closure. One February night, I had had enough. In the early hours of the morning I slipped out the house, dead set on making it to that mine.

          I grabbed a spare map, of which my dad had marked with the route to the mine, and more importantly my revolver. Filled with passion, and adrenaline, I started my truck, and made the drive out to the climbing rope that would lead me to my fathers last known location. A chill sent down my spine as I saw the vehicles that belonged to the other members of the mining crew. I exit my truck, and gather my supplies from the bed. No turning back now. The rest of my trip would be on foot.

          Oh, being young and dumb. Early February, it must have been -25 C out. I scampered up the climbing rope, and followed the directions to the mine. The first half of the trek was familiar to me. I knew the terrain well as I had been up here countless times, whether that be hunting, or climbing the large mountain that dominated the surrounding area. The map took me down into a ravine, and then through a small crevasse between two large boulders. At that moment, I had wondered to myself how the mining crew was even able to make it to the mine and back safely every year. Then, I had also thought to myself the overall mystique of the mine itself. All these years, and nobody except for the crew had even been to the mine, hell, some of the people I had talked to didn't even know it existed. This filled me with intrigue.

          After I had passed the crevasse, the stupidity of my actions were starting to bite me in the ass. I was cold, and it was only going to get colder, night would fall soon. I stumbled down a small hill, and was met by what the map labeled as "Ash Canyon" it was quickly noted in my head why this area was called that. The trees, while sparse, were all burned from the top down, leaving what looked like black spikes peppering the frozen over marsh that appeared to span forever. I couldn't look in awe forever though, my priorities sunk in, shelter. The map that father had left behind had key locations marked, there were two decrepit looking cabins set on top a cliff face, however I did not have the time to attempt to find a way up there. I focused my attention to another cabin, which sat dead center in the swamp. The map named it "The Intrusive Mans Retreat", which made me chuckle. After doing some searching, I discovered this retreat. The cabin looked beaten, and battered by the elements, no signs of anyone staying within the last year at least. I let myself in, and started a fire.

          The inside of the cabin was a mess, there sat an old torn bed, a bookshelf which had been pushed over, a stove, and heaps of trash all over the floor. What caught my attention was a plethora of notes, scraps of paper, and maps, which were laid out over the bed. I sat on edge of the bed and took some time to read the contents of these papers under the light of the fire. They started off simple, recipes, fishing and hunting techniques, travel routes to get back to civilization, you know, the basic survival stuff. It would be needed in an area like this. Things started to get more cryptic, however. There was a map with red dots scattered around, signifying points of interest. Then, there was a note which shook me up, it read “Those men who claim they’re mining, I’m onto them. The sounds I hear at night, those groans and screams, it has to be something else. It’s as if they’ve opened hells gate. I don’t know what's going on exactly, but I know for a fact it’s not mining.”, the note was dated September, 1972, which was two years prior. There was another note, “Those bastards, lurking around my cabin at night, they’re trying to drive me away, they want me to leave. They know I’m onto them. I don’t know what lies they have been feeding their families, but I’ve seen what they’re doing, I’ve seen it.”, which was dated almost exactly a year after the last note.

          I just sat there, taking in the contents of those two notes, what did it mean they aren’t mining, what did the previous inhabitant see? The notes left many questions unanswered, but that's when I discovered one last note, written in dull ink and messy handwriting it just said “God help us all, the Ash Man has awo-”, the writing quickly ended. I cringed, Ash Man? What even was an Ash Man? What did all of this mean? Little had I known, I had just unlocked a whole new layer to the disappearance of my father, and the rest of the crew working at the mine. The weather outside started to pick up, I could hear the wind hitting the old cabin. It was pitch black out by now, so I decided to lay down on the old torn bed, and fall asleep. However, falling asleep wasn’t so easy, I had the thoughts all the notes I had read in my mind. Suddenly, the whooshes of the wind turned into the sound of this so called Ash Man prowling around the cabin in my head. Ash Man, the idea of the Ash Man wouldn’t leave my head. Eventually I calmed down enough to get some rest, much less than I wish I would have however.

          When I awoke the storm had died down, but my fire had held through the night. With just the hot coals left, I was able to warm up tea, and some canned food I had packed. The tea eased my mind, and I was able to come back to reality. Get to the mine. I ventured out of The Intrusive Mans Retreat, now with the knowledge of why they called him the intrusive man. A deep fog lined the landscape, I kept my hand close to my revolver. I justified it due to the fact I had spotted some wolves the day before, but really I still had my mind on this so called Ash Man. The map pointed me in the direction of the mine, but you could only see the large cliff sides, and mountains which surrounded me inside of this Ash Canyon. Besides the Intrusive Mans Retreat, the landscape was baron. There were some caves scattered around, but I didn’t bother looking. Within a few hours of trudging through the cold, I had made it to two separate rope climbs, which would take me up the sides of this cliff, and to the mine.

          At the base of the climb, there were the remnants of a burned out campfire, it looked like it had been left there for at least a month. It was a beam of hope, maybe my father was still out here and well. I made the climb, and reached a shelf on the cliff, the next climb was few hundred yard away. As I was walking towards the next climb I spotted a patch of black in the snow, as I approached it I saw it was a coat. I brushed the snow away, and jumped back in horror, it was a body, face down in the ground, frozen. I turned the body over, and looked the corpse in the eyes. I knew this man, he was a friend of my dads. Tears started to form at my eyes, but then I glanced down towards the mans chest and froze. Even though ice was built up around his body you could as clear as day make out a giant claw mark on the mans chest. This was no average claw mark, it had to of been at least 3 inches deep into his chest, you could his insides, and each laceration was at least 3 inches apart. It stretched across his whole torso, the man had been savagely ripped open. I looked away and threw up. No animal in this area could have done this.

          I paused, and contemplated what I was going to do. I was scared to continue, what if I was met with what did this to this man, was it really worth it? I had came all this way for closure, there was no way I could turn back. Suddenly, something else coaxed my decision. From the swamp below me came a bellow I will never forget. The whole valley shook, crows took to the sky, snow fell from the cliffs. I could feel it in my core, it rattled me. It was this deep, gurgly bugle, that just seemed to condemn the whole area. The closet thing I could relate it to is the horn of a commercial oil tanker. It sounded mean, it sounded like it was out to get me. I stood so still, glancing down the cliff I had just climbed. It was hard to see very far, the fog from that morning still not subsiding. I started to hear heavy breathing, it was so loud, it was coming from the lungs of something big. Out from the fog stepped the most belligerent being I had ever seen, the Ash Man.

          

          

 

          

 

          

     

 

     

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by theisaactrain