The Tragedy of Green Mountain

The Actual Story

He had finally reached it. The Green Mountain had been shrouded in mystery ever since the disappearances. Five people had attempted to climb it, and Johnathan was here to find out why they never came back down. He walked back to the trunk to grab his climbing gear as he muttered to himself, "Why'd it have to be me?" As he directed his attention back toward the mountain, he felt a chill go down his spine. He couldn't see the summit. According to people who had witnessed the victims climbing, they had made it to the top. He threw the rope over his shoulder as he put on his boots, dreading the thought of climbing in the cold. As he looked back toward his car, he felt a small part of him plead to return to it. He ignored it, of course; why wouldn't he? He had climbed mountains higher than this one. He was an expert at this by now.

As he grabbed the first handhold, he noticed some strange structures on the other side. He decided to go investigate them to see if they might make his climb a little easier. The closer he got to them, the more they looked like stairs. He naturally thought it was odd, but it wasn't any odder than a mountain suddenly coming out of the ground like this one had. When he reached them, they appeared to go all the way to the top of the mountain. Naturally he began to climb them, remarking how lucky it was that he had noticed these. However, the higher up they went, the more uneasy he started to feel. He couldn't help but feel as though the mountain wanted him to climb it. He began to look uneasily at his surroundings as he continued to climb.

He finally reached the summit after a couple more hours of climbing, and he took a moment to observe the top of the mountain. Except for a single rock and a bush, it was flat and barren. "Quite the disappointment," he muttered to himself.

After a few minutes of rest, he decided that it would be a good idea to go back down to his car. When he reached where the stairs used to be, he found nothing but a steep drop-off. He was shocked at this discovery, but he still had his climbing gear with him; he assumed he could just rappel back down the mountain. After hooking himself onto the rock, he tried to rappel back down. After a few minutes, he strangely found himself back at the top of the mountain. He was naturally confused by this, but elected to try again. By the fourth attempt, all hope was lost. Eventually, he realized it wasn't getting him anywhere. He resigned himself to the fact that unless help came soon, he would die here. He knew it wouldn't. The other officers were terrified of this mountain. He was the only one who wouldn't kill someone to not have to come near it.

A few days passed. No help came. He found himself growing more and more paranoid as the days went by, constantly feeling as if he was being watched. After some time of being up there, something began to climb its way up to him. He felt a pang of fear as he realized that the black dot that he could barely see in the void beneath the mountain was getting closer. After days of dread and constant climbing, it reached him.

As he saw it straighten up in front of him, he saw a horrific sight; its body, if you could call it that, appeared to be a mesh of blackened, blood-soaked wires, with bits of skin crudely stitched onto it. Its face was somehow worse, appearing to have one of the victim's faces forced onto its own, like a macabre mask.

Johnathan recoiled in horror as he saw the creature standing before him. This wasn't what he had bargained for when he decided to go search for the missing people. He reached for his gun, firing a shot into its crudely constructed body. It did nothing. It opened its mouth, and emitted a wet groan that formed into intelligible speech. "Hello, Johnathan," it said to him. "I see you're disturbed by my appearance. That is why I have lured five others to this summit." Johnathan was stunned. He didn't anticipate anything intelligent being at the summit, let alone this thing; he assumed it was merely carelessness that had killed them.

"What is that supposed to mean," he asked after he had composed himself from the initial shock of seeing this thing.

"Well, it's quite simple," it responded with a laugh that sounded far too mirthless to be natural, "I want to be like you. I've stared longingly at anyone who happened to pass by this mountain. You all lead such enjoyable lives," it said, a light appearing to glimmer within its eyes, "I envy you. So, I devised a plan; if I could steal enough flesh from your species, I may just be able to live among you." Johnathan stared back at this beast, horrified at what he had just heard. "But, I'm sure you're sick of this talk now, and frankly, I am too. Goodbye, Johnathan. It's been fun." The creature lunged at Johnathan, and he was dead on the spot.