Into The Mountain

‘Where’s Ling-Fei?’ said Billy, trying to push down the panic rising in his chest.

‘What do you mean, where’s Ling-Fei?’ said Dylan, looking up. ‘She was right behind you.’ His mouth dropped open.

Charlotte hopped off the rock pile, dusting her hands off on her dress. ‘LING-FEI!’ she shouted into the forest.

There was no answer.

Charlotte, Billy and Dylan stared at each other. ‘Do you think she went looking somewhere else?’ asked Dylan. ‘That makes sense, right? She must have just wandered off.’

‘We would have heard her… wouldn’t we? She would have said something,’ said Billy. He turned to face the forest, trying to see if there was any movement. There was another gust of wind, but nothing else. The panic in his chest spread throughout his whole body. Billy had seen a surfer disappear beneath the waves once, and not emerge when the wave had passed. This felt like that. The surfer had reappeared a few moments later in the surf, gasping for air. Just like Ling-Fei was going to reappear, Billy told himself. People didn’t just disappear into thin air. Billy took a deep breath. ‘The important thing is that we all stick together,’ he said, turning back to Charlotte and Dylan.

Except now it wasn’t Charlotte and Dylan. It was just Charlotte, who was looking towards the forest.

‘Where’s Dylan?’ Billy exclaimed.

‘Dylan!’ Charlotte shouted. ‘Dylan, this isn’t funny! Get back here.’

Silence.

‘What do we do?’ said Charlotte uneasily. ‘Should we go back to camp? Maybe we should get help.’

‘We can’t just leave them,’ said Billy.

Then he heard a yell that sounded distinctly like Dylan.

It was coming from… No, that couldn’t be right. It sounded like it was inside the mountain. ‘Dylan!’ Charlotte shouted, running towards the small triangular opening at the base, her long hair flying out behind her. ‘Dylan, are you in there?’

‘Charlotte, wait!’ cried Billy, going after her. The strangeness of yesterday came flooding back, stronger than before.

He felt another gust of wind, and a long shining silver blur shot out from the gap in the rock. It wrapped round Charlotte, and pulled her into the mountain with it.

Billy froze in his tracks. He took a deep breath and began to back away from the mountain, keeping his eyes trained on the opening. He could see now that it was just big enough for a person to go through – almost like a small doorway.

He got to the edge of the forest and paused. He realized he was expecting the same thing that had happened to his friends to happen to him. Waiting for that gust of wind.

But nothing. Just silence.

He knew his friends were in that mountain, and he knew that something – something fast and strong – had taken them.

Billy stared at the mountain and could have sworn that the mountain stared back. Or, at least, something in the mountain stared back.

His palms started sweating and his heart beat faster than ever. He put a hand on a tree to steady himself. He was afraid. He was alone. He could turn back, or he could do the brave thing. Do what in his heart he knew he wanted to do.

He made a decision. He wasn’t going to wait around for that thing to come and get him.

And he wasn’t going to leave his friends either.

Billy thought about his family, about home. He looked up at the wall of limestone in front of him, realizing that, if he went in, he might not ever come out. From deep in the mountain, he heard a faint cry. And Billy knew what he had to do.

He walked into the mountain.