Prologue

Year 15 PDE
(Pre-Dawn of Eminence)

 

Come my way and hurry along
I’ll take you soaring with the angels and gods
Leave your prison chains on the wall
You’ll live forever and you’ll never fall
-The Teeth of Sea & Beast

 

 

                Tennessee is a state of stagnate morals and aspirations, snake handlers and haunted mountains.  Ages ago the mountains were aglow with mines and stills, in the business of finding material wealth or liquid salvation.  Of course many men died in these mines to fill the greed of the men who owned them.  A mine would collapse with everyone buried within a tomb of desires and desperation. Instead of rescuing these people the owner would just pick up shop and burrow somewhere else into the heart of the mountains. When this industry dried up, in the mountains many towns were abandoned after being stricken with poverty.  The god fearing south blamed the north the loss of the Souths virtue, the loss of their ideals. In a world where Men are marrying men, women are leading the great free world, and god is being pushed out of schools. In this land of phantoms that wallows in gods shadow I feed my vice of adventure.  The mines are what interested me; many of the mines were abandoned and were not closed properly. These are a hazard to society with random sink holes and the occasional dumb-a*s wandering in, getting lost and suffocating from the fumes. In a world where there is nothing undiscovered the only adventure is to rediscover, and uncover things hidden. I am fawning for anything to happen. Living at the campus as an RA has its benefits. Free living, being able to boss around my peers about their dorms, confiscates alcohol and drugs. Excitement in the summer is something it’s lacking.  Eli, my roommate shares my interest in exploration and getting out of this prestigious mire.  He mentioned his grandfather would tell ghost stories about a mine near his old home in a town south east of Tellico Plains: Serendipity.  The Serendipity mine was closed by a new owner; who laid off all the miners.  The families left, their lively hood pulled out from under their feet, there was nothing left for them. His grandfather, the youngest son of one of those miners relayed stories his father told. “The reason people left wasn’t because of the mine closing, it was because the woods became sour.  Things lurked in the night, and people disappeared, children taken from their beds. People who went to the mine never returned. The people who had enough sense to leave early are the only ones who didn’t go missing. Anyone else who ever happened upon the mine could hear the screams of their tortured souls coming from the ground.”
The old man obviously liked to scare his son, an atavism that he passed down all the way to Eli. Eli, Who being African American had mixed feelings about the south but a Haunted abandoned mine? He was all in. Like me he loved the mystery. I at this point would take any excuse to leave this place. I have grown tired of the lectures on robotics, ethics, and forecasting the future of tech. This was more than enough to draw me in; the only problem is with no one ever going around the place for more than a hundred years is it isn’t on any map. Although The Town we managed to find via a scan of an old map offered online; far easier than we thought.   The town lies about 2 miles off of a road by the bald river falls east of Tellico plains. There are some roads that go nearby and we would have to hoof it from there. Since there are no real trails heading towards the area. We came prepared for the amazon. Backpacks, A couple hammock tents, machetes, GPS and a day or two worth of supplies.  So now, after spending what felt like days in the car driving from my dorm at MIT we find ourselves in another country entirely. People are driving vehicles that have no business being on the road. They are held together with scarps, tape and prayer. With  the amount of black smoke coming from  some of their the exhaust it’s no wonder the ice caps are almost gone. Large Crosses were along major road ways. Churches were nestled in every town so many I could easily lose count. Signs outside declaring “ God Hates F**s”  and other Neanderthal rhetoric.  The air so thick with humidity it was palpable, it’s as oppressive as our walk through a promised land of an unfamiliar doctrine. The heaviness of the god fearing people let up when we made it to Tellico Plains. It was still humming in the background; a tinnitus of a laconic God glowering at our sins, despite being very touristy.  We found a lodge on a road through the mountains fairly close to our get off point.  At least here my silver Audi doesn’t feel so out of place amongst the other tourist. The lodge was a beautiful log cabin building filled with the rustic appeal of a pottery barn. A gilded look at the pathos of the dark south.

 

The night is restless, Eli fiddles with his camera making sure we will be able to capture the whole thing and put it on his blog.
“Hey man, think there is anything even left there?” I ask
“I don’t know Jason… hundred years is a long time and this humidity would rot anything.” Eli said
He lays back on his bed.
“We should be able to find some foundations.. or stuff like that. The mine will be the hard part.
“Maybe we should look at a topographic of that area maybe that will-.”
“Nope already did, I have a few ideas where it could be but nothing solid.” He said. We think in silence for a moment. I could tell the gears were working… 
“I even looked on urban exploration forums, there is abandoned s**t all over these mountains… It’s like no one ever comes to this area.”
“Maybe they know better” I say reflecting on the stories he has told me.
“Jason… really? I know the stories creeped me out when I was like 8. But you can’t think there is anything to them.” He states with a dismissive laugh. He waves his hands as if shoeing away the thought.
“Who knows it may not be monsters or ghost but just a b***h to get to.”  I say as I roll over and With that I drift off to a deep dreamless sleep lulled by the air conditioner.
We awake the next morning. The dread of the previous day has been washed away and we embark early in the morning.
“S**t… Jason it’s not even 8 and it’s in the f*****g 80s…”
“Welcome to the Great Smoky mountains boys!”
We both turn to see an elderly man walking towards us. Despite the heat he is wearing jeans and a button up shirt buttoned to the wrist. 
“Uh hi” I say awkwardly.
“Not from around here obviously” He frowns at Eli “My name is Manny…”
I shake his extended hand that he only offered to me “Hi Manny, uh, do you know anything about these woods here there doesn’t seem to be any trails south..”
“Oh couldn’t tell you why, probably not prime hiking areas out there.” He says looking into the woods. “Well you boys have fun and stay safe… and hydrated!” “We have some large water bottles in the gift shop if you need any” He waves beckoning us as he walks.
“B*****d wouldn’t even look at me” Eli say annoyed.
“Sorry man, even tan I can pass for Italian or Greek or some s**t.”
“Yeah yeah yeah… lets go Paco.”
 He half smirks at me as he walks to the car.
We drive to the point that’s closest as far as we can tell to the remains of the town.  We park on the side of the road put on our back packs, spray each other down with sunscreen and start walking following a waypoint on the GPS we brought. Despite there not being a path it wasn’t hard walking in most spots. The woods here were all old growth tall as buildings and trunks wider than the span of our arms. 
We were the loudest things in the woods, clumsily stomping snapping branches crushing leaves our packs adding extra weight and some of the contents rattling.  
There was a shift at some point during the hike, the air went from sweltering and viscous to dry and cool, the light seemed to go dim as if in a perpetual state of twilight. The woods became muted, our footsteps echoed as if we were walking a grand empty hall. I stopped and felt as if we are trespassing, that we are walking through a sacred place and judging eyes are all around; ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. Eli is too busy working with the map he printed off and the GPS trying to figure out our exact location.  The mountains were messing with the signal; we were chasing a waypoint that was hopping around sending us in different directions.  
“Hmmm we should be getting close”  Eli says to more himself than me.
I notice a break in the trees up past Eli and walk towards it, noticing as I get closer the silence becomes more whole like being plunged into water.  Eli follows me without saying anything and we come to a small glade. Its spherical  with the largest willow tree I have ever seen the trunk thicker than the span of my arms and the branches spreading out  like the tentacles of a giant ancient beast. The tree choked out the light and oppressively allowed nothing to grow underneath its thick canopy besides a layer of damp moss. We walked into the shade in a reverent unspoken hush.  It seemed we walked into a complete vacuum as we approached the tree we noticed it was growing up around a large cairn on the far side. As we approached we felt as if the air was being sucked into the tree. All I could do was stand and stare. The hair stood up on my neck and my blood turned cold as I looked down at my feet and noticed something white and brittle poking up through the moss. I knelt down and picked at it with my finger until the moss gave way and I pulled up half a skull of a small animal. It was cold to the touch as I looked around I noticed more bones peeking through the moss under the tree. A natural ossuary of sorts, what could have done this? An animals feeding ground perhaps?
“Holy s**t, I think I found it!” Eli shouted, severing my thoughts. I dropped the skull and ran to him as I went around the tree and saw the full breadth of the cairn. It is a large slab rock leaning on a pile of large rocks stabilized by a wooden frame.  The wood looks old, but sturdy. As we approached I noticed the wood hardly looks like it has rotted at all.  As we stood before the small opening, we could feel the air rushing through us and into the hole in the ground. With a snap the entrance was illuminated with Eli’s flashlight, I turn mine on too and we start our decent.  We walk carefully trying not to fall and slip on the damp rocks trying not to hit our heads on the wooden frames holding up the earth.
“This is so spooky” Eli’s voice reverberates down the shaft.   Our footsteps pierce the silence and echo all around us as if there are dozens of people walking along with us, the wind rushing in mimicked the sound of voices. A caravan of whispering shadows following us into the cold stone womb. I barely noticed Eli stopping until I nearly bumped into him. I looked past him to see he was staring at a wooden door. It was out of place, it looked solid oak, intricately carved symbols, lines interconnecting them to a large carved stone in the center with what looks like a pentagram surrounded by other shapes.. The stone was a polished black glass almost mirrored; we could make out our reflections which looked odd. It didn’t dawn on me at first why. Eli tries the knob as I stare into the glass.  I realized that the image wasn’t inverted, and the movements trailed moments after mine. A dark mime: mocking me from a window to an unnamed world.
“The door is stuck… But it’s not locked.” He said fondling the knob.
“Maybe we should leave… I don’t think this�"“
“Got it!” He says as the door slowly creeks open, fighting the rust that built up over the years. The heavy door opened of its’ own volition free of either of our hands. We both just stared. The room, lavish interior was even more out of place than the door the room was large. The walls lined with shelves filled with books. A small bed, fit for a child was at one end of the room and a table with chairs at the other.  We entered slowly, waving our flashlights looking at the time capsule we walked in to. I walked to another door at the edge of the room and opened it, another old door. I don’t know what to expect, but as it opened I was relieved and disappointed to see some barrels and shelves with jars, and some dried fruits and vegetables hung in the back in netted sacks. Eli is looking at the books when we hear a noise; A gasp. We both turned, looking at the bed as a small figure started to rise.  So slight we didn’t notice it laying there.  As it rose its limbs popped and creaked like twigs snapping. It was a person… of a sort small and skinny the size of a child. Its skin was pale and grey coved in scars its head bald. Its head hung looking down it raised its hand to shield against the light.
“Puh-lease” It groaned the words almost scraped as they came out of its throat. “Extinguish... your torches.” In awe we turned off our lights. The shroud of darkness covered us. All we could hear was our breathing, until we heard its movements. Then a warm light erupted from an old oil lamp. The flamed danced in the darkness causing the shadows to leap and jump across the walls. Half of its body was illuminated with the warm light. Its head rose and looked at us. Its eyes black. No whites at all, like two voids to an abyss. It started to smile. It spoke slowly. “Greetings… Gentlemen.”