Midnight Sunrise - Chapter 1

Lonely the wind sings

Lonely the bird wings

Through fold of hill

Then all is still

In Windy Gully

Deep in the mountainside

Ninety-six miners died

Loud were the cries

Smoke filled the skies

Of Windy Gully

Closed now, the old pit

Sealed up, the mouth of it

Paid for the coal

Exacted the toll

In Windy Gully

Only the rains weep

Only the hills keep

Watch where men die

Know where they lie

In Windy Gully, in Windy Gully

 Windy Gully - Wendy Richardson 1972

1. Awakening

Its dark in here. The walls are painted with shadows, shapeless as they swirl like black flames. There's a doorway in the distance, barely illuminated by dim, blue light. The doorway slowly approaches, inching closer and closer with every blink I take. A feeling of overwhelming dread washes over me as the blood in my veins freezes. I am no longer in control of my body, I lay motionless as the shadows clamber from the walls and slowly begin taking form in the doorway, not man, not woman, but fear embodied in an amorphous, jagged spectre. Its moving, hovering slowly toward me, crawling across air like a predator stalking its prey. Its form began to take further shape, I clench my jaw, trying with every ounce of my soul to scream, but my entire body remains frozen. A tear rolls down my cheek as its now discernible eyes, black like the plague, perforate through my soul. My chest sinks, its force squashing miserably. A thunderous whisper echo's into my ears "Chase, Chase, Chase"... "Chase! Chase, you awake?!" My eyes jolt open, light fills my bedroom as I thrust upward and gasp the air. 

Its cloudy, I rub my eyes as my vision starts to focus, I scan the room and whip the blanket off the bed. My sheets are completely soaked with sweat, the dreams are getting worse and worse, becoming immensely more vivid. There's rumbling coming from outside, sounds like a beat up old lawn mower on its last legs... The unmistakable sound of Logan's car pulling up of course, he beeped his horn and shouted obnoxiously. "Chase! Come on, we're going today!" It must have been his voice I heard in the dream...I hoped. Although he could be thoroughly irritating it was a welcome relief to hear his voice. "This bloody guy" I thought as I leapt out of bed and hurriedly pulled a shirt over my head. "Man, these dreams are going to be the end of me" I made sure I had everything before I started out the door "Phone, wallet, keys. Yep, good to go" In my haste I slipped on my blanket and fell flat on my face, straight onto my TV remote. I must have flicked the on switch, just the hissing of static is on the screen, I hated the sound of the static. "It's just noise" I thought as I fumbled around to find the remote. I clicked the button to turn off the TV and quickly shot out of the front door. I could see Logan, standing with one hand on his car and a big cheesy grin. "I brought the beast" He was referring to his old, beat up Mitsubishi Sigma which had definitely seen better days, the engine muttered and ticked like a time bomb but he adored the thing. "This thing going to survive the trip or what?" I asked "Chase Hanak. Old siggy here could make a round trip to the moon if I asked her to" He said flippantly. I could feel his excitement, he'd been rambling for weeks about a trip up to Mt Kembla to explore the old coal mine, talk to a few of the locals and try to find the cemetery. Stories of ghost sightings and other paranormal phenomena had been doing the rounds at school - "Mickey Brennan's ghost wanders the old pit and if you drive too near, at the stroke of midnight, he'll appear in your car, grab onto the steering wheel and cause it to crash!" Logan loved to regale everyone at school with ghostly tails and anything creepy... when he wasn't getting into trouble for skipping class almost every day. He would scour the internet in the library to find anything about hauntings and ghost sightings, and that was just Logan - a larrikin who loved a laugh, a cigarette, a coffee and a tall tale. "I'm driving" I said, swiftly sliding into the front seat, still not convinced that this old rust bucket was going to make it up the winding old roads of Mt Kembla. Logan let out a reluctant sigh and agreed as he dragged his feet around to the passenger side "alright, but be gentle, you have to treat her with care" he said as the motor ticked over, still resembling the sound of my Dad's lawn mower as we slowly crept out of the driveway onto the road.

After driving for about half an hour we hit the outskirts of the town, past the old pub where there were a few rough looking men dressed in brown coats, staring suspiciously at us, their piercing stare following us like shadows. One of the onlookers was a younger, quite attractive woman, she looked completely out of place with her long, dark hair and bright, wide eyes, she shot a smirk as we passed "they seem nice" Logan barbed. We drove on through the town, past a dilapidated looking church and a few old, cladded houses. The road became narrower as we began our ascent up the mountain. The roads were winding and seemed like they went on for an eternity. We slowed as we noticed a break in bush to the side of the road - it was a dirt trail leading in adjacent to the road, we looked at each other, Logan being practically beside himself with elation "That has to be something! let's drive in and if we can't find anything we can just turn around and come out". This was apparently one of the roads into the mine "looks like an old fire trail" I said as we drove in slowly. It was an overcast day with a light drizzle covering the track, the surrounding bushland was dense and thick with no visible trail anywhere other than the dirt road itself. As we entered the trail the air seemed to grow thick, an icy chill made the hairs on the back of my neck stand as it raced through the rest of my body. After about a kilometre the trail ended as it came to a dead end. I decided to turn around rather than reversing all the way out, it took a few attempts to turn around as the road was very narrow, only leaving a couple of feet either side of the car. As I finally had the car facing back to the road a young man, who couldn't have been any older than 16 standing directly in front of the car caught our attention. He was wearing shaggy old, torn overalls, his posture was slumped, almost to the point where he was bending, his eyes were as dark as a starless night sky, he looked exhausted as though he'd been walking for days. Logan and I shot an uneasy glance at one another. "You're blocking the way" Logan yelped in a cracked voice. He looked lost, almost unaware of his surroundings as he surveyed the area. I tried to wind my window down to talk to him but the handle wouldn't seem to budge so I clenched the door handle to open it when I felt Logan's hand on my shoulder. "What are you doing, you're not getting out?!" Logan blurted. "Yeah, he's just a kid. He might know where the old mine is" I said, feeling a trickle of sweat run down my forehead, strange considering how cold it had gotten. I pushed the door open and stepped out. Strangely, everything seemed to be relatively quiet, but for a few fluttering birds in the tree tops. For a dense bushland area I expected to hear insects, animals or some kind of noise. But nothing, complete eerie silence. "Uhh hi, what's your name?" He looked back blankly, bemused and looking confused, merely staring, gazing on almost through me. "We're up here looking for an old cemetery, can you help us find it?" Again, he looked on dumbfounded, his lips firmly sealed and his dark eyes fixated on me. "OK then" I heard Logan spout from the car. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to head back. As I turned around there was a soft, barely audible, almost whispering voice in my ear, as though whoever it came from were standing right beside me "Albert" I turned on my heel in the direction it came from, the boy was now only a couple of feet from me, his face had changed to a raised, almost cheeky smile. "There's nothing like that around here, cob". His tone was somewhat unsettling, it echoed through me as the wind picked up and birds in the tree tops flew away causing leaves to fall and the branches to swing violently. I felt the same cold shiver crawling up the back of my spine. I looked at Logan and his skin had turned pale, his usual jovial demeanour had long completely vanished. He'd seen enough and motioned that he wanted to leave, waving his arms to get back in the car. "Alright... Albert, thanks for your help. I think we'll find our own way from here" I said. Albert watched my every step to the car as I backed away cautiously. I opened the door and thrusted my seat belt on, turned the ignition on and looked up. Albert was gone, there was no sign of him, he'd completely vanished. "Where did he go?! Where did he go?! He was right there!" Logan shouted. I looked around and couldn't see any sign of him "He's gone, did he run into the bushes?" I quivered "No man! He fucking vanished!" We were both beside ourselves, looking in every direction for any sign of Albert. I put the car into gear and pushed the accelerator down as hard as I could, the tail end of the car whipped out as we raced along the track. We were almost to the end of the trail when the shape of a body standing at the end became visible. "It's him!" Cried Logan. I hit the brakes as hard as I could causing the car to slide almost off the dirt road but stopping inches away from Albert. I held my hand to my neck and groaned as I looked up. Albert's eyes were closed, his body shuddered and convulsed, his neck circled unnaturally and then stopped abruptly. His eyes shot open and glared into mine. I closed my eyes, too terrified to look. I opened my eyes slowly after a moment, I was no longer in the seat of my car. Had I fallen out? I looked around wearily, my eyes heavy like concrete blocks. I glanced down at my hands, they were covered in soot and dust, I could hear the voices of shouting men and crying children. The walls were dark, being held together with rotting, old wood, I could make out the shadows of people, swinging what looked like shovels or small axes at the dirty walls. The ground trembled and shook, I could barely keep my balance as the smell of gas filled the room. The air wavy and blurring like the searing heat coming off a stove top. The trembling intensified as the sound of running footsteps and indistinct shouting passed me by, the sound of an explosion threw me back onto my haunches. An enormous raging flame rushed in my direction and engulfed the entire area, the flames washing over my body like a fire-breathing tsunami utterly pulverising everything in its path. I shrieked as I careened chaotically, my eyes glued shut, my body battered and burned. I looked up to see if anyone were around to help, barley being able to breathe ,I closed my eyes. My eyes suddenly burst open, rising up from a scorched body, watching the shrieking sound waves reverberate across the air coming as I was thrust back to my body, back in the car, my hands clenching down the side of my seat, my wide-eyes glaring at Albert in complete terror, howling as irate flames devoured his entire body. He reached out with one hand toward me as it burned, the skin on his body singed, hissing like an angry snake as he burned away to nothing but ash and the sound of his cries faded into the cold mountain air.

"This must be what death feels like. I am nothing now, I have no voice, no name, no family. Silent screams are the music of the devil."