Into the Mines

The town was worried.

For weeks, ghastly howls from the nearby forest unsettled the cobblestone streets of Coalclutch. They made the skin tingle, brows perspire, and senses heighten.

The village had lost a few of its youngsters over the past few years. Traceless disappearances, not even a sliver of blood to line a path to peril. Were the howls from the forest luring these souls into their demise?

Beneath a candlelit lantern on the promenade, a few townsfolk had gathered. Old ladies sweated through their crotcheted sweaters; young men itched at their freshly grown beards. Citizens were in such a state that even a gentle lurch into the public eye had become a precarious proposition.

‘Someone needs to get in there,’ one old lady suggested, trembling at the thought, a tension palpable amongst these townsfolk. ‘We got to know what’s happening to our young.’

Eyes shot around, slightly cautious as to not make an ill-meaning suggestion. Tensions were fraying amongst the people of Coalclutch. Neighbours had grown weary of each other, wondering if an old mate or a distant cousin could have a hand in this. Intrepid travellers who visited these areas didn’t return. Could someone in this group be clued into this?

A voice murmured above the silence ‘I’ll go.’

Cole Kirby was a local miner. He’d travelled here about four months ago from up north. He hadn’t exactly ingratiated himself into this town. His introversion led to social exclusion amongst the close-knit community. Was this his way of making up for these early indiscretions?

The response from his fellow Coalclutchens was mixed. While several appreciated his desire to head in, some were suspicious of his eagerness. One such person was Edna Brailey.

‘You’re up to something, aren’t ya?’ she questioned. She’d been at the forefront of the campaign to bring these youngster’s home. A prominent town advocate, she’d led townwide appeal for information. She didn’t trust many, especially an outsider like Cole, and he didn’t appreciate the suspicion.

‘What are you insinuating?’

‘You’re hiding something that you don’t want others to find out?’ Coalclutch was an isolated enclave in the middle of nowhere, people didn’t come here for the lifestyle. They came to suck the dwindling life out of the prosperous hole in the ground two kilometres from the town’s outskirts.

A small argument broke out, an irritated Cole defended himself while Edna made some further insinuations. The town had become rife with disputes over these past two weeks, many feeling that anyone could be causing these disappearances.

Frustrated, Cole snapped, ‘You can come with me if you want?’ The arguing came to a standstill, Cole meant this as an ultimatum, hoping to shut her up.

Shockingly, she accepted his offer.

Grabbing a lantern from her best mate Marie, she marched towards the forest. With a degree of trepidation, he quickly follows along. His belonging to this town not helped by Edna…

As they ventured into the forest, the furious chirp of the cicadas became louder, more frantic. They trudged forth. Cole became more irksome, moaning as his feet sank a little further with each step.

‘I thought you worked in a mine?’ Edna chuckled, no respect for her companion.

A little while later, they noticed something strange. A small toy placed perched on a large oak tree with sprawling branches, as if it were leading to a network of oak trees. This was so purposely placed, almost as a signpost.

‘What sort of sick pervert places a toy here?’ Edna inspected the scene like she had some sort of detective training. A lifetime of reading true crime had given her a rudimentary knowledge of criminality. She thought this could be a trophy. Or a clue.

‘I don’t think this is what we’re looking for,’ Cole insisted, scraping mud from his boots. ‘We should keep going.’

‘No, not that fast, maybe we need to look around here a bit more. We might find the perverted freak himself’

‘Theres nothing here. I don’t wanna waste time on something that could prove meaningless.’ Cole groaned, before trying to continue his way. Cole wasn’t sociable by his nature. He hadn’t really frequented the local tavern or shown up to the markets. He kept to himself. In a town where everyone is connected, he was a square peg in a round hole.

‘What are you hiding?’ She asked, quite bluntly. While not outright stated, Edna believed Cole was behind the disappearances. It was the reason she decided to come along.

The mine at Coalclutch was a local pride; a place cultivated and maintained by the proud townsfolk. Despite outside pressures, they’d prevented it from being sold or sullied. She felt that Cole wasn’t interested in preserving this mines significance. That he wanted to exploit the wealth of this town. That was enough to stir her suspicions.

Cole didn’t respond. He kept trudging forward.

‘You didn’t answer me, what are you hiding?’ She snapped, tripping over a branch leg as she sprinted towards him, demanding an answer. ‘What are you hiding.’

‘I SAID NOTHING!’ He got nose to nose with Edna, she refused to back down. ‘I’m sorry, that I don’t want to spill my guts to you, but I’m not hiding anything.’ Edna and Cole glared into each other’s eyes, trying to get the other to back down. Both refusing to cede ground.

Then, with a gust of wind, a waft swept over the area. It smelt quite nice, a sharp contrast to the damp and rotten aromas of the forest.

‘Do you smell that?’ Edna quipped.

‘Pork?’ The all too familiar smell of swine was tantalising. It harkened back to nights around the table with family. Or comforting pub fare after a day in the mines.

The two followed the smell for a few hundred metres, the thick tree line gradually thinning, revealing small plumes of light and smoke over a clearing.

From beyond the tree line, a makeshift settlement emerged. Shacks had been fashioned out of rusty sheets of corrugated iron, crudely insulated with moss. A road had been paved, with a complex gutter system made from steel pillars. In the middle, a toy; not to dissimilar to the one perched on the old oak tree. It was on a plinth, as if it were a commemorative war monument. A small plaque with the initials SC inscribed on it suggested a leader.

As they stepped forward, A Jack Russell emerged. Despite a friendly exterior, it kept its distance. Edna tried to approach the canine; it remained distant.

As Edna become preoccupied with trying to attract the dog, Cole noticed a child emerging.

‘What are you doing here.’ The child asked.

It looks surprisingly well kept. He looked like he’d recently showered, his teeth were brushed, clothes were clean, he was healthy. It was rather odd for its setting.

For Edna, it was a bit frightening; because she knew exactly who this was.

‘Digby Durham? Where have you been young man?’ The child scurried behind a propped-up piece of corrugated iron, as if it feared Edna.

‘What sort of sick pervert does this?’ Edna gasped, believing this to be the work of an adult with a twisted fantasy.

Another child emerged, Shelilah Cremer, missing for three years, presumed dead.

‘Shelilah?’

‘That’s councillor Cremer to you.’ Edna fell to her knees. Another child emerged, and another, Marty Jones and Bernie Martin. They had last been seen six months earlier.

This felt a bit sinister, even for Cole. ‘Listen children, don’t try anything.’

‘We’re not adults.’ Shelilah replied.

‘You’re the flesh and blood of Coalclutch.’ Edna ran up to Shelilah, grabbing her shoulders ‘Your mums awfully worried about you.’

Shelilah pushed her away, ‘We’re not you, or what you wanted us to be.’

Shelilah lifted the toy from the town plinth. ‘For generations, you’ve pushed people down that dirty mine like bad medicine down a clenched throat, forcing people to break their back extracting every morsel of worth out of that dirty mine. I’ve seen what it’s done to our parents, our grandparents. It’s sucked the life out of them.’

Marty Jones stepped forward ‘All to preserve the town’s identity of digging out dinosaur bones from the ground?’

This was a little hard for Edna to hear. Her identity was tied to this town. Several generations of Braileys had called this town home, other name attached to the fishmonger, barber and accountancy firm. She wasn’t in the mining business, but the mines were the reason for this town to exist. Without the mines, town had no reason to exist. Neither did she.

She broke into a fit of rage, ‘How dare you worry your parents like this, you lot need to learn some manners, Cole, back me up here.’

‘They have a point.’ He quietly muttered, looking at Edna with disdain. ‘Do you really think these kids should be forced into these mines, no hope to do anything else, resigned to just digging into the dirt’

‘They should feel honoured. They should also get right back to town and back to their parents.’

‘No one’s going.’ Shelilah interjects, ‘You can’t make us.’

‘I can, now come with me young lady.’ Edna proceeded to grab Sheillah’s wrist, attempting to drag her back to town. Shelilah pulled away, but Edna grabbed harder, eliciting a cry of pain from Shelilah. Edna tightened her grip despite the resistance.

From there, everything happened rather quickly. Cole turned away, letting it all unfold. There was an issue he needed to solve.

***

It had been 24 hours. The townsfolk had gathered back at the promenade. With no sight of Edna or Cole, they feared the worst.

‘They’re dead, surely!’

‘I believe so.’

The folks were resigned to no further clarity.

However, as they wobbled a few metres along the promenade, a voice echoed out from the distance.

‘I have your answer…’ Cole emerged; clothes darkened with an undeniable shade of red. The man took a deep, regretful sigh. ‘I’m your answer…’

Mouths dropped, horrified by the sight.

‘You sick bastard.’

‘I knew it.’

‘That’s why outsiders shouldn’t be allowed in our town, your animal.’

Cole raised his arms silently, closing his eyes, awaiting their scorn.

As the angered residents approached, he uttered one more line, ‘You don’t need to know the details…’

The townsfolk proceed to drag him away, Cole giving minimal resistance.

In the distance, the faint flicker of a lantern captured his attention. Shelilah, Digby, Marty, Bernie.