Part 1

1994
Fall had settled in the sleepy mountain of Crickett. Residents bustled in close clusters
between shops on the windy Saturday, oblivious to the terror that reined in the mountains. Fallon
pulled her coat closer as she stood outside the bookstore, waiting for her sister to finish inside.
Her gaze shifted upward, to the clouded peaks that sat ominous like invisible eyes above them.
Familiar pangs crept through her stomach, but she pushed them down once again. She never
knew why looking at the mountains ran familiar. She had never been to them. Unlike the other
young girls in town, she had always felt the pull of their secrets.
Her sister Heather stumbled out of the shop, hefty bag hanging in the crook of her arm.
Her brown hair newly windswept behind her.
“All done?” Fallon asked, looking from the bag to Heather.
“Yep,” Heather said, giddy with delight for whatever books the bag held, “Let’s go.”
They walked together and headed up the street, to the small parking cover surrounded by
trees. Heather ran to the car, hopping into the passenger. When Fallon slipped into the driver’s
seat, Heather already had a book open to the first page, and Fallon knew she had lost her sister to
yet another story.
The drive home was quiet, and when the pulled into their secluded home, their mother
was sitting on the front porch, mug of steaming tea clutched in her hands.
“How was town?” she asked as the sisters approached. Heather went into a spiel about
the books and candles she found in town, while Fallon took the distraction to slip inside and get
warm. The fire was going already, and her father was curled up on the couch, glasses perched on
his nose, and newspaper open in front of him. “Good afternoon, honey,” he said when Fallon sat
beside him and took the entertainment section from him.
They sat in silence, the crackling fire their own source of communication. When her
father closed the newspaper, an image of a young girl was plastered to the front. Entertainment
forgotten, Fallon grabbed the rest of the newspaper and pulled the headline close to her face.

 Riley Travis, age 15, disappeared from her home late last night on Gregor Street.
Her whereabouts at this moment are unknown. Her family is asking for support and
resources in helping find their daughter and bring her home safe.

It wasn’t the first time Fallon had read about a missing girl from town. Riley Travis was
the fifth girl to disappear this year. Fallon recognized her as one of Heathers classmates and
wondered if Heather had seen this yet. She read on:

Riley Travis, the fifth Haven High student to disappear this year, was last seen by
her parents, having gone to bed early last night with a severe headache. When Mr.
and Mrs. Travis woke up this morning, they found her bed empty, and her window
open. A single note, like the other disappearances had been discovered under Riley’s
pillow. The mountains have yet to be investigated since the last disappearance. The
local police are asking residents to volunteer for a forest sweep in hopes of finding
Riley, and possibly the other missing girls.

Fallon remembered going out with her father during the summer into the woods. They
stood close together and walked miles with other for any clues to where the girls were being
kept. No bodies, no evidence, but constant reminders to the awful happenings in such a small
town. Heather, on request from her mother, had stayed back with their aunt. Her mother claimed
she did not want to expose such a young mind to such horrors. But Fallon wasn’t much older
than Heather, two years to be exact, and she wasn’t spared the expense when it came to the
terrible things that happen.
She skimmed the rest quickly, until the final line had her frozen.

The town of Crickett can only hope these terrible disappearances will come to an
end, and the young residents will no longer fear the night.

 Fallon dropped the paper and slumped back against the couch, staring forward into the
fire. Other residents may fear whatever lurks in the darkness beyond their windows and beds.
But Fallon had never feared the night. She could deny all she wanted the pull towards the moon,
or the familiarity of mountains she had never been to.
But truth was stronger than denial. And Fallon would realise too soon what happens when
you push the truth away too long.
***
A crash ricocheted through the house, pulling Fallon from her slumber. She sat up in bed,
staring out into the darkness of her room and slowed her breathing. It was not unnatural for her
to wake to the sounds of night. She often rose to branches against her window, or an animal in
the backyard. But this sound was different.
It came from inside the house.
She grabbed her flashlight from inside her night stand and stepped out into the hallway. A
deafening silence had settled, and whatever had crashed, had silenced every other sound. Her
parent’s door was open, and she watched their sleeping figures unfazed. For a second, she
believed she had imagined the sound, a spill from whatever she was dreaming now long
forgotten.
She continued on, stopping in front of Heathers door and knocking softly. When no
answer came, as Heather was a light sleeper and would have heard Fallon, her stomach clenched
as she turned the door knob and stepped inside.
The window was open. The bed was empty. And a single paper lay on the thin pink
bedspread.
The mountains have called me home.
Fallon started to scream.

***

A security blanket was placed around Fallon’s shoulders, an untouched mug of calming
tea, her mother’s creation, in front of her. The detective had finished talking to her a few minutes

 ago, and everyone was slowly making their way out of the house. The sun barely settled over the
mountains, and Fallon’s eyes barely blinked.
The couch dipped, and her father sat beside her. “I’m sorry, honey,” he said, oblivious to
how tired she was of hearing that already. He looked as tired as she was, and she bit her tongue
for fear of anger spewing out. She wasn’t mad at her father, she wasn’t really mad at anyone. She
was mad that the mountain chose her sister. And that Heather was to be the next girl who went
missing.
Her mother’s voice carried into the living room, and Fallon leaned back against the couch
and focused solely on the conversation behind her.
“I’m telling you, detective. The same person that took those other girls took my Heather,”
her mother sobbed.
She heard the detective sigh, “Mrs. Gates, I am truly sorry, but a note was not found. The
only way we would know for sure that your daughter’s disappearance was connected to the
others is if we found a note.”
“Maybe your people didn’t look hard enough,” her mother urged, “Have them look
again.”
“I’m sorry,” the detective said, and Fallon knew the conversation was over. When the
door closed, her mother slumped into the living room, grabbing herself a glass of brown liquid
and downing the glass. Fallon could tell her father wanted to speak up about morning drinking,
but everyone was too fragile to consider it.
Fallon excused herself.
Up in her bedroom, by her window, Fallon pulled out the very piece of paper her mother
had been looking for. The evidence the detectives needed to clump Heather in with all the other
missing teenage girls.
Fallon couldn’t leave it for them to find. She did not want to believe her sister was really
gone. But the evidence was there, and she couldn’t deny it anymore.
The mountains had called Heather home.
But Fallon wouldn’t let them claim her.

 She dropped the blanket on the floor and changed out of her pajamas and into jeans, a
thick sweater, and her fall faux fur lined vest. She braided her long hair down her back before
grabbing her backpack and heading back downstairs. She listened for her parents, who consoled
each other in the kitchen as she slipped on her boots.

Sitting in her car, her rush of energy faded quick. She didn’t know the woods, or how to
get up to the mountains. The times she had helped with the search for the other girls, her father
ad stayed closed to the tree line, close to the road, more for the fact of her father’s fear of wild
animals.
Fallon needed a guide. But no one was crazy enough to travel up the mountain.
But then someone popped into her head, someone she tried not to think about too often
and felt her stomach drop.
There was someone who could help her, she just wasn’t sure he would.

Part 2
The old auto shop sat on the edge of town. The old sign swayed in the wind, the rust
making it creak with each swing. Fallon parked beside the company pick-up truck and gathered
her courage.
She could hear the faint melody of music streaming out from the shop. One foot in front
of the other, she faced what she had feared.
Josh Callahan was hunched over an open hood, bobbing his head along to the music, a
streak of grease on his cheek. When he heard Fallon approach, he lifted his head towards her, and
grimaced almost immediately.
He turned the music down, “What are you doing here?”
Fallon didn’t know how to word what she wanted. She knew she needed his help, more
than anything to get her sister back. But she wasn’t sure he was willing to give it.
“I need your help,” Fallon said.
He scoffed, “No.”

 Before he could turn the music back on, Fallon pulled the slip of paper out of her pocket
and held it out to him, “Heather was taken. I need your help.”
She watched the blood drain from his face, and all she wanted to do was hug him, and
make it all okay. But she knew better than anyone that those days were gone.
“When?” he asked.
“Last night,” she said.
She watched his face, unchanged, as he lifted his eyes to hers. “What do you need from
me?”
“You know the way to the mountains more than anyone. I need you to take me there,”
Fallon said.
“You’re crazy,” Josh said.
“Maybe,” Fallon smiled, “But I know my sister is out there. I won’t let the mountains
claim her.”
He looked at her like her words were a beam of light. “So, you believe me then? You
believe that something unnatural dwells in the mountains?”
She nodded, “More now than ever.” She didn’t tell him about the pull she felt when she
looked at the ominous peaks. For a split second, she feared what would happen to her once she
got to the mountains.
Josh closed the hood of the car and looked at her again, a new light in his eyes. “Let me
get cleaned up and we’ll go. It’s not a far drive.”
She smiled and headed back to her car, paper clutched in her hand. She was getting her
sister back, one way or another.

Josh’s knuckles were white by the time they pulled into the sloping parking space at the
base of the mountain trail. Yellow police tape blocked the path, and Josh got out and ripped it
away, kicking it to the side and looking back at Fallon, who was slowly getting out of the car
herself.

 She already felt the pull, the ache in her stomach coming to life and urging one foot in
front of the other. She followed Josh up the path, eyes focused on the forest floor and the tree
roots that spiked up from the ground. Eventually, the sun faded from the thickness of the trees,
and Fallon and Josh were succumbed to the darkness of the forest.
“We’re almost there,” he called behind him, turning slightly to look at Fallon.
She wouldn’t say it out loud, but it was nice being with Josh again. Once upon a time
they were friends. But when Josh’s little sister, Julia, disappeared, the first girl to disappear, he
became obsessed with the idea of the mountains being alive. When Fallon had denied his request
to go to the mountains with him and look for Julia, he shunned her, and never spoke to her again.
He dropped out of school the next month and took up a job at the auto shop indefinitely. Fallon
wished she could go back and change things, make it that she never lost him, or believed him
when he said the mountains were alive. Fallon had denied the pull of them for so long, she hadn’t
realised how many she hurt by doing so.
She hadn’t realised Josh had stopped walking and she bumped into his back. “What’s
going on?” she questioned. But Josh didn’t look at her. He didn’t move. And when Fallon looked
around him, she saw why.
Standing at the base of a sharp incline was Fallon, ghostly and translucent, in a long
billowy white dress.
Real Fallon stepped around Josh and closer to the apparition. Josh caught her wrist.
“Don’t,” he said, “It’s the mountain.”
But Fallon couldn’t help it. The pull was stronger now, and she followed the apparition
Fallon up the incline, Josh close behind her.
“Fallon,” he urged, “I don’t like this.”
She shook her head, “I need to find Heather.”
Apparition Fallon didn’t stop. She floated up the incline until an inlet lay in the side of
the mountain, and Josh and real Fallon pulled themselves into the alcove.
Fallon lost her voice, her breath, her will to move.

 Lying in the alcove, all around a stone alter, were the missing girls. Josh was running in
an instance, to the still figure of his sister. He shook her shoulder, praying she wasn’t dead, and
sighing a relief when he felt the pulse at the base of her throat.
He went to each girl, and felt each pulse, and clamed as each appeared to be sleeping. He
looked at Fallon, who had yet to move.
It all seemed to familiar. Fallon didn’t dare step closer to the alter, because she knew it
wasn’t an alter at all. It was a child’s casket propped on four stone pillars. Apparition Fallon
stood beyond it, staring at real Fallon.
“You remember, don’t you?” Apparition Fallon said.
“Fallon?” Josh said, but his voice got lost in a rushing of wind in her ears.
Fallon couldn’t explain what was happening. She couldn’t place where she had seen the
casket before.
Apparition Fallon lifted a hand, “Come. Seek the truth you want. You’ll understand
soon.”
Fallon, as if her feet had power of their own, pulled her forward and as she outstretched
her hand, she stopped. She dropped her palm lightly onto the casket and felt the cold stone freeze
her in place.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped to the floor, mind now
transported deep into itself.

She was eight years old. Young Fallon wandered away from the family, weaving through
the trees and stones until the mountain loomed above her. she craned her small head up, at the
mountain that disappeared into mist and smiled.
“Home,” she whispered and clambered up the inclined hill.
Come home.
Fallon quickened her pace, scraping her knee as she climbed but not stopping for a
second. “I’m coming,” she said. “I’m coming home.”

 She stopped at an alcove to catch her breath, and the darkness within seemed to pull the
young girl forward.
Welcome home.
Fallon smiled.
Would you like to stay?
“Yes.”
Forever?
“Yes.”
Touch the stone. Touch the stone and we shall never be apart.
Fallon reached out her hand and pressed her palm against the cool stone.
“Fallon!” her mother’s voice carried up towards her. “Fallon where are you!?”
Fallon pulled her hand away, “I have to go.” She turned.
No!
The mountain shook, and Fallon lost her footing, sliding down the side of the mountain,
smacking against stones and twigs.
At the bottom, she lay still, and felt the pain ease away before she stood and noticed she
had no scratches, no broken bones, even though she had fallen quite a way. She stood and ran,
right into her mother’s arms, who lead her swiftly back to the trail.
Neither one noticed the crumpled body of the young Fallon lying still at the bottom, or
the wind that grabbed her and pulled her up to the alcove again.
Fallon opened her eyes, tears already streaming when she realised that she was dead.
The pieces came together. The mountain was calling her home, not the girls. The girls
were a tragic obstacle. The girls were never meant to be taken. The mountain wanted her. and
finally thought that taking Heather would get her here.
The mountain was right.
The mountain was calling her home but was using them to get her here. She got up and
pressed both hands against the casket and pushed, despite the warnings from Josh. She felt her
breath slip away.

 Eight-year-old Fallon lay broken and bloody in the casket, but no decay had taken over
the body. It looked as if the casket preserved her for the last ten years.
Josh stood and came to her side. His own breath becoming shallow.
“That’s you,” he said.
“I’m dead,” she said.
Welcome home.
The apparition changed into a single floating white orb. It pulsed and bounced, invisible
eyes on only Fallon.
Fallon knew what she had to do.
“Release them,” Fallon said, “And I am yours.”
“Fallon, no,” Josh’s hand came to her shoulder, and slipped right through it. He took a
staggering step back.
“I’m dead, Josh. I can’t leave,” she said. She looked back at the orb, “Release them, and
I’ll never leave the mountains again. I will stay here with you, forever.”
The white orb blinked, and the bodies of the sleeping girls rose and drifted out over the
trees.
They will wake up and not remember a thing. Life will continue. And You and I will spend
eternity together.
Fallon watched Heather’s body float away, and said her own silent goodbye, knowing full
well she would never see her sister again.
She turned to Josh, “Take care of them. Tell Heather what happened here. Tell her I’m not
coming back.” She handed him the note, “Place this on my pillow. The Mountains have claimed
their final girl. But I won’t be coming back.”
“I’m sorry,” Josh said, taking the paper. “I’ll protect Heather. I promise.”
Before Josh disappeared, Fallon called out to him, “Don’t forget about me.”
“You?” he said, a small, sad smile etched across his features, “Never.” He disappeared
down the mountain.
Fallon let the white orb envelop her, and pull her deep into the mountain.

 She would become a legend, Fallon Gates, the girl the mountains claimed. Her name
would never disappear, and she would continue to be an ever presence in the sleepy town of
Crickett.

Part 3
2012
Josh blew on his coffee, hoping it would do something to the scolding liquid he so
desperately needed. The small coffee shop, having been renovated into an internet café, was
overrun by the youth of Crickett. Josh had to have been the oldest in there, and he pulled his
flannel closer as the bell over the door rang through.
He smiled. Heather Gates stepped inside form the chilly cold beyond. Her nose was pink,
and her dark jacket was covered in a light sprinkle. When she spotted Josh, she smiled broadly,
and maneuvered through tables to him, where he was nestled between a bookshelf and the
window.
“Hi,” she said, pulling off her jacket and sitting down. She ordered a tea, knowing the
barista had its advantages in such a busy café. “I’m glad you wanted to meet me.”
For both of them, this day was hard. It had been 18 years since they both said goodbye to
Fallon, and neither one could admit they still felt her presence after all these years.
“Julia said I should reach out,” he said. When the girls all woke up, something unseen
connected them all, and they cemented a friendship beyond anything else.
Heather noticed the dark circles under his eyes right away, and how he stole glances out
the window, to the misty peaks beyond. She couldn’t deny she felt the same pull since that day.
“She wouldn’t want us to be like this,” Heather laughed, “She would be furious if she
knew what wreaks we really were.”
Josh frowned, “I miss her, Heather. All the time. And I think I see her in town, but it’s
never her. 18 years later, and I still think she is going to come down those mountains and be here
again.”
Heather smiled, “Me too.”

 But their conversation cut short with an interrupting voice from a couple tables over.
“I swear. She was standing at the base of the mountain, long white dress. She called to
me, knew my name. I don’t think I have ever run so fast in my life!” A boy, glasses, wispy hair,
gesturing widely to his group of friends, tourists in town to see if the legends were true.
“Dude, it was below zero. Your brain was probably frozen, and you were seeing things,”
his friend said, shaking her head.
“I’m telling you, she was there. I’m not lying,” the boy said again.
“He’s right, you know,” Heather said, the attention of the group turning to her, “They say
she haunts outsiders who dare enter her woods.”
“You’re joking,” the girl said, but her voice didn’t match. It was uneven.
“I swear on my sister’s life,” Heather said, looking briefly at Josh, “Her name was Fallon,
and she died in those mountains, and they say she haunts those who come near her final resting
place.”
“You’re all crazy,” the group said, standing and leaving their table, “Let’s get out of
here.”
Heather laughed to herself and Josh joined in, living in the flutter in his chest, looking
around the café to see if others had joined in on their fun. But his gaze stopped at the front
window.
For a second, Josh thought he had seen her in the window, looking exactly as she had the
day they said goodbye. But it was just the snow, and the frost, and he turned his attention back to
Heather.
They never noticed the single handprint pressed against the glass, and the warmth of a
girl who would never be forgotten.