“Tell me again, what happened?”

Keiske still felt cold and shaky even as he lay in the warm hospital room, several heavy blankets draped over him.

A nurse stood in the corner of the room. She was clearly trying to look inconspicuous but her crossed arms and nervous shifting back and forth made her hard to ignore. She glanced to the various monitors that were hooked up to Keiske every so often but she was obviously more interested in hearing about what had happened to him.

The police officer who stood beside Keiske’s bed snapped his fingers impatiently in front of Keiske’s face to get his attention.

“Come on,” the officer said, “stay focused.”

Keiske had already given an account of what had happened several times. First to the people who found him, then to the doctor in the ER, and lastly to the police. It seemed the police weren’t satisfied with his account. He couldn’t blame them. He couldn’t believe it himself.

“It started last night,” Keiske began, retelling his story one more time, “when we decided to try spending the night in one of the old mines.”

                                                                                          *

Sunset was an hour ago as Keiske made his way up the old mountain road. His friends, Tsukasa and Shun, lagged behind.

“How much further, Keiske?” Tsukasa huffed. “I thought you said it was just a short walk?”

“Oh come on,” Keiske said, stopping to wait for them to catch up and catch their breath. “It’s just a couple miles.”

“You said that a couple miles ago,” Shun replied.

Though both Shun and Tsukasa complained, it was apparent that they weren’t really upset. Neither of them was in particularly good shape, however, and so the steep nature of the old mountain road made it difficult for them.

Keiske took a drink from his water bottle and motioned for the others to do the same. He allowed them a few minutes rest before pressing onward once more. He had hoped to be able to reach the mines before it had become totally dark outside but that hope was fading as fast as the western horizon. That wasn’t Shun or Tsukasa’s fault though. They hadn’t even decided to go out here until a few hours earlier. Then it had been a mad dash to gather up their supplies, stuff them into backpacks, and then drive out to the old mountain road. It was so overgrown and washed out from years of disuse that there was no chance of driving up it, so they parked the car and continued on foot.

“Seriously though, how much farther is it?” Tsukasa asked as they climbed up the next hill.

“I don’t know,” Keiske admitted. “It’s been a while since I last came here, but we’re getting close.”

“We better not get lost,” Tsukasa said.

“That would be pretty hard to do,” Shun observed, “considering we’ve been following the same road the whole time.”

“True,” Tsukasa said.

“Don’t worry,” Keiske told them. “Once we get there we can set up camp, cook some dinner, and it’s going to be great!”

Keiske had been trying for months to convince the others to come camping up in the mines with him. He’d heard about the mines and had hiked up to them but had yet to go inside them. He was slightly concerned that the mines could turn out to be just deep shafts but he was fairly confident that at least one of them would have a decent space they could camp inside. If all else failed he had a tent in his pack that they could set up outside the mines.

Hiking by moon and star light was not usually a good idea since you couldn’t see where you were stepping but all three of them had agreed that using flashlights would be a dead giveaway and none of them were certain if they were supposed to be up there at night. Fortunately, the road, even in its poor condition, made for an easy enough trail to follow that they weren’t seriously impeded in their progress.

“What did they mine up here?” Shun asked.

“Gold,” Keiske said.

“Be nice if we found a nugget they missed,” Tsukasa said, perking up.

“I doubt there’s anything left,” Shun mused. “The miners would have taken everything that was easy or obvious, and I doubt we’re the first people who will be going there since it closed. Place has probably been picked clean.”

“That might not be true,” Keiske told them. “The mine didn’t close because it ran out of gold.” He waited for them to take the bait. Keiske loved a good mystery, far more than the other two, and he knew if he had told them the history of the mines before getting them out there they never would have come.

“Why’d it close then?” Tsukasa asked warily.

“According to the miners,” Keiske began, “they used to keep dogs down in the mines with them because they could sense when a collapse was coming. Most of time the dogs would act normal, but if they all got suddenly quiet and nervous then the miners would know something was up and they’d all evacuate. Almost every time, within a few hours, the mine would have a collapse.”

“So, what, did they run out of dogs?” Shun asked.

“Well, sort of,” Keiske said with a smile that he knew the others couldn’t see due to the dark night. “The miners started to get overconfident because of the dogs. Since the dogs warning came a few hours before the collapse, the miners started to take longer and longer to leave the mines. The dogs were getting upset by that and the miners had to start tying up the dogs down in the mines to keep them from running away. Finally, the miners waited too long. According to the reports given by the few miners who made it out, the dogs broke free of their tethers just before the collapse and instead of trying to get out, they attacked the miners and dragged them deeper into the mine. After that, when the miners went back in to clear the rubble, miners started disappearing and some started to say that they’d seen dogs down in the mine, prowling around as if they were hunting. Between miners going missing and sightings of the dogs, they couldn’t manage to keep enough miners working the mines to keep it open so they boarded up the mines and left.”

“Are you serious?!” Tsukasa was beside himself. “It’s a haunted mine? Why didn’t you tell us before?”

“Would you have come out here if I had?” Keiske asked.

“Uh, no,” Tsukasa stated bluntly. “The last thing we need is to go poking some pissed off ghost dogs.”

When it looked like Tsukasa would actually turn around and leave, Keiske took him by the arm and held him there.

“Come on,” he said, “it’s just some old story they made up. The mining company probably just went broke after the collapse and couldn’t afford to keep working the mine. Maybe the collapse released some bad gasses and that was what was effecting the miners.”

“You know,” Shun observed, “poison gas doesn’t make the mine sound that much more inviting than murderous ghost dogs.”

“First of all,” Keiske assured them, “if there was any sort of gas, it’s long gone by now. Second, we won’t be going far enough into the mine even if there was some bad gasses in there. And third, there’s no such thing as murderous ghost dogs. Come on, we’re already this far. I think I can even see the first mine entrance.”

It was far too dark to tell for certain whether or not the mound he could see rising against the horizon was in fact one of the mine entrances but he needed something to get his friends to keep going.

The others wavered, uncertain, and Keiske waited. He knew if he pushed them any harder they would turn at once and leave. He would just have to wait and see if they would tip his way or not.

“Fine,” Shun muttered at last. “Let’s go see if that is a mine or not. If it is, and if it has a place for us to camp, and if we don’t see any ghosts or smell any bad air or whatever, then we’ll stay.”

“Yeah,” Tsukasa mumbled his agreement, “but I think I’d still rather sleep outside.”

“Excellent,” Keiske said, making sure to sound as positive as he could. He knew better than to add any more negativity to the conversation by accusing them of being afraid.

They hiked the short distance over to the mound and Keiske felt a rush of relief when he stepped onto what were obviously old planks that had fallen from when the entrance was originally boarded up.

“Here we are,” he announced triumphant, finally clicking on his flashlight and directing its beam into the dark opening. “Who wants to go in first?”