Curse of the Silver Head Mine Part 3 : nosleep (reddit.com)
Three months later. As in the previous part I’m not going to bore you with all the little details of getting the mine ready for tours. I was able to take out a small business loan. Light bulbs, flashlights, and hard hats were bought and there were a lot of them. Portable toilets were brought in. The head of public works got a new Rolex and the mine was hooked up to the power grid. The cook shanty had a TV installed for playing a short safety video, trees were cut for firewood and the parking lot was created. There were only two issues before opening day.
The first one was when the group of college kids whom I gave jobs to showed up. Jessica pulled me aside and told me that Dakota, Josh’s girlfriend, was found dead after they returned home. It turns out she was boiled alive in the game show “Fear itself.” I did not ask for details.
The second problem was when I went down to the bank to get coins for the cash register. The bank teller informed me they had no coins left. The armored truck that was sent to make the delivery got a flat somewhere in the national park and they did not receive their shipment of coins for the week. Other than that it went great.
The first two weeks were slow, maybe a handful of people showed up to take tours. Samantha had the bright idea of promoting the mine tours on her social media. Let me tell you, her fan base is cazy stupid for her. People would show up well before we opened just to meet her. I had to take her off tickets sales as people would walk up and try to take a picture with her and leave. Samantha, along with Burns and Jessica, gave tours while Josh sold tickets and his amazing sandwiches from a kiosk booth out front. Each tour was about an hour and a half long and a tour would start about every thirty to forty-five minutes. We started thirty minutes after sun up and stopped an hour before sundown. Some people bought three tickets just so they would have the opportunity to have a tour with Samantha. After discussing it with the group, we decided to have a meet and greet every three weeks. The price was one hundred dollars a ticket and included dinner. We could fit about ninety people inside the cook shanty. Every meet and greet sold out. Though it was a lot of work, Josh never stopped smiling when he would cook that many meals. Burns told me it was the first time he had smiled in months.
After talking to some locals, I discovered the summer tourist season lasted about three months. It picked back up about a month later in the fall when the leaves change. Then it was dead all winter and it picked back up in spring. We were two months into the summer tourist season when the incident happened. I converted the two story log cabin into my office. I was sitting behind the desk going over expensive reports when there was a knock on the door.
Burns popped his head in and said, “Hey Mark, I got a guy here who wants to talk to you about something. He says it’s important.”
“Well sure, come on in,” I said as a man in a polo shirt and cargo pants walked in. I was surprised by his very proper British accent.
“Hello good sir. My name is Theodore Adams the third. I represent the society of explorers and adventurers and I have a proposition for you. I’d like to launch an expedition to explore the cave system inside the place you call the bathhouse.”
I gave him a questioning look and said, “Well Theodore, there is no cave system in the bathhouse. It’s just an underground lake with a small waterfall.” Theodore responded with,
“Well old chap, that’s where you’re wrong. The water has to drain somewhere and I believe there is a system of underwater caves and tunnels that could lead to some big discoveries.”
Therodore slid a piece of paper to me with the number 1,000 written on it. “What the heck is this?” I asked.
Therodore chuckled and said, “The amount per day I’ll pay you for an expedition.”
“Hey man, I should probably tell you that the mine cursed a man by the name of George.” But Therodore waved his hand in my face and said,
“Yes, yes, I’m well aware of the curse, that’s why I want to send a team down to explore. I want to catch a Wiowalk and study it. Have you seen one?”
I stammered, “Well…ummm yeah, technically yes, but I was kinda sorta intoxicated,” I said. Therodore’s face lit up with hope and was dashed just as fast. Therodore wrote another zero on the paper and slid it back. I looked at it and then slid it back to him. I said, “We can do it for that price but you and your group can’t spend the night down there. I lock the doors before sundown with no exceptions.” I steepled my hands together.
“How about this?” Therodore proposed. He took the paper, wrote something on it and slid it back to me. “That price is per day for a minimum of three days but we get the whole mine and you can lock us in if you want.”
I looked down and my jaw hit the floor. One million dollars a day for a total of three million. “You got a deal,” we stood up and shook hands. “This calls for a drink!” I reached for the bottle of Jim Beam that I keep on my desk. Therodore looks at me with one eyebrow raised as I begin pouring two glasses.
“A tad bit early don’t you think?” Therodore asked.
“Nonsense! This will be glass number two for me,” I said and looked over to see it was only 9:30 in the morning. We toasted and clinked our glasses.
My cell phone buzzed. Cell service was still spotty so I couldn’t get phone calls, but every now and then a text would come in if I was lucky. It was my bank app saying three million dollars were deposited into my account. I cheered silently in my head and slammed my glass so I could fill it again. We spent the next hour or so hammering out the details. To avoid alarming the guests, we decided he would bring his men in under the pretense that they were setting up to film a movie in the mine. They installed a heavy security door around the entrance to the bathhouse and I hung a ‘closed for the week’ sign and gave everyone that time off. Samantha wanted to be in the movie but I explained it was a documentary. It took them a day to bring all their equipment and gear into the mine. There were divers, scientists, and support staff, about two dozen in all. The first night they spent outside the mine. The second day, spirits were high as everyone was excited to begin the expedition. Theodore, my employee, and I stayed back on the surface. As they lowered into the mine, I did not know it would be the last time I would see them all.
When the sunlight of day three broke over the horizon, Theodore and I went down into the cave. When the elevator reached the bottom, the sight before us chilled me to the bone. In the room by the elevator were the discarded remains of a lab coat, laptop, clothing, and some scientific equipment. No body, no blood, it looked like one of the scientists thought it would be fun to strip naked and throw things around. We walked down the main tunnel and saw more of the same thing. Clothing was laying around, some ripped apart and others not. Personal items such as cellphones, and wallets were still in pockets. We walked to the entrance of the bathhouse tunnel, brass casings littered the ground. I bent down to pick one up. The back read 5.56x45.
“You brought guns down here?” I clambered.
“Well yes. If the stories are true, my men needed to protect themselves.” Theodore stated quite boldly.
“A lot of good it did them,” I said. The heavy gauge security door was open. The inside of the door had dents and looked like someone went to town on it with a hammer. We walked down the tunnel and entered the bathhouse. To my horror there was equipment all scratched up and broken and there were empty rifles laying around. What looked like a jail cell on wheels had the bars bent and ripped apart as if an unholy abomination broke out of it. The small generator used to power some of the equipment was torn asunder and smashed to hell and back. It was as if all the power and hate was directed at the generator. Computers were destroyed, wires and glass from scientific equipment laid everywhere. There were no survivors. No bodies found, just clothing scattered everywhere.
“Well, well, this is fascinating. I knew the stories say the Wiowalks suck the soul out of the body, but it looks like clothing doesn’t seem to affect it,” Theodore said. He picked up a still dripping wet suit with a scuba air tank and breathing mask still attached. “Just astounding this went about as good as I could have hoped. I was hoping for at least one person to survive but that’s progress for you.” Theodore said. I was taken back by his casualness of loss of life.
“What are we going to do about this?” I inquired.
“Well it’s just like some of the expeditions to the arctic that have never returned. I’m going to sweep this under the rug,” Theodore answered.
“How can you do that?” I said, while gesturing around to everything in the room. “Quite easy when you have money. Just pay off their families and deny that this ever happened. I suggest locking the door to the bathhouse and not letting anyone in here. If word gets out this will end you. All that money you got from me- poof, gone. I recommend you get busy cleaning this up if you want to start doing tours tomorrow,” Theodore said as he turned to walk away. I unscrewed the top of my flask, took a generous pull, and started to get to work.
Cleaning up was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I picked everything up, tossed it into the main area of the bathhouse and closed the door. Not to mention the looming fact that I could potentially lose my three million dollars. The job still took all day. Every time I thought I was done, I’d find something else to clean up. A wrist watch there, a few bullet casings here.
Sundown was less than an hour away. I was making my way back to the elevator when I heard a fast banging and the sound of air escaping. I came across an old pneumatic mining drill, one of several old mining equipment displays set up along the tour route. There was a man dressed up like a miner from the 1800s. The drill and hissing came to an instant, almost creepy stop. The man turned and looked at me but his face was just a massive black blob. He turned and said, “I reckon greed is what got those men killed.” He turned and walked into the solid tunnel wall next to him.
I took off running. “Nope, nope, nope,” I said. ”Native American demon creature is one thing. Ghost. Nope. Not happening.” I got to the elevator out of breath and started heading up. “But then again,” I said between pulls from my flask, “I could totally market this as haunted and get more people to come here.”
The mine tours resume. I made up some story about how the bathhouse was no longer safe and that’s why it has a door on it and how it’s off limits to guests and employees. Summer was nearly over and Samantha approached me and said, “Since we are closed on Mondays, I was wondering if the gang and I could take a group of YouTubers down in the mine for a tour.”
I was reluctant but after she told me how much propaganda the mine will get and all the tourists it will draw in I was more willing. That evening the three newcomers arrived, we talked and had a few drinks, and I said I was going to sleep in so I handed the keys to the mine to Samantha. I took a pull from my flask and turned in for bed. I awoke to the sound of a scream. I ran outside to see the mine shaft door open. I made my way into the elevator room to see two of the three new people. One was trying to comfort his friend and on the phone with 911. The other guy clutched a camera and was laying on the ground rocking back and forth.
“What happened?” I demanded. Neither of them would tell me anything.
All matters of emergency vehicles were there. The sheriff and another man wearing a park ranger uniform approached me. The sheriff introduced the park ranger as Cory. He explained that because the mine is under the national park and is where the incident happened, that the park rangers would be taking over the investigation. I shook Cory’s hand and walked him towards the cook shanty.
“The two people are in here,” I said.
“No one else has been in the mine since you found them?” Cory asked.
“No, no, they have not.” I replied. As we got to the cook shanty, Cory opened the door and I noticed his left hand was missing his ring finger. The one guy was still in shock and the other was attempting to hook up the camera to the big TV in the cook shanty.
The one guy looked at both of us and said, “I think I got it.” The recording started to play.
The recording
“Ok, we are recording now,” the camera man said.
“Ugh, why are you recording now?” asked Samantha.
“Just getting some B-roll for Ray,” said the camera man.
“Ok, whatever,” Samantha said as she turned to talk to someone off screen. “You know what your job is right?” The person off screen said,
“Yep, as soon as you guys are down in the mine, wait five minutes and then raise the elevator back up. Then I lock the doors til morning so we don’t get in trouble. But won’t Mark hear the elevator running?”
“No, he’s been drinking more and more every day. He will have passed out by now.” Jessica said. The camera pans to a man wearing a gray hoodie that says ‘Ray’s World’ on it.
“Hey everyone! What’s going on and welcome to Ray’s World! Today I’m with my good friend Samantha,” Ray exclaimed as Samantha jumped into the frame of the shot.
“Hey sandwich nation! It’s your girl Samantha! I’m here with Ray and the crew for a 24 hour overnight challenge in the Silver Head Mine, which is allegedly the world’s most haunted mine.”
The next shot was of them all riding down in the elevator as Samantha explained the history of the mine and about the curse. They all walked off the elevator and waited for it to go up and Ray commented,
“There goes our ride for the night. Come on everyone, let’s go explore! AND CUT. Ok man, let’s get some shots of how creepy this place is and we will resume in 10.”
Samantha led the group down the tunnel and split to the right. Every now and then the group would stop to do a dumb sketch or something. At one point, Burns asked,
“What’s that,” as a soft hissing sound could be heard coming from one of the smaller tunnels. The camera turned down the dark tunnel where the hissing was coming from and a set of glowing teeth could be seen in the darkness. The teeth lunged towards the camera from out of the darkness and the camera man screamed.
Jessica started to laugh as she took out her glow in the dark vampire teeth and helped him off the tunnel floor. Ray turned to the camera and said,
“Remember to subscribe to Ray’s World for more hilarious content like that.” The camera cuts out.
The camera comes back on as the group stands in front of the door to the bathhouse. Samantha starts to push the door open and says, “I hope everyone brought their bathing suits, it’s about to get wild!”
“Hell yeah dawg! We about to swim in a lake underground,” Ray replied excitedly. As the group walks, the camera man hears a hissing and turns around to Jessica and Josh who are talking.
The camera man says, “Knock it off with the hissing. You got me once, you’re not going to get me again.” For just a split second a dark shadow darts across the tunnel which no one seems to notice.Confused, Jessica says,
“What are you talking about? You’re going cuckoo.” The group reaches the bathhouse room. Ray turns and explains his plan,
“Ok, let’s get some shots of the cave here. Then I’m thinking I’ll do a cannonball off the ledge and into the water for a shot. Sound good everyone? Hello? Are you guys listening?” The camera pans back to the group staring down at all the broken and smashed equipment at the bottom. Everyone starts to make their way down to the water below. “What is all this crap?” Ray asks.
“I don’t know. It was not here last time we were here. We were told they were filming a documentary. Maybe they just left the broken stuff behind.” Burns said.
“These are computers and test tubes and what looks like a centrifuge for blood. Where are the cameras if they just left everything?” Jessica wonders out loud.
“Awww cool! Look, I’m Rambo! Pew, pew pew,”Ray gave the sound effects as he swung around what appeared to be an Ar-15 around the barrel pointing at everyone. Burns came out of nowhere and grabbed the rifle out of Rays hands and yelled,
“How about we stop fucking flagging everyone with the rifle!”
“Like chill dude, it’s not even loaded. Plus it’s a movie prop, remember?” In one smooth motion Burns racked the charging handle, popped out the rear takedown pin and pulled the bolt out and inspected the barrel. He reached over in a box and found a rifle mag and examined it, his eyes going wide.
“This is M855 ball ammo. This is live ammo, not blanks.” Burns said as he put the rifle back together and slung it over his shoulder. He slipped two mags into his back pocket. “Hey guys, I’m getting a bad feeling about this place,” Burns admitted, Maybe we should call it and just head back.”
“We can’t until sun up, that’s the point of an overnight challenge,” Samantha reminded him. She stripped down to her bikini and went into the water for a swim. The recording stopped and then started again with Ray standing about ten feet up above the water shouting.
“CANNON BALL!” as he jumped into the water, making a splash. His head popped out of the water seconds later and Ray said,
“Hey, let’s get another take on that. I’m going to go even higher up. Ray got out and as the camera panned around the cave following him, there was a quick shot of Burns slipping a baseball shaped item into his pocket, and Josh looking at something that resembled a large combat knife. The slapping of wet feet on stone echoed as Ray ran up even higher to jump from the ledge. “Are you recording?” Ray asked as the camera bobbed in an up and down yes motion. “RAY’S WORLD CANNON BALL!” was shouted as Ray jumped into the underground lake with an even bigger splash.
Jessica shouted off camera, “You ass, you got my hair wet and I’m not even swimming!” The ripples in the water calmed, but no Ray appeared from under the water. Several seconds went by with absolute silence. Ray suddenly popped up
in a panic, “What the hell! There’s something down-” but before he could finish the sentence a big, pale white hand rose from the water as Ray was flailing around. The hand wrapped around Ray’s face and with a quick plop, Ray was pulled under. Everything erupted into chaos in that instant. Samantha let out a shriek of terror and started swimming back to shore. The running footsteps of Jessica came to the edge of the lake ready to pull Samantha out. There was a click of a magazine being inserted and the camera panned behind in time to see Burns charge and aim the rifle into the water. The camera panned back to Samantha who was almost back to the safety of the underwater lakes rock shore. Suddenly, she let out a high pitch, “Its grabbing my..” she was pulled under and Jessica screamed.
Josh ran into frame, holding a large knife and dove into the water. A few seconds later, Josh and Samantha appeared. Samantha, with a renewed look of panic, continued to swim to Jessica, while Josh was clutching the knife with both hands, stabbing down at something in the water. Josh went under the water. Bubbles and foam churned where he was once floating. The foam became an inky black. Josh broke the surface of the water with a gasp. Jessica was pulling Samantha out of the lake and Josh was not far behind. The two swimmers were panting and out of breath. Samantha was in tears with her mascara running down her cheeks. She hugged Josh as he stood there, black blood dripping from the knife. Off camera Burns screamed,
“Guys watch out!” First there was one, then two, then six, then twenty, then too many to count. The white, pale, eyeless faces rose above the water line. Several loud bangs and small geysers erupted from the water as Burns started to shoot. The group took a few steps towards Burns who was on one of the stone steps above, shooting down at the creatures. Josh got only a few feet away when one of the creatures pulled themselves out of the water with their long, skinny, pale arms and grabbed Josh by the legs, pulling him back into the lake. With each passing second, more and more of the Wiowalks rose from the water. Burns’ shooting was dead on, hitting the creatures’ center mass with little pockets of black spray exploding out from where his bullets were passing right through. Everyone except Burns was on the top step heading towards the tunnel exit that would take them back to the main mine tunnel. The camera turned back to see Burns reloading as the Wiowalks made their way up the steps almost tauntingly slow. Burns put six well aimed rapid single shots into the lead Wiowalk’s head and it collapsed to the ground. It was pushed aside by the remaining army of creatures. Burns kept firing at the Wiowalks. One after another, they fell under Burns’ onslaught of bullets. Then the bolt locked back on the rifle. Burns realized he was out of bullets as the group of monsters increased. More and more of them were coming out of the lake every minute.
Burns turned and shouted, “Get out of here!” as he pulled out a hand grenade. He gripped it, pulled the grenade away from the pin and tossed it into the water below. Burns produced a second grenade, pulled the pin, popped the spool, and chucked it at the nearest group of Wiowalks. The sound of both grenades going off could be heard as the three remaining people Jessica, Samantha, and the cameraman made it to the entrance of the bathhouse and closed the security door. The three ran for some time and stopped. Out of breath Jessica said,
“ I think, I think we are good.” The cameraman set the camera on a rock and walked into frame. His legs were the only thing is frame.
“What the hell are those things?! Oh Jesus, Ray’s dead!” Still trying to get her breath back Jessica said,
“Wiowalks. Native American folklore. It’s been said that they suck out the soul of any living thing.” The tunnel went quiet as the group tried to figure out the next move until the sound of chattering teeth could be heard. The camera man picked up the camera and pointed at Samantha who was still dripping water and in her bikini.
“Thisisisis sssuucckkkssss iiittt onnly geettts abbblut 50 degreeesss innn heerrree” Samantha stammered as her whole body shook. From an unseen hole in the roof of the tunnel, a pale large hand reached down and grabbed Samantha by the hair. The camera man tried to say something but his words of warning never made it out of his mouth. Samantha was propelled upwards into the mouth of darkness. Jessica screamed and the camera pointed upwards as Samantha fell from the ceiling and landed on the camera man. Her scalp pulled from her head and blood ran down her face as she cried in pain. Just then, the Wiowalk came out from the hole and picked Samantha up. It opened its mouth and the color started to drain from Samantha’s face. All this took place as the Wiowalk was standing over the camera man. Samantha went from a dark tan to ghostly white, to a dried up husk, and then finally to dust. All that was left was the bikini she was wearing, which fell over the lense. Silence filled the room. Only the hissing from the Wiowalk’s tail could be heard. The cameraman was holding his breath as the Wiowalk crawled up the cave wall and back into the hole. Jessica quietly walked over to help the camera man up and whispered,
“I think they hunt off sound. Let’s try to make our way to the elevator and just wait until morning.” The two slowly made their way to the elevator. Right before reaching the elevator room, they both slipped into a small crack in the tunnel wall. This caused a rock to fall and hit the cameraman. He cried out in pain. Almost instantly, a Wiowalk appeared and tried to reach them.The camera cut to a Wiowalk waiting in the tunnel right in front of the crack.
“There’s no way out of here. The sun is already up. This thing should be gone by now,” Jessica whispered to the cameraman. He whispered back,
“Maybe when they lock onto prey, they don’t leave.”
Jessica replied with, “Yeah, maybe. If that’s the case, we are stuck down here until he eats something.”
Just then, the rumbling of the elevator coming down the shaft could be heard, echoing off every surface. The Wiowalk again attacked the crack where the two were hiding. The cameraman whispered,
“I’m sorry,” and kicked Jessica with all his might, forcing her close enough to be grabbed. She let out a hellish scream, as her body shriveled away. Her jet black hair turned ghostly white and she dissolved to dust while her clothing fell to the ground. The Wiowalk let out a loud hiss and walked away. The camera cut to the camera man running to the elevator. Just as he was closing the doors, a large white face slammed against the elevator and caused the camera to drop to the floor as the elevator began to rise.
I turned the TV off and looked at the two remaining people.
Cory said, “Hey Mark, a word in private? You two don’t go anywhere.”
We walked back into the kitchens for privacy. I reached up to a shelf, found a bottle of cooking wine and began to drink greedily from the bottle. The low grade alcohol content did nothing to stop my hands from shaking. “Now Mark, we have two options here. First option is you can go public with this story, but if you do one no one will believe you. You will then be forced to close the mine, and the national park will seize your property because your tunnel is under the park, as I told you. Option two is we sweep this thing under the rug and we can claim the group of people went missing on a day hike. It happens all the time. We can say that your mine was closed for the day since you are closed every Monday. As for the social media accounts, I have a guy for that. So what’s it going to be?” Cory asked with a sly grin.
“Can it really be that easy?” I replied.
“Oh but of course. We kinda do it all the time,” Cory said.
“Uuuummmmm, well I guess I want to stay open,” I said.
“Good, good. You know these north woods have secrets and they need to stay secret. I knew I could count on you. Don’t worry l can give the two guys a ride back to the station to fill out the report.” Cory said.
“Hey, can I still tell people about the curse to draw people to come to the mine?” I asked.
“Oh, sure, just no pictures or recordings of those things. It shouldn’t be a problem. They only come out at night right?” Cory said.
“Right, only day tours and no pictures. Got it.” I said.
“Ok, you two trespassing is a serious crime. I need to take the camera and the recording as evidence. Now I’ll give you both a ride into town.”
The cameraman got up and followed Cory out to his park ranger truck. The other team member looked like he wanted to say something, but did as he was told. Both got into the ranger’s truck. I noticed the faded red splotch on the window of the driver’s side, and a small patch of duct tape on the roof Cory looked at me and said,
“Yeah I spilt a red slushy a few months ago and it somehow stained the windows. You know how those things are loaded with sugar and other chemicals. Oh, and Mark, I recommend closing down for a while for renovations.” Cory air quoted ‘renovation.’ “It will make all this look less suspicious when you’re doing the clean up.” Cory got into his truck and drove the two guys away. I pulled out a flask, downed a huge pull and smacked my lips in satisfaction. “Alright,” I said to myself, “Time to make some money. I really don’t care how many people it takes.”
One month later
Well, it took until the end of September but I got it all done. Now that it’s just me I need to wow the tourists. I upgraded the elevator with a few scary surprises and put TVs in along the way talking about the mine and its history. All I have to do is give tours and hit the play buttons on DVDs after posting about what happened in the mine, leaving out of course, the part about what actually happened to everyone. I’ve been getting bombarded with emails. It turns out everyone wants a tour in the cursed Silver Head Mine. I have ghost hunters, cryptozoology, psychics, paranormal investigators, you name it. They all want to come. I’m booked up for the next four months.
Not everything has been good though. I have received some threats saying, “We know what you did.” All of them have been from Samantha’s die hard fans. I actually looked her up a few days ago and any evidence that she had any social media accounts was gone. Sometimes I see them walking in the mine or at the ticket booth. This has only occurred at night and only after I have had a few drinks. In order to get rid of the evidence, I pushed almost all of it into the bathhouse lake itself and let it sink to the bottom. The blast from the hand grenade destroyed all the lights but one. I decided not to replace it. Being so busy, I actually had to hire an armored truck company to pick up my money. The first pickup is today actually. I’m going to mix a stiff drink and wait for them.
End of Story?
Authors note Speciale thanks to me lovely Wife without her editing skills none of this would be possible.