Time to kill or Killing time?
The Ebott Mountain is known by locals for being a tabooed place, But recent reports of strange distortions with time caught the attention of Coeus. This organization, knowing full well that the many secrets of this universe have yet to be uncovered, tries to understand the myriad of oddities that those would often relate to the occult. As the study and use of objects related to the occult can lead to potential disaster, Coues remains a small hidden organization working through private Universities, excavating and collecting artifacts to bring humanity to a better place.
In the quiet and cool mountain air, up a lonely road that overlooks the only nearby town at the base of the Mt. Ebott, rests an old home isolated and out of the way, it is of very little importance to anybody. Anybody except for the owner of a small hatchback car currently on the final bit of road approaching the aging house. The owner that took the two hour drive up the mountain to this lonely destination.
Parked in front of the property the single occupant of the car disembarked. This person was in his mid twenties, with short thick brown hair, long sleeved button up shirt and jeans. Going by the name of Will he pulls out a folder with paperwork related to the Ebott anomaly, directions to the house, and keys that were obtained from the relator.
After reviewing his paperwork, Will gave the aging house in the middle of the forest a quick lookover. The gravel paved road that lead up to the place was interrupted by a cobblestone pathway traveling a short distance to the main doors. The place itself wasn’t too special, a two storied multi roomed house that was originally constructed about a good 20 years back with running water and power. The view of the land below and around the mountain was breathtaking from the vantage point the house offered. However the property it went up for sale, at a surprisingly cheap price, about 5 years ago when the original owners experience a family tragedy.
Collecting his belongings from his car, Will embarked up the steps of the two storied house and unlocked the front door. Upon opening the aged wooden doors his sinuses were almost immediately bombarded with the dust that was disturbed from the house’s long slumber of isolation.
“Wow, looks like I have my work cut out for me.” He mutters, looking out at the dust covered furniture. He released another weary sigh, for although it was early in the afternoon, the long winding drive up the mountain sapped the majority of his energy and cleaning up the three bedroomed house seemed like a daunting task at the moment.
“Hmmm, I’m not going to need the other rooms right now so I guess it’s best to ignore them for now.” he told to no one in particular. Mustering up what strength he had, he quickly got to work freeing the furniture from its dusty improsiment using some of the cleaning supplies inside and testing to make sure the appliances and lights still work. Once he was satisfied that he had got the place up and running, confirming that nothing major was broken, adequate amounts of food that he purchased from the town was stocked inside, and his room was set up with his personal belongings in one of the bedrooms, he put the kettle on the stove to make some green tea as. Will hardly goes anywhere with some stock of tea on him. Not only that but it would ease his mind as he started his investigation.
He went back to his room, one of the guest rooms that was adorned with a simple desk, a modest sized bookshelf, and a twin sized bed. Sitting down at the desk he rubbed some exhaustion out of his eye and got to work. Glancing at the clock in the room, he took note that is was about 5:30 P.M. Pulling out a recorder out of his pocket, a pen and some paper from his bags, he decided to play back some recording he took in secret from the small village some ways down the mountain. Because the Ebott mountains were quite a far distance from society, not much information exists about it and about the strange occurrences that were the reason of his investigation. Getting information straight from the source won't hurt and might provide some leads as to the nature of the anomalies occurring on the mountain. A small general supply store owner was the first voice that popped up.
“Hey you, out-of-towner. What are doing here? Hardly anyone comes this far in our neck of the woods.” asked the owner, curiosity layered in his voice. He remembered as he was buying supplies for his trip up, the owner called him out as he was at the register.
“Hm? Oh well I’m trying to get away from everything, take some time off and escape city life before I head back to University.” replied Will, “Ebott is far off the beaten track, and it gives me some time to get my things together.”
“Where you staying at? It’s a small town here.”
“There’s this place up the mountain, out on its own, it seems out of the way enough for my liking.”
“W-what? Up there? You shouldn’t be going up there.” with more panic in his voice the shop owner continued. “That mountain is curse it is. We live in the shadow of strange things we do.”
“What do you mean by cursed?” Will asked putting a bit of skepticism in his voice, trying to pull whatever information out him. “Like spookie scary shenanigans?” he chuckled.
The shop owner’s voice gets a little lower, as Will remembers he leaned in close over the counter, and said with fear clear in his voice, “Listen here you, people who go up there alone tend to go missing, everybody here knows that! That place you’re staying at used to be Ned’s place, a good family man Ned was. Everything was fine until his kid disappeared one day. No body, no nothing was found of that kid. Poor man went mad with grief trying to find anything of him. After a while he couldn’t take it, he offed himself and the grieving widow sold the place. Not only that but stranger things have been happening to anyone who gets close to that damned mountain!”
The shopkeeper chuckles and loudly says, “Either people lose track of time or time looses track of them!” Calming down from his near hysterical rant he the sound of him composing himself could be heard. Shortly after he continued “Regardless I wouldn’t go up there if I were you. But who am I to stop you, simple town, simple folk. If you go looking for danger, then danger you’ll find.”
Will continue to play other recording that he made in secret of other people he met while gathering supplies in town, and continued to write notes to give him a better idea of what he was dealing with. Of course the secrecy was necessary to keep people from interfering with his work and to keep Coeus’s name in shadows. The less people know the less questions they will ask, the safer everyone will be. Best to keep people in the dark until you knew you could trust them, were the mottos Will tried to keep by.
After finishing the notes, Will reread them to himself. “Mt. Ebott has long been a tabooed pace, for generations. Very superstitious folk, with plenty of odd unusual myths and stories passed down the generations. One thing they have in common is that they fear the mountain. Might have something to do with people that have gone missing in the past, bodies never being recovered, most likely not animal attacks as alought these people may seem a bit strange, they are certainly tough.”
“People are visibly scared when anyone mentions the mountain, it upsets them. Because of that not many travel up it. Not much is known about it.”
“But time anomalies had only been noticed about a year ago, right around the time of the disappearance of the most recent person, some orphan child named Frisk.” While pondering the possible connection between the events, the kettle that was placed earlier began to whistle, signaling that it was tea time.
Desperately craving a good cup of green tea, Will put his notes down on the desk, and climbed out of his seat. As he began to make his way to the kitchen a sudden wave of nausea and disorientation overtook him. Nearly loosing his balance he had to steady himself against the wall of the hallway. As he was recovering he question internally if he was suffering from altitude sickness, as although he had in his youth been on camping trips up in mountains near his home town, this seemed a bit excessive to what he remembered. Once his bearings were recovered and he reacquainted himself with his balance, he made his way to the kitchen and poured himself the cup of tea he needed. However he was in total surprise when nothing but lukewarm water poured out.
“What the hell, cold? but. . .but I just? w-what?” Completely confused as to what happened, as he did hear the whistle of boiling water before in the other room, he put the kettle back on the stove, his face clearly expressing his confusion with the current situation. Perplexed, and beginning to question whether his mind was playing some sort of trick, he walk back to his room only to hear the first recording playing again, and saw that most of his notes missing.
“Either people lose track of time or time looses track of them!” Will heard the recording, eyes widening in realization of what he just experienced.
“Oh. . .oh . . . OH!” No his notes weren’t missing, he realized that the pages were blank. Like they hadn’t been written on at all. Like they hadn't existed at all. With a smile growing on his face, he quickly grabs the paper and immediately starts to record his experience and the time. Too caught up in the excitement to consider how irrelevant jotting anything down, as another shift could just as easily wipe it, he yells out.
“Oh this just got a lot more interesting!” he said.