Chapter 1 - The Laughing Pine
8.45 P.M.
“Update from the National Weather Service. A severe thunderstorm warning, including strong winds and heavy rain, is expected to hit North Carolina between ten and eleven tonight. We remind citizens to avoid traveling by car unless absolutely emergen—”
A large hand turns the knob, changing the frequency. It belongs to Robert DeLuca.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
The meteorologist’s voice is replaced by an old jazz song.
Robert hates meteorologists. He always says that if you want to know what the weather is like, you should look out the window. A real comedian.
With a damp cloth, he scrubs the bottom of a large beer mug, trying to remove a stain that probably isn’t even there. The mug bears the logo of Burial, a local brand that sells more beer than Robert could ever drink.
And Robert has plenty of flaws, but when it comes to drinking, he’s a professional.
He doesn’t wear his fifty years particularly well. He wears a plaid lumberjack shirt a few sizes too big. He doesn’t look like he changes it very often.
Behind him, the dark wooden counter is almost completely empty. So is the rest of the place.
There are six tables in the room, five of them empty. At the sixth sits a couple who have just finished eating.
“I think I overdid it, Beth.”
David Locklear decides to break the silence that has lasted for far too many minutes. He is slouched in his chair, his hands resting on his stomach. Across from him, Elizabeth Williams doesn’t seem to have suffered the same effects from dinner.
She repeatedly raises and lowers her phone, searching for a signal. She points it toward the window.
Nothing.
“Fuck...”
“The bear sends messages.”
Elizabeth pulls her eyes away from the screen. She turns around.
“Excuse me?”
Robert, wearing a little smirk and keeping his eyes lowered, sets down a glass. Then he points without even looking.
A stuffed bear, almost seven feet tall, stands motionless in the far corner of the room.
“It usually works over there.”
Elizabeth follows Robert’s finger, looks at the bear for a moment, then gets up with the expression of someone who would rather have stayed in the city.
She walks over to the bear and sits beside it. One bar appears on her phone.
Finally.
Rain begins to fall on the roof of the lodge.
As Robert approaches the table to clear the dishes, David straightens his back.
“So, worried about tonight?”
Elizabeth’s plate is still half full. Robert sighs and heads back toward the counter. To himself, he thinks: “How am I supposed to finish my meatball?”
“I’ve worked here for ten years... it takes more than a thunderstorm to worry me.”
One fifth of his life spent in a mountain lodge. For some, it would be a prison sentence. For him, it means freedom.
Behind the counter, Robert continues cleaning the glasses, humming along to the jazz melody playing on the radio.
Behind him, deer antlers and old photographs cover the walls of the lodge, telling the story of the place better than any sign ever could.
The name is written above the entrance.
THE LAUGHING PINE
A lodge built from massive wooden logs, lost among the mountains and trees of Gallows Mountain.
Robert knows the sound of the wind, the sound of the rain, the sound of trees bending during a storm.
And above all, he knows the difference between an ordinary thunderstorm and one that will make for a very bad night for anyone caught on that mountain.
This will be one of those nights.
David gets up and approaches the counter, almost timidly. He has realized that the fancy shirt he is wearing isn’t exactly welcome around here.
“Hey.”
Robert looks up.
David hesitates, almost seeming to regret speaking.
“Are the things they say... about this forest true?”
“You know, people say a lot of things about these woods.”
He picks up a glass.
“What’s your name?”
“David.”
Robert starts cleaning the glass.
“David, I’ve been here for ten years, and the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me was running out of cigarettes two days before the supply delivery.”
David starts laughing as Elizabeth returns to the table behind them.
“You’re lucky, David. You’ve got a beautiful girl, you’re a handsome guy. You’re here now. You know... the mountain isn’t just the result of millions of years of earthquakes and shifting earth. It isn’t just a huge rock rising hundreds of feet into the air. It’s freedom. Here, you can be whoever you want. Otherwise, you can go to the beach and be whatever everyone else wants you to be.”
David stares ahead, as if he has just been struck by some revelation.
But Robert immediately brings him back to reality, pointing toward the forest beyond the windows.
“Believe me. Don’t listen to the bullshit they say—”
SLAM.
The door flies open.
A man runs into the lodge, almost stumbling.
He looks about sixty. He is struggling to breathe, seemingly terrified and drunk at the same time.
His white T-shirt is dirty and torn. His ribs are visible through the fabric, he is so thin.
Robert slams the glass down on the counter.
“Ezekiel!”
“Robert!”
Ezekiel slams the door behind him.
“We have to shut everything down! Get some boards! We need to barricade ourselves in!”
He runs toward the counter.
Robert remains motionless. Annoyed. Almost as if he were used to situations like this.
“Ezekiel. Can’t you see I have clien—”
“He was following me!”
Ezekiel grabs his arm tightly.
“We have to lock ourselves in, believe me... we have to—”
Robert puts both hands on his shoulders.
He shakes him.
“Ezekiel. Stop.”
David gets up.
“Hey. What’s going on?”
Robert looks at him, then at Elizabeth.
“Nothing’s happening. Guys, relax.”
Elizabeth moves closer to David. He holds her.
Ezekiel is breathing faster and faster. He looks like he’s about to cry.
“You have to believe me, Robert...”
Robert lowers his eyes. He notices that Ezekiel isn’t wearing any shoes.
“He’ll find us.”
For a moment, nobody speaks. All that can be heard is the sound of the wind and the rain, slowly growing louder.
David and Elizabeth are frightened, silently watching the scene unfold.
“I need you to leave.”
Ezekiel doesn’t move. He shakes his head.
“I don’t want to use force.”
Nothing.
One second.
Two.
Then Ezekiel smiles faintly.
But it isn’t an amused smile.
It’s the smile of someone who has just realized something the others haven’t yet understood.
“You... will die.”
Robert remains motionless.
Ezekiel turns toward David and Elizabeth.
“YOU WILL DIE!”
Elizabeth jumps.
David pulls her close, trying to calm her down, and raises his voice.
“You fucking psycho, this isn’t funny!”
Elizabeth gives him a light slap on the chest, as if telling him not to be so aggressive. Too kind.
Robert closes his eyes for a moment.
“Okay.”
He takes a step toward him.
“That’s enough.”
He grabs him.
Ezekiel struggles.
“You’ll die! We’ll all die!”
Robert drags him to the door. Opens it. Pushes him outside.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Ezekiel remains there, standing in the rain.
For a moment, the two look at each other.
Then Robert closes the door.
The sound of the lock seems much louder than usual.
Robert stands still with one hand on the handle, staring into nothing for a few moments.
He inhales. Exhales.
“Who is that guy? What’s going on?”
Elizabeth’s voice comes from the table.
Robert turns around.
She and David are staring at him.
He starts walking slowly toward the counter, in complete silence.
As if nothing happened, he picks up his cloth and starts cleaning a glass again.
“Guys, I’m sorry.”
He looks calm. Too calm.
The two of them are incredulous. Elizabeth looks at him with an expression only an angry woman can have.
“He’s just a drunk.”
David slowly shakes his head.
“Well, he seemed pretty convincing.”
Robert smiles.
“We all become convincing after two bottles of whiskey around here.”
He continues cleaning.
“Really. He puts on these shows at least once a week. He’s a great actor.”
Elizabeth grabs her jacket from the coat rack and heads toward the exit.
“Fuck Cumber Heaven or whatever it’s called. Let’s go home.”
Robert corrects her as David stops her in front of the door.
“Cumberland Haven.”
She stops. Looks at Robert.
“What?”
“It’s called Cumberland Haven.”
“That’s what I said. And I wasn’t talking to you!”
David smiles and gently takes her arm.
“Sweetheart, it’s a two-hour drive and the storm is coming. You heard the radio.”
“I don’t care.”
Robert speaks again.
“David’s right.”
She turns and gives him a look that would make anyone else look away. But he insists.
“Elizabeth, right?”
She nods, annoyed.
“You shouldn’t leave now. Go to Cumberland, get some sleep, and come back home in the morning once the storm is over.”
Elizabeth looks at David, then at the window.
The rain has started pounding against the glass.
“Perfect. What a fucking weekend.”
Annoyed, she returns to her seat. David follows her in silence.
After a moment, Robert tries to bring some lightness back into the room by taking a camera from behind the counter.
He walks over to them.
“You know?”
“I’m terrible at acting, unlike that drunk.”
He raises the camera with one hand.
“But I take perfect pictures.”
He points toward the wall, where around a dozen framed photographs hang.
Almost all of them show smiling young couples. Some standing in front of the lodge, others sitting at the tables.
“Don’t ruin your weekend because of some crazy guy and the weather. Come on.”
David and Elizabeth look at each other, hesitating. Then David moves closer to her.
Whispering.
“Maybe the old man’s right.”
She hesitates again.
“We’re here. Let’s at least enjoy tonight. We’ll leave in the morning, I promise.”
One last hesitation turns into a smile.
Finally.
They turn toward Robert.
“Alright, guys. Give me a nice smile.”
CLICK.
The flash illuminates the room.
For a fraction of a second, everything turns white.
Robert lowers the camera. He looks at them with a smile.
“Welcome to Gallows Mountain.”
ONE HOUR LATER
Night has fallen quickly outside the lodge.
A small lamp above the porch illuminates the entrance. Everything around it is pitch black, occasionally lit by flashes of lightning.
The rain falls relentlessly, and the wind bends the trees and makes theTHE LAUGHING PINEsign sway.
The letter “i” is represented by the drawing of a small pine tree.
The lodge almost seems alive in the darkness.
While David and Elizabeth have gone to sleep at Cumberland Haven, a dormitory about half a mile from the Laughing Pine, Robert sits on the green couch in the back room.
He watchesJeopardy!
A cigarette burns slowly between his fingers.
The ashtray is balanced on his leg. It could fall at any moment.
“The famous director who directedPsycho.”
Robert points at the screen.
“Hitchcock!”
The contestant doesn’t answer.
Robert furrows his brow.
“Oh, Christ...”
He leans forward. Again.
“HITCHCOCK!”
“Time’s up!”
Robert puts out his cigarette.
“Stupid kids.”
He turns off the television.
A flash of lightning illuminates the room. Immediately afterward, a loud clap of thunder. So loud it almost makes the lodge shake.
And suddenly... the power goes out.
“Fantastic.”
Robert begins walking through the darkness, using the occasional flashes of lightning to see.
He pulls a flashlight out of an old drawer and makes his way through the lodge.
A few moments later, he steps outside.
He is wearing a thick yellow rain jacket.
The wind is so strong that it almost knocks him off balance.
Robert leans slightly forward as he walks toward the side of the lodge.
The electrical panel is there. He opens it.
A noise comes from the woods. Robert stops.
The bushes move. Then another noise.
Footsteps... Maybe.
He raises the flashlight and points it toward the bushes.
The beam cuts through the rain and illuminates the trees.
One.
Two.
Three.
Nothing.
Just forest.
Robert keeps staring for a few more seconds.
Then he turns back toward the electrical panel and, determined, flips the switch.
The lodge lights come back on.
After closing the panel, he turns toward the woods one more time.
Nothing.
So he goes back inside.
He takes off his jacket and hangs it near the door.
“I won’t make the same mistake.”
He takes a towel and places it underneath the jacket to catch the water.
Then...
TOCK.
Robert stops.
TOCK. TOCK.
Someone is knocking on the door.
He slowly turns toward it. Hoping he only imagined it.
For a few seconds, he doesn’t move. He’s big and strong, but even he isn’t immune to fear.
Finally, after a few moments, he decides to move. He takes one step forward.
Then another.
The noise stops.
Robert swallows.
He grabs the handle.
Turns it.
Opens the door.
Ezekiel is there.
Standing in the rain.
Robert’s eyes widen. Terrified, he holds his breath for a few seconds.
Ezekiel’s hands are both tightly wrapped around his throat, completely covered in blood.
Robert remains motionless.
Ezekiel looks at him. Then falls backward.
“Oh my God.”
Robert leaps through the doorway.
He kneels over him.
“Ezekiel!”
He grabs him by the shoulders.
“Ezekiel! Oh God!”
No response.
Then something comes from the woods.
A noise.
Footsteps.
Among the bushes. The same noises as before.
He slowly looks up.
Something seems to be moving among the bushes.
Robert begins to tremble. Showing, for the first time, an expression of genuine fear.
A thunderclap suddenly explodes above the mountain, making him jump.
Robert gets up and runs inside.
SLAM.
He closes the door. Turns the key.
Once. Twice. Three times.
He leans his back against the wall, slowly sliding toward the floor.
He covers his face with both hands.
He starts crying. Perhaps consumed by the guilt of not listening to Ezekiel.
“Fuck...”
He breathes rapidly.
“Fuck. No. No, no, no.”
He begins hitting his head with his hands.
Then he becomes still. Inhales.
He wipes away his tears.
He looks up, and his expression changes.
He looks toward the counter and suddenly gets to his feet.
He rummages behind it.
He starts pulling out junk and throwing it onto the floor. Then he stops.
Found it.
He pulls out a shotgun.
He turns off all the lights and positions himself in front of the door.
He raises the shotgun.
He keeps the barrel pointed directly at the entrance.
Robert waits.
Outside, the rain continues to fall.
A few moments of silence.
Then suddenly...
TOCK. TOCK. TOCK.
