Ole Top Bar Kings Point,West Virginia

4:30 PM

The sun was finally about to sink into the hills that lay beyond Kings Point and the small but vigilant police force were all over the town square waving to lumberjacks and miners coming back from work. They might have been friendly on the outside but in the inside they were scared hoping that no hiker would be foolish enough to go back into the mountain...but they were wrong.

Inside of the lively bar was a large table with just a single person waiting,his name was Ledger, and he was hoping that he wasn't the only one to take on the challenge of finding who was responsible for these murders. All around him lumberjacks were laughing and having a good time not noticing the sore thumb sitting by himself with just a half-empty beer beside him. He gulped at the notion of going on that mountain by himself and promised that by nine if no one showed up he would stay at the local hotel and by the next day would make his way back to Wheeling but then he heard the door chime ring.....

Britany pulled her farm truck into the bar's parking lot. She didn't know King's Point well, but as with all small towns, finding the bar is often the easiest thing. She watched the many lumberjacks come and go, reminding her of when she used to watch her dad go to work with the other miners. She missed those days, where life was easy and carefree. Back then, she had dreams, goals. Now, it was just another day, and another paycheck to get her by, and keep her dad alive for just a bit longer.

Stepping down from the truck, she already knew eyes would be on her. But Britany was used to it, colored hair often had that reaction, especially in these areas where everyone knew everyone else. Smiling at a cute lumberjack, sweaty and grimy from his work, who also smiled back, she hiked up on her tiptoes to reach into the bed of her truck. From there, she lugged out her hiking pack, and sling it over her shoulders. Turning back toward the lumberjack, she saw the color drain from his face, and he quickly skittered away. She huffed. Looking around at the rest of the town, they were all staring at her in horror. Clearly they were all on edge, and thought her a lunatic for what she was about to do.

Shrugging, assuming she'd find no romantic prospects here without the million dollar reward, she started toward the bar. Pushing through the open door, and looked inside. For the most part, it was almost the same scene as back home. There was a heavy air of cigarette smoke despite the laws that said no smoking indoors. The bar had a large amount of husbands that were putting off going home to their wives and a couple of the local skanks sniffing about for an easy lay. There was even a few clearly too young minors in the back corner, probably only allowed because they had money, and wouldn't cause trouble.

There was, however, an outlier. He looked incredibly uncomfortable, and certainly didn't fit the crowd. That meant he wasn't from here, which meant he was here for the same reason as her. Smiling lightly as her eyes pass over his, she moved to his table and sat down, meekly saying "Hi."

The waitress, an older lady, who'd likely been working here since she was in middle school, came over. "What can I get ya hun?"

"Just a Coke please."

Drink now in hand, Britany couldn't bring herself to strike up a conversation, wondering if anyone else would show up.

Jacob had just left the hotel he had checked into and was walking down the street towards the local bar. He brought along his heavy hiking pack knowing that he might have to spend the night in the woods at a moments notice. He noticed the many groups of Lumberjacks that just stared in horror at another hiker that might also die like the rest and paid little attention to them, keeping his head down. His pace quickened, wanting to get out of the chill air.

The bar coming into sight, Jacob opened the bar door, hearing the chime ringing above his head, his eyes scanned the room and quickly noticed the girl the multi-colored hair, he knew right away that she wasn't from here and the other guy sitting at the table seemed shifty. He swiftly approached the table and took a seat and nodded to the two already at the table. A middle aged woman came over and took the new customers order, "What will it be?" The waitress said with tone as cold as cement. "I'll have a bottle of beer, ma'am." The woman
Nodded and went behind the bar to get his order. "I assume that we're early then?" He said with a sliver of a smile on his face.

As soon as Bobby pulled up to the bar, she reached for her cigarettes. She needed to calm herself. When she heard about the call for help, to discover what was up in the mountains that was taking lives at random, she was more than interested. Bobby had always been an explorer - the money was just a plus. The thing was that, whenever she did her exploring, it was always alone. She knew there would be others who replied to the posters. She wondered what they were like and what it would be like going into mountains with other people. These thought occupied her mind as she lit up a cigarette and slowly made her way into the bar.

The scene was just as she'd expected. Men shooting pool, lonely women at the bar, looking over their shoulders for a suiter, middle aged men with balding heads sitting by their lonesome, drowning their sorrows in drink. And then Bobby saw a table where three college aged youth sat. All appearing to be in awkward silence. She assumed these were the people who had replied to the posters.

"Hi," Bobby said meekly, coming around the table and hesitantly taking a seat. "I assume all of you are here because of that poster they put up."

Kyle felt very out of place in his shiny blue Prius as he pulled into the parking lot full of loud, mud covered trucks. He could feel the stares of the lumberjacks as he exited the car wearing a madras shirt and cargo pants.

He grabbed his backpack from the passenger seat, and put it on one shoulder. As he walked past a couple of rough looking lumberjacks smoking, he was almost expecting one of them to spit at his tennis shoes, and say something along the lines of "What are you doing here, city boy?"

Thankfully, nobody did that. However, Kyle was still a little concerned about his car. He just brushed it off, and went into the bar.

As he walked in, he spotted the table of people that he presumed were others that responded to the flyer. He walked up.

"Excuse me, are you guys the people that responded to the flyer?"

Just as Ledger was about to get out of the dim bar it seemed that fate would have none of it as college-aged students started pouring in almost simultaneously. The first to enter obviously knew who was on this offer for adventure and money and quitly sat next to him. The young women said a quick "Hi" to him but Ledger was silent as the next sore thumb came into the bar.

A man sat on his left side and spoke asking if he was early. "Nope." Ledger said to him grinning as two others came in and found themselves at the "round table". "Well this is almost comical!" Ledger said laughing," I was about to leave when everyone decided to pour in. Is there anymore then?" He said looking around the group and then back at the door to see if another would come in.

Bobby looked around at the four others who had congrigated to the table. She too had her eyes on the door. Was this it? Out of the thousands of students who attended the college, only five -including herself- had answered to the call for help? The group waited for a while, but none others joined them. Now it was Bobby's turn to look back at the students. They all had some sort of hesitance written on their faces. This whole thing was a mystery. But it seemed the five were on their own from here on out.

"I don't think anyone else is coming," she said, tapping her fingers on the wooden table.

Jacob leaned back on the chair and crossed his arms. "I guess so.." He awnsered to the woman's question sitting across from him. He was feeling more doubtful that he would actually survive this night. No one knew what was up there. Whatever it was, it killed just about 10 people in the past week. What were a group of 5 college students going to do when they found out what was up there? Jacob honestly didn't have a clue what he would do. He had no idea what he might encounter. A eternal phantom? A snarling beast with the strength of 10 men? Either way, Jacob was scared shitless to find out.