In the swirling mist the figure of a man with a long beard holding a lantern was waving frantically at April and her friends. “Go back, go back, danger!” The words seemed to form in April’s mind.

  The man pointed up the slope behind him.

  Then April heard a terrifying sound. From high above the clearing behind the cabin site they heard the sound of rustling and cracking undergrowth as if a large a large animal was forcing its way through it, then came a faint but distinct growling sound, the sort of growl a savage animal would make.

  “What the hell is that?” Sarah shrieked.

  “We’re not waiting to find out,” Kaitlin gasped, “Everyone throw everything into your backpacks. We’re getting out of here…..now.”

  A mere three minutes later the four teenagers were walking, running, jumping down the slope as fast as they could. Every few minutes April glanced over her shoulder half expected to see some huge animal with fangs bearing down on them, but she saw nothing but trees and mist.

  April sat up with a gasp. She was in her sleeping bag. Was that a dream or a memory? It was both. Now she remembered exactly what had happened that night eight years ago here in this clearing. The ghost of Hans Bergen had warned them that some savage beast was about to attack them. But what savage beast would be living out here on the mountain? It couldn’t be the escaped tiger. It would have died over a hundred years ago, so what was it?

  She looked at her watch. Ten twenty four. Cody was asleep in his sleeping bag. She would wake him up soon, but for now she would stay wide awake and keep watch.

  At ten fifty she woke Cody and told him what she had remembered. He nodded. “I think I remember that now too. But that noise we heard, could it really have been some big animal growling at us?”

  “I don’t know,” April said, “Maybe it was the ghost of the tiger. But now let’s be ready for anything. It’s nearly eleven o’clock. Get your torch ready.”

  April kept an eye on her watch. As it clicked over to eleven o’clock she strained her eyes looking in the direction of the cabin site.

  “There,” Cody whispered, “I see something moving.” He picked up his torch.

  “No wait, don’t turn on your torch,” April said, “Wait and see what happens.”

  A minute later there were two flashes of blue light.

  “It’s coming from where we left that old lantern,” April whispered.

  Half a minute later came two more flashes.

  “Come on,” April said to a bewildered looking Cody, “Let’s go and meet Hans Bergen.”

  “What? This could be dangerous,” Cody protested, but he followed her in the direction of the light which now flashed a third time.

  A few seconds later April stopped a few metres from the man holding the lantern using his hand to make it flash for a fourth time. She shone her torch at him. A tall man with a long beard and sad eyes looked back at her.

  “Are you Hans Bergen?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  He nodded, then turned and walked towards the back of the clearing still carrying the glowing lamp. He stopped, turned around and signalled with his hand for April to follow him.

  “Come on,” she said to Cody who was standing behind her.

  “Okay,” he muttered, “but I don’t like this.”

  The man with the lantern started climbing up the steep hillside. He kept stopping and waving his lantern at April and Cody who did their best to find footholds on the rocks in the darkness. They went up about fifty metres, then followed the contour of the mountain to the left for some distance.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Finally the bearded man stopped and pointed to something in the dark.

  Without any fear April walked up to the man and looked in the direction he pointed. “It’s just some trees and undergrowth in front of these rocks,” she said to Cody who had just caught up.

  Cody pushed a couple of branches aside, “No wait,” he said, “There’s an opening here.” He shone his torch behind the branches. “There’s a cave here,” he announced.

  “He wants us to go in,” April said, looking back at the man who still pointed at the opening. “You go first, Cody.”

  “Oh I know I’m gonna regret this,” Cody mumbled, as he pushed more branches aside and clambered into the cave opening. April followed him.

  Once through the entrance it opened out into a cave with a low ceiling. April and Cody shone their torches around the cave.

  “Oh hell, are you seeing this?” Cody mumbled as his torch illuminated the floor of the cave.

  April looked at the bones scattered on the rocks. She could see five human skulls. “Cody, I think this might be the remains of the Bergen family,” she whispered.

  She shone her torch in circles around the cave and rested it on another skeleton. It was the bones of a large animal.

  “I think this might be the tiger,” she said in a shaky voice, “Cody, do you think it attacked and killed the Bergen family and dragged them in here? Then years later the tiger died in here of old age?”

  Cody stared at all the bones before finally answering, “It sure looks that way.”

  “Let’s go,” April said, “I don’t like it in here.”

  They made their way out of the cave. The ghost of Hans Bergen waved to them, then climbed into the cave, no doubt to be with his family.

  April and Cody climbed down to the clearing.

  “Now we know,” April said as they lay back down in their sleeping bags, “We know what happened. Tomorrow we can notify the rangers. They’ll reclaim the bones and probably send them to Mansfield to be examined, and then give the poor Bergens a proper burial. We’ve solved the mystery, Cody. The tiger attacked the family. Hans Bergen desperately sent his distress signal, but no one saw it. And then the tiger killed him too. It’s so sad.”

  “And when the three men came searching for the missing family the tiger must have chased them off the cliff.”

  “And then over a hundred years later the ghost of Hans Bergen was still sending the distress signal hoping someone would see it, climb the mountain, find the family’s remains in the cave, and bring closure to what was a terrible tragedy,” Cody added, “And April, that someone was you.”

  When she awoke in the morning April sat up in her sleeping bag and gazed in astonishment at the sight in front of her. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. There on the far side of the clearing was a roughly built log cabin with a man, a woman and three small children standing in front of it. They were smiling and waving.

  April shook Cody. “Wake up,” she said, “You have to see this.”

  “What is it?” Cody mumbled as he sat up in his sleeping bag.

  “Look, over here,” April said, pointing.

  But as Cody and April both looked across the clearing there was nothing there.