From the Valley, My Son... They Come.

You never knew your grandfather, Thomas... He was a good man.

You've never mentioned him before, Dad...

I know, and for a good reason... But, you're old enough now to understand. He was a miner...

Everyone around here was... Even you.

Mhm. But he was around when it was a prosperous trade. None of this Thatcherite bollocks. Back when it was a man's trade! Real work! God's honest work! ...Not like today... No more real mining, none of the black stuff, or the ores...
He was the head of the boys, back then. Respected, well-liked, and a man of solutions. They all lived in the little estate near to the mines...

The abandoned one?

...Yes. Now it is. It used to be a happier place. Me and the rest of the kids of your gramp's generation used to play around it... Not like today's estates, where the kids keep the adults in their homes, and shank the people who go by...

Not everywhere is like that, Dad.

I know... But it's the image we see today. Just proves I need to stop thaking things as I see them...

What do you mean?

You'll find out... Anyway, we all used to play around there, and we all knew what went on with our dads... Well, one day, there was an accident. Tam... I mean, Mr. Harrison, as you know him-

My chemistry teacher?!

That's the one. Tam. His dad... He was caught in a cave in... They tried to pull him out, but the floor was weak below as well... It was a chain reaction, it went down for 3 floors... As they tried, when the rocks were falling, to stop him being injured... He was pulled apart, it was that violent a slide...

Jesus...

It was awful... They gave him a set of... Well, a fully false lower torso for the funeral. All the miners were buried up on the mountain - They boys dug the grave as well... All in the community.
Tam cried his eyes out for weeks... They were really close, his dad, that weekend was going to take him fishing... If he'd survived.

What does this have to do with grandad?

I... I'm getting to it.

Are you okay?

It's hard to recall... I haven't forgotten, but... It's a hard story.
Well, the safety men had to go in and see what needed to be done to make the mine safe again... It was a simple enough thing, all that was wrong was the gaping holes in the floor... It'd take a bit of time but, it was going to be alright all told...
The work began to unblock the tunnels... The mine was rich with coal. We couldn't afford to have it blocked off for long.
One night... There were noises. Long, deep, gutteral bellows... Like a huge beast, in pain... Or very, very angry.

Are you serious?

Deadly. No-one slept that night... And... When we woke up, Daisy was missing. She was Gary's sister.

Gary... Maxell?

Yes... She was a nice girl, loved walking in the woods, and looking at bugs... Well, as kids, that was boring, especially to boys... But she was nice...

How old were you all?

About 11... Daisy was 9.

What did you all do?

We couldn't do anything, us kids. Gary's dad, Marvin... He went on the rampage, started accusing people of taking her... He was like that, paranoid. He loved Daisy...

I guess I'd be like that...

But... Marvin LOVED Daisy.

...Oh.

Yes. We didn't find out until years later... Gary told me and Frank... He used to beat their mother as well. Paranoia.
After he was calmed down... We all searched. We kids searchd the places we thought she would be... Her normal places. The woodland paths, the pond, the playground... The safe places. She was a safe girl...

Did you-

No. No-one found her. The adults looked in the unsafe places... We found a scrap of nightdress at the main road... The main road was what linked up the estate and the town. A fairly long distance between. 30 minutes or so, at worst, by car. So, by foot, it would have taken hours to reach town. No-one would have gone by foot.

Then why was there a scrap by the side of the road?

Exactly. Everyone knew it wouldn't have made sense. If there was a car, it would have been at the bottom of the estate.
But she was a safe girl... She wouldn't have followed anyone she didn't know...

Then what happened?

Some nights later... Marvin said he heard her yelling outside, on the wind. She was yelling for Gary, and Ruby, their mother. I think it was harder for him to hear her NOT calling for him, rather than hearing her out there.
Anyway, we all heard her, us kids... Calling. She wanted to play...

What the hell?! Are you kidding?

...It kept happening... she was haunting us.
Revenant. That's what they called her. Like a ghost, but dangerous...
We didn't need to hear that our friend was like that. To us, she was just lost... Maybe she'd gone blind, and was lost. Scared...
They turned to my Dad. He'd help them out... He was as lost and scared as they were.
But he figured it out. The main road went past us as well... To the mine. That awful, fucking pit. We all made our way up there... It was a long way, and it lead to the Warren Gorge, a huge valley, all riddled with ventilation holes and other mine shafts. But the main shaft was like the mouth of a beast, scarred into the rock.

Dad...

We found more of her nightdress as we walked up the path to the track. We knew something had gone wrong...
We... We all heard the voices. More and more of them. We heard Lucy... And Tam's father. They were calling out to us... My father heard another man... He'd died in a blast when my dad was just starting out... Others heard men who'd just up and disappered... Nobody connected the dots... All died or vanished in the mine... There was a lot of blood in those rocks... Like a gullet. Fueling the fires...
With each man who'd died... It awoke something great and terrible... A beast, a demon who wanted more blood, more loss, more tragedy.

Are you-

We ran that night... But vowed to come back... One day, to kill it. To stop it forever.

...Did you?

No. We didn't go to it. It came to us.

What?

It was collossal. A huge, 4 legged beast. Hewn from rock and decaying flesh... It towered over the night skyline, under the moon. It was utterly titanic. It roared... the earth shook... We ran. It drew some of us in... Just from it's voice... the sounds of souls on the wind.

But...

We ran, son. We had no other choice.
Your grandfather never forgave himself for those who were lost to the beast... No-one dared to go back. We brought out the estates, just so no-one else would go into them, or develop them... No more loss. No more beast. It'd sleep forever...
He never forgave himself... One night... Dad vanished as well... But there was nothing on the wind...
We found a note later... He was going to seal the mine. Even if it was his last act on earth...
For all we knew... It was. There's nothing in that grave in the town, just the headstone...

So... What? Did he succeed?

We never went back to look.
But...

What?

I hear him sometimes... On the wind... He's trapped in there... The beast hasn't got him... I know it... He was too strong.

Dad... From what you've said...

He can't be dead... Well, I know he's... But not like that. He can't be...

He was a brave man, Dad.

Son... David... Never let anyone near that god-forsaken mine... It's too much for even God to handle...

I won't.

It comes out of the Valley... It'll come one day... I know it... I hear it on the wind... I hear them all crying... Crying...