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Horton Mine Genuine Mercury

Summary:

Jack and Crutchie go to an abandoned and haunted mine on their honeymoon. Jack goes in alone.

Notes:

I'm going to do way more chapters. One just isn't enough for this fic in my opinion.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Jack and Crutchie stood outside the mouth of the Horton Mine. “You know Jack when you said you wanted to honeymoon out west I’d thought you’d be content with going to Santa Fe. I didn’t realize you’d make me drive 950 miles further to visit an abandoned mineshaft.”

 

“You’re just scared,” he teased back. “Come on babe, this is so cool!”

 

“No it’s not.” Crutchie meant it. It wasn’t just reading the “DANGER: UNSAFE MINE” sign that put him off from going further. It wasn’t just the pooled water or inaccessibility to him because of his disability. Crutchie could feel the negative energy coming from the mine; never in a million years would he be willing to enter.

 

Jack swung his leg over the short fence blocking the mine. “You coming or what?”

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

“Your loss.”

 

“Of what, getting tetanus?” Crutchie yelled after him.

 

Jack snorted in reply. He saw Crutchie sit in the dirt and use his phone, likely reading on his Kindle app. Recently he had been enthralled by the Vango series. He had read the first book on the plane and had almost finished the second on the drive from New Mexico to Nevada. While Jack hunted for ghosts in an abandoned mineshaft; his boyfriend read about a quest for vengeance in the 1940’s. Technology really was the ultimate bridge.

 

Jack used his phone flashlight to light up the dark shaft. He saw chains dangling from the ceiling; some of them were attached to yellow ventilation tubing while others hung free. He noticed a swinging chain; it was only swaying gently really. He let out a breath.The chain then started moving rapidly back and forth. “Crutchie you’ve got to see this.”

 

“No I don’t,” Jack heard Crutchie’s call waft faintly into the tunnel.

 

“Coward!” he teased his husband as he proceeded into the tunnel. He stepped into a particularly deep patch of mud that sucked his foot in up to his ankle. He pulled it free and examined the sticky mud that coated his boot. He made a face of revulsion at the smelly grey mud. “Ugh.”

 

He made it all the way into the back of the shaft before he starting feeling the evil that his husband had been wise enough to avoid. It weighed down on him from all sides and chilled him to the bone. He finally understood; it was time to turn back.

 

He turned to go. There was speaking around him. “Mayer where are the children? Mayer where are our kids?”

 

“Mom! David, Sarah help me.”

 

He heard panicked breathing and coughing and even footsteps. Jack ran but mud was sucking him down. He was forced to prise his feet from the mud with each step. He made it to the mine’s exit only to be slapped by the chains. He rushed for the exit but chains wrapped around him, preventing his exit.

 

“Crutchie!” he screamed in terror. That was what finally caught Crutchie’s attention, but it was too late. Jack was dragged back into the shaft by an unseen force and suddenly the mouth of the abandoned mine finally gave way to time and decay, or other forces, and collapsed.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Summary:

Crutchie goes into the mine after Jack

Notes:

I used a bunch of interrobangs in this chapter and y'all are just gonna have to deal with it.

Chapter Text

“Jack! Jack can you hear me‽” Crutchie screamed from outside the mine. He struggled to stand using his crutch and walked over to the former opening of the shaft.

 

He witnessed no reply.

 

“Jack!” He screamed again.

 

Oh my God, he thought, He’s hurt or else he’d answer me. “Baby!” he cried. “Baby please answer me!”

 

He pulled out his cell phone and tried to dial 911 but the call failed. He tried again, and again the call failed each time.

 

“Jack baby. Jack I’m coming to get you; I promise.”

 

Crutchie did the only thing he could think to do and stuck his crutch between rocks and pried them apart. A few tumbled to the ground, and he stumbled back as quickly as he could lest one crush his feet. He tried again to topple the barrier, this time succeeding. Rocks piled around him, and Crutchie tremblingly stepped over them and into the cavern. As he entered he noticed the sign from before was mostly covered in rocks, but he could still read some of the big black letters “DANGER”. He thought maybe he should listen.

 

Crutchie wandered into the mine warily using the flashlight on his phone to guide him. He spent most of his energy focusing on the ground so that he could avoid the deepest mud and worst of the terrain, but when he looked up he was shocked to see a full-bodied apparition.

 

He stared at the ghost and the ghost stared back. “You can see me?” the child ghost asked.

 

“Yes I can.” He wiped a sweaty hand on his pants. “I’m Crutchie.”

 

“I’m Les,” the ghost replied.

 

The young ghost spit into their palm and stuck it out for Crutchie to shake. Crutchie did take the hand in hesitant shock and he shook it. After pulling back he saw that his hand had a small spot of sticky black ectoplasm from the ghost’s spit. Crutchie asked a question that he would later look back on as foolish. “Ghosts areㅡ ghosts are real?”

 

The ghost looked offended. “Just because I’m dead don’t mean I ain’t just as real as you. You don’t see me asking if humans are real even though I ain’t seen one in awhile, except for the one that just came in splashin’ around.”

 

“Wait you saw him? I need help finding him. Please he’s my husband!”

 

“I don’t wanna go back there, there’s too much smoke inside. Would you please make sure my mom and pop get get okay?”

 

Crutchie heard the noises of a lumbering man and turned to face it. Another full-bodied apparition approached them menacingly.

 

“There you are little man,” the new ghost spoke evilly.

 

Crutchie was frozen in place, too terrified to move. “Jack,” he mumbled. But the ghost did not see him in fact, it walked right through him towards Les. Crutchie turned in time to see the ghost wrap it large hands around the small boys neck, leaving nothing but smoke in their wake as they disappeared into thin air.

 

“Jack. Jack needs me,” Crutchie thought aloud. He gathered his courage and forced his feet onward through the smoke left in the wake of the disappeared ghosts, coughing on the smoke and decay of the mine. As he moved deeper into the mine it became harder and harder to see and breathe. The smoke stung his eyes and blurred his mind, but he could hear coughing and it only made him more determined to venture further into the mine.

 

“Jack!” he wheezed. “Jack is that you?”

 

“Crutchie‽” he heard. “Babe can you help me? I’m trapped!”

 

“I’m coming my love; I see you.” Sure enough through the grit, grime, dust, and smoke of the abandoned mine, Crutchie could see Jack pinned beneath a large pile of small boulders. He began to pry each one off one by one.

 

“What the hell happened‽” Crutchie asked as he lugged boulders off his husband.

 

“I don’t know. I was trying to leave but it’s like the mine wouldn’t let me leave. My feet stuck and those dangling chains grabbed me and―” Jack cut himself off, too distraught to speak.

 

Crutchie pulled the last boulder off of Jack. “It’s okay babe, I’m here.” Crutchie wrapped his arms around his husband tightly for a moment. “I love you so much. You’re safe.” When they finally pulled apart Crutchie found a silvery colored liquid on his hands. He frowned in distaste and wiped the liquid on his pants.

 

He helped Jack to his feet. “Let’s get out of here babe.” The couple fled from the mine as quickly as they could between Jack’s injuries and Crutchie’s disability. When the reached the mouth of the cave they hurried into their car and drove like Hell in the direction of the nearby town. When cell reception finally returned to Crutchie’s phone, he used it to pull up directions to the city hospital.

 

After parking they took a shuttle to the emergency room, both too exhausted to walk. They thanked the driver and stumbled inside, both looking a mess. When the nurses saw the state of them they immediately gave them clipboards and told them they’d treat them as soon as the forms were filled out. Crutchie and Jack both had trouble with the forms, too shellshocked by what they’d seen to write without shaking hands. By time they had finished they both had splitting headaches.

 

A nurse gestured for Jack to follow her and a few minutes later another one came for Crutchie. He followed his nurse into a room and was handed a hospital gown to change into and was left with promises that a doctor would be in with him soon.

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Summary:

Crutch chats with a doctor

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Crutchie waited in an examination room for the return of his doctor. She was supposed to come in with some lab reports of his. A knock on the door alerted him to her presence. She pushed open the door and stepped in.



“Hello Mr. Morris,” she greeted him.



“It’s actually Kelly now.”



“Alright then Mr. Kelly. Are you aware that your clothes had mercury on them?”



“I was not.”



“Would you care to explain to me how you came to be in possession in mercury?”



“Not particularly.”



“Alright then. I think it would be good that you knew your husband has second degree burns and some difficulty breathing due to the inhalation of dust and smoke. You might want to tell me how that occurred then.”



“Bad spelunking. His idea. Worst honeymoon ever.”



“Spelunking?” she asked incredulously.



“Bad spelunking,” he corrected.



“So that explains the difficulty, but I must say, it doesn’t explain the burns. Where were you spelunking?”



“The Horton Mine.”



“Dear God.” The doctor facepalmed. “Not another ghost hunter.”



“Sorry. Like I said, his idea, worst honeymoon ever. But at least it was with him.”



“I’m sure you’ve already learned your lesson, but that mine is abandoned for a reason. It’s decrepit, has poor air quality, and as you know, it’s haunted. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have other patients to check up on.” The doctor turned to leave.



“Wait!”



“Hmm?” She raised an eyebrow.



“What about me?”



“Oh you’re fine; you can leave, you’ll just have to stay in town a few days while your husband recovers. I’ll bring your clothes in.”



“Thank you ma’am.”



The doctor left the room.

Notes:

Two updates one month. *fingerguns* I feel so cool!

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Summary:

Crutchie talks to Katherine over the phone.

Notes:

Hi all I just wanted to make a few notes now that I'm a mature writer and stuff.

First of all, please do not go searching for ghosts in abandoned mineshafts or in any abandoned places. It's super unsafe and probably fruitless. Which brings me to my second point...

The man who initially reported that there were ghosts at the Horton Mine has been discovered to have faked other ghost videos for views, so if you want to find ghosts in the Horton Mine, you won't find anyone.

Point three, as of 2018, the Horton Mine has been sealed off pretty tight, so if you want to look for ghosts, that's no the place to do it.

None of this is going to affect the story. I'm sure none of you follow news about the Horton Mine as closely as I do, so it doesn't really matter. I've definatley already taken artistic liberties with the mine. Since the mine first came to fame in 2013 and was boarded off in 2018, it can take place anywhere between those times. Same-sex marriage has been legal in New York since 2011, so that also works with the story. I picture it as taking place in 2017, but you do you boo.

Lastly, and I know I've already said it. The occult and supernatural seem super fun, and if you believe, power to you, but please always be safe if you choose to investigate. Also keep in mind, of all the places to investigate, the Horton Mine was never one. It was a mercury mine, it's full of stagnant water, the air quality is piss poor, the terrain is uneven, it's difficult to find, it's been sealed off, it's likely to collapse, and there are NO ghosts there. Please stay safe. I do not condone ghost hunting in the Horton Mine, but Jack does so let's get on to the story lol.

Chapter Text

Crutchie was irritated that he couldn’t be with his husband, but Jack wasn’t expecting a child, hadn't just given birth, and wasn't in the intensive care unit, so Crutchie had to leave the hospital at the same time everyone else did.

 

He sat in his bed in the nice hotel room he’d rather be sharing with Jack like a normal couple on their honeymoon. That wasn’t his fate of course.

 

Crutchie was about to be an inconsiderate friend.

 

He grabbed his phone off the bedside table and selected Katherine’s contact out of his recent calls.

 

The phone rang, and rang, but she didn’t answer.

 

He called back.

 

On the third ring, she answered.

 

“Charles?” Hannah’s groggy voice said.

 

He heard an annoyed mumbling and the sounds of a phone being shifted from one exhausted New Yorker to another.

 

“Do you understand what fucking time it is dipshit?” Katherine grouched into her phone.

 

“Midnight?”

 

“No. Midnight was a half an hour ago. You called my lovely fiancée and I at 12:30 AM, and it’d better be for a good reason or else I will jump on a plane to New Mexico to personally murder you and your stupid Godforsaken husband.”

 

“It’s for a good reason. I think you should make yourself a cup of coffee and let Hannah back to sleep because I need to talk to you.”

 

“Goddamnit Crutchie.” He heard her set the phone down. “Sorry babe… No he says it’s serious… I love you too.” She picked back up the phone. “What do you need Crutchie?”

 

“Jack got hurt.”

 

“Oh my God! Is he okay‽”

 

“He’ll be fine. I just wanted to ask you if you could do some reporter research for me.”

 

“What for?”

 

“He got hurt in a mineshaft I was hoping you’d research it for me.”

 

“So you can sue?”

 

“No, we can’t sue; we were trespassing.”

 

“Why the Hell were you trespassing? Actually, never mind, the fact that you were with Jack should be answer enough. What’s the name of the mine?”

 

“It’s the Horton Mine in Nevada. Also, do you think you could research the name Les with it?”

 

“Les? That’s just a first name, one that hardly anyone’s used since the 1960s.”

 

“I know.”

 

“I’m a reporter, not a magician.”

 

“Please, it’s for Jack.”

 

Crutchie felt a little bad poking at Katherine’s soft spots like that, but he couldn’t actually tell Katherine he saw ghosts; she would never believe that. Ever. Except perhaps with totally irrefutable proof that she herself witnessed firsthand.

 

Katherine sighed. “I’ll do my best.”

 

“Thank you Katherine; you’re the best.”

 

“I know what I am.” He could practically see her smirk from thousands of miles away. “I’ll get back to you tomorrow with what I find.”

 

“Thanks Kath.”

 

“Yeah yeah.” Kathy hung up.

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Summary:

UwU spooky stuff happens in Jack's hospital room. Jack's POV.

Notes:

If the first chapter frightened you, this one definitley will. I wrote it to be scary, please let me know if you thought it was scary and if not how I can make it scarier.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Jack blinked himself awake in his hospital bed during the wee hours of the morning. He glanced around his hospital room before his eyes settled on a figure resting in an armchair.

 

He smiled. “Crutchie.”

 

The figure looked up from his lap. “It’s good to see you’re awake.” A spider crawled out from between his cracked and stained teeth before returning to the man’s partially exposed skull, crawling into his ear canal. Definitley not Crutchie.

 

Jack became as pale as the ghost sitting across the room from him.

 

“You’re—You’re—”

 

“I’m what? I assure you, whatever you’re about to say is not going to be revolutionary information to me.”

 

Jack opened his mouth as though to speak and closed it several times over, looking much like a fish as he did it. For once, looking at the grotesque and rotting corpse before him, Jack was left speechless.

 

“Mr. Kelly, do you know what your husband is doing right now?”

 

Jack looked on with horror.

 

The figure did not so much stand from his chair as he did expand from it. “DO YOU‽” he howled.

 

“No—No I don’t. Sir.”

 

The spectre collapsed and size, returning to his chair abruptly. With deathly calm he said, “Currently, your husband is researching the Horton mine obsessively. It’s not going well for him, he’s mostly getting ghost hunting hacks like yourself. I’ll be needing him to stop doing that. On the orders of my employer.”

 

“But you’re dead.”

 

“You don’t think you still have to work for your boss in Hell.” The man grinned, and inky black ectoplasm with the consistency of clam chowder leaked from between his teeth, from his lips, onto the floor.

 

Jack cringed.

 

“Make him stop.”

 

“I don’t think I can sir. He’s very strong willed.

 

The spectre chuckled. “You’ll have too.” The man’s limbs crumbled and wound up into his body, compressing him until he small as small as a marble. His spherical form hit the floor with a plunk and rolled under Jack’s bed slowly.

 

With sudden expansion, the marble became a gigantic spider, flinging Jack and his bed into the opposing wall of the room.

 

The spider approached Jack with its many legs puncturing holes into the floor as it stepped towards him. It grew a wolf’s head and laughed a sick laugh that sounded like a wheezing cough.

 

Jack tried to crawl away, but the spider used its powerful wolf head to knock him into another wall. Before Jack could get his bearings, it lunged at him, digging its legs through his arms and snapping up his face in its strong jaw.

 

As the teeth of the wolf would have punctured Jack’s soft skin, he awoke with terrible screaming.

 

He screamed at the top of his voice for many seconds, some of it pure noise, some of it begging pleas for help, before a nurse rushed into the room.

 

“Mr. Kelly, are you alright?” The nurse asked.

 

Jack took deep panting breaths. “A nightmare. It was just a nightmare. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You can go.”

 

“Are you sure Mr. Kelly?”

 

“Yes, I’d like some privacy to call my husband please.”

 

“Alright sir.” The nurse left the room.

 

As Jack prepared to select Crutcie’s name from his recent calls, he spotted a sinister looking black spider in the corner of his hospital room. He dropped the phone, startling himself. When he looked back up, the spider was still there, taunting him. Just as quickly, it disappeared, seemingly into thin air.

Notes:

So the year is coming to a close. I will not be carrying my resolution to update a fanfiction every month into the new year. It makes writing feel like a chore to me, which I don't like. By no means am I going to stop writing, I'm just going to be doing it slower. I know it probably seems impossible considering how erratically I update, but this is something I do for myself first and foremost. My chapters will probably be longer next year though at least, as they won't be as rushed. :) Silver lining. Thanks for reading y'all. I love you guys. Btw, my left leg hurts so much right now. I try not to be too down about my chronic pain, but sometimes it gets me down. I liked writing this because it distracted me from my pain. I can't believe the last time I updated this fic was April D:

Edit: 5/18/2020
I wanted to say, previously in this fic I had Katherine be in a relationship with Sarah, but I thought that was too confusing with Sarah also being a ghost, a different Sarah based on the same character, so I changed her fiance to being Hannah. Hannah's a fun character, and I imagine her as Katherine's age (neither of them really have a canon age D: so...). Hopefully that helps repair my very broken continuity and is less confusing.

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Chapter Text

“Crutchie?” Jack said fearfully into his phone, his new husband having answered on the first ring.

 

“Jack? Is something wrong?”

 

“I’m going to check myself out of the hospital.”

 

Jack could practically see his lover opening his mouth to protest this declaration, and so plowed on as a preemptive interruption.

 

“I saw another ghost in my hospital room, this sinister fucking spider, I can’t stay here. I just can’t.” he said near tears.

 

“Alright. I’ll be at the hospital soon. I’ll pick you up.”

 

“Promise?” Jack asked desperately.

 

“Of course, I promise babe. Just stay safe, okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

Jack hung up his cell phone and lowered it into his lap. He sighed deeply. He’d never liked how in movies and TV if a character wakes up in the hospital, the very first thing they do is yank their IV out. Jack didn’t actually have an IV to yank, but he thought it would be best to leave the hospital with as little dramatics as possible. He pushed his call button to summon a nurse and prepared to wait.

 

A full-bodied and middle-aged black nurse in pink scrubs came in to his hospital room about one minute after he hit his button.

 

“Floor’s not busy then, huh?” Jack joked as she entered the room.

 

“Not too busy for you mystery man.”

 

“Mystery man? My name’s on this bracelet, I’m not exactly a John Doe.”

 

“The mystery is why you are under observation for mercury poisoning.”

 

“Horton mine.”

 

“Oh not another ghost hunter,” she groaned.

 

“Do you get many ghost hunters here?”

 

“No, but when we do, it’s always memorable.”

 

“Care to tell me any stories?” Jack asked curiously, or as some would say, nosily.

 

“Now that would be unprofessional,” the nurse said teasingly.

 

Jack smiled wryly. “I suppose so.”

 

“Can you tell me why you called me in here young man?” the nurse asked.

 

“Oh, of course!”Jack answered. “I’d like to leave.”

 

“To leave?” she said skeptically.

 

“Yes.”

 

“The hospital?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I’ll have to advise you against that hon.”

 

“But I can do it right? Like, legally?”

 

“Legally you can absolutely leave a hospital against medical advice. Though of course it is… against medical advice.”

 

“Is there any paperwork I need to sign or something?”

 

“There is, and it would be better that you sign it.” The nurse sighed. “Is there any way I can talk you into staying before I bring that paperwork to you.”

 

“Probably not,” Jack informed her.

 

“That’s a shame,” she said. “You go ahead and stay put while I go get your paperwork.”

 

The nurse left the room, leaving Jack to wait impatiently for her return. He wiggled his toes and shifted around his ankles while he waited for the nurse. His phone battery was nearly fully drained at 13%. He wished that Crutchie had thought to leave him a cord.

 

The nurse entered Jack’s hospital room having taken longer than he thought was strictly necessary to just get him the against medical advice discharge papers. She must be dragging her feet trying to get me to stay, Jack thought.

 

“Thanks for your patience Mr. Kelly,” the nurse said professionally. “I just wanted to get you home care instructions for your second degree burns and smoke inhalation.”

 

Jack suddenly regretted his presumptuous thoughts. She was just being helpful. She’s a good nurse.

 

“Thanks Nurse…” he trailed off, not knowing her name.

 

“Medda, Nurse Medda.”

 

“Thank you Nurse Medda.”

 

“Of course hun.” She paused, “Need any help filling out that paperwork?”

 

“Actually, I could use some help if you don’t mind.”

 

“I don't mind, just won’t be able to stay long, on account of the other patients.”

 

“Of course.”

 

Nurse Medda assisted Jack with his paperwork for about five minutes, before going to do her rounds.

 

“If you need any more help, just press your call button hun, she said kindly.

 

“Thank you Nurse Medda.”

 

Nurse Medda left the room, and Jack finished up the paperwork himself and waited for Crutchie to arrive to go check himself out fully.

Notes:

So this mine is real. It is supposedly haunted but I don’t actually believe in ghosts. The things I write Jack experiencing, the cold, swinging chains, evil prescence, and hearing voices have been said about the mine irl. The mine actually is muddy but I added in the thing about it trying to prevent people from leaving by grabbing their shoes. The mine hasn’t yet collapsed but it has serious corrosion and it is abandoned. Obviously the Jacob’s family doesn’t haunt the mine in real life. It’s hard to research the mine but from what I found there haven’t been any recorded deaths or tragedies inside but I’ve decided what’s causing the hauntings already.