#mountain gothic

[kvetch19]

[brickbybrickstitch]

I’m a mountain girl at heart. Grew up singing this song 🌿

Stitched by me in 2025 🪡

[backwoodspriestess]

June snow at the summit 🌝🌀

[haretic]

scenes from the mountain

[driedflowers161]

[nyctanthousnepenthes]

Montana Gothic

lifelong Montanans never drive long distances at night. you think this is odd. when you ask, their eyes shift warily to the closed windows, and they do not answer.

it is three in the morning in the middle of may. snow pours down in sheets and one of your windshield wipers is broken. your numb grip leads you up, up, up. you don't know how close you are to the edge of the mountain. a semi flashes its' hazards as you pass. everything is white. you should stop, wait it out, but you don't. you don't know better. you keep going.

you're crouched in a clearing, holding your head. it is quiet. so quiet. as you are led slowly from the woods, something creeps silently through the shadows behind you.

you're walking up the path to the top of the mountain, and when you turn to catch the view, time stops. you don't hear the sound around you stop, too. before your eyes the earth undulates endlessly into the horizon. later, when you are scolded for wandering off after a mountain lion was sighted, your ears are still rushing.

they call it the big sky. they don't tell you that if you stand too close to it for too long, you forget what you're made of, but it does not, and it will devour you whole.

you take the long, winding path down the mountain to the river. at sunset, when you race away from the feeling of being watched, every rock and root is desperate to ensnare you.

deep in the wilderness, you hear footsteps in your house. you're supposed to be alone tonight, so you sneak a peek underneath the door; boots you've never seen before thump slowly down the hallway towards your parents' bedroom. you do not hear them leave. when your uncle brings his gun to check, he finds nothing, but tells you to keep the lights off after sundown.

when you drive through the plains, do so with caution. do not go alone and do not stop unless you absolutely have to. darkness finds ample breeding ground in those quietly rustling fields.

if you see someone on the side of the road at night, their fate has already been decided. for your own sake keep your eyes to yourself.

[odysseyeight]

-You are driving late at night, the dark road winds ahead of you. There is a destination in mind.

-the road before you forks. You cant remember if you go through the mountain or around. You decide to go through.

-you took the wrong path.

-its getting darker. That shouldn't be possible.

-you pass by some bones strung out of a tree and a rock with dark red smearings on it. Keep going.

-Dont look in your rearview mirrors.

-you swear to god you've been driving for hours, where the hell are you?

-You cant tell if those bones in the trees are the same ones from earlier.

-its getting darker.

-you see a deer off the side of the road.

-its getting darker.

-are you sure that was a deer?

-dont look in the rearview.

-its getting darker.

-the clock on your dashboard hasn't changed in a long time.

-you get the feeling you aren't alone out here.

-dont look in the rearview.

-deer don't walk upright.

-it cant get any darker.

-according to the dashboard, no time has passed since you last checked the time.

-it feels like the trees are closing in on you.

-you know that you saw something pretending to be a deer. But it stood on two legs and walked like a human.

-dont look in the rearview.

-where were you driving to in the first place?

-where the hell are you?

-there are the bones in the tree again.

-when did your gas tank get so low?

-dont look in the rearview.

-the empty tank light starts flashing.

-you swear you hear laughing all around you.

-its getting darker.

-your truck sputters to a halt.

-dont look in the rearview.

-you see something moving just out of range of your headlights.

-there is movement on both sides of the road now too.

-You know for certain you are not alone out here.

-those aren't deer.

-dont look in the rearview.

-God cant hear you out here.

-dont. Look. In. The. Rearview.

[everydaygothic]

mountain gothic

The aspen trees are turning yellow in the hills, spaced between pines and with leaves rustling in the wind. People keep going up to see the colors. You’ve watched some of them. They park at the side of the road and wander off into the trees. Some of them come back.