If you live near a beachside and find a dark obsidian door contact me immediately and please, stay away from it!
Two weeks ago today my girlfriend Samantha and I came to visit her college friend in San Diego for a few days. We were both very excited at the opportunity; I’m originally from Tennessee and I’ve always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, while Sammy is from New York. On our last day here while I was searching for cool things to do in San Diego a result piqued my interest: the nudist beach. Sammy was down, so the day before we flew out we grabbed our swimsuits (even though we wouldn’t find much need for them) and drove to the spot.
The area is called Black’s Beach which lays about a hundred feet below limestone cliffs, a fall no man could survive. Sammy and I parked our car and went down a long and winding set of wooden steps. The wood was so indented and worn that one wrong step and I’d find myself at the bottom of the cliffs in a second. Once down below we came face to face with men and women of all ages naked and unabashed so we stripped awkwardly to fit in. I’ll always remember her giggles from the embarrassment, how her nipples perked at the brush of the winds and her hair tailed behind her.
With our clothes in our backpacks we immediately dove into the water. Nothing can compare to that feeling of entering the ocean waves in the nude! It is an immediate embrace from a being that is indifferent to your existence and wellbeing. But here we’re allowed to exist without a concept of guilt, the right to present yourself in your true essence without shame or judgment. Sammy’s smile reflecting the setting sun back at me, I knew then the truest feeling of love.
We decided to walk the beach and see the stretch of the bay. It was a sight to see: people taking in the sun, others riding the ocean waves on their boards, and paragliders riding the high winds above adding dashes or greens, pinks and yellows to the skies above. It was in that moment observing the paragliders when something out of place caught my attention. High in the cliffside, rising below a cascade of boulders and sand appeared what seemed like a black door carved deep into the limestone.
I pointed this oddity to Sammy and without a second thought, I found myself walking to the base of the door in the cliffside to get a better view.
“Where are you going?” said Samantha in response, walking over next to me.
“I want to check it out,” I replied as I was already putting my clothes and shoes back on. Back in Tennessee I was an avid spelunker with my father because both of us hace always been interested in the secrets kept deep in the bowels of the mountains. I’ve sought out things that are out of place, are beyond human comprehension and quite simply, shouldn’t exist. With this being my last day in San Diego I wanted to at least check this mysterious door out. Maybe it led somewhere?
“I’m not sure about this babe, let’s just keep walking.” She grabbed my arm as I finished tying my shoelaces. I could see a look of concern on her face but could feel her understanding my attraction to the unknown. She knew how much exploration of the earth’s eccentricities meant to me.
“It shouldn’t take long, you can wait for me here.”
With that I started to climb, watching my step as I slowly made my way up. The closer I got to the door the more I noticed it was more than what I expected to find. Before me was a circular door that looked to be of obsidian, dark and jagged in the edges and shining the sun back to my eyes. A mural adorned the slate with rune-like shapes and lines on the edges, and images of faces and animals carved deep into the stone. Admiring the work that stood before me I finally noticed that where a doorknob would usually be was a small hole.
Carefully I looked through the opening expecting a dead end, but it was to my shock to see a dimly lit corridor inside going down into the ground. Pressing my ear against the hole I could hear the wind howling through the opening, and among the whistling of the wing I heard it: at first it sounded like a wounded animal, but listening closer it appeared childlike in nature. Someone was crying beyond this door.
“Samantha, I think there’s a kid hurt in here!” Without hesitation I began to try and pry the door open. I pressed myself against the cold stone and it didn’t take much force before I fell through and onto the damp floor. Looking up I saw candles perched along crevices on the cave walls, and looking further down I could make out stairs going down and leading to a faint glow. Balanced within the sound of oceans behind me was the crying that now reverberated along the tunnel walls.
I began helping myself to my feet when I felt a pair of hands pressing down on my shoulders. “Are you OK?” Turning around I saw Sammy. She had climbed up and was now standing behind me fully dressed with her hair up in a ponytail the way she would when she was either focused or anxious. Looking around with concerned eyes she asked, “what is this place?”
“I don’t know,” I said while brushing sand off my ankles and shirt. “Down these stairs is where I heard crying. Come, we need to help them!”
“I don’t feel good about this, shouldn’t we call the police?” I should have listened to her and turned around then and there. We began our descent carefully and slowly. The colors shifted from a dark gray of the stones to a reddish pink hue with dark crimson veins engraved within. Along the walls I noticed these shiny obsidian rocks sticking out of the walls, first a few sporadically but the deeper we went more and more rocks could be found on the ceiling, the floors, and the slick walls of the corridor. The deeper we went the wetter the walls became.
The crying became louder and louder as Sammy and I delved deeper and deeper into the cliffside. Eventually we reached the bottom of the staircase and to our shock we found ourselves at a crossroads. Two different paths laid before us, with the crying reverberating through the cave. “Which way?” Sam asked, unsure of where to go.
“Hmm,” I said to myself, listening through both corridors to see if I could pinpoint the direction of the cries. “I think it’s this way, but before we delve deeper,” I said as I took off my shirt, “I’ll leave this on the floor to find our way back.” With that we followed the rightmost corridor, and sure enough the cries grew louder. Moving deeper and deeper I could feel the air running thin and a thick musk haunting the air. The corridor walls were growing slicker and shinier the deeper we went into the belly of the beast. Yet the lights along the walls grew no dimmer with time and lit our way.
We encountered several other crossways and each time Sammy and I took turns leaving clothes behind to find our way out: her shirt, then my pants, then her sweater. It was after several turns that we found ourselves at another obsidian door similar to the one at the entrance. However this time the runes and the scribbles shone a bright blue turquoise. The sketches of animals and faces carved deep into the obsidian were glowing and fading in a smooth breathing motion, in and out, in and out. With Sammy standing behind me I pushed the door open.
Sammy and I stepped into a small room with a few strobing lights emitting from light sources that seemed to be within the walls themselves. The floor was wet and slippery with a clear, viscous liquid that was dripping down from the walls. At the very end of the room sat a small, pale child with frizzled hair, facing away from us and towards the far end of the room. The child had been stripped of clothes and her back was covered with crimson gashes engraved deep within her skin. She was not tied to the wall or chained and was visibly shaking. We had found the source of the crying.
Sammy gasped at the sight while I felt sick to my stomach, gagging at the pungent smell of feces, piss and whatever other sick shit was in the room. Sammy was the one who slowly approached the child, asking for its name and how it got here. Every step she took through the sludge that coated the floor echoed against the walls and out the entryway. I stood where I was and chose to analyze the room further. This was not like any other cave system I have ever been in. Something was not right.
Taking out my cellphone I turned on the light feature and scanned our surroundings further. I couldn’t help but notice that the walls appeared to be moving ever so slightly, pulsing and contracting with venous lines on the surface. Then I turned my attention to the child, who continued crying and shaking without paying attention to the two strangers who had rushed into her holding cell.
That is when I noticed it: the child’s legs appeared to be fused to the floor with a large throbbing veins running from the floor up the legs and dissipating throughout her thighs. I was staring at this thing in horror when I noticed that in above the child, sticking out of the fleshy ceiling a creature began to manifest itself before us.
At first it was a small fleshy lump with obsidian rocks protruding a few feet above the child’s head. Slowly multiple appendages began to pulsate and grow from multiple sides of the growth; these varied in thick and thin from all over its body and appeared tentacular in nature. With every growth more and more viscous liquid spouted from the being onto the floor. The flesh at the drooping end of the creature began to part, and a gaping orifice with white pearly rows of teeth began to glister with the shaking of my flashlight. Above the creature’s maw the obsidian pebbles began to shift in place and that’s when it clicked: these are not rocks, they are eyes.
My thoughts were rushing in a flurry of fear and disgust, trying to comprehend what Sammy and I had just walked into. This must be a dream, there’s no way this is real, this CANNOT be real! I wanted to tell Sammy who was kneeling next to the child facade to look up, to run! But I could do nothing but see the creature’s gaping maw tower over us and its arms creeping along the floor, ready to pounce on its unsuspecting victim: Samantha.
The next few seconds happened so fast. The creature emitted a high-pitched screech resembling a child and quickly wrapped its tentacles around unsuspecting Sammy’s legs, lifting her in a swift motion. I saw Sammy’s face quickly change from concern for the child to intrinsic fear and let out a cry of pure fear and agony. She thrashed around trying to be let loose but her screams and movement were quickly subdued when the creature wrapped its remaining tentacles around Sammy’s body and constricted her. The sound of breaking bones followed, echoing around me. Blood and vile spewed from Sammy’s mouth and nose, her eyes now bloodshot frantically moving left, right, up, down, and finally settling on me.
With my girlfriend in hand the creature moved in to finish the deed: it positioned itself above Sammy and with its sharp sets of teeth began to consume her, feet first and slowly making its way down her body. The sound of cracking and breaking of what I assume were Sammy’s bones was deafening against the low sounds of a child’s scream that left me in shell shock. Blood spewed from the creature’s orifice as it tore at my girlfriend’s body and she could do nothing but look at me and mouth what I assumed to be her last plea to me: run. Run. RUN.
That’s when I finally felt the fear loosen its grip on my legs. Quickly I turned and dashed out the glowing obsidian door, dropping my phone in the process and rushing out. Once out the room the lights that once illuminated the corridor had gone out, leaving me in pitch darkness. But without thinking twice I pushed forward, away from whatever being was still tearing at Sammy’s body giving me a shot at escaping.
Coming to the first intersection I could feel a rush of dread run over me, which way is the way out?! Feeling my way along the darkness I felt a small bundle of clothes at my feet pointing the way we came in: Sammy’s sweater! I grabbed her sweater and rushed down the leftmost corridor but I could sense the passage was much narrower than before. Where there was plenty of space for both Sammy and I to walk side by side now felt narrower, the walls softer and slimier. No time to think, I reminded myself and kept going.
When I reached the second intersection a loud, ear-piercing SCREECH! echoed down the halls, but this time I could make out some words: “Must . . . find him . . . him . . .” I could feel my stomach churning and my head spinning at the sound of the words when I reached for my pants tied on the floor pointing me to a narrow crevice in the wall. There’s no way I will make it through this with my backpack! In a quick motion I tossed my pack aside, took a deep breath and sighed. I felt my way into the narrow passage and moved fast. The toughest part was the obsidian rocks along the walls that were now pressing against my skin and cutting deep into the tissue. Better than being eaten alive, I thought while fighting back Sammy’s faith.
I reached the final intersection and found Sammy’s shirt pointing me towards a narrow crawl space. This is BULLSHIT! Without hesitation I got on my knees. I was positioning myself to enter the hole, something in the caves behind me let out a low whisper, “where . . . are you . . . where . . . where . . .” FUCK, fuck fuck fuck, it’s coming. I pushed myself into the crawlspace and moved fast despite the obsidian rocks piercing into my skin. The rush of adrenaline masked the pains of the cuts and slits around my body. The crawlspace kept narrowing around me and I could feel the walls squeezing against my body, forcing me to lay on my belly and pull myself through the rocks.
I used the obsidian rocks to pull myself through the crawlspace when I felt another tight squeeze and a release. The walls were closing in around me, squeezing me tighter with each contraction. Panic began to set in, but with the rush of adrenaline came the drive for survival. Memories of my time deep in the Appalachian mountains flooded my brain, images of narrow pathways and tips to navigate the unforgiving innards of the Earth. I remembered my father’s advice when I once got stuck moving between two large boulders, his voice soothing a crying child: “breathe, and flow.” With each squeeze the obsidian rocks dove into my skin, crunching and tightening around me before expanding ready to contract again. This is my chance, I said to myself and when I felt the walls detract I scrambled through and out the other side.
I flopped out of the crawlspace and onto a solid surface, bloodied and in tears. Almost there, I’m almost there, I thought as I slowly rolled over and sat up when I got a scent of saltwater. I was now at the bottom of the staircase and above me, the small light from the peephole in the door above the cliffs teased me. The way out!
I stood up and looked back at the hole I had fought my way through. The walls were still constricting smaller and smaller and the hole was about to close when it stopped. From the hole moans and cries could be heard, when a hand popped out and reached for me.
I fell back at the sight, and watched in horror as the girl from the room slowly emerged from the crawlspace. Where once I had been unable to see her face I now saw who this being was: her skin was gray and the veins that coated her body glowed with a deep turquoise color like the door to the room. But her face was the worst: the eyes had been gouged out and were sunken in, replaced with a deep blue glisten. Where there would be a nose and mouth was a large opening lined with shiny teeth leading deep into an abyss.
I could feel my mind being driven to madness by the creature reaching for me when I let out a shriek of horror. I scrambled up the slippery stairs with the girl’s gaze and her maw locked in my mind. The walls knew exactly what was going on. Halfway up I felt the floor below my feet shift below my feet causing me to lose balance and slide back down a few steps towards the girl. She had now emerged and was crawling up towards me on all fours. The obsidian rocks around me were now shifting around, spiraling, fighting to sabotage my way out of the creature’s grasps. I could see above me a small beam of light being emitted from the door’s opening. It taunts me with freedom and of what I’ve lost in the room behind.
When I finally reached the top of the stairs I threw myself against the door to no avail. The door was shut and was not ready to let me out. I could hear the creature’s screeching behind me growing louder and louder, crying out for its meal that would not be allowed to leave. I kept pushing, thrashing, until I felt a strong grip on my hair and someone whispered over my shoulder, “YOU.”
I was turned around and confronted with two deep blue lights. Her eyes were now glowing brighter than ever before and lighting the bloody insides of her eye sockets. I pressed myself back against the door, it’s over. With one hand grabbing onto my hair and the other squeezing my neck, she approached me mouth wide open: I was in the direct path of her maw. I could feel my consciousness giving out when I felt the door against my back finally gave in and swung open. I felt myself tumbling into the open sunlight, hitting the rocks that lead up to the door, and landing on the hot sand before losing consciousness.
The next thing I remember was waking up to a naked man standing above me. “Hey bro are you OK? Do you need any help?” He helped me sit up in place and while he was asking me what had happened I couldn’t help but look up at the cliffside to find nothing. The door that was once there, with cryptic writing where me and my Sammy entered and only I escaped, had disappeared. In its place was just a crack into the limestone. I stared up at where the door used to be until several beachgoers helped me to my feet and back up to my car.
~~~
I don’t know what it is that I went through two weeks ago. Part of me doesn’t want to believe what happened behind that cryptic obsidian door, but Samantha is nowhere to be found. Logic is clearly beyond this explanation and I know that I’ve encountered something dark, a demon perhaps, or maybe something beyond our world. I’ve lost the love of my life because of my own stupidity. I should have listened to her, but I didn’t and she died. I’ve already endured too many sleepless nights and cried until my eyes run dry, and with that my new purpose became clear: to find this thing and any others like it, and kill them before they hurt anyone else.
In that room I dropped my cell phone and was able to track it to another beach town, this time up in the Oregon area. At the time of writing this my phone has only lost a few points of battery life, which means I might be able to track its movements for a little while longer. I will update everyone as my new journey continues and if you stop hearing from me for longer than a month, assume I’ve failed to kill the creature and suffered Samantha’s fate. I cannot live with the guilt of leading my girlfriend straight into a monster’s maw and will stop at nothing until either that creature is dead or I am.