Me and my friends were all around 50-60 years old and decided now was the time to put our wealth together and go on an exploration. Despite our older age me and my friends were still physically active and yearning for some last adventures before old age got to us. We all decided on a scuba diving trip. We sailed off the coast of California and were a good 10 miles offshore when we finally stopped and geared up for an underwater expedition.
Garry was so convinced we would find something good that he even got a small crane to help holster up any large items we would find. I wish he never bought the damn thing, and we had no way of bringing the chest up to the surface. Me and Danny suited up while Garry enjoyed a cold beer on the surface but said he would catch up. we went under and were taken back by the sight of the coral reefs and fish, the blue vivid waters, and the ever-sinking abyss. We went down further to get a look at the coral reefs and other fish when we spotted something. It was under one of the reefs and slightly buried in the sand, I wave Danny over to get a closer look.
When we got closer to it, we saw it was a square container with a lock on it. Me and Dan tried to pull it out of the sand, but it was heavy, we had to wiggle and writhe until it popped out of the sand to which it dragged us slightly down as it sank to the bottom. We knew we weren’t going to get this to shore ourselves, we went back up and found Garry was still on the boat.
“You guys find anything?”
“Ready the crane.”
Those words made him jump out of his chair almost spilling his beer. “We need to move the boat a little further that way I pointed north. He drove slowly until I felt we were right above the booty. I grabbed the winch and dove back down seeing that we weren’t too far off from where the chest was. I attached the latch to the side handle of the chest and went up to tell Garry to reel it in. the winch began to pull the chest and I got out of it way as to not be hit and to get a better look.
It was obsidian black, silk smooth and had not one but three locks on it. It wasn’t big, but that only made me wonder more, “What could be in there.” When the box was hoisted to the surface. I went up and got a better look at the thing. “WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!” Garry said excitedly. “I knew bringing the crane was a good idea!” it was getting dark, so we decided to head back to shore. By the time we got back it was night fall, but we were so thrilled about our discovery we couldn’t sleep. we decided to have some beers to celebrate. What was inside, gold? Ancient scriptures? Maps?
The rest of this story pick up after we get the box back home. We tried to open the locks via lock pick, but nothing worked, no one we hired could do it. Each of them said the same thing. “These puzzle locks are unlike anything I have ever seen.” To Garry this was too much suspense he had to know what was inside. Danny didn’t say much about the situation, when asked what he thought was inside, he just said. “Something important.” I agree whoever made this box didn’t want anyone opening it, I doubt the keys are even around anymore. Garry opted to take the chest back to his place. We decided not to open it with brute force for fear of damaging whatever was inside, but Garry said he could open it with some tools. We didn’t care about the box, just what was inside. We agreed and Garry took it back to his place.
That night I had a strange dream of hooded figures chanting in underwater temples, and a sunken city, but it was so vague and short lived that I don’t remember much. What I do remember was waking up to one of the worst days of my long life. the police were at Garry’s house apparently neighbors reported him going outside and staring at the stars for a long period of time before screaming and wailing manically about a book and how it was cursed. Garry was taken by ambulance for psych evaluation. I walked around his house, and, in his garage, I found that he had manage to somehow brute force the chest open.
There was clear evidence of that he had used blow torches and power tools to open the chest, when I opened the lid I found a large book, the size of a Lutheran bible. The cover was made of a leather substance and displayed one eye surrounded by tentacles. I wasn’t sure about opening this book, even morbid curiosity couldn’t convince me to open the pages. “So, he got it open, did he?” I jumped and turned around to see Danny. Unlike me he wasn’t afraid of the book in fact he picked it up without hesitation. “doesn’t Garry’s behavior concern you?” he shrugged me off. “Probably had too much to drink.” As he walked away, I put two and two together and realized somethings.
Danny was the one who was most on board with the Scuba diving trip, he was the one who set the coordinates. How much did he know? I went to check up on Garry and the doctors said that he was suffering a psychosis. They said he wouldn’t stop going on about stars and…underwater cities. This was enough shenanigans there was no treasure in that box only madness. I called Danny and it went to voicemail. “Danny, I don’t know what your involvement in this is, but get rid of that damn book it evil!”
I knew what I was going to do with my day, I was going to go to Danny’s and confront him about this.
It was a summer mid afternoon, but the sky had such a thick aura of grey and melancholy that you would think it was an autumn rainy evening. I didn’t like it, something unseen was unfolding. I arrived at his house and when I saw the door wasn’t locked, I helped myself in. “DANNY!” I yelled to no response. I snooped around his house and found a letter on the table from someone all the way in the east.
“Please retrieve the artifact at these coordinates for the agreed amount of 550,000 American dollars. And do not open or look at its contents.” The coordinates were exactly where our scuba trip was. I went into his bedroom on the other side of the hall and when I opened the door I found Danny, dead with his Eyes removed from his socket like they have been burned. Next to him was the book wide open. Danny had tried to read it; morbid curiosity got the better of him.
I heard something behind me then, it was like the sound of squishing slim. I turned around to see something truly horrific. It was dressed in a black and green-trimmed robe it had no feet and seemed to levitate. It wore a medallion that was similar to the eye and tentacles on the front of the book. Its head was that of an octopus. Green skinned and slimy with bulging eyes and a mass of tentacles for a beard that seemed to hide its mouth. It looked down at me with its eyes scanning the sides of the room and then it turned its head to the book. It walked right past me and picked it up closing it and then it disappeared with the book into a puddle of water that soaked the carpet floor.
The silence was broken by a whispering that seemed to come from the walls. A very feint. “Thank you.” I was alone with Danny’s remains after a long period of wondering if I had finally gone insane the police arrived after I put in my phone call.
the police didn’t know what to make of Danny’s remains and I told them he was dead when I found him which wasn’t a lie. Garry is still in a mental state, and I now have more vivid dreams not of cities or strange cultist, but something leviathan in size, chained, slumbering in the darkest abyss of the sea.