Chapter 1: The Depths
The boring Physics class ended but I was bored and questioning the fact that this world has become so boring and there is not a single intersting thing to do.
"Studying is such a drag!" I complained to myself. My best friend, Lent was absent as he went to his uncle's house for some family issues.
I sighed While starring at the ants. Suddenly I heard Ema and my brother talking to each other about something.
I, Ema, Lent and my brother were good friends from childhood and somehow ended up as classmates too.
I am Arthur Arkeat, a highschool student of Trouville High of Texas. My family is a descendant of a holy bloodline that killed the family of the Demon Doctor who was also known as the Dark Priest. Because of my bloodline, I was forced to be perfect in everything. The only memories of my childhood were of me getting punishment because of some or the other mistake. Their excuse for torturing me was that I was the chosen one to save the city from curses. My life was a hell till I reached Highschool. "Okay, Arthur don't be sad. Life is better if you smile and be happy" I said to myself
Suddenly the School Bell rang. "Ema! Are you joining me this weekend for the trip to the Oceanarium?" my brother, Billy, asked
Ema with an creepy smirk.
"Yes!" Ema replied, her voice as loud as possible. As I approached, Billy whispered in a scary tone, "The Oceanarium just bought a shipwreck that was found somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. They say it's haunted, possessed by a spirit."
I coughed, trying to mask my boredom. "Haunted shipwrecks, ghost stories? You two really have a weird taste, don't you?"
Billy and Emily exchanged knowing glances, their expressions a silent conspiracy that made me uneasy. They were straight up ignoring me. "Ema," Billy began with his voice low and scary, "have you heard the whispers? After they brought the shipwreck in, people started vanishing inside the Oceanarium. All they found were their discarded clothes in the tanks."
"Are you two not inviting me?" I yelled at them, not willing to be left out of their adventure. Billy and Ema exchanged an amused
high five, their laughter ringing hollow in my ears. I had fallen into their trap, and they knew it that I would.
"Of course not Arthur, my sweet big brother." replied Billy with a weird smirk. The school bell rang again and now it was time for us to go home. I started chasing Billy like
a predator stalking its prey. I had never run that fast in my life because I never needed too as our family car came to pick us up.
As we reached home I started lecturing Billy. I lectured him so much that I forgot the reason why I was angry.
Time passed quickly, the day of our trip arrived swiftly, Wednesday turning into Sunday with a mixture of anticipation and excitement. We arrived at our meeting point, and Ema excitement was on a different level. "Finally, a break from school!" she exclaimed, her voice tinged with energy. Billy's voice rang out, "Weekend trip time!" I smiled, my enthusiasm outshined by a growing
sense of excitement and freedom.
"What's the plan?" I inquired. "First, we'll explore the Oceanarium and enjoy ourselves," Billy replied, "then we'll unlock the mystery of that shipwreck."
"Sounds interesting," Ema answered, her eyes shining with curiosity. As we reached the bus
stop, it was around 9 am, the morning air filled with a thick layer of joy for me. "Finally, end of my boredom!" I exclaimed.
The luxurious Oceanarium Bus awaited us, but we weren't alone. Many more passengers, all with their own plans, accompanied us on this journey. Among them, I noticed Aaron, Kevin, Hannah, and Carol, our classmates. Billy and Ema started talking to them while I went to my seat.
The engine started and an announcement informed us that it would be a two-hour journey so I assumed that I should sleep and save some energy to enjoy in the Oceanarium.
"Wake up already!" Ema's voice pierced through my ears as we arrived at the Oceanarium. "Aaron's group already went inside" The two-hour sleep felt like a second and it felt weird. I was also getting a bad vibe from Oceanarium's building.
As soon as we purchased our tickets,
we noticed some traumatized people, murmuring something about ghosts and their friends or family members getting missing. That scared us a bit.
"Are we still going in, guys?" asked Ema. "Yes, we can't just let our money go to waste! And also maybe there is a curse here so I have to do something about it" I responded but I was nervous. The flickering lights cast creepy shadows at the entrance. Billy and Ema exchanged uneasy glances, their footsteps echoing loud as we went deeper into the Oceanarium's depths.
"Billy, what exactly did you hear about this place?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"The shipwreck," Billy began, "it's said to be cursed, and since they brought it here, strange things have been happening. People disappearing, clothes found in the tanks, text written on walls with blood and rumours of malevolent spirits of animals."
I was shaking as we went more inside the Oceanarium. Ema was holding my arm and her face was drained of colour. "It can't be true," she murmured, more to herself than to us. Time passed but nothing happened, "See, all of that were just rumours and those people
outside were just workers acting to scare us" I said. Billy and Ema nodded their head
agreeing to what I just said.
Suddenly, a sound of weak, sorrowful whispers reached our ears. We froze in our tracks, listening carefully. It was a haunting, unclear murmuring, like the anguished cries of lost souls trapped in the deep.
"Billy," I whispered, "do you hear that? What is it?" He nodded, his wide eyes scanning the surroundings. "I don't know."
With fear and determination , we followed the eerie whispers, which seemed to lead us
further into the corridors. Every corner we turned, every exhibit we passed, we could hear the voice louder and the fear in our hearts only grew heavier.
As we ventured deeper into the Oceanarium, a chilling sensation hung in the air. The
temperature decreased, and nauseating odours enveloped us, a mixture of saltwater and decay. It was as if the very atmosphere plotted to crush our spirits. The scarier part was that except us there was not a single human being there.
"I hope Aaron's group is doing well!" said Ema. Suddenly, the lights started flickering, casting irregular shadows that danced on the walls like restless phantoms. I tightened my fists, my heart pounding, and whispered, "This place is cursed."
Billy and Emily exchanged anxious glances, their faces reflecting the growing terror within us all.
Suddenly the lights turned off. "What is going on?" I murmured to myself.
The lights turned on and we could see some text on the wall written with blood and on the
ground there was Aaron's and Carol's head. The text said "LEAVE US ALONE OR DIE."
Ema screamed and all of us ran away to the nearest exit but the exit was gone. In fact, all the exit near us were replaced with walls.
"Where is Ema?" cried Billy. I turned back and Ema was gone.
In the dim hallway, terror clenched our hearts, and the walls whispered threateningly: "LEAVE
US ALONE OR DIE." Ema had vanished, and a chilling fear gripped us. We were terrified.
"We have to find her, Billy," I stammered.
Billy's face turned pale, but he nodded. "We can't leave her. But remember, there's something evil here."
Deeper we ventured into the Oceanarium, and the horrors multiplied. The corridors twisted and horrible displays haunted our path, Dead bodies everywhere, blood in fish tanks and fish mutating into zombie like creatures.
The Oceanarium had transformed into a terrifying trap, designed to torment us.
As we moved on, the messages on the walls grew more frightening. "TURN BACK OR FEAR THE WRATH OF THE DEAD." they warned. But we couldn't abandon Ema to her fate; after all she is our friend. Also besides her there could be few be more survivors.
Hours have passed, exhaustion weighing us down, but the need to find our friend pushed us on.
There was not a single area except the shipwreck chamber we didn't search, all we could find are dead bodies, blood and messages written in walls of the tanks.
At last, we reached an enormous chamber at the Ocenarium's heart where the ship was
displayed. The ship radiated an aura of darkness and despair, as if it were alive with malicious intent.
"We must find Ema here," Billy whispered, his voice barely audible over the ship's creepy
groans.
As we tried to board the ship a big octopus monster with red eyes and huge tentacles appeared out of nowhere and started
attacking us. We ran to the edge of the room and started reading a holy text but we couldn't complete. The monster caught Billy in one of its tentacles and squeezed him. Billy couldnt do anything to save himself and I thought he was dead. The monster disappeared into thin air taking Billy.
Billy's last words before the octopus took him were: "SAVE EMA!" I could not waste any
time crying for Billy as his last wish was for me to save Ema.
Boarding the ship, I entered its dark, narrow passages. Every step took me deeper into a
nightmarish mystery. The ship seemed to warp and twist, defying reality itself.
In a dark chamber at the ship's core, I found Ema. She was unconscious, encircled by ghostly figures. Their fleshless hands reached out, their howls of agony echoing in my ears. They were telling something to me it was: "SAVE US, WE ARE BEING CONTROLLED BY SOMEONE".
"Ema!" I screamed, rushing towards her, but something held me back. "They're not real," a mysterious voice whispered. Emily disappeared and there was a big hole
in the floor, it was a trap.
I turned back but no one was there. "Who are you?" I inquired. A faint but devilish voice replied " I AM THE DARK PRIESTESS". "That cant be, you were dead. How are you back?" I reacted. There was no reply.
I continued searching for Ema thinking that it cannot be the truth. I came to a strange room and saw something that looked like
the heart of the ship.
With determination, I faced the source of the ship's evilness—a weird, Locket submerged in blood and dark magic. It felt like it was possessed by something.
As I reached for it, the ship shook violently, unleashing a flood of nightmares. The ghostly
figures appeared, their bony fingers piercing through my flesh, I started screaming in pain. But I couldn't back down. With one final, desperate effort, I kicked and broke the cursed Locket, shattering the ship's hold. The ghostly spirits screamed in agony before vanishing, and Ema appeared through thin air. Exhausted and traumatized, I almost collapsed.
I looked towards Ema but she was acting
weird, she was starring at a half torn picture of a family. I could see a boy with his mother and a man I suppose who is the father but the picture was torn so the fathers face was not visible.
"Why are you crying?" asked Ema. It was like she forgot everything that happened that day.
I explained everything to her. Even after destroying the Locket, Billy was missing and we didn't know what to do. I checked
the Locket and it looked like it had some holy text written in it. It was: " Zabi…ej, du…fisg, joh…n., trughst deviq..il, kaj..par…crys..ta ".
" What is this doing here!" I said. The text was a resurrection spell for resurating the dark preist's wife. It said : " O MY LORD, O MY LORD, I YOUR SERVENT, THE DARK PRIEST, REQUEST YOU TO RESERACT MY PRIESTESS." I put the Locket in my pants pocket.
As we went back through the ship's nightmarish corridors. This time, the ominous messages on the walls had vanished, replaced by a lingering scent of dead beings and blood. While reaching the exit, a strange sound of some kids rhyme started played from the old Gramophone.
The tune went like: " HAS AN KNIFE IN HER HAND, IS LONG AND BROAD, SHE SAYS SHE WILL KILL US ALL AND HER NAME IS FA...." suddenly the music stopped.
"What a strange rhyme it was, right? " I said. I was trying to smile but I couldn't take the fact that Billy is dead and there was that dark priestess. "Ema, you didn't happen to read the text written in this Locket, have you?" I asked but there was no response.
As I turned to see her face but blood spilt all over my face. Someone slashed Emily's head with a knife. Her head fell down. I heard a person screaming in pain from far and my throat started hurting. Time passed like that and I realised that the person screaming my me. I was screaming as loud as I can and the only thing in my heart despair and I hopped I was dead. I was stabbed with a knife in my back. A woman stapped me. I remembered that face. It was the face of the mother in the family picture. "Now it's the time for me revenge for killing my beloved son and husband. Now this world will face the wrath of the dark priestess. Now this world will world would feel the pain they gave to me, Fall Müller!" the woman said with hatred for humanity.
The next thing I remembered was that I was being carried by a police officer to an ambulance and I collapsed.
TO BE CONTINUED…..
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