When we finally got to the Corton Mansion I laid down on the couch.

“You went all this way to nap?”

“It's night. Who in their right mind goes out now. Anyway they think we have no clue what is going on. They think they have all the time in the world.”

“Which means you sleep?”

“I drove us all the way here while you did nothing. I deserve it.”

The next day we got the sailing ship my father liked to use. “All aboard the weirdly similarly named boat, Saint Mark.” I forgot about that.

There were cans of beer still stored here and I divulged the other declined. Their loss. Punching in the coordinates we started sailing into the direction of nothing. A bonus of taking this ship was that it had stored 5 pairs of diving gear. In case that was needed.

It was about halfway to bermuda. Something I thought was a triangle. Apparently it was an actual island. Who knew. It took us ages to get there. We left really early in the morning and the sun was already starting to set when we arrived. Arrived to nothing.

“Are you sure you aren’t wrong? There is no island here”

“It has to be here. An island can’t just move away.”

“No it can't,” Kyle said, fixing his glasses and walking over to the edge. “But it can sink. Well be sunk? Whatever the term is for when land disappears due to water rising.”

“You mean global warming made our island disappear. And with it the treasure.” Mitchelle punched my poor boat in anger.

“Calm down. You think I would do this without a backup plan.” I opened a closet. “Everyone suit up. We are going swimming…wait you guys know the safety rules?” We went over the safety rules for another 30 minutes. Safety is key.

“We didn’t need to do that.” Mitchelle tried to say but I told her it was indeed important.

I was first to go in telling them to wait here. I had the most experience and would find it first then tell them to follow me afterwards. It didn’t take long. There was a massive mound of rock and sand that came to a point. That point was so close to reaching the surface we could have seen it from the boat.

A swam further down to confirm my suspicions. It was beautiful. Coral speckled the stone and sand. Fish swam around it. However none of it actually got close to the mouth of the cave. A sore spot that made it easier to see. I chose to check inside quickly. Just a peek.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was here. Right there gleaming in the headlamps light was the treasure. Bars and coins of gold reflected the light to show paintings sealed in glass, statues of intricate designs. It was much easier than I thought it would be. In the movies there was always a catch. Some last puzzle that needed to be done. Or a trap that would be inevitably sprung. Not wanting to risk it, I left in a hurry to get the rest of the gang's input.

I half expected the bad guy to be waiting for him as he popped his head up. Surrounded by boats guns pointing at him. The movies that would have happened. I just shrugged it off. Don’t bite a gift horse in the mouth..wait was that it? “Guys I found it. It's literally right there.” I yelled up to the 3 who hadn't noticed me.

West jumped in alarm. “Mate you can’t just be doing that. Give some warning next time. And what do you mean right there? Like immediately visible.”

“Yes, that's what I mean. We found it. We actually found it.” They were just as excited as me jumping in one by one. We slowly went towards it making sure everyone was fine.

Their amazed and shocked faces were a treasure more than the gold in my opinion. This was the craziest but most fun thing I had ever done. And doing it with my friends just made it all the better.

“So how are we going to get this stuff out now that we found it?”

“We didn’t think of that.” Admitted Kyle.

Michelle said the obvious, “I doubt our ability to swim with gold in our hands. We’d sink before then.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I did a book on needing to find an old ship with crucial evidence and they used these balloons to pull them up.” West added.

“Wait, I have party balloons on the ship. Like a lot. When I was a kid we would use balloons as bobbers. It was dumb now that I think of it. But they should still be there. We have extra tanks of oxygen to fill them.” The plan was coming together. Me and Michelle were going to go back for them.

Before we did Kyle got our attention. “Guys, I think there is more to this place. Look around.”

They all turned to see what was going on. In large words written in hopefully not blood were the words Beware curse. Leave before you befall the same fate as me. Cursed t- It wasn’t that it wasn’t finished but the last bits were just unreadable. The first parts are barely readable. I shuddered at the thought. “Maybe we should be quick then. I have a bad-”

“Don’t be a wuss babe.” Michelle said kissing me to shut me up.

“Fine. You are right, curses aren’t real.”

“This wasn’t what I wanted to show you. Look over here.” Again we looked where he pointed his light and were shocked again.

There was a wall filled with a language we didn’t know. It was similar to hieroglyphics in that it was symbols. A wall full of them. Oddly the wall itself looked…well not old. There were crumpling stones or unreadable symbols. The items in the space faring far worse.

“Does anyone understand that?”

“Nope”

“Nah”

“Maybe” we turned to well…me. “I mean it looks like a weird story of sorts. Look at it and you’ll understand what I'm trying to say.”

What I was trying to say was that along the wall were different pictures as I’ll call them depicting different characters in the story. Different scenes. And under that was more pictures that told another story. It went on with 5 different stories of some kind. There were missing spots though. It was like caveman drawings. And I said as much. “Beyond that you got me.”

“If you are right then what do we do?” We looked around to find something else. It was hard but moving the heavy golden objects revealed more hidden clues.

As in more pictures on slabs they could move. It was of a man. Another was found depicting a fish. Another depicting water. Another with an elk. Another with what kinda looked like the moon. A goat laying down or dead. Another that showed two spears clashing. And the last slab was one depicting the beach.

There were 5 stories intotal and all went as this.

1st: Man walks, then boat, then boat in sea, blank, dinner.

2nd: people in circle, blank , blank, people in circle partying? Wait no that is something shining from above.

3rd: Man with spear, forest, blank, man dead bleeding from hole in his chest.

4th: A woman, blank, collecting shells, making a dress of sorts.

5th: Blank, two people, Blank, one man dead.

West, having a slab in his hand waddled over to the wall. “If I am correct then this fish would match the scenes and characters of this story.” He put it into the slot of the 1st. It slid in and a stone glowed as we did so. “I’m going to take that as a good sign. I think that the spears clashing he said having that next to him goes into the 3rd.

“Are you sure?” Michelle said, holding her hand out. “I think that it would fit better in the last slot on the 5th.

West looked shocked at his near mistake,”Shit thanks mate I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Let's go over it before slapping them in.”

“I think the 2nd should have the moon and goat. Like a sacrifice to the moon.” Kyle said, walking over with his moon.

“I think you are right and the goat should go second as the moon isn’t shining in the first one.” They put them in carefully. Another light turned on.

The third was easy with the only obvious one at this point being the elk having killed the man during a hunt. Another light.

“4th is probably the beach looking one since she is gathering shells.” I said, proud of myself.

“No shit sherlock.” Michelle said ruining my thunder. At least I was the one who figured out the story thing. Another light.

Last was easy due to there only being a few left. We first slotted in the fighting since it had to happen later. And then we plugged in the scene which was the water…that didn’t make sense. It didn’t glow as it was put it. Instead there was a cracking sound as if the cave was collapsing. It quieted down after a bit. “I think we got it wrong.” Captain Obvious Kyle said.

“No shit Kyle.” Michelle said for me. “Go looking for another piece.” She commanded us. Yes mam.

We found another one depicting a field of grass. And two more with different characters on them. We could have easily gotten things totally wrong without knowing it. Kyle said it best. “Shit me sideways we were almost fucked. Should look harder nextime.”

The grass made much more sense since the last one depicted a dead man with grass holding him. It worked and the last stone glowed and the wall whirled to life.

Inside was a corridor. We carefully stepped our way through checking for traps. We didn’t find anything by the end. Also nothing found us. No traps at all. I for one was starting to freak out. My friends didn’t seem to mind or pay attention.

At the very end was a spear of gold. It was just stuck in the stone pointed down. As if it was the sea version of excalibur.

I followed behind the 3 hesitant. “Maybe we shouldn’t. We have so much stuff already we don’t need a tacky spear.”

They didn’t listen. And the moment Kyle reached for it I knew some Indiana Jones shit was about to happen. Ready for it all to fall apart I saw the pillar fall moments after, I jumped to tackle Michelle out of the way.