The Black Lagoon

To celebrate their first year in university, six friends went camping in the wilderness.

After driving for several hours from the nearest town, they discovered a lagoon, nestled beside a cliff ideal for diving. They set up camp in the woods nearby and spent the evening swimming in the warm, clear water. As the sun sunk below the trees, one of the friends went up to the highest point on the cliff and jumped off, while the other 5 watched. 

Their laughter slowly subsided as they waited for him to surface. It only took half a minute for them to dive in after their friend. Struggling and sputtering among the reeds in the lagoon, they searched hopelessly for him. 

Finally they disentangled themselves and came up, but they never saw their friend again. Heartbroken they returned to the city and passed a strange and lonely year in which their only solace was the knowledge that they would return to the lagoon to honour the anniversary of their friend’s death.

A year passed and they returned to the lagoon as a memorial, but as they approached they saw their friend standing there, head bowed. Excitedly they called to him and began running towards him, but he didn’t turn. As they got closer they called him more desparately, but still to no avail. With joy they ran towards him, but stopped dead when they saw not one but five crosses on the waterside.

If you didn’t understand: The Five passed away when they dove in to find their friend who jumped, “Struggling and sputtering among the reeds in the lagoon.” When they returned to the city, “passed a strange and lonely year.” They return only to realize it wasn’t their friend that died but all five of them.

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by reddit user graduallyaghost

The Black Stone

In 1653, Spanish explorers found the ruins of what appeared to be a Mesoamerican step pyramid in what is modern South Carolina. Though the site was far beyond the borders of any known American indigenous populations, it was also of a smaller size than existing Mesoamerican structures and bore an unrecognized form of glyphic decoration. Local natives were familiar with the structure but knew nothing about it.

The Spaniards sought to disassemble the building as a heathen relic and did so, brick by brick, salvaging the materials to construct their own nearby settlement. Deconstruction halted, however, when one brick was uncovered at the core of the structure, carved entirely of black glass. The stone, approximately two feet by three, was impossible to move or even budge by any man or animal.

Attempts were made to dig the stone out from beneath, but excavation revealed that it extended indefinitely into the earth. In frustration, the captain of the explorers fired a glancing blow off of the surface of the stone. The obsidian block was undamaged, but moments after the blow had struck, it silently retracted downwards, sliding downward into a hole that quickly collapsed inward on itself, burying the retreating obsidian column.
The Spaniards interpreted this as an evil omen and abandoned the site, never to return.

Holly

I love Holly
My little dolly
I’ve had her for a year
She used to scream
But now it seems
She’s overcome her fear
My tiny companion
I can’t imagine
What would happen if I was caught
Every night
I hold her tight
But now she’s starting to rot

—
Credits to: BonnieJacqueline

We Could Do Nothing But Lie Down

I remember the day the spider-like creatures swarmed out of their holes and covered the moon’s surface. 

NASA telescopes captured high definition video of the masses of creatures, throbbing and heaving as far as the eye could see. They were as big as cars and I nearly lost my mind when I caught a glimpse of them on the news.

I remember the ensuing months as humanity reacted to the presence of new life in our solar system. Many wanted to nuke the lunar surface until it was glass. Others wanted to make peace. Some worshiped them as gods. Personally, whenever I looked up at the moon, brownish red with the skittering bodies of monsters, I could barely stop myself from shaking.

I remember when CNN broke footage of the creatures building massive ships on the surface. They were intelligent. This was enough to cause near panic. They were coming to us.

I remember the day they sent their first message. The sound was harsh and guttural and interspersed with a horrible clicking. Top linguists around the world were called in to translate.

I remember two weeks later when the brownish red tint of the moon gave way to the milky white we had almost forgotten as the monsters entered into their ships. Earth was on high alert, all nations’ armies prepared for assault. And then the ships took off and left in the opposite direction.

And I remember the next day, when the linguists finally decoded the strange message and played it for the whole world to hear: “If you value your lives, run.”

 

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by reddit user Lloiu