Jason’s Grotto

Image by Quang Le from Pixabay

Jason’s text said that he was going back for more of that
delicious caviar he’d brought home. While we had no idea how long that was
supposed to take, when morning arrived before him, we decided to go after him.

According to Life360, Jason was up at Juliet Lake, and had
been for the last nine hours. We considered calling the police, or possibly the
park rangers, but we’d feel pretty stupid if he’d just gotten tired and fallen asleep
in his truck.

When we got there, his truck was empty—no Jason and no
diving equipment—and his rowboat lay in the placid water, still moored to the
dock.

“Help me pull it in,” Hector said, grabbing the mooring
line.

I put away my phone and started pulling the line he fed me. “What
are you expecting to find?”

“I don’t know yet,” Hector said. “Blood, maybe? His oxygen
tank? At the very least, his phone.”

The boat was empty though, no sign of struggle, no sign he’d
ever been here except the oars still in place.

“His phone is definitely here. It must be down with him,” I
said.

“I’m going down,” Helen said, pulling her wetsuit out of the
trunk.

“Me too.” The two of us suited up while Hector stood on the
dock looking for bubbles.

He shook his head as we approached the water. Down we went, searching out Jason’s secret grotto. My biggest hope was that his grotto had an air pocket and he couldn’t leave due to some malfunction. But as we approached the location of his cell, my heart sank.

We found him, affixed to the rock, split from neck to navel,
and stuffed full of the caviar he was after.

Helen screamed.

A shadow passed over us, blocking out the sun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you enjoy this story? Join my newsletter to get an exclusive novella that you will also enjoy, and hear about future projects first!

The post Jason’s Grotto appeared first on Ichabod Ebenezer.