V3: Chapter 67: Dark Bay
The group arrived at a small seaside town.
“I’ll take Laura to the Seaside Magic Tower first. She said there are still some things we need to prepare, so you guys stay in town for a while.”
Liang Lin didn’t understand why.
“Why don’t we just go with you? We can just stay in the Seaside Magic Tower. Why do we have to stay in town?”
Octaville sighed.
“That’s what I thought at first too. Laura said we couldn’t do that, that you can’t stay by the sea forever. I asked her the specific reason, but she said she didn’t know either; someone in her dream guided her like that.”
Liang Lin and Liang Di exchanged a glance.
Now they were like headless flies, everything they did was following Laura’s dream, looking quite like clowns.
“Okay, we understand.”
Liang Lin and Liang Di settled down in the town temporarily, while Octaville and Hilary took Laura to the Seaside Magic Tower.
Liang Lin and Liang Di, bored in their hotel room, decided to stroll out into the street.
"Liang Di, is there anything you'd like to eat?"
They were enjoying a rare date alone. Since having their child, it had been a long time since they'd gone out together. Usually, they were with their children, either as a family of three or four.
Dates like this, just the two of them, were truly rare.
Liang Di glanced at a dessert shop.
"Let's try some desserts there. They're not our family's desserts, but trying someone else's product might be good for ours, right?"
Liang Di tightened her grip on Liang Lin's hand, preparing to pull her into a dessert shop. Just as they rounded a corner, they suddenly heard a familiar word.
"The sea...."
Someone was talking about the sea. The voice was very old, like the creaking of withered wood, forcing Liang Lin and Liang Di to stop in their tracks.
The two, true to their married nature, even their movements of eavesdropping were identical. Their gazes simultaneously fell on the old woman, and they leaned closer, wanting to listen.
The old woman was telling a story about the sea to several children, seemingly just beginning.
“You little rascals, do you know about the curse of the sea?”
A mysterious smile played on the old woman's lips.
The children's eyes sparkled as they stared intently at the old woman, shouting in unison, “No!”
“Then I’ll tell you, so you won’t be curious about the sea and avoid the guards to venture near it.”
The old woman spoke slowly, her voice still like decaying wood.
“Deep within this sea, many unknown secrets are hidden.”
Some children were impatient, urging her to stop being suspenseful and hurry up.
The old woman adjusted her posture and continued her story.
"Legend has it that there is a cursed kingdom at the bottom of the sea, whose inhabitants, having committed unforgivable crimes, are eternally imprisoned in the abyss. They have been transformed into all sorts of grotesque monsters, wandering day and night in the darkness, yearning to escape this cursed land."
"Whenever the night is still and quiet, these monsters will peek out from the cracks in the seabed, their empty and desperate eyes gazing at the world above."
The children's mouths gaped open, as if they were truly there. One timid girl even hid behind another friend.
“Once, a young fisherman went out to sea at night, thinking it would be just a normal fishing trip. However, as his boat entered the depths of a dark bay, he suddenly encountered unprecedented terror. The sea suddenly became turbulent, and an invisible giant hand was churning the water.”
The old woman recounted the story vividly, gesturing wildly as she described the monster's shape, laughing excitedly at the most exciting parts.
“Then, a huge black shadow rose from the seabed. It had octopus-like tentacles and shark-like teeth, its eyes gleaming with an eerie green light.”
“The fisherman was terrified. He rowed with all his might, trying to escape this terrifying sea. However, the monster followed him relentlessly.”
At this point, she suddenly stopped, mysteriously pausing, her eyes darting around.
She leaned closer to one of the children. “Little friend,” she said, “guess what happened to that fisherman?”
The child immediately shouted, “He definitely ran away! Of course he ran away! That’s how it is in fairy tales!”
Indeed, children naturally believe in those beautiful, yet unreal, fairy tales.
The old woman shook her head, then revealed a cruel smile and held up one finger.
“In the end, the fisherman, along with his boat, disappeared into the surging waves, leaving only silence and a deathly still night sky.”
This was the normal ending of the story.
The children’s mouths gaped open again, seemingly unable to believe this terrifying and regrettable ending.
The old woman paid no attention to their expressions or their inner thoughts; she continued speaking.
"From then on, the sea beside us became a forbidden place in people's mouths."
"No one dared to go out to fish at night anymore, and even during the day, few dared to approach this area. Whenever someone mentioned the terrifying legends of Dark Bay, their faces would show fear and awe."
"Now you know why I didn't let you go to the sea. The sea is extremely dangerous; anyone who goes there will lose their life."
At this moment, on the beach.
The sky was obscured by thick, leaden clouds, the sunlight unable to penetrate the gloom and offer the earth any warmth. The sea wind, carrying a biting cold, howled through the cliffs, emitting a mournful wail, sounding like the souls of the dead searching for their way home in the depths of the sea.
On the beach, the black sand spread out like a deathly night, each footprint quickly swallowed by the tide, leaving no trace. The waves crashed against the rocks, making a dull, powerful sound.
The distant horizon, blurred and indistinct, seemed to merge with the sky, making it impossible to discern where the sea ended and the sky began.
On this cold, desolate beach, stood an ancient building, guarding this sea.
The lighthouse's glow flickered weakly and ethereally in the thick fog.
However, even the lighthouse's illumination could not dispel the eerie atmosphere that permeated the surroundings.
Every nightfall, strange shadows swayed around the tower; these were indescribable beings, lurking in the shadows, watching everything.
Creak~
The tower's doors were pushed open.
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.