Chapter 2

Tom and Kelly hammered at the rock surrounding this object with there torches but to no avail. Tom tapped her shoulder and pointed up, he wanted to go back to the boat. She shook her head and motioned to the object in the rock, she found it and didn't want to leave it here for someone else. Tom motioned to her to stay wear she was and swam off. Kelly clawed at this thing with her fingers, it looked like a corner of something. She clawed away the fairly loose dirt and algae and saw some markings, symbols almost like writing but not that she understood.

Tom returned with a hammer and screwdriver from the tool box on the boat and started to chisel away the rock. It came away in big chunks.

In the dark he felt something come over him. He thought he could here his name being called. He wanted to sit up and look around but still he was held by that damned curse. His frustration grew.

"Christ how much more can there be?" Tom thought to himself, he had chiselled and chipped away and was faced with what looked like a mini coffin. It was 6ft long and a foot deep already and it's full length still hadn't been exposed. He kept on.

Another ten minutes and he finally found the end, he and Kelly pulled with all they're strength and the box fell free from the rock.

They swam with it back up to the surface, it was so heavy. The heaved it up and onto the boat. It landed on the deck with a loud clang.

"Tom what the hell is it?"

"I don't know, but we found it, its heavy so it must be worth something."

The voice again called to him, it was getting louder, it was as though someone was standing over him, trying to rouse him from his slumber. He was confused, why now after so many years of silence and torment would he hear this. Was his mind playing tricks with him? Was the hunger that was burning in his gut making him hallucinate?

Whistler stopped the blow torch and looked closer at the screen, the sound was off but the pictures caught his attention. It showed a man being interviewed standing behind something that looked like a coffin, but it was way too thin. He grabbed for the remote and turned up the volume,…….

"…..will go on display at the museum tomorrow at midday. Mr Mercer why is it you have decided to open the box in front of everyone instead of doing it yourself?

A man in his early thirties, with long black hair and a goatee, came on the screen…

"well myself and my assistant decided to leave it as a surprise, we don't know what's in there, and we want to know as much as the rest of the world does too."

"what has been made of these markings?"

"This is doctor Evison and he has been brought in to tell us about that."

The doctor came on screen

" The box is about 7 centuries old and the markings caused some real problems to locate due to the age. So far we have only managed to decipher some of the pictures. This one," he pointed to one that looked like a deformed bat, " is the clan symbol of a mythical creature, a vampire. One of the first on record. He right up there with Dracula as far as how long the stories about him have been around. This is his legendary sword, his favoured weapon if you will, some of the others mention a curse of eternal sleep, but so far we haven't been able to finish the translation."

Whistler sighed " when will these asses learn, if it says something about a curse leave it the hell alone"