Evermore

Great men live forever.

That's what Father always said. Of course, he meant it in a figurative sense, but that never deterred me from the utter conviction that somewhere out there, the secret of true immortality waited to be discovered. After all, there must be some fragment of truth to the stories of restorative artifacts that have pervaded so many world cultures.

It is to this cause I have dedicated my life. Building my own body of research upon that of my predecessors, I followed in their footsteps, and have spent decades traveling the world in search of everlasting life.


And it's cost me more than any man should be forced to lose.


I've endured abandonment by my wife and children. I've seen my fortune evaporate. I've been written off as a crackpot by academics and researchers. The best years of my life have been spent in the most inhospitable locations on the planet. I've sacrificed everything in the singular pursuit of this objective.

And now, as I write this from our camp in the Florida Everglades, I can't help but smile at the irony of traveling the world several times over, only to return to where I started, not twenty miles from where my path began as an undergrad at the University of Miami.

We're close now. I can feel it.



I closed the journal, taking a moment to run my fingers across the worn, faded leather cover. For much of my life, this journal had been my only friend; my silent partner and the only one that understood the depth of my conviction to this cause. Friends, family, guides and investors had come and gone... but my journal was the one thing I could count on... the one thing that had always been there for me.

The heavy rain poured down, sending sheets of water to run off the angled, canvas roof of the tent. I wondered if the old thing would hold up to the temperamental tropical storm. It was certainly built to last, once upon a time, but like me, it had grown old and frail with age. I doubted either of us had much time left.

Looking over at my current business partners, I wondered if I should just tell them to forget the whole thing. They had invested considerable money and time in my research and, watching them now, wondered if they would later resent me for leading them on what the other had called a wild goose chase, or more often, the unrealistic obsession of an aging fool. I prefer the former.

As I was debating whether or not I should let them go before they could leave me, our guide came back, excitedly jabbering in his native language... so quickly, that I was having a hard time understanding him.

"What's he saying?" One of my business partners asked me.

"I'm not sure," I replied. "Something about finding something out in the swamp."

My Creole wasn't nearly as sharp as it used to be, although I couldn't tell if that was attributable to lack of practice or merely forgetfulness and old age. I was actually proud that I had been able to understand as much as I did.

My business partners looked at me for further translation. Our guide continued to explain himself, very rapidly, as I struggled to interpret.

"A building... hidden in the swamp... no, a temple... mostly underwater!"

I couldn't help feeling exhilarated at the discovery. Was this it? Was my life's quest finally at an end? As the guide hurried back outside into the rain, my business partners eagerly followed. Grabbing my pack, I dashed after them.

We slogged through the swamp, knee and sometimes even waist deep in the muck. After only a few minutes, we were all filthy, slimy, and thoroughly soaked to the bone as the rain continued, unrelenting. I strained to keep the guide in front of us in sight as large water droplets ran down the brim of my hat and obstructed my view. After what seemed like hours of traveling, we came to a small clearing just as the night sky was beginning to surrender to a new day.

Following the guide's outstretched finger, I saw what he had seen. The very top of a multi-tiered building, its uppermost levels the only part visible above the swamp's surface. Even those tiers were barely visible in the pre-dawn light, nearly completely overgrown with vegetation. I wondered how far we had traveled from our already remote campsite. We must be damn near the middle of the Everglades.

After some searching and my business partners' quick work with their machetes, we found a passageway leading into the structure. It was completely dark inside, and I cracked open a glow-stick to show us the way.

Stepping inside, we found ourselves in a small room with a long hallway on the far wall, its end obscured in darkness, protected from the neon green glow of our light. Water dripped from cracks in the ceiling, and moss had overrun the stone floors, making the walk precarious as my business partners and I made our way toward the hallway.

Our guide's animated ranting gave us pause, and we turned to watch him.

My business partners looked to me for translation.

"Something about this place being cursed... and that he won't go any farther."

One of them shrugged.

"He got us here. We can do the rest," he casually offered. And with that they moved down the hallway, bathed in emerald light. Following behind them, I noticed the path slowly twisting and turning, winding steadily downward. We were descending into the heart of the structure, far below the surface outside.

I was hardly able to contain my growing enthusiasm. I pushed ahead of my business partners, hoping to lead the way.

"Careful," one of them warned. "It's slippery."

I brushed him off and continued forward, not realizing just how slippery it truly was. I felt my mud-covered boot skid across the mossy stone, followed by the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach that comes moments before a fall. I tumbled backward, into the nearest of my partners, knocking us both to the ground and causing us to slide downward. In desperation, he grabbed for his associate for support, inadvertently pulling him off his feet as well.

The three of us slid downward, screaming as our speed increased and we barreled toward a ledge of some sort, looming in the distance. Part of the passageway had collapsed, and we were headed right for it!


The three of us hit the ground with a thud. We groaned and writhed around on the cold, wet stone floor. We looked up to see that we had fallen over twenty feet, the broken floor of the passageway high above us. It would definitely take the three of us some time to figure out how to get back up there.

Flickering green light signaled the end of our glow stick's life. As it died, I heard one of my partners rummaging around in his pack, presumably for another one.

"Wait!" I said, noticing a dull glow in the corner of the room.

I slowly began moving toward the glow as my partner cracked open another glow stick to light our way. I then realized that the light was coming from an antechamber connected to the current room in which we found ourselves. Leaving our green light source on the ground out here, the three of us ventured into the antechamber.

My mouth dropped open once we entered the antechamber. The only thing in the room was a small basin on a waist-high pedestal, filled with water that shimmered with a bluish-green luminance.

I felt my stomach knot up in anticipation. This had to be it! After a lifetime of searching, I had finally found what had eluded so many others. After all this time, the object of my search... my obsession... was within my grasp. I hurriedly rushed forward, slipping my hands into the cool water.

"Wait..." one of my business partners replied. "Maybe we should wait until..."

I had waited long enough. I cupped my hands and raised the incandescent liquid to my lips, greedily drinking it down. It tasted just like water... cold, refreshing water. I waited several moments for something to happen, but nothing did. Had it worked? I certainly didn't feel any different. Surely a substance of this significance would cause some kind of reaction?

I looked at my business partners and shrugged.

And then came the sound.

Low and far away at first, as if someone or something was making its way toward us from the very bowels of the earth. It was growing louder, and more ferocious. Feral grunts and growls carried up the passageways, accompanying the sound of claws skittering across stone.

We screamed as the creatures fell upon us. They were gruesome things, with the bodies of great cats... covered in scales and spines, their faces resembling some kind of insectoid, with fearsome mandibles and a mouth lined with razor sharp teeth. A pack of six of them descended upon us, and our cries of agony echoed through the chambers as our flesh and muscle tissue was torn from our bones.

Consciousness slipped away as we were devoured alive by the ravenous beasts.


And then I awoke with a start. I was sweating profusely as I looked around to gain my bearings. Had it been a dream? Was all of it merely the lucid vision of an unconscious man after a fall?

The eviscerated remains of my two business partners told a different tale. We had died. And I had come back. Immortality was mine!

I looked to the collapsed passageway above me and suddenly realized that I may be immortal, but I was also trapped.

And that's when I heard the sound of the creatures returning.


(1650 words)