My friends and I, no matter how strenuous our relationship, were finally going to our deep sea scuba diving trip. My friend, Jack, had found a portion of the sea that, for some reason, had been completely avoided by other scuba divers. Not only that, but it took him weeks to find even a single boat that was willing to take us out there, and they canceled on us not too long after accepting. It took just up until the week of our journey for him to find another boat willing to take us out there. A young woman who was new to the area and was also interested to find out why others avoided this area, but nobody would answer her, nor our, questions about it.
We arrived at the pier, preparing all of our gear, making sure we had everything. Nothing had been forgotten, supplies were prepared in surplus, and the weather was clear. Jack was an experienced, yet superstitious scuba diver, and knew of many things that supposedly meant bad luck. He had specifically paid for a month's worth of the captain's time so that we could leave multiple days late in case of bad omens, but we were able to leave on the very day we originally meant to as there were no omens leading us to believe we would meet trouble.
I felt... strangely right, coming out to this piece of sea. I couldn't find any reason for me to feel so, but something seemingly drew me forward, so I didn't mind waiting if we had to as long as we got out there, but all things were going well. We got out to the section of sea where we wanted to, but it wasn't quite right, so I spoke to Jack, asking if we could move just a couple hundred feet. I just had a feeling that we would see something more interesting if we did. Jack shrugged and conveyed my message to the captain, and she just took it as another one of his superstitions as she had come to know he had many.
We arrived, all of us put on our scuba gear, and approached the edge of the boat. The captain, and our friend Jenna who didn't feel comfortable diving, would keep an eye out while on the surface, and could pull us up in case of trouble. It was me, Jack, a woman named Sillia, and a man name Jeremy, and we dove, one by one. Swimming, more like sinking, deeper down, we found out that this area was actually much deeper than we were led to believe by maps and the surrounding sea, as if there was a giant hole in the ocean floor.
We were equipped with full body diving suits that had headsets within so we could communicate with each other. There was a small light on the helmet which was meant to not be too bright so we could read if we found something with words, as well as headlamps that were much brighter so we could see farther into the depths. Through the headset, I heard Jack saying that, although strange, it wasn't unheard of for random deep spots in the ocean, so we continued deeper down.
It didn't take too long, although it was nearly twice as deep as we had thought it would be, before we found the ocean floor. We saw the dirty, sandy ground with no signs of life anywhere. In fact, we hadn't seen even a fish since arriving, but I didn't care because that drawing feeling was getting stronger. We swam around for a bit and there was only a couple mounds in the sand and Jack complained because I said there would be something more interesting. We were about to leave when I accidentally bumped into one of the mounds.
The dirt and sand was brushed off, and what I found underneath was a stone pillar, collapsed on its side, and eroded over the years so there were no hard edges, therefore when covered in dirt and sand it just looked like a mound on the sea floor. I called the others over and kept brushing the sand off the mound and revealed a pillar made from some material that was similar to stone in many ways, but far too dark. Obsidian, maybe, but less shiny. The truly interesting fact was that there were markings carved into the surface, but most of them were scratched out like that had been carved incorrectly. If I had any guesses, then this would be a pillar someone used to practice carving on far away from whatever town or city they originated from.
I finished brushing all of the sand and dirt off the pillar and, although eroded, I found one side was broken as if the pillar had been much larger, so I moved to the other mounds and brushed off some of the sand and dirt and found that all three mounds were, in fact, made of the same material, and most likely part of the same pillar. I found the others helping me brush off the sand and dirt, and at the very edge of one of the pillars, one that seemed to be an end piece, I found symbols that weren't scratched out.
I started taking pictures with the others since, although it wasn't our original goal, we could probably make quite a decent sum of money if we reported our findings considering how old these pillars looked. We took hundreds of photos, photos of every foot of the pillars, and even more that were more detailed on some of the scratched out images. I swam with the others back to the surface, but I couldn't focus on anything and had to be stopped by Jack from going back to the surface too fast, otherwise I would have suffered from decompression sickness. Even when we returned to the boat, I was distracted as I removed my scuba gear and handed my camera over to the captain since Jenna was busy with Jack's camera.
I found my notebook, which I had left on the desk, then began to write. I had to, there was nothing more important than writing this. The symbols, the ones that weren't scratched out, they were the same. The same symbols that I had drawn in my visions of God and the Devil, the same images that had already made me lose my mind once. This was proof. Proof that I wasn't crazy. Proof that I wasn't alone. Proof that God truly was out there, in all of His magnificent, undulating, powerful glory. I wasn't alone. I'm not alone.