The beach was empty now. Just the sound of waves lapping against the shore and the distant cry of seagulls. The sky was bleeding into a deep navy, streaks of pink and orange still clinging to the horizon like a bruise.

He should've ignored it. Should've clocked out and gone home. But curiosity was a bastard like that.

The water reached his stomach now. The cave swallowed him whole. Bioluminescent algae lined the walls in patches, casting everything in an eerie, ethereal glow. The only sounds were his own breathing and the drip of water.

He ducked under a low-hanging rock, squeezed through a narrow passage, and emerged into a hidden pocket. A cove within the cave. Water surrounded a lone rock formation in the center like an island. And on it—