Silence lasted for who knows how long. I was dumbfounded and shocked. It took me so long to comprehend what he said. I ran the words through my head six or seven times before speaking,

"I have no interest in your hoax," I said.

The man stepped near me and smiled, "It is not a hoax, Blackwood. It is real. The crewmen witnessed it, they saw it."

"They saw God? That's bullshit! It's all fantasy, made up, it's not real, it... can't be real."

The man chuckled, "But it is."

"How can you be sure? Those crewmen are probably delirious or suffering from shock. There are plenty of reasons to explain this." The man was not fazed by my skepticism,

"Let me show you where those two men are, and you'll see for yourself."

He gave me an arrogant smirk. I didn't want to indulge in whatever he had up his sleeve, but this whole thing was so intriguing and vague. Eventually, I agreed, and we arrived at the hospital.

It was a new hospital that had been built just a few months prior. We entered it and went down into the basement. Upon entering, it was as if I had entered a new building. The walls were old, with a greenish color covered in cobwebs and mold. We stopped in front of a door, the man gave me a napkin and told me to cover up my nose, although he himself did not do it.

Once we entered the room, it was completely dark. My heart sank, was this a trap? The man lit up a candle, and I saw the two crewmen grumbling and mumbling.

I sensed the smell of decaying fish. The man motioned for me to approach slowly. I got a closer look at the two crewmen. I struggled not to puke, barely managed to keep it in. I started to sweat furiously, my heart pounding in my chest as if it were about to burst.

The disgusting image in front of my eyes made me want to tear them from my sockets. Both of the crewmen's skin wasn't normal, it was purplish-black. They lay on their backs, taking enormously deep breaths. Their skin was soft and squishy, and I could even make out some internal organs in the stomach. Their legs covered in several holes the size of a tennis ball. But the most appalling part was their heads.

The crewman on the right side had tentacles coming out of his eyes. They were moving slowly, left and right, like leeches, completely black, making a squishy sound that sent shivers down my spine. The crewman's head was two times that of a normal person's, hardened with purple veins popping out. He had no teeth, but several small tentacles inside his mouth acted like his tongue. I counted 27 before the man pulled me to the crewman on the left side.

He only had one tentacle coming out of his right eye, much larger than the other crewman's. His left eye had two eyelids that were snake-like. He had teeth, but they were slowly falling out one by one, and from them emerged small worm-like tentacles. It was all real, this could not have been staged in any other way.

"I have never seen such a nightmarish image," I said aloud, and the crewman began to yelp and choke. His skin began to burn from the candle's light. The man took a step away, and the crewman calmed down a bit. Then the man came closer to the crewman, dangerously close. I grabbed his shoulder, but he brushed me aside.

The man asked the crewman, "What did you see on the island?" The crewman looked at him, then at the wall, he coughed and began choking, purple liquid coming through his mouth, and said, "Eden... garden... god."

Afterwards, the doctors came and told us we had to leave. "This is completely insane," I told him.

"Normal reaction, but now you see why that island is important," the man said.

I shook my head, "There are too many questions here, but I'll simply say that I don't believe that a 'god' is on that island, but I do believe that something dangerous and unknown is lurking there, and we shouldn't approach that hellish place."

The man didn't like that and said, "Man is meant to explore, Blackwood. It is his destiny. You see, if there is something on that island, we must explore it and find out. That island contains so much that must be explored and found out."

I wiped the sweat off my forehead, "I get where you're coming from, but..."

"We must explore the unknown, this is too important."

He had a point. This is the discovery of a lifetime and everyone wants to be first and go down in history. But the threat of this is also great. With this new island, who knows what else is there. Something good is always a possibility. Every piece of land that man has conquered had both good and bad to give. Maybe this was just the worst that we saw. Still, something so dangerous should be left alone. But you can't help but study it and see it in person. We also must know what it is and how to counter it. This is man's curse, his curiosity.

I began to ask him, "So did the men look like this when they arrived?"

"No, they had purple chests. Other than that, they were normal and then it began to spread," I was appalled.

"This is a nightmare. I don't know anything that could cause something like this. Whatever is on the island, we have to find the source. You won, you bastard. I'm on board," the man gently nodded as if he knew that I would join him from the beginning and said, "Tomorrow morning we're heading to the island."

That was enough time for me to prepare. "Just one thing...what will you do to the 2 men?"

"Incinerate them," he said casually. My eyes widened even though I knew that would happen. The man continued, "They keep transforming into a creature totally alien to us. We took a sample of their skin and now blood, which turned purple, but the samples started to grow and morphed into a small tentacle creature the size of a bunny. We shot it and burned it. Whatever is going on, it is clearly morphing into something far more dangerous. If we let the 2 of them live any further, not to mention the agony they're feeling." I understood it, but I pitied them. We exited the hospital, and once the sun hit my face, I knew that only darkness would come afterwards.