The Pirate Skull Mask

As a member of "the Dixon Street Gang" Justin was always coming to the group with something new to do. Today was going to be a special day full of activity! Justin could tell as soon as he woke up.

There was Chuck, Steve, Dana and Justin, they were all boys in the same group that hung around every year at the beach after school causing all kinds of mischief. They had been up and down the California coastline for the last 9 years of their lives and started the "Gang" only the year before when they'd come upon an abandoned shack and decided it was the perfect place to start a gang.

Justin had burst into the shack this particular sunny Saturday morning around ten with a brilliant idea.

"We should go look for treasure!"

The boys were startled and shouted at Justin:

"Ah, you don't know what your talking about - treasure! There is no treasure!"
"What the hell are you talking about!"
"Don't you know how to knock first before you come in?"

"Come on guys, there must be some treasure to find!"

"Uh, hello," said Chuck, "don't you think they'd have found it by now?!"
"How about you go!" said Steve.
"Nah, I don't think so, we just got here and I've got my game with me..."

"...Fine then, I'll find it myself." Justin walked back out.

Justin headed over to a part of the beach that he'd never been before. It was a nice day, sunny but not too hot and the water splashed on the heavy dark rocks nearby. Mist was flying all around Justin as he walked along. Looking down at a piece of bark from a tree imbedded in the sand he examined it closer - it wasn't a piece of bark at all but a skull! It was missing the jaw and the back of the head had been cracked off. There was no one around to see him pick it up and look at it. It looked old. It looked more like a skull mask. A skull mask! Justin knew he had found treasure!!

The skull mask was greenish and brown from having been under water for so long. Something must have released it from where it was hidden somewhere off-shore...In the depths. Perhaps not intended to be discovered. Justin was wiping off the sand particles and examining it from front to back.

"I'm going to put this thing on and scare the crap out of the guys!" he whispered sneakily and wiped off the sand and rinsed it off in the water nearby.

Justin dried off the skull with his t-shirt front as best he could and carefully slipped the skull onto his face so that the eye sockets were where he could see out of them. It smelled awful but the skull fit on his face.

He rushed back to the shack to share what he had found!

On the way there Justin felt funny. Maybe it was the smell of the skull that made him feel dizzy but Justin also began hearing ocean sounds as if he'd put his ear to a shell. He thought he could hear far away noises as he entered again at the shack.

"BOO!"screamed Justin.

The gang was just about to beat him up when he removed the mask.

"Guys! It's me! It's me!"

"Dammit Justin!"
"Hey! What's that on your face!"
"Cool!"

"Yeah, I found it on the beach! I told you guys there's treasure out there!!" Justin slipped the skull mask back onto his face.

"Sure, like you know where to find it!"said Steve.

"Actually I do." said Justin. Suddenly Justin's demeanor had changed. His voice sounded deeper and he seemed to feel confidence well inside him. He felt alive...Deliciously alive. A shiver went down his spine as he motioned them to come nearer.

"I bet where I found this is more treasure! I say we go there real quick and see what we can find! No harm in that, eh guys! I bet there may be even a map somewhere buried nearby..." Justin didn't know why he was saying these things. He had no idea why he was telling them this but they seemed excited now to find treasure.

They hurried to the spot where Justin had been not even 15 minutes ago. The big volcanic rocks sat like stone-gods upon the ocean. The waves crashed upon them and once again fell back. Justin looked around for a particular stone. He searched the shore and found it. The map was there! Soon he was easily racing toward it with "the Dixon Gang" in toe. They knew to follow along sometimes. He had the tide right now at his advantage because it was heading out as he made his way around to the far side of the rock where there was a crack on the bottom right of the rock that he stuck his arm into and immediately felt heavy paper in his hand. Parchment which was dry inside the hole. He was about to pull out the paper when Dana called out:

"You guys! The tide is coming in fast! We'd better get going if we want to keep from getting hurt any time soon!"

Justin felt nervous and could see the water start to rise as he lay there pulling out the parchment from the cavern in the stone.

"Okay go then! I'm almost out!"

The Gang took off running as Justin had just removed his arm from the hole and rolled over onto his stomach. With the rolled up paper under his arm and took off running with the rest of them toward the shore.

"WE DID IT!" they screamed. They clapped as Justin presented a well-preserved unrolled map. On it was the way to treasure! There was a sparkle in Justin's eye. He was a pirate and he had a great secret! Anyone who stood in his way was dead! That booty was his!

"Yes and now we must find my, I mean, the treasure and be millionaires!"

"Let me guess Justin, you can read this map too?" asked Chuck.

"Yeah, I might. Let me look here!" Justin looked at the map and checked the map coordinates and direction and reaching into his pocket to get his iPhone and calculate the nearest location to something similar nearby. Using the camera he took a picture of it and matched it to a similar coastline nearby. There were some cliffs with caves to the south! They were heading out before 3pm in that direction. He felt like a evil-hearted, corrosive pirate with the mask on.

They were at the caves by 5pm. There were so many different caves to choose from it was impossible to know which one to go to. Justin was confident! He pointed toward the one that looked like an ear. They made their way down into the cavern and not too far from the entrance there was a bridge. The water had dried to a trickle and they made their way across it to the other side. Rounding the corner they came upon gold! A great amount of it! Everywhere! Gold bars and rings and pocket watches and jewelry of all sorts.

"Wow Justin! How did you know this was here?"

"I-I-I didn't...I never knew about this place!"

"...No, but I did!"

Suddenly a ghoulish fiend floated out from the darkened shadows. A skeleton, wet with seaweed and scraps of what were once clothes. A hand came at Justin and grabbed him around the throat.

"Now give that back to me!" the headless apparition scowled as the other skeletal hand ripped off the mask from Justin's face.

Justin - like he had been suddenly awoken - jumped and screamed as he ran away. The skull mask was now a part of it's master once again. The pirate laughed and it filled the chambers with shrieks of laughter and that's when the rest of the Gang fled too. Suddenly the rocks began to loosen around them and everything began to crumble as they made their way out. The cave collapsed that very moment.

The sun was setting red in the California sky as four boys make their way back home for dinner. No one would believe them if they told that the story was true. So instead they created a nice fictional piece called: "The Pirate Skull Mask".