Dark Terrors and Desperation in Diapers (private)

[Rye]

Luke floated towards her "hm? Something up?" he asked seeing as she was staring down into the water. He stood up and stared in "what is that...." he asked. It looked like on the end it had black metal , with slightly raised bumps for screws. He saw her drive down and swiftly followed her. He swarm down to look at the thing. There was nothing like it down at the bottom , and the water was crystal clear , he could see clearly , if not stinging a little. He motion to Hayley and put his hands on it. He planned on yanking it up to the surface to get a better look at it , whatever it was. Down here it looked like it was man made , the corner to something , with nails and iron in it.

[R682]

Hayley noted Luke's rapid appearance at her side, in the tranquility of the underwater. But her thwarted desire to escape him for a few moments was replaced by a shared curiousity as she drew closer to the wooden thing; it wasn't just a stray plank of wood, but potentially something far more interesting. Seeing Luke's intention as he took hold of it, she joined him, not at all worried about her breath, and managing to sink into a crouching position on the lake-bed from where she could help lever the edge of the panel up like a coiled spring, applying the full force of her whole body. Above her, near the surface, the water seemed to be boiling where the waterfall plunged down; far more violent looking from beneath than it had seemed from the side.

[Rye]

The two of them tugged. Sand and stones rattles loose , the sand clouding the water around them as whatever it was jerked loose. Luke was hardly strong , the build of a girl really but with the two of them it did shift. As it came loose a cloud of sand erupted , clouding whatever it was. The two dragged it up , making it lighter for every inch it came up until they both threw it onto the grass on the bank.

Sitting there was a chest. Grey wood , the gaps in the wood sealed airtight with some kind of old fat and gel. The edges were iron cast , black with nails, rust had eaten away at it. Build in at the front was a large keyhole. A few weeds and grass growing on it from it's time in the water but otherwise completely intact.

Luke stared at it , "whoa" he said , taking a deep breath "that's....unusual" he said stepping around it , shaking the water from his hair like a dog to give it some air and some resemblance to his normal hairstyle.

[R682]

Hayley scrambled eagerly out of the water to crouch, froglike and dripping, beside her brother, hurriedly cuffing her wet hair out of her eyes.

"Well, come on then," she urged keenly, "let's get it open!"

She felt around the keyhole, searching for some kind of catch. This was quite a find; the stuff of a real adventure. Real, actual buried treasure. Rocking the chest, she tried to figure out what might lay inside just from the weight. There must be something - it was too heavy, surely, for there not to be.

"We could just break it open," she suggested, impatiently. A chest as old and worn as this, a large rock ought to be enough to do it. "Or it's an old fashioned lock," she brainstormed quickly. "I know enough, I think, to be able to pick it, with enough time." She paused, at that thought. "We can't bring it back with us, though," she decided hurriedly. "Grandma can't know about this! It's ours, now! We have to find somewhere to hide it." Hayley looked quickly at the space behind the waterfall; perhaps there might be a ledge there they could transfer it to. Or the woods behind the boulder she had been so keen to explore; an impromptu camp there perhaps.

But her mind was moving too fast, and she was getting way ahead of herself, she knew. One thing at a time. She put her hand on Luke's damp bare back.

"What do you want to do?"

[Rye]

Luke tried tugging at it , the lock stayed clasped on, it wouldn't ever budge or creak under his effort. The keyhole was built in , no secret to it or ways to bash it off. The wood was tough , he assumed it was thick. It seemed well build to survive under rushing water and sand all this time. "I can try , but it looks old so I can;t just use hairpins" he said looking it over "Hide it , why, no one comes out here anyway" he said as he looked it over "whatever it is , it's locked up good" he said tipping it to one side and hearing things clunk and rattle inside it.

He thought about it as water dripped off him "We can't get it open , but what a find. Maybe the key is somewhere, no idea where though. Maybe we could take it to a locksmith. Either way we can't do anything about it right now" he said sighing "but it is cool" he said looking over the enigmatic object as he went back to the water and hopped in, floating by the bank.

[R682]

"You don't know that," Hayley reproached Luke. "We can't just leave it out in the open." She gestured back down towards the water. "You swim back down there and feel around on the lake bed. Maybe the key just fell out." That seemed like an outside chance, but it would be silly to overlook it. "While you're at it, see what's behind the waterfall. Maybe there's a recess or something, where we can put it." Simply returning the chest to the lakebed wouldn't do, not now they'd uncovered it. "Meanwhile," Hayley indicated, entirely swept up in all this, "I'm going to go climb that boulder. Perhaps there's somewhere a bit more secret in the trees immediately behind it." Plus, she was damned if she wasn't going to jump off the thing into the lake at least once.

Leaving the chest for a minute, she headed over to to the rock and began to scramble up the side, gripping with her fingers and toes on the smooth surface, and making slow but determined progress. Well, this was certainly something worth getting fired up about, after all the depression and the knocks of the last day. Hayley almost felt good; bright and excited like a little girl, thoughts of scarecrows and diapers forgotten for the moment.

[Rye]

"Fine fine, but I doubt it , there must be a reason it's down there right. Who throws something in here along with the key. Who even lives around here that might have a real old antique chest?" he asked as he dived back in to search. He did his best with one eye but found no glimmer of silver , no shadow of iron and nothing else that might be a key to fit the lock. He surfaced and shook the water of his hair "Nothing down here. You could put it anywhere really, it kind of blends in with the stones and grass , probably because it's been down there that long" he said , the water drying off it , showing it's old grey wood, the vanish having long worn off by the gentle erosion of water.

Luke waited to the side for her to come back up as soon as she jumped. It was nice here. Even if they had found something unusual that they couldn't make heads or tails of , either way it was like a puzzle , they just found one part, can't tell what the rest of it is or would say.

[R682]

By the time Luke had re-emerged, Hayley had clambered to the top of the boulder, and stood there surveying the undergrowth beyond. It was thick and dense, without any obvious breaks or hiding-holes; not to mention not terribly friendly-looking to the barefooted walker, as Luke would no doubt have been quick to point out once again, were he up here. She decided that she wouldn't try to press out there any further. Plus, how would they even get the chest up here anyway? She hadn't exactly thought that one through.

Still, the rock itself seemed fun, as promised, hanging out over a deeper section of the lake. Hayley shuffled to the edge and looked down, grinning despite herself.

"Make way below!" she warned, before jumping anyway, confident she would inflict no worse than a major splash upon her brother. When the impact came, however, she found herself plunging all the way to the bottom of the lake, her feet touching the bottom and her legs concertinaing. Not with any damaging force, but it would seem this jump wasn't nearly as safe as it had looked. Perhaps she wouldn't be urging Luke up there himself, or repeating the experience. Opening her eyes underwater, she looked around the disturbed area, and struck upwards towards the surface.

[Rye]

Luke kept well away but was still caught up in the splash , licking the water off him and out of his eye "you okay, not really all that deep for jumping off rocks" he said looking down , he could stand easily enough in it so he wasn't too sure about just diving in. He certainly wasn't going to be doing it. He waited for her to wade back out "so we just leaving it. Yea, we can look about for keys I suppose , assuming that it's actually in the area" he said looking back over to it , a curious wet relic. He wondered who owned it and why it was preserved at the bottom of a large pond.

He lifted himself up and let the water roll off him as he went for his towel , warmed in the sun to toasty temperatures. He gently rubbed himself dry , slipping his swimming shorts off under the towel as he moved it down and tied it around his waist , getting his t-shirt ready and slipping into it.

[R682]

"You might be right," Hayley gasped when she resurfaced, recognising that her impulse had been a foolish one. What if she'd broken her ankles. She could only imagine what would be involved in being cared for by her grandmother in bed for the next few weeks. She'd definitely end up in diapers then. She couldn't imagine the old woman messing around with bedpans; though diapers would definitely be a preferable alternative, even if that were the case.

"We need to hide the chest," she beckoned, noting her brother was already changing, and shaking her head at his careful attempts to hide his modesty. After all, as he himself had pointed out, there wasn't anyone around her watching apart from her. "Perhaps just push it to the side and pile branches over it."

As it turned out, she was more than capable of doing that by herself, and did it while Luke was changing. Then she crossed over to an adjacent tree and squat down briefly, looking up at him.

"Pass me my clothes, then, while I have a pee."

She did, more to prove that she hadn't despoiled the water herself than out of real need. She might as well take the opportunity, as knowing herself it wouldn't be long, otherwise. Hayley didn't bother adjusting the swimsuit, but peed through it, which felt nice as the warmth spread between her legs. Was this what a diaper felt like?

When she was done, and the earth had drunk it up, Hayley stepped away and stripped off her swimsuit without chagrin, dunking it in the water to wash out and beckoning to Luke for her clothes. Assuming he could even bear to look at her like this, of course. She still thought being squeamish about such things was silly between them. If they were regular friends, of course it would be; but as siblings it was just ridiculous to think there ought to be any connotation at all.