The Holder of Waste

In any country, go to any deserted lake you can get yourself to. When you reach the water's edge, reach for a nearby clot of mud, hold it to your mouth, then ask to speak to "The Holder of Waste".

Do not put the mud back into the lake. A ripple will form at the very center of the lake, and mass amounts of bubbles will appear throughout the lake. The beasts have been awoken. Keep your eyes to the rippling while out of the water.

Do not close your eyes.

An atrocious odor will suddenly begin to ravage your nose and eyes. Do not blink. Do not shield your face. Begin to swim to the very center of the lake toward the ripple. The water will be murky and polluted, its contents impenetrable by your gaze. Float on your stomach with your face beneath the lake's surface, eyes wide. Release the following words from your lips: "Can the taint be cleansed?"

A force will begin to drag you under as you swallow copious amounts of the nasty water. The lingering stench from before will all but scorch your senses, but somehow, you will realize that you can breathe under the surface of this lake. The water is dark and muddy and its taste on your lips is all but pleasant. You will begin to recognize a specific odor: rotting flesh and human excrement, like the kind clinging to the corpses that have suddenly surrounded you.

Do not close your eyes.

Their numbers are many, as if expelled from a machine fueled by toxins. Their mouths will spew intestines, and their eye sockets will spill bile. Bloodied organic tissue will slowly leak from the backs of their skulls.

Do not close your eyes.

You will be pulled to the lake's bed, where a lone cadaver will sift through the sediment. The ability to breathe under the lake's surface has gone, and the corpse's eyes will meet yours. It will hand you a tin can, rusty, yet still gleaming from the metal it is made of. It seems impossible to open.

Kick hard to reach the surface and remove yourself from the water. They want their Object back. Out of the lake, you are safe. You shall never return.

The tin can is Object 509 of 2538. With every fiber of your being, hope that you never encounter the means of opening it.