Voice.club - Fiction - Message in a Bottle - a Voice Club collaboration

Voice.club - Leave comment at SoftArt.Discou... - It had bobbed in the ocean waves for years, sucked along by the current until it washed up on the golden sands. On her morning walk, Lizzie saw it half-buried in the warm sand. The corked bottle seemed to glow in the early light, as if its contents called to her. Her curiosity aroused, she carefully dislodged the bottle, brushing away the sand, completely unaware of the secrets it held.
Lizzie glanced around, noting that other than herself, the beach was completely deserted. She sank cross-legged to the sand, fingers poised to ease out the cork. As she began wriggling the cork, two things happened simultaneously. Lizzie’s eyes caught a glimpse of sparkle within the bottle and her ears heard the warning cry of a songbird.
She suddenly trembled with foreboding. ""Throw it back!" her instincts cautioned. But she was already tilting the blue-tinged glass, mesmerized by flashing silver and a myriad of colors. A ring?
In the horizon, a shadow like no other appeared. Lizzie became unhinged. As she hypnotically removed the cork, a Jinn materialized and roared, "I will grant you three wishes!" Lizzie asked, "What do you want in return?" The Jinn replied, "Your soul..."
Lizzie laughed at herself. Imagining a Jinn had eased her fears, postponed the moment of discovery. But now it was time. She carefully unfurled the parchment, and began to read.
The ancient ink revealed itself; the words seemed to shift, a message that chilled her to the bone: "Beware the sea, for it carries more than just the waves."
With foreboding, she looked out to sea. To her horror the shadow had been joined by many more. Ghostly apparitions, not of this world. Time to make her wish.
Lizzie suddenly remembered that most stories with three wishes ended badly. "No! I won't be part of this!" She picked up the bottle and hurled it back into the water.
Lizzie watched the bottle splash down; the shadows began to dissipate.
Soon, on a distant island, a young girl saw a corked bottle half-buried in the warm sand.