The Devil's Treasure

• Xavier Gomes-Vieira, Grade 2
• Short Story
• 2022

There was once a little boy called Gus. His uncle was losing his memory and this made Gus really sad. Gus just wanted to help him remember everything so he decided to look for a magical treasure. This was not any old treasure. It was the coolest and biggest, but it was also the most powerful. Gus did not know where to find it, but he knew that everyone called it ‘The Devil's Treasure.’ Gus knew it wouldn't be easy to find ‘The Devil's Treasure.’ He had heard rumours that the treasure was in Canada or Hawaii. He walked back to his little village and went into his Dad's shop. He saw a suspicious man in the shop. Gus' Dad gave the man a piece of parchment and the man handed over hundreds of dollars for it. The man grinned wickedly. Gus looked at the piece of parchment and noticed that it was the map to ‘The Devil's Treasure.’ Gus grabbed the map and ran. Ten minutes later he got home. Gus knew exactly what to do. He looked at the map and he was surprised to see the treasure wasn't in Hawaii or Canada. It was not far from his home in ‘Spirits Cave.’ Long before Gus was born someone entered ‘Spirits Cave’ and they never returned. That was twenty years before Gus was born. When Gus looked at the map he noticed that it had coffee all over it, so he could not calculate where the treasure was hidden. The only thing Gus knew about ‘Spirits Cave’ was that it was basically impossible to come out alive because no one had ever come out alive. Gus believed he could do it as long as there was no swimming. He brought a snorkel and a flashlight just in case. That night, Gus left to find the treasure. Soon he reached the cave and entered. He pulled out his flashlight. He turned it on and saw a very deep pit. Gus saw some vines and he grabbed them and swung over the pit. He saw some crocodiles in a big pond and he jumped on them and got over to the end, but then lots of snakes appeared. Gus got past them and then he saw the beautiful, big golden treasure. He opened it and went back home to show his uncle. From that day on, his uncle remembered everything from his past.