It was evening when it was first noticed on the shore. I presume it had washed up earlier that day, but I don’t know. It could have been there for months, unnoticed amongst the rubbish and rotting seaweed. Just waiting to be found.

It wasn’t a very popular cove due to the copious amounts of junk and it’s difficult accessibility. To get down to the shore, you had to make your way down a small cliff. It wasn’t impossible, nor was it extremely dangerous, but it was a lot of effort to get to a very unrewarding destination, and even worse getting back up.

I was drawn to it after seeing a post on a sort of local facebook group. The post was criticising the local government for not cleaning up the mess, but zooming into the photograph, I could see a few old bottles and some sea glass. I wanted to get down there before anyone else took my potential arts and craft supplies.

I went down once the tide was on its way out. Black bin bag in hand, and a few scrapes on my legs from the clamber down, I began to scour the beach. The smell was overwhelming, of dried sea foam and seaweed, but my efforts were fruitful. To aid the finding of sea glass, I had decided to start bagging up the rubbish. Might as well be a good person.

It was turning from afternoon to evening and I was going through the motions, binning cans and wrappers and putting the occasional pretty sea glass into my growing collection. That was when I found it. Initially I thought it was another can, and went to pick it up. But as my gloved hand grew closer, I felt this intense heat upon my skin. Puzzled, I drew my hand back. It was cold outside, and the sun hadn’t shown its face all day. Looking a bit closer, I saw it wasn’t a drinks can but some sort of seamless cylinder the size of a large flask, with no discernible markings. The surrounding seaweed seemed to almost be cooking under the heat, scorching it. I stepped back, dropping a wrapper I was about to put in my bin bag. The wrapper landed upon the cylinder, and began to slowly curl up and blacken, emitting the acrid smell of burning plastic.

That was when I started really backing away. I had been here all day. Whatever this was, it must have been here the entire time I had been. No one came or left. This cylinder was emitting heat somehow, for an unknown amount of time. Where its power source was, I didn’t know. If it opened, I didn’t know. Where it came from, I didn’t know.

So I called the local coastguard. I explained the mysterious heat emitting cylinder, and they sent a team to check it out. Once they arrived, I pointed to where it was and I was escorted away from it. At first, they must have thought it was a bomb. Although as I walked my way back to my car, I could hear helicopters coming towards the cove and in the distance, I swear I saw some people in hazmat suits.

I didn’t hear anything more about the cylinder after I got home. I scoured the local news and online local communities for any mention about it, but I could find nothing.

The next day though, a police officer and a doctor came to my door, and I was informed it was just a precautionary check up. To what, they would not say. I don’t think they even knew. The results must have been satisfactory because I’ve not been visited or contacted since. Neither has there been any mention of the cylinder in the news. At least I got my sea glass.