“What exactly are we looking for again?”, I asked Stephen, as we slowly crept towards the giant sperm whale that had washed up onto the beach.
Out two head torch beams were the only light in the otherwise pitch black midnight landscape.
“It’s called ambergris”, Stephen replied in a whisper, “And, believe it or not, this whale’s stomach bile could actually make us rich”.
Stephen turned to face the dead sea creature, his head torch illuminating the ginormous creature.
“And you said it’s used to make perfume?”, I asked him.
“Yeah, that’s right”.
“So, you’re telling me that the secret ingredient to Chanel No. 5, is whale stomach acid?”
“Yep. So every time you have found a woman’s scent attractive, you are actually being allured by old Moby Dick here”, Stephen said as reached up and gave the whale carcass a pat.
“I wonder who discovered it. And why the hell is it worth so much?”, I said thoughtfully.
“I guess things found inside whales are a goldmine”, Stephen responded, “And thankfully that goldmine has washed up just for us”.
“And you’re sure there is ambergris inside this whale?”
“Wellll, it’s not guaranteed. But, nothing is in life, is it?”
“So, what you’re telling me is that, we are going to cut the whale open, on the off chance we might find something valuable”.
Stephen stared at me for a moment, before a large grin spread across his goofy looking face.
“Now, why would we risk cutting it open? Then it’s obvious someone has been inside”, he said as his smile grew even larger, “No, we are going in another way”.
At first l was confused, but when Stephen turned and looked towards the gaping mouth of the whale carcass, I knew exactly what he meant.
“No. There is no way. No way at all that I’m climbing through that whale’s mouth. I don’t care how much money we are gonna make”, I said in protest against the ridiculous idea.
“Think of it like this”, Stephen said earnestly, “Miners probably don’t like squeezing through tight spaces underground, but they do it. They do it for the riches on the other side. That’s what we are doing. We are squeezing through a tight space to gain our wealth on the other side. It is exactly like mining, only a bit more fleshy”.
“But how do you know someone else hasn’t already gone through the mouth and ŕecovered any ambergris inside. In fact, I already heard a rumour of someone sneaking up to the whale already. Maybe they already took the riches inside”, I replied, desperately trying to convince Stephen not to crawl in through the large mammals mouth.
“Trust me, only my special mind would come up with the idea to sneak inside the whale. So don’t worry, money is still to be made inside this beautiful mammal”.
I knew, at that moment, nothing was going to deter Stephen from crawling down the throat of the whale and hopefully recovering some ambergris from within.
I also knew that, if I didn’t go with him and he did manage to make a fortune, I would regret it for the rest of my life. That doesn’t mean I particularly wanted to go into the sperm whale’s mouth though.
“Alright, let’s make like Pinoccio, and go inside the whale”, Stephen said with a smirk and started to walk over to the gaping mouth. The entrance.
“Hey, Stephen”, I called out as loud as I dared”, “I have one more question. It might be a bit touchy, but I need to know”.
Stephen turned back around, his head torch shining directly into my eyes, and simply said “Go on”.
“This is the beach where Jonah went missing, isn’t it”.
Stephen’s cheeky smile suddenly dropped off his face, and his usual cheerful expression changed to one of anger.
“Don’t mention that name around me ever again. You understand?”, he said, in a hushed angered whisper.
“I understand. I’m sorry, Stephen”.
His facial then once again changed. Back to its previous joyful face. He then faced the whale’s mouth again, and climbed up into it.
I followed.
I climbed up and over the row of sharp teeth that lined the bottom of the whale’s jaw. I then commando crawled along its wide, slippery tongue.
When I reached the back of the giant mouth, Stephen’s two feet were poking out of the tight hole that was the whale’s throat. The rest of him had already gone through it.
His feet then disappeared with the rest of him. He was now inside the belly of the whale, and it was my turn to do the same.
I waited a moment, building up enough courage to enter into the unknown. I was almost about to chicken out when I heard Stephen’s voice call out from the other side of the throat.
“Come through, there’s plenty of room in here”.
It was what I needed to hear. Obviously, it was safe on the other side and so it filled me with enough courage to wriggle forwards.
I crawled forwards into the throat of the whale. I pushed my arm through first and the soft, cold flesh felt tight around it. I continued forwards, and plunged my other arm, followed by my head into the tight cavern of the oesophagus.
When I reemerged out the other side, the first thing I saw was Stephen bent down, eagerly awaiting my arrival.
“Congratulations. It’s a beautiful baby boy”, he said with his signature cheeky grin.
I had entered into a fleshy, grey cavern that was the whale’s stomach. It was large, but not enough to stand up in. I got up off my stomach, wiped some sticky fluid off of myself, and got into a crouched position.
I looked around and saw a thick, almost red sludge that occupied the majority of the whale’s stomach. Mine and Stephen’s head torches lit up the fleshy cave. It didn’t look like this place was a gold mine. And it certainly didn’t look fit to go into perfume.
“So, where is this ambergris then?”, I asked Stephen, wanting to find it quickly and get back out into fresh air.
“There should be a lump of it in here somewhere. I’m feeling lucky”, Stephen replied and began to crawl onwards into the stomach.
I followed him and crept forwards, shining my torch light around the contents of the stomach. I hoped that we would find it quickly, but a part of me had a feeling that wasn’t even found within the stomach.
That’s when I heard Stephen let out a slight gasp, quickly followed by him calling out to me.
“Quick, get over here now”.
I crawled over to him as fast as I could, excited because I thought he had found a lump of ambergris. I crouched next to Stephen and looked towards where he was staring. He pointed towards it and said,
“What the hell is that?”
My eyes followed his outstretched finger and I immediately saw what he was pointing to. Silhouetted at the back of the stomach was something that looked remotely human shaped.
“Go towards it”, Stephen prompted me.
“Why should I go? You go look”, I replied, trying to not show the fear that I was currently feeling.
“I don’t really want to get any closer to whatever it is”, Stephen replied as he gave me a small nudge towards the silhouette.
I stumbled forwards slightly from the push, just enough that my head torch provided enough light to reveal what was hidden in the shadow.
Both Stephen and I screamed when we saw what it was.
The complete human skeleton was perched up against the lining of the whale’s stomach. Its skull was pointed towards us and its hollow eye sockets almost looked as if they were staring right at the pair of us.
I dove backwards, away from the bones, and looked back at Stephen. He had a look of horror on his face, which looked exactly how I felt.
My mind tried to make sense of what I was seeing. I didn’t truly expect to find ambergris inside, but I definitely didn’t expect to find human remains.
My brain then turned to one possible explanation as to how this skeleton ended up in the belly of the whale. An explanation Stephen wasn’t going to like. But I had to tell him my theory anyway.
“Steve”, I said as I looked across at him, “You don’t think that this is…well, y’know?”
Stephen looked back at me, slightly confused, then I saw the realisation spread out across his face.
“You don’t mean? You don’t think it’s Jonah do you?”, he asked, and I was unsure if he agreed with me or was angry at the mere suggestion this was his missing friend.
“It’s possible that it’s him.” I answered, “He did get swept out to sea. And on this beach too”.
“He drowned. He wasn’t eaten by a whale.” Stephen replied curtly.
“But, what if the whale ate his body? You know it was never found”.
“He drowned. That’s the end of it”.
I didn’t push the point any further. Stephen wouldn’t even entertain the idea that this was Jonah.
I instead, moved closer towards the skeleton, trying to see if I could find anything else nearby to it.
I edged toward the remains, shining my torch light onto the surrounding area. It lit up the strange sludge that filled the giant belly. As I shone my light across the stomach contents, I saw something glint near the skeleton.
I quickly crawled over to where the light reflected and dug my hand down into the gross slush. I felt something solid and so I grabbed a hold of it and pulled it out.
Stephen gasped as I pulled out the wristwatch. He recognised it.
“Holy shit! That’s Jonah’s watch. The one he wore the night…well the night he drowned.”Stephen said, a hint of sadness in his voice.
“I’m sorry, Steve. I think this is Jonah”.
Stephen looked defeated. He now knew what had become of his friend. I don’t know if that was a good thing though.
“I guess we can take his body back to his family now though. They will like that”, I said to him.
He looked up at me and said one single sentence.
“I tried to save him.”
“I know you did, Steve. Everyone knows you did.”
“I did everything I could to stop him from going under the water. But, nothing could stop him slipping under the surface.”, Stephen said, tears welling up in his eyes.
I moved closer to Stephen in an attempt to comfort him.
“It’s not your fault. Everyone knows you did everything you could. No one doubts you”.
Stephen stopped crying and his signature grin once again appeared on his face.
“So, that all sounded believable then? You actually thought they were my true emotions”?, he said, looking pleased with himself.
I was immediately confused, and my confusion must have been visible on my face because he continued to speak.
“You wanted to find riches inside the whale. Well, here is your goldmine”, he said as he pointed towards the skeleton.
“What are you talking about? That’s Jonah. That’s your friend” I replied, trying to make some sense of what was happening.
“Yeah, he was. Until he drank a little too much and took a few too many pills, and drowned in my pool. Then he was just a body. A body that I had to try and hide. So, it was a little too perfect when this whale washed up on the beach. Jonah in a whale. I mean, c’mon, the headlines write themselves. And we are going to be the ones at the centre of it all. The ones getting paid for the exclusive story of how we found him”.
Stephen finished talking and rubbed his fingers together, making the gesture for money.
“What are you saying?”, I responded, “Jonah got swept away at the beach. He didn’t drown in your pool”.
“Well, that’s the official story. I couldn’t go to the police. Not after what they would find in his system. And then what they would find in my system. No, it was easier to say he drowned and then get rid of the body myself. And look, now we are going to be rich”.
Stephen slapped me on the shoulder and let out a chuckle. I think he expected me to smile too, but I just stared at him in horror.
“Oh, lighten up. He died from his own stupidity. I had nothing to do with it. We just get to profit off his death. It’s perfect”.
“I’m not making money out of Jonah’s death. You’re sick for thinking up this idea. And then you actually went through with it”.
Stephen’s face changed. His grin disappeared quickly and was replaced with a scowl.
“I’m making my money. You are either with me, or you are against me”.
“Well, sorry to disappoint, but I am against you”.
“Very well. It’s my lucky day. I found two bodies inside the whale. Not just one”.
Stephen darted towards me and tackled me down onto the soft, fleshy ground. He grabbed a hold of both my arms and forced them up over my head. He then placed both my knees onto my arms to stop me from being able to move them at all.
“I really didn’t want it to come to this.”, he said, almost disappointedly.
In one swift move, Stephen reached into his back pocket, grabbed out a piece of rope about half an inch thick and began to tie it around one of my wrists.
Once it was tightly tethered to my wrist, Stephen lifted his knees off of my arms. He quickly ran forward and yanked on the rope, pulling me forwards with him. He dragged me over to where the skeleton sat slumped up against the side of the whale’s stomach.
He then started to tie the other end of the rope around the skeletal wrist of Jonah, binding me to him.
Stephen finished tying the knot and then gave the rope a few yanks to make sure that he had tied it tightly enough. Once satisfied, he turned to face me.
“I’ll see you in a few days.”, he said coldly before turning to climb back out through the whale’s throat.
The last I saw of Stephen was his two feet disappearing through the small hole of the throat, and then I was all alone inside the whale. Well, apart from the remains of Jonah.
It was cold inside the stomach of the whale. And it smelt like rotting flesh too. The only thing I could see in my slowly dying head torch was the skull of Stephen’s old friend. Obviously Stephen’s friends all have a habit of ending up dead.
Jonah’s empty eye sockets stared back at me, and as I looked into them, the reality of my situation really dawned on me. Soon, my eyes would be nothing more than sockets and the whale’s belly would be the final resting place of two people.
My torch flickered before the light went out completely. Everything turned pitch black and I couldn’t see a thing. Pure fear set in at that moment. I had never been so scared in my life.
I tried my best to break free from the rope tied around my wrist, but it was pointless. Stephen had tied me up with a freakishly strong knot that wasn’t going to be undone anytime soon.
I don’t know how long I sat in the blackness. I was cold, hungry and afraid. I may have been in there for a day, or possibly longer when I heard the faint voices from outside.
As soon as I heard the voices, I started to yell out to them, desperately hoping they would hear me. I then heard what sounded like a saw and flesh being cut.
The whirring sound of the saw grew louder and soon I saw a slit of daylight appear in the side of the stomach. Then, a man’s head poked inside.
“There better be bloody ambergris in here”, he said.
Then he looked up and saw the skeleton that sat inside the stomach, and tied to those bones, he saw me.