My name was Evan. I used to be a hands on hydrographic charter. It was interesting and dangerous work. I got to see things you wouldn’t believe. I miss when they were things I couldn’t believe.
My team and I were roughly 6km deep down the Tonga Trench lying in the South Pacific Ocean. All signs were looking good. We charted and encountered formations and creatures thought to be lost since long before waters covered this rock. Glowing species of isopods and jellies all floating seamlessly in the inky depths. Unbothered and unknowing of us intruders who happened upon the front door of their home.
Or so we thought.
It was at around 8km. We had gone some great time since seeing anything but never ending darkness outside the site glass. A sickening thud emerged from just below our sub and that was all it took with the almost 15k psi pressure building up around us to send our systems into red zones.
I don’t remember much after that. Andrew had scrambled to adjust course and Jamie was working on pulling us back up the lifeline when tendrils from beings that should never be known shot through the damaged craft. I remember an eerie golden blue glow covering them… then I remember the sickening, garbled screams of my mates as they were torn and thrashed and mangled beyond any sight of humanity any longer.
The water flooding the craft went crimson red and my mind nor heart could take the horrors any longer.
I woke up drifting. Floating in mid air, or so it felt like. When my tired eyes adjusted I still saw nothing but the depths of endless nothingness. A faint glow of bluish gold illuminated my surroundings. The water around me seemed to be repelled by something. A formless being that I could see right before me. I almost blacked out from the voice that split my head in two like an axe to a log.
“You are being given a choice. Embrace once and beyond, entering the next. We grant you mercy for herald. Ends to a beginning and many more.”
Understanding none of it with my barely intact sanity I muttered out, “O-okay…”
Pain shot through every part of my being. My hands and feet began to web. Fins emerge from my spine tearing through my already scaling skin and into the cold air below. I couldn’t breathe. Gills began forming on my neck and the straight air could no longer fulfill my new biological needs.
The voice spoke.
“Welcome. Beginnings End.”
Water crashed into me and I felt… I feel alone. Nothing but an odd bluegold glow emanating from my new body.
Whoever this reaches, anyone who hears this, know. There are things, beings, entities no words we can speak match their majesty. They’ve existed longer than anything and everything. I don’t know what comes next but please god, if any gods exist for the good of humanity any longer.
Don’t explore the Deep.