I don’t think I’ll ever forget that night. Years of therapy haven’t helped. I can still remember every detail, as though I’m still right there. All around me the freezing water stretching on unbroken for miles in every direction, its icy chill stabbing at my skin. Nothing but pure darkness beneath me, my feet the only thing visible before the inky abyss. The sounds of my friend’s screams as that looming shadow made its way towards each of them one by one. Even if I close my eyes those images are still there.
I’ve not been on another fishing trip since then. Hell, I’ve not even been to the beach since then. Even the idea of going to a swimming pool sends bolts of anxiety through me. The whole thing was a disaster. It was a few years ago now that Tom, my best friend at the time, decided to organise that fateful trip. We tried to do something like that every year, a big holiday where we would all meet up and do something together for the week. We all had busy lives with work and family, so this was our way of keeping the friendship alive. Every year we’d take it in turns to plan where we were going and what we were doing, and this year the crown of responsibility fell to Tom.
The group chat pinged back and forth as Tom revealed his “grand plan” for this year’s trip. “Sea fishing! It’ll be fun. A boat, the five of us, some cold brews and fresh fish. What’s not to love?” his message read. I wasn’t an avid fisher myself although I was up for trying just about anything. Tom and Gavin were seasoned anglers. John and Jenny were less than enthusiastic about the fishing aspect of the trip, but I’d never known them to pass up a few beers with good friends.
After a bit of deliberation, Jenny questioning if maybe we could just do a beach week and Tom fish from the shore instead, Gavin applauding the choice and sending a picture of himself already in his fishing gear ready to go, and Tom telling Jenny that a beach fishing trip would be shit, it was decided. We were going ocean fishing. A few days later Tom sent us the postcode for where we were going as well as a screenshot of the address of the boat hire that he’d booked us in with and the time that we had the vessel from. “See you there losers!” captioned the screenshot. I searched the place online, curious as to what kind of boat we would be spending the week on.
Several different shapes and sizes of boats were presented to me, varying from smaller two-man boats to something akin to a super yacht. Each of them looked well-kept and worth more money than I could hope to earn in ten years. Excitement welled up in me as I imagined lazing on the deck under the sun, the ocean waves gently rocking the boat, a cold brew in hand, chatting and laughing with my friends. Next week couldn’t come soon enough. I made my way down to the shore that following week. The journey was always the worst part of these trips, we all lived in different areas of the country so if it wasn’t your year to plan the trip you were bound to be travelling.
After hours of driving down the same monotonous strip of motorway, a sight greeted my eyes that raised my spirits significantly. The ocean. I could see its majestic blue reaching for the horizon several fields over. I was nearly there. Taking the next exit off the motorway, I drove for another ten minutes until the boat rental appeared on my left and the sat nav told me that I’d arrived at my destination. Pulling into the car park of the place, I could clearly see the fleet of flashy, brilliant white boats bobbing gently in the waves. They were beautiful, and a sense of anticipation rose in me as I wondered which one would be ours for the week.
The sounds of seagulls and the lapping surf greeted my ears as I stopped the car’s engine and opened the door, my legs thankful at a chance to stretch after the painful hours of driving. As I stood, the breeze gently rustling my hair, I heard another sound which caused me to spin around. “Well look who it is!” Tom, who had been standing by the entrance to the hire office, was charging across the car park towards me, a large grin covering his face. Before I knew it he’d embraced me in a massive hug, the kind of spine-crushing embrace that is only reserved for long-lost friends and near-death experiences.
“Whoa, dude, put me down!” I managed to squeeze out, along with the rest of the air being forced from my lungs. “It’s good to see you but I’d rather not spend the week in intensive care”
“Haha, sorry man, I just get so excited for these trips. It feels like ages since we’ve done this” Said Tom, putting me back onto solid ground. He was a full foot taller than me and built like a strongman. Sometimes I think he forgot exactly how strong he was. “So where is everyone, am I the first one here?” I asked, glancing around. “You wish mate, everyone’s waiting for you,” Tom said, gesturing to the office behind him. With another mischievous grin, he continued “We’d been contemplating just leaving and picking you up when we had to stop for fuel”
“Whatever, you guys love me too much to leave me stranded on the shore like some landlubber,” I said, laughing as I made my way to the office, Tom in step behind me. As I opened the door to the office, I was greeted by the collective cheers of Gavin, John and Jenny. “You finally made it!” Gavin shouted, a smile across his face. “We thought you’d got lost or something!”
“I was deciding if I could stand spending another week with you guys. I’m still not sure, to be honest,” I said, jokingly. Although we’d not seen much of one another since last year’s trip, in the few minutes I’d been here it felt as though we hadn’t been apart. Tom was speaking to the hire manager, eagerly getting the boat sorted and grinning back at us. Gavin was teasing John about his new tattoo that was supposed to be a symbol from his favourite band but looked like the artist had done it blindfolded. And Jenny was laughing along to their back and forth, messing with the camera that she’d brought with her to capture the memories in digital form.
After a couple of minutes, Tom came back over with a set of keys in his hands. “Follow me my fellow adventurers and I shall lead ye to our mighty vessel” Gathering our things, we followed Tom out onto the dock. We made our way past several boats, Gavin stumbling and nearly dropping a large bag of his fishing gear into the waters below, before we stopped in front of one of the largest yachts I had ever laid eyes on.
The thing was huge, gleaming white, with dark highlights and several clear glass windows. The interior was made of varnished wood and expensive-looking upholstery. There was a fancy, modern-looking firepit in the centre of what I assumed were the living quarters, and I could see a corridor leading off behind it that I assumed led to the bedrooms. It was beautiful, far better than the rag-tag tub that I was expecting Tom to have hired.
“Welcome!” Tom said, opening his arms in a triumphant gesture, looking at each of our amazed faces. We each made our way aboard, gawking at the beauty of the boat. “How much was this mate, seriously, it looks like the yachts you see billionaires on?” I asked. “Don’t you worry yourself, Mom and Dad are covering this, they wanted to do something nice for me, so it’s not costing me a penny. That being said, don’t get trashing the place”
We each made our way to the back of the yacht, through the corridor that led to the bedrooms. Gavin and Jenny argued about who would get the room closest to the living quarters while the rest of us stowed our gear, and made our way up onto the main deck. As I climbed the short ladder to the main upper deck, I felt the breeze from the ocean gently rippling through my clothes and I couldn’t help but feel content. This trip was going to be amazing, I could feel it. Tom was already by the helm, starting the boat’s engine and turning us around to begin making our way out of the dock.
“So, where we be headed then Cap’n?” I asked in a pirate voice, raising a hand to my forehead in a mock salute. “Well,” said Tom, chuckling, “There’s this spot I’ve heard of, supposed to be an amazing fishing spot. It’s surrounded by a reef so none of the larger boats go anywhere near it, and it’s far enough out that nobody normally tries fishing there, at least not if you’re only out for the night.” Turning back around, he grinned “Luckily we won’t have that problem! It’ll be just us and the fish, nothing to scare them off”
“Don’t worry mate, the sight of your face will be enough to scare them away anyway!” I said as Tom flipped me the middle finger. After a couple of hours, Tom killed the engine, the boat rocking gently on the calm surface. “This is it, weigh anchor” He exclaimed as he pressed the button to drop the boat’s anchor, the chain rattling as the heavy weight sank into the depths.
We all glanced around at our surroundings. We were in the middle of nowhere, the deep blue of the sea extending on for miles until it merged with the horizon. Gavin, John and Jenny mirrored my confused expression. “…Whao…This is…erm…awesome?” John said, obviously confused and disappointed.
“Look, I know it doesn’t look like much, but we’ll get tonnes of fish here, trust me!” Tom retorted.
“Ok, we best do buddy, or this is going to be a looooong week”
So we set up our fishing gear, bought up a cooler of beers and cracked a few open while Tom explained the basics of fishing to John and Jenny. Within an hour we were all sitting around, a couple of beers deep, joking with one another and reminiscing. We were in it for the long haul.
Laughter filled the air as Gavin relayed stories of his recent jobs and Jenny described her drunken antics at her university parties. One particular incident involved several traffic cones and being chased across her local park by police. Her story ended with her hiding in the bushes just outside of her house, waiting for them to leave. Everyone was in hysterics, imagining her attempting to poorly hide in a bush while a police officer scoured the area.
Eventually, as the night went on, the laughter began to slowly ebb away with the daylight, gradually being replaced by drunken tiredness. “Where are these fish dude, I don’t think I’ve seen so much as an empty snack wrapper, let alone anything alive?” Slurred Gavin.
“Yeah, I thought you said this was a good spot, Tom,” I said, “Where did you even find out about this place?” Tom looked at me sheepishly. “Well, I was on 4chan, talking about fishing with some randoms, when one of them told me about this place”
“………4chan?……Seriously?………You based this entire trip on the good faith of some random on 4chan?” I said, attempting to mask the annoyance in my voice.
“Just give it time, everything online pointed to….”
The yacht jolted violently to the right with a deafening impact, cutting Tom off mid-sentence. We all staggered across the deck, thrown violently by the force of what I could only assume was something large and solid colliding with the side of our yacht. “What the hell was that? Did we just crash?” Yelled Jenny, trying to get to her feet. “We haven’t moved, the anchor is down. Something must have hit us!” Tom shouted back, a panicked expression drawing across his face. “What do you mean something hit us. We’ve not seen so much as a fish all day and now there is something here it’s attacking us? What are you on about?” John cried out.
Amongst the shouting and arguing going on behind me, I couldn’t help but find my eyes drawn to the water. I’d managed to catch myself on one of the railings when the boat lurched, so I was facing out to sea, away from the shouting match currently going on between my friends. As I gazed into that inky dark abyss, barely able to penetrate its surface, I couldn’t help but stare at a patch that seemed darker than the rest. I put it down to it being dark and me being drunk, but I swear it looked like it was moving, slowly circling the boat. It was massive. I watched it in silence, the sound of my friends being reduced to mere background noise… It was moving, and was definitely circling us. What the hell was it?
I was about to shout to my friends, when the shape seemed to break from its current trajectory, turning to face us and accelerating with lightning speed. “Guys watch out….” Was all I managed to shout before another powerful impact rocked the yacht, sending me sprawling across the deck. The sound of the almighty slam was accompanied by the equally deafening shattering of wood and rushing water. Whatever that was, it must have breached the hull.
The air was filled with angry, confused shouts as well as those of fear. I whirled around to see Tom and Gavin, already back on their feet, rushing to the ladder that would take them to the lower deck. They’d obviously heard the shattering sound too and were well on their way to check it out.
Pulling myself up as fast as I could, I ran to the ladder, fueled by panic and adrenaline. There was no way I wanted to end up shipwrecked out here. The confused and scared shouts of John and Jenny followed me as I climbed down the ladder. Scanning the sea for any sign of that dark shape that I’d seen barrelling towards us, I half expected to see it lining up for another killing blow. The sea was empty, still as it had been all afternoon. There were no signs of a darker shape moving around, although the water was so dark that it was hard to tell.
Tom and Gavin were at the far end of the lower deck, or what was left of it at least. Where the stern had once been there was now just a dark ocean filling the gaping hole, shattered beams of timber poked out at unnatural angles, forcibly torn from the rest of the vessel. “What the hell?” Tom said, the panic audible in his voice. “What the hell happened? What could do that?”
“Shut up and help me with the buckets, I don’t want to sink. We need to bail, now” Gavin yelled, trying in vain to frantically throw the water that was now gradually consuming the deck back into the darkness beyond. Tom and I jumped to Gavin’s side, each grabbing a bucket from a nearby cupboard and trying desperately to prevent the inevitable advance of the oncoming ocean. With each bucket full that I tossed overboard, I could feel the water around my feet beginning to rise, along with the gradient of the yacht. This was useless, there was nothing we could do.
“This isn’t working, we need to get to higher ground and come up with a plan. We’re sinking!” I yelled, before turning and beginning to climb the ladder to the main deck. Just as I was about to reach the main deck, all hell broke loose. The world seemed to spin as I felt myself rising into the air, still clinging to the rungs of the metal ladder. The very being of the yacht shuddered and rising amongst the screams and cries of my friends, a sickening crack muffled all other sounds.
All that I could feel was the wind rushing past my face as I tumbled through the air, still clinging to the ladder. Then the sickening, icy cold of the sea enveloped me as, with an almighty crash, I landed beneath the waves. Releasing the ladder and kicking frantically, I powered my way back to the surface. I had no idea what had happened, the cold had knocked the wind from me, I needed to get air, to breathe. Breaching the surface, it was as though someone had unmuted the world. The sloshing of waves against what looked to be debris combined with the frantic screaming of my friends was the first thing to snap me out of my stunned stupor.
The second thing, the thing that sobered me up completely within a matter of seconds, was what remained of the yacht. Standing upright in the water and slowly descending, it looked as though the bow had also been sheared clean away from the rest of the vessel, leaving it an eviscerated husk. As it was slowly consumed, vanishing out of sight from the waves, I was suddenly able to piece together what had happened. Whatever had taken the stern had come back for the bow. It must have taken it clean off, and the yacht not being supported, threw us off. Into the ocean. With whatever “it” was.
As I struggled to keep my head above water, the shouts of my friends became clearer and a chill ran down my spine as I heard their confused, terrified voices. “Are you guys ok?…” “What happened…” “Where’s Gavin?…” “Something in the water?…” “What the fuck is that?…” I whirled around, looking for any sign of that thing, of a dark moving shape headed towards us. There was nothing, but now that I was in the water, it all looked the same anyway. That shape could be sitting a few yards away and I’d have missed it. Spinning frantically, I looked for any sign of Gavin. The others were shouting for him, and I hadn’t seen him since I re-surfaced.
There was no sign of him, nothing amongst the debris that separated us. If he’d fallen under and gotten trapped, we’d never know. My heart sank as I imagined him sinking, flailing frantically as he was dragged further and further beneath the waves, dragged down into the depths with the yacht. Then, in the distance, I saw something that snapped me back to my current, dire situation. I only caught a glimpse of it, but that was all I needed to see to start frantically swimming to the nearest piece of debris. I screamed to my friends that we all needed to get out of the water, get onto whatever debris we could and just get out of the water.
The image of that monstrous fin, tattered and grey with thick green scars, disappearing beneath the water near the yacht, was all I could think about. I’d only seen it for a second, but it was long enough for me to know that whatever it belonged to was huge. I pulled myself up onto a large section of the now detached hull, my wet hands struggling for purchase against its smooth surface. As I struggled to scramble to its apex, I turned, desperate to see if my friends had followed my terrified instructions.
From the slight elevation of this point, I could clearly make them out in the inky darkness. John and Jenny had already managed to find something to climb onto, the severed segments of what used to be the deck, lifelessly floating in the waves. Their heads were spinning, trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened. Then a shrill, ear-piercing scream from my left caused the blood to drain my face. I snapped my head around to see Tom, still there in the inky waters, swimming towards me. His face was pale and the expression of panic that coated it earlier now seemed to have evolved into that of full-blown fear.
He was swimming frantically, dragging one of his legs behind him. “Something just bit my leg! There’s something in the water!” he screamed, throwing himself as hard as he could through the vast expanse of water between us. Anchoring myself to my floating sanctuary, I reached out my other arm, as futile as it seemed, almost willing it to stretch to Tom, to pull him into safety. He stared at me as he was swimming, his wild eyes frantically flicking between mine and the ocean around him, his look almost pleading with me to get him out. “C’mon dude, you’re almost there, just swim a …” My words fell short as I caught a glimpse of something moving in Tom’s wake. A huge, dark shape, gaining fast on my injured friend.
“Tom, move, now, just god damn swim as hard as you can!” I bellowed as I watched the dark shape closing the distance between it and my best friend. Then all of my strength left me and I felt my arm slowly dip into the freezing waters, unable to support it. From behind Tom, a thin, slimy tendril gently breached the surface. Its long, grey and green body slowly extended from the out of the abyss, terminating in a branching mass of four spindly feelers. It seemed to swing back and forth silently, almost scenting the air as it gradually got closer and closer to my friend.
“Tom, get out now, swim!” I yelled, absolute fear now drawn tightly across my face. The tendril seemed to slowly reach out towards Tom, silently shifting through the water behind him. As it made contact with his leg, it seemed to briefly caress him, as though examining him to find out exactly what he was. Tom’s face changed from one of fear to absolute horror and disgust. “What the hell is that?” He said, whirling around in the water to face the slimy abomination that had worked its way up to his back.
Then he screamed. He screamed the loudest, most horrified scream I think I’ve ever heard anyone scream. I’ll never forget that sound for as long as I live. As though pained by the screech, the tendril withdrew slightly, before shooting back towards Tom with lightning speed, wrapping itself tightly around his neck, the four feelers covering his mouth. Tom’s face was now a mask of abject terror, his eyes frantically whirling around, looking for anything, any way out of this hell. His eyes briefly locked with mine and I could see the absolute terror, the pleading fear within them, before a violent jerk from the tendril pulled Tom’s head beneath the surface.
The last thing I ever saw of Tom, of my best friend, was him frantically kicking and flailing, grappling with the tentacle that was slowly suffocating him, before he vanished from my sight into the inky blackness of the abyss below. My best friend. Gone. Just like that. This couldn’t have been happening. It had to be some kind of nightmare. Rage began to well up from deep within me and I let out a pained roar, before falling back to the section of deck. Fiery tears welled up in my eyes as the image of Tom’s horrified face stared back at me in my mind’s eye. I should have helped him, I should have jumped in, tried to pull the tentacle off. Get him to safety. I should have done something. Not just sit here and stare. He was my best friend for god sake.
Shaking, I looked around, hearing shouts from John and Jenny. “What happened?” “Where’s Tom?”. It was like I was listening through a layer of cotton wool, like all of the sounds around me had been muffled. It took a great deal of effort to shake off the images of Tom being dragged below, but right now I needed to focus on John and Jenny. We were still stuck here, we still needed to find a way out.
“He’s gone!” I yelled back, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“Gone, what do you mean gone?” John shouted back angrily.
“Oh god. No, no, this can’t be happening” Jenny shouted, before sinking to her knees, her head in her hands. I knew she’d always had a thing for Tom, even if she’d never told any of us specifically, sometimes you could just tell. She was as devastated as I was, staring blankly at her shoes.
“Something took him. Look, just stay away from the water. Just stay where you are and we can figure something out!” I shouted, trying my best to sound confident, my insides feeling like they were squirming. In truth, I had no idea what we could do. Our yacht was trashed, there was no one for miles in any direction, and hypothermia was likely to set in long before we’d be able to paddle our chunks of debris anywhere close to land. And then there was this thing in the water. This huge, unknown thing. It had taken Tom and, with a chilling realisation, I realised it had probably taken Gavin too. Who knows how long it was going to hang around, waiting for the rest of us?
Sitting there in the dark, floating on a tiny speck of decking, I couldn’t help but feel completely helpless. Giving in to my despair, I broke down, letting myself cry. Each tear added to the freezing layer of water that already coated my body. I knew it wouldn’t be long until I began shutting down, the cold slowing me to the point that I’d simply cease to survive, another floating meal for hungry fish and seabirds.
There were only the three of us left now. John, Jenny and I. Three small people trapped in the giant, never-ending expanse of the endless open ocean. No one would even know where we were. Once we failed to return at the end of the week, the rental company would call the Coast Guard. They’d come and look as best as they could, but no one really knew about this place, Tom said so himself. After another few days, they’d call off the search and assume we were lost at sea. There was no help coming. “Guys, did any of you see that?”
John’s voice pulled me from the depths of my despair. He was standing on his mound of debris, pointing to a spot just in front of him. “It looked like…” John’s words were abruptly cut short as his floating debris sanctuary was knocked violently from under him, landing in the icy water with a loud splash. Jenny and I both called out to him, frantically urging him to get back to safety, get out of the water.
His head broke the surface, terrified and frantic, looking around for anything to clamber onto, and whatever had knocked him off in the first place. He’d been there for nearly five seconds, frantically splashing and turning, when he was violently yanked beneath the waves. Water filled his lungs, cutting off the sound of his final terrified scream. Jenny and I both yelled out, screaming in terror as we watched the bubbles where John had been slowly tapering out, getting weaker and weaker before stopping completely.
This could not be happening! This thing, it was picking us off, one by one. Jenny and I were the last ones left, but who knew how long that thing would wait before coming back for us. All we could do was stare at each other across the waves, wide-eyed, numb, defeated. Despair settled over us both again as we resigned ourselves to our fate. Even if someone did stubble upon us, neither of us would likely be rescued. All that would be found would be the remnants of the decimated yacht. No one would know what had happened here.
Jenny’s frantic screaming filled the air, cutting through my thoughts like a knife. I turned to her, awestruck and terrified as the platform she was standing on was being slowly dragged away. She was staring, wide-eyed, screaming at the water beneath her. Completely helpless, I saw the dark shape that was clearly visible beneath her platform, pushing it away from the rest of the debris. Despite being dragged further away from me, her screams reached an almost deafening crescendo as four of the monstrous slimy tendrils gently breached the surface. They slowly reached forward, slithering through the air like unnatural floating snakes, feeling their way towards the floating debris.
As they make contact with the wood, they latch on with surprising strength, the crushing sound of splintering wood loud enough to be heard throughout Jenny’s now hysterical screams. Then, a crushing wave of realisation hit me as it began to tear away chunks of Jenny’s sanctuary, hurling fragments of wood into the waters as it desperately tore away at the floating deck. Jenny’s eyes were locked on the scene unfolding in front of her. She’d stopped screaming now, she looked almost like she was in shock, not believing that any of this could possibly be happening, hoping that it had all been a bad dream. I screamed at her to run, to swim to another section of the deck, just swim away from that thing, but she didn’t react. She didn’t even register my voice. She just stood there, staring.
The tendrils violently tore away at the remaining deck, edging ever closer to Jenny, until one finally brushed against her leg. All movement stopped as the tendrils ceased their tearing, and for one brief moment, the sea felt calm. Then, before I could even react, three of the four tendrils flew with lightning speed, shooting out in unison towards Jenny. They wrapped themselves tightly around her neck, arm and leg before she had a chance to move, to even scream. Their touch snapped her out of her stupor and she began to scream and writhe, violently kicking and pulling at the tendrils she could reach. Pure survival instinct drove her as she fought to get free, before the fourth tendril reached out, the four feelers gripping the top of her head, aggressively throwing her into the air.
I watched in unfathomable horror as they violently slammed her down into the floating deck, a sickening crack reverberating in my ears as her head connected with the hardwood of the deck. I only caught a glimpse of her face, the skin on the one side now hanging at an unnatural angle, her nose and mouth streaming blood, before she was taken down into the deep. No sound left her lips as her head vanished beneath the surface, only a short stream of bubbles followed before coming to a stop.
Within a matter of seconds, the sea returned to its calm, still state. Everything was still, there were no sounds other than the lapping of the waves against the flotsam. I was alone, stranded in the middle of the ocean. I was numb, how could this be happening? That thing, it had taken them, taken my friends. How long was it before it came for me? A slight movement to my right caught my attention and a spur of hope raised within me as I saw something rising slowly to the surface. Had Jenny managed to break free from that thing?
I watched with bated breath as the pale shape got closer and closer, steadily making its way to the surface. As it got closer, the hopefulness that had begun rising in me slowly ebbed away. It was small, much too small to be Jenny. Perplexed, I watched as it continued rising, getting ever closer. Then horror washed over me, I scrambled backwards across the deck, away from what I could now see clearly as Jenny’s severed hand. It breached the surface, rings and bracelets glinting in the moonlight. Floating amongst the debris, I could make out her hand and wrist, clearly leading down towards where her forearm should be, but all that seemed to remain were strands of torn skin, sinuous and raw. They drifted in the water like the tendrils of a grotesque jellyfish.
The blood drained from my face, a cold sweat coating my already freezing brow as I vomited. The weight of my situation bore down on me. I was the only one left. They were gone, my friends. All taken. And I was next. It was just a matter of time till that thing came back for me, ready to drag me into the depths. With each passing moment, I could feel the weight of impending doom. That thing was lurking somewhere below, it had to be. Circling. Waiting. I huddled on the debris, shivering from the cold, my eyes darting across the treacherous expanse, anticipating the next strike, waiting for the nudge to my makeshift raft that would signal my impending death. Jumping every time a wave lapped against any debris in the water, fearing that it was the creature, ready to breach the surface again for its final meal.
I’d resigned myself to my fate, but the waiting was like torture. My mind started to play tricks on me. I saw shadows further out in the water, large dark spots in the already black sea. They disappeared whenever I focused on them, nothing more than a trick of the light. Sounds met my ears that couldn’t possibly be real. My friends crying out, screaming for help, and the crashing sounds of the yacht being torn apart. The chugging of a diesel engine. Why couldn’t that thing just take me now and end all of this? I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose as I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the phantom sounds of my memories. Gradually they quietened down. All bar the sound of the diesel engine. If anything it seemed to be getting louder.
I opened my eyes, confused. Scanning around, I could see blinding searchlights in the distance. A boat? There’s no way that a boat should have been here, but here it was, plain as day. Hope rose in me again, forcing me to my feet as I began shouting at the top of my lungs, hoping against hope that this wasn’t yet another cruel trick of my fracturing mind. Hearing my cries, I was suddenly illuminated by the beam of one of the searchlights, the boat changing course towards me. This is it, I thought, I just need to get on that boat, and then this will all be over, just a little longer. I was painfully aware of how exposed I was, that creature could be anywhere. If it attacked before the boat got to me, there would be nothing anyone could do, I would be taken to the depths before anyone could register what happened.
Scanning the shipwrecked area again, my heart stalled as I saw it. That same huge fin, grey with green, veinlike scars running through it, was slowly descending below the waves on my left mere feet away. It seemed to be swimming away from me, away from the light. My legs felt weak and began trembling at the thought that the creature had been so close, perhaps only seconds away from ripping me from the surface.
After what felt like hours, but in reality was likely just a few minutes, I could clearly make out the boat headed towards me. It was a large, response boat. I could clearly see the symbol for the Coast Guard adorning the side of it. I couldn’t help but cry, tears of joy for being saved and sorrow for my friends who I’d never see again. They slowed to a halt just in front of me, the spray from their boat splashing across me. I could smell the diesel fumes from the engine, but to me all that it could smell like was safety.
Strong hands reached out, pulling me from the clutches of the ocean’s grip, and I collapsed onto the safety of the rescue vessel. Tears mingled with the saltwater on my face as I gasped for air, my body trembling with a mixture of relief and profound loss. I was safe, this was really happening. Looking over the side railing, I could see the debris field. What remained of the yacht was strewn as far as I could see, slowly being swallowed by the unforgiving sea.
For a moment, only a brief moment, I swear I could see a dark shape, just on the edge of the searchlight illuminating the area. It waited there, still and on the outskirts of the beam. Terror welled up in me as I braced myself, awaiting its attack on the boat, shattering it as easily as it had the yacht. But the inevitable impact never came. The shape remained there, floating, watching, before turning away and disappearing into the inky abyss from whence it came.
Relief washed over me, cleansing all of the fear and tension, the pain and heartache I’d felt the entire time I’d been stranded in that horrific sea. The weight of the entire ordeal fell onto me, as though dropped from the heavens, no longer held at bay by adrenaline and fear.
I collapsed, my body too tired to hold up even a finger. I was violently shivering, crying as one Coast Guard proceeded to wrap me in several blankets, carrying my limp form into the cabin in an attempt to keep hypothermia at bay. As he lowered me to the floor, my face must have still been wearing that same terrified mask it had been contorted into for the past several hours as he held both hands up in a calming gesture, slowly backing away.
“Easy now, easy now. You’re safe, don’t worry. You’re lucky we found you.” He said soothingly. “Boat hire place said there were five of you, do you know where your friends are?”
“Gone…They’re all gone…Leave…Thing took them…Need to…Go” I managed to utter in a broken speech before the weight of that exertion caused me to black out.
When I awoke I was in a hospital on the mainland. I’d been unconscious for a few days and the doctors were not sure if I’d wake back up again. They told me if I’d been in the water for another few hours, then I probably wouldn’t be here right now. They didn’t know how right they were.
Since that fateful night, I have struggled to make sense of what transpired. I carry the weight of survivor’s guilt, haunted by the faces of my friends, their horrified expressions and ear-shattering screams ever present whenever I close my eyes.
Out of morbid curiosity, I searched online for anything referring to the fishing spot that Tom had found, the place where we’d encountered that thing. I wanted to know if there was anything that may have warned us about that monstrosity beforehand, any sort of subtle hint or indication that something wasn’t right.
As terrible as it sounds, I wanted there to be something that could have avoided this entire tragedy, something to shift the terrible weight of survivors’ guilt that I was feeling. If not, then I needed to let people know what happened. I needed to warn anyone who might have thought it was a good idea to go there. Memories of Tom, Gavin, John and Jenny flashed through my vision as I typed.
What I found sent chills down my spine. After digging through link after link, I found myself presented with a series of news articles. There were several, each telling a similar story. Boat Missing Off the Coast. Fishing Trip Lost at Sea. Is This the New Bermuda Triangle?
Reading through them, numbness began to crawl through me as I was forced to relive the events of that night. The articles each detailed boats that had been last seen going through an area that seemed to roughly match the coordinates that Tom had taken us to. They explained that even with the increased coast guard patrols, the frequency of these missing boats was only increasing.
The only thing that they had ever managed to uncover from that site was debris. That is, until they found me!