v i s c e r a l s t o r i e s

Nautical Anomalies

The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, also known as the deepest point in Earth's oceans. Last month, scientists and researchers were baffled when they received a strange signal, they called it the "Bloop 2". If you're not familiar with the "Bloop", it was that ultra-low-frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration back in 1997. Many speculated that it was made by a marine creature, but that's so ridiculous as how it sounds because it's a sound made so powerful than any creatures on earth could make, even louder than whales. Many theorized that it's made by the glacial movements, and I also thought that it's the most convincing theory because it's presenting the most logical explanation of that sound's mysterious origin. But this Bloop 2, it's much more louder and concerning, and this time, most of the researchers who studied about it couldn't deny that it came from something massive, and possibly alive. The time we heard it, it sent chills down our spines. And because of the latest advancement on our world's technologies, we are one of the few special groups that are tasked to conduct a research about the Bloop 2. And with this kind of research, we're actually going to the deepest part of the ocean. But, with how the things turned out for us now, this is the greatest mistake we committed in our lives.

Right now, we're all standing on the deck our ship, observing the distant commotion- a whale is being constricted by this beastly tentacle. Earlier, this whale was just swimming freely near our ship. We're even taking pictures of it because it's a once-in-a-while experience. But then, something grabbed it with an insane display of aquamarine force, showering us with an ocean burst. It drenched us just like when you're annoyed at someone because they give no response as you try to wake them up from sleep so you tried to wake them by pouring a bucket of water right into their face. But for us, despite the chilling torrents of water, it's not enough to shake us back to our senses and known logic.

The colossal tentacle, towering 3oo feet high, and with a thickness of a hundred feet in width. An oceanic appendage with plethora of suctioning protuberance that could fit 5 humans inside its circumference, the absurd proportions of the tentacles gives us this unknown fear, knowing that it belongs to an enormous creature underneath us; a mammoth in the unending depths. A monster that shouldn't exist in this realm of reality - an absurd cephalopod life from oceanic hell - and something that should only belong to myths.

The behemoth tentacle coils on the lifeless aquatic animal just like a python on a poor mouse. We couldn't do a thing other than witness the horrific act of irrational nature as it crushed it into half - an asymmetrical grotesque marine mammal cut - saturating the deep blue with whale crimson and flesh before it breached down, showering another batch of torrents of ocean water, followed by a reverberating guttural growl from below, as if it was unsatisfied by its meal. Peaking below, we can see the silhouette of the anomalous creature that surely weighs hundreds of tons. Even if I couldn't see what it looks like in the unclear depths, just gazing at the shadowed physical dimension of the krakken-like being is enough to make me shit bricks and make my knees weak. What can we possibly do? We're just its pathetic onlookers that are trying to fathom its macabre reflection.

Whatever exists below should stay on its domain. Just with the fact that it needs massive beings as a source of food, it's surely a genocide for the smaller entities. The presence it displays is enough to induce lifelong nightmares each night. Fear renders us frozen to our place. We could only gaze at partial transparency, at the blackness of its shadow.

The blackness that slowly turns into a glow of scarlet.

A deafening roar exploded, resonating on our chests, raping our eardrums, shaking the ship and us to the core but its volume slowly goes down....as if it dies out. The ship then overturns after the assault of tsunami-like waves from the leviathan rhythm, confusing our comprehension and sanity if we want to scream for our lives or accept this grim fate. We fell on the ocean waters and fear immediately takes place as its chilling ice ran through our veins. Paddling up and down to keep ourselves still in the surface of the water, we embraced for it as we gaze at the forming trepidation from below. A massive tendril violated our calculating minds, but soon, it was replaced by confusion as we realized that the humongous tentacle is severed. Other body parts of the abnormal biological brute soon floats above the surface as the ocean became dyed with deep red with a stench that's unbearable for our nostrils.

A final guttural growl was reproduced. My heart sank and gave in to fear, it was an unwanted knowledge.

The creature that killed the whale was killed by what's absurdly hovering below. It was a prey for a nautical anomaly that doesn't seem to care to follow a natural somatic structure. We gaze at the abyssal darkness, at the unfathomable anatomy - a physique that's created for the sole purpose of inducing the greatest fear, a being that stands at the zenith of all aquatic lifeforms, supposedly the antecedent of insentient life if we're talking about the theories that all life came from the primeval waters - comparable to the ratio of an ant and an adult human being. As I stare at the center of the morbid existence, I saw a glowing cerulean circle.

It was a pupil. It blinked.

I guess there will be always a bigger fish.