Through the course of millennium, mankind has made it an effort to explore every frontier this world has to offer. Every undiscovered region has been prioritized by humans to conquer, no leaf ignored, no stone unturned. The predetermined notion is that mankind is at the top of the food chain. Apex Predators with no natural superior, nothing to stop us other than our own willpower. I mean we’d made it this far right? Wrong. A few years back I embarked on a research expedition studying the migration habits of blue whales in the pacific ocean and while on that trip I realized that we are in fact not the Earth’s apex predators. In fact, we are most likely relatively low on the food chain.

Please forgive me, I’m rambling. Let me introduce myself. My names Zach Kiegral. I’m a Marine Biologist that specializes in the feeding, migration, and mating habits of whales. Particularly, the Blue Whale. The largest animal on Earth, or so I thought. Through all of my years in practice there was nothing more exhilarating than putting on a dive suit and swimming within an arm’s reach of a creature so astronomically massive just to be able to poke a tracker in it. It was almost humbling. Looking into an eye the size of your head and gazing into it’s soul as it swims past you, leaving a wake that propels you backwards, it gave me an adrenaline rush like never before.

I’d embarked on many expeditions in the past, my most recent accomplishment being able to determine and predict with 90% accuracy down to the grid point the location of certain pods during certain times of the year due to the movement of certain swarms of krill. The expedition that led me to writing this story was the test drive for this accomplishment. We were going to see if what I had predicted was actually accurate. We had a small team of researches, Dr. Sarah Renger, a fellow Marine Biologist, Dr. Jakob Agapov, a Russian Oceanographer, Dr. Chris Hatfield, an American Oceanographer, and myself. Accompanying us on this expedition was a small crew and a captain who’s sole job was to maintain the ship, and get us from Point A to Point B.

“We got a 5 day trip ahead of us, you ready Slinger?” said Sarah.

Slugger was a nickname I had picked up a few years back in a colleagues softball game when I proceeded to hit the ball straight out of the park and land us a grand slam, securing my teams win.

“I think I’ve had enough time to get my sea legs under me, it’s not me you should be asking.” I replied, giving a slight gesture to one of the crew members who was looking exceptionally sick. After the team and crew were done preparing for the journey, we all met in the bridge to discuss the location to where we were headed, and what we all needed to do. Since the mission was to test my hypothesis, I was deemed the “leader” and subsequently gave the briefing.

“Alright everyone, listen up. Before we get into it I would like to thank Captain Ryder and his crew for allowing me and my team to use his vessel. I’m sure if we all do what we’re supposed to do and conduct our jobs correctly, we will be able to get along just fine.”

That got a good condescending laugh going around the crew. Captain Ryder took a long drag off of his cigarette and proceeded to scoff. I gave a quick glance to Chris who mouthed to me “Great going jackass”. Rubbing the back of my neck, making it very obvious of my nervousness, I continued. “We will be heading to grid point 34 degrees 50’09” N 141 degrees 13’39″W. If my estimations are correct, that should be exactly where a pod of blue whales migrated to. My team will be based in the lower bunks and will be conducting our operations on the upper deck.”

“Why do we have to give up a a part of our upper deck for a bunch of white collar scientists?” one of the crew members blurted out. After a few nods of agreement between the crew, Sarah chimed in. Listen, we all know this arrangement isn’t ideal, but if with your cooperation we can get this done as smoothly as possible. 5 days there, 2 days spent studying, and 5 days back. 12 days, I think we can all make it through that. You all of course will be paid by our company for allowing us to conduct our research on your ship.” The mention of monetary compensation seemed to calm them all down for the moment, and after discussing a few house keeping details, we were ready to set sail.

Two days into our voyage, I decided to walk up on the deck late at night for an evening stroll. The air was bitter, the night sky and moon illuminating the ocean below it. I noticed that Sarah was sitting on a chair looking out into the water. I saw an empty chair not far from him so I pulled it up beside him and sat down with him. “Hey, didn’t realize I wasn’t the only one that liked to come out here late at night.” She gave a light chuckle. I liked her chuckles, they relaxed me. She offered me a cigarette. “Oh no, I’m okay. I quit, trying to do the whole Nicorette thing you know?” She put the pack back in her pocket, continuing to take long drags off of hers.

“Do you remember shortly after we got divorced when you told me my senile grandma, god rest her soul, showed up with presents congratulating us for getting a dog or something like that?” she said.

“Yeah, haha. I do. Her dementia really got the best of her sometimes. I miss that woman.”

I probably should have mentioned this before. Me and Sarah used to be married. We met in graduate school, and at our graduation to receive our masters I proposed on stage. We got divorced not too long after the death of our unborn child. His name was going to be Elliot. Fortunately, after some time a part, we’d managed to maintain a healthy friendship, as well as professional relationship.

“What do you think he would’ve been like?” I asked.

“Dumb as a box of rocks if he inherited your genes.” Sarah said in between laughs.

“No really, what do you think he would’ve been like? If he were here today.” I asked, this time making eye contact with her. Sarah looked out into the water.

“I don’t know. I like to think he would’ve been happy. Enjoyed his life. I also like to think he’s looking down on us, not blaming us.”

I pondered this for a moment. Was he looking down on us? I’d always believed in a God but was our son actually looking down on us at this moment? We sat in silence for a little while before I decided to go back to bed. “Let me know if you need anything, I’m gonna turn in for the night. See you tomorrow.” I said in my most kind voice possible. “Okay goodnight.” she replied without even glancing at me, her eyes fixed on the water.

Three days later we started to approach our grid point. The entire team was up on the deck as the ship steamed forward, looking out onto the horizon. “Do you see anything?” I asked Jakob as he peered through the binoculars. “No… Not yet.” He said through his thick Russian accent. “W… Wait! Blowholes! I see Blowholes!”. “Let me see!” Chris yelled as he grabbed the binoculars from Jakob. “Yep! That’s them!” I had done it. My theory was correct. The entire team cheered and high fived me, congratulating me for my achievement. As we relished in our excitement, Captain Ryder brought the boat to a halt and we all began preparing. As exciting as this was, it was now time to get to work. We ran down to our bunks, grabbed our equipment, and started to set up shop on the deck. Me, Sarah, and Chris grabbed our dive suits, our spears to place trackers on the whales, waterproof cameras, as well as oxygen kits. Jakob grabbed his radar system and began setting it up on the deck.

We were all ecstatic to get in the water with these majestic creatures. We could see the pink swarm of krill and the massive whales swimming through them. Right off the bat I counted 6, but I assumed there were a few more deeper in the water. Me, Sarah, and Chris kitted up, lowered our boat into the water, and gently started head in the direction of the whales which were about 100 yards out with one of the crew members on board with us to help us get back in . Jakob elected to stay behind in order to confirm if we had successfully placed our trackers on the whales. From there, we could study their movements, how long they stayed in one area before migrating, and with my now proven correct hypothesis, predict where they would head next. We brought the boat to a stop at around 70 feet from the whales as not to spook them.

I was the first in. Right as I submerged in the water, I noticed two adults that we hadn’t seen previously at around 100 feet below the surface. I heard a splash next to me and saw that Sarah and Chris had dived in. “What’re your counts?” Sarah said over the ear piece we all had in. “Eight” I replied. “Look below, two adults. Probably letting the females eat first.”

“I guess Chivalry isn’t dead after all.” Chris said jokingly. We admired the creatures for quite some time. “Get some photos before we try and plant the trackers.” Sarah suggested. I pulled out the underwater camera and began snapping photos of the whales. We measured two of the females at around 70 feet to get an average size for the pod, and the next step was the trackers. But right before we began preparing, the whales began to act odd. They were acting distressed, as if something was deeply deeply wrong. This wasn’t normal behavior for a distressed whale though. They made the normal sounds a distressed whale does, but they were swimming upwards as if they were trying to escape the water. They would swim and shoot their heads out of the water, only to fall right back in. Their distress calls got louder and louder, almost as if they were frustrated and afraid that they couldn’t get out of the water.

I heard Chris over the ear piece. “What the hell is happening? What are they doing?” Before I had a chance to respond, I heard Jakob come on the line as well. “Zach, what’s going on out there? What are the whales doing?”

“Everyone be quiet, let me think for a minute.” I blurted out over the coms line. The whales began to thrash and jump even higher out of the water. They were getting close, and the situation was becoming dangerous. “Alright everyone, let’s get back in the boat. This is getting unsafe.” We began swimming towards the boat, but right as we began heading back, a massive tentacle shot up from the deep. Now when I say massive, I don’t mean pretty big. Each suction cup on it was the size of small house at least. It was gargantuan. It wrapped itself around one of the whales and pulled it down with such force, we descended at least 50 feet. The whales were going crazy at this point. Distress calls rang out through the ocean, krill began swarming everywhere. I could barely see Sarah or Chris.

“What was that!?” Chris screamed out. “I don’t know!” I heard Sarah yell. “What is going on out there!” Jakob screamed into the mic. The entire scene had turned into utter Chaos. We began swimming up to try and reach the boat but right at that moment another tentacle shot up from the deep and wrapped itself around another whale. The whale screamed out in agony before it was wretchedly pulled down to its watery grave. The force of the pull yanked us down even deeper. It was getting unsafe to be at this depth. We needed to get out of here immediately. We needed to get as far away from whatever Eldritch horror lurked beneath us. We began swimming up again, Chris about 50 feet to my left. Sarah. I couldn’t find Sarah. I looked panickily around me but there was no sight of her.

“Where’s Sarah!” I yelled over the mic. Chris began to look around too. “Did she already make it up?” he asked. At that moment we heard crackling over the ear piece. “I’m over here, to your right Zach.” I looked over and saw her about 70 to 80 feet away from me.

“Sarah you need to swim in our direction and up now.” I demanded. I noticed there was a whale above her. “Sarah get away from that wha-” was all I could get out before one of those god forsaken tentacles shot up from the depths and pulled the whale under, catching Sarah in its wake. I began to scream over the microphone. Jakob was screaming like crazy, demanding I tell him what was happening. I didn’t care. My ex wife, the would-be mother of my child, my close friend, was dead. I couldn’t compose myself any longer. I began hyperventilating, burning through my oxygen, when I felt something slam into me. It was Chris. “Get yourself together man! Sarah is gone. We have to save ourselves!”

It was then we heard the loudest sound either of us had every heard in our lives. It sounded like a thousand train engines going off at once. One hundred nuclear explosions all happening at the same time. The ocean shook violently. “Zach if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on right now i’m diving in there myself!” I heard Jakob scream with all of his mite over the mic. Still ignoring him, me and Chris looked down. Around 20 tentacles, each at least 2,000 feet in length with suction cups the size of landing pads began rising up from the depths. As they grew closer, we noticed hundreds upon hundreds of smaller tentacles writhing and wriggling near the maw of whatever this beast was. While we weren’t paying attention, the massive tentacles had proceeded to rise out of the water.

Once again I heard Jakobs voice, however he wasn’t talking to me this time. In the background I heard mass confusion between the crew members. “My god.. what is that.” he spoke. Jakobs voice over the mic must have snapped me and Chris out of our trance because we immediately began swimming upwards. As if despair was destined that day however, I heard Chris scream out in agony. I snapped by head around and saw Chris had been pierced with a stinger like limb that had shot out of one of those massive suction cups. I watched as that massive tentacle lowered itself down into the ocean, taking Chris with it. It was only a matter of time before I was next, I couldn’t stop. I had to swim. Keep swimming. Keep swimming. Don’t stop. I then heard a loud cracking noise. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw another tentacle had wrapped itself around the ship and was beginning to pull it under. I saw crew members dive into the water in a feeble attempt to escape the beasts grasp, but similar to the spear that had gotten Jakob, tiny biological harpoons were shooting out of the suction cups and picking off each sailor one by one. It was as if the tentacles had minds of their own. As tragic as this was, it was distracted. This was my chance.

I shot myself upwards with great force. I saw the ship being pulled slowly down, along with the punctured crew members. I could only assume Jakob was among them. Right as I neared the boat it came crashing under, nearly hitting me. One of those damn stingers had shot right through it and pulled the crew member that was on the boat under. How did it know he was on it? And how had it not gotten me yet? Chunks of wood floated to the surface. I heard another of those loud guttural roars, and looked down. The creature now had it’s gaping maw open, and I could see it’s eyes. Three gargantuan sets of eyes peered up to the surface, each could have been an ocean themselves. The teeth. My god the teeth. Hundreds, each the size of buildings, razor sharp and designed to kill. The inside of it’s mouth gave off an orange glow, resembling a portal to hell itself. The light it produced perfectly illuminated the creatures. With all of the chaos I hadn’t even stopped to think what this thing might have been. Due to the tentacles I had just assumed it was a previously undiscovered species of Godzilla squid, but this was no squid.

I can’t even describe the face. An almost reptilian eldritch horror that completely embodied every awful thing I could imagine. It’s three massive eyes gave off such hate and anger. This thing shouldn’t have existed. A spawn of the devil himself. I watched as it pulled my ship and all of the crew with it into it’s mouth and swallowed them effortlessly. I stared at it, hoping it would pierce me like it did Sarah, and Chris, and the crew. I was begging it to. But it never did. It just sat there. Gazing up to the surface with that unfiltered raw anger and hate burning in it’s eyes. It gave off one more ear piercing roar before it descended into the deep. I sat there floating, watching it get deeper and deeper until the very tip of the longest tentacle eventually disappeared into the deep.

I was at a lost for words. As if on autopilot, I propelled myself up to a floating piece of drift wood left behind from the destroyed boat. Thankfully it was big enough for me to climb onto. I lay there for hours, completely hopeless. Stranded. I remember thinking to myself I’ll probably die out here. But I was fine with that at this point. I had fully accepted it. That was the last thing I remember before passing out.

I awoke to the sound of helicopter blades getting closer. Through my blurred vision, I saw a Navy vessel in the distance, and a helicopter approaching. I had apparently been adrift for 2 days completely unconscious, and barely hanging on to life. Navy Doctors were amazed at how I was alive with how dehydrated I was. After a few days spent recovering, I was interviewed by representatives of the company I worked for, as well as the company that built the ship we were on. I had to explain why 3 of my colleagues were dead, and why a ship disappeared, along with the crew, me being the only survivor.

“It was faulty equipment and poor maintenance. One of the motors overheated and exploded, causing a reaction with the fuel. I was on the deck for a late night stroll when I saw the stern of the ship go up in flames. I tried to warn people but the fire quickly spread and I had no choice but to hop into a life boat. The fire reached the boat and burned away most of it quicker than I could lower it, and by the time I reached the water, I was left with only a piece of drift wood.” was what I told them. It was either give them a BS story that they could put in the headlines, or tell them the truth and be deemed delirious and traumatized and admitted into a psych ward.

I used to not believe in monsters. Biblical stories from the ancients of leviathans and horrors beyond our understanding, I thought it was all make believe. As I sit here typing this now, three years later, I still refuse to step foot in the ocean. I retired as soon as I returned to shore, using the money I had saved up to live within my means for as long as I can. Every now and then I think about my colleagues, especially Sarah. I like to think she is looking down on me with our would be child, just like we talked about on the deck that one night. If you’re reading this, the ocean is an untamed, lawless, alien world that lives subsequent to ours. The Bloop? Strange recordings from the deep? Cataclysmic movements attributed to glaciers or tectonic plates? Before you immediately write those off, just remember, I have seen what lies beneath.