. . .
Date: May 20, 1999
Location: 12° 3′ 55.44″ N, 144° 34′ 52.08″E
. . .
Wilson Blanc remembered reading somewhere once that the ocean floor is supposedly littered with the bones of long-dead bodies, including those of humans.
On hindsight, maybe there is some bit of a truth in there–what with plane crashes and sunken ships happening all throughout humanity’s very long course of history travelling in or over the ocean–I mean, there is no doubt that countless lives have been stolen by the sea, leaving so many victims in unmarked and watery graves.
Scientists have claimed that even until now humanity has only explored less than 5% of the Earth’s oceans, after all.
…alright, maybe Wilson shouldn’t really be thinking about these kinds of things right now, what with the next diving operation coming close any moment because he’ll end up creeping the heck out of himself and as a professional diver, that’s just sad.
He couldn’t really spare much about the details of their operation, but the next dive was said to be located in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere in the east of the Philippines. It’s situated near Mariana Islands and a whole lot closer to where the infamous Mariana Trench is said to be located. Now that was supposedly where the deepest part of the world exists that none of Earth’s oceans could ever hope to offer:
The Mariana Trench is said to be approximately 7,000 feet deeper than the Mount Everest itself even if the peak somehow found itself submerged there.
At 3,280 feet below its surface, not even the barest hint of sunlight could ever hope to reach its depth and the pressure at the bottom is said to be 1,000 times greater than the regular sea level… even the temperature is supposedly close to the point of freezing!
A-ahem…
Okay, he’s rambling.
Anyway, moving on~!
While Wilson was thrilled (and somewhat disappointed, because no, the boss had made it pointedly clear that they are not going anywhere near the Challenger Deep… what a buzz kill), with the idea of visiting the Philippines again after the operation was said and done.
It was something he is actually looking forward to because his parents have decided it’s time to bring his little sister there for the summer to introduce her to their maternal grandparents and she seemed to be having a good time since she had chattered quite a lot and promised showing him around the nearest tourist spots last time they managed to talk before duty calls.
He couldn’t wait to see his family again.
This trip better be worth it.
* * * * *
A week later, they had a team of five: Allen, Denise, Daphne Lance and including himself. Normally, there would be over six or eight of professional divers involved in the operation, sometimes maybe even more, but Wilson’s partner–Jacob–had a terrible case of fever yesterday so he’s still recovering for the time being. And the other two (Mary and Renz) are still on leave which means they are also not going to be on the picture for a while.

Their group normally worked on pairs but their boss didn’t seem too inclined to postpone the dive for this little hiccup and to be fair, Wilson didn’t really mind being the odd man out.
One dive without his partner won’t kill him.
After making sure that their equipment was in working order, before they begin, Allen, their unofficial team leader and the oldest diver in their group, clapped his hands very loudly to get their attention:
“Alright team, the plan was to have a six-hour dive and it will be about 200 meters below the surface. No big deal. We’ve gone deeper before. Anyway, we would have about three hours or so to explore life down there before coming up for some decompression stops. So… any violent reactions? No? Sounds good?”
A chorus of agreement rang around Wilson while he peered at the ocean. This is going to be their first dive, and as usual, the primary objective is to start mapping out the area and then get some pictures.
There was no need to be so nervous.
They weren’t meant to bring back anything yet.
…so why is he beginning to feel uneasy?
* * * * *
Light in the ocean decreases with depth, with minimal light penetrating between 200 to 1,000 meters and the depths below 1,000 meters does not receive any light from the surface so when you’re under the sea.
It’s to be expected that the lighting wouldn’t be that all great but the girls–for some reason Wilson couldn’t make sense of how–had somehow managed to make it work and had taken pictures after pictures until they had to use his and Lance’s cameras because their memory cards ended up full not even an hour later.
Well, that… and the boys’ sorry attempts at taking pictures aren’t really helping their cause so they had to surrender their stuff. Why must Daphne be so damn bossy?!
Anyway, although some sea creatures usually depend on sunlight in order to survive, some of them can still make do without it thanks to their dim environment and the girls liked to amuse themselves with seeing the usual swordfish, hatchet fish and shrimps coming from afar. There are even some sea turtles they would catch a glimpse of from time to time just overhead!
Because the seawater absorbs sunlight, this barely lit ocean layer they are currently in is often referred to as the twilight zone… or officially known as the dysphotic zone.
Not far from them, Allen signaled that it was time for their group to head back up for their very first decompression stops. But Wilson waved the older man over to wait for a moment as he looked through the area again.
Huh… that’s weird.
He could have sworn he saw something… something blue and whatever it was… it appeared to be glimmering.
In the poorly lit waters, Wilson narrowed his eyes and tried to discern where he last saw that strange, bluish glow of some sort… only to come up with nothing.
Wilson shook his head.
* * * * *
Lance caught a bad cold not even an hour after.
“Kid, if you weren’t feeling up for it, you could have at least said something,” Allen was saying with his hands on his hips as they crowded around the idiot sniffling miserably in his bunk.
Lance winced, “But I feel fine before boss, I swear–”
By the doorway, Denise barely hid a startled flinch when Lance’s nasally voice suddenly breaks off and another horrible, sneezing fit soon commenced which he tried to muffle by pressing tissues on his runny nose. Meanwhile, Daphne hurriedly handed Lance a glass of water and a pill.
“Well clearly now, you’re not,” Wilson muttered.
* * * * *
Now, there were four of them.
On the second dive, not even minutes after they returned, Wilson caught a glimpse of that strange, bluish glow again. And this time, even the others saw it when he pointed it out.
At Daphne’s frenzied insistence, Denise hurriedly readied her camera to take a picture of that ghoulish blue light before it fades off again while Wilson and Allen swam cautiously towards it as they tried to take a closer look as to what could have that thing been.
Wilson tried not to get too excited.
It could be plastic for all they know, trash that have somehow found its way in the depths of the ocean. Or it could be some sort of weird… jellyfish?
Maybe even a… plant?
But… no, it was gone before they could reach it.
…Disappointed doesn’t even cover it.
. . .
And on their way up to the surface, Allen and Wilson barely managed to grab on to an unconscious Denise up with them before she’d descended to a watery death below them because without a warning, she suddenly passed out behind her twin while she was messing around with the camera in her hands.
Daphne said it could be due to fatigue but…
But even she doesn’t sound too sure.
* * * * *
After the third dive, when Daphne’s tank suddenly ended up malfunctioning and she very nearly drowned 200 meters below the surface when her equipment ultimately decided to abandon her as it crashes down altogether, Allen decided enough’s enough and even managed to put a stop to their–quite frankly–most horrible diving operation ever.
Their safety is far more important than this!
Over the phone, their boss reluctantly agreed.
Wilson snorted.
…Third times’ the charm.
Thankfully, the girls had gotten more than enough pictures and videos to record the marine life below to make up for it so the trip wasn’t really all for naught and even better, at the last minute, Wilson had managed to locate and haul up some remains of a weird fish that they couldn’t make on heads or tails as to what kind of species it could possibly be, all thanks to Allen’s help.
“You guys manage to find a dinosaur?! That’s SO COOL, MAN!” Lance gushed in his loud; still-nasally voice while Daphne hurriedly shushed him because Denise has fallen asleep on a chair next to her.
“Not sure,” Wilson answered as they all watched Allen examine the rest of their findings with an enthusiasm he was so clearly trying so hard to restrain in their presence. These things would probably end up in some local museum or at the hands of Mariana Islands’ officials–it was retrieved near their area so it basically belonged to them, after all, “It could be some… undiscovered type of fish for all we know.”
“What kind of fish?” Daphne muttered as she gingerly adjusted Denise’s head on her shoulder to keep her twin from waking up with a stiff neck, “…the type that swims right out of hell?”
Lance snorts, “Oh wow. Talk about judgmental.”
“Talk about sounding like a clown.”
“HEY!”
Wilson snickered at Lance’s expense while Allen raised an eyebrow at the two of them, looking faintly amused, “Well… the thing does look kind of creepy. I’ll give you that.”
“Creepy?” Daphne gave him a flat look over Lance’s incessant whining, “That disgusting… thing could pass off with flying colors as an alien type of monster you’ll most likely see in one those weird, cheap-ass films THIS moron liked watching so much!”
“How dare you,” Lance seethes.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I somehow offend your low-class tastes in movies?” she gave him an angelically bright smile, “…and I never said you were the moron. So tit for tat,”
“…excuse me princess, you’re the one who has no taste!” Lance screeched indignantly, “AND I’M NOT A MORON!”
Wilson rolled his eyes.
The last one sounds like an after-thought.
And as if Daphne can read his mind, she snorted, “I don’t really want to hear that coming from the real deal.”
“Any idea what it could be old timer?” Wilson asked, completely uncaring when the two started badgering and kicking at one other (not a strange sight, really), causing a righteously angry Denise to be rudely awakened not a second later from her much needed nap.
Allen shook his head, absentmindedly watching Daphne trying to placate her older twin (who already has a squirming Lance in a neck lock) to let go.
“To be honest, I have no idea. It seriously kind of looks like a mutated eel at first glance or… or maybe it was a kind of centipede but it’s too…” the older man trailed off, wincing as he tried to search for the proper words but coming up at a loss.
They both turned to stare over at the remains.
An abnormal looking head that didn’t looked quite right. It was vaguely shaped into an oval which made its face look kind of horribly elongated with two gaping holes left where the eyes could have probably been located, moon-white bones speckled with strange hues of gray and black that maybe due to decay…
And a drawn out, crescent-curved body fixed into a fetal-like position with too-many limbs sticking out of its sides, its thin nails sharp and curved like sickles.
Its mouth, strangely enough, seemed to be located in its middle… if the teeny-tiny, knife-like three rows of teeth formed in a circular position (like a worm… or a leech) was any indicator of what kind of animal it was supposed to be.
Is that thing could even be considered an animal?
“The ocean really has some weird shit, eh?” Allen surmised.
…Weird is putting it lightly, Wilson thought.