Nobody had heard of the HMS Consternation. It wasn’t on any of the maps or charts I could find, and every Navy boffin I’ve asked about it just looks at me with confusion… all except one.
Captain Flynn looked terrified when I asked him, and that’s when I knew that what I’d seen below the blue was real.
I hadn’t gone looking for it, so perhaps it found me. I don’t know what it wants from me, but tomorrow, I will find out, because I am going back.
Is it wise? No, but I can’t avoid it any longer. I have to know why it appeared to me. I have to know what it wants.
It’s been on my mind for days. Every thought leads back to what I saw, and how many questions I have.
Was it all in my mind? Sometimes, I think so, but then, I recall the horror on Captain Flynn’s face when I mentioned the name of the ship and I know that I’ve got myself mixed up in something awful.
It wasn’t something that I planned. We were actually looking for the USS Liberty, in Bali. It’s a beautiful wreck, as inappropriate as it may be to describe such a thing. Covered in corals and teeming with interesting creatures to photograph. We didn’t find it though. We found… something else.
Tommy had been diving with me for years and he was always insistent on proper planning, so I still don’t understand how it happened.
We had planned the dive carefully, pouring over maps and checking blog posts and dive videos online for hours, so we were sure we’d find it easily, but somehow, we got all turned around and ended up in this weird patch of open ocean.
It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. There was absolutely nothing there. No fish. No fauna. No signs of life, in the normally very lively ocean.
Tommy seemed a little uneasy, but we had a look around anyway, trying to see if we could find our bearings and get back on track.
It seemed to get dark, like we were going further down, even though we were roughly at the same depth we had been at moments before. Our torches began flickering as we swam, and I could feel apprehension prickling at my skin.
It wasn’t supposed to be like that. Tommy was big on planning, and we had never got lost before. He’d even dived down to the Liberty himself, so there was no way that he’d screw up so badly.
I couldn’t see much of Tommy’s face, but his eyes were darting around, full of panic, and though he was trying to stay calm, I could tell he was freaking out, and truthfully, so was I.
I motioned to him to swim upwards, so we could get to the surface and figure out what was going on and he nodded, following me up through the water towards the blurred silhouette of our boat.
We swam up towards the surface, and I swear, Tommy was just behind me. I felt him grabbing onto my ankle as I burst up from the waves and clutched the side of the boat. As I turned around, I saw Tommy, below the water, struggling and kicking, as something pulled him down.
I dived straight back down, my heart racing as I chased after Tommy’s flailing body, watching as it was dragged down towards the seabed, but… the seabed seemed to get deeper and deeper as we swam. It began to get dark again, like before, and my torch flickered over and over as I descended. I couldn’t see what had Tommy, just his arms, desperately reaching out to me as it forced him down below, further and further, until he disappeared from view as the ocean seemed to be plunged into darkness.
I kept swimming, hoping I could catch him, wondering what I’d tell his parents if I couldn’t. My mind was hectic, and everything was so dark, that I couldn’t see where I was going, and swam right into something firm in front of me. I fell back in shock, confused, and quite possibly concussed.
I raised my torch, and gasped as the bow of a ship appeared under the light. I swam back a little to give myself more room, and could hardly believe my eyes as I swam around the ship.
It was huge, tonnes and tonnes of steel, as far as the eye could see, but not the tonnes of steel I expected. That was the thing. I read the lettering along the bow, and gasped again.
HMS Consternation.
I had never heard of it. It wasn’t on the maps, but here it was right in front of my face, and I could only assume that Tommy was somewhere inside.
I have never felt anything like I have when I saw that ship. I can’t explain it, but it felt like there was a never ending knot in my stomach, or a thousand butterflies coursing through my veins and pecking at my head. I felt like a scared little girl, staring up at a monster, knowing that my friend was deep within its jaws.
What could I do? I had no idea about the wreck. I hadn’t even known it would be there until I saw it, and as I stared up at the huge wreck, Tommy’s voice echoed in my mind.
“Forewarned is forearmed, Sabrina.”
The only thing that I knew about the wreck was that Tommy was inside, and so, I ignored his voice in my head and began swimming towards the deck.
The water felt heavy, like I was swimming through syrup, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of the boat. Something about it just seemed wrong. I tried to focus on finding Tommy, but my mind kept wandering to the boat itself.
Nothing about it made sense. Why was it there? How come we didn’t know it would be? What took Tommy, and why did it bring him here?
I arrived on the deck, my mind full of questions, and my body exhausted. Tommy’s body was sprawled across the deck floor, almost lifeless as I approached. He tried to sit up, his hands barely lifting off the deck as he fell back.
Again, with no plan, I rushed towards him, reaching out to his outstretched arms. Just as I reached him, he was snatched away again. A dark shadow seemed to descend over him, and he was gone.
I wanted to go after him. I thought of nothing else, repeating the command to my body to keep searching as I swam back towards the surface, but it was like I was on autopilot. I couldn’t stay down there any more.
As I got close to the surface, I turned back, desperately hoping to see Tommy, but there was nothing but the darkness. I kept swimming, looking back every few seconds, and just as I pushed myself out of the water and up to the surface, I saw its eyes.
Bright red, sharp and staring right at me, advancing closer with every second. I scrambled onto the side of the boat, breathless and bewildered.
I was a coward.
I started up the boat and raced to shore, not sure what else to do, and for the last few days, I’ve been desperately searching for answers.
That’s how I found Captain Flynn. I asked everywhere, begging anyone and everyone for information, until at last, I found him.
As I said, he looked terrified when I mentioned the ship. I hadn’t even talked about the strange, shadowy creature I had seen, but he already knew.
Tommy and I were not the first to discover the Consternation.
He wouldn’t tell me why he knew, but he did tell me to stay far away from the ship.
The trouble is, I can’t.
Tommy is somewhere down there, and if there’s a small chance that he could be alive, I have to find him.
Captain Flynn says he understands, and he will tell me all he knows, tomorrow. He won’t come down to the wreck with me, but his information may be the key to saving Tommy and solving the mystery of the Consternation.
-x-
Captain Flynn was a strange man, and just like the Consternation, he seemed to find me.
I was just about to set out again, when he arrived.
I had almost given up hope, when he tapped on my shoulder. Before I could even turn around, I heard a gruff voice, strangled by sadness.
He knew about the Consternation, but he was sketchy with the details, at first.
He told me to stay away, but I couldn’t leave it alone. I think that he knew that, because though he seemed anxious every time I mentioned the wreck, there was a hunger in his eyes, like he wanted to go back, even though he knew he shouldn’t.
I felt it too. The danger was clear, but the lure never wavered.
He repeated his warning, clutching my hand with a desperate look, but I could see in his eyes that there was more to the story.
Captain Flynn sat with me for hours, pleading with me to forget what I’d seen, but those eyes were seared into my soul, and there was nothing I could do.
“All you need to know is that his hunger is endless, and he has no mercy.”
It wasn’t enough. I told him that, again and again until he relented, and told me his story.
He was a young man once, working his way up in the navy. He had his first command, bubbling over with excitement, and everything seemed sweet.
He had a good crew, and a lot of ambition. They were on their way to join some other ships, when they ran into trouble. A sudden storm, wild and unruly. The sky shattered into darkness and their ship was tossed about the waves like a rag doll.
None of them could understand it. All around them were clear skies and calm waters, but the boat was trapped in terror.
They tried to regain control, but it was a lost cause. The bow began to break apart out of nowhere, weapons firing off indiscriminately, systems fritzing as fires broke out all over the ship.
The ship seemed to have a mind of its own, and nothing but mayhem on the brain.
As lightning struck the starless sky, the waves were black, bubbling up onto the ship’s deck as shadows surrounded the ship.
The last thing Captain Flynn can remember is eyes. Red as the blood that flooded the deck.
All the crew were lost apart from Captain Flynn, and he barely made it out alive.
Captain Flynn was blamed.
Nobody believed that a strange monster had dragged most of the crew and half the boat down below the depths, of course.
He was seen as a mad man.
A coward.
Dishonourable discharge, the lot, and now, he hung about the site where it had happened, hoping that one day he would be vindicated, but terrified of it too.
Finally the day had come.
I thought about his words, long into the night. I had postponed my trip for a few hours, but I knew that I had to go back. It wasn’t that I wanted to. It was that I had no choice.
It looks like Captain Flynn felt the same, because he’s waiting in the car outside. He said he wasn’t coming with me, but I suppose he changed his mind.
I hope I can find Tommy, and maybe, we’ll find some sign of Captain Flynn’s lost crew, if we’re lucky.
Maybe the truth will come out at last, but maybe the truth will be too much for people to take.
-x-
The sky was ravished by ravens as we set off. They dominated the dark night, weaving in and out of the endless clouds as we drove down to the dock.
A storm raged, raucous, with lightning blazing down into the briny blue as we approached the boat.
It wasn’t safe to sail, but the Consternation called to us all the same, and we had no choice but to answer her, setting off into the warring waves with a silent prayer.
We sailed out a little, battling the storm as it battered my boat.
I looked back to the shore, watching the rain taper off as we sailed away. The storm followed us, but left those who were smart enough not to be curious alone.
I had fallen into a trap, without ever knowing that I would. My stomach sank as I thought about how different our lives would have been, if we had only taken a different path.
“No use dwelling on it.” Captain Flynn shouted, seeming to read my mind. He nodded towards the water, and my mind became clear as two distant, red dots seemed to get closer, growing larger with every second.
Captain Flynn cleared his throat and grabbed a knife from his waistband, signalling for me to get behind him. I obeyed quickly, and we waited.
The eyes shone bright, lighting up the dark water as the creature swam around the boat, mocking us.
The boat rocked as the red eyes glowed, their light capturing us and suffocating the darkness.
The boat shuddered again, prey to the furious ocean.
“It’s here.” Captain Flynn bellowed as waves rose from the sea and cascaded on top of us. I crumbled to the deck, watching helplessly as my boat was captured in the grip of a long, dark tentacle.
More sprung from the water, each gripping onto the boat as the red eyes rose. I was speechless as the creature towered above us, it’s dark body bursting with tentacles, the red eyes, shining in the dark and dismal night.
I heard Captain Flynn’s knife clatter to the floor, and as I turned to him, his pale face was fractured with fear.
Suddenly, my breath was caught in my throat and pain shot through my body, as one of the creature’s tentacles snatched me from the deck and lifted me high in the air. I scratched and struggled, desperately trying to escape.
The creature clutched me close, and I was lost in the red eyes, drowning in my hopelessness as it dragged me down towards the dark depths.
As I sank beneath the waves, the last thing I saw was my boat, sailing away, with Captain Flynn offering one last, sympathetic look.
As I descended through the murky blue, there she was, the Consternation, watching me as I fell down towards her, to join Tommy and all of Captain Flynn’s crew.
He had left me, just as I had left Tommy.
The rusting ship was littered with bones, each of them slowly falling into place and rising as I sunk, reaching out to me.
The creature’s tentacles trapped the air in my throat, its red eyes bearing into mine, so much that I suspected madness was already upon me.
I struggled, but it was no use.
It seemed inevitable. I fought back all the same,
My death was by design. Something had led me to the bottom of the place, and it wanted me to join those lost souls on the Consternation.
I couldn’t fight anymore, letting go, and letting death come.
The creature’s eyes faded, as the ocean went dark, and peace broke through the chaos.
I was almost there, when I was thrown from the creature’s grasp. Blood burst through the dark waves, but it was not mine. As the world became clear again, I saw Captain Flynn, wrestling with the creature, his knife, deep in one of its eyes.
He motioned towards the surface, and I understood, swimming, with all my might, and all my will. Surviving, for Tommy, Captain Flynn, and everyone that the creature had taken.
I will likely never know the truth of the HMS Consternation, or how she happened to find herself in the tentacles of the fiend that found her and all the crews that it has and will continue to claim.
All that I know is that the madness of not knowing is worth my life.
Sincerely, Jennifer x 