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.
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