The vast ocean, its depths have fascinated us since time immemorial, and for me it has always been a source of comfort. I can thank my entire life to the ocean, my parents met one another on a Caribbean cruise, then several years later conceived me on another, and I was even born above the tranquil waters, during another cruise. Not the most responsible thing to go on a cruise while pregnant, but then again, I came nearly a month early. The first memory I can even remember, was watching the waves crash down on the beach, a peaceful and happy memory, very unlike the rest of my early childhood memories.

You see when I was young, I would suffer from night terrors, and a crippling fear of the dark. From the corner of every room, I would see them. Some small dog like creature, with human limbs skittering across the floor, A face staring at me from behind the curtains. Thousands of living tendrils dangling in the closet or the arms reaching out from under my bed. However, with a flick of the light switch they would vanish. Standard child stuff I guess, but for me it was much worse. A vivid imagination the doctors told my parents, because to me they were real, very real. It nearly drove me to madness. Then one fateful day my father took me out on his boat, to go fishing. It changed everything, once I was above the water, my fear fled and I could relax. From that day onwards, I spent ever possibly moment in or above the water.

Even as an adult I never really overcame my fear and would still occasionally see things creep through the dark, but now I just ignore them. I’m sure this comes as no surprise, but now I’m a marine biologist, specializing in the deep seas, and unlike the darkness on land the deep abyss below the waves fills me with tranquility. “Dr. Anders, everything is ready” said a load voice from one of the technicians, standing just outside the door to my cabin, “Thanks I’ll head up now”, I replied, and he left. I still can’t get over it, Doctor, after 9 long years, I’m finally a doctor, and this is my reward. After graduating from the University of Rhode, my supervisor, Kyle offered me an amazing opportunity. He was working in collaboration with the US military, they developed a new type of submersible, and we would test it. They get the operation data, we get a look down into the Middle America Trench, and get to stay down there for 3 days.

I quickly left my cabin, stepping out onto the metal walkway. A gently breeze stirred, rustling through my short hair. I paused for a moment staring out over the endless water, taking a deep breath of the salty breeze, savoring the feeling while I still could. “3 days”, I whispered to myself, It was going to be taxing by so rewarding. We would see and record things never before seen by human eyes. I stood there taking in the scenery for a moment before turning away and hurrying down the metal walkway toward the deck.

I arrived at the deck a large expanse of metal, filled with many people scurrying between the different pieces of technology dotted around, but what really stood out was the two cranes standing tall in the center of the deck. Dangling from the nearest cranes, sat a long black object, it looked like a sphere but with one half tapering backwards, ending in a point, with 3 fins attached to that tapered tail. It was around 20m long and 4m thick. It looked like something straight from a sci-fi movie, entirely uniformed black from the outside, no seams where visible and even the glass just looked like a piece of its body. This machine was the pinnacle of military technology. It drew seawater into a chamber, which via electrolysis, separated it into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen kept us breathing and the hydrogen fueled the submarine. That’s probably all I’m allowed to say if I want this to see the light of day, but essentially, the only thing keeping this submarine from staying down forever is the passengers.

Each submarine could hold two people and I would be going down with a miliary pilot, named Keith McGregor. “Yo Doc, you ready to find some strange fishies” A voiced called from behind me, a short but well build man with fiery red hair was waving at me. He was dressed in blue jumpsuit, with a patch on his arm, and the words US Navy and McGregor across his chest. “Yes, I can’t wait” I said excitedly, “Great let’s get you prepped” he said back. The next hour and a half that followed was a lot of boring talking, safety checks, and walking through all the protocols, but eventually we were finally ready to go. We entered the submarine from a hatch in its roof, which was all but invisible until it opened.

We descended a short ladder into the airlock, sealed the hatch above us, opened another hatch in the floor and climbed down another ladder into the well-lit, cramped metal interior. The entire sub was quite small, it had a small corridor running down its length, on the left was a bunk bed embedded into the wall. There was a small folding table stored in wall and two folding chairs, behind then sat small door leading to a tiny bathroom. On the right was a small kitchen, and down from that another small door, leading to a cramped shower.

Going down the hall it terminated in a small room, which opened to the engine, and on the other side, was the part I was excited for. It opened into a larger room, with a massive circular dome of glass showing the world outside our submarine. In front of the glass sat two large chairs, with a large, curved table sitting along the interior of the glass, embedded in this table. Were hundreds of dials, switches, gauges and small lcd displays and in front of the right chair stood two large joysticks surrounded but many buttons and flashing lights. On the sides at the end of the glass were two larger curved displays showing the feeds from the exterior cameras.

I sat down in the left chair, and strapped myself in, Keith did the same on the right. A dull creek echoed around us, as the crane started to move, slowly swing us out over the water. A buzz sounded followed by a static voice “You’re good to go, were decoupling in 3, 2, 1”. Then my stomach jumped into my throat as the crane let go, the front of the sub angled down, as we rushed towards to the water, I gripped by chair tight, as plunged through the surface. You would normally expect a large, pressurized tank to bod back up to the surface, but instead we keep going down like an arrow fired down into water. We keep sinking only slowing ever so much. This sub utilized a next-gen technology to compensate better for the pressure allowing for faster descent.

As the water rushed past us, the light quickly faded from the light blue of the surface to a deep blue and eventually pitch black. Keith deftly flicked some switches on the control panel and the black void in front of us turned to a bright green. We could now see out into the distance, which was pretty much the same as before, but at least now we could see the occasional fish swimming past as we plunged deeper into the abyss. Keith turned to me and said “So Doc, what do you think, this is the night vision system”, he guested at the glass. “It incredibly” I muttered staring out into the verdant expanse. “I can even pick up any distortions, everything looks tinted green, but its crystal clear” I mutter in amazement. Keith chuckled, “Yep, and we got the cameras coated too, you’re gonna get some pretty amazing footage of them fishes”.

The sub started to slow it decent, and suddenly something massive shot past us. Long tendrils, grabbed at the sub, sharp protrusions clicked into the glass, as the entirely sub groaned in protest. “Dosidicus gigas” I said in amazement “The Humboldts squid, it must be hungry, although were a bit bigger that you can handle” I chuckled, Keith didn’t seem to be enjoying this at all though, and shouted “Dammit, he’s running away from that” he pointed forward showing the massive sperm whale barreling towards us, trying to get a hold of the runaway squid. Keith frantically pushed buttons, and the sub lurched downwards dodging from the hungry maw of the whale. However, the squid has a tight grip on the sub. And was dragged down with us. I frantically looked around the glass trying to see the whale, then I saw it on the side screen, showing the camera right above us. I must admit Keith was doing an amazing job he dodged the whale again descending fast, and finally it seemed the squid had enough and darted off the sub. However, the whale noticed, giving pursuit to the squid. Keith let out a sigh of relief “Woah I’ve never seen anything like that before, the camo on this thing might actually be too good”.

“Keith are you okay their bubby, you look kind of red” I said with concern. He looked over to me with bloodshot eyes “No worries I’m” his voice trailed off as he started to spasm in his chair, white foam coming leaking from the corners of his mouth. I jumped out of my chair but was dragged back by the harness holding me in place. I frantically fumbled with the buckles trying to free myself, but in my panic I took far longer than normal to free myself. I eventually got to my feet and stumbled over to Keith, but by the time I got to him the seizure had already stopped. I placed my fingers onto his neck feeling for a pulse, which faintly greeted my fingers. “Dammit, the pressure compensator must not be as good as they though” I knelt next to Keith, loosening his buckle. Then ….. CRASH and I was flung upwards slamming into the roof of the sub, then everything went dark.

My eyes creeped open, dim red light filled my vision. I blinked several times, revealing the cockpit of the sub. It was perfectly undamaged. No water was leaking in, no gas bubbling out the sub, it looked perfectly fine. I pushed my arms against the cold steel below me, slowly lifting myself up, as a dull pounding filled my head. I made my way back to my feet and reached up probing my head. I winched and pulled my hand away from the massive lump on the back of my head. “Owww. But at least I’m mostly fine” I sighed. Then I remembered Keith “I looked around and spotted him laying in the corner of the room. I slowly walked over to him. His left arm was at an unnatural angle and a small amount of blood trickled from his ears. “Keith, bubby can you hear me”, I gently shook him, but he didn’t respond. I considered carrying him to the beds, but in that moment, I didn’t think I had the strength for that and moving someone with unknown injuries is probably not a good idea. I flopped down into Keith’s chair, closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to calm myself.

I opened my eyes again taking in the vista in front of me. A Pitch-black expanse filled the glass, I guess the night vision was damaged by the crash. The I looked down at the control panel, one of the panels showed a red exclamation sign, this was one of the panels I knew, and flicked the switch next to it. The red light turned off plunging me into darkness for a brief second before the standard white light came back on. I pressed another button on the panel, activating the two-way radio. “Hello, this is Dr. Anders, from the US experimental expedition, alpha 1 4 7 3 2. The pilot suffered a seizure, I am requesting emergency rescue. I released the button. Static filled the cockpit for a moment then silence. I waited for a few minutes and tried again, again no response. “Dammit, did the coms get damages” I said in frustration to myself. “They’ll find us eventually, but I hope you can hang on long enough for rescue” I said to the still form of Keith. I had basic medical training, but a seizure was bit outside of my area of expertise.

The screens on the side of the window only showed static and black. I pressed a button toggling the cameras. Back camera… nothing, back side camera… nothing, top camera… wait what is that, it looks very similar to the broken camera but there is something, it’s a rock, a large slab of stone is resting on the camera. I try the camera above the cockpit. It shows empty water above, and to the right, a wall of stone, heading up into the distance. It seems like the sub is resting on floor of the trench, wedged between the floor and the right wall of the trench. I am not an expert at piloting the sub, but I do know the basics, I could maybe get us out, but if were wedged down here, getting us out could break apart the sub. Then well both die, “I’m sorry Keith, hang on okay, They’ll come for us”.

Three hours later, no communication on the radio. I spend the time, trying to treat Keith’s injuries. I placed a pillow under his head, elevated his legs, and set his broken arm as well as I could. All the while he sat there unmoving, not making a sound, but at least he kept breathing.

Five more hours, no communication. I spent the time reading the manuals we had and checking the parts I had access too. The sub seems to be in working condition, Water filters working, oxygen production 100%, gas mixture safe, power stable. Eventually I started to get hungry, so I checked out our stores, we had plenty of food, far more than we needed. The two of us could probably spend two weeks down here before having to worry for food. We had both canned and fresh food, so I took out one of the loafs of bread, cuts some thick slices from it, buttered them, added some slices of cold ham and chicken, a dash of mustard, then closed the sandwich. I carried my sandwich down the corridor, sat back down in the cockpit’s chair, and slowly nibbled at my sandwich while watching the black expanse outside. I should be terrified, this is a nightmare, stuck at the bottom of the ocean with no way out, but I was strangely calm. This place seemed strangely peaceful. Soon my eyes drifted close.

I found myself, floating, water gently cradling me. Darkness filled my vision, but I felt calm. Then I heard a faint sound. Something was calling out to me. “Michael”, “Michael”, a soft gentle voice called out. Then I felt it, something cold gently grabbed hold of my hand, holding it like a loving parent would, “Welcome back” it whispered, and I jolted awake. I found myself standing in front of the window, hand pressed to the glass. “Huh, I guess I was sleep walking”, I mumbled to myself, “that’s not good”, but the peace from that dream followed me to waking world and I spend the next few hours in a peaceful malaise. Eventually I snapped out of that peaceful state, and checked up on Keith, he was alive but still unresponsive. I checked the radio again, nothing. So, I checked my bag and extracted my cellphone and proceeded to waste the rest of the day, flipping through the apps on my phone, and catching up with the articles and books, stored within. Time passed quickly enough, soon I found my eyes drifting close again…

I found myself again floating in the pitch-black water. I felt something gently pat my shoulder, and it whispered, “You’re back”, I could feel the water gently sway past as if something very large swam by me, but instead of dread this filled me with a feeling of safety. It whispered again “We’re glad you’ve stayed; we get so lonely”. Something cold caressed my cheek. I awoke to find myself standing in the airlock. “What the hell” did I climb the ladder in my sleep. This seemed very wrong, and it greatly disturbed me, even the peaceful feeling I got from the dreams couldn’t override my worry. If I had messed with the wrong buttons, I could have killed both of us, and I have never sleepwalked before, so this was really a major problem.

I was thinking through this problem when I heard a faint hoarse voice call out, “He-e-lp”. I rushed down the ladder and followed the sound into the cockpit. Keith’s eyes were open, and he smiled when he saw me run into the room. I hurried over to his side and he said with a raspy voice “Water”, I quickly rushed to the kitchen grabbed a glass of water and ran back into the room. I kneeled by his side and offered him the water, he raised his good hand to try to grab the glass, but his arm was shaking violently. “It’s okay here” I said gently, and raised the glass to his lips, pouring a small amount into his mouth. After a few minutes, he stopped drinking, and I took the glass away.

I looked down at him and asked, “Keith how are you feeling”, He looked down at his body and scowled, clearly frustrated. “My dammed legs, they wont move, and this useless arm, won’t stop shaking” Keith then looked up at me and said “What’s the situation with the sub”, I replied “Coms are down, I think, but the ships intact, but were wedged into the trenches wall”. Keith scowled again “Dammit, the engines?”, “There working, but I was too worried to move us since it could” Keith cut me off “Okay, we need to unwedge the sub then hit the emergency surfacing system, you need to be my arms okay?”. I nodded, then Keith said “Great I need you to carry me to your chair and strap me in” I interjected “But your injured, moving you is a really bad idea”. But he was adamant “Don’t worry about that just help me up”. So I followed his ordered. I stood up, walked behind him, grabbed him from under his armpits, and lifted him. He grunted, through clenched teeth as I dragged him to the left most chair. I hoisted him up into the chair and buckled him into the seat. His legs hung limp down the chair.

Then I sat down in the right chair “Okay press that button there, the red one with the wavy pattern, no not that one, yes that one”. The button I pressed changed the display on one of the LCD’s it showed the silhouette of the submarine, with several blinking dots along it’s outline. “Those dots are collision detectors, they show how much force is put where on the sub, pull that lever down slowly, and slowly maneuverer us out keep watch on those dots, it they turn yellow be careful if they turn red move away from that direction”. I grabbed the joysticks, slowly pushing forward, a loud grinding sound echoed around us. “Okay steady, more forwards, a bit more left okay, forward again” Keith guided me. The sub slowly moved forwards and up making a horrid sound. Then a blinking yellow, “Okay more right”, two more yellow “Dammit, left”, three more yellows “WHAT” … Crack, blinking red dots all along the tail. “Keep pulling just a bit more”, CRACK…. All the lights went out. “STOP”. I let go of the joysticks. The cockpit filled with dim red lights. I looked over to Keith “What happened” I asked. “The tail is pinned, we musted have knocked some rocks out from the wall, pinning us in place” Keith said, and he seemed really mad. “DAMMIT” he yelled out. “Sorry” I said. “It not your fault, I guess were waiting for help then, flick that switch would you” he said, still very frustrated. I flicked the switch then BZZZZTTTT. Something above us sparked and plunging us into darkness. However, the LCD’s and LED on the control panel still shone brightly. “COMME OONNNN” Keith yelled out again. I pulled my phone out and turned on the torch.

The next hours were spent checking the submarines systems, something burned out in the lighting system, but the rest of the sub still had power. We still had oxygen and water, the kitchen still worked, but we had to sit illuminated only by the light of our phones and the LCD around the submarine. Keith was not the most fun person of being trapped with, I can’t really blame him since his body was broken but he was very frustrated, everything made him angry, and he yelled quite often. It was a very bad situation before but I was still calm, but now that calm was now broken. “Dammit I’m hungry” Keith angrily mumbled. “Okay I’ll make something to eat”, a strange look came over Keith face, but he just nodded. I stood up headed to the kitchen, and opened two cans of soup, filled a pot, and slowly simmered them on the stove. After they got nice and warm, I prepared two bowls, and took them back into the dark cockpit. I fed Keith before digging into my own bowl. After dinner I cleaned the dishes. I had then planned on excusing myself and getting some sleep, but Keith seemed full of energy and kept pestering me to make conversation. Keeping me up the whole night. Then while I was preparing breakfast, he fell asleep. I ate breakfast them got into the bed myself and fell asleep too.

I found myself again in darkness, but the water felt different, it flowed in strange ways, with a strong current pulling at me. The peaceful atmosphere was not here anymore, then the whisper came again “We want him”, I was confused as something brushed past me, “GIVE HIM TO US”. I awoke staring down at the sleeping Keith. I stumbled backwards, startled by my own actions. I turned around, looking out into the darkness outside the submarine, looking for that calming feeling. However, staring back at me from the darkness was a face. Empty black eyes, on a pure white almost human face, long thin razor-sharp teeth rimmed it mouth. I stared into the abyss of its eyes for a long moment then I heard it, so faintly I cannot even be sure I really hear it “We… want… him”. I was no stranger to seeing faces in the darkness, but this is the first time it ever happened in water, but the strangest part was that the face didn’t fill me with fear. “Doc, is that you” a voice called behind me”, “yeah sorry Keith, just checking the radio”.

The next two days where torture, Keith wouldn’t let me read, he either kept trying to make conversation or asked me to check some system or part of the sub that was working and didn’t really need checking. But that wasn’t the worse part, what bothered me was that ever so often I would see that face outside the window asking for Keith, and It was starting to get on my nerves. “WHY HAVEN’T THEY COME ALREADY” I complained mostly to myself, but Keith answered “The subs cloaking is state of the art, there probably trying but can’t quite pinpoint us” Keith grumbled. I looked over to him from my chair, ignoring the face pressed to the window. “Dammit, how long do you think it’ll take”. “A week, two at the most” he grumbled. “THAT LONG”, I nearly screamed, “well yeah, but luckily were still on our original route, because when they search the trench, they’ll need to make visual contact with us and only then arrange the rescues team”.

I sighed. I didn’t know if I could last another week. The face was bothering me big time, and it had now followed me into my dreams. Whenever I fell asleep that face would be swimming around me begging me to give it Keith, and I kept telling it I can’t, but it never listens. Its so damm annoying. Keith yawned and said “I’m getting tired, could you carry me to the bed”. I stood up and dragged him to his bed, tucked him in then. Headed back to the cockpit.

I sat down in the chair looking out into the depth. The face appeared again, staring at me, then slowly turned around looked back into the darkness, and fled. A strange calmness overcame me, and soon I found myself drifting among the calm waters again. I looked out into the darkness and suddenly they blinked into existence, thousands of those same faces. Swimming around me, but this time they were more peacefully gracefully gliding through the water. Something else was here too something much larger, gliding just outside my vision. Then it whispered to me “I see the children have been bothering you” something gently took my hand, and we started to move through the abyss.

A dim spot of light appeared in front of us, as we drew closer, the light grew brighter and bigger, soon surrounding us. The image resolved and I found myself looking down into my childhood bedroom. However, it was filled with nightmare creatures, undulating as they moved through the room, unnatural limbs, moving at unnatural angles. A strange joy could be seen on their faces. I could see myself cowering under the sheets. The image slowly faded to black then I found myself looking down at a small fishing boat gently drifting over the gently waves. It was the first fishing trip dad ever took me on. Then I saw it, one of those nightmares. It looked like a childs attempt to draw a human, twisted, and stretched limbs, on a too thin body, with a gaping hole where its face should be. It danced over the waves, drawing closer to the boat, as it got around a few meters away from the boat, pale almost-human arms with webbing stretched thinly between their fingers stretched out of the water, grabbing onto that monster and dragged it under the waves, where the all to familiarly pale faces tore it to pieces.

I tried to tear my eyes away from the violent scene, a strange feeling overtook me, and my vision shifted again, it was the same scene but I was now looking through the eyes of my younger self. I looked upwards back to where my vision had come from moments ago and I could just make it out, barely discernable, just a faint outline of a massive shape towering over my younger self, and a feeling of calm and safety overcame me.

Everything slowly faded back to darkness, I found myself floating in the depths again, but I could now see them, there pale bodies so close to human but just not, thin pale limbs, thin membranes stretched between there fingers and toes, sharp thin fangs hanging from the mouth and pitch-black eyes. The creatures that have been bothering me the past few days. Thousands of them swam around me, while I could just make out the outline of something utterly massive swimming around the entire swarm. It whispered again “You are special. We care for you. Give us him, then let us in. We will protect you”. I awoke to a bloodcurdling scream. I was standing below the airlock, but this time its door were sealed. Something was inside of it, and it was making a racket. It screamed and banged on the steel walls, making a terrifying sound. Then I hear it “PLEASE GOD, PLEASE SAVE ME, FROM THAT MONSTER” it was Keith’s voice, Keith’s voice coming from inside the airlock. But another sound started to drown out his voice. “GIVE HIM TO US”, “GIVE HIM TO US”, “GIVE HIM TO US”, “GIVE HIM TO US”, “GIVE HIM TO US”. I looked down at the airlocks control, my hand hovered over the controls, but I couldn’t help myself, I gave in to the voices and pressed the button. A loud groan of metal echoed around the entire submarine, followed by silence. I stared at the airlock for a few more moments, then turned around and walked back to the cockpit and I sat down in chair.

I sat staring at that darkness for a long time, but I was never alone, they kept me company, and whispered many things to me. This continued until it heard it. A load metal clank, and the entire submarine started to rumble, a load groan echoed out around me, then silence. Soon blinding beams of light filled the room, and someone was shaking me, then it tried to pull me away from the darkness. Once he pulled me from the chair, leapt onto the man, slamming my fists into his face over and over again. The dull wet smacks of my fist echoed out, I would not let them take me away from my new friends. But something hard slammed into my head and everything went dark. I awoke in a brightly lit metal room. I looked around I was alone, I slowly sat up in the white metal bed. Shakily I stood up and walked towards the door. It was shut tightly. I banged my hand onto the door, and a loud static voice echoed out around me “Dr. Anders, your safe now, we recovered you from the crashed submersible, and brought you back to port for treatment. You are currently in a hyperbaric oxygen room. We will be keeping you here for two days, a computer, phone is available for your use”. I blinked as and started to panic. They took me back up, away from my friend. I felt tears forming in my eyes, but then I heard it faintly in the distance “We’re right here”. The tears started to leak from my eyes.

The next two days past quickly, I had about a thousand calls, friends, family, Kyle. Then they let me out of the hyperbaric chamber. I spent the next month going through about a thousand tests. Apparently, I suffered a series of minor stroke, causing damage to my prefrontal cortex and amygdala. However strangely that damaged tissue has been filled with some unidentifiable tissue. The doctors don’t know what to make of it, and while they want to do a biopsy I completely refused, there not going digging in my brain just to satisfy their curiosity. Either way after their observation, they say it appears to be benign. Then came the military investigation, but they concluded that neither me nor Keith could be held responsible for any actions down there since we both were delirious from a faulty pressure compensator.

In the end, around 2 months since I left on submarine, I found myself back in my small apartment, laying down on my old bed in the darkness. I would usually dread laying here, watching the creatures creep around my room, but now all I see in the dark is a single pale face staring down at me, the face of my friend. Then a faint whisper “sleep well” as I drifted to deep dreamless sleep. This continued for each night of that week, until the seventh day, when I had another dream. I found myself standing on the beach, clean white sand stretched out to infinity, gently calming waves lapped at that endless beach. I found staring out across the ocean. I heard a shuffling sound from behind and looked back over my shoulder. Seeing a desolate land behind me, empty dirt, dead barren trees, and the faint warm breeze wafter out carrying with it the stench of rot. From that dead land they came, the nightmare creatures, shuffling to me, a look of rapture on their twisted faces, but at my back I felt a cold hand press onto my shoulder and a whisper “We have protected you, but we grow weary. Let us feed and we can keep you safe. Forever”. I smiled and placed my hand over the cold pressure on my shoulder “My friends, take whatever you need”.

I awoke that morning feeling great. But something on my arm stung, I lifted my arm up, and held it above my hand. 5 bloody trails ran down my arm, like I was scratched by a massive cat. The wound was not deep, but it still hurt non the less. I was quite confused about the wound, but if it was the price to pay to keep the tranquility that filled me ever since giving Keith to them, I could accept that. I stood up and walked over to the bathroom, I turned on the tap and rinsed the wound under cold water, as I washed the wound, I noticed something hard caught in at the back of one of the trails. I grabbed a pair of tweezers, and grabbed onto that object and pulled it out, it was strange, a bright pink and glittery fragment of something. This was weird, I had no idea what it could be, so I’ll just ignore it for now. I grabbed the bottle of disinfectant in my compartment behind my mirror, rubbed it over the wounds and left the bathroom.

I would normally make breakfast, but I was feeling very full this morning. However, I still made a cup of steaming coffee, and took out my phone, to read up of the local news while I had my drink. The headline startled me, young girl brutally killed in animal attack. I opened the article. Sara Brown, age 14 was found this morning on ******* beach, she was torn to pieces, large chunks of her body are missing. It is believed she was attacked by a starved animal. She was last seen last night leaving ******** with her friends. The article had a photo from here Instagram showing her leaving ******** several hours before she was killed. But what stood out to me was the bright pink and glittery nail polish she was wearing. I felt myself go cold, shattering the calm atmosphere of the room. I had stared into an abyss, and I took a piece of it with me, but now I’m terrified that it might be getting hungry.