Unknown

The shapeless dark hues of blue and violet in the distance sent Sarah’s imagination into overdrive visualising what could be lurking in the deep, watching. Rock formations in the distance, faintly illuminated by her dive torch played tricks on her mind. She would often run wild with her imagination on these deep dives she does for her research on sperm whales. Running with thoughts like if the coelacanths which were thought long extinct, aren’t, is there any other thought to be extinct species hiding down in the Gulf of Mexico?

She looked down and to her left and noticed the brightness of one of her dive torches wasn’t as white as it usually is, and tried to judge how long she could leave it before having to replace the battery. She’d only recently just replaced an o-ring for her camera housing she thought, whilst exhaling with a greater force than usual. The greater number of bubbles escaping her breathing apparatus after her last breath, blocking her vision as they escaped upwards, prompted her to check her dive computer.

"34 minutes of air remaining, at a depth of 120 feet," she read aloud.

“What was that love,” Tom said over the radio connecting both of their scuba masks.

Tom was a welsh ex-navy mine clearance diver, and this was just another dive to him. His burly, rugby build accompanied by his calm manner in all situations made for a reassuring companion on deep night dives like this one.

“Nothing. How long left on the install? We’ve got two more to do before surfacing!” said Sarah, whilst glancing at her dive computer once again.

“One more minute,” said Tom.

Sarah then moved her left arm in front of her, revealing a dive slate strapped to her arm. She shone her torch on the slate and pulled the pencil from its holder on top of the slate. Before she could write anything something in the distance caught her attention. It looked like a flash of light.

Sarah spent a few seconds looking in the direction of the flash, hoping she would see it again, but she didn’t. It must have been her imagination she thought to herself.

“Right, that ones done,” Tom said before breathing in loudly over the radio.

“on with the next one shall we love,” he said again before pushing off from the seafloor.

“Great, just 10m that way,” Sarah said before she started clicking her flashlight on and off in the direction they needed to go.

Tom turned towards his left and started swimming due south, Sarah pushed off from the seafloor and followed him. His fins were striped like a zebra. The white stripes dazzled Sarah's eyes when they caught the light from her torch. She looked away and decided to swim next to Tom so she positioned herself to swim up beside him. She started to swim beside him and just as she was level with him, he just stopped.

“You alright?” She said as she started to turn around to face him.

‘Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I thought I saw something,” he said just before exhaling.

“It looked as if it were a flash,” said Tom.

Sarah's breathing got heavier as she recalled what she had seen not long before, and she shone her torch in his face

“What colour was it?” She said with a sense of urgency in her tone.

“Green I think,” replied Tom.

Sarah thought it could have been the same thing she saw, and she immediately started scanning the surroundings looking for it to occur again.

“I saw a flash not long ago, but thought I was imagining it,” said Sarah before exhaling.

“Really?” Said Tom.

“Yeah, I wonder what it is. There's no equipment from anyone else down here is there?” She said.

“I don’t think so," said Tom, in a noticeably concerned tone.

“It’s probably just a particle catching the light from our torches,” she said as she turned around to begin swimming forwards again.

“Yeah that’s probably it, yeah!” said Tom.

Sarah turned back around so Tom could see her eyes, “it's fine big guy, it's nothing to worry about,” she said while giving a smile in a play full manner.

“Oi Shut up you!” he said as he exhaled heavily and a large number of bubbles left his apparatus.

The way he sounded Sarah could tell he was smiling. He kicked his leg to start swimming again, and she was waiting for him to catch up before she was going to face forwards and start swimming herself. he got about a meter away and then a cloud of green flashed right in front of their eyes, separating them. The green cloud started to grow bigger and was splitting off as the water was dragging it from its point of origin.

“Are you okay?” shouted Sarah.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you?” Tom replied before exhaling again.

“Yeah I’m fine,” she said before taking a breath.

“What the hell was that?” She said.

“No clue, but that’s bloody creepy,” replied Tom.

He was closest to the cloud that was no started to disappear. It was like ink, flowing in the water, behaving like ink.

“Looks like ink Sarah, some kind of octopus?” He said while reaching to touch the cloud.

“Maybe, not sure,” she said.

“Well you’re the one with eh degree in Marine biology, you tell me” he said quickly as he disturbed the cloud.

“Don’t do that! Leave it alone,” she said before exhaling a breath.

“Let me take a picture,” she said.

“Alright,” said tom as he moved his hand back.

“I have no clue what that’s from, could be an octopus you know,” said Sarah as she started to take a picture.

“Well whatever it was, it was fast,” said Tom.

“There’s nothing here” he said before taking a breath.

The cloud started to disappear, and the brightness faded as it dispersed. From the Center of the cloud, a shape started to take shape. It was tiny and dark. It almost looked like a fish of some kind.

“Hey look at that there, in the middle,” said Sarah before taking a picture.

“What is that!” said Tom.

“Not sure,” said Sarah.

The cloud dispersed some more, tom shone his light towards the Center. The light revealed a small fish. It was tiny. It had what looked like shining scales all over its body, but it was a dark brownish colour under the white from the torch.

“What is that?” Said tom.

“I’m not sure,” said Sarah as she took a photo.

“It kind of looks like a little shark don’t you think?” she said.

“Maybe,” said tom.

The small fish couldn't have been more than 5 inches long. Its body was cigar-shaped, and it lacked a pointy snout-like many other species of shark thought Sarah. The head was bulbous, resembling that of a whale. But it could;t have been a whale, not that small, not this deep she thought. The small fish swam away into the darkness away from the torch. Both Sarah and Tom followed it with their torches but it was gone. Sarah looked at her camera and pressed a button to show her the photos she'd taken. She pressed toggled a button on the clunky underwater housing and zoomed in on the fish in the picture. Right by the pectoral fin was some kind of cream, pocket looking thing. There was green liquid coming out of it. Suggesting that’s where the green ink like cloud originated from.

"Interesting" Sarah said to herself.

“Did you get a picture of it?” said Tom before exhaling.

“Yeah, a good one as well!” replied Sarah.

“Nice, best get on with things then aye,” said tom as he swam past Sarah.

“Yeah, I guess,” said Sarah as she looked out into the direction where the fish swam.

She paused for a moment, letting tom swim ahead, wondering what the species was.

“You coming,” said Tom from way ahead of her.

“Yeah right behind you,” she replied while turning to face forwards. Still thinking about what that little shark-like creature was that they just saw.