The Sixth Call for Help

From the desk of Doctor Henry Fitzsimmons

It was before dawn on April 3 when the first call came in. A flight test gone wrong ended in the pilot ejecting from her jet over the Atlantic Ocean. The first search attempt turned up little more than a chewed-up parachute floating not far from other bits of wreckage. It was assumed that she had either drowned or fallen prey to sharks. She was awarded posthumous honors for her service.

Less than two months later a small fishing vessel made the second call. The rudder was ripped free from the boat, leaving them effectively stranded ahead of a major storm front. The Coast Guard answered with a ship of their own. By the time they arrived, the fishing boat was empty.

The third call came in just after the Coast Guard made contact with the fishing vessel around midnight. The report stated that the boat was devoid of any passengers, although signs that they had been on board only moments before were perfectly evident. There was no time to scour the waters or make sense of the scene before the storm rolled in, so the decision was made to cut the search short and return the next day.

That did not happen as it was intended.

By the time the Coast Guard had made it back to their own vessel, they found it entirely inoperable due to unexpected engine damage, as well as their own rudder being shorn from the boat just as the fishers' had been. This marked the fourth call for help from the same stretch of waters in less than eight weeks. It would not be the last.

A helicopter was dispatched to comb the area ahead of the storm. Time was short, but slowing winds and only light rain made it possible, while the potential loss of further life made it all the more pertinent. The helicopter made contact within thirty minutes of taking off. None aboard it were able to spot any survivors on either ship or in the surrounding waters.

The fifth call came from the helicopter pilot only forty minutes before dawn broke. After nearly an hour of scanning the waters and both vessels, someone was spotted floating among the waves. Though the pilot was initially unsure if the person was still alive, their head reared as the spotlight shone directly over them. The pilot described them as pale, with long, thinning black hair and deep blue eyes. "Completely blue. The entire eye," the pilot said.

It was then that lightning struck, giving the pilot a momentary full view of the waters below. Directly beneath the ships was the silhouette of something massive. The pilot did not offer any description of the shape itself, only that it was "bigger than both boats" and "could have swallowed them whole."

What the pilot did specifically make note of upon his return, however, was the person in the water being somehow tied to the shape. Theories have varied on what the actual cause of this was, but the pilot was adamant that the person in the water was "a part of it, like the light on an angler fish."

Several colleagues have pointed toward myths regarding sirens, mermaids, krakens, and other sea-dwelling species of imaginary creatures, wondering if there might be a kind of shared psychosis being experienced by those who have returned from that particular stretch of water. One suggested having the area examined for underwater gas leaks or chemical contamination. A ship was deployed today to take samples and conduct another search of the area, this time during the early morning hours out of a general sense of precaution.

Theirs was the sixth call for help.