The House Upon the Sea

The night wore on slowly. The three were no doubt excited. Their eyes and ears were portside where the nets prodded beneath the ocean waves like fingers reaching for some unseen treasure. And it was in their moment of relaxation that they reached it.

The nets grew taut and the wood creaked and yawned in its effort to maintain its grasp of the hooks sunken deep within it. The three sprang to attention and looked into the black ocean beneath them. Something was indeed caught in the nets though they couldn’t see it.

They waited.

The vessel began to slowly dip under a weight of some unknown accumulation. Whatever it was, there were many. In their excitement and haste, the three began to pull up the nets to eye their captives. With a steady crank, they retracted the netting as fast as they could under the weight. As two worked to bring the nets to the surface, the remaining fisherman maintained visual of them and their mysterious contents. As it broke surface, he suddenly cried out for the others to come and look at what they had caught.

All three now looked down at the ocean and grew elated. Excitement took over and they shrieked and applauded in what they had found. Before them, breaking the surface of the waves, were stars of an alien origin. What seemed to reflect the heavens now lay before them, almost within reach from where they stood. They moved and glittered as if a million comets zigzagged in all directions with chaotic fury. As the heavens disappeared, what replaced them was the black of the void, the abyss; reflecting an oblivion of the sea’s deep where light is devoured. And just as the old fisherman’s tale had promised, their eyes were as white as the moon. Equally terrifying were their teeth and scales, protruding in obscene angles of all sorts. The three fishermen had indeed found the mythical monsters known as the Perrin.

In their haste, however, they did not forsake precaution, and prepared their blades and armor to receive their bounty safely. But just as they had the first Perrin ready to board, there was a great sound like the three had heard before that not only shook their vessel, but caused a great and immeasurable force upon the starboard side. This impact caused a great push upon the ship that knocked the three to the floor and consumed the portside with sea. In one final gasp, the ocean overcame the buoyancy of the vessel and it capsized leaving the three to its mercy. The frightened fishermen prodded around in desperation to find buoyant cargo, now spilling out of the sinking vessel, to hold onto. And despite their turn of fortune, they found their lifelines and clung on with gratitude. Before their eyes they watched in shock and bewilderment as their vessel disappeared beyond the waves, taking with it the Perrin, back to their home within the abyss.

The three drifted upon the sea for what seemed like forever. They satiated their hunger with the remnants of their cargo, eating mostly apples and other such fruit or vegetables that floated alongside them. The fog still surrounded them but was thinning, slowly but surely. The sea was cold, but it brought not the threat of hypothermia. They maintained their warmth kicking towards the direction they thought would bring them to shore. Through the retreating mist they bore on, keeping their wits despite their plight. And as the mist cleared before them, the fishermen came upon an outcropping of rocky pillars that provided obtainable refuge. Exhausted, they flopped their fatigued, sea worn bodies upon them. The fog continued to clear. They regained their strength as they waited, collecting their thoughts as well. Having lost their prize, vessel, and aspirations of fame and fortune, they now sought only life.

Nightfall came upon the three once more and they slept through it. During its duration, they all dreamt of wild and chaotic things. A myriad of beasts and horrific apparitions yet to be seen or named by man imprinted their ghastly visage upon the fishermen’s minds. The sea in which these things swam and fought and tore was glassy in composition and black in color. With every violent breaking of surface, a sound resembling the shattering of glass echoed and reverberated at an unfathomable decimal; beasts as big as islands broke the surface, threatening to swallow the very world that harbored them. Great bellows, much like the sounds they thought resembled the blowing of horns, followed and echoed in haunting melody. And many more followed in what seemed to be an abyssal symphony. And there with them swam the Perrin. But the Perrin of which they dreamt was of a grotesque magnitude they hadn’t experienced in story or pursuit. They were horrifying, in a state of mutation that defied both nature and scientific rationale. Their heads were fish of familiarity as belonging to that of the Perrin, but their bodies resembled a struggle between the physiological attributes of both man and fish. They seemed as though they were fighting for dominance. In more than not, the fish was taking over, leaving what was once human in a twisted and mangled state. That which once resembled legs now seemed twisted and broken into snake-like appendages. Webbing took over what once resembled toes, cascading and protruding in such a way that rectified their uselessness on land, yet constituted an advantage in marine. Unlike the ones seen portside, these Perrin made noise not restricted to movements about the ocean. They hissed and croaked amongst each other in unison. It seemed as if they had joined in as tenors to the symphony of bellows, adding an unnerving presence in their song.

This did not stir the fishermen from their slumber. Their exhaustion was too great and the natural cycle of sleep took over until they awoke the next morning.