Chapter Text
Never let it be said that Ryland didn’t support his wife’s decisions. Ever since he met her, he liked how firmly she held her belief, far more assertive than he could ever hope to be. She was captivating, with her conviction in her every word.
He wouldn’t mind whenever she left on a boat out to sea to investigate the next suspicious sighting, her team of scientists and divers and all other crew members with her. Eva always returned with the smell of the ocean in her hair, and a bright look in her eyes as she asked him to inspect the newest set of samples.
And he always did, always let himself be strapped into a suit and put in a lab to be watched. His buddy Rocky asked on multiple occasions if the observation room was a kink thing. No it wasn't. Most labs harboring dangerous new substances and organisms had an observation room.
All this being said, he was not getting in that cage to dive underwater. “Eva, you would have to sedate me to make me go under.”
“That can be arranged,” she calmly told him, like that was an actual option. “Ryland, we are very close to a breakthrough on the sighting of this creature. I would have Dubois or Shapiro go down, but of course Shapiro had to go into labour the day before the ship leaves, so…”
Ryland shook his head and suggested, “Have Adrian get in the cage. They would like that.”
“Adrian would like it if Rocky smothered them with a pillow, and Adrian has to be above water monitoring my diver’s diagnostics.”
“I’m not diving. There is nothing you can do to convince me.”
—/—
“So how did Stratt convince you?” Yáo asked him as the two stood on the deck, Ryland donning his diving suit and gear. He really wished the ship's captain wasn't so perceptive.
“You don’t want to know,” he grumbled, emptying some skittles into his hand and then into his mouth.
“It was probably sex,” Ilyukhina chimed in as she worked on the cage.
Rocky shook his head and suggested, “It was probably candy. Grace is treat-motivated, like a dog.”
“No, I’m not,” he frowned at the others. It was true, however. He was a simple man. The sex was a little overkill, but very convincing.
Eva emerged onto the deck, taking in their conversation, telling Ryland, “Thank you again for agreeing.”
“It was this, or you’d sedate me,” he joked. “I prefer the skittles over the sedation any day.”
Rocky muttered to Ilyukhina, “And this weirdo tries to say my marriage is freaky.”
“I heard that!” Ryland glared at his friend. Rocky can say all he wants, the tow of them are two sides to the same freak-coin.
Eva shook her head and told him, “You are going under in three hours. Try not to back out at the last minute.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Ryland told her. “Maybe I’ll feel less likely to back out if I wasn’t freezing my nose off.”
“If you wanted your cardigan back, you could just ask.”
“Yes, please.”
Eva shrugged off her cardigan, a simple one she borrowed from his dresser, and handed it over. “You remember all the protocols for diving?”
Ryland nodded. Before he turned to teaching, he was a marine biologist. It was half of his job to go under the water. He learned he much preferred the lab side of things, writing papers, and of course sharing his knowledge. Teaching a small science class back on land was a great change in his life. “I just may need a little push when it comes to getting into the water. It’s been a while.”
“I can do that,” Eva reassured him. “You may want to wrap up your snack. Would want you to puke into a traffic cone once you emerge.”
“This is why I can’t tell you anything,” he shook his head. You puke once on an expedition and your wife never lets you live it down. But he couldn’t help his smile at her laughter. He looked out to the water, asking, “Can you tell me what exactly I’m supposed to do? I know I’m technically bait, but other than that…?”
“You are going to try to see what exactly this creature is. We have captured some vague photos and samples, but we hope that you will be able to properly see what it is. You have a camera worked into your suit, right by your flashlight on your shoulder. Depending on whether this creature is friendly or hostile, you will receive more instructions over an earpiece.”
“Is a talkback mic connected to my air mask?” Ryland recalls the one time he went down on a dive and his suit didn’t have a way for him to communicate with the person on the other end.
“Yes. If any issue arises, you will be able to properly communicate.”
“Good.”
It was a long three hours before Ryland was being herded into the cage by Eva and the others. What finally got him in there was Eva shoving him inside. Harsh. As Rocky and Ilyukhina worked on sealing his cage, he told Eva over his mic, “I want a divorce. Jerk. What if I literally couldn’t do it?”
“You’ll do great,” she spoke into her headset.
“Do you want me to do this because I’m expendable?” Ryland crossed his arms, a little butthurt over the shove.
“That’s not the only reason,” she cooed, just as flirtatious as it was threatening.
Adrian pulled down the mic on their headset and told him, “Grace, you should be properly sealed in. If there is any puncture to anything or you hear hissing, alert us, and we will bring the cage up.”
“Will do.” He gave a thumbs up to them, and then a thumbs down to Rocky. His friend returned the gesture. A very long story accompanied that inside joke.
“You’re sealed in. Don’t drown, Grace,” Rocky told him flatly.
He nodded, and slowly, he was lowered into the water. It was warmer than he expected, certainly not the usual temperature. Eva must have noticed his shock because her voice came over his communication system, “Part of our interest in this area is the unusual temperature. It’s on par with warm temperatures found in the Indian Ocean. Odd considering this is the Pacific.”
Ryland nodded and asked, “What should I be looking out for?”
“A creature that is roughly 2.5 meters long, with dark red scales and black spines along its tail,” Eva told him.
“Okay.” Ryland was fully submerged, his cage going deeper and deeper into the water, until everything was beginning to get dark. He looked around, the flashlight on his shoulder leading the way. He saw a distant cliff shelf, where a broken submarine sat. “Whoa, okay, so I’m sure you guys saw this already, but I’m seeing this submarine a little while away. It looks like it has… teeth marks on it, like huge teeth marks. And it's cracked open. Like those cinnamon roll cans.”
“How astute,” Adrian teased
Eva asked, “Is there writing in the submarine? Anything? We haven’t seen that.”
Ryland squinted, glad they gave him contacts rather than fight with his glasses. “It’s like 4 symbols. With a dash between them… S and M… B? No! 13’ SM-13, that’s what it says.”
“What do you think—“
“Of what the fuck!” Ryland tried to keep his swearing to a minimum, but he swears he just saw a humanoid figure. A hand, a human hand, curled around the edge of the submarine.
“What? What? Ryland, what’s going on?” Eva sounds just as panicked as Ryland feels.
“Human! I see a human, oh, what the hell!” Ryland watched with wide eyes as the hand continued, a human pushing themselves up over the cracked center of the submarine. It looked human, at least. “Okay, Eva, listen, I see a human. It has one arm, a face, a torso, and oh god it’s moving—“
“Maybe it’s just a corpse?” Adrian sounded panicked now, too.
“No, it’s moving, and it looks alive! It’s not decaying or…” Ryland sees its shoulder-length hair move out of the way, revealing sharp teeth protruding from its cheek. The figure kept moving, revealing it wasn’t really a human.
Right where its hips would be, and legs and everything else between should be, is a tail. Like a fish. Dark scales, with a red shine to them. Large spines protrude from it, and the tail moves just like a fish as the creature moves towards him.
He felt sorry for the ear-piercing screech he let out that Eva and Adrian must be hearing. Ryland throws himself to the other side of the cage to get away from this creature. It’s huge, with spikes and spines and teeth, and it certainly looks like the human parts hit the gym with how muscular they are. In what he fears may be his last moments, he cries, “It’s a mermaid! Or a siren! It’s half human half fish, with huge stuff on it, I hope the camera is catching it! Eva, if I die, put on my tombstone that I died loving you! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!”
Eva and Adrian are panicking over the radio, Eva trying to tell him it’s okay, and Adrian warning him to keep the creature away from his suit, but still angle himself so the camera could see.
Then suddenly the line goes dead with static.
Oh god, this is how Ryland dies. Dr Ryland Grace, disgraced and cowardly marine biologist who was RIGHT to be a coward. Died doing his wife a favor. Beloved husband and teacher. May he rest in peace.
Despite his panic, the creature is still approaching slowly, wading through the water without urgency. It stops at the cage, its one hand holding onto a bar. It cocks its head, making the hair float away to reveal the teeth even more. It’s grotesque, like the gums and teeth protrude outwards. But maybe it’s the scientific curiosity that Ryland moves closer, wanting to see better.
His eyes scan the creature, mentally storing any image of it. Its scales are a deep red, or maybe black, but it reflects the other color regardless. Its spines aren’t as stiff as before, now relaxed and pressed against the tail, like a pufferfish. Ryland places his hand beside where the creature's hand was, meeting the creature's eyes.
It says something, even if Ryland can’t hear it. He swears it was ‘angel’, but surely this creature wouldn’t know what an angel was, or any angel by Ryland’s definition.
The cage begins to lift upwards, and the creature releases it, swimming away as Ryland is lifted. Tentatively, it waves. Ryland waves back. His heart is still pounding, but his mind is also running with thoughts.
When he resurfaces, he spots Eva in the crowd first. She is pale with panic, standing at the front of the crowd, ready to run to his side. When the cage is stopped, Rocky and Ilyukhina rush to release him. He stumbles out into Eva’s arms, rushing to apologize as Adrian removes his air mask, “Eva, I’m so sorry, I don’t—“
Eva presses a kiss to his lips as soon as she can, telling him, “I don’t know what happened. I thought we lost you. The comms cut out after, and it was just static. We have the footage from the camera. I just need to make sure you’re okay.”
Ryland nodded, his gear being pulled off. He looked over at her and said, “Sorry you’re soaking wet now.”
“Shut up. I’m glad you’re okay,” she breathed out a sigh of relief. “Lamai will make sure everything really is okay, though. Can’t have you dying.”
Ryland gasped in deep breaths and nodded as he was guided towards Lamai’s small area of medical supplies. He glanced over to a handful of screens where his camera feed was being replayed. He could see the submarine and the creature. Even as he sat down on a cot, and Lamai began to inspect him, taking a temperature and blood pressure reading, he couldn’t help but think he wanted to do more.
“Eva, I’ll go back down there. That… creature, it wasn’t hostile. I was way overreacting… it…”
“Now you will rest. We will consider our options later,” Eva told him. Her own eyes drifted to the camera.
—/—
Deep under the water, Simon looked up at the ship above the water, thinking about the diver they sent down. He seemed so scared. Was he like Simon? Nearly left to suffer the ocean alone?
If that diver returned, he would try to save him.