Bargain in the depths

We have seen darkness in almost the entire universe before our naked eyes took upon noticing, it's been here before the huge explosion made by the atoms creating our skies. Darkness is some kind of...endless throughout our universe, and its bone shivering. But the most intriguing part of my fear of the unknown is not from the skies, nor the deep slippery caverns filled with bats.

It's the ocean that terrifies me the most.

Hilarious right? A man built for the rumbling seas with his training from academies is scared of the ocean but, instead of hopping out and running away, here, I am working on the boat vessel catching fish and helping the frozen stocks of meats and other raw food isles.

I couldn't even say no when I took this work, what am I supposed to do? My parents passed away when I was three, they died in Covid in 2020. Eventually, my relatives took me in (Mother's side) and they treated me like I was their own. I could see my uncle taking two shifts and going home late. My aunt took the bakery 24/7 just to keep their finances straight and firm.

Not to mention the shortage of food in the economy (fishes mostly). That's why these days, men working on seas are highly needed.

Jumping back to 2040, I took my stand in working and providing money on my own, paying for all the troubles I made. My aunt and uncle didn't like the fact that I will work alone but I insisted on it because I couldn't even look at their faces anymore.

The cold waters from the arctic are crawling in my spine, my leather mitten built for the gushing cold winds from floating icebergs is not keeping me company like it used to do. Tonight was cold, not the winter cold where you can relax with hot cocoa and snuggle down in front of fireplaces.

Tonight is chattering, I could almost hear my bones cramping frozen while pulling ropes up for the packaging. Broken ice began bumping on our boat while we moved slowly from the blistering dark waters. At some point, while staring at it, I felt like being watched from below, wrangling my head side to side. I quickly took that image off my paranoid head and continued pulling the package.

The spotlights stopped, along the metal edges of our boat rumbled along the floating hard ice. Bewildered, I quickly dropped the frozen ropes and headed to our main top deck. To my surprise, my buddies and our captain were already on the side of our boat, they were flashing the large spotlights from the side of our floating refuge.

"Hey, Marcus…" I tapped his shoulder, Marcus was helping one of my mates to tilt the lights from where my captain is pointing. "What are you guys doing?"

"I'm not really sure…" He scratched his head below his bluebonnet. "Apparently the captain is trying to find something underneath…"

"C'mon! Lads! Keep your eyeballs open! We need to keep an eye on them" Captain screamed and while his cigarette flew along with our coldly breaths. "Cap...can I ask a question?" before he could even enter his lounge, he turned around and faced me.

"What exactly are we looking for here…?" Cap told me to follow him, to my surprise we went to my usual spot where I pull and put the packages down the storage room. I have no idea what is inside of the parchments we are taking care of, our captain begins to pull one of the packages.

"Kid help me put this up on the deck…" I nodded and we both held the package up. Something entered my nostrils that made me want to barf on the metal stairs. The rotting smell was agonizing to inhale even though it was inside. It smells like diaper-filled dung mixed with the rotting corpse of a ran-downed street cat. Both of us eventually reached our destination, the moonlight shone on top of us, illuminating our shadows while we gathered around the smelly package. Our captain began opening it.

Every single one of my crewmates ran towards the nearest spot where they could puke, some of them coughing like their lungs would drop out, others crying like their eyes were simmered with onions. A dead rotting corpse of a man around his mid-fifties was curled up inside, maggots were eating his skin, showing his skeleton.

"Get a grip, boys! THIS! man! Harold Miles raped ten twelve-year-old girls and tried to flee the Philippines, but his luck comes to us now! We can trade his filthy ass to them!" while coughing my disgust out he then pointed left towards the dark waters.

"Our government made some good chances of showing justice in our time. And you ladies can witness our new trading system…"

The dark lifeless water began bubbling, little light sparks of circle spots appeared clearer and clearer, or so I thought that it was lights.

Webbed hands began grappling on every side of our boat, my crewmates began crying out and it echoed in the dead of this endless winter.

"Is this it?" One of the creatures gargled, its scaly arms and legs were soaking in water.

"As promised…" Our captain replied. "Then? Where's ours?" Captain added.

The creature spoke words that are beyond our understanding. Then suddenly a huge white-like sack was thrown overboard by the other humanoid beings, Captain held his left arm up and shook the creature's slimy web hands.

"We'll see you when we see you…" The creature nodded back and let out a huge shriek that was undesirable and painful, they began jumping out of our boat, the horrid shriek didn't stop until all of them were in the water.

The unpleasant shrieking began to turn into a beautiful sound of harmony in the dark waters below us. Then suddenly one of our crew members was done biting his tongue and decided to confront our Captain.

"W-What in God's name are those things!? And what is that disgusting thing!?" He then pointed to the white transparent sack wobbling on the floor.

Our Captain smirked.

"Fish…"