Dive Log

Welcome to Beach Reads for Goth Kids, my summer horror extravaganza. All summer, I’m delivering short stories that pack a pulpy punch, best consumed with a tiny paper umbrella. Think heatwave madness, monsters from the deep, and things that go bump in the backyard.

Oh, and they aren’t really for kids, but the misunderstood goth teen who lives inside us all.

This week, just when you thought it was safe to go back to the bottom of the sea on a deep water technical research dive, we present Dive Log.

Photo by Marek Okon on Unsplash

Dive Log, 07 July 2029

Agriate Marine Park

Vis. 35-55m

Temp: 72F (surface)/66F (bottom)

Depth 72m

Time at Depth: 22 minutes

My first dive to the “rings” with Daniela (Dr. Lefebvre) and the French team. Visibility clear and excellent. As we reached the seafloor, the rings came into view in all directions. A stunning, otherworldly pattern, they stopped me cold on the descent. I’ve never seen anything like them.

Huge, perfect black circles are scattered on the white sand as far as you can see, exactly as Didier described. Sonar mapping shows they extend about half a mile in every direction. Each ring has a “bullseye” or small mound in the center and is outlined by rocks and small debris.

While these are typical materials for the location, how they formed into hundreds of perfect circles has so far evaded explanation. We are among the first humans to verify this phenomena with our own eyes, previously only sonar and remote subs have been here. Truly a career-defining moment.

The pattern is even more striking because the seafloor in this area is nearly barren, nothing but a few swirls in the sand. Not even a stray piece of plastic or any trace of the human world, which we see on almost every dive these days, even at far greater depth.

There is a near total lack of marine life inside the rings, while the borders show some growth of calcareous algae (CA) and gorgonian corals. Did see some sea slugs and a few snails among the gorgonians (See Daniela’s log for biology notes). But it is truly a desert down there— vast, quiet, and defying our understanding. Forgive the poetic license, but the stillness gives it a sacred quality, almost like a cathedral.

We took measurements— rings are between 3 and 5 meters across. Photographed as much as we could, but time at this extreme depth is limited. 4+ hours decompression needed for a 25 minute dive. Note: we are breathing a custom tri-mix, developed by the French dive team exclusively for this expedition. Will of course note any anomalies with the gas.

Dider is talking submersibles given the extreme depth and wasted time on decompression and surface intervals. But you miss so much behind glass. Can’t wait to get down there again.

Dive Log, 09 July 2029

Agriate Marine Park

Vis. 50 Feet

Temp: 71 (surface)/66 (bottom)

Depth 72m

Time at Depth: 24 minutes

Daniela and I were joined by two divers from the French team— Elias and Anne-Laure— to help operate the drill. Descent was breathtaking once again. Water electric blue. These black rings emerge out of the depths in every direction as you sink. Undisturbed, quiet, powerfully symmetrical. Feels like landing on the hide of a colossal spotted animal, or the cratered surface of the moon.

Drilling was not a success, leaving me mildly concerned for my part of this project. Obtained several core samples from around the bullseye centers, but the hills themselves are made of harder material than expected— perhaps igneous in origin. Broke two drill bits trying to get into one.

Tried a second site, and when we managed to punch through, there was a heavy rumbling sound and a dark fluid burst out and seeped up through the water column. Daniela was lost in a cloud of the effluvia for almost a minute— I joked later that it looked like she exploded. She didn’t find it funny.

The French divers thought we struck oil, but I suspect it is heated water, due to geologic activity beneath the rings. Rusty color most likely indicates iron deposits, which could account for the difficulty drilling as well. Took samples.

The rumble might have been caused by our equipment, hard to pin it down. Onboard sonar picked it up as well. Remote chance it was unrelated to us— far off whale call or shipping activity?

Decompression uneventful, if tedious. The gas is unremarkable so far, except that it’s keeping us alive.

Dive Log, 11 July 2029

Agriate Marine Park

Vis. 90 Feet

Temp: 77 (surface)/68 (bottom)

Depth 75m

Time at Depth: 28 minutes

Conditions today were spectacular, the best we have seen so far. Nearly zero sediment— vis at least 90ft. This led me to stay at depth a bit longer than I should have. But the tri-mix feels great, and I think I can push it a little. Might as well get some new data for the techs.

I’m feeling quite at home on the bottom, adjusting to the extreme depth, the way it squeezes your eyes, lungs and guts so you feel a little like a tube of toothpaste. I joked to Daniela that my hands were flattening at depth, like tentacles. Imagine how easy things would be! She doesn’t think I’m funny. I find her rather humorless, to be frank.

The rings have gone from an alien landscape to my own research lab. I’ve never been more comfortable, in fact. I feel like I can anticipate everything that’s going to happen down there, I’m navigating the field like swimming through my own living room.

[add.: I am aware that confidence, relaxation, euphoria are early symptoms of narcosis. Gas mix is performing well, and I am under constant supervision by med team]

So far, the composition of the red liquid has been tough to nail down. Onboard lab is so limited, they could only say what it is not: oil, oxidation (ruling out the possibility of iron) and algal bloom. What it is remains a mystery.

Oddly, Daniela’s skin has taken on some staining from her exposure to the leak. She was in full gear at the time— hood, gloves, etc. but her arms and chest show wine-colored blotches. Med cleared her to dive but I can tell she’s distracted. She asked to avoid the site of the leak today, but that’s our most interesting site so I did not assent.

She hovered around observing marine life while I took additional samples.

The fluid continues to stream out of the knob at pace— I would estimate six to ten liters an hour. Visibly, the mound itself seemed a little smaller today but the ring around it is actually bigger. These are not static formations, as was believed. All we have is possibility.

Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

Dive Log, 12 July 2029

Agriate Marine Park

Onboard log

No dive today. Daniela is experiencing some reaction to the fluid, perhaps an infection of some sort. Her skin is dark red and deepening, the blotches no longer individual spots but connected with each other. There is a salty, tangy smell about her— bacterial I believe, but I am not an expert.

Elias, Anne-Laure and I are clear. Didier unreachable. Connectivity spotty.

After time at depth, the boat seems unusually bright. My eyes have begun to ache. Will discuss with med staff.

</Personal Record/>

I emailed Kelley today for the first time in three months. No idea if the message will reach her. But stuck on the boat, with Daniela sick, I found myself experiencing an unusually powerful dread, almost a literal whispering in my ear this might be my last chance to tell Kelley everything. [Ears checked out— nothing medical.]

Why foreboding? Conditions are good, I am surrounded by support staff, my research is on the precipice of greatness. And yet…

I wanted I needed Kelley to know why I left. And more than that I needed to tell her about the rings— my drive to describe them is overpowering. Their sublime, silent, awesome perfection, put simply: their magic. Something about this site offers an affirmation to me that life is not as straightforward as I thought.

The rings are the pinnacle of my questing, the reason I spent my adult life under water. I wish desperately for her to suit up and join me, to see them with her own eyes, to experience profound geometry 200 feet below the surface. Down there, I think only of possibility.

At sea bottom, there are 89 pounds of pressure per square inch of my simple human body. Compressed by the weight of the atmosphere and the weight of the entire Mediterranean, I am released.

At surface, I fear I have foreclosed all possibilities remaining in my life.

Creating this record of my mental health puts my career at great risk. But I am a scientist. It is out of my deep commitment and respect for science that I am recording my observations as possible symptoms of narcosis or some other poisoning. Sentimentality, pathological nostalgia, and a general, deepening malaise. Symptoms, not epiphanies.

Dive Log, 12 July 2029, Entry 2

Agriate Marine Park

</Personal Record/>

1800h: I came upon Daniela in the lab, typing notes. Her back was to me and her hands on the keyboard were as red as Cabernet.

To my great horror, as I stood there, her hair began to lift from around her shoulders and float up through the air around her—like seaweed, like she was submerged. I could see the back of her neck is splotched burgundy. That sour milk smell filled the room, so sharp I covered my nose.

A snaking line of red fluid began to rise from the top of her head and waver in the air, exactly as it had done 200 feet below, at the drill site. A red ribbon unfurling in reverse. A sea snake or, to be perfectly frank, a surging current of blood in water.

I saw the fluid gather in a puddle on the ceiling, thinking I must be having a hallucination or perhaps a seizure. I backed away from the door just as Daniela turned to face me. Looking at her, my eyes stung— the feeling was exactly that of salt water trickling in through a mask. I knew then I was awake and lucid.

Instead of a face, I saw the rings— the black stony outline, the blue sandy center. And all around, a halo of red water.

At that moment I briefly lost consciousness. I woke in Med bay with an ice pack on my head, my lips swollen and salty exactly like they are after a dive.

I did not explain what I saw. I blamed it on exhaustion, dehydration, whatever pedestrian cause would get me out of there.

I don’t think the problem is me.

Photo by Thant Aung on Unsplash

Dive Log, 13 July 2029

Agriate Marine Park

Daniela has sealed herself in the lab and has obscured the viewing ports with a red substance. Crew members fear the substance is blood, but I believe it to be the fluid produced by the rings.

Expedition financier Didier Grant is has been unreachable for days and internet signal is poor. Catastrophic outcome seems nearly certain.

We are appx 26 hours from port in current cOnditions.

</PersOnal Record/>

When I close my eyes, I see rings. Repeating rings, inverse rings, their patient sentience, their cOlOssal satori. My mouth tastes like the Ocean. My skin tastes like the Ocean.

I have 26 hours to figure Out as much as I can befOre it all ends one way or another.

Dive Log, 14 July 2029

Agriate Marine Park

This lOg is being maintained by Dr. Alex Ramoundos, senior lecturer at North Atlantic University. This is a firsthand account of events aboard the research vessel Hydra, a multinational expedition to explore circular formations found at the bOttom of the French Mediterranean Sea. I will not survive this jOurney, but my records may.

It is nearly impOssible for me to recount recent Occurrences with fidelity or insight. What I have seen defies explanatiOn.

BiOlogist Dr. Daniela Lefebvre of the University of Utrecht is experiencing some sort of systemic infection which is changing the cOmposition of her bOdy. I have fortunately escaped infectiOn and

I am quite pleased with the

Outcomes of my new research: drawing perfect circles. T

here are many surfaces that require circles

but

I’m getting faster and quite good at it, and th

e rings are pleased with me. sO pleased.

I’m nearing perfection. cOmpletion.

I am experiencing periOds of a fugue state during which I have no memories, except of the rings and the red fluid. Anytime I close my eyes, even to blink, the rings appear. It is a psychedelic haunting vision, it is an invitation,

it is a threat.

This is not in my imaginatiOn, as has been surmised by the unqualified and pedantic medical staff aboard the Hydra.

The red fluid is in me, though it has not stained my skin as it has Daniela’s. I have managed tO release a gOOd amount of it back to the sea by cutting circular Outlet flows into my skin. My effOrts have been thwarted several times by meathead crew and tediOus medical staff.

After Daniela sealed herself in the lab, the rest of us were confined to med bay, for close Observation. From there, we watched on security feeds as crew members attempted to force open the lab dOOrs. When the doors were pried Open, we saw Daniela mOmentarily. Her hair wavered in an invisible ocean current— everyOne saw it; I have not been hallucinating.

She exists in a state neither above nor beneath the surface. She smells lactic, unctuous. Her smell is in every part of the bOat.

I will never forget the image on that surveillance feed. Her eyes were invisible in the dark red of her face, her hair floating. Her body appeared streamlined, almost eel-like if yOu will allOw me.

As we watched on the feeds, Daniela’s arms, which have been stained a dark red since Our second dive, began to grow and flatten. It looked like they were being extruded through a die, like she had no bOnes. The arms behaved like liquid in air, eventually stretching impossibly long and thin. We watched in terror and fascinatiOn as she pushed her tentacles intO the nOses and mOuths of the crew members who brOke in, suffOcating them.

Their bOdies have been sealed inside with her. The team barricaded Med bay so I am now a prisOner.

I estimate my chance Of survival until interception by the French navy at 5%.

Dive Log, 14 July 2029, Entry 2

Dearest Kelley,

I want yOu to knOw I am happ

y. My Only regret, and it is a staggering regret, is yOu are nOt here with me, my lOve. I understand

sO much mOre nOw than I did.

Our petty happy mOments and dry little tragedies. Our airy lives, flaking and trivial, Our scratchy cOughing deaths in searing bright light,

heavy bOdies dragged thrOugh insipid atmOsphere. These lives are a mistake, an Offense to our mOther Ocean. We exist on a slim crust of rock that must be swallowed again by the tides.

The human body contains sO much water Kelley, SO much that there is a jOke among Ocean scientists that humans were created by water sO that it cOuld get Out of the water. Did I ever t

ell you that One? That water invented us to get Out Of the sea?

NOw. I must return hOme, take my water back tO its bOdy. If given Only a mOment, One preciOus mOment alOne, I will release the fluid frOm my veins,

the burning air frOm my tired lungs,

and

dive.

I lOved yOu.

---

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