Jellyfish
Whispers in the Water
A harrowing encounter with a swarm of jellyfish on a fishing trip triggers a terrifying ordeal for two veterans, forcing them to confront the blurry line between reality and madness.
VA Form1219: Mental Health Screening and Personnel Witness Statement
“Beware the Jellyfish!”
I woke up to a knee forcefully pressed into my back as Rosa1 sat bolt upright, still asleep. I pushed her away and checked the time. The red light of the bedside clock flashed: 3 am. I rolled over to see what’s wrong. Rosa was tossing and turning, sweat built up on her forehead. She must be having a nightmare, I thought.
I gently laid her back down and held her clammy body to mine. I softly cooed and ran my fingers through her hair until she was breathing deeply, nuzzled safely on my breast.
We met in the marines2, my Rosa and me. Bunkmates in Boot Camp, then stationed to the same platoon out in 29 palms. She was always so artsy and confident. Even in the marines, where she never really fit in, she still fit in, you know? I would have followed her anywhere, my witchy little girl, my Rosa de la Rocha. I knew I would have to follow her, because she was always following her dreams. She had such beautiful dreams. She’d tell me about them and they always led her to wonderful places. Even when they looked like she was having nightmares she would tell me afterwards about the beautiful, unimaginable things she was dreaming.
I always admired that about her. I never followed any of my dreams with the same courage she followed the wispiest of hers.This time they led her to another boat. She had a dream, she said one day. Said she had a dream that we would get hired by a fishing crew and then there we were, helping out on The Salty Mermaid, catching tuna off the coast of Australia with a small crew. She loved the water.
I did my best to be a help on the ship but I’m little more than an extra pair of hands and, when needed, intimidating muscle. Rosa, on the other hand, quickly showed the crew how invaluable she could be. No matter where we went, she could almost sense where the fish were. She would tell the helmsman where to go, and 10 times out of 10 she landed us right on a giant school of fish. I’m not religious anymore, but I remember a story from Sunday School where they told us about Jesus telling his disciples where to fish. She’s my personal Jesus.
“Hey, roach girl! We need you to come out here and send out your feelers,” Hudson, one of the crew, called from outside our room. They didn't share my reverence for her, but they respected her gift nonetheless.
Rosa groaned as she turned to get up. I extended my arm, desperate to feel her skin for as long as I could. When she inevitably escaped my grasp, I too turned with a grunt of disapproval and started getting ready for the day.
A few minutes later, Rosa glided out of our room, dressed with the messy beauty that those instagram girls have to spend hours perfecting. I walked behind her with my usual awkward shuffle, never fully comfortable in my own skin. Rosa took her usual post next to the helmsman and I went to check in with the Captain to see what odd jobs needed doing today. I waited for him to finish reading the news on his tablet. When he puts it down I quickly noticed two strange headlines: One was an oil spill that’s under investigation, the other was a plane crash with only two survivors. Before I processed any of that, the Captain noticed me and sent me off to work.
There was enough work that the day went by quickly. By sunset everything was slowing down. The rest of the crew started giving my Rosa crap for the haul. They were right in that it was by far the smallest catch we’ve gotten since we’ve been on board. But is that really her fault?
I was about to cuss them out when Rosa laid her hand on my shoulder. She was always able to stop me before I said something stupid. She merely shrugged her shoulders and stared out into the infinite sea in front of us.
“They were here this morning,” she said more to herself than as a response. “It’s like they’re running away from something.”
We grabbed some of the fish from today’s haul, the smallest and least likely to sell at market because the Captain’s a stingy bastard, and cooked them up for dinner. As I was digging through the fish I found something. A statue of some kind in with the tuna. It was weathered and hard to make out. It had a weird geometry to it. Cyclopean. The word passed through my brain but I couldn’t define it. I just knew it fit. The statue looked like a woman holding some kind of octopus near her head. By the time our meal was finished and our bellies full the sun was completely gone from the sky.
My Rosa and I sat up on the deck holding hands and stared at the stars. There really isn’t anything quite like looking up at the stars from a tiny ship in the middle of the ocean. They shine so bright and so stunning. There’s few things that compare to the raw beauty. And yet my mind slowly drifts to the feel of her hand in mine. I lower my gaze and stare at her, the round edges of her face illuminated like a goddess in the moonlight. I leaned in for a kiss but as I did she gasped and jumped up.
“Look!” she calls out, not just to me but loud enough to get the rest of the crew’s attention too. I follow her pointing finger and see something in the water. At first I thought it was just the stars reflecting in the water. But the closer I looked I realized there were more and more little lights joining them.
“Is that jellyfish?” I turn red in the dark at Hudson’s words, ashamed that I couldn’t figure that out myself. But now that the name was out there that’s obviously what they were.
The number of jellyfish grew and grew all around us. Before too long the whole crew was out of bed and on the deck watching the strange phenomena. By that time there had to be thousands of the little glowing guys surrounding the boat. There were so many of them now that their little bioluminescent bodies were outshining the stars.
“Something’s wrong,” I could feel it, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. A warning, but what? The memory flickered at the edge of my consciousness, a frustratingly elusive image just out of reach, like trying to grasp a handful of water.
I stared out at the glowing bodies bobbing in the waves and tried to figure out why I felt terrified all of a sudden. My heart was racing, my breath was ragged, the jellyfish were…. The jellyfish pulsed in a mesmerizing rhythm, their glowing bodies forming an ever-tightening noose around us.
“We need to move,” I said, my voice suddenly the authoritative Sergeant and not the what-is-she-even-doing-here sailor that it’s been since we first arrived on The Salty Mermaid. Despite all the authority I could muster, no one moved. I look over at my Rosa and I see my fear reflected in her eyes. She nods and gets up to go to the helm. If no one else will get us out of here, we will.
But before she took a step she collapsed onto the floor, her body spasmed and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. I’m on the ground next to her as soon as she hits the deck. I held her down, kept her from hurting herself or biting off her tongue.
“No, no, no, no, now is not the time, Rosie girl,” my voice betrayed all the panic that welled up inside me. Her body stopped spasming, it held an arched position with only the top of her head and her ass touching the ground.
“They’re spinning, now,” The crew still hadn’t moved. They were transfixed by the fish below. A fat, cold raindrop splattered on my cheek, the first of a deluge that transformed the gentle patter into a relentless drumming on the deck. They hid my tears as I looked around me. Even the icy droplets weren’t enough to break the spell on the crew.
My Rosa, she stood up straight. But not on her own, she didn’t move her hands or her legs to get herself up. One second she was on the ground, the next she was standing. Panic clawed at my throat as I got up next to her but I could barely see her in the dark and the rain. I reached for her, but my hand met only cold, unyielding flesh. Then suddenly lightning struck and I saw her head was slumped unnaturally and her eyes impossibly white.
I called out to her but she didn’t answer. I cried for her as loud as I could, but my panicked voice was tossed away by the howling wind.
She spoke. I could hear every word despite her soft tone and the raging storm around us. At first she spoke gibberish. It was as if she was speaking in some demonic tongue. Then she was speaking in Chinese or something, then French, then Spanish. It was as if something was dialing into her head, like trying to find the right station on the radio.
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,” every word she choked out felt wrong, an alien language clawing its way out of her throat even as she finally spoke in english. I tried to shake her out of it. I lunged for her, desperate to break my Rosa out of this trance, but before my hands could reach her, her head snapped back in place so violently I thought her neck would break. A shriek pierced the air before I realized it was coming from me. She stared at me with her all-white eyes and she grabbed the statue from my pocket and hurled it effortlessly back into the sea.
I watched the statue sail in the air as far as I could, paralyzed. The rain stopped for a moment and I watched as the jellyfish continued to spiral in the dark water.
Then suddenly the water started to boil. My mind raced with all the things that might cause the ocean to bubble like that: underwater volcano, faulty nuclear submarine, nothing good. Before I could do anything about it all, something big bumped into the boat.
It tipped over and we all fell into the water. I held tightly to my Rosa’s hand. She spoke one last time before we went under the water,
“And with strange eons even death-” and then we were submerged. I thrashed around, worried we would be stung by the jellyfish, but I couldn’t see them from below the depths. All I remember seeing before I passed out were a pair of horrible eyes. Big, crimson, glowing things that stared into my soul.
Then I woke up here, where you tell me that I can’t see my Rosa. Did you leave her out there? Why would you leave her there? I have to go back. I have to get my Rosa. Why won’t you let me see her? WHY WON’T YOU LET ME SE-”
If you enjoyed this story, Click HERE to head to the Navigation Page for more.
Note 1: Any time the patient brings us Rosa de la Rocha she quickly becomes belligerent and combative.
Note 2: There are no records indicating one Rosa de la Rocha ever existed. There is no military service record, no DD214, and no mention of her on the crew manifest of The Salty Mermaid.