Teru and the others scrambled to the ship's railing and peered down. In the blue depths, a vast, moving blackness blotted out the light. It was a shifting landscape of what looked like mountains and valleys, stretching as far as they could see.
The seafloor? No, they were in deep water. It wasn't possible.
"Hey, is that thing... moving?" one of them stammered.
"It has to be a sea monster," another whispered, the old sailors' legends suddenly feeling very, very real. The Kraken, the Leviathan, the Midgard Serpent... creatures that meant certain death for any who encountered them.
Before, Teru would have scoffed. Now, he knew better. If gods were real, monsters were too.
BAM!
The world tilted violently. The massive trawler lurched as if struck by a mountain, sending the men sprawling across the deck.
"Old Gil, you son of a bitch, did you hit a reef?" someone roared.
"There are no reefs in this part of the sea, you idiot!"
"Then what was it? Did we hit a whale?"
"Forget that, Samba's gone overboard! Help!"
A sailor threw a life preserver and rope to the man flailing in the water. As he began to haul him in, he saw something that would haunt his dreams forever.
Behind his struggling crewmate, the sea itself was pushed aside. A head, the size of a city block, rose slowly from the depths. Water cascaded from its black, armored scales. A pair of malevolent, reptilian eyes, each as large as a fishing boat, fixed on the trawler, reflecting the terrified figures of the crew.
The sailor on deck, Joyce, dropped the rope and scrambled back, screaming. "Mary, mother of God..."
The rest of the crew broke and ran for the safety of the ship's interior, their minds unable to process the sheer scale of the creature.
In the water, Samba watched his crewmates abandon him. "You cowards! Get me out of here!" He felt a strange current behind him, a massive displacement of water. "Is a storm coming?" he wondered, turning his head.
Then he saw it. And his world ended in a silent scream.
Huddled in a steel-walled storage room, the sailors trembled. "We have to go back for Samba," Joyce whimpered.
"He's dead!" another sailor snapped. "Someone needs to get to the bridge and tell the captain to get us out of here!"
No one moved. Their legs were jelly.
Teru, meanwhile, was praying. This had to be divine punishment. His blasphemous crewmates had angered the gods, and this beast was their instrument of wrath. "Great Ame-no-Minakanushi," he prayed, clutching a small omamori charm, "I am your faithful servant. Please, spare me. Let the monster consume the unbelievers."
In the captain's room, Captain Yano was already on the satellite phone with the Icelandic Coast Guard. "We've made contact," the coast guard operator said. "But they're suggesting you see a psychiatrist."
Yano paled. "What did you tell them?"
"That we've encountered a sea monster."
"You...!" Yano nearly choked on his rage. "Tell them we're sinking! A shipwreck! Anything! Just get them out here!"