Bogleech.com's 2014 Horror Write-off:

" Green Sea "

Submitted by Athena

I took a cruise to see whales. The whales were so far they were barely visible at first, but then they started getting incredibly close to the ship, shoving their faces on it. They were huge, and everyone was amazed, crowding around the decks to see them. I was concerned that the whales would get hurt by the rudders on the boat, but they seemed fine.

I made friends with three brothers on the cruise; I got along with the oldest one well, we bonded over mutual interest in marine biology. The youngest was about 10, and he seemed upset that I was taking up his brother's time. Things went along nicely for a while, I even enjoyed seeing the giant whales approaching the boat, despite how strange it was.

When we got towards the last day of the cruise a huge, glowing green mass appeared in the distance. It felt like no one but me noticed, so I tried to ignore it. It got closer, I asked the brothers about it, but only the youngest said he saw something. On the second to last day it closed in on us; a giant, glowing green octopus. Me and the brothers were at the edge of the ship, staring right at its face. It grabbed the ship and shook it violently, everyone was screaming, and the youngest brother passed out. He started slipping. We tried to grab him, but it didn't work. He got swallowed by the giant octopus, then it descended into the ocean. I tried to console his brothers.

Ever since the octopus left no whales or other marine life would approach the boat. The entire rest of the day was spent performing repairs and quietly mourning. No one seemed to know why the boat had shook, even the brothers thought their sibling had just fallen into the ocean.

When we started moving I saw it again, in front of the ship this time. A green, glowing fog. I tried to get someone important, I told them we needed to go around it, but no one saw it. I just had to wait for us to slowly enter the fog.

Everyone on the boat passed out as the entire ship got bathed in green light. I saw the youngest brother, floating, eyes missing and entire body dilapidated. His bones were broken, some limbs were just gone; this wasn't the work of a giant octopus. It was huge, he was already bite-sized, it would've swallowed him whole. There must've been something worse when he got dragged down there. Maybe there was something worse already inside both of us, and that's why we could see it.

He told me that if I went with him he would let everyone on the boat wake up and live, he just needed me to keep him from becoming lonely. I told him he was an idiot if he thought I would fix anything about his existence; if I even could. Something this destroyed could never be fixed, no matter how hard I tried. I doubted he was even the same person anymore. He said if everyone on the boat died I would be stuck to live life alone; I didn't care, I needed to live. He killed all of them, taking them down into the ocean with him. I secured a lifeboat and washed up onto the nearest shore.