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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/QueenOfTheDead2023 on 2024-10-06 19:48:51+00:00.
So, things have been rather hectic through this investigation. We've had a few interesting conversations and gotten a few answers we've had so far in this investigation, but it hasn't lessened the fear and terror of our situation whatsoever. In fact, I'd say these answers have revealed that the situation is worse than we initially thought. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
As I've mentioned before, since the incident with the shark cage the entire Amity crew has been seeing Bruce, occasionally showing his fin above water as if to let us know that he's still following us. What I didn't think to mention while I was typing that however was that, since the incident, Lawrence had surprisingly been rather quiet the past three days. Usually, even in serious situations and cases that he's stuck his nose in, the representative would always find a way to directly question my skills in the trade or spout some words about how my marriage is blasphemy or something along those lines. This time however, he had barely said a word to anyone on board and had been keeping to himself, almost always standing near the port and staring out at the water with a pale look on his face. It eventually got to the point where Dylan pulled out a bag of dice and passed out a pair of 6 sided dice to each of the twelve of us.
"Alright, I don't know about you folks but I'm getting worried about Larry," the older gentleman declared as he passed them out, "Instead of fighting among ourselves on who's gonna check on him, I reckon that we roll dice to decide who does. Highest roll will be the one to do it."
We each took turns rolling out our dice to see who would go talk to Lawrence. I was the only one who got an 11, causing me to mutter "Well fuck."
"Jamie, you're up," my Boss said with a pat on my shoulder, to which I stood up and began walking towards the port.
Lawrence acknowledged me as I reached him but remained silent for a while. Even now he was still staring out at the water, watching as Bruce's fin surfaced again. I stood there with him, unsure of what to say to him, and found myself watching Bruce along with him. It's then that I noticed something odd about the beast in question. Before I could only see it in bad weather and in deep water so I wasn't able to get a close look, but with the sky clear and the sun out I could make out what appeared to be burn scars on its fin and what I could see of its scales. They looked pretty bad, and rather old, as if Bruce had had them for years.
"You see them too, right?" Lawrence suddenly said, nearly startling me, and when I turned my attention to him he continued, "Those burn scars on its hide, I mean."
"Yeah, I do. Any guesses as to what might've caused them?" I asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer but was surprised to receive one.
"Oil, most likely," the representative replied solemnly, glancing over at me, "Seems like our 'friend' here found themselves caught up in an oil spill that likely involved plenty of fire. Unfortunately, I think I know which one."
"Oh?"
He was silent for a moment before he said, "Do you know why I've been acting the way I have? Force of habit unfortunately, one that I've actually been trying to break for years. You already know that I'm Catholic, but the truth is a lot more complicated than that. I didn't grow up here in Canada like you guys did, rather I was raised in a suburban area just on the outskirts of New Orleans in a very...extreme Evangelical sect. In fact I guess it should rather be referred to as a cult. I was pretty deep and brainwashed in it too, and trust me when I say I've said and done worse shit then everything I've said to you two combined, and I fucking hate it."
"Well, not something I expected to hear but alright," I said, comprehending what I've just been told and trying to figure out how to approach such information, "So...what changed?"
"I got a job outside of the neighbourhood back in March 2010," Lawrence replied, his eyes glazing over as if he was lost in memories, "I was a safety inspector for an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. My job on paper was to ensure that everything was secure and functional, but the cult had some influence on the rig, so I was occasionally paid extra to look the other way. I didn't care at the time since I was still under their thumb, but...well, I'm sure you can figure out exactly what happened one month later."
At first I wasn't sure what he was referring to, but it wasn't long before the details he gave clicked together and I said, "The oil rig you were on, it was the Deepwater Horizon wasn't it?"
"...Yeah, it was," he said as he pulled up his right sleeve, revealing a pattern of burn scars along his arm, "One minute, I was patrolling around to look for leaks. The next thing I knew, I was in the water, surrounded by burning oil. These scars will constantly remind me of why I can never go back to slacking off on my duties. What happened next was a blur, but I vaguely remember being rescued by someone or something and that they were seriously burned by the flames."
He turned towards me again and coldly said, "I've been trying to deny the existence of the supernatural for 14 years because I didn't want to accept the harm my negligence caused to the entity that saved me that day. But your very existence and the incident three days ago, not to mention Bruce being right in front of us has thrown that truth right back in my face. You wanna know why I've been silent? Because I've seen Bruce before, and I recognize those scars. Bruce is the thing that saved me, and all they got was horrible injuries and not even a thank you in turn. I..I don't know about you Jamie, but if I got injured saving someone and they didn't even come looking for me to thank me...I'd probably hate humanity too. It's likely my fault that this happened."
"Larry, you shouldn't blame yourself for a disaster like that," I cut in, alarmed that not only would he do such a thing, but that our Man Eater could be tied to a tragedy like the Deepwater Horizon, "You grew up under the influence of a cult, no one should be blaming someone for being influenced to not do their job by a group that's had them under their thumb for their whole life. Speaking of, what happened with the cult after the disaster?"
"Oh, those rats?" the representative scoffed in annoyance, "My parents only visited me once in the hospital with our leader once during my whole stay. They made it seemed like they cared for my well-being and that they were just giving me enough cash to pay for my bills and then some, but I'd been with them long enough to understand that they were really trying to buy my silence on the negligence onboard the rig. This opened my eyes and made me realise that the leader really didn't care about anyone within his church, to him we were nothing more than puppets. So, I took the money and later left an anonymous tip that helped expose the safety conditions on the rig. As for the cult themselves, their leader vanished into the night after the rest of the cult was arrested for something unrelated."
It took some more talking and coaxing, but eventually I was able to convince Lawrence to come back to where everyone else was. Soon we were planning what to do next, and eventually Matt would make a suggestion that, while simple, would not only change how I had thought of the bespectacled man, but would end up revealing just how serious this investigation actually was.
"I should see if my fiancee can come help out with identifying what we're dealing with," the news reporter declared, "I have my suspicions, but Tia works in the mythology section of our city's history museum, she'll certainly have a better perspective than me."
"You suspect this is some mythological beast that's stalking us?" Lawrence gruffly inquired, his eyebrows furrowed with interest.
Dylan turned to look at the representative as he replied, "Well, it sure as hell ain't a shark, let alone any marine life I've seen in my time sailing the seas. Hell, Blue Whales can't even reach the size of that thing."
"We can rule out any prehistoric animal, too," Ellen interjected without even looking up from her notes, "There's no known Plesiosaurs that look in any way similar to that, and there's no records of a Megalodon looking like that either, let alone reaching anywhere that size."
"Guess we have no choice," I noted calmly, and then turned to Matt and said, "If it helps our investigation, see how fast she can get here."
"Oh don't worry, she'll be here in no time," Matt chuckled as he walked away and pulled out his phone, "Let's just say you're not the only one who's a great swimmer."
His comment was quite confusing at the time, but it was only when Tia inevitably arrived that I understood what he meant. Ten minutes after Matt finished the call, the Amity rocked slightly as if to indicate we were being boarded. Soon after Matt approached us with a beautiful Chinese woman that...
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