“I WANT THE TRUTH” She was screaming into my phone, I couldn’t really take it. I mean, I did care about her, but the truth was that I wasn’t really ready to be honest about the scientific fidings of Ocean #1895.

“Look, I know what you saw on the news, I know you want to know about what we learned about Ocean #1895 but I just can’t tell you. I wish I could, but I can’t. The truth is that if I do, especially over the phone, I could lose my life.”

She sighed, “FINE, I’M ON MY WAY OVER.” She hung up.

That’s the hardest part about being friends with people who aren’t scientist but needing space to share scientific findings and receive emotional support over the work. Obviously, a lot of science is confidential and you can’t really tell everyone every single thing, but the amount of emotional support needed is insane. I wanted to confirm what my friend saw on the news but I knew she was going to just lose her mind over it. I know that she wants me to open up, but I really don’t want to lose my life over vital information. That’s what I hate about the media and the government, they leak information but not details. They don’t tell the public that scientists don’t have all of the facts but they start off with information that makes the public go wild and then ‘we’ (as in the people employed in these spaces) get badgered which then leads to all sorts of lab drama.

I had to get out of my thoughts, I was hanging on the couch looking down at the carpet wishing my life was different. You see, when you’re a scientist it’s hard to have friends because you’re always asking ‘why’ and people find you rude. I want normal friends, friends who aren’t trying to chase science with me. This was draining and really stressful.

By the time I had the emotional strength to make a cup of tea there was a knock at my door, it was Kelsey.

“Kels…” I sighed, “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“Look, I know you can’t tell me everything, just tell me the truth about what’s going on because I want to protect something that has happened.” She folded her arms into her chest and then I allowed her to walk into the house.

“Okay…” I sat back on the couch and proceeded to talk to the floor because what I was about to share was more than enough for any human to describe, “the truth is that we went down to Ocean #1895 aka The Atlantic Ocean. It was in the middle of summer when we started our tour, yes, this pass summer.”

Before I could finish she kicked off her shoes and sat criss cross apple sauce beside, “okay… and?"

“And, we went down in submarines, we all had on our suites, ready for the worst. We were touring, as usual, doing the normal ocean scans, and that’s when we stumbled upon it on accident. We found this two basketball court sized, just like the news reported, creature that had over a thousand tentacles and about 50 eyes on all four sides. The fish were swimming around it and it just glided there. We could see these baby creatures coming from the tentacles and we grew very afraid. It was in that moment that we sped out of the ocean and back towards the lab. We all threw our bodies onto the counters and just eyed each other down, we couldn’t believe what the fuck we saw.”

“Mhm, so do you think that’s how Rainn went missing?”

“I think Rainn went missing that way, yes, because when she went into the water three years ago she went alone. I’m not sure if it’s been calling people into the water and then killing them. We all felt this magnetic call that was beyond our conscious mind. I can’t explain it, it was almost as if we stayed a second longer it was going to eat us alive.”

“FUCK FUCK FUCK, I JUST WANT US TO FIND RAINN.”

“But listen, her name was ‘Rainn,’ who is to say that they didn’t want her for their own experiement, she was a pisces, she loved water, she danced in the rain, she worked in the water, and one day all alone she was drawn down there… and it probably ate her the way it could have us.”

There was silence between us.