The Diary of an Inauspicious Sailor

The Diary of an Inauspicious Sailor

The deck shook beneath my feet, and as I stumbled I realized that this may be the battle I’ve been waiting for.
I stumbled into an animal kennel, and I found a rabbit before feet. I was mystified. I was mystified because this rabbit had been in my dreams. In my dreams, it had always stared me in the eye. And I always heard the same deep mysterious voice. And now, it did the same, it looked dead hard at me, right in the eye, as if to say, as always, “You’re gonna be my teeth!” I was stunned, and I didn’t know what to do, so I did what any man in my shoes would do: I threw it in a closet and locked the door. The corridor again lashed violently as I nearly fell into it, and headed right.
I kept walking towards the main deck. I still had no idea what was causing the violent lurches to the ship, but I had to find out. I approached the cold steel door that leads to the surface, and I latched on to the door handle and turned. As I emerged onto the outside deck, I was bombarded by a blast of freezing air and many raindrops to the face. Crewmates ran screaming, some barking orders, some firing weapons into the sea. As I turned to the right, I saw what gripped my breath and ripped it out of my chest, not literally, and struck me with fear. Nine massive tentacles emerged of the ocean blue, and three stuck the deck, and one crashed into the control bridge that read USS Aberdine, and dragged it down into the sea.
We had been hunting it for weeks, now we had finally found it, to say the least.
Then came a horrible ripping sound, like old jagged pieces of metal scraping against each other, and the deck gave way below me. Cool water splashed onto my face, and soaked my uniform as I desperately tried to grip the nearest hand rail. I barely caught it, but at the same time, I lost the deck under my feet, and fell, fell, fell. I made a large splash, and I was completely submerged in water. My senses were numbed, and I tried to open my eyes, but when I did, a striking bolt of pain shot into my eyes, so I closed them immediately. Blind and deaf, I did the only thing I could: kick with my legs. I didn’t get anywhere, and I couldn’t float, I was sinking like a rock. I heard a deafening roar, despite my inability to hear well, and a brick wall wave of water hit me in the gut like a blow from Rocky Balboa.
I shot out of the water, into the air. Then the cold water hit me again, and at that I gasped, causing me to choke, as water filled my mouth. My head bobbed in and out of the water repeatedly until I could stable myself into floating self-reliantly. After a few moments of taking in air, I turned my head to the left and what I saw sent a shiver down my spine. The Aberdine was no more: there were several large chunks still afloat, barely recognizable, and the rest was sinking. I could see a few crewmen swimming for their lives, or choking on water. Just past the remains of the aft compartment, I saw the tip of the copper-colored head of the Kracken re-submerging, and it let out one more bellowing roar as it disappeared into the deep unknown.
I was so tired, I was about to just close my eyes, but something caught my attention. It was a beacon of hope: a life raft, with several crewmen aboard. It was barely intact, as the aft looked like a fire had just been doused, but nevertheless, it was afloat. From what I saw there were twelve sailors, none of which were from my core that I recognized. As they sailed closer to me, one of them tossed down his arm for me to climb up. I latched on, and he pulled me up and I finally hit a solid bench. As I sat up, I saw our destination, the closest land: Antarctica.