Lowest Dark-Talbot

Lowest Dark

S. T. Talbot

“Open your eyes.”

Ronnie’s whispered breath tickled Kim’s ear, giving her goosebumps; she relished them for a moment before following Ronnie’s instruction.

Kim didn’t understand what she saw. The multifaceted darkness of the sea and star-filled sky was wrong – a glowing blue haze illuminated the water around the yacht. The water had been dark just a moment earlier, when Ronnie had instructed Kim to close her eyes. It reminded Kim of something from a video game she’d played, but she was too overwhelmed by what she was seeing to remember which, just that it was a healing item and possessed a magical blue glow one would never expect to find outside of video games or science fiction movies.

A lightning-fast sense of vertigo overtook Kim. Ronnie held onto her, anchoring her to the railing, making sure she wouldn’t fall face-first into the glowing depths below. Kim was glad they had this section of the yacht to themselves, lest the billionaires on board see such an intimate moment.

The blue glow added confusing depth to the water. Kim could not rightfully tell where it actually started, and how far down the glow illuminated. She was suddenly acutely aware of the seemingly endless abyss of the ocean below her, the darkness beneath the glow, and all the things it might hold. Still, it was beautiful – ethereally so. As was becoming a common motif in their relationship, Kim was left speechless while Ronnie watched her, a grin eating up her facial features.

“I don’t …” Kim said, faltering. “What is it?”

“Bioluminescence.”

Kim turned to Ronnie, the glow somehow brighter in her periphery. She had all manner of questions she wanted to ask, but her tongue was tied and her throat frozen. She could only manage a confused shake of her head.

Ronnie grinned that million-dollar smile of hers – well, multibillion-dollar smile, really. “It’s a special type of algae,” she said. “We’re some of the first people to ever see it. It was just discovered last month, and as far as we know, only exists in this one small patch of ocean. Scientists haven’t even properly studied the stuff yet.”

“Is it … safe?”

Ronnie laughed. “Don’t worry, babe. It’s not going to eat you.”

“No,” Kim said, looking back into the brilliant blue of the water. There was a faint pulse to the illumination, like a heartbeat. “Is it safe for the algae? I mean … for a yacht to be so close to it.” Kim patted the rail of the boat. “Don’t these things release tons of junk into the water? If it’s newly discovered, and nobody knows much about it, couldn’t we be … I don’t know … doing harm?”

Ronnie grinned, but Kim detected another emotion hiding behind her smile. It wasn’t that it didn’t reach her eyes, rather that her eyes conveyed something else entirely. Kim couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

“Don’t worry, love.” Ronnie pecked Kim a kiss. “It’ll survive. Promise. And this is just the beginning. You won’t believe what else we might see. Tonight is big. It’s our night.”

Unsure what to do or what to say, Kim leaned in and kissed Ronnie. Not a peck, but the type deep enough to get lost in.

It still amazed her she was dating Ronnie Fucking Matheson. That’s how Kim’s brothers always said her name, like Ronnie’s middle name was actually Fucking instead of Rachelle. To be fair, Kim sometimes thought of her the same way. I just made out with Ronnie Fucking Matheson, she’d think as their lips parted.

Ronnie’s family was rich in ways that Kim couldn’t even comprehend. But before she knew Ronnie as a one-percenter, she knew her from movies she’d watched in her teen years. The black sheep of the Matheson dynasty, Ronnie had eschewed the family business – whatever that was, Kim was not entirely sure, but it seemed to involve everything and anything – and had pursued an acting career instead. Ronnie’s family had disowned her until recently, when they’d reconnected, not long after her and Kim started dating.

Ronnie was not Kim’s first on-screen crush; that title belonged to Tippi Hedren, but for obvious reasons, that wasn’t likely to happen. But she was among the earliest. Her performance – and revealing outfit – in the horror flick Lamprey’s Lament solidified her as a ghostly deity that would haunt Kim’s dreams. As a teen, Kim even had a poster of Ronnie on her bedroom wall. And now, here Kim was, beginning a shared life with her. With Ronnie Fucking Matheson.

They just had to get through the night: Kim meeting Ronnie’s parents, Ronnie extending an olive branch to her family. Simple enough.

Kim leaned against Ronnie and took in the view. They sat in amicable silence for a full minute, watching the stars and their reflection in the calm, oddly glowing ocean. Kim didn’t know the ocean could be so calm, especially this far out, but then again, she’d been on a single boat in her entire life; a pontoon when she was barely old enough to remember. Her experience with the ocean started and ended with Shark Week, of which she was a religious viewer.

The algae pulsed with Kim’s heart. How the Mathesons knew of such algae was beyond Kim, and their decision to take out a yacht on a casual trip to see it before it was spoiled by the eyes of others was just another reminder that their wealth made them more alien to Kim than the algae they floated through. She pushed these thoughts from her mind and allowed herself to become enamored with the glow; the way it shimmered in its iridescence, like underwater northern lights illuminating the ocean just for them.

Kim didn’t bother holding back the tears. “It’s beautiful.”

Ronnie held Kim closer. “It really is.” Kim would never tire of Ronnie’s arms around her. She’d never met anyone who filled the spaces in her life so seamlessly.

Drunken, clomping footsteps approached from behind. Kim had an idea who it was before he even spoke.

“Fuckin’ A right, it’s beautiful,” Victor said. “Guess how many bathrooms this bitch got?”

Kim, who had steeled herself for such moment-ruining Victorisms, let out a sigh. Ronnie’s brother could not be further from his sister. Victor had all the tact and self-awareness of a boiled boot. “I was talking about the view, Vic.” Kim motioned to the algae-rich shimmering waters and the night sky billowing out in front of them, the Milky Way clearly visible.

Victor grinned, ‌reducing the years – and intelligence – on his thin face, and took a swig from a bottle of beer. “Twelve,” he said, barely containing the child within him. “Twelve fucking bathrooms.” He leaned against the railing beside Kim and Ronnie, patting it lovingly. “The American Dream.” It took Kim a second before she remembered that was the name of the yacht.

Ronnie rolled her eyes. “Way to kill the moment, Vic.”

In response, Victor trumpeted out a fart. “Don’t mention it, toots. Why’s it that beer makes me burp sometimes and fart others?”

Kim tried to ignore him; Victor just kept on anyway. “Guess how much this yacht cost, Kim? If you guess, I’ll give you a million dollars.”

Against her better judgement, Kim took the bait. “I don’t want a million dollars. I want a few moments of peace with your sister.”

“Fine, fine.” Victor belched. “I’ll donate a million dollars to your favorite charity. What are you into? Saving polar bears? Helping gays? Helping save gay polar bears?”

Kim turned to Victor so she could see his face when she laid into him, but Ronnie’s voice stopped her. “Watch the water.”

Kim turned her attention back to the ocean. The algae had an immediate calming effect. While it didn’t make her forget about Victor, it made his presence tolerable. Kim tried to dredge up any information she knew about algae, trying to picture what the individual creatures looked like and how they added up to a glow that spanned miles. She was in the midst of anthropomorphizing the things, imagining their daily lives, tiny briefcases held in their tiny algae hands as they commuted to algae factories, when a shadow emerged from the depths.

Kim’s arms broke out in goosebumps. The shadow grew from a small point to a large oblong as it got closer. Only when it neared the surface did she see it for what it was.

“Oh my god,” Kim breathed as the whale breached the surface, mouth wide, swallowing unquantifiable amounts of algae as it sucked in a lake’s worth of water. For an instant, before the whale closed its enormous mouth, the bioluminescent algae lit it up, allowing Kim a glimpse inside, the brush-like baleen clearly visible.

“Ronnie …” It was all Kim could say. But it was enough. It was an acknowledgment; it was a thank you.

Before Kim could fully find her breath, two more shadows emerged from the depths. They approached much more leisurely than the first, straightening themselves once they neared the surface, breaking through with their ridged backs. They both shot up a spout of glowing water, which became clouds of blue mist floating in the air, still pulsing. The two whales dove back down, but not before breaching the surface with their tails, each of which had unique patterning clearly visible for a moment before they disappeared. It was the most beautiful thing Kim had ever seen. She could spend the rest of her life trying to describe this moment and never do it justice. The way the mist floated on the air, the way she felt the purest shade of warm safety with Ronnie’s body pressed against hers, the way the shadows dove to reach the first, which Kim assumed was their parent.

Kim wanted to say something, but words were a transgression in such a moment. Ronnie remained silent too. Victor, however, had no qualms. “You guys ever seen a whale dick before?” Victor made an appreciative sound. “It’s a fuckin’ trip. Long and curved. Lots of people who think they saw a sea monster – a Nessie or whatever – they really just saw whale schlong. That famous picture of Nessie that’s been around since before we were born? Totally a whale dick. Whales go belly-up and let their dick just hang out of the water, and bam – looks exactly like a Loch Ness Monster or opo-gogo or whatever.”

Kim and Ronnie glared daggers into Victor. Kim fought an internal battle, urging herself not to take the bait, but once again, she lost. “Ogopogo,” she corrected through gritted teeth. Kim, while not exactly being a true believer in cryptids, was not a skeptic either. And “Ogopogo” was just a delightful word to say; she hated Vic butchering it.

“Gesundheit,” Victor said.

Kim huffed her defeat.

“You’re the worst,” Ronnie said.

“Never claimed anything else.” He went to take a drink, found the bottle empty, and frowned. “Beer needs refreshing. I’m going below deck.” Victor looked pointedly at Ronnie. “Don’t spend too much time up here getting all lovey-dovey. Dinner’s almost ready. Wouldn’t want Kim to miss dinner.” The wink he threw at Ronnie was telegraphed from a mile away, his entire face moving with it. “See y’all soon.” Victor turned and began walking away, but apparently that goodbye was too civilized for him to end on. He turned back to them, face serious, like he was going to spill some childhood trauma. Then he burped loudly, a stupid grin plastered across his face. “Later, bitches.”

Kim and Ronnie watched him depart, shaking their heads.

“What was that wink about?” Kim asked.

“Nothing,” Ronnie said. “Just Vic being Vic.”

Ronnie smiled, and again there was a trace of conflicting emotion there that Kim couldn’t quite identify – sadness, or somberness, maybe? It wasn’t entirely out of place. Kim once read that sometimes astronauts felt a profound sadness when out in the vast nothingness of space, looking down at Earth, that Pale Blue Dot. Out here, floating in the ocean, Kim could almost understand.

Ronnie gazed out at the shimmering, pulsing ocean. “It’s perfect tonight. Just for you.” And there it was again, that maybe-sadness bordering Ronnie’s voice.

“Everything okay, babe?”

Kim could see Ronnie struggling with something. Like she wanted to tell Kim something but couldn’t decide if she should. “Everything’s perfect.” Tears choked her voice. Kim left it alone – Ronnie would only clam up if pressed.

A tinny ringing belted through the sound system of the yacht.

“That’s the dinner bell,” Ronnie said.

“Do we have to?” Kim already knew the answer.

Ronnie grabbed Kim’s hand and held it tight. “Whatever happens, I’ll be there. Remember that.”

Grudgingly, Kim took her eyes from the water and allowed herself to be led down to dinner.

The glow of the algae washed the room in a beautiful blue haze. Combined with the sheepish light of the tea candles on each table, this gave the space a shadowed ambiance. All the tables in the long room were placed to give diners a view of the glass window that took up an entire wall, looking out into the glowing water. As they were being seated, Victor had drunkenly told Kim how much it had cost to install such a feature; how his was the only yacht in use with such an observation window. It was a sight to behold, but Vic’s excitement over it took some of Kim’s away.

Kim was glad for the dimness of the room. She hated crowds. She hated being the center of attention. And she would never say it outright to Ronnie, but rich people made her nervous. It wasn’t just the difference between their and Kim’s tax brackets, as wide as the gap may be. It was more akin to tagging along with a group of friends who had decades of chemistry and inside jokes at their disposal, and always feeling that the jokes were somehow at her expense. And here she was, in a room full of the richest people in the world – there were so many, too; how did the world have enough money for thismany billionaires? And if that wasn’t enough, she was sitting at the table closest to the glass wall, reserved for the Mathesons, the hosts of this event.

Kim hoped she could stay lowkey enough to not draw any attention to herself, maybe even get through dinner without having to “rub elbows” (Victor’s words) with anyone of importance. Since she sat down, she’d locked eyes – and darted them away twice as fast – with a producer whose name was bigger than most movie stars, a couple of infamous techbros and a few world leaders. She just wanted to keep her head down, eat her food and retire back to the open air with Ronnie. She was even going easy on the drinks, lest she cut a little too loose and inadvertently make a spectacle of herself.

Ronnie’s father stood, tapped his glass (though it was unneeded; the entire room quieted the moment he stood), cleared his throat and said, “Tonight I would like to thank our guest of honor. Kim, if you will.”

Mr. Matheson gestured elegantly at her from across the table. Kim froze, drink held to her lips. Ronnie nudged her. Kim swallowed her mouthful and raised her hand, the crowd of billionaires giving her a round of applause. To Kim’s horror, the applause kept going longer than any applause should – only after what might have been a literal minute did it finally peter out. Everyone returned to their more localized discussions as teams of waiters rolled out food on ornate silver carts that looked like they probably cost more than Kim’s car.

Kim waited until everyone’s conversations had resumed before she looked at Ronnie, stealing her attention away from the underwater view of the sea. “What the fuck was that?” Kim hissed.

Ronnie looked mortified. Kim felt awful – she didn’t cuss often, especially not in front of Ronnie.

“I’m sorry,” they both said, paused, then both laughed and apologized once more over each other. They laughed again.

“Look,” Ronnie said when their laughter died down, “I didn’t know he was going to do that. But you know how my dad can be. He has to make everything some big event.”

Vic, who was deep in his cups, laughed like a donkey. “Oh,” he slurred. “That so?” He gave Ronnie a pointed look, one ‌which she returned. He ignored it and stumbled away to flirt with the daughter of some billionaire.

“What was that about?” Kim asked.

“He’s shitfaced,” Ronnie said, waving the question away.

Ronnie busied herself with her food, so Kim did the same. She wasn’t even sure what was on her plate. It was some sort of seafood in a sauce. Kim took a tentative bite – it was the most delicious thing she’d ever eaten. Creamy and savory and light. She tore into the meal.

“If I’m ever on death row,” she said around a bite and a moan, “this is going to be my last meal.”

Ronnie regarded Kim gravely. In the dim, shadowy lighting, it took Kim a moment to realize Ronnie was close to crying. Ronnie was not one for tears, and she usually loved Kim’s occasional attempts at dark humor, clumsy as they may be.

Kim reached over and grabbed Ronnie’s hand. “Hey, what’s going on? What’s wrong, babe?”

Ronnie regarded her in that melancholy way before looking to Kim’s left, out the glass. Like a switch had been flipped, Ronnie’s face lit up, beaming her impossible-not-to-fall-into smile.

“Look,” Ronnie whispered.

Kim followed Ronnie’s eyes to the window, the phosphorescent sea beyond it. What looked to be a glowing rope drifted into view, hundreds of feet long, swaying and bobbing with the current of the algae-bright water. A red dot appeared at one end and travelled the length of the rope. As Kim watched, astonished, another light followed it, this one green. More and more lights appeared, and it reminded Kim of the longest LED string of Christmas lights in the world, though it was clear this was something organic.

Kim couldn’t take her eyes off it, her own personal light show – it even alternated between her favorite colors. She finally peeled her eyes away to look at Ronnie, and just for a second, in her peripheral vision, she thought she saw everyone in the dining room watching her and not the water. But when she looked at the room again, they were all facing the glass. A trick of the light, she thought.

A second rope-like object bobbed up from the depths, this one shorter than the first, but it trailed material in the water. It looked for all the world like a living tree branch trailing glowing Spanish moss.

“What is it?” Kim whispered, like her voice might scare the things away. It was the most haunting thing she’d ever seen, its uncanniness matched only by its beauty.

“It’s a siphonophore,” Ronnie said.

“Siph-what-ophore?”

Ronnie laughed her honey laugh. “They’re colonies of tiny creatures. That there is the longest animal in the world.”

“I thought that was the blue whale?”

“If you don’t count our friends out there, sure. They skirt definitions. Since it’s a colony, some people don’t consider it an animal. Guess it doesn’t really matter.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t.”

Kim watched in awe as the billowing thing illuminated the water with its beautiful light. She was so distracted by it that she didn’t notice other objects floating up to join it, not until they were right in front of her. A knotted mass of what looked like intertwined spinning tentacles, resembling DNA strands, floated through the loop of siphonophore. A sleek fish, twice as long as Kim, darted by in a flash of silver. A flicker of motion at the bottom of Kim’s vision made her lean forward just in time to see a tentacle the length of the yacht reach up, grab the fish, and disappear back into the depths. Kim knew it could only belong to one thing.

“Was that a giant squid?” she asked dreamily.

An anglerfish swam up to the glass, its anatomical fish lure a brilliant orange, lighting up its maw of needle-teeth. The lure moved back and forth as it pulsed. Before Kim could comment on it, a new shadow emerged from the deep. Mind reeling, Kim couldn’t accept what she saw. The shadow took shape, and it kept growing, seemingly unending. As the beast swam in front of the glass, Kim saw a leering eye followed by scarred, textured grey flesh, then a fin.

Megalodon. Kim wasn’t sure if she said it or thought it. The behemoth stole her breath and words away. Her entire body tingled at the sight of it.

The megalodon swam a lazy circle before gliding away from the glass at an angle. It weaved through the siphonophores, and as it did, strange bursts of varying colors bloomed all around it. Greens and blues and reds, exploding in stunning color before imploding to nothing. Kim wanted to look at the flashes, but her eyes simply would not leave the giant shark. One flash appeared just in front of her, close enough to the glass for Kim to see that the colors came from small, round fish. Every time one of the fish swam a few feet, it was accompanied by a flare of color that popped like flashbulbs.

Even more bioluminescent creatures emerged from the depths. Squids that strobed purple with each propulsion; jellyfish with angled tentacles reminiscent of spider legs, yellow and icy blue lights pulsing intermittently through them; manta rays boasting brightly colored wings that lit up every other flap; anglerfish of every shape and size.

Anglerfish are deep-sea creatures, Kim thought. They shouldn’t be this close to the surface. Then, her mind catching up to what it saw and regaining the ability to prioritize thoughts: megalodon went extinct millions of years ago.

In slow motion, Kim’s surroundings came back to her. For a moment, it was just her and the magnificence taking place before her eyes; even the glass was forgotten for a spell. She turned to Ronnie to find Ronnie already facing her. She was freely crying now.

Ronnie looked Kim in the eye. “Don’t fight them.”

“Ronnie?”

“Kim,” Ronnie whispered, “if you trust me, don’t fight back. I have a plan.”

Kim just stared at her lover, dumbstruck.

“Goddamn that was somethin’,” Victor said from behind her.

Kim was so surprised by his voice, by the presence of anyone in the room besides her and Ronnie, she yelped and jumped. She turned in her seat to find a wall of grinning billionaires surrounding the table.

Victor clapped. “I mean, I was skeptical at first, but this was totally worth a favor or two.” He gestured out the glass at the ongoing spectacle. “What a show.”

Kim tried to blink the ability of speech back into herself. She looked at the window in time to see the megalodon in pursuit of a giant squid, organic fireworks erupting around them.

“I don’t …” Kim began. “What’s … did you drug me?”

Like they’d rehearsed it, the billionaires all erupted into laughter together. It almost seemed like canned laughter, like they’d all studied at the same university that specialized in pretentious chortling. “Bless your heart,” Vic said. “No no, I wouldn’t waste my stash on you. I was never sure what Ronnie saw in you, but I do see it now. You’re a hoot.” He reached into his pocket and took out a small pill, placed it on his tongue and downed the rest of his drink.

Kim looked at Ronnie, who fought back tears. “I need you to trust me,” Ronnie whispered.

“What’s going on?” Kim asked.

Vic checked his wristwatch. “Look, we’re running short on time here. I’ll give you the CliffsNotes. My family has a lot of servants at their disposal. One of which makes all this possible. My great-great-grandfather was a fisherman, poor as dirt. Poor as you, Kim. But one day he pulled up a book from the depths. Gramps couldn’t read it. Held onto it for years until he found a translator. It was a book of power. He read aloud a selectfew words in that book, in just the right order, in just the right location, and awoke something older than the stars. Something that’d been sleeping in the water. Something that helped build our empire, one wish at a time. Something bound to our bloodline. A servant that grants the occasional favor if we feed it the occasional meal.”

Kim just gawked. She heard maybe one third of the words Victor said, absorbing none.

Victor laughed at her expression. “Okay, simpler terms. Gramps trapped a God. The God made us all rich. We feed the God people.” He gestured out at the light show. “When you meet It, you can thank It for the show. Ronnie wanted to make your last night special, so we called in a favor. I would’ve preferred another yacht or something, but hey, sometimes it’s nice to be nice.”

Ronnie suddenly grabbed Kim by the arm and yanked her up, embracing her, hugging her tight. “Don’t let go,” Ronnie said. “I won’t let go.”

“How sweet,” Vic said. “I was kinda hoping you’d pull something like this, Ronnie.”

The billionaires began chanting in a language unfamiliar to Kim. She grew dizzy.

From a distance, Kim heard Vic say, “Let go of her.”

“No,” Ronnie said, sounding miles away, despite their embrace.

“Suit yourself.”

Hands pushed Kim and Ronnie and they fell, but they did not hit the floor. Butterflies fluttered in Kim’s stomach as they continued falling. Kim opened her eyes. It seemed as though they were floating through the dark water of the ocean, except she could not feel it around her. And she could still breathe.

They fell and fell, descending deeper than Kim thought possible. When they finally came to a stop, Kim felt as if she were still falling. They were surrounded by a cold, horizonless dark. The only things around them were distant pinpricks of grey light, breaking up the dark’s monotony. Like the black void of space, except these lights were not stars. They pulsed and sputtered, some winking out, others opening up.

Ronnie’s hand never left Kim’s. “I’m so sorry, Kim. They made me bring you along. You don’t understand their power. If I didn’t bring you tonight, they were going to abduct you. Your family. They made me. But I’m here. I’d never let them have you alone. Follow my lead.”

Eternal hunger.

A voice from the darkness, sounding like so many insect legs on metal.

“Who’s there?” Kim said.

Your kind has had many names for my kind. I claim none. I hunger.

Kim looked around. “Where are we?”

Many questions. You are in my domain.

“The ocean?”

You are in my domain, and my domain is in water. But you are not in the ocean. Not in the sense you understand. The “ocean” as you call it, is deeper than you can fathom. It is a crossroads.

Ronnie made a small noise, one Kim could not decipher.

Kim wanted to cower, but she fought the urge. She could sense something in the distance; a movement in the darkness and “stars”, like cloth rippling in the wind. “They trapped you? They control you?”

I am bound.

Still holding tight onto Kim’s hand, Ronnie took a step forward, toward the voice. “I can unbind you,” she said.

Silence. Whatever it was, it was listening.

Kim took Ronnie’s lead and moved closer to the voice. “Free us. And we will free you.”

No simple task, child. You need a book, lost and forgotten.

Ronnie took ‌a shaky breath. “I know where the book is. I know where my family keeps it.”

You are … of their ilk?

Kim squeezed Ronnie’s hand reassuringly. “She’s here against her will. Same as you. But she is of their ilk, yes. She can free you.”

You know not what you offer. My hunger is eternal. My thirst, never-ending.

Kim pictured the leering faces of all the grubby billionaires aboard the yacht. All the perfectly white veneers and hair plugs and radiant faces with exorbitantly priced skincare routines. She thought of Vic. Of Ronnie’s father. Of their canned laughter.

“I can feed you. I can feed you those who profited from your imprisonment. I can slake your thirst. You can get vengeance.”

Vengeance is a concept lost on me. I am older than the void the stars were born into, and just as hungry. I starve.

“Then feed. Let us go. We’ll free you. And we’ll feed you. I know just the buffet.”

More silence. Deep as the void they stood in.

Step closer, child. You intrigue me. Let us parley.

Kim glanced at Ronnie, and the pure anger in her lover’s expression fueled her. Hand in hand, they walked further into the darkness.

S. T. Talbot has been writing since he was a boy, but took up writing fiction to process living in an unfamiliar environment following his move from his hometown in the San Bernardino mountains to Florida. If he’s not at work staring blankly at clipboards or in his office conjuring up ghost stories, he’s most likely listening to spine-chilling old-time radio shows or gorging on cheap, foggy horror films with his cat, Casper. You can find him on Instagram @s.talbot.writes

Without in any way limiting the authors’ and publisher’s exclusive rights, any unauthorised use of any part of this story to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited.

This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, locations or general circumstances is entirely coincidental and/or used in a fictitious manner.

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