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Waves crashed onto the side of the ship. The small lonely boat was rocking back and forth through the storm. It looked as fragile as a paper boat under a watering can next to the dark waters and the unyielding torrent.
It was to be expected.
All of his peers had called him insane to go on the Gulf of Mexico, by the coasts of Louisiana during fall, the peak hurricane season. But for ducks, no challenge were too big for Lucifer, ornitologist, estranged deadbeat husband and father!
After losing his wife and daughter in the divorce, he had buried himself in his work to forget all that he no longer had, which had lead to this current situation, where he was wearing an orange life jacket, holding on for dear life as the fishing ship he was on bobbed along the twenty meters tall waves. The captain, a sailor and a mechanic were doing their best to keep the boat afloat. The small crew had accepted Lucifer's crazy mission to follow a flock of mallards migrating from Canada to the United-States, mostly because he was loaded for some reason.
Amidst the high shrieks of the radio's static, the sailor, on watch duty, cried out: "There!" He was pointing to the Gulf Islands and the lake Borgne. "Maybe we can seek cover there and wait out the storm!" With a curt grunt of agreement, the captain, who was holding on tightly to the helm, changed the course towards them.
The closer they got to the shore of Grand Island, at the mouth of lake Borgne, the more they got away from the storm, but the sea became long and high ripples instead of the earlier sharp and crushing waves from earlier. Tensions eased within the wheelhouse as the ship's safety no longer seemed at risk. Sighing, half from relief, Lucifer sank deeply in a chair by the center console. "We lost the ducks." he said tiredly, throwing his head back, staring at the ceiling. Angry and amused, the captain asked "Them birds so important that wrecking is an afterthough?" Pinching his lips, the scientist mumbled "But we didn't even founder."
Still, the captain lowered the shipping vessel's speed as they approached the island. The water's surface still undulated in long lines around the ship.
All of the sudden, the fuzzy crackles on the radio became louder and clearer, making Lucifer jump in surprise. A man's voice, heavily filtered with interference, repeated the same words over and over again. "Alpha, Lima, Alpha, Sierra, Tango, Oscar, Romeo. Alpha, Lima, Alpha, Sierra, Tango, Oscar, Romeo. Alpha, Lima, Alpha, Sierra, Tango, Oscar, Romeo- "
The captain frowned, the sailor's eyes widened. All the while, Lucifer was a bit confused as to what was happening. "Is it a call for help?" he asked, trying his best guess after he just experienced a storm at sea. "No," the shipmaster dryly answered. "Don't touch the radio."
However, the seaman seemed a bit more eager to talk. Over the course of their mission, Lucifer had learned that this middle aged man was quite superstitious and would look up the legends and bad omens of the bodies of water he would travel on, which lead to... interesting conversations and odd habits. His hands shaking, his face ashen, the sailor shakily said "It's Alastor!"
"What?" The ornitologist was puzzled. Was that supposed to tell him what was happening? Was this common knowledge in the maritime world? Slightly crestfallen, Lucifer looked down at his hands, feeling inadequate. Annoyed, the old captain clicked his tongue at his son. "Don't believe this nonesense." Shaking his head vehemently, the seaman ignored his father and explained "It's a local legend! Almost a century ago, the people of New Orleans found a serial killer and linched him. Afterwards, they tossed his body in the waters of Lake Borgne! Since the man was a radio host, it's said that he keeps haunting the local waters through ships' radio equipment!"
While Lucifer seemed fascinated by the tale, the shipmaster snapped "It's just a story to keep children away from water! Don't be a fool!"
During their argument, they did not notice that the radio had gone silent. A deep, pleasant chuckle came from it, all three men in the wheelhouse's head whipped towards it. "That's not a very nice thing to say~" the male voice purred. "Would 'a children's story' warn you of the shallow rocky part you are heading towards?" Stunned, the captain paled, frozen stiff, before his radars' alarms went off, blaring in the navigation bridge. Jolting out of it, he rushed to his steering wheel and did evasive manoeuvres to dodge the reef.
Yet, by the minute, the sound of the alarms grew louder and sweat beaded on the captain's forehead, the sailor looking just as helpless as Lucifer. "What can I do!" he howled, but he wasn't given an answer. "FUUUUUUCK!!!!!" the shipmaster shouted. "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" He grabbed onto the phone at the console with both hands and called the mechanic in the engine room. "Jenny! Get the fuck out of there!" Then, he clenched his hands tightly on the guard rails that line the cockpit.
Lucifer, terrified, closed his eyes, praying, thinking of his poor little Charlie and his ex-wife Lilith, both of whom he loved very much.
A second passed, then another, yet there was no impact, not sound of rock tearing into metal, just the bewildered mechanic walking into the bridge. "Why the hell is the ship floating!?" Stumped, the three panicked men stopped begging the gods for their lives and exchanged looks, exiting the wheelhouse on shaky legs.
Just as Jenny said, the boat was no longer floating atop water. Intead, it was raised by several pitch black tentacles coming from the depths. Red eyes glowed beneath the surface and they narrowed mischievously when he saw his audience gathering on the side of the fishing vessel to watch the creature. The dark appendages brought the ship further away from the dangerous area and somewhat gently dropped it back in the lake. "What do you offer for your lives?" asked the entity through the radio. "Huhh..." The crew was no longer able to form complete sentences, utterly scared out of their wits.
Lucifer, as awkward and neurodivergent as ever, recovered faster than the others and returned the question. "Well... What... do you need?" he said, his voice going high pitched at the end. He wasn't sure if he was meant to look at the radio or at the thing beneath the boat. Making a pondering noise, the monster answered "Well, I'm fresh out of spices, so that would be nice! Chili flakes and cumin are so rare at sea!" Backing towards the galley, Lucifer raised both his thumbs up. "Yup, got it, boss... man? thing?"
As the short man stuffed a plastic bag with all the spice containers he could find, the sailor came into the kitchen, vibrating, both in excitment and in fear. "Did you see that!" he exclaimed, stars in his eyes. "A real cryptid! Right there! Oh! If i could take a picture, all my friends would be so jealous! And they would stop avoiding me!" Pausing, Lucifer turned to him. "Why don't you take a picture, then?" The captain's son raised his hand and showed the scientist his phone, or what was left of it. "It blew up when I tried. That's so unlucky!" Nodding, Lucifer agreed. " A weird coincidence for sure."
Then, the sailor peeked at the bag he was preparing and his face twisted. "You're giving him that?" Unsure what was wrong, the ornitologist tilted his head. "Well, it just seems like a bad joke," he explained, pointing to the single use white plastic bag. "Here, let me just-" he tore the offering from Lucifer's hands and went to the side to prepare it on his own.
Minutes later, he came to the main deck, holding his new and improved bounty in both hands. Theatrically, he kneeled and started a grand monologue. "Oh, Great Alastor, Master of the seas, please bestow upon this humble crew safe passage-" before he could go on any longer, a hand, easily the size of the ship, emerged from the water, stopping the sailor in his tracks. The hand and the arm attached to it were as dark as the tentacles, but the clawed fingers were bright red. It took the package from the guy's hand and pulled it into the water. The rug pulled from under his feet, the seaman stared dumbly at the spot where the hand retreated before he caught himself and started to blatter "It's an ecofriendly reusable bag with all the spices we have, plus a few pieces of meat as a token of our appreciation, Oh Great Alastor."
The radio once more sparked to life. "The animal product was unnecessary. I just needed spice to season the drowned men I'm cooking up. Lucky you my pantry is full, if I hadn't wrecked that ship with forty-some crew members, you'd have made a nice snack!" The middle-aged sailor grew green and he stumbled a few steps back, tripping on a capstan, falling on his ass.
On the other hand, Lucifer, who was close to the bow, saw the dark silhouette slip away into the depths. Stunned, he could barely move, barely think, holding his breath, his eyes still locked onto the spot where the monster had vanished.
Looks like he had a new special interest other than ducks...
