. . .
“There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead… and those who are at sea.”
–Aristotle
. . .
Raven had left his mother’s social media accounts alone for many personal reasons after she passed away six months ago. In his defense, everyone who knows Leigh Anne Song-Fall and especially everyone who matters in her life had been made aware that she was gone, after all.
On hindsight, maybe Raven really should have just deactivated her accounts… like any normal person would have done.
Yeah, maybe he really should have.
(But Raven kind of liked the idea of letting himself think whenever he sees her contact number, her account, her name and even her profile picture in his chat-box, with their old messages still intact that she was still somewhere out there, reachable, that his mom was still very much alive.
It was force of habit of his sending messages to her too.
For example:
‘Mom, I’m on my way home.’
‘Mom, I’m coming back late.’
‘Mom, happy birthday!’
…sometimes, it made him kind of sad and a little bit of bitter, the things he does to regain some sort of semblance of normalcy in his life.
Sometimes, it made him feel kind of pathetic.)
However, after finding a dead end on his one true lead, on that ‘Blessing’ (whoever they are)–he suspected that person had either changed numbers or… or something–he thought it wouldn’t hurt to check his mother’s laptop now, just to be sure.
It’s not like the thing was actually off-limits to him even when his mom had been alive. Mom barely even uses it since she has her own computer at work!
Thankfully, her password still remains the same: his and his father’s first names (ravenray). No space, no caption… how on earth his mother’s accounts still has never been hacked with such a ridiculously easy password, considering that this was her password for all of her other accounts as well even after all this time, Raven seriously had no idea.
It was actually kind of unfair since his account had been hacked once but oh well. It makes things easier for him at the very least.
So really, who was he to complain?
Sighing noisily, Raven resolved that his impromptu idea of cleaning the house could probably wait for another time. He’s in Detective mode right now–
“Chunky, WHAT THE HELL!” he groaned, glaring at the back of the cat’s furry head (for real, why does cats always think it’s a good idea to jump in front of the keyboard?!), “Look, I’m trying to do some serious work here. So could you please move your butt–I can’t see a damn thing!”
The cat meowed too loudly in indignation when Raven picked it up by the scruff of the neck without a warning and proceeded to dump the fur-ball somewhere… behind him.
And with that out of the way…
Cracking his knuckles in anticipation, Raven hurriedly leaned closer to the screen as he hurriedly browsed through any strange messages on his mother’s emails, the too-brightness of the laptop made his eyes hurt a bit for a few seconds, but he didn’t really want to risk his cat dumping itself right in front of the keyboard again.
(Raven knew he was intruding here.
This could be borderline stupidity too.
…Because really, what he was hoping to gain?
Some sort of closure? Answers to questions Raven thinks he was better off left ignorant? Because come to think of it… surely his mother had a perfectly good reason why she had thought it was a good idea to leave her son in the dark about this one even though Raven would have been too happy to help back then and even until now…)
Unsurprisingly enough, most of the emails are for work. Or the occasional times Raven had to use her email for forwarding some messages for school-related matters, nothing promising.
Blah, blah, blah–
…to be honest, it was all rather boring.
But when Raven had the brilliant idea of trying to type the word ‘sea’ on the search bar, he realized he may be finally on to something. His sanity and guilt could catch up to him later.
The same goes for Chunky’s meal.
…No, seriously, the cat needs the diet.
It’s for Chunky’s own good.
…Greater good, really.
As if reading his mind, Chunky suddenly bit at his foot.
Jolting, Raven yelped, “Will you please KNOCK IT OFF?!”
Embarrassingly enough, it had cost him a few more precious minutes but once Raven managed to successfully pry the stupid thing off of him (and was sure as hell it wouldn’t try to give him anymore love bites all over again because to be fair, while his cat was seriously cute, Chunky’s teeth seriously kind of hurt), and when he turned his attention to the screen again, Raven noted that there was a particular email which had been sent a few years back… way before the shitty pandemic happened.
And much to his surprise, Raven was quick to realize that his mother had actually been the first to reach out to… to one Ms. Casey Liu.
Okay.
Okay, this is really, really awkward.
Who is this person again?
Raven doesn’t… he didn’t know any Casey Liu.
…Maybe she’s one of his mom’s friends?
But if she was, then why didn’t he even saw her in his mom’s funeral? All of her friends, some were even old schoolmates from New York and Beijing even came to say their goodbyes.
And the name doesn’t sound familiar too.
His mouse’s cursor hovered over it, reluctantly.
Biting at his lip, Raven tried to mull what he was to do again, but for the life of him, the feeling of something… something wrong, was nagging at him, like he was missing something again…
Raven had a strange, nagging feeling that the clues were already all over him now, that it was already in his hands, just staring right at his face but he still couldn’t make heads or tails of the answer. And he seriously felt like an idiot.
His mom used to tell him: “Look at the bigger picture.”
Look at the bigger picture, huh…
But…
…But how?
How can he look at the bigger picture if he doesn’t even have a single clue what the hell he was supposed to be looking at?
Ugh.
Something’s seriously not adding up here…
Mentally apologizing to his mom, Raven opened the email.
. . .
To: Leigh Anne Song-Fall
From: Casey Liu
Subject: PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY
Dear Mrs. Fall:
Thank you for reaching out to me ASAP.
I really, really needed someone to believe me now more than ever without thinking I’m a Looney Tune. I’ve read your message and I think you are right.
…I think it’s the same thing.
You know, I once believed my teacher when he told us during class that “it is often said to be that the Earth has been already mapped thanks to modern technology”… but I do know for a fact that this is not true, not anymore.
Not after what I’ve seen.
Not after what I’ve found out.
These are the things I know to be true:
My boyfriend’s death wasn’t an accident. He didn’t simply ‘drown’–I know this because Harold had been swimming as early as he had known how to walk.
He was the greatest swimmer in our school too. He had loved the sea and what did it do? It took him from me, from what his life could have been… and while the others may not believe me, might think that this is the grief or desperation talking for answers, for closure but I know I’m right.
There’s a pattern here. And I have compiled many news articles and watched actual footages (please see attachments below) when I realized that my gut feeling is correct, that something sinister is happening in Mariana Islands.
I know that this isn’t just carelessness or a horrible straw of luck on the victims’ part speaking. We’re talking about people who had experience in swimming/diving here, after all!
So something bad must have really happened!
I wouldn’t have made an effort to go through all of this if I hadn’t had proof, after all. And so it happens that a few days after we have laid Harold to rest, his parents decided to give me his underwater camera, citing that he would have wanted me to have it, one last gift from my first love.
Anyway, while I was looking through the pictures, you wouldn’t believe what I found (see attachments below).
Those pictures were my boyfriend’s most recent.
It was blurry, more so since the light underwater was naturally horrible but can you make out those fishy figures too–or that strange, bluish glow coming from the distance?
…Their hands are webbed.
And they looked like they’re dragging him down.
Please, please tell me I’m not just thinking this up.
. . .
A Tragedy in Saipan
By: Happy Balmores
‘On February 3, 2018, a group of local teenagers went on a trip to the infamous diving site of Saipan to celebrate for their upcoming graduation. The teenagers have been identified as: Luke Martinez (age 16), Casey Liu (age 17) Harold Wei (age 17), and Faye Gonzaga (age 17). They were students of the same local school.
According to their report to the authorities, they claimed to have taken turns diving from a nearby cliff into the sea. However, what was supposedly a fun celebration soon turned into a nightmare they would never forget when Harold Wei had taken his turn on the jump. His friends had been cheering him on but soon realized something had gone horribly wrong when he failed to resurface immediately. They had tried calling for him but received no response so Luke Martinez (age 16) had wasted no time and dived after his friend and even tried searching for Harold Wei in the water himself but was sadly unable to locate him and had no choice but to resurface in order to inform his distraught friends that Harold Wei has somehow gone missing.
Ten minutes hadn’t even passed since Luke Martinez resurfaced when the victim’s girlfriend, Casey Liu, tearfully called for the authorities to report the incident immediately.
A team of rescue workers responded to the call immediately and as soon as possible, they had arrived on the scene. It has been reported by several concerned eyewitness on the area that the search had taken almost half a day… only for them to recover nothing but the boy’s mutilated body out of the sea with his camera sustaining some minor damages but was said to have been workable still.
It was assumed that Harold Wei must have struck something hard while he was diving down on the cliff due to several injuries (according to the official autopsy report, the victim has deep scratches marked all over his chest, he also sustained a broken leg and a horrible injury on the back of his head) which was believed to have caused him to fall unconscious until he was swept by the waves until he drowned.
17 years old Harold Wei is the seventh drowning victim at Lau Lau Bay and the tenth on Saipan this year. Two other tourists had been swept by the waves just recently… but even until now, they could not be located.
. . .
When Panic Strikes Underwater
By: Liza Dela Cruz
One of the nine diving students accompanied by their instructor suffered from a sudden bout of panic attack and nearly drowned at Lau Lau Bay Dive Spot on the first day of February.
The authorities responded as soon as possible at one of the students’ distress call per their instructor’s orders and upon their arrival at the beach, they have found the aforementioned diving instructor (who was later on identified as Earl Shang, age 28) performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on his unresponsive student–identified as a college student named Eloisa Wong, age 19.
Further investigation reveals that around 10 in the morning, the diving instructor from the nearby local university had arrived at the beach with nine of his students from their school’s diving club for an upcoming competition, including the victim.
And somewhere around 11 am, after settling down, the group had begun with their dive. However, while they were about to return to the surface, the victim suddenly had a panic attack and much to the horror of her classmates, began moving and acting erratically before she suddenly removed the regulator from her mouth.
Earl Shang had hurriedly placed the regulator back in the victim’s mouth and had signaled for her to breathe slowly and try to calm down to no avail.
(Several of the students would later claim that their classmate had been trying to signal or seemed to be warning them about ‘something big was coming to attack them’ but when interviewed about this further, all of the students, including the instructor, claimed to have seen nothing that could have triggered such an intense panic attack. But what they did know is that, whatever Eloisa could have seen… she looked so afraid.
No signs of foul play was seen or suspected.)
While still trying to calm his student down, the group uneasily returned to the surface with the victim being guided by the instructor and one of her classmates, still suffering from the throes of her panic attack.
Once the group has safely returned to the shore, the victim had hurriedly removed her regulator and was noted to be still breathing heavily.
The instructor tearfully claimed during the interview that he swear he had tried his best to get his student to calm down because he realized that she was on the verge of hyperventilating. Then, she suddenly vomited before passing out. At that time, Earl Shang recalled that his student’s body had become rather stiff and her lips immediately turned blue, prompting him to apply CPR after instructing some of his students to call for the rescue team.
The instructor had continued to apply CPR on his student even though he was aware that her pulse was rapidly fading on him until the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, as well as emergency medical technicians had arrived at the scene.
The medics transported the victim to the nearest hospital’s emergency room where young Eloisa Wong was pronounced dead on arrival at 12:07.
. . .
There was another email.
. . .
To: Leigh Anne Song-Fall
From: Casey Liu
Re: PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY
Subject: EVERY MONTH
Good evening, Mrs. Fall!
I’m so sorry it had taken me so long to answer to your emails. Don’t worry, I’m alive! I’ve just been busy gathering information, you see. I promise I’ll send them to you right away, as soon as possible, I promise!
This is also some of the news articles I’ve managed to compile; I’ve copy pasted the headlines but you can still find the whole story on the provided links below, some of the videos can be even found on the web!
Can you see the pattern as well, Mrs. Fall? It’s like every month; the sea always, always takes something.
Last January 29, a professional diver from Italy had reportedly drowned while swimming around Managaha Island. Reports declared that he had sustained a broken ankle which was the most likely cause of his death.
The cause of such injury was unknown.
On March 6, a 44-years-old Filipino businesswoman reportedly drowned at the Grotto Dive Site in Marpi when she suddenly slipped on one of the rocks and fell straight into the water while she was about to scuba dive along with some of her business associates, one who was even a diving instructor.
No signs of foul play was seen or suspected.
On April 9, a 28-year-old American male tourist drowned while he was swimming and exploring around Lau Lau Bay. His body had been retrieved and identified a day later.
On May 13, a Chinese tourist drowned while his wife (who was last seen to be calling and crying for help while she was still on the water) was swept by the waves and could not be found at Forbidden Island where they believed she had been washed ashore. It had taken several groups of search and rescue teams backed up by a Navy helicopter. The authorities later on managed to retrieve a severed hand which her son identified to be her’s due to the wedding ring its finger still possesses. However, they have failed to locate the rest of her body.
. . .
Raven nearly jumped out of his skin when the laptop suddenly shut down, the too bright screen turning into a startling black. And somewhere behind him, he can hear his cat hissing loudly.
What the–