Atlas log 3

The smell of fuel.
 Boat fuel..
 It pollutes my nose, in a curiously satisfying way.  What's more, it comes carrying people and food. An odd vibration coming out of this one, and I recognize the passengers.. the old man and his eldest child.

Strange though, it's so very early, and already they're trailing their prey... I can't tell anything from the taste of the blood in the water. It makes no sense, when these people catch their food it doesn't bleed out as much as these fish are.
And this blood isn't fresh either. What would Ogos say?

Time to get close up, without being seen.

Lots of blood in the water.. old blood, but still sweet. Almost satisfying, it's pulling me in for more and more and more...

Oh fuck.

It seems as though I've been caught.

Ogopogo!

Help!

Atlas blog 01

Lots of things in my head today. The inability to put together my own existence...
The knowledge that if I don't the rest of the world will suffer..

Ogopogo is aloof.
He has no care for the things that are important to me. He has no idea of how his actions affect the world that I want to exist in.
It's time for me to leave.
But I know in my heart, that I can't leave him yet. There are still lessons that I have to learn. Actions that will preserve myself that only the Ogos can teach me.

But if I don't go soon..  I will destroy him


Powerful or not. He knows.



I'm a force he can't control

Atlas log 2

My mind is growing

There are thoughts that I can't control...
The people, the girl... Mads...

Hate and care blend together in a sort of double edged tooth. Neither will win, they'll both just eat each other until one of them caves into the other.

And the worst part is,  I don't know which one I'd rather side with.

And that's why it's time to go.

Ogos doesn't understand. How could he? He hasn't eaten a human in ions. His disconnection from their world is synonymous with his incomprehension towards mine.

My  father... my  real father...
That's my first target.

If I find him, maybe i'll understand just what it is that I am

Chapter II: ATLAS

Geese.
Tons of tasty geese.

Just hangin' out on a lake, no care for the fishes.

Nor fear of the fishes.


Until something sharp points out of the lake, and doom slips on in.

But something catches its attention, something he's smelled before, but never so freshly...
Blood.

More to the point, dogs blood.


He swims up to the side of the lake, and circles the scent.

Not sure of what kind of creature it is, Atlas swims behind some brush and takes a hunting observation.
Some kind of bird?  No.
One of the 'people' the Ogopogo talked so much about, maybe?

No...
 Atlas turned it over in his mind,

They were supposed to look more like me, he concluded.

Whatever it is, it's irresistible.  And with one injured leg,
 it's basically dinner.

In a clumsy jump, he propels himself from the water and onto the injured mut, sinking his teeth quickly around the leg, taking it all with him.  The dog begins to yelp, while Atlas can only smell blood.
Unaware of the deep set instincts in his genetic makeup, he can only think to devour the rest of the writhing animal.
With eyes bigger than his stomach, Atlas unhinges his jaw and pounces upon the head of the dog, taking the head in one clean bite.

But Atlas is still small.  Not much bigger than the terrier, he fills quickly, and finds himself bloated before his meal is finished.

Then another sound, a strange one.
Two of them.

Atlas, bloated and stuffed, flops back into the lake and swims into cover to watch the two creatures, slightly taller than Atlas himself, wail and cry over the scraps of his dinner.

But out of the corner of its eye, one of these  two legged people creatures notices Atlas' fin, and they scream, turn tail, and run.


After several minutes pass Atlas returns to the leftover carcass and takes it with him, back to his lair, to show his guardian.

Salvation

Osmond hadn't seen his wife in what seemed like weeks.
He couldn't even be sure how long he'd been in captivity ~ his whole world had turned upside down since the birth of Atlas.
His son - his beautiful monstrous shark of a son...
Osmond's spirit began to harden.  He'd never allow himself to break, for the sake of his son.


It was during this reverie that he heard movement outside his door.
He remained silent.
He watched the shadows of feet by his door move away, then return.  They remained there for a while, silent.
He wondered, would this be the time when his spirit would be tested?
His door handle turned.


He faintly picked up the scent of his wife.
He suddenly stood up, as a casually dressed man entered his room and offered a gloved hand.
"Mr. Mano?" he said as more of a statement than a question.
"We've come to help you."

"Jesus" Osmond gasped.

"No, not this time."

Stunned by the response to his remark, Osmond froze for a moment.

"We have your wife already.  Please come with us..."

Osmond remained frozen, unsettled by these men.

"Or.. you could stay here?"  Suggested the gloved man.

That woke Osmond up.  He took the mans hand, shook it, and tried to let go, but the man kept holding on.  He escorted Osmond through the unlit church, holding his hand all the while, like a parent guiding a child.

As they walked, Osmonds eyes (at this point quite adapt to the darkness) picked up the jerking movements of bodies strewn across the church.

Priests.
Parishoners.
His captors ~ now clinging to life on the ground.

"Are they dying?" he quietly asked.

"Not soon enough."  was the only response that he got.


They exited the church, where they stepped into a hybrid subaru - in which Ariel already sat.
The two held each other, and exchanged silent tears ~ joy and pain synonymously expressed.

As they did so, the vehicle seamlessly pulled away from the church
drove down the highway
and pulled up to the farm.
Where they got out
and were kindly escorted into the next set of trials.

Deep in the ground
where the devils work is done.

Visions of the Sea

Charles had watched Dr. Grant quickly move away from him, pushed by a great force.

One that he knew.  

Megaladon.

Charles removed his mouth piece, and exhaled.  The hammerheads around him began to circle quicker, but not by choice... by the force of something giant in the deep.

Not the force that pushed Dr. Grant away, a much larger, much older power pulled him in.

The sea lords were going through the ritual of old.  To consult the madness, they created a virtual black hole in the deep.  Controlled chaos.

He couldn't fight it.  Nor would he have wanted to.  His only anxiety was how his brother in law was going to react. 

Thaddeus Grant wasn't about to just tuck his tail and run.

And Charles knew exactly who was going to be keeping the good doctor company.

But there was no point fretting over things out of his control.

Concentrate on the problem at hand.

He came up to the sea lords, chanting their mystic lament, seeking guidance from the universe, from the madness which spawned them.

He was offered no greeting, his invite only to sit in. 

No new practice to him, Charles slipped into the speechless telepathy invoked by the ritual.

The black hole below him opened to reveal stars, being swallowed by it.

The galaxy we inhabit circled it vigorously, being torn apart, bit by bit, star by star.

Vividly magnifying, a thick bolt of light shone out from our solar system, piercing the black hole, inverting it, causing it to push the stars and galaxies away from it, stretching time and space.

The sea lords continued to chant, but the controlled chaos they had been able to harness shrunk into nothingness, but for a grain of heavy sand, which Megaldon quickly snatched.

And as he did, Charles felt the tables of fate turn.  A heavier gravity than the black hole itself, something only his connection with the madness allowed him to perceive.  

Unsure of what he was even being told, he could only stare into the gaping maw of the gigantic shark, but not seeing Megaladon at all.  

But what he did see was definitely a shark.

...

And he forced himself to hide not just his smile, but his thoughts as well.

Because he could see the light.

And it was monstrous.

The Beast

Warmth, blessed warmth.
Doctor Grant removed his helmet and breathed deep the sea.

His host passed him a drink.

He knocked it back vigorously, producing a smile from the young man.

"So tell me doctor, what possessed you to venture this far into the unknown? "

"That would be destiny, I believe."

"Ha!  And I suppose destiny is why I can smell my blood in you?"

"Indeed."

"But that's all my fathers intuition, now isn't it?"

"Your father?"

"Yes.  He's with the Don now.  But we'll see him soon enough."

The Don...
How in the hell had Dr. Grant found himself in such terrible company?  Even though he was acutely aware that the young man in front of him was basically the harbinger of the end of the world, he found it difficult to not feel relaxed and welcome.
He kept reminding himself that he wasn't dreaming.
Unless, he was already dead, and this was only a dream of the madness?
But regardless, breathing in the sea, drinking under water... truly this was madness, no matter what way you cut it.