Day 228

The aquarium's latest exhibit was only open from 11pm to 2am.
You had to buy a ticket to get through the new vault-esque doors and into the area which was
strange as the rest of the aquarium was free.
Quite a few people had been through the new exhibit but none of them would talk about it.

I wouldn't be talking about it either but I got a ticket in the post.
I vaguely remember trying to order one a few weeks ago but I swear didn't go through...
The date was coincidently one of my off days so I made the travel arrangements and eagerly waited.

Everything seemed fine beforehand but I did get a weird email, it just said "what you are in for" with
a photo attachment that my computer blocked.
I deleted it without thinking, in hindsight I'm grateful that someone out there is trying to warn us all.

Still, the day came and nothing unusual happened, nothing to put me off.
By the time I got there I was about ten minutes early, the queue was shorter than I expected.
There were only five of us, I reckoned any others would be fashionably late.

We got let in early which was nice, everything else inside was shut down and the lights were all dim.
The fish looked bigger at night, their movements eerily reflecting on the floor and ceiling.
Our guide was a large older man who looked very nervous but then again, the atmosphere was tense.

He stammered out an introduction to the exhibit which was only titled "Tiefer als der Tod" which, he
haltingly explained meant 'deeper than death' approximately.
I understood why as we entered, the whole place was freezing cold, the only light at first was from
small luminescent fish that derted to and fro on either side of the corridor and overhead as I realised
we were in a glass tunnel.

We wandered through this for what seemed like an eternity, almost hypnotised by the tiny lights and
faint rhythmic music that was so familiar.
The tunnel suddenly opened into a wide room with a huge tank that swept round every wall.
It was too dark to get much detail but it looked like there were statues inside covered in... kelp maybe?

The guide stopped us here, sweat pouring from his every pore and told us that one person had to stay
behind, we had to decide amongst ourselves within five minutes or one would be chosen for us.
We thought it was a joke until we saw an enormous black shape glide into view in front of us.

Its' eyes glowed iridescent in the low light as did the markings on its face and sides.
From what I could see then it was some kind of deep sea eel, its' mouth never closed.
We were all a little worried at this point and began to argue as to who would stay.

We didn't decide in time apparently as the eel-like creature grew too impatient.
How could we have not noticed that the tank had an open top?
It lept out just enough to grab the guide with what looked almost like arms, it was too dark to tell then.

He didn't scream for long but he did set off some kind of alarm which turned on bright fluorescent
ceiling lights that flooded the room and drove the creature back.

Now that we could clearly see it definitely had arms - three pairs - all webbed and a long eel-like tail.
Its' skin was pitch black and it snarled at us before retreating with the guide's lifeless body.

Looking around the room, what I assumed to be statues were all people, torn and half eaten in the
greenish water, all tied with strips of their own flesh.

They floated almost peacefully.

We all ran out of the room followed by a loud wet thump and growling hiss from behind us.
Thank god the exit door was unlocked - we made sure to barricade it with chairs from the café.

As we all left we swore to tell the world what we saw when the exhibit closed down.

The exhibit closed last week but it's far from over.

Rumour has it something big is in a local lake.

And it is hungry.