BAIT

BAIT.

Fishing  on open sea is a sport that demands physical and mental strength. Fish like the Atlantic blue marlin are combative adversaries who test the fisherman resolution. Usually no one go fish alone in open sea, but there are exceptions, men who find the small talk a nuisance and an obstacle to the success.

One time a man went after the blue marlin, taking with him nothing more than a radio and some food for the day. He expected to return before night with time to spare, and the weather as firm like predicted.

What truly happened that day Is unknown, but close to the 11:00  AM, the lone fisher called on the radio and excited he spoke to his friends on land:

“I think I got a big one! This bastard is putting quite a fight here! Tell everyone I may get home a little late!”

*

The friends tried to reply making jokes, but the radio was mute again. Nothing unusual, he was probably to busy with his catch.

His second call, at 13:00, was less friendly:

“That SON OF A BITCH ate almost half of my bait and keep making fun of me! The bastard even smiled at me, mocking me!”

*

This time his friends were a little concerned, but when a fish escape to many times, you curse at him like it was a person. He was probably having a hard time and decided to blow off some steam. They tried to talk to him, but once again, he didn’t reply.

At  18:00 they all were concerned. The fisherman was indeed stubborn, but he was cautious enough to not stay at the sea alone at night, in a small boat.

They tried contact him relentlessly, and when they were about to call the coast guard, at 19:30, he responded. His voice was twisted by anger.

“stop annoying me at the radio! Wasn’t enough that damn fish mocking me and singing all the time, I still have to deal with you? Dammit, I have more important things to think, the bastard stole all my bait, even the lunch I brought!”

And he disconnected. Some say they listened something like a laugh in the back at the end of the transmission.

*

At that point everyone agreed to call coast guard and ask for help. The coast guard responded quickly, but even using all of it’s resources, wasn’t able to find the boat.

His family was in despair, and his friends were arranging search teams among the other fishermen when, at 02:00, he called again:

“he, I think I got it now…I solved the bait problem, and he is begging for it…can you hear? he love it so much that the bastard is BEGGING for more!”

The voice was weak, and at the back an acute low voice, like finger nails on a chalk board, clearly asked: “gimme more of it! Is delicious!”

*

They urged him to give his GPS coordinates, but the radio was silent again. Now everyone was scared. He was confuse… and maybe not alone? nobody could actually say why that strange voice sounded like a bad omen, but it drained the blood of everyone on the room.

Even scared the men decided to go looking for the lost man, and joined the coast guard.

It’s something most people don’t know, but when the weather is fine, the coast guard can pin-point every ship in hundreds of miles, but still, they didn’t found the boat until the next morning.

*

The first to find the boat was a small group of fishermen, who was part of the rescue parties. What they saw inside the boat scared them so much that they couldn’t even talk about it on the radio. Soon, the coast guard rushed in the location with other fishers on it’s tail, and what they found was cryptic and macabre.

The fisherman was laying on the floor, in a pool of his own blood. In one hand a bright fishing hook piercing a huge chunk of his on flesh, just under his knee. In the other hand, the sharp fishing knife, stop in the midway of cutting that chunk of flesh. The man was cutting pieces of his own leg to use as bait. For the wounds and the tourniquet he put above it they could guess he had cut off at least 1/3 of the flesh of his leg before fainting and dying from the bleeding.

*

No sign of other man was found of the boat, and there was no other source of sound who could explain the begging acute voice. The man wasn’t drunk, or drugged, so most people adopted the idea that the hot sun made him insane, a warning to all.

But that was not the end.

The family never sailed again, and the boat stayed on the harbor for almost a year before someone bought it. The buyer was a young man, who wants to sail around with his friends.

After spending a night at the sea with his friends, he returned to the harbor. He and his friends were all scared and look sleepless.

A man from the harbor come to them and worried asked what was wrong, if they need help.

The young man responded putting the keys to the boat on the hands of the harbor man and said:

“something followed the ship all the night, it won’t stop screaming, like a child, it kept  asking for more, it keep repeating that he need more of the delicious bait!”