The Testimony of Jacob Cohen – Log 2
A terrifying voyage through the lonely Southern Ocean
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The Testimony of Jacob Cohen is a cosmic horror story about an archeologist on an Antarctic expedition who discovers a mysterious ziggurat that hides terrifying secrets from a forgotten past.
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Log 2
Near the Entrance of the Ziggurat
During my most recent slumber, I dreamed of great mountains covered by many-colored plants and gigantic glowing fungi unlike any that appear on Earth. Between thick clouds, the sky was lit by foreign stars and strange constellations which danced like performers on a cosmic stage. Deep in a valley, a dark ziggurat rose out of a lush forest and towered above the surrounding trees. Most peculiar of all, the same dreadful voice that has haunted all my recent dreams continued to rumble across the land in its eerie, primordial language.
Now, since I have some time, I will briefly chronicle my identity and the events that brought me to this place. My name is Jacob Cohen. I am an archeologist on an expedition to the South Pole with a little more than two dozen brave explorers under the leadership of renowned adventurer Olufemi Adebayo. We set out many months ago from England upon a three-masted barquentine named Perseverance with a crew of hardy sailors, seasoned survivalists, and expert scientists to explore the Southern Continent and record our findings. The Perseverance was laden with several dozen snow dogs, a fleet of sleds, multiple lifeboats, and enough supplies to last several years on the ice.
After many months of sailing, we entered the dark and frigid Antarctic waters, where the days stretched long in the polar summer and our sense of isolation became total. For weeks, we saw nothing but black ocean. The consuming loneliness felt especially overpowering when, one day, we were caught unexpectedly by a tremendous storm. Thick black clouds covered up the summer sun, and our great ship felt to many of us like a fragile raft as it was tossed about by waves as tall as buildings. At certain moments during the tempest, the ominous roar of the wind changed to a heart-chilling shriek as it blew through our ropes and nets. Worst of all, the temperature plummeted to an almost unbelievable coldness that alone could have stolen away our lives if not for our many layers of furs and waterproofed outer shells. When we finally saw the sun again, we had a great celebration with some of the brandy and sweet Madeira we had brought with us, for it felt nothing short of a miracle that we had survived.
Soon after our warm-hearted celebration, however, events turned singularly strange. First, certain members of the crew began to report sightings of eerie luminescent apparitions in the distance. These sightings continued for many days, and the glowing red mysteries drew steadily closer, until finally, one of our biologists saw with a spyglass that the figures seemed to be breaching sperm whales. This was odd, she explained, for two reasons, one being that the whales are not known to breach with any great frequency, and the other being that they have never previously been observed to glow. The next day, the creatures began to make their appearance near enough for us to perceive their unique features with the naked eye.
Closer examination revealed the source of the strange sanguine glow. Devika, with her biological expertise, pointed out an unusual fungus that grew along the whales’ heads and backs, presenting simultaneously the characteristics of a mushroom and a moss, with long strands connecting the fruiting bodies in a network that appeared to not only glow but also to pulse. She noted that the fungus seemed parasitic in nature, having somehow developed a symbiosis with the whales, but without producing a deadly effect. Unbeknownst to us, this would be our final peaceful encounter with the glowing beasts.
It was at this point that we started to encounter a notable increase in floating sea ice, and we had to slow our advance. The drifting blocks were not yet large enough to pose a major threat, as long as we maintained an easy pace. As we meandered slowly across a field of small and medium icebergs, the strange whales ceased their appearances for a stretch of several days. Shortly after, however, the creatures revealed to us their darker natures.
One evening under a bright summer sky, while our ship crept slowly between many masses of ice, we felt a collision from below that woke many of us with a start. Soon, there was another, and then another. After it happened several times, someone shouted that one of the whales had begun to circle the Perseverance. Our captain summoned all hands to the deck, and Adebayo coordinated the arming of harpoons. Soon, the creature charged our ship. As the monster drew near, Adebayo and his men launched their harpoons, and their sharp points struck soundly home, whereafter the beast dived into the abyss, leaving a luminescent cloud of blood in the waves behind it.
For many tense minutes, the whale charged us repeatedly, and several times, the men met it with a volley of harpoons. Every impact from the creature made the Perseverance rock fiercely, and a shriek of splintering timber split the air, but her reinforced oaken exterior managed to hold against the ramming. To our surprise and great relief, the charging monster gave up the fight after only a few strikes. We considered ourselves lucky, for we had brought with us only a small number of harpoons. From then on, we set our course through denser patches of ice, hoping they might provide some protection from the glowing beasts.
For the next few weeks, we drifted undisturbed through the sea ice. The blocks grew steadily in size, and some of them moved with shocking speed in the circumpolar current. Soon, it was common for us to see not only mere icebergs but also colossal mountains of ice as large as cities that threatened to crush us if we dared to cross their path. The gleaming white ice contrasted sharply with the black abyss of the Antarctic sea, creating a hauntingly beautiful scene. Yet, even the picturesque views could not make us forget about what dangers we might still face in the coming days, for not only was an attack possible at any moment, but it would only be a matter of time before another massive storm turned the ice field into a chaotic maelstrom of bright white fury.
After a long time of drifting, we found a stretch of sea where the ice was briefly thinner. Here, the luminous beasts returned in force. Fighting them off with our limited harpoons was impossible, so we instead chose to flee. We were fortunate that the wind was favorable, and we advanced at full speed through the stretch of clear sea. While some of the whales were able to impact the Perseverance with glancing blows, our swiftness prevented them from surrounding us or coordinating a unified charge.
On all sides, the glowing creatures stirred the black waters with their powerful tails, and their blowholes shot seawater high into the air like frigid geysers. Their partial impacts against the ship were terrifyingly loud, and due to the beasts’ proximity, we could even hear clicks and vocalizations which seemed to serve as communication between them. Worst of all, amidst such density of the creatures, we began to perceive an oppressive smell in the air of rotting fish and toxic chemicals.
The pursuit was wild, but brief. However, for our haste, we ended up paying a steep price. At our great speed, we sacrificed our maneuverability, even as our chase lead us toward more ice. While we managed to escape the pursuing titans by seeking shelter in the pack ice, we soon realized that we had a different problem: we had become trapped and surrounded by an ice floe. At first, we welcomed the challenge, for it was a less immediate threat than a hunting party of devilish sea monsters. Within a few days, though, we realized that our dilemma was more severe than we had initially believed.
We took to waiting with great patience, for there was not much else we could do. For several months, we lived up to the name of our great ship Perseverance, attempting many different methods to free her from the ice. Only Adebayo’s leadership kept us calm in these early days, as fierce Antarctic storms battered our arrested vessel and the frigid conditions sapped our strength and morale.
In time, we realized that the ice had not merely stopped us, but that it was slowly crushing the ship. We made the difficult choice to evacuate the vessel and set up camp on the ice floe, and perhaps a month later, the Perseverance met her doom as, with a tremendous rumble and a screech of failing timbers, the ice finally breached her hull. While we salvaged what we could as she sank, her descent was too rapid for us to save much; we are lucky that we had already moved most of our essential provisions and equipment off the ship and onto the ice before she was pulled into the inky abyss.
There is, of course, more to explain, but I must again depart from my notes, for we are forming a party to search once more for an exit from this dark ziggurat. Based on our findings from yesterday, I am not sure what I fear more in this place, wakefulness or dreams, for both manage to bring revelations that chill my soul. I shall record our findings when we settle after further exploration.
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