A Hunt On Bogginghill Lake


Lila, I decided to pay a visit to the lake. And no, I don't need any help. I'll see you in a bit.

~ Joseph


Sitting in his old, rusty fishing boat, Joseph Acosta carefully pushed himself away from the unstable wooden docks and— after a bit of paddling— he found himself in the middle of the foggy lake. The shining moon pierced through the haze as he chucked a seaweed-covered anchor into the water.

He patiently waited, listening to the occasional croaking of frogs and chirping of crickets as he stared into the dark, holding his breath. "Come on, come on…"

Suddenly, a sparkle caught his eye. From the corner of the boat he grabbed an old, wooden spear and quickly stabbed it forward, pulling it back to reveal a golden, glimmering fish, which squirmed for a moment before lying motionless. Joshua tore it off the spear, gushing its red, slightly luminescent blood onto the boat, which began to glow even brighter under the moonlight. He threw the glowing corpse further out into the lake, watching as it slowly sunk down.

He waited a bit more, setting down his spear, grabbing his good old steel harpoon instead. Despite being one of the most important parts of hunting, he could never get used to the still, quiet focus necessary to—

The red light disappeared, replaced by a much larger illuminated bulb. Joseph smirked and took aim with his harpoon, watching the bulb as it slowly moved under the water, getting closer. He sent the harpoon propelling straight into the beast, which began to flail, sending waves crashing into the boat.

With one hand holding onto the harpoon's rope and the other on the side of the boat, Joseph could barely keep balance. Suddenly, the beast flung itself into the air, revealing itself to be a gigantic anglerfish-like creature with the harpoon piercing the glowing bulb on its head.

"Bullseye!" Joseph shouted, tearing the harpoon out of the beast as it crashed back into the water, sending another red-tinted wave crashing into the boat.

He stumbled, watching as it swam circles around the boat, leaving a bloody trail in its wake. Hurling the now chipped harpoon into the beast once more, he fell and plunged into the bloodied depths below. He gripped the rope tightly as the anglerfish darted through the water, pulling him along.

Holding his breath, he felt the anglerfish slam into the shore before turning around. However, before he could be pulled into deeper water, he stuck his feet downwards, embedding them in the mucky lake bed. His muscles strained as the beast tugged at the rope for a moment before turning around heading straight for him with a wide opened mouth, its serrated teeth ready to bite into his flesh.

Right when it was about to chomp down, another harpoon was shot into it from above, piercing straight through its head. It wriggled, writhed, and then— a few seconds later— it died, finally laying motionless. Joseph swam upwards, taking a gulp of fresh air before turning around, seeing Lila sitting on the shore with a harpoon gun.

"Come on, you didn't even bring the gun?" She scoffed, "you're so cocky sometimes…"

"Thanks for savin' me, Lila." Joseph muttered, wading over to her as she pulled at the chain of the gun, heaving the beast out of the lake.

"Jesus," she grunted. "This thing's big… how'd you even find it?"

"Used one of those glowfish as bait. I think their blood attracts 'em."

"Hmph. We'll have to put that down in the file."

"Yep."

"Hey…" She groaned again as she pulled the carcass onto the shore. "Go grab the truck, let's get this thing home."


02/20/21

Just got back from our sixth visit to Bogginghill Lake. We finally managed to kill that anglerfish we were assigned to. I decided to do a little dissection. Ended up finding a few things out:

Most obviously, normal anglerfish live in the deep sea, in saltwater, but this one somehow evolved to live in freshwater. Tried to figure out how, but no luck there.

Its stomach is very unnatural. There are a few branching pathways inside of it, and one goes up to its little bait-bulb. Turns out that it hunts those glowfish because their blood is the source of its light. It also has stomach acid that can burn straight through metal, but not plastic. Kind of strange, but interesting. Joseph found out that it tastes very good, and that even its stomach acid is safe to drink. Said it was tangy, like orange juice or something like that. Hopefully he doesn't die.

As far as I can tell, its got no reproductive system. Normal anglerfish are actually all female, but this one has no ovaries, no anything… I was hoping I could save one of these guys for my personal aquarium project, but it looks like that's not gonna happen…

I can't help but think that we drove this thing's species to extinction. I mean, I get that we hunt monsters, but what if some of these things are just regular animals? Sure, a giant anglerfish in a lake is unnatural, but it's not completely impossible.

Even if it is an aberration, I just wish that we could preserve these creatures… Perhaps my project will be able to do that one day. We could put them in a safe habitat where they don't pose a danger to anyone. Where they don't have to be killed.

…I should really bring a net next time.

~ Lila Acosta


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