A young woman sits precariously on the roof of their rickety house.

One hand typing on a

small but bulky laptop, no older than five years old, and the other desperately holding up a slim
antenna connected to the laptop with a cable too short for comfort. The sky is golden and fishing
boats are starting to return. Maya skims through job advertisements as fast as her makeshift
internet connection could allow, which is as fast as a sea turtle on land could crawl. Maya can
barely hide her frustration. An old voice breaks her out of her trance.

“Get down there!”, the shrill yet firm voice shouts.

“Lola, I’m doing something!”, Maya exclaimed back, in a sharper tone than she intended.

“Leave your items there. It’s time to eat! Don’t keep the food waiting.”, her grandmother
answered.

Maya rolls her eyes.

“Coming!”

Maya sighs and takes a brief look around her village while perched on the rooftop.

“I knew Sitio Dos was small, but I don’t remember it being this tiny”, Maya thought
while surveying the huts and fishing boats docked at the sandy shore. She takes a deep breath of
the salty sea breeze. Maya leaves her belongings on a stable surface before jumping down the
roof to the ground. The distance is barely twice her height.

“If you keep food waiting, in the future, food will not wait for you.”, her grandmother
lectured while washing plates.

“And when you clean up before everyone is finished, the person left will live a lonely
life.”, Maya answers sarcastically.

“You’ve never changed. You’ve never respected your elders.” her grandmother says in a
disapproving tone.
 “And you’ve never respected me!”, Maya snaps. “You’re keeping me stuck in this
miserable town. There’s nothing here for me.” Maya takes her plate with her, half of its contents
spilling on the sand then getting feasted on by stray cats.

A notification appears on the laptop.

“Urgent hiring! Field Worker for Deep Sea Ecosystem Research. Created by Vicente
Castillo III. Qualifications: None, Required Documents: None, Salary: PHP 5000/week.
Location: Loading…”

Maya scrolled through the page, clicking incessantly to make the location load faster.

“This is taking forever!” Maya says through gritted teeth.

The webpage finally updates.

Location: Surigao City

“A two-hour trip.”, Maya thinks to herself. “Or I can take a fishing boat.”

Maya accepts the job offer, writing to Vic for more details.

“I’ll tell you more in person.”, Vic replies.

Maya hesitates. She doesn’t know a lot about these kinds of affairs, but she knew it was a
big risk.

“But this is my only chance…”, Maya contemplates.

Maya went down. She isolated herself in her corner of the house, daydreaming about
earning her own money and living in the city. Maya packed up her laptop, clothes, and other
belongings. She intended to leave before the sun rose the next day.

Maya took the bait.

Maya carefully lugs her baggage, making sure her grandmother doesn’t wake up. Now
outside, she closed the door slowly and silently. She breathes a sigh of relief.
 “Aren’t you Aling Maria’s grandchild? What do you need?” the puzzled fisherman asks.

“I need to get out of here.”, Maya answers

“I can’t do that!”

“Shhh. How much?”

“What?“

Maya grabs her purse, pouring all its contents into the fisherman’s hands.

“Take me with you.”

The fisherman allows Maya to board the boat.

“Where are you going?”

“Surigao City.”

The fisherman steers the boat northeast.

It starts to rain.

“I don’t remember hearing any rain forecasts from the radio.”

Thunder booms in the distance. The sea goes from still to raging in a matter of minutes.
Some of Maya’s belongings fall off the boat.

Maya swipes at her eyes with her fingers, removing the cold seawater so she could see.

The fisherman was gone. And so is the storm.

Maya drifts ashore to the city. She checks for any damage to her belongings.

“The laptop didn’t get wet, thank God.”, Maya sighs in relief.

Maya heads to Vic’s office.

 “You must be Maya, correct?”, Vic asks coldly.

“Yes.”, Maya answers.

“Good. Follow me.”, Vic commands.

They head into a docking bay; thick cables surround a small circular vessel with lights,
made of thick glass and metal.

“Have you heard of the Philippine Trench?” Vic asks.

“It is the third-deepest trench in the world. Its deepest point, the Galathea Depth, is over
10 kilometers deep. I intend to explore it myself, but I need to oversee the controls. That’s why I
hired you.”

Maya listens in fear and fascination.

“Do you understand the risk you’re taking?”, Vic asks

“Yes, sir.”, Maya responds

“Good.”, Vic states. “The descent begins tomorrow.”

Maya didn’t find a good sleep that night. She thought about the fisherman who helped
her. Every time she closed her eyes she saw a bloated corpse, eyes dull and dead, pieces of his
body taken away by fish to eat. Maya was disturbed.

Maya walked on the cold steel floor of the docking bay.

“All systems ready.”, a technician calls out to Vic.

“Excellent. Maya, step inside.”, Vic replies.

The vessel is cramped, inside it are controls and a piece of paper.

A strange device connected to a yellow wire rings.

 “The yellow wire is communications; green is for your oxygen supply.”, a voice from the
device says.

The descent has begun.

Maya looks outside the window. She sees her old belongings. She sees the mangled
corpse of the fisherman. In horror, she bangs on the steel walls of the vessel.

“Cut the line.”, Maya hears Vic speaking from the communication device.

The descent increases in speed; Maya barely keeps her footing. Light becomes faint as
the vessel drops into the abyss.

Her oxygen supply is low. Maya starts hallucinating.

She sees horrific creatures, mermen with razor-sharp fangs, Maya’s grandmother among
them, her face disfigured but still recognizable.

The vessel hits the seafloor and water starts to leak inside.

“The Galathea Depths…there is nothing here for me.”

Water fills Maya’s lungs.