Beware of the Gouges

A Gouge is a practically extinct creature with an alarming resemblance to a dark purple fig. It can peel its stem in order to develop tentacles out of its own skin which later will be used both as aquatic and aerial propellers.

These skin-tentacles are not only its means of transportation but they also play a key role as defence – or better said attack mechanism. They allow the Gouge to travel vast distances rather fast; rather deadly for it preys upon anything it encounters.

It is believed the main colony of Gouges can be found in the icy Austral ocean which encircles Antarctica and in whose bottomless depths the Gouges gather, unrecognizable from the lightless ocean pits.

They seem indeed a distant threat but I am afraid there have been sightings of these creatures in the most unlikely places: Frostbitten lakes, abandoned swimming pools and even muddy shallow puddles in the city where they nest. From the old ways, we have learned never to step in murky waters for the Gouge awaits like a shadow in a moonless night.

Although it is rare to spot a Gouge during light time, in rainy days where the sky darkens with heavy clouds they can be seen swimming among lighting, sailing the turbulent skies. Those hard winter rains are the Gouges falling upon us causing static discharges of devastating proportions; spreading their offspring around the world like a sickness. Masters of disguise, we often call them UFO’s.

Only a few have survived encountering a Gouge and we owe it to them the chilling knowledge of this most unknown predator. The victims are struck so ferociously by the poisonous tentacles that they hardly notice being swallowed alive. Until they wake up, inside…

There is a particularly horrid account of someone awakening that way. Due to the Gouge’s extremely slow digestive system, the victim remained trapped inside for two months and two days and it was only when the Gouge swallowed another prey that she managed to escape. But not before witnessing her fingers and toes being eaten little by little during those lengthy days, conscient and being kept alive by feeding on the softer parts of the inside of the creature like a parasite cleaning from dirt its host.

It is said it can take up to four years for the Gouge to process its prey entirely, allowing the creature to gradually and languidly savour all the nutrients and flavours of its victim. It stores enough food to survive long journeys around the glove and back to its layer in the Arctic waters where it shares the leftovers with its kind.

This might be the reason for which the skies and the deep waters are still off-limits to mankind, because there are creatures living and feasting, creeping and slithering in their timeless ends.