Into the Depths
The sea was a dark, endless expanse around her. Many thought it was a void that swallowed light and sound without mercy. Sophia Hayes was the first to disabuse them of this. There was beauty down here that they didn’t get to see. Photos didn’t do justice to what she saw as an experienced deep-sea diver. She’d see many strange things in her career and here she was exploring a curse.
The Chirath Trench had been explored before, but no one had ever gone as deep as she was about to. There were rumors from the mainland of a cursed region—a trench within the trench, a place even creatures of the deep feared. It was called the ‘The Black Pit’. Sophia had laughed it off with the rest of the crew, but deep down, she almost believed. She’d been raised on certain legends of monsters. Yet, here she was in her submersible as it plunged deeper into the depths of the trench. Her stomach churned with an unease she couldn’t shake.
Her comm crackled to life. “You alright down there, Sophia?” Captain Harris asked, her voice tinny and distant through the radio.
“Still alive,” Sophia replied, forcing a smile no one could see.
“How are things down there?”
“Quiet. No monsters yet.”
The deeper she went, the colder it got, even the thick walls of her sub couldn’t keep it out. Those same walls creaked slightly under the building pressure. Her sonar beeped across her screen, painting an unsatisfying picture of the sea floor far below. Sophia stared out of the porthole into the dark water, watching as tiny bioluminescent creatures blinked in and out like lost stars in a black sky.
She was enjoying the sight until a faint hiss through the radio. Sophia frowned as she leaned forward, adjusting the dials. “Captain, did you say something?”
There was a brief pause. “Negative, Sophia. Everything’s quiet up here. Why?”
Sophia’s heart skipped a beat. Remember your training. The mind can play tricks on you at this depth, especially in isolation. It’s just the ocean currents, nothing more.
But the hiss came again, louder this time. Words, soft and indistinct, brushed against her ears like a breeze she could almost feel. Sophia froze, gripping her controls tightly. It wasn’t coming through the comm system. It was coming from… outside… from the water itself.
A deep rumble followed, vibrating through the sub’s hull and into her very bones. Sophia’s breath caught. Her pulse quickened as the sonar beeped frantically. Something enormous was moving beneath her, something, something too large for the equipment to fully capture. The shape was faint, but was there—a mass shifting far below, slowly rising toward her.
“Captain,” Sophia said, her voice trembling. “I think there’s something… Something’s down here with me.”
“Roger that. What’s your status? You seeing anything on sonar?”
“I—” She hesitated, staring into the dark. “It’s huge. “It’s moving toward me.”
Her palms sweated as silence stretched over the comm. “Get out of there, Sophia. Now.”
Sophia’s hand shook as she activated the ascent thrusters. The submersible began to rise, but the darkness thickened around her, closing in like a vice. The whispers grew louder, turning into in a low, guttural chant. The sonar emitted a sharp, piercing tone—then went dead.
Her heart pounded in her chest. She glanced at the controls—everything was functional, but the sub wasn’t rising fast enough. The black mass bubbled below her and was gaining.
The rumble increased, shaking the sub and rattling her. Sophia’s eyes flickered to the porthole, and there, in the shadows, she waw it—an enormous eye, glowing faintly in the murky water. It was wide and ancient as it watched her.
“No… no, no, no…” Sophia whispered, her breath fogging up the glass. She hit the thrusters harder, but the sub felt like it was moving through molasses. The creature was closing in.
Another rumble came from directly beneath her. The sub shook violently, sending Sophia tumbling against the console. Alarms blared. Lights flickered. She scrambled up, blood pounding in her ears.
The whispering filled the cabin now, overwhelming, as if the voice was inside her head, chanting in a language she couldn’t understand. The voice grew louder, rising to a deafening crescendo as something massive brushed against the sub.
“Captain!” she screamed into the comm. “I can’t—”
The connection cut off. The sub lurched as the blackness outside came alive with movement. Long, serpentine tendrils, each thicker than the sub itself, wrapped around her, pulling her deeper into the trench.
The creature’s eye disappeared into the dark, and for a moment, there was only silence. Then, from the abyss, a mouth opened—a gaping void lined with rows of teeth larger than any human had ever seen. It wasn’t a creature it was the abyss, ancient and hungry.
Sophia’s breathing was ragged, panic clawed at her throat. She tried to reverse the sub’s direction, but the controls were unresponsive. The chanting reached a fever pitch, filling her mind with visions of an ancient world, of civilizations long forgotten, swallowed by the ocean.
And then, as if answering her frantic thoughts, the whisper spoke one final word: Stay.
The last thing she saw before the darkness swallowed her was the creature’s maw closing in. The deep was not meant to be explored. Some things were better left undisturbed.
The Black Pit had claimed another soul.
Above, the crew waited. But Sophia never returned.
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