Leviathan

Just think about it.

Drifting down, down, down into the depths. So far away from anyone else. It's a long, cold, slow fall. You flick your lights on and see the beams catch nothing, the darkness swallowing it up. Your feet jarringly hit the seafloor and you radio up that you've reached the wreck site. What only comes back is a smattering of incomprehensible static.

You turn around slowly, playing the spotlight across a rocky outcropping. Behind you is the drop off, where a crevasse waits to lead you into deeper, less traveled places. Maybe some day, but right now the utter darkness down there is not so inviting.

You spot the wreck, the very thing you came to find. It was an old steamer, a true beauty to find. Rust ate at it and coral clung to it like cancerous tumors. The ship had been lost in a storm and come to rest so very close to the drop off zone and the abyss that awaited. It was lucky for sure.

You trundle over to it, shining your light this way and that to get all the details. You prepare to set a foot down by the edge of the wreck when you can hear a loud groan. The trademark sound of old metallic wrecks, though something seemed off. It reverberated enough for you to feel it in your bones and you immediately froze in place. It did not come from ahead of you as it should have, but off to the side, where the wreck was not.
>rmnaba acid
Captcha knows something.

--

To say that nerves had gotten the better of you was disgraceful. A noble explorer was not afraid of the dark. Certainly not. But at the same time, something nibbled at the back of your spine. An alarm that came only to the most vulnerable in a herd of prey, the smallest and sickest in the group. The most alone.

So far down you were very much alone. You twisted around in the cramped suit, beam of light shining defiantly in direct opposite to the terror you suddenly found yourself taken by. The darkness seemed to edge around it, pushing in oppressively.

You heard it again, now from the drop off. You search around, unmoving, but your light flicking around in synchronization with your eyes. Left, right, up, down, up, left, right, down. You tried the radio but no reply came but static. Again. Your hands clench and unclench, aching for the feel of a spear gun that simply wasn't there.

A great roar of moving water like being pushed by a whale's fins sounded and you whirled around. The light just barely caught something, a moving form going quickly along the nearby rock ridges that surrounded the wreck. It was big. You tried to follow it but lost its shadow among the glistening and faint light radiating down from above in the distance.

You started to shuffle awkwardly towards the ship, a place of relative refuge. The light bounced as you moved, playing across sand and rock, and eventually, across the ship's hull as you turned around to look at it.

As soon as your light shone upon its upper deck a great shadow rose up from behind it. Something that dwarfed whale and colossal squid alike. This was a thing that was not meant to exist, that couldn't exist. Your light slowly trailed up the monumental form of inky black against the progressively lighter shades of water over its shoulder.

>Peptides Grouesx
Captcha definitely knows something's up.
You were definitely not alone in the depths.
--

What the light lets you see you wish you simply hadn't.

Somehow you were sure you were in a coma somewhere in a hospital. One diving trip too many.

And yet, there it was. The form was unlike any creature of the sea save for a deranged cross between a mermaid and some of bored cartoonist's of what used to be a kindly pony and now stalked the bottom of the ocean. Long, flowing strands twisted and wound together in the idle current, like a mass of kelp and seaweed that threatened to blot out what shafts of light dared to come down so far. It created a dazzling array of dancing light across the ship and the scenery around you.

The creature itself was a deep, oceanic blue that bordered on black. Your light traveled up its legs grounded in the silty sand and to a chest that moved with slow, endlessly patient breathing. It exemplified this surly calm unlike any whale, which moved with meandering confidence that you weren't intending any threat. No, this thing, this leviathan, was more akin to a shark that knew a helpless victim when it saw one. It held a regal dominion over the moment, and it was fully aware of such. It waited for the beam of feeble light to continue up to its jaws.

It is all too eager to show off its might. The leviathan opens wide and you see a pitch black void within its mouth. Teeth meant for catching something huge and mashing it into a pulp reflected with disturbingly sparkly cleanliness. A long, bumpy tongue slides out and slides along its teeth in an all too clear sign of superiority.

Still, the flashlight traveled upwards, highlighting nostrils that slowly flared, drawing in great torrents of water and releasing them to the world once again in such volume that you could hear it disturbing water around you.

Above this, two eyes, each well larger than you were, watched coolly, staring down with reserved interest. What struck you most was the way they reflected the light, twinkling with a deep amethyst color.

--

In the spotlight, the irises shifted to adjust narrowing to focus on you.

The two of you stared at one another. You dared not move until it did and it did not bother until it knew where its new prey might be headed. It leaned down a little and you shrank back. It was messing with you, you knew it. You pointed the flashlight back to the ship partially buried in the sandy bottom, leaving the entire body of the creature to return to being an imperceptibly large shadow in the background.

It groaned that sound again and kicked off against the bottom. It shot like a torpedo through the water, swimming forward without grace. What did a streamlined form matter for something with so much raw power? You lurched into action. If you could just get inside the wreck there’s no way it could reach into the tight confines. You’d be as safe as an eel in its den. If only you could reach it.

You weren’t given the chance. By the time you pushed forward to kick your suit’s fans into gear, the hulking form was upon you, a storm of silt kicked up in its wake. You lose sight of anything and everything in the ensuing cloud. Your gloved hand reaches for the frame of the ship but finds to grasp. You grope blindly. It should have been right there, right there in front of you! Still nothing. Above the noise as you try your radio again is a loud swish of fins passing close by.

The rumble sends up a fresh cloud and you’re sent tumbling as a wave of pressure knocks you off your feet. You land and stay still, turning your light off and succumbing to darkness. If you don’t move, it won’t spot you. If you don’t have your light on, it won’t see you as easily.

There’s more noise of something swimming for a minute before it dies down. Silence, save for the gentle ebb and flow of water. Which should not be so noticeable at such a depth. It’s close..

Finally, fear of what lurks around you bid you to turn your light on again.

---

Mistake. As soon as the light flickers back on it was right there.