Deep Water Dread

Cellblock Earth: Chapter 7

A monster had Tory in its grip and it was trying to kill her deep beneath the waves of an ocean.

She could see the surface far above. It glowed from the rays of sunlight that pierced the water and faintly illuminated the vast empty space all around her. It seemed impossibly out of reach and was getting further and further away every second. Her assailant had her by the ankles and was pulling her into the gloomy depths. She peered hard below her trying to see it, but all she could make out was shapeless dark.

Tory kicked her legs ferociously, trying desperately to dislodge the tight snare looped around her feet. Miraculously, they came free and she began swimming away, channeling all of her strength into propelling her body upward. A stream of silvery bubbles issued from her nose and mouth and she realized she could breathe. Feeling stronger and more confident, her strokes gained momentum. She rose through the water quickly, her hair flowing around her shoulders in a soft dark cloud. Refusing to glance down, she kept her eyes fixed on the shimmering ceiling above, hope growing within her as she watched it get closer and closer.

Then she was knocked askew without warning and her legs bounced up, putting her into a sitting position. A thick black tentacle was wrapped around her waist, squeezing so hard she felt as if her stomach was being crushed. Then she was flying backwards and down again, all the distance she had gained rushing past in a blur. Tory frantically tried to grasp the horrid arm holding her fast, but her hands slipped along it uselessly, unable to even slide a finger under it.

Suddenly, time seemed to slow down and she was barely moving at all, her arms and legs stretched out in front of her, floating weightlessly. Movement on each side of her caught Tory’s peripheral vision and to her utter revulsion and terror, more tentacles unfurled all about her, whipping out into the water. She watched them for several paralyzed moments, held motionless by dread as they opened like the petals of a massive nightmarish chrysanthemum. Before they could curl back to capture her in their extinguishing embrace, adrenaline spiked in Tory’s blood and she began to fight with all the viciousness she could muster.

Digging her fingernails into the flesh of the tentacle at her waist, she ripped at it, tearing great chunks of it away in her fists. It quivered at her attack, small bursts of inky blood blooming from the wounds. She kicked wildly as she continued to shred, her mouth gaping and her head shaking from side to side. Soon, she was nearly enveloped in a spreading stain of black blood and the ruined tentacle finally released, trailing bits and pieces of itself as it slid back into the murk far below.

Inflamed beyond reason and fully engulfed in survival mode, Tory turned to confront the ominous creature at her back, her hands curved and ready to slash and maul.

Nothing was there.

All that was visible was empty endless water fading from periwinkle blue to navy as she strained to see into the distance. Confused and shaken, she swam in a complete three hundred and sixty degree circle, searching for the horror that minutes earlier had almost taken her life.

Doubting her sanity, she came back to the point she had started from and came face to face with a single, ruby red eye hanging inches away from her. It stared at her and she at it, neither of them blinking or moving. Tory’s abdomen jerked forward roughly as if it were attached to a string. Startled, she looked down and screamed silently, a cascade of bubbles flowing from her mouth. Another black tentacle extended out of her belly button, undulating gently through the water as it tentatively felt its way forward.

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Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6