Abyss

Each breath Isaac took was raspy and uneven. He felt nervous, no matter how many times he did this, the inexplicable sense of drifting in the open of the abyss was not something one could ever get used to. Especially not him.

"Beginning descent now." Isaac spoke as the Beetle began moving over the edge of the drop off that Point Void was built upon. The sub began to slowly descend downwards into the vast, endless shadows. Isaac stared into that blackness, only able to see the flakes of dirt and grime, as well as the walls that the Beetle descended along.

Even with the dome lights on, he could see nothing. All the lights did was slightly illuminate the shadows around him, but they were just impenetrable.

As the Beetle descended, and the walls seemed to fall away into the inky black, the all too familiar and unnatural feeling of motionless black came over Isaac then. And, as his heart rate rose the deeper he went into it, that infinite abyss that seemed to swallow him whole like the jaws of a leviathan, his mind began to play tricks on him.

He could see writhing shapes like demonic, serpentine shadows, slithering through the darkness around him, encroaching in closer and closer to the sub, but every time his eyes would shoot over to the grotesque shapes… they'd be gone.

Isaac raised a hand to his eyes, pressing his palm into his socket as if to wipe away the hallucinations. 'I should've gone back for my coffee.' He thought.

"Now reaching 12,000 meters." He spoke. "So far…" his voice trailed off as he tried with all his might to ignore the writhing shapes that enclosed around him, "there has been no sign of life."

Just then, a loud groan echoed through the water, rattling the Beetle and causing the metal to plates to tremble. Isaac's hands flew to the sides of the cylinder as he held himself still with wide eyes, his heart slamming into his ribcage repeatedly. 'What the fuck was that..?' He thought, terror ripping through his mind.

'Calm down, Isaac… it was nothing… I must've accidentally scraped too close to the wall.' He thought, trying to calm himself.

He pressed a button on the overhead and a screen popped up, depicting a map of the area. Sure enough, the sub was descending right against the wall behind it, out of his view. There was a small ledge that jutted out, and that had to of been what he'd scraped across. Right?

'Damnit… can I really stay down here in this hell for another whole six months…? I feel like I'm losing myself to this vacuity… I can't do this much longer..'

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he swore he could see a humanoid figure.. the figure of a little girl. But, of course, when he looked at it, it was gone.

Suddenly the Beetle stopped its descent. Isaac curled his legs up to his chest, tucking his head into his arms as he rocked back and forth.

"What the hell is happening to me..?" He said weakly.

For a long moment, he just sat there, rocking back and forth in the empty, ceaseless silence. But this silence ruptured his ears; it was louder than any sound he'd heard in his life.

His body heaved as he took in a deep breath, then let out a long sigh.

"Resuming descent." He said with a dead expression and a soulless tone.

A faint light was visible in the dark below. As the sub drew closer, the vivid lights dashed away from it in a flurry.

Isaac lifted his watch and recorded:

^Seven Whisker Worms traveling in a group. This further confirms that they travel in schools rather than alone. I believe this insinuates that they have a natural predator, but I am not certain of which animal it is. I feel like it is possibly either the Megamouth Sharks or the Ire Squids. Although, I have not seen a Megamouth anywhere below 12,000 meters.^

An Ire Squid was a luminescent squid roughly the size of a man's torso. They tend to give colors in a range from aquamarine, to blue, yellow, orange, or violate. They have four tentacles each with barbed hooks, the ones at the ends being much larger. Their heads were large and bulbous, with two glossy gold eyes. Their bodies in general were see through and clear. So far, it was the largest predator Isaac had seen below 12,000 meters, and he assumed it was the apex, as it had a habit of also attacking Megamouth Sharks.

The highest depth that the Ire Squid had ever been spotted was around 11,000 feet.

"Approaching 12,500 meters." Isaac spoke, flipping a switch and tapping a dial. "Slowing descent."

He pulled up the radar and it depicted the ground below the sub, which was fast approaching the floor. To the East was a straight forward path that would lead up for about ten minutes before leading to another descent into a larger chasm.

The Beetle slowed to a stop just as it came near the floor, dirt being thrown up into the water around the sub and clouding Isaac's vision.

"Now going forward." Isaac spoke as he pushed the control stick forward.

As he moved, everything was normal for a time. He began to think his hallucinations were gone, but of course they weren't. Below the sub, he began to see writhing, grotesque and fleshy shapes like worms in the mud. He looked down, but when his eyes met these… things, they didn't disappear. They stayed there, shifting and throbbing in fleshy spores and tendrils that gave off red blood-like substances.

'What the hell.. is that… real..?' Isaac thought, then he lowered the sub as a robotic arm slowly dropped from the mid chamber. A side panel opened as he navigated the arm, lowering it to the ground as the metal claw dug into the dirt below the strange thing. As he lifted it, it began to recoil and thrash, but it didn't come out of the ground, it just lifted up, pulling up more and more of it.

Isaac blinking in surprise. 'It's… like a root. Is this some kind of plant..?' And then, red liquid sprayed into the water as what appeared like thorns burst from the strange root. The creature spun in the claws of the sub, trying to cut it apart, but of course it didn't work.

"TMP"

Isaac looked down and shuddered. More of the strange roots had risen from the ground and had begun to wrap about the sub.