From the depths

When I was much younger, at the rough age of 16, my buddy Dave and me would often drive out into the ocean, with a rusty old boat that we'd borrowed off Dave's father, and go scuba diving. We didn't dive on the clear, shallow parts like all the others, we'd go really far out and have contests, trying to dive as deep as possible. When I think about it now, I realise how foolish we were.

It was a rather rough day for going out, but we did it anyway. For the kicks. After around about 30 minutes of driving through the dark, cold waters, we reached out goal. A few meters away a rusty red buoy was floating around in the water. I grabbed an old piece of rope and bent over to the buoy to attach it. If I listened closely, I could here the buoys chain making clanking sounds underwater. "C'mon man, watcha waiting for?", Dave shouted with a grin on his face. He grabbed my diving gear and threw it towards me. I grabbed it and put it on. "How deep?" I asked him, while sitting on the side railing of the boat. "Ya know what? Let's try reaching the very bottom!" he said, with an excited look on his face. This is dangerous, I thought, what if something happens? "Sure dude!", I shouted agains the wind and the cold water that was constantly splashing agains the old, rusty boat. He gave me a thumbs up and sat next to me. After a few moments of arranging our goggles and attaching special, underwater flashlights to them, we plunged backwards over the ships railing and into the cold water. It was completely different than at the surface - much quieter and somewhat calmer. The clanging of the buoys chain was way louder, though. I turned around and gazed at the rusty red buoy. On the underwater part of it, it was covered with barnacles, shells, sickly green slime and long, green strands of algee. My eyes followed the large, dirty iron chain all the way down until it dissapeared into dark, deep abyss. For a second I shuddered at the thought how deep the chain really went? Which strange, fear inducing fish creatures inhibited the bottom of the ocean here? I was torn from my thoughts when Dave tapped my shoulder, pointing towards the chain. God no, he was really going to go all the way down. I gave him a quick thumbs up, hesitantly. I propelled myself forward, until I was in grasp of the heavy iron chain. I gave Dave one more hesitant look, he was right above me, waiting for me. I flicked on my lights, and proceeded to pull myself downwards, down, down, and deeper. The water here was different - much colder, and darker. Occasionally, a  lump of dirt would float past in my flashlight, and drift back into darkness. I looked upwards, past Dave, who was still a few meters above me.. The water surface was still, but barely, visible. I could still see the bottom of the boat and the buoy, both drifting about in the waves. Turning my head back towards the bottom, my ears started really, really hurting. I quickly performed a pressure equalisation, by holding my breath and pressing air into my head and ears. I heard a loud popping sound - and the pain was gone. I continued down the chain. Suddenly I saw something red - it was the cable binder Dave and I had attached to the chain in the past to mark our diving record. 50 meters. Pulling myself even further downwards, I noticed that the water around us had reached a near state of complete darkness. There was still a dark blue light coming from the surface, but without our flashlights, it would have been very difficult to go so far down. Suddenly I felt something touch me, i was petrified. What the hell could be  at this depth, if it wasn't the chain or Dave? I quickly turned around - it was the tip of a cliff, an underwater mountain. I felt Dave tapping  my shoulder again - he was pointing at the cliff and gestualising like mad. I knew what he wanted - he wanted to explore. I shook my head, gestualising that we would get lost if we moved too far from the chain. He nodded reluctantly. Gazing down the depths confronting me beyond the edge of the cliff, I had an idea. On the edge of the cliff, just to my right, were a few rocks, about the size of a water melon. I pointed towards them, signalising Dave my plan. He nodded, and I handed him one of the boulders. Weird, how light it was here, back at the surface it would probably be too heavy for me to even hold. I stood at the edge of the cliff, the boulder in my hand - and sort of jumped off it in slow motion, plunging into darkness. Wow, this was really fast. I was gliding downwards with pretty high speed. While sinking further and further, I took my time to imagine what the bottom would look like. Very sandy? Like a beach? Or rough rocks? Maybe just a forest of underwater plants? No, too dark. After only a few minutes, the bottom of the ocean came into my sight. It was different than I had expected. There were sharp rocks and dirty, slime like sand and pieces of metal, presumably trash that had been dumped into the ocean. Then, I touched the ground. I was shocked as I sank into it a bit, and there was a huge cloud of mirky dirt that I had swirled up on my impact. The water was different here, too. It was much colder, and there was a slight current, which slowly carried away the dirt cloud I had formed. I turned my head upwards, awaiting Dave - there he was. But something was off about the way he moved. He was limp! With a thud he landed. A cloud of warm, red substance welcomed me, clearly blood. My heart beat accelerated. I swam up to him, grabbing him by the shoulders. His head was missing. I felt the blood rush to my ears, heard the pounding of it. It was too late to get help now. I wanted to get the hell out of there. I pushed myself upwards, from the ocean floor. Scanning the enviroment, I was trying to figure out where that iron chain was. But - I couldn't find it. Simply gone. I must have drifted off too far. This was a problem - the buoy was the place I'd tied the boat to, how would I get back? Stop thinking, I thought. My first goal was purely to reach the surface and get the fuck out of here. Just as I swam upwards, I saw something, right at the edge of my vision. I froze. Whatever the fuck it was, it was going to be the last time I saw it. I pushed myself higher and higher. The surface eventually came back into my vision. I felt a brushing at my back. Kicking and punching towards it, I tried to escape it. At once I heard a noise. It sounded very similair to a hair dryer. At once a draft of cold water pushed agains me. I looked around, and saw nothing. The noise got louder, and louder, and even louder, to the point of being completely unbearable. I turned in all positions again - this time, I saw something. In the distance, rapidly coming closer, I saw a dark object coming right towards me. It towered all the way up to the surface in a triangular shape. It took me a minute to realise, that a huge ship was heading right at my position. I tried swimming to the side, as fast as I could, and made it. I saw the huge, metal body drive right past me. But wait, this could be my rescue! I thought, and saw a metal ladder on the end of the ship. I went for it. Swimming as fast as I could, something grabbed me and pulled me downwards. I felt a stinging pain in my leg. I turned around, only to be faced by the most terrifying abomination I had ever seen. It had red glowing eyes, much too long, thin teeth, and had a somewhat humanoid shape. The most terryfying detail though was its face. It had Daves face. This is all I remember. I felt even more pain as it dug its teeth deeper into my leg. I wildly thrashed about, attempting to free myself, but didn't work. Finally, I remembered what the steps to fight off a shark were - attack its eyes, fins and nose. I grabbed a small pocketknife from my diving utensile bag, and without hesitating, sunk the small, but sharp blade right into the things eye. It let out a gurgling roar, and I actually managed to free myself. I could feel nore move my leg though, so I  was rather helplessly flailing around. I took all my strength together, and pushed myself forwards. I grabbed on to the ladder, right before it passed by, and clinged on, has hard as I could. Anxiously turning my head back, I merily saw the creature drift back into the depths. Behind me, I saw two giant rotors, driving the ship forward, making a load flop-flop-flop noise. I felt dizzy, probably due to blood loss. With the last rest of my remaining power, I pulled myself up the ladder, and after what felt like an eternity, onto the deck. I collapsed with a wimpering sound.

Since then, many years have passed. I had lost a leg. I found a beautiful woman, and made a family with her, bought a nice house. I fear though, this is the end. It has come to get me, I know it. I am standing here, in the bathroom, and in the mirrors reflection, I see Daves face, those terrifying teeth, and those red shining eyes.